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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7191-0.txt b/7191-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4c13c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/7191-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9396 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Modern Broods, by Charlotte Mary Yonge + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Modern Broods + or Developments Unlooked For + + +Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge + + + +Release Date: December 24, 2014 [eBook #7191] +[This file was first posted on March 26, 2003] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN BROODS*** + + +Transcribed from the 1900 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + MODERN BROODS, + OR + _DEVELOPMENTS UNLOOKED FOR_ + + + * * * * * + + BY + CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE. + + * * * * * + + “_Youth and age are scholars yet but in the lower school_.” + + —TENNYSON. + + * * * * * + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 1900 + + _All rights reserved_ + + * * * * * + + RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, + LONDON AND BUNGAY. + + _First Edition_, _October_, 1900. + _Reprinted_, _November_, 1900. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + CHAPTER I +TORTOISES AND HARES 1 + CHAPTER II +THE GOYLE 16 + CHAPTER III +THE FIRST SUNDAY 23 + CHAPTER IV +CYCLES 34 + CHAPTER V +CLIPSTONE FRIENDS 45 + CHAPTER VI +THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM’S 57 + CHAPTER VII +SISTER AND SISTERS 67 + CHAPTER VIII +SNOBBISHNESS 75 + CHAPTER IX +GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY 80 + CHAPTER X +FLOWN 93 + CHAPTER XI +ADRIFT 103 + CHAPTER XII +“THE KITTIWAKE” 108 + CHAPTER XIII +CHIMERAS DIRE 119 + CHAPTER XIV +PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED 128 + CHAPTER XV +BROODS ASTRAY 135 + CHAPTER XVI +THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN 146 + CHAPTER XVII +FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS 158 + CHAPTER XVIII +PALACES OR CHURCHES 165 + CHAPTER XIX +TWO WEDDINGS 179 + CHAPTER XX +FLEETING 194 + CHAPTER XXI +THE ELECTRICIANS 204 + CHAPTER XXII +ANGEL AND BEAR 213 + CHAPTER XXIII +WILLOW WIDOWS 224 + CHAPTER XXIV +CRUEL LAWYERS 237 + CHAPTER XXV +BEAR AS ADVISER 245 + CHAPTER XXVI +NEW PATHS 258 + CHAPTER XXVII +A SENTENCE 266 + CHAPTER XXVIII +SUMMONED 274 + CHAPTER XXIX +SAFE 284 + CHAPTER XXX +THE MAIDEN ROCKS 293 + CHAPTER XXXI +THE WRECK 300 + CHAPTER XXXII +ANCHORED 306 + CHAPTER XXXIII +FAREWELL 310 + + + + +CHAPTER I—TORTOISES AND HARES + + + “Whate’er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven, + Though it be what thou canst not hope to see.” + + —HARTLEY COLERIDGE. + +THE scene was a drawing-room, with old-fashioned heavy sash windows +opening on a narrow brick-walled town-garden sloping down to a river, and +neatly kept. The same might be said of the room, where heavy +old-fashioned furniture, handsome but not new, was concealed by various +flimsy modernisms, knicknacks, fans, brackets, china photographs and +water-colours, a canary singing loud in the window in the winter +sunshine. + +“Miss Prescott,” announced the maid; but, finding no auditor save the +canary, she retreated, and Miss Prescott looked round her with a half +sigh of recognition of the surroundings. She was herself a +quiet-looking, gentle lady, rather small, with a sweet mouth and eyes of +hazel, in a rather worn face, dressed in a soft woollen and grey fur, +with headgear to suit, and there was an air of glad expectation, a little +flush, that did not look permanent, on her thin cheeks. + +“Is it you, my dear Miss Prescott?” was the greeting of the older hostess +as she entered, her grey hair rough and uncovered, and her dress of +well-used black silk, her complexion of the red that shows wear and care. +“Then it is true?” she asked, as the kiss and double shake of the hand +was exchanged. + +“May I ask? Is it true? May I congratulate you?” + +“Oh, yes, it is true!” said Miss Prescott, breathlessly. “I suppose the +girls are at the High School?” + +“Yes, they will be at home at one. Or shall I send for them?” + +“No, thank you, Mrs. Best. I shall like to have a little time with you +first. I can stay till a quarter-past three.” + +“Then come and take off your things. I do not know when I have been so +glad!” + +“Do the girls know?” asked Miss Prescott, following upstairs to a +comfortable bedroom, evidently serving also the purposes of a private +room, for writing table and account books stood near the fire. + +“They know something; Kate Bell heard a report from her cousins, and they +have been watching anxiously for news from you.” + +“I would not write till I knew more. I hope they have not raised their +expectations too high; for though it is enough to be an immense relief, +it is not exactly affluence. I have been with Mr. Bell going into the +matter and seeing the place,” said Miss Prescott, sitting comfortably +down in the arm-chair Mrs. Best placed for her, while she herself sat +down in another, disposing themselves for a talk over the fire. + +“Mr. Bell reckons it at about £600 a year.” + +“And an estate?” + +“A very pretty cottage in a Devonshire valley, with the furniture and +three acres of land.” + +“Oh! I believe the girls fancy that it is at least as large as Lord +Coldhurst’s.” + +“Yes, I was in hopes that they would have heard nothing about it.” + +“It came through some of their schoolfellows; one cannot help things +getting into the air.” + +“And there getting inflated like bubbles,” said Miss Prescott, smiling. +“Well, their expectations will have a fall, poor dears!” + +“And it does not come from their side of the family,” said Mrs. Best. +“Of course not! And it was wholly unexpected, was it not?” + +“Yes, I had my name of Magdalen from my great aunt Tremlett; but she had +never really forgiven my mother’s marriage, though she consented to be my +godmother. She offered to adopt me on my mother’s death, and once when +my father married again, and when we lost him, she wrote to propose my +coming to live with her; but there would have been no payment, and so—” + +“Yes, you dear good thing, you thought it your duty to go and work for +your poor little stepmother and her children!” + +“What else was my education good for, which has been a costly thing to +poor father? And then the old lady was affronted for good, and never +took any more notice of me, nor answered my letters. I did not even know +she was dead, till I heard from Mr. Bell, who had learnt it from his +lawyers!” + +“It was quite right of her. Dear Magdalen, I am so glad,” said Mrs. +Best, crossing over to kiss her; for the first stiffness had worn off, +and they were together again, as had been the solicitor’s daughter and +the chemist’s daughter, who went to the same school till Magdalen had +been sent away to be finished in Germany. + +“Dear Sophy, I wish you had the good fortune, too!” + +“Oh! my galleons are coming when George has prospered a little more in +Queensland, and comes to fetch me. Sophia and he say they shall fight +for me,” said Mrs. Best, who had been bravely presiding over a +high-school boarding-house ever since her husband, a railway engineer, +had been killed by an accident, and left her with two children to bring +up. “Dear children, they are very good to me.” + +“I am sure you have been goodness itself to us,” said Magdalen, “in +taking the care of these poor little ones when their mother died. I +don’t know how to be thankful enough to you and for all the blessings we +have had! And that this should have come just now, especially when my +life with Lady Milsom is coming to an end.” + +“Indeed!” + +“Yes, the little boys are old enough for school, and the Colonel is going +to take a house at Shrewsbury, where his mother will live with them, and +want me no longer.” + +“You have been there seven years.” + +“Yes, and very happy. When Fanny married, Lady Milsom was left alone, +and would not part with me, and then came the two little boys from India, +so that she had an excuse for retaining me; but that is over now, or will +be in a few weeks time. I had been trying for an engagement, and finding +that beside your high-school diploma young ladies I am considered quite +passée—” + +“My dear! With your art, and music, and all!” + +“Too true! And while I was digesting a polite hint that my terms were +too high, and therewith Agatha’s earnest appeal to be sent to Girton, +there comes this inheritance! Taking my burthen off my back, and making +me ready to throw up my heels like a young colt.” + +“Ah! you will be taking another burthen, perhaps.” + +“No doubt, I suppose so, but let me find it out by degrees. I can only +think as yet of having my dear girls to myself, _moi_, as the French +would say, after having seen so little of them.” + +“It has been very unfortunate. Epidemics have been strangely +inconvenient.” + +“Yes. First there was whooping cough here to destroy the summer +holidays; then came the Milsoms’ measles, and I could not go and carry +infection. Oh! and then Freddy broke his leg, and his grandmother was +too nervous to be left with him. And by and by some one told her the +scarlatina was in the town.” + +“It really was, you know.” + +“Any way, it would have been sheer selfish inhumanity to leave her, and +then she had a real illness, which frightened us all very much. Next +came influenza to every one. And these last holidays! What should the +newly-come little one from India do, but catch a fever in the Red Sea, +and I had to keep guard over the brothers at Weymouth till she was +reported safe, and I don’t believe it was infectious after all! Still, I +am tired of ‘other people’s stairs.’” + +“It is nearly five years since you have been with them, except for that +one peep you took at Weston.” + +“And that is a great deal at their age. Agatha was a vehement reader; +she would hardly look at me, so absorbed was she in ‘The York and +Lancaster Rose’ which I had brought her.” + +“She is rather like that now. I conclude that you will wish to take them +away?” + +“Not this time, at any rate till the house is fit to put over their +heads. Besides, you have so mothered them, dear Sophy, that I could not +bear to make a sudden parting.” + +“There will be pain, especially over little Thekla and Polly. But if +George comes home this spring, and I go out to Queensland with him, +perhaps I should have asked you to take this house off my hands. May be +it would be prudent in you to do so even now, considering all things; +only I believe that transplanting would be good for them all.” + +“I am glad you think so, for I have a perfect longing for that little +house of my own.” + +“You will be able to give them a superior kind of society to what they +have had access to here. There is a good deal that I should like to talk +over with you before they come in.” + +“Agatha seems to be in despair at her failure.” + +“So is all the house, for we were very proud of her, and, of course, we +all thought it a fad of the examiners, but perhaps our headmistress might +not say the same. She is a good, hardworking girl though, and ambitious, +and quite worth further training.” + +“I am glad of being able to secure it to her at least, and by the time +her course is finished I shall be able to judge about the others.” + +“You thought of taking them in hand yourself?” + +“Certainly; how nice it will be to teach my own kin, and not endless +strangers, lovable as they have been!” + +“It will be very good for them all to see something of life and manners +superior to what I can give them here. You will take them into a fresh +sphere, and—as things were—besides that, I could not—I did not know +whether their lives would not lie among our people here.” + +“Dear Sophy, don’t concern yourself. I am quite certain you would never +let them fall in with anything hurtful.” + +“Why, no! I hope not; but if I had known what was coming, I don’t think +I should have asked you to consent to Vera and Thekla’s spending their +holidays at Mr. Waring’s country house.” + +“Very worthy people, you said. I remember Tom Waring, a very nice boy; +and Jessie Dale went to school with us—I liked her. Fancy them having a +country house.” + +“Waring Grange they call it. He has got on wonderfully as upholsterer, +decorator, and auctioneer. It is a very handsome one, with a garden that +gets the prizes at the horticultural shows. They are thoroughly good +people, but I was afraid afterwards that there had been a good deal of +noisiness among the young folks at Christmas. Hubert Delrio was there, +and I fancy there was some nonsense going on.” + +“Ah, the Delrios! Are they here?” + +“Yes, poor Fred did not make his art succeed when he had a family to +provide for, and he is the head of the Art School here. His son has a +good deal of talent, and very prudently has got taken on by the firm of +Eccles and Co., who do a great deal of architectural decoration. The boy +is doing very well, but there have been giggles and whispers that make me +rejoice that Vera should be out of the neighbourhood.” + +“Is she not very pretty?” + +“You will be very much struck with her, I think; and Paulina is pretty +too, and more thoughtful. She would not go with Thekla, because Waring +Grange is far from church, and she would not disturb her Christmas and +Epiphany. She is the most religious of them all, and puts me in mind of +our old missionary castles in the air.” + +“Ah, what castles they were! And they seem further off than ever! Or +perhaps you will fulfil them, and go and teach the Australian blacks!” + +“A very unpromising field,” said Mrs. Best, “though I hear there is a +Sister Angela at the station who does wonders with them. I hear the +quarter striking—they will be back directly.” + +“Ah! before they come, we ought to talk over means! Something is owing +for these last holidays. Oh! Sophy, I cannot find words to say how +thankful I am to you for having helped me through this time, even to your +own loss! It has made our life possible.” + +“Indeed, I was most thankful to do all I could for poor Agnes’ children; +and though I did not gain by them like my other boarders, I never _lost_, +and they have been a great joy to me, yes, and a help, by giving my house +a character.” + +“When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven years ago, when +their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused help, and how despairingly I +prayed, I feel all the more that there is an answer to even feeble almost +worldly prayer.” + +“That it could not be when it was that you might be enabled to do the +duty that was laid on you, my dear.” + +And with the exchange of a kiss, the two good women set themselves to +practical pounds, shillings, and pence, which was just concluded when the +patter of feet up the stone steps and voices in the hall announced the +return of Mrs. Best’s boarders. + +Just as Magdalen was opening the door, there darted up, with the air of a +privileged favourite, a little person of ten years old, with flying brown +hair and round rosy cheeks, exclaiming breathlessly, “Is she come?” + +The answer was to take her up with a motherly hug, and “My dear little +Thekla!” There was not time for more than a hurried glance and embrace +of the three on the steps of the stair, in their sailor hats and blue +serge; but when in ten minutes more, the whole party, twenty in number, +were seated round the dining table, observation was possible. Agatha, as +senior scholar, sat at the foot of the table, fully occupied in +dispensing Irish stew. She had a sensible face, to which projecting +teeth gave a character, and a brow that would have shown itself finer but +for the overhanging mass of hair. Vera and Paulina were so much alike +and so nearly of the same age that they were often taken for twins, but +on closer inspection Vera proved to be the prettiest, with a more +delicately cut nose, clearer complexion, and bluer eyes; but Paulina, +with paler cheeks, had softer eyes, and more pencilled brows, as well as +a prettier lip and chin, though she would not strike the eye so much as +her sister. Little Thekla was a round-faced, rosy little thing, childish +for her nearly eleven years, smiling broadly and displaying enough white +teeth to make Magdalen forebode that they would need much attention if +they were not to be a desight like Agatha’s. + +She sat between Mrs. Best and Magdalen; and in the first pause, when the +first course had just been distributed, she looked up with a great pair +of grey eyes, and asked, in a shrill, clear little voice, “Sister, may I +have a bicycle?” + +“We will see about it, my dear,” returned Magdalen, unwilling to pledge +herself. + +“But haven’t you got a fortune?” undauntedly demanded Thekla. + +“Something like it, Thekla. You shall hear about it after dinner.” And +Magdalen felt her colour flushing up under all those young eyes. + +“Kitty Best said—” + +But here Mrs. Best interposed. “We don’t talk over such things at table, +Thekla. Take care with the gravy. Did Mr. Jones give a lesson, this +morning?” + +“Yes, a very long one,” said Vera. + +“It was about the exact force of the words in the Revised Version,” added +Agatha, “compared with the Greek.” + +“That must have been very interesting!” said Magdalen. + +Vera and her neighbour looked at one another and shrugged their +shoulders; while some one else broke in with the news that another girl +had not come back because she was down with influenza; and Magdalen, +suspecting that “shop” was not talked at table, and also that the +Scripture passage could not well be discussed there, saw that it was wise +to let the conversation drift off, by Mrs. Best’s leading, into anecdotes +of the influenza. + +All were glad when grace was chanted, and the five sisters could retreat +into the drawing-room, which Mrs. Best let them have to themselves for +the half hour before Magdalen’s train, and the young ones’ return to the +High School. She was at once established with Thekla on her lap, and the +others perched round on chairs and footstools. Of course the first +question was, “And is it really true?” + +“It is true, my dears, that my old great aunt has left me a house and +some money; but you must not flatter yourselves that it is a great +estate.” + +“Only mayn’t I have a bicycle?” began Thekla again. + +“Child, I believe you have bicycles on the brain,” said Agatha. “But, +sister, you do mean that we shall be better off, and I shall be able to +go on with my education?” + +“Yes, my dear, I think I can promise you so much,” said Magdalen, +caressing the serge shoulder. + +“O thanks! Girton?” cried Agatha. + +“There is much that I must inquire about before I decide—” + +Again came, “Elsie Warner has a bicycle, and she is no older than me! +Please, sister!” + +“Hush now, my little Thekla,” said the sister kindly; “I will talk to +Mrs. Best, and see whether she thinks it will be good for you.” + +Thekla subsided with a pout, and Magdalen was able to explain her +circumstances and plans a little more in detail; seeing however that the +girls had no idea of the value of money, Paulina asked whether it meant +being as well off as the Colonel and Lady Mary— + +“Who keep a carriage and pair, and a butler,” interposed Vera. + +“Oh no, my dear. If I keep any kind of carriage it will be only a basket +or governess cart, and a pony or donkey.” + +“That’s all right,” said Agatha. “I would not be rich and stupid for the +world.” + +“Small fear of that!” said Magdalen, laughing. “Our home, the Goyle, is +not more than a cottage, in a beautiful Devonshire valley—” + +“What’s the name of it?” + +“The Goyle. I believe it is a diminutive of Gully, a narrow ravine. It +is lovely even now, and will be delightful when you come to me in April—” + +“Shall I leave school?” asked Vera. “I shall be seventeen in May.” + +“You will all leave school. Mrs. Best has made it easy to me by her +wonderful goodness in keeping you on cheaper terms; but if Agatha goes to +the University you must be content to work for a time with me.” + +“Oh!” cried Thekla. “Shall I have always holidays? My bicycle!” + +Everybody burst out laughing at this—not a very trained cachinnation, but +more of the giggle, even in Agatha; and Magdalen answered: + +“You will have plenty of time for bicycling if the hills are not too +steep, but I hope to make your lessons pleasant to you.” She did not +know whether to mention Mrs. Best’s intention of soon giving up her +house, which would have much increased her difficulties but for her +legacy; and Agatha said, “You know, I think, that Vera and Polly both +ought to make a real study of music. They both have talent, and +cultivation would do a great deal for it.” + +Agatha spoke in a dogmatic way that amused Magdalen, and she said, “Well, +I shall be able to judge when we are at the Goyle. Vera, I think you +sing—” + +Vera looked shy, and Agatha said, “She has a good voice, and Madame +Lardner thinks it would answer to send her to some superior Conservatoire +in process of time.” + +Vera did not commit herself as to her wishes, and Mrs. Best returned to +say that if Miss Prescott wished to see the headmistress it was time to +set out for the school; and accordingly the whole party walked up +together to the school, Magdalen with Agatha, who was chiefly occupied in +explaining how entirely it was owing to the one-sidedness of the +examiners that she had not gained the scholarship. Magdalen had heard of +such examiners before from the mothers of her pupils. + +She had to wish her sisters good-bye for the next three months, not +having gathered very much about them, except their personal appearance. +She administered a sovereign to each of them as they parted. Agatha +thanked her in a tone as if afraid to betray what a boon it was; Vera, +with an eager kiss, asking if she could spend it as she liked; Paulina, +with a certain grave propriety; and Thekla, of course, wanted to know +whether it would buy a bicycle, or, if not, how many rides could be +purchased from it. + +When they were absorbed in the routine of the day, the interview with the +head mistress disclosed, what Magdalen had expected, that Agatha, was an +industrious, ambitious girl, with very good abilities quite worth +cultivating, though not extraordinary; that Vera had a certain sort of +cleverness, but no application and not much taste for anything but music; +and that Paulina was a good, dutiful, plodding girl, who surpassed +brighter powers by dint of diligence. The little one was a mere child, +who had not yet come much under notice from the higher authorities. + +On the whole, Magdalen went away with pleasant hopes, and the +affectionate impulses of kindred blood rising within her, to complete her +term with Lady Milsom, by whom she could not well be spared till towards +Easter; while, in the meantime, her house was being repaired. + + + + +CHAPTER II—THE GOYLE + + + “A poor thing, but mine own.”—SHAKESPEARE. + + “Thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns.” + + —T. HUGHES, _Scouring of the White Horse_. + +MAGDALEN PRESCOTT stood on her own little terrace. Her house was, like +many Devonian ones, built high on the slope of a steep hill, running down +into a narrow valley, and her abode was almost at the narrowest part, +where a little lively brawling stream descended from the moor amid rocks +and brushwood. If the history of the place were told, it had been built +for a shooting box, then inherited by a lawyer who had embellished and +spent his holidays there, and afterwards, his youngest daughter, a lonely +and retiring woman, had spent her latter years there. + +The house was low, stone built, and roofed with rough slate, with a +narrow verandah in front, and creepers in bud covering it. Then came a +terrace just wide enough for a carriage to drive up; and below, +flower-beds bordered with stones found what vantage ground they could +between the steep slopes of grass that led almost precipitously down to +the stream, where the ground rose equally rapidly on the other side. +Moss, ivy, rhododendrons, primroses, anemones, and the promise of ferns +were there, and the adjacent beds had their full share of hepaticas and +all the early daffodil kinds. Behind and on the southern side, lay the +kitchen garden, also a succession of steps, and beyond as the ravine +widened were small meadows, each with a big stone in the midst. The +gulley, (or goyle) narrowed as it rose, and there was a disused limestone +quarry, all wreathed over with creeping plants, a birch tree growing up +all white and silvery in the middle, and above the house and garden was +wood, not of fine trees, and interspersed with rocks, but giving shade +and shelter. The opposite side had likewise fields below, with one grey +farm house peeping in sight, and red cattle feeding in one, and above the +same rocky woodland, meeting the other at the quarry; and then after a +little cascade had tumbled down from the steeper ground, giving place to +the heathery peaty moor, which ended, more than two miles off in a torr +like a small sphinx. This could not be seen from Magdalen’s territory, +but from the highest walk in her kitchen garden, she could see the square +tower of Arnscombe, her parish church; and on a clear day, the glittering +water of Rockstone bay. + +To Magdalen it was a delightful view, and delightful too had been the +arranging of her house, and preparing for her sisters. All the furniture +and contents of the abode had been left to her. It was solid and +handsome of its kind, belonging to the days of the retired Q.C., and some +of it would have been displaced for what was more fresh and tasteful if +Magdalen had not consulted economy. So she depended on basket-chairs, +screens, brackets and drapery to enliven the ancient mahagony and +rosewood, and she had accumulated a good many water colours, vases and +knick-knacks. The old grand piano was found to be past its work, so that +she went the length of purchasing a cottage one for the drawing-room, and +another for the sitting-room that was to be the girls’ own property, and +on which she expended much care and contrivance. It opened into the +drawing-room, and like it, had glass doors into the verandah, as well as +another door into the little hall. The drawing-room had a bow window +looking over the fields towards the South, and this way too looked the +dining-room, in which Magdalen bestowed whatever was least interesting, +such as the “Hume and Smollett” and “Gibbon” of her grandfather’s library +and her own school books, from which she hoped to teach Thekla. + +Her upstairs arrangements had for the moment been rather disturbed by +Mrs. Best’s wishing to come with her pupils; but she decided that Agatha +should at once take possession of her own pretty room, and the two next +sisters of theirs, while she herself would sleep in the dressing room +which she destined to Thekla, giving up her own chamber to Mrs. Best for +these few days, and sending Thekla’s little bed to Agatha’s room. + +And there she stood, on the little terrace, thinking how lovely the +purple light on the moor was, and how all the newcomers would enjoy such +a treat. + +She had abstained from meeting them at the station, having respect to the +capacities of the horse, even upon his native hills, and she had hired a +farmer’s cart to meet them and bring their luggage. Already she had a +glimpse of the carriage, toiling up one hill, then disappearing between +the hedges, and it was long before her gate, already open, was reached, +and at her own _own_ door, she received her little sister, followed by +the others. And the first word she heard even before she had time to pay +the driver was, “My dear Magdalen, what a road!” + +Poor Mrs. Best! as the payment was put into the man’s hand, Magdalen +looked round and saw she looked quite worn out. + +“Yes,” said Paulina, “bumped to pieces and tired to death.” + +“I was afraid they had been mending the roads,” said Magdalen. + +“Mending! Strewing them with rocks, if you please,” said Agatha. + +“And such a distance!” added Paulina. + +“Not quite three miles,” replied Magdalen. “Here is some tea to repair +you.” + +“My dear Magdalen”—in a chorus—“that really is quite impossible. It must +be five, at least.” + +“Your nearest town ten miles off!” sighed Vera. + +“Your nearest church,” cried Paulina. + +“Up in the wilds,” said Agatha. + +Magdalen felt as if these speeches were so many drops of water in her +face and that of her beautiful Goyle, but she rose in its defence. + +“It actually is less than three miles,” she said. “I have walked it +several times, and the cabs only charge three.” + +“That is testimony,” said Mrs. Best, smiling; “but hills, perhaps, reckon +for miles in one’s feelings!” + +“Particularly before you are rested,” said Magdalen, setting her down in +a comfortable wicker chair. “You will think little of it on your own +feet, Vera, and the church is much nearer, Paulina, only on the other +side of the hill.” + +“May I have a bicycle of my own?” burst in Thekla, again; while every one +began laughing, and Agatha told her that Sister would think her brains +were cycling. + + “With centric and concentric scribbled o’er + Cycle and epicycle orb in orb.” + +“Epicycle?” cried Vera. “I saw it advertised in the _Queen_. A splendid +one.” + +“Ah! Magdalen, you will think I have not taught them their Milton,” said +Mrs. Best, as both elders burst out laughing; and Agatha said, in an +undertone, “Don’t make yourself such a goose, Vera.” + +“I should think it rather rough sailing for bikes,” said Paulina. + +“I should have thought so, myself,” returned Magdalen; “but the Clipstone +girls do not seem to think so. I see them sailing merrily into +Rockstone.” + +“You have neighbours, then?” said Vera. + +“Certainly. Rockstone supplies a good deal. Here are various cards of +people whose visits are yet to be returned. Clipstone is further off; +but the daughters will be nice friends for you. I met one of them +before, when she was staying at Lord Rotherwood’s. But I am afraid your +boxes are hardly come yet. Still, you will like to take off your things +before dinner, even if you cannot unpack.” + +She led the way, and disposed of each girl in her new quarters, +explaining to Agatha that her’s and her little lodger were only +temporary; but it struck upon her rather painfully that the only word of +approbation or comfort came from Mrs. Best, and there were no notes at +all of admiration of the scenery. + +“Well,” she said to herself, “much is not to be expected from people who +have been tired and shaken up in a station cab over newly-mended roads! +Were they as bad when I came? But then I could look out, and did not +hear poor Sophy’s groans all the way. I rather wish she had not come +with them, though I am glad to see her again for this last time.” + +Meantime the four girls had congregated in the room appropriated to Vera +and Paulina. “Here are the necessaries of life,” said Agatha, handing +out a brush and comb. “That slow wain may roll its course in utter +darkness before it comes here.” + +“To the other end of nowhere,” said Vera. + +“And I am so tired,” whined Thekla. “These tight boots do hurt me so! I +want to go to bed.” + +Paulina was already on her knees, removing the boots and accommodating a +pair of slippers to the little feet. + +“We might as well be in a desert island,” continued Vera, “shut up from +everything with an old frump.” + +“Take care,” said Agatha, in warning, signing towards Thekla. + +“I am sure she looks jolly and good-natured,” said Paulina. + +“But did you hear what Elsie Lee always calls her, ‘our maiden aunt’?” + +All three laughed, and Vera added, “All the girls say she can’t be less +than fifty.” + +“Topsy! You know she is only sixteen years older than I am.” + +“Well, that’s half a hundred!” + +“Sixteen and nineteen, what do they make?” + +“Oh, never mind your sums. She has got the face and look of half a +hundred!” + +“Now, I thought her face and her dress like a girl’s,” said Paulina. + +“Yes,” said Vera, “that’s just the way with old maids. They dress +themselves up youthfully and affect girlish airs, and are all the more +horrid.” + +“That’s your experience!” said Agatha. “But there’s the waggon creeping +up at a snail’s pace. Let us run down and see after our things.” + + + + +CHAPTER III—THE FIRST SUNDAY + + + “Speed on, speed on, the footpath way, + And merrily hunt the stile-a; + A merry heart goes all the way, + A sad tires in a mile-a.” + + —SHAKESPEARE. + +SUNDAY morning rose with new and bright hopes. The girls looked out at +their window, and saw that it was a beautiful morning, and that the +spring sunshine glowed upon the purple summits of the hills. Agatha +supposed there would be a pleasant walk to church; Paulina said she had +heard good accounts of the services in that part of the country; Vera +hoped that they would see what their neighbours were like, and Thekla was +delighted with the jolly garden and places to scramble in. + +On this first Sunday they were let alone to explore the garden before the +walk to church, which Magdalen foresaw would be a long affair with Mrs. +Best. After their decorous stillness at breakfast, it was a contrast to +hear the merry voices and laughter outside, but it subsided as soon as +she approached, though she did not hear the murmured ripple, “Here comes +maiden aunt! Behold—Quite a spicy hat!” + +In truth, Magdalen’s hat was a pretty new one, not by any means +unsuitable to her age and appearance, and altogether her air was more +stylish than the country town breeding was accustomed to; her dress +perfectly plain, but well made. + +Vera was perhaps the most sensible of the perfection of the turn-out; +Agatha chiefly felt that her more decorated skirt and mantle had their +inconveniences in walking through the red mud of the lanes, impeded by +books and umbrella, which left no leisure to admire the primroses that +studded the deep banks and which delighted Thekla in the freedom of short +skirts. + +Magdalen herself had enough to do in steering along such a substantial +craft as poor Mrs. Best, used to church-going along a street, and +shrouded under a squirrel mantle of many pounds weight. + +Barely in time was the convoy when at last the exhausted lady was helped +over the stone stile that led to the churchyard. Highly picturesque was +the grey structure outside, but within modernism had not done much; the +chancel was feebly fitted after the ideas of the “fifties,” but the faded +woodwork of the nave was intact, and Magdalen still had to sit in the +grim pew of her predecessors. + +The girls’ looks at each other might have suited the entrance to a +condemned cell, and the pulpit towered above them with a faded green +cushion, that seemed in danger of tumbling down over their heads. + +The service was a plain one, but reverent and careful; the music had a +considerable element of harmonium mixed with schoolchild voices, and the +sermon from an elderly man was a good one; but when the move to go out +was made, and the young ones were beyond ear-shot of their elders, the +exclamations were, “Well, I never thought to have gone back to Georgian +era.” + +“Exactly the element of our maiden aunt.” + +“And nobody to be seen.” + +“Naggie, why do they shut one up in boxes?” + +“Just to daunt Flapsy’s roving eye, Tickle, my dear.” + +“Don’t, Polly. There was nobody to be seen if we hadn’t been in a box. +Of course no one comes there but stately old farmers and their smart +daughters. I saw one with a Gainsborough hat, and a bunch of cock’s +feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking it up behind.” + +“Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see. Being ‘emparocked in a +pew’ cannot daunt her spirit of research.” + +“Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible people they are.” + +“Natives who will repay the study perhaps,” continued Agatha, reading as +though from a book of travels. “We were able to observe a group of the +aborigines at their devotions. Conspicuous was a not ungraceful young +female, whose head, ornamented with a plume of feathers, towered above +the enclosure in which she was secluded, while an aged fakir, hakem or +medicine man pronounced from a loftier structure resembling a sentry +box.” + +“Children, children, that’s the wrong way,” came Magdalen’s voice from +behind. “You must turn into that lane. Wait a moment.” + +They waited till Mrs. Best’s lagging steps allowed Magdalen to come up +with them, but dead silence fell on them when Mrs. Best observed, “You +were very merry.” They could not speak of the cause. Perhaps Magdalen +divined something, for she said, “We hope to make some improvements, and +so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he is very poor. Besides, newcomers must +work slowly.” + +The doubt whether she had heard Agatha’s speech made the girls conscious +enough to keep from responding, as she meant them to do, by cheerful +criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering and dragging on Mrs. Best was +quite enough to occupy her. There was only three years difference in +their ages, but this seemed to have made a great interval between one +whose _métier_ had been to be youthful and active, and her who had to be +staid and dignified. + +The early dinner passed in all demureness and formality, and the poor +visitor was too much tired for any more services to be thought of for +her. Magdalen explained that when the days would be longer, she thought +of walking to Rockstone for evensong, but now the best way was to go to +the chapel at Clipstone, which was nearer than either of the others. + +“There is a lovely little chapel there, beautifully fitted up by Lord +Rotherwood and Sir Jasper Merrifield, for the hamlet,” she said. + +“How far?” asked Mrs. Best. + +“About a mile and a half across the fields; further by the road. You +will find your bicycles available when you know the way.” + +“Don’t we go to Rockstone?” asked Paulina. “I am sure there is a really +satisfactory church there.” + +“St. Kenelm’s, do you mean? That is not so near as St. Andrew’s Church, +but that is very satisfactory, and I go to one or other of them on +week-days. It is too late to come back on these spring Sundays.” + +“I should not like to live among so many churches,” said Mrs. Best, “and +so far from them all!” + +“You love your old parish church, like a faithful old churchwoman,” said +Magdalen. “Well, you see, I am faithful enough to go to my parish in the +morning, but I think we may be discursive afterwards. There is a Sunday +school in which I was waiting to offer help till our party was made up.” + +Magdalen had looked twice for a responding smile, first from Agatha, and +then from Paulina, but none was awakened. The girls clustered together +in the bedroom, and the word “Goody” passed between them. + +“Tempered by respect for my Lord and Sir Jasper,” added Agatha. + +“And avoiding St. Kenelm’s because it is the real correct church,” said +Paulina. + +“Oh, yes!” cried Vera. “Mr. Hubert Delrio went to see it in case Eccles +and Beamster should have an order. We must go there.” + +“Of course,” said Paulina, with a sympathetic nod. + +“But,” said Agatha, “there will be an embargo on all acquaintance except +the grandees at Clipstone.” + +“I shall never drop old friends,” cried Vera. “I am a rock of crystal as +regards them, whatever swells may require, if they burst themselves like +the frog and the ox.” + +“Well done, crystal rock; but suppose the old friends slide off and drop +you?” laughed Agatha. + +Vera tossed her head; and Thekla ran in to say that Sister was ready. + +The walk was shorter and pleasanter than that in the morning, over +moorland, but with a good road; but all Magdalen discovered on the walk +was that though the girls had attended botanical classes, they did not +recognise spear-wort when they saw it, and Agatha thought the old +catalogue fashions of botany were quite exploded. This was a sentiment, +and it gave hopes of something like an argument and a conversation, but +they were at that moment overtaken by the neighbouring farmer’s wife, who +wanted to give Miss Prescott some information about a setting of eggs, +which she did at some length, and with a rapid utterance of dialect that +amused, while it puzzled, Magdalen, and her inquiries and comments were +decided to be “thoroughly good-wife” by all save Thekla, who hailed the +possible ownership of a hen and chicken as almost equal to that of a +bicycle. + +Magdalen further discovered that Thekla’s name in common use was +“Tickle,” or else “Tick-tick”; Paulina was, of course, Paula or Polly; +Vera had her old baby title of Flapsy, which somehow suited her restless +nervous motions, and Agatha had become Nag. Well, it was the fashion of +the day, though not a pretty one; but Magdalen recollected, with some +pain, her father’s pleasure in the selection of saintly names for his +little daughters, and she wondered how he would have liked to hear them +thus transmuted. There had been something bordering on sentiment in her +father’s character, and something in Paulina’s expression made her hope +to see it repeated by inheritance. She saw the countenance brighten out +of the morning’s antagonistic air when they entered the little chapel at +Clipstone, and saw the altar adorned and carefully decked with white +narcissus and golden daffodils. + +The little chapel was old and plain, very small, but reverently cared +for. There was no choir, but the chairs of those who could sing were +placed near the harmonium, which was played by one of the young ladies +from the large gabled house to which the chapel was attached, and the +singing had the refined tones that belong to the music of cultivated +people. The congregation was evidently of poor folks from the hamlet, +dependants of the great house, and the family itself, a grey-haired, +fine-looking general, a tall dark-eyed lady, a tall youth, a schoolboy, +and four girls—one of whom was musician, and the other presided over the +school children. The service was reverent, the catechising good and +effective, the sermon brief, and summing up in a spiritual and devotional +manner; Magdalen was happy, and trusted that Paulina was so likewise. + +She expected to hear some commendation as they walked home, but Vera +alone kept with her, to examine her on the names and standing of the +persons she had seen, on which there was as yet little to tell, for the +first move towards acquaintance had not yet been made. All that was +known was that there were Sir Jasper and Lady Merrifield, connections of +Lord Rotherwood, who owned most of the Rockstone property, and who with +his family had once been staying in the country house where Magdalen had +been governess; but it was a long time ago, and she only recollected that +there were some nice little girls. At least she said no more, but her +friend thought the more. + +“I suppose they will call?” said Vera. + +“Most likely they will.” + +“Has nobody called?” + +“Mr. Earl, the Vicar of Arnscombe. He has promised to tell me how we can +be of use here. I believe there is great want of a lady at the Sunday +school.” + +This did not interest Vera—and she went on asking questions about the +neighbourhood, and whether any of the Rockstone people had left cards, +and whether there were any parties, garden or evening, at Rockstone—more +than Magdalen could yet answer, though she was glad to promote any sort +of conversation with either of the girls who did not stand aloof from +her. + +“I say, the M.A. (maiden aunt) knows nobody but that old clergyman, who +wants her to teach his Sunday school.” + +“I’m out of that, thank goodness,” said Agatha. + +“And Sunday schools are a delusion, only hindering the children from +going to church with their parents,” said Paulina. + +“And if nobody calls, and they all think her no better than an old +governess, how awfully slow it will be,” continued Vera. + +“I do not suppose that will last,” said Agatha. “There is Rockstone, +remember.” + +“Ten miles off,” said Vera disconsolately. “Oh, Nag, Nag, isn’t it +horrid! We shall be just smart enough to be taken for swells, and know +nobody; and the swells won’t have us because she is a governess. We +might as well be upon a desert island at once.” + +Agatha could not help laughing and repeating— + + “I am out of humanity’s reach, + I must finish my journey alone— + Never hear the sweet music of speech, + I start at the sound of my own.” + +“But really, Nag,” broke in Paulina, “it is horrid. Here we are +equidistant from three or four churches, and condemned to the most behind +the world of them all, and then to the one where there is this distant +fragrance of swells, instead of the only Catholic one.” + +Agatha had a little more common sense than the other two, and she +responded— + +“After all, you know, you are better off than if you were still at +school; and the M.A. is a good old soul at the bottom, and you may manage +her, depend on it. Though I wish she had let me go to Girton.” + +Magdalen and Mrs. Best meantime were going over future prospects and old +times. Mrs. Best’s destination was Albertstown, in Queensland, where her +son George had a good practice as a doctor, and where he assured her she +would find church privileges—even a cathedral, so-called, and a +bishop—though Bishop Fulmort was always out on some expedition among the +colonists or the natives, but among his clergy there was always Sunday +service. In fact, Magdalen thought the good old lady expected to find a +town more like Filsted than the Goyle. There was a sisterhood located +there too, which tried, mostly in vain, to train the wild native women—an +attempt at which George Best laughed, though he allowed that the sisters +were splendid nurses, especially Sister Angela, who had a wonderful way +of bringing cases round. + +Magdalen could feel secure that her old friend would be near kind people; +and presently Mrs. Best, returning to the actual neighbourhood, observed— + +“Merrifield! It is not a common name.” + +“No; but I do not think this is the same family. This is a retired +general, living in a house of Lord Rotherwood’s. I once met one of his +little girls, who came to Castle Towers with the Rotherwood party, and +though she had a brother of the name, he was evidently not the same +person.” + +Mrs. Best asked no more, for tell-tale colour had arisen in Magdalen’s +cheeks; and she had been the confidante of an engagement with a certain +Henry Merrifield, who had been employed in the bank at Filsted when +Magdalen was a very young girl. His father had come down suddenly, had +found debt and dissipation, had broken all off decidedly, and no more had +been heard of the young man. It was many years previously; but those +cheeks and the tone of the reply made her suspect that there was still +poignancy in the remembrance. + + + + +CHAPTER IV—CYCLES + + + “What flowers grow in my field wherewith to dress thee.” + + —E. BARRETT BROWNING. + +MRS. BEST departed early the next morning. It was probably a parting for +life between the two old friends; and Magdalen keenly felt the severance +from the one person whom she had always known, and on whose sympathy she +could rely. Their conversations had been very precious to her, and she +felt desolate without the entire companionship. Yet, on the other hand, +she felt as if she could have begun better with her sisters if Sophy Best +had not come with them, to hand them over, as it were, when she wanted to +start on the same level with them, and be more like their contemporary +than their authority. + +They all stood on the terrace, watching the fly go down the hill, and she +turned to them and said— + +“We will all settle ourselves this morning, and you will see how the land +lies, so that to-morrow we can arrange our day and see what work to do. +Thekla, when you have had a run round the garden, you might bring your +books to the dining-room and let me see how far you have gone.” + +“Oh, sister, it is holidays!” + +“Well, my dear, you have had a week, and your holiday time cannot last +for ever. Looking at your books cannot spoil it.” + +“Yes, it will; they are so nasty.” + +“Perhaps you will not always think so; but now you had better put on your +hat and your thick boots, for the grass is still very wet, and explore +the country. The same advice to you,” she added, turning to the others; +“it is warm here, but the dew lies long on the slopes.” + +“We have got a great deal too much to do,” said Agatha, “for dawdling +about just now.” + +Really, she was chiefly prompted by the satisfaction of not being ordered +about; and the other two followed suit, while Magdalen turned away to her +household business. + +They found the housemaid in possession of the bedrooms, so that the +unpacking plans could not conveniently be begun; and while Agatha was +struggling with the straps of a book box, Thekla burst in upon them. + +“Oh, Nag, Nag, there is the loveliest angel of a bicycle in the stable, +and a dear little pony besides! ‘New tyre wheels,’ he says.” + +“A bicycle! Well, if she has got it for us, she is an angel indeed,” +said Vera. + +“It is a big one,” said Thekla, “but the pony is a dear little thing; +Pixy is his name, and I can ride him! Do come, Flapsy, and see! +Earwaker will show you. It is he that does the oiling of Pixy and +harnessing the bicycle. I mean—” + +“Tick, Tick, which does he oil and which does he harness?” said Paula. + +“That little tongue wants both,” said Agatha. + +“But do, do come and see,” said Thekla, not at all disconcerted by being +laughed at; and Vera came, only asserting her independence by not putting +on either hat or boots. + +Thekla led the way to the stable, tucked under the hill at the back, and +presiding over a linhay, as she had already learnt to call the tiny +farm-court, containing accommodation for two cows, a pig, and sundry +fowls. There was a shed attached with a wicker pony carriage and the +bicycle, a handsome modern one, with all the newest appendages, including +the “Nevertires,” as Thekla had translated them. + +But disappointment was in store for Vera. Magdalen came out during the +inspection, and was received with— + +“Sister, you never told us of this beauty.” + +“It was a parting present from General Mansell,” she said, “and he took +great pains to get me a very good one.” + +“And you bike!” + +“Oh, yes; I learnt to go out with the Colvins. But I do not venture to +use it much here, unless the road is good. Those rocks, freshly laid +towards Rockstone, would make regular havoc of the pneumatic tyres.” + +Vera saw that this was prohibitive, and felt too much vexed to mention +Thekla’s version of the same; but Magdalen asked, “Have you learnt?” + +“They were always going to teach me at Warner Grange, but it always +snowed, or rained, or skated, I mean we skated, or something, whenever +Hubert had time; but I am perfectly dying to learn.” + +“Well, before you expire, we may teach you a little on these smoother +paths; and hire one perhaps, by the time the stones are passable. Just +at present, I think our own legs and Pixy’s are safer for that descent.” + +Vera was pacified enough to look on with a certain degree of complacency, +while Thekla was enraptured at being set to take out the eggs from the +hens’ nests. + +But the conclave in the sitting-room on Vera’s report decided, “Selfish +old thing, it is only an excuse! Of course we should take care not to +spoil it. It shows what will be the way with everything.” + +No one knew of a still more secret conclave within Magdalen’s own breast, +one of those held at times by many an elder, between the claims of +loyalty to the keepsakes of affection and old association and the +gratification of present desires. Magdalen thought of the rules of +convents forbidding the appropriation of personal trifles, and wondered +if it were wise, if stern; but for the present she decided that it could +not be her duty to risk what had been carefully and kindly selected for +her in unpractised and careless hands; and she further compromised the +matter by reckoning whether her funds, which were not excessive, would +admit of the hire or purchase of machines that might allay the burning +aspirations of her young people. + +The upshot of her reckoning was that when they all met at the early +dinner, she announced, “I think we might go to Rock Quay this afternoon, +between the pony carriage and Shanks’s mare. I want to ask about some +lessons, and we could see about the hire of a bicycle for you to learn +upon.” + +It was only Agatha who answered, “Thank you, but it is not worth while +for me, I shall be away so soon.” + +Thekla cried out, “Me too!”—and Paulina mumbled something. In truth, +besides the thought of the bicycle in the stable, the other two had lived +enough in the country-town atmosphere to be foolishly disgusted at being +obliged to dine early. That they had always been used to it made them +only think it beneath their age as well as their dignity, and, “What a +horrid nuisance!” had been on their tongues when the bell was ringing. + +Moreover, they had enough of silly prejudice about them to feel aggrieved +at the sight of hash, nice as it was with fresh vegetables, and they were +not disposed to good temper when they sat down to their meal. “They” +perhaps properly means the middle pair, for Agatha had more notion of +manners and of respect, and Thekla had an endless store of chatter about +her discoveries. + +The pony-carriage was brought round in due time, but just then another +vehicle of the same kind, only prettier and with two ponies, was seen at +the gate, too late for the barbarian instinct of rushing away to hide +from morning visitors to be carried out, before Lady Merrifield and a +daughter, were up the slope and on the levelled road before the verandah. + +“I think this is an old acquaintance,” said Lady Merrifield as she shook +hands, “though perhaps Mysie is grown out of remembrance.” + +“Oh, yes,” said an honest open-faced maiden, eagerly putting out her +hand. “Don’t you remember, Miss Prescott, our all staying at Castle +Towers? I came with Phyllis Devereux, and she and I took poor Betty +Bernard out after blackberries, and she thought it was a mad bull when it +was a railway whistle, and ran into a cow-pond, and Cousin Rotherwood +came and Captain Grantley and got her out.” + +Magdalen was smiling and nodding recollection, and added, “It was really +one of the boys.” + +“Oh, yes.” + + “I thought it was a crazy bull + Firing a blunderbuss—” + +She paused for recollection, and Magdalen went on— + + “I thought it was a crazy bull + Firing a blunderbuss; + I looked again, and, lo, it was + A water polypus. + ‘Oh, guard my life,’ I said, ‘for she + Will make an awful fuss.’” + +“Ah! do you remember that?” cried Mysie. “I have so often tried to +recollect what it really was when she looked again. Captain Grantley +made it, you know, when we were trying to comfort Betty.” + +“I remember you and Lady Phyllis said you would go and confess to Mrs. +Bernard and take all the blame, and Lord Rotherwood said he would escort +you!” + +“Yes, and Betty said it was no good, for if her mother forgave her ten +times over, still that spiteful French maid would put her to bed and say +she had no _robe convenable_,” went on Mysie. “But then you took her to +your own room, and washed her and mended her, so that she came out all +right at luncheon, and nobody knew anything, but she thought that horrid +woman guessed and tweaked her hair all the harder for it.” + +“Poor child, she looked as if she were under a tyranny.” + +“Have you seen her since?” + +“No; but Phyllis tells me she has burst forth into liberty, bicycles, and +wild doings that would drive her parents to distraction if she dreamt of +them.” + +“How is Lady Phyllis? Did I not hear that the family had gone abroad for +her health?” + +“Oh yes, and I went with them. They all had influenza, and were +frightened, but it ended in our meeting with Franceska Vanderkist, the +very most charming looking being I ever did see; and Ivinghoe had fallen +in love with her when she was Miranda, and he married her like a real old +hero. Do you remember Ivinghoe?” + +“No; I suppose he was one of an indistinguishable troop of schoolboys.” + +“I remember Lord Rotherwood’s good nature and fun when he met the +bedraggled party,” said Magdalen, smiling. + +“That is what every one remembers about him,” said Lady Merrifield, +smiling. “You have imported a large party of youth, Miss Prescott.” + +“My young sisters,” responded Magdalen; “but I shall soon part with +Agatha; she is going to Oxford.” + +“Indeed! To which College? I have a daughter at Oxford, and a niece +just leaving Cambridge. Such is our lot in these days. No, not this +one, but her elder sister Gillian is at Lady Catharine’s.” + +“I am going to St. Robert’s,” said Agatha, abruptly. + +“Close to Lady Catharine’s! Gillian will be glad to tell her anything +she would like to ask about it. You had better come over to tea some +afternoon.” + +The time was fixed, and then Magdalen showed some of the advertisements +of tuition in art, music, languages, and everything imaginable, which had +begun to pour in upon her, and was very glad of a little counsel on the +reputation of each professor. Lady Merrifield saying, however, that her +experience was small, as her young people in general were not musical, +with the single exception of her son Wilfred, who was at home, reading to +go up for the Civil Service, and recreating himself with the Choral +Society and lessons on the violin. “My youngest is fifteen,” she said, +“and we provide for her lessons amongst us, except for the School of Art, +and calisthenics at the High School, which is under superior management +now, and very much improved.” + +Mysie echoed, “Oh, calisthenics are such fun!” and took the reins to +drive away. + +“Oh! she is very nice,” exclaimed Mysie, as they drove down the hill. + +“Yes, there is something very charming about her. I wonder whether Sam +made a great mistake.” + +“Mamma, what do you mean?” + +“Have I been meditating aloud? You said when you met her at Castle +Towers, she asked you whether you had a brother Harry.” + +“Yes, she did. I only said yes, but he was going to be a clergyman, and +when she heard his age, she said he was not the one she had known; I did +not speak of cousin Henry because you said we were not to mention him. +What was it, if I may know, mamma?” + +“There is no reason that you should not, except that it is a painful +matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley cousins. Harry was +never like the rest, I believe, but I had never seen him since he was +almost a baby. He never would work, and was not fit for any +examination.” + +“Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried off all the +brains of the family.” + +“The others have sense and principle, though. Well, they put their Hal +into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by they found he was in a great +scrape, with gambling debts; and I believe that but for the forbearance +of the partners, he might have been prosecuted for embezzling a sum—or at +least he was very near it; besides which he had engaged himself to an +attorney’s daughter, very young, and with a very disagreeable mother or +stepmother. The Admiral came down in great indignation, thought these +Prescotts had inveigled poor Henry, broke everything hastily off, and +shipped him off to Canada to his brothers, George and John. They found +some employment for him, but Susan and Bessie doubt whether they were +very kind to him, and in a few years more he was in fresh scrapes, and +with worse stains and questions of his integrity. It ended in his +running away to the States, and no trace has been found of him since. I +am afraid he took away money of his brothers.” + +“How long ago was it, mamma?” + +“At least twenty years. It was while we were in Malta.” + +“Who would have thought of those dear Stokesley cousins having such a +skeleton in their cupboard?” + +“Ah! my dear, no one knows the secrets of others’ hearts.” + +“And you really think that this Miss Prescott was his love?” + +“I know it was the same name, and Bessie told me that he used to talk to +her of his Magdalen, or Maidie; and when I heard of your meeting her at +Castle Towers I wondered if it were the same. And now I see what she is, +and what she is undertaking for these young sisters; I have wondered +whether your uncle was wise to insist on the utter break, and whether she +might not have been an anchor to hold him fast to his moorings.” + +“Only,” said Mysie, “if he had really cared, would he have let his father +break it off so entirely?” + +“I think your uncle expected implicit obedience.” + +“But—,” said Mysie, and left the rest unsaid, while both she and her +mother went off into meditations on different lines on the exigencies of +parental discipline and of the requirements of full-grown hearts. + +And, on the whole, the younger one was the most for strict obedience, the +experienced parent in favour of liberty. But then Mysie was +old-fashioned and dutiful. + + + + +CHAPTER V—CLIPSTONE FRIENDS + + + “What idle progeny succeed + To chase the rolling circle’s speed, + Or urge the flying ball.”—GRAY. + +THE afternoon at Clipstone was a success. Gillian was at home, and every +one found congeners. Lady Merrifield’s sister, Miss Mohun, pounced upon +Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in the alphabet of good works needed in the +neglected district of Arnscombe, where Mr. Earl was wifeless, and the +farm ladies heedless; but they were interrupted by Mysie running up to +claim Miss Prescott for a game at croquet. “Uncle Redgie was so glad to +see the hoops come into fashion again,” and Vera and Paula hardly knew +the game, they had always played at lawn tennis; but they were delighted +to learn, for Uncle Redgie proved to be a very fine-looking retired +General, and there was a lad besides, grown to manly height; and one boy, +at home for Easter, who, caring not for croquet, went with Primrose to +exhibit to Thekla the tame menagerie, where a mungoose, called of course +Raki raki, was the last acquisition. She was also shown the kittens of +the beloved Begum, and presented with Phœbus, a tabby with a wise face +and a head marked like a Greek lyre, to be transplanted to the Goyle in +due time. + +“If Sister will let me have it,” said Thekla. + +“Of course she will,” said Primrose. “Mysie says she is so jolly.” + +“Dear me! all the girls at our school said she was a regular Old Maid.” + +“What shocking bad form!” exclaimed Primrose. “Just like cads of girls,” +muttered Fergus, unheard; for Thekla continued—“Why, they said she must +be our maiden aunt, instead of our sister.” + +“The best thing going!” said Fergus. + +“Maiden aunts in books are always horrid,” said Thekla. + +“Then the books ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, and spifflicated +besides,” said Fergus. + +“Fergus doesn’t like anybody so well as Aunt Jane,” said Primrose, +“because nobody else understands his machines.” + +Thekla made a grimace. + +“Ah!” said Primrose. “I see it is just as mamma and Mysie said when they +came home, that Miss Prescott was very nice indeed, and it was famous +that she should make a home for you all, only they were afraid you seemed +as if—you might be—tiresome,” ended Primrose, looking for a word. + +“Well, you know she wants to be our governess,” said Thekla. + +“Well?” repeated Primrose. + +“And of course no one ever likes their governess.” + +This aphorism, so uttered by Thekla, provoked a yell from Primrose, +echoed by Fergus; and Primrose, getting her breath, declared that dear +Miss Winter was a great darling, and since she had gone away, more’s the +pity, mamma was real governess to herself, Valetta, and Mysie, and she +always looked at their translations and heard their reading if Gillian +was not at home. + +“And they are quite grown-up young ladies!” + +“Mysie is; but I don’t know about Val. Only I don’t see why any one +should be silly and do nothing if one is grown up ever so much,” said +Primrose. + +“As the Eiffel Tower,” put in Fergus. + +“Nonsense!” said Primrose, bent on being improving. “Don’t you know what +that old book of mamma’s says, ‘When will Miss Rosamond’s education be +finished?’ She answered ‘Never.’” + +Thekla gave a groan, whether of pity for Rosamond or for herself might be +doubted; and a lop-eared rabbit was a favourable diversion. + +There was a triad who seemed to be of Rosamond’s opinion regarding +education, for Agatha was eagerly availing herself of the counsel of +Gillian, and the books shown to her; with the further assistance of the +cousin, Dolores Mohun, now an accredited lecturer in technical classes, +though making her home and headquarters at Clipstone. + +Thekla’s views of young ladyhood were a good deal more fulfilled by the +lessons on cycling which were going on among the other young people after +the game of croquet had ended. Every size and variety seemed to exist +among the Clipstone population, under certain regulations of not coasting +down the hills, the girls not going out alone, and never into the town, +but always “putting up” at Aunt Jane’s. + +Vera and Paulina were in ecstasy, and there was a continual mounting, +attempting and nearly falling, or turning anywhere but the right, little +screams, and much laughter, Jasper attending upon Vera, who, in spite of +her failures, looked remarkably pretty and graceful upon Valetta’s +machine; while Paula, whom Mysie and Valetta were both assisting, learnt +more easily and steadily, but looked on with a few qualms as to the +entire crystal rock constancy that Vera had professed, more especially +when Jasper volunteered to come over to the Goyle and give another +lesson. + +Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant time with +Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they were imperiously +summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to the transfer of Phœbus, +or to choose between him and the Mufti, to whom Thekla had begun to +incline. + +The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where Magdalen was +edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired the Begum and her +progeny with a heartiness that would have won Thekla’s heart, save that +she remembered hearing Vera say, over the domestic cat in the morning, +that M.A.’s were always devoted to cats. But, on the whole, the visit +had done much to reconcile the young sisters to their new surroundings; +books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled them even to the intimacy with +“swells.” + +The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, and the +moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three younger ones all +rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes past the appointed hour +for the early reading and study, Agatha felt obliged to go out and tell +them that the M.A. was sitting like Patience on a monument, waiting for +them; on which three tongues said “Bother,” and “She ought to let us off +till the proper end of the holidays.” + +“Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave after the Scripture +was done,” said Agatha; “you might have known she would not let you off +that.” + +“Bother,” said Vera again; “just like an M.A.” + +“I did forget,” said Paula; “and you know it was only just going through +a lesson for form’s sake, like the old superlative.” + +They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made such +frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by one or two +observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of Samuel’s history and +of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she had resolved to endeavour at a +thorough teaching of the Old and New Testaments for the first hour on +alternate days, giving one day in the week to Catechism and Prayer Book. + +She asked what they had done before. + +“Mrs. Best always read something at prayers.” + +“Something?” + +“Something out of the Bible.” + +“No, the Testament.” + +“I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat.” + +“And Saul was in it, and we had him yesterday.” + +“That was St. Paul before he was converted,” said Paula. + +There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared that Mrs. +Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from the unconfirmed, and +had tried to get the Gospel repeated by heart, but had not succeeded. + +“We did not think it fair,” said Vera. “None of the other houses did.” + +“Yes,” said Agatha, “Miss Ferris’s did.” + +“Oh, she is a regular old Prot,” said Paula, “almost a Dissenter, and it +is not the Gospel either, only texts out of her own head.” + +“Polly!” said Agatha. “Texts out of her own head!” + +“It is Bible, of course, only what she fancies; and they have to work out +the sermon, and if they can’t do the sermon, a text. They might as well +be Dissenters at once!” said Paula. + +“Janet M’Leod is,” said Vera. “It was really Dissentish.” + +Magdalen could not help saying, “So you would not learn the Gospel +because Dissenters learnt pieces of Scripture! You seem to me like the +Roman Catholic child, who said there were five sacraments, there ought to +be seven, but the Protestants had got two of them.” + +She was sorry she had said it, for though Agatha laughed, the other two +drew into themselves, as if their feelings were hurt. “These are the +boarding-house habits,” she said. “What is done at the High School +itself?” + +“The Vicar comes when he has time, and gives a lecture on an Epistle,” +said Agatha, “or a curate, if he doesn’t; but I was working for the +exam., and didn’t go this last term. What was it, Polly?” + +“On the—on the Apollonians,” answered Paulina, hesitating. + +“My dear, where did he find it?” + +“I know it was something about Apollo,” said Vera. + +“It was Corinthians,” said Paula. “I ought to have recollected, but the +lectures are very dull and disjointed; you said so yourself, Nag, and the +Rector is very low church.” + +“So you could not learn from him!” + +“Really, sister,” said Agatha, “the lectures are not well managed, they +are in too many hands, and too uncertain, and it is not easy to learn +much from them.” + +“Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin at the beginning. +Suppose I ask you to say the first answer in the Catechism.” + +On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, and passed +it on to her. + +However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be recounted, and the +moment half-past ten chimed out the young ladies jumped up, and would +have been off to the bicycles, if Magdalen had not felt that the time was +come for asserting authority, and said, “Not yet, if you please. We +cannot waste whole days. You know Herr Gnadiger is coming to-morrow, and +it would be well to practise that sonata beforehand; you ought each to +practise it; Paula, you had better begin, and Vera, you prepare this +first scene of Marie Stuart to read with me when Thekla’s lessons are +over. Change over when Paula has done.” + +“It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is playing,” said Vera. + +“Nonsense,” Agatha muttered; but Magdalen said, “You can sit in the +drawing-room or your own room. Come, Tick-tick, where’s your slate? +Come along.” + +“Don’t sulk, Flapsy,” said the elder sister, “it is of no use. The M.A. +means to be minded, and will be, and you know it is all for your good.” + +“I hate my good,” said naughty Vera. + +“So does every one when it is against the grain,” said Agatha; “but +remember it is a preparation for a free life of our own.” + +“It is our cross,” said Paula, as she placed herself on the music stool +with a look of resignation almost comical. + +Nor did her performance interfere with the equations which Agatha was +diligently working out; but Vera, though refusing to take refuge from the +piano, to which, in fact, she was perfectly inured, worried her elder as +much as she durst, by inquiries after the meaning of words, or what +horrid verb to look out in the dictionary; and it was a pleasing change +when Paula proceeded to work the same scene out for herself without +having recourse to explanations, so that Agatha was undisturbed except by +the careless notes, which almost equally worried Magdalen in the more +distant dining-room. + +This was really the crisis of the battle of study. As the girls were +accustomed to it, and knew that they were of an age to be ground down, +they followed Agatha’s advice, and submitted without further open +struggle, though there was a good deal of low murmur, and the foreman’s +work was not essentially disagreeable, even while Vera maintained, what +she believed to be an axiom, that governesses were detestable, and that +the M.A. must incur the penalty of acting as such. + +Very soon after luncheon appeared three figures on bicycles. Wilfred +Merrifield, with Mysie and Valetta, come to give another lesson on the +“flying circle’s speed.” + +Magdalen came out with her young people to enjoy their amusement, as well +as to watch over her own precious machine, as Vera said. It was admired, +as became connoisseurs in the article; and she soon saw that Wilfred was +to be trusted with the care of it, so she consented to its being ridden +in the practice, provided it was not taken out into the lanes. + +Mysie turned off from the practising, where she was not wanted, and +joined Miss Prescott in walking through the garden terraces, and planning +what would best adorn them, talking over favourite books, and enjoying +themselves very much; then going on to the quarry, where Mysie looked +about with a critical eye to see if it displayed any fresh geological +treasures to send Fergus in quest of. She began eagerly to pour forth +the sister’s never-ending tale of her brother’s cleverness, and thus they +came down the outside lane to the lower gate, seeing beforehand the +sparkle of bicycles in its immediate proximity. + +It was not open, but Vera might be seen standing with one hand on the +latch, the other on Magdalen’s bicycle, her face lifted with imploring, +enticing smiles to Wilfred, who had fallen a little back, while Paula had +decidedly drawn away. + +None of them had seen Magdalen and Mysie till they were round the low +stone wall and close upon them. There was a general start, and Vera +exclaimed, “We haven’t been outside! No, we haven’t! And it is not the +Rockquay Road either, sister! I only wanted a run down that lane up +above.” + +Wilfred laughed a little oddly. It was quite plain that he had been +withstanding the temptress, only how long would the resistance have +lasted? + +Downright Mysie exclaimed, “It would have been a great shame if you had, +and I am glad Wilfred hindered you.” + +“Thank you,” said Magdalen, smiling to him. “You know better than my +sisters what Devon lanes and pneumatic tyres are!” + +Perhaps Wilfred was a little vexed, though he had resisted, for he was +ready to agree with Mysie that they could not stay and drink tea. + +But he did not escape his sister’s displeasure, for Mysie began at once, +“How lucky it was that we came in time. I do believe that naughty little +thing was just going to talk you over into doing what her sister had +forbidden.” + +“A savage, old, selfish bear. It was only the lane.” + +“Full of crystals as sharp as needles, enough to cut any tyre in two,” +said Mysie. + +“Like your tongue, eh, Mysie?” + +“Well, you did not do it! That is a comfort. You would not let her +transgress, and ruin her sister’s good bicycle.” + +“She is an uncommonly pretty little sprite, and the selfish hag of a +sister only left orders that I was to take care of the bike! I could see +where there was a stone as well as anybody else.” + +“Hag!” angrily cried Mysie, “she is the only nice one of the whole lot. +Vera is a nasty little thing, or she would never think of meddling with +what does not belong to her, or trying to persuade you to allow it.” + +“I call it abominable selfishness, dog in the mangerish, to shut up such +a machine as that, and condemn her sisters to one great lumbering one.” + +“That’s one account,” said Valetta. “Paula said it was only till they +had learnt to ride properly, and till the stones have a little worn in.” + +“Yes,” said Mysie, “I could see Vera is an exaggerating monkey, just +talking over and deluding Will, just as men like when they get a silly +fit.” + +By this time Wilfred had thought it expedient to put his bicycle to +greater speed, and indulge in a long whistle to show how contemptible he +thought his sisters as he went out of hearing. + +“Paulina is nice and good,” said Valetta, “she has heard all about St. +Kenelm’s, and wants to go there. Yes, and she means to be a Sister of +Charity, only she is afraid her sister is narrow and low church.” + +“That is stuff and nonsense,” said Mysie. “I have had a great deal of +talk with Miss Prescott. She loves all the same books that we do. She +is going to have G. F. S. and Mothers’ Union, and all at poor Arnscombe, +and she told me to call her Magdalen.” + +With which proofs of congeniality Valetta could not choose but be +impressed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI—THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM’S + + + Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed + Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay.—TENNYSON. + +THE deferred expedition to Rockquay also began, Magdalen driving Vera and +Thekla. She was pleased with her visitors, and hoped that the girls +would feel the same, but Vera began by declaring that _that_ Miss +Merrifield was not pretty. + +“Not exactly, but it is an honest, winning face.” + +“So broad, and such a wide mouth, and no style at all, as I should have +expected after all that about lords and ladies! An old blue serge and +sailor hat!” + +“You don’t expect people to drive about the country in silk attire?” + +“Well, perhaps she is not out! Sister, do you know I am seventeen?” + +“Yes, my dear, certainly.” + +“Oh, look, look, there’s a dear little calf!” broke in Thekla, “and, oh! +what horns the cows have. I shall be afraid to go near them! Was it +only a sham mad bull when the little girl ran into the pond?” + +“It was the railway whistle, and she had never heard it in the fields. +She rushed away in a great fright and ran into the pond, full of horrible +black mud. The gentlemen heard the scream and dragged her out, and it +would have all been fun and a good story if she had not been so much +afraid of the French lady’s maid. It is curious how the sight of those +brown eyes brought the whole scene back to me. We all grew so fond of +Mysie Merrifield in the few days we spent together, and she is very +little altered.” + +“Is she out?” asked Vera once more. + +“Oh, yes, she cannot be less than twenty.” + +“And I am seventeen,” said Vera, returning to the charge. “I ought to be +out.” + +“If there are nice invitations, I shall be quite ready to accept them for +you.” + +“But I am too old for the schoolroom and lessons and masters.” + +“Too old or too wise?” said Magdalen laughing. + +“I have got into the highest form in everything. Every one at Filston of +my age is leaving off all the bother.” + +“Not Agatha.” + +“Oh, but Agatha is—!” + +“Is what? + +“Agatha is awfully clever, and wants to be something!” + +“Something? But do you want to evaporate? To be nothing at all, I +mean,” said Magdalen, seeing her first word was bewildering, and Thekla +put in— + +“Flapsy couldn’t go off in steam, could she? Isn’t that evaporating?” + +“I think what she wants is to be a young lady at large! Eh, Vera? Only +I don’t quite see how that is to be managed, even if it is quite a worthy +ambition. But we will talk that over another time. Do you see how +pretty those sails are crossing the bay?” + +Neither girl seemed to have eyes for the lovely blue of the sea in the +spring sunshine, nor the striking forms of ruddy peaks of rock that +enclosed it. Uneducated eyes, she thought, as she slowly manœuvred the +pony down the steep hill before coming to the Rockstone Cliff Road. The +other two girls were following her direction across field and road, and +making their observations. + +“A dose of lords and ladies,” said Agatha. + +“I thought they were rather nice,” said Paula. + +“I see how it will be,” said Agatha. “They will patronise the M.A. as +Lady Somebody’s old governess, and she will fawn upon them and run after +them, and we shall be on those terms.” + +“But I thought you meant to be a governess?” + +“I shall make my own line. I know how swells look on a governess of the +_ancien régime_, and how they will introduce her as the kindly old goody +who mends my little lady’s frock!” + +“The girl had not any airs,” said Paula. “She told me about the churches +down there in the town—not the ones we went to on Sunday; but there’s one +that is very low indeed, and St. Andrew’s, which is their parish church, +was suiting the moderate high church folk; and there is St. Kenelm’s, +very high indeed, Mr. Flight’s, I think I have heard of him, and it is +just the right thing, I am sure.” + +“Don’t flatter yourself that the M.A. will let you have much pleasure in +it. It is just what people of her sort think dangerous.” + +“But do you know, Nag, I do believe that it is the church that Hubert +Delrio was sent down to study and make a design for.” + +“Whew! There will be a pretty kettle of fish if he comes down about it! +That is, if he and Flapsy have not forgotten all about the ice and the +forfeits at Warner’s Grange, as is devoutly to be hoped.” + +“Do you hope it really, Nag, for Flapsy really was very much—did care +very much.” + +“I have no great faith in Flapsy’s affections surviving the contact with +greater swells.” + +“Poor Hubert!” + +“Perhaps his will not survive common sense. I am sure I hope not for +both their sakes.” + +“But, Nag, it would be very horrid of them if they had no constancy,” +declared the more romantic Paula. + +“It will be a regular mess if they do have it, and bring on horrid +scrapes with the M.A. Just think. It is all very well to say she has +known Hubert all his life; but she can’t treat him as a gentleman, or she +won’t. She has a position to keep up with all these swells, and he will +be only the man who paints the church! I only hope he will not come. +There will be nothing but bother if he does, unless they both have more +sense and less constancy than you expect. Well, this really is a +splendid view. Old Mr. Delrio would be wild about it.” + +Here the steep and stony hill brought them into contact with the pony +carriage, nor were there any more confidential conversations. The pony +was put up at the top of the hill leading from Rockstone to Rockquay, and +thence the party walked down for Miss Prescott to make a few purchases, +and, moreover, to begin by gratifying Thekla’s reiterated entreaty for a +bicycle, though, as she was unpractised and growing so fast, it was +decided to be better to hire a tricycle for practice, and one bicycle on +which Vera and Paula might learn the art. + +The choice was a long one, and left only just time for a peep into the +two churches and a study of the hours of their services. St. Kenelm’s +was decided to be a “perfect gem,” ornaments, beauty, and all, a little +overdone, perhaps, in Magdalen’s opinion, but perfectly “the thing” in +her sisters’. + +This St. Andrew’s fulfilled to her mind, being handsome, reverent, and +decorous in all the arrangements, while to the younger folk it was “all +very well,” but quite of the old times. Little did they know of “old +times” beyond the quarter century of their birth! Poor old Arnscombe +might feebly represent them, but even that had struggled out of the +modern “dark ages.” Magdalen had decided on talking to Agatha and seeing +how far she understood the situation, and she came to her room to put her +in possession now that Mrs. Best had left the guest chamber free. + +“This is your home when you are here. You must put up any belongings +that you do not want to take to St. Robert’s.” + +“Thank you; it is a nice pleasant room.” + +“And, my dear, may I stay a few minutes? I think we had better have a +talk, and quite understand one another.” + +“Very well.” + +It was not quite encouraging, but Agatha really wished to hear, and she +advanced a wicker chair for her elder sister, and sat down on the window +seat. + +“Thank you, my dear; I do not know how much Mrs. Best has told you.” + +“She told us that you had always been very good to us, and that you had +been our guardian ever since we lost our mother.” + +“Did she tell you what we have of our own that our father could leave +us?” + +“No.” + +“What amounts to about £40 a year apiece. Mrs. Best in her very great +goodness has taken you four for that amount, though her proper charge is +eighty.” + +“And she never let any one guess it,” said Agatha, more warmly, “for fear +we might feel the difference. How very good of her.” + +She seemed more impressed by Mrs. Best’s bounty than by Magdalen’s, but +probably she took the latter as a matter of course and obligation; +besides, the sense of it involved a sum in subtraction. However, this +was not observed by her sister, who did not want to feel obliged. + +“Now that this property has come in,” continued Magdalen, “we can live +comfortably together upon it for the present, and your expenses at Oxford +can be paid, as well as masters in what may be needful for the others, +and an allowance for dress. I suppose you will want the £40 while you +are at St. Robert’s, besides the regular expenses?” + +“Thank you,” warmly said. + +“But I want you to understand, as I think you do, about the future, for +you must be prepared to be independent.” + +“I should have wished for a career if I had been a millionaire,” said +Agatha. + +“I believe you would, and it is well that you should have every +advantage. But the others. If I left you all this property, it would +not be a comfortable maintenance divided among four; and you would not +like to be dependent, or to leave the last who might not marry to a +pittance alone.” + +“Certainly not,” said Agatha, with flashing eyes. + +“Then you see that it is needful that you should be able to do something +for yourselves. I can give one of you at a time the power of going to +the University.” + +“I don’t think Vera or Polly would wish for that,” said Agatha. + +“Well, what would they wish for? I can do something towards preparing +them, and I can teach Thekla, but I should like to know what you think +would be best for them.” + +“Vera’s strong point is music,” said Agatha. “She cares for that more +than anything else, and Mr. Selby thought she had talent and might sing, +only she must not strain her voice. I don’t believe she will do much in +any other line. And Polly—she is very good, and always does her best +because it is right, but I don’t think anything is any particular +pleasure to her, except needlework. She is always wanting to make things +for the church. She really has a better voice than Flapsy, and can play +better, but that is because she is so much steadier.” + +“Seventeen and sixteen, are they not?” + +“Yes; but Polly seems ever so much older than Flapsy.” + +“Mrs. Best showed me that she had higher marks. She must be a thoroughly +good girl.” + +“That she is,” cried Agatha, warmly. “She never had any task for getting +into mischief.” + +“Well, they are both so young that a little study with me will be good +for them, and there will be time to judge what they are fit for. In art +I think they are not much interested.” + +“Paula draws pretty well, but Vera hates it. Old Mr. Delrio is always +cross to her now; but—” Agatha stopped short, remembering that there +might be a reason why the drawing master no longer made her a favourite +pupil. + +“Do you think him a good judge?” + +“Yes; Mrs. Best thinks much of him. He had an artist’s education, and +sometimes has a picture in the Water Colour Exhibition; but I believe he +did not find it answer, and so he took our school of art.” + +Agatha had talked sensibly throughout the conference, but not +confidentially; much, in fact, as she would have discussed her sisters +with Mrs. Best. She was glad that at the moment the sound of the piano +set them listening. She did not feel bound to mention to “sister” any +more than she would to the head mistress, that when staying at Mr. +Waring’s country house a sort of semi-flirtation had begun with Hubert +Delrio, a young man to whose education his father had sacrificed a great +deal, and who was a well-informed and intelligent gentleman in all his +ways. He had engaged himself to the great firm of Eccles and Beamster, +ecclesiastical decorators, and might be employed upon the intended +frescoes of St. Kenelm’s Church. + +Ought “Sister” to be told? + +But Agatha thought it would be betraying confidence to “set on the +dragon”; and besides nobody ever could tell how much Vera’s descriptions +meant. She knew already that the sweetest countenance in the world and +the loveliest dark eyes belonged to a fairly good-looking young man, and +she could also suspect that the “squeeze of my hand” might be an ordinary +shake, and the kneeling before the one he loved best might have been only +the customary forfeit. On the whole, it would be better to let things +take their course; it was not likely that either was seriously smitten, +and it was more than probable that Hubert Delrio would be too busy to +look after a young lady now in a different stratum, and that Vera would +have found another sweetest countenance in the world. + +All this passed through her mind while Magdalen listened, and pronounced— + +“That is brilliant—a clever touch—only—” + +“Yes, that is Vera—I know what you are noticing, but this is only +amusement; she is not taking pains.” + +“It is very clever—especially as probably she has no music. But there—” + +“Polly’s? Oh, yes; she is really steady-going. That is just what you +will find her. This is a charming room, sister; thank you very much.” + +“Make it your home, my dear.” + +But in reality they were not much nearer together than before the +conference. + + + + +CHAPTER VII—SISTER AND SISTERS + + + “Have we not all, amid earth’s petty strife, + Some pure ideal of a nobler life? + We lost it in the daily jar and fact, + And now live idly in a vain regret.” + + ADELAIDE PROCTER. + +AGATHA was so much absorbed in her preparation for St. Robert’s that she +did not pay very much heed to her younger sisters or their relations with +Magdalen. She had induced them to submit to the regulation of their +studies with her pretty much as if she had been Mrs. Best, looking upon +her, however, as something out of date, and hardly up to recent opinions, +not realising that, of late, Magdalen’s world had been a wide one. + +Perhaps, in Agatha’s feelings, there was an undercurrent inherited from +her mother, who had always felt the better connected, better educated +step-daughter, a sort of alien element, exciting jealousy by her +companionship to her father, and after his death, apt to be regarded as a +scarcely willing, and perhaps censorious pay-master. + +“Your sister might call it too expensive.” “I must ask your sister.” +“No, your sister does not think she can afford it. I am sure she might. +Her expenses must be nothing.” All this had been no preparation for full +sisterly confidence with “Sister,” even when a sort of grudging gratitude +was extracted, and Agatha had been quite old enough to imbibe an +undefined antagonism, though, being a sensible girl, she repressed the +manifestations, kept her sisters in order and taught them not to love but +to submit, and herself remained in a state of civil coolness, without an +approach beyond formal signs of affection, and such confidence. + +It was the more disappointing to Magdalen, because Agatha and Paulina +both showed so much unconscious likeness to their father, not only in +features, but in little touches of gesture and manner. She longed to pet +them, and say, “Oh, my dears, how like papa!” but the only time she +attempted it, she was met by a severe, uncomprehending look and manner. + +And Agatha went away to Oxford without any thawing on her part. + +The only real ground that had been gained was with little Thekla, who was +soon very fond of “Sister,” and depended on her more and more for +sympathy and amusement. Girls of seventeen and sixteen do not delight in +the sports of nine-year-olds, except in the case of special pets and +_protégées_, and Thekla was snubbed when a partner was required to assist +in doll’s dramas, or in evening games. Only “Sister” would play +unreservedly with her, unaware or unheeding that this was looked on as +keeping up the _métier_ of governess. Indeed, Thekla’s reports of +schoolroom murmurs and sneers about the M.A. had to be silenced. Peace +and good will could best be guarded by closed ears. Yet, even then, +Thekla missed child companionship, and, even more, competition, the lack +of which rendered her dull and listless over her lessons, and when +reproved, she would beg to be sent to school, or, at least, to attend the +High School on her bicycle. Not admiring the manners or the attainments +of the specimens before her, Magdalen felt bound to refuse, and the +sisters’ pity kept alive the grievance. + +She had, however, decided on granting the bicycles. She had found plenty +of use for her own, for it was possible with prudent use of it, avoiding +the worst parts of the road, to be at early celebration at St. Andrew’s, +and get to the Sunday school at Arnscombe afterwards; and Paulina, with a +little demur, decided on giving her assistance there. + +At a Propagation of the Gospel meeting at the town hall, the Misses +Prescott were introduced to the Reverend Augustine Flight, of St. +Kenelm’s, and his mother, Lady Flight, who sat next to Magdalen, and +began to talk eagerly of the designs for the ceiling of their church, and +the very promising young artist who was coming down from Eccles and +Beamster to undertake the work. + +The church had not yet been seen, and the conversation ended in the +sisters coming back to tea, at which Paula was very happy, for the talk +had something of the rather exclusive High Church tone that was her +ideal. She had seen it in books, but had never heard it before in real +life, and Vera was in a restless state, longing to hear whether the +promising young artist was really Hubert Delrio, and hoping, while she +believed that she feared, that she should blush when she heard his name. +However, she did not, though Mr. Flight unfolded his rough plans for the +frescoes, which were to be of virgin and child martyrs, Magdalen +hesitating a little over those that seemed too legendary; while old Lady +Flight, portly and sentimental, declared them so sweet and touching. +After tea, they went on to the church. Just at the entrance of the +porch, Vera clutched at Paula, with the whisper, “Wasn’t that Wilfred +Merrifield? There, crossing?” + +“Nonsense,” was Paula’s reply, as she lingered over the illuminated list +of the hours of services displayed at the door, and feeling as if she had +attained dreamland, as she saw two fully habited Sisters enter, and bend +low as they did so. + +The church was very elaborately ornamented, small, but showing that no +expense had been spared, though there was something that did not quite +accord with Magdalen’s ideas of the best taste; so that when they went +out she answered Paula’s raptures of admiration somewhat coldly, or what +so appeared to the enthusiastic girl. + +The next day, meeting Miss Mohun over cutting out for a working party, +Magdalen asked her about the Flights and St. Kenelm’s. + +“He is an excellent good man,” said Jane Mohun, “and has laid out immense +sums on the church and parish.” + +“All his own? Not subscription?” + +“No. He is the only son of a very rich City man, a brewer, and came here +with his mother as a curate, as a good place for health. They found a +miserable little corrugated-iron place, called the Kennel Chapel, and +worked it up, raising the people, and doing no end of good till it came +to be a district, as St. Kenelm’s.” + +“Very ornamental?” + +“Oh, very,” said Jane, warming out of caution, as she felt she might +venture showing city gorgeousness all over. “But it is infinitely to his +credit. He had a Fortunatus’ purse, and was a spoilt child—not in the +bad sense—but with an utterly idolising mother, and he tried a good many +experiments that made our hair stand on end; but he has sobered down, and +is a much wiser man now—though I would not be bound to admire all he +does.” + +“I see there are Sisters? Do they belong to his arrangements?” + +“Yes. They are what my brother calls Cousins of Mercy. The elder one +has tried two or three Sisterhoods, and being dissatisfied with all the +rules, I fancy she has some notion of trying to set up one on her own +account at Mr. Flight’s. They are both relations of his mother, and are +really one of his experiments—fancy names and fancy rules, of course. I +believe the young one wanted to call herself Sister Philomena, but that +he could not stand. So they act as parish women here, and they do it +very well. I liked Sister Beata when I have come in contact with her, +and I am sure she is an excellent nurse. They will do your nieces no +harm, though I don’t like the irregular.” + +Of this assurance Magdalen felt very glad, when at the door of the parish +room, where the ladies were to hold a working party for the missions, +Carrigaboola Missions at Albertstown, she and her nieces were introduced +to the two ladies in hoods and veils; and Paula’s eyes sparkled with +delight as she settled into a chair next to Sister Mena. She looked as +happy as Vera looked bored! Conversation was not possible while a +missionary memoir was being read aloud, but the history of Mother +Constance, once Lady Herbert Somerville, but then head at Dearport, and +founder of the Daughter Sisterhood at Carrigaboola. To the Merrifields +it was intensely interesting, and also to Magdalen; but all the time she +could see demonstrations passing between Paula and Sister Mena, a +nice-looking girl, much embellished by the setting of the hood and veil, +as if the lending of a pair of scissors or the turning of a hem were an +act of tender admiration. So sweet a look came out on Paula’s face that +she longed to awaken the like. Vera meantime looked as if her only +consolation lay in the neighbourhood of a window, whence she could see up +the street, as soon as she had found whispers to Mysie Merrifield treated +as impossible. + +The party at the Goyle had begun to fall into regular habits, and +struggles were infrequent. There was study in the forenoon, walks or +cycle expeditions in the afternoon, varied by the lessons in music and in +art, which Vera and Paula attended on Wednesdays and Fridays, the one in +the morning, the other after dinner. It was possible to go to St. +Andrew’s matins at ten o’clock before the drawing class, and to St. +Kenelm’s at five, after the music was over. Magdalen, whenever it was +possible, went with her sisters on their bicycles to St. Andrew’s, and +sometimes devised errands that she might join them at St. Kenelm’s, but +neither could always be done by the head of the household. And she could +perceive that her company was not specially welcome. + +Valetta, the only one of the Clipstone family whose drawing was worth +cultivating, used to ride into Rockstone, escorted by her brother +Wilfred, who was in course of “cramming” with a curate on his way to his +tutor, and Vera found in casual but well-cultivated meetings and +partings, abundant excitement in “nods and becks and wreathed smiles,” +and now and then in the gift of a flower. + +Paula on the other hand found equal interest and delight in meetings with +Sister Mena, especially after a thunderstorm had driven the two to take +refuge at what the Sisters called “the cell of St. Kenelm,” and tea had +unfolded their young simple hearts to one another! Magdalen had called +on the Sisters and asked them to tea at the Goyle, and there had come to +the conclusion that Sister Beata was an admirable, religious, hardworking +woman, of strong opinions, and not much cultivated, with a certain +provincial twang in her voice. She had a vehement desire for +self-devotion and consecration, but perhaps not the same for obedience. +She sharply criticised all the regulations of the Sisterhoods with which +she was acquainted, wore a dress of her own device, and with Sister Mena, +a young cousin of her own, meant to make St. Kenelm’s a nucleus for a +Sisterhood of her own invention. + +Sister Mena had been bred up in a Sisterhood’s school, from five years +old and upwards, and had no near relatives. Mr. Flight was Saint, Pope +and hero to both, and Mena knew little beyond the horizon of St. +Kenelm’s, but she and Paula were fascinated with one another; and +Magdalen saw more danger in interfering than in acquiescing, though she +gave no consent to Paulina’s aspirations after admission into the perfect +Sisterhood that was to be. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII—SNOBBISHNESS + + + “Why then should vain repinings rise, + That to thy lover fate denies + A nobler name, a wide domain?”—SCOTT. + +THE friendship with the Sisters was about three weeks old when, one +morning, scaffold poles were being erected in the new side aisle of St. +Kenelm’s Church, and superintending them was a tall dark-haired young +man. There was a start of mutual recognition; and by and by he met Paula +and Vera in the porch, and there were eager hand-clasps and greetings, as +befitted old friends meeting in a strange place. + +“Mr. Hubert! I heard you were coming!” + +“Miss Vera! Miss Paula! This is a pleasure.” + +Then followed an introduction of Sister Mena, whose elder companion was +away, attending a sick person. + +“May I ask whether you are living here?” + +“Two miles off at the Goyle, at Arnscombe, with our sister.” + +“So I heard! I shall see you again.” And he turned aside to give an +order, bowing as he did so. + +“Is he the artist of those sweet designs?” asked Sister Mena. + +“Did we not tell you?” + +“And now he is going to execute them? How delicious!” + +“I trust so! We must see him again. We have not heard of Edie and +Nellie, nor any one.” + +“He will call on you?” said Sister Mena. + +“I do not think so,” said Paula. “At least his father is really an +artist, but he is drawing-master at the High School, and Hubert works for +this firm. They are not what you call in society, and our sister is all +for getting in with Lady Merrifield and General Mohun and all the swells, +so it would never do for him to call.” + +“She would first be stiff and stuck up,” said Vera, “and I could not +stand that.” + +“I thought she was so kind,” said Mena. + +“You don’t understand,” said Vera. “She would be kind to a workman in a +fever; but this sort—oh, no.” + +“To be on an equality with the man painting the church?” said Paula. +“No, indeed! not if he were Fra Angelico and Ary Scheffer and +Michelangelo rolled into one.” + +At that moment the subject referred to in that mighty conglomeration +reappeared. He was a handsome young man, his touch of Italian blood +showing just enough to give him a romantic air; and Sister Philomena +listened, much impressed by the interchange of question and answer about +“Edie and Nellie,” and the dear Warings, and the happy Christmas at the +Grange; and Vera blushed again, and Paula coloured in sympathy, as it +appeared that Mr. Delrio had never had such a splendid time. + +The colloquy was ended by Mr. Flight being descried, approaching with his +mother, whereupon the two girls fled away like guilty creatures. + +Presently Vera exclaimed, “Oh, Polly dear, what a complication! Poor +dear fellow! he cares for me as much as ever.” + +“And you will be staunch to him in spite of all the worldly allurements,” +said Paula. + +“Well, I mean Mr. Wilfred Merrifield is not half so handsome,” returned +Vera. + +“Nor is he engaged in sacred work; only bent on frivolity,” said Paula; +“yet see how the M.A. encourages him with tennis and games and nonsense.” + +Poor M.A., when the encouragement had only been some general merriment, +and a few games on the lawn Paulina, who had heard many confidences when +Vera returned from Waring Grange, believed altogether in the true love of +the damsel and Hubert Delrio, who had been wont to single out the +prettiest of the girls at Filstead, and she was resolved to do all she +could in their cause, being schoolgirl enough to have no scruple as to +secrecy towards Magdalen, though on the next opportunity she poured out +all to Sister Philomena’s by no means unwilling ears. + +Lovers had never fallen within the young Sister’s experience, either +personally or through friends; and they had only been revealed to her in +a few very carefully-selected tales, where they were more the necessary +machinery than the main interest, for she had been bred up in an +orphanage by Sister Beata, and had never seen beyond it. So to her +Paula’s story, little as there was of it, was a perfect romance, and it +gained in colour when she related it to her senior. + +Sister Beata hesitated a little, having rather more knowledge of the +world, remembering that Vera Prescott was not eighteen years old, and +doubting whether an underhand intimacy ought to be encouraged; but then +Mr. Flight had spoken of Mr. Delrio as a highly praiseworthy young man, +of decided Catholic principles; he was regular at Church services, and +had dined or supped at the Vicarage. The intercourse, as the girls had +explained, had been sanctioned by Mrs. Best in their native town, where +all parties were well known, and thus there could be no harm in letting +it continue. While as to the elder Miss Prescott, she was understood to +be unduly bent on county and titled society, and to be exclusive towards +inferiors. Moreover, she was an attendant at St. Andrew’s Church, and +thus regarded as out of the pale of sympathy of the St. Kenelm’s flock. + +So no obstacle was put in the way of the gossips, for they were really +nothing more, except that there was admiration of the designs for the +side chapel, which were of the Scripture children on one side, and on the +other of child martyrs. Now and then there was a reference to the +chilliness and hardship of living with an unsympathising sister, and +being obliged to go to churches of which they did not approve. Sometimes +too there were airy castles of a distant future to be shared by the +magnificent architect, together with Vera, while Paula nursed in the +convent with Mother Beata and Sister Philomena. + +But all this did not prevent an excitement and eager laughter and chatter +whenever Wilfred Merrifield came in the way, and he certainly was enough +attracted by Vera’s pretty face and lively graces to make his sisters +think him very absurd; but his mother had seen so many passing fancies +among her elder sons as to hold that blindness was better than serious +treatment. + +There was the further effect that Magdalen had no suspicion that the +vehement attraction to St. Kenelm’s went beyond the harmless quarter of +the two nursing Sisters and some hero worship of Mr. Flight. Miss Mohun, +who knew everything, had indeed hinted that something foolish might be +going on there; but Magdalen had not decided on the mutual fairness of +the two congregations, and deferred investigation till Agatha should come +home, when she would have a reasonable, if cold, person to deal with. +Nor did Thekla’s chatter excite any suspicion; for the only time when she +had been present at a meeting with Mr. Delrio, she had been half bribed, +half threatened into silence, and she was quite schoolgirl enough to feel +that such was the natural treatment of authority, though she had become +really fond of “sister.” + + + + +CHAPTER IX—GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY + + + “Can I teach thee, my beloved? can I teach thee?” + + E. B. BROWNING. + +AGATHA came home in due time, and Magdalen sent her sister to meet her at +the station, where they found a merry Clipstone party in the waggonette +waiting for Gillian, who was to come home at the same time. There was so +much discussion of the new golf ground, that Vera had hardly a hand or a +glance to bestow on Mr. Delrio, who jumped out of the same train, shook +hands with Agatha, and bestirred himself in finding her luggage and +calling a cab. + +“How he is improved! What a pleasing, gentlemanly fellow he looks!” she +exclaimed, as she waved her thanks, while driving off in the cab. + +“Is he not?” said Paula, while Vera bridled and blushed. “You will be +delighted with his work. I never saw anything more lovely than little +St. Cyriac the martyr.” + +“He is taken from Mrs. Henderson’s little boy,” added Vera; “such a dear +little darling.” + +“And his mother is to be done; indeed, he has sketched her for St. +Juliet.” + +“Flapsy! St. Romeo, too, I suppose?” + +“Nonsense, Nag! There really was a St. Juliet or Julitta, and she was +his mother, and they both were martyrs. I will tell you all the +history,” began Paula; but Agatha interposed. + +“You must like having him down here. Sister must be much pleased with +him. She used to like old Mr. Delrio.” + +“Well, we have not said much about him,” owned Paula. “He does not seem +to wish it, or expect to be in with swells.” + +“We could not stand his being treated like a common house-painter and +upholsterer,” added Vera. + +“Surely no one does so,” said Agatha. + +“Not exactly,” said Paula; “at least, he has had supper at St. Kenelm’s +Vicarage with Lady Flight, and luncheon at Carrara with Captain and Mrs. +Henderson.” + +“Because he was _doing_ the child,” interposed Vera; “and Thekla says +that Primrose Merrifield says that her Aunt Jane—that is, old Miss +Mohun—says that Lady Flight is not a gentlewoman.” + +“What has that to do with Magdalen?” + +“Why, she is so taken up with those swells of hers, especially now that +there is a talk of Lord Somebody’s yacht coming in, that she would never +treat him as on equal terms, but just keep him at a distance, like a mere +decorator.” + +“That seemed to me just what you were doing,” said Agatha, “when he was +so kind and helpful about my box.” + +“Oh, _they_ were all there, and we did not want to be talked of,” said +Vera, blushing. “He understands.” + +“He understands,” repeated Paula. “We do see him at the church and at +the Sisters’. Those dear Sisters! There is no nonsense about them. You +will love them, Nag.” + +“Well, it does not seem to me to be treating our own sister Magdalen +fairly.” + +“The M.A.!” said Vera, in a tone of wonder. + +“No; not to be intimate with a person you do not introduce to her, +because you do not think she would consider him as on equal terms.” + +“Sister Beata quite approves,” added Paula, sincerely, not guessing how +little Sister Beata knew of the situation, of which she only heard +through the medium of her own representations to Sister Mena. + +The two girls rushed into the charms of these two Sisters, and the plan +for an entertainment for the maidens of the Guild of St. Milburgha, at +which they were to assist. It lasted up to the gate of the Goyle, where +Magdalen and Thekla were ready to meet them; and they trooped merrily up +the hill, Agatha keeping to Magdalen’s side in a way that struck her as +friendly and affectionate. It seemed to be more truly coming _home_ than +the elder sister had dared to anticipate; nor, indeed, did she feel the +veiled antagonism to herself that had previously disappointed her. + +The talk was about St. Robert’s, about Oxford in general, the new +friends, the principal, the games, the debates, the lectures, the +sermons, the celebrities, the undergraduates, the concerts, the chapels, +the boats, the architecture; all were touched on for further discussion +by and by as they sat at the evening meal, and then on the chairs and +cushions in the verandah; and through all there was no exclusion of the +elder sister, but rather she was the one who could appreciate the +interest of what Agatha had seen and heard; and even she was allowed to +enter into the amusement of an Oxford _bon mot_, sometimes, indeed, when +it was far beyond Paula and Vera. + +There was no doubt that the term had much improved Agatha even in +appearance and manner. She held herself better, pronounced better, +uttered no slangish expressions, and twice she repressed little +discourtesies on the part of her sisters, and neglects such as were not +the offspring of tender familiarity, but of an indifference akin to +rudeness. Magdalen had endured, knowing how bad it was for their +manners, but unwilling to become more of an annoyance than could be +helped. The indescribable difference in Agatha’s whole manner sent +Magdalen to bed happier than she had been since the arrival of her +sisters, and feeling as if Agatha had come to her own side of a barrier. + +Perhaps it was quite true; for the last two months had been a time of +growth with the maiden, changing her from a schoolgirl to a student, from +the “brook to the river.” She had, indeed, studied hard, but that she +had always done, as being clever, intellectual and ambitious. The +difference had been from her intercourse with persons slightly her +elders, but who did not look on authorities as natural enemies, to be +tolerated for one’s own good. There had been a development of the +conscience and soul even in this first term that made her regard her +elder sister not merely with a sense of compulsory gratitude and duty, +but with sympathy and fellow feeling, which were the more excited when +she saw her own chilliness of last spring carried further by the two +young girls. + +So breakfast went off merrily; and after the round of the garden and the +pets, Agatha promised to come, when summoned, to hear how well Thekla +could read French. In the meantime she waited in the morning-room, +looking at her sisters’ books; Vera pushed aside the Venetian blind. + +“Don’t come in that way, Flapsy!” called Paula. “You’ll be heard in the +dining-room, and the M.A. will tremble at your dusty feet.” + +“They aren’t dusty,” said Vera, pulling up the blind with a clatter. + +“Aren’t they?” laughed Paula, pointing. + +“You had better go and wipe them,” said Agatha. + +“I don’t believe in M.A.’s fidgets,” returned Vera. + +“But I do, in proper deference to the head of the house,” said Agatha, +gravely. + +“Murder in Irish!” cried Vera, bouncing away, while Paula argued, +“Really, Nag, life is not long enough to attend to all the M.A.’s little +worries.” + +“Polly, dear, I am afraid we have been on a wrong tack with our sister. +I don’t like calling her by that name.” + +“You began it!” exclaimed Vera, dashing in by the door as she spoke. + +“I could not have meant it as a nickname to be always in use.” + +“Oh yes, you did, I remember”—and an argument was beginning, which Agatha +cut short by saying, “Any way, it is bad taste.” + +“Nag has been so much among the real M.A. that she is tender about their +title.” + +“She wants to be one herself,” said Vera; “and so she will if she goes on +getting learned and faddy.” + +“In both senses?” said Paula. + +Agatha laughed a little, but added, “No, Polly, the thing is that it is +hardly kind or right to put that sort of label upon a person like +Magdalen—who has done so much for us—and—” + +The perverse young hearts could not bear a touch on the chord of +gratitude; and Paula burst in, “Label or libel, do you mean?” + +“It becomes a libel as you use it.” + +“Do you want us to call her sister or Magdalen, the whole scriptural +mouthful at once?” + +“I believe that to call her Magdalen or Maidie, as my father did, would +make her feel nearer to us than the formal way of saying ‘Sister.’” + +“I don’t mind about changing,” said Paula. “She can never be the same to +us as dear Sister Mena.” + +“She is so tiresome,” added Vera. “She bothers so over my music; calling +out if I make ever so small a slip, and making me go over all again.” + +“Well she may,” said Paula. “She is making little Tick play so nicely. +Just listen! But I can’t bear her dragging us off to that horrid old +Arnscombe Church and the nasty stuffy Sunday school.” + +“That reminds me,” said Agatha; “Gillian Merrifield met a relation of Mr. +Earl’s, who said that Miss Prescott had brought quite new life and spirit +to the poor old man, who had been getting quite out of heart for want of +any one to help and sympathise with him.” + +“Then he ought to make his services more Catholic,” said Paula. “But +nothing will wean her from the old parochial idea. Why, she would not +let me give my winter stockings to Sister Beata’s poor girls, but made me +darn them and put them by.” + +“Yes, and mine, which were bad enough to give away, she made me darn +first,” cried Vera. “She is ever so much worse than the superlative +about mending one’s clothes.” + +“There ought to be another degree of comparison,” said +Paula,—“Botheratissima!” + +“For, only think!” said Vera. “She won’t let us have new hats, but only +did up the old ones, and not with feathers, though there is such a love +at Tebbitts’s at Rockstone.” + +“She says it is cruel,” said Paula. + +“Cruel to me, I am sure; and what difference does it make when the birds +are once killed?” + +“Well, she did give us those lovely wreaths of lilies,” said Paula. + +“Of course, but nothing to make them stylish! What’s the good of being +out if one is to have nothing _chic_? And she won’t let me have a hockey +outfit. She says she must see more of it to be able to judge whether to +let us play!” + +“That just means seeing whether her dear Merrifields do,” said Paula. + +“Gillian did at St. Catherine’s. But you will know soon. Did I not hear +something about a garden party?” + +“Oh, yes; she is talking of one, but it will be all swells and croquet, +and deadly dull.” + +“I thought you seemed to be getting on well with the swells, if you mean +the Merrifields, especially Wilfred, if that is his name.” + +“Bil—Bil! Oh, he is all very well,” said Vera, “if he would not be +always so silly and come after me! As if I cared!” + +“And only think,” said Paula, “that she was going to have it on the very +day that St. Milburga’s Guild has their festival! Just as if it was on +purpose!” + +“Did you ask her to keep clear of your engagements?” + +“I told her, but I don’t think she listened.” And as another grievance +suggested itself to Vera, she declared, “And she won’t let us join the +Girls’ Magazine Club, because she saw one she didn’t like on somebody’s +table. As if we were little babies!” + +“She won’t let us order books at the library, but gets such awfully slow +ones,” chimed in Paula, “or only baby stories fit for Thekla. She made +me return that book dear Sister Mena lent me, because she said it was +Roman Catholic.” + +“And hasn’t she got Thomas à Kempis on her table? and I’m sure he was +Roman Catholic. There’s consistency!” + +“You don’t understand,” began Agatha. “He was a great Saint before the +Catholics became so Roman.” + +“Oh, never mind! It is anything to thwart us,” cried Vera. “It is ever +so much worse than school.” + +“But,” began Agatha, and the tone of consideration to that one +conjunction caused an outburst. “Oh, Nag, Nag, if you are gone over to +the enemy, what will life be worth?” + +As that terrible question was propounded, in burst Thekla with, “Oh, Nag, +Nag, they are cutting the hay in the high torr field, and sister says we +may go and see them before I read my French.” + +“Oh!” cried Vera, with a prolongation into a groan, “is she going to be +tiresome?” + +“She has come to be quite a don,” said Paula; “but never mind, we will +soon make her all right again.” + +The two sisters had to go to their different classes in the afternoon, +and wanted Agatha to go with them; but it was a very warm day, and she +preferred resting in the garden, and, to Magdalen’s surprise and +pleasure, conversation with her. At first it was about Oxford matters, +very interesting, but public and external to the home, and it did not +draw the cords materially closer; but when Thekla had privately decided +that even hanging upon the newly recovered Nag was not worth the +endurance of anything so tedious, and had gone off to assist her beloved +old gardener in gathering green gooseberries, Magdalen observed that she +was a very pleasant little pupil, and was getting on very well, +especially with arithmetic. + +“That was the strong point in the junior classes,” said Agatha; “better +taught than it was in my time.” + +“I wish she could have more playfellows,” said Magdalen. “She would like +to go to the High School at Rockquay, but there are foundations I should +wish to lay before having her out of my own hands.” + +“I should think you were her best playfellow. She seems very fond of +you, and very happy.” + +“Yes,” said Magdalen, rather wistfully. “I think she generally is so.” + +“Maidie! may I call you by the old home name?” And as Magdalen answered +with a kiss and tearful smile, “Do tell me, please, if Polly and Flapsy +are nice to you?” + +Magdalen was taken by surprise at the pressure of the hand and the eyes +that gazed into her face full of expression. + +She could not keep the drops from rushing to her own eyes, though she +smiled through them and said, “As nice as they know how.” + +“I am afraid I know what that means,” said Agatha. + +“If I only knew how to prevent their looking on me as their governess,” +continued Magdalen; “but I must have got into the groove, and I suppose I +do not always remember how much must be tolerated if love has to be won; +and Paula is a thoroughly good girl.” + +“Yes, I am sure she wishes to be,” said Agatha. “Are those Sisters nice +that she talks of so eagerly?” + +“They are very excellent women, but somehow I should have had more +confidence in them if they were not unattached, or belonged to some +regular Sisterhood. I wish she had taken instead to Mysie Merrifield, +who is more of my sort; but no one can control those likings.” + +“I don’t think Gillian very attractive; she is so wrapped up in her +work,” confessed Agatha. + +“You will see them all, I hope, for I am giving a garden party next week, +perhaps. Have not they told you?” + +“Oh, yes; but Polly seemed bent on its not clashing with some festival at +St. Kenelm’s.” + +“Therefore I had not fixed the day till I had heard what is settled. I +have invited people for Thursday, which will hardly interfere.” + +“Did you know that the young man who is painting the ceiling at St. +Kenelm’s Church is old Mr. Delrio’s son Hubert?” + +“Indeed! Is he staying here? We must ask him to come up to luncheon or +to tea. I am glad he is doing so well. I heard Eccles and Beamster were +to do the decorations; I suppose they employ him. I should think it was +a very good line to get into.” + +This was on a Friday; and the next day Magdalen proposed driving down in +the cool of the evening to see the decorations at St. Kenelm’s and their +artist; but it turned out that he was gone to spend Sunday at the +Cathedral city, and all that could be done was to admire the designs, and +listen to Paula’s enthusiastic explanation. + +Magdalen consulted Agatha whether to send young Delrio a card for the +garden party; but they decided that it was too late for an invitation to +be sent, though a spoken one might have been possible. Besides, it was +not likely to be pleasant to a stranger who knew no one but the Flights +and Hendersons, and those professionally. Agatha told her sisters, and +with one voice they declared that they would not see him patronised; +while Agatha’s acute senses doubted whether Vera’s objection was not +secretly based on the embarrassment of a double flirtation with him and +with Wilfred Merrifield. + +Indeed, Vera told her gaily: “Only think, Nag, I did have a jolly ride on +the M.A.’s bike after all.” + +“Indeed! Then she lent it to you.” + +“Not she! But she and the little kid were safe gone to Avoncester, and +Paula was with her dear Sisters, so Will and I took a jolly spin along +the cliff road; and it was such screaming fun. Only once we thought we +saw old Sir Jasper coming, and we got behind a barn, but it turned out to +be only a tripper, and we had such a laugh.” + +“Paula does not know?” + +“What would be the good of telling her, with her little nun’s schoolgirl +mind? She would only make no end of a fuss about a mere bit of fun and +nonsense.” + +“I think if Wilfred Merrifield was afraid to meet his father, it showed a +sense of wrong.” + +“Sir Jasper is a horrid old martineau, who never gives them any peace at +home, but is always after them.” + +“A martinet, I suppose you mean. I don’t think that makes it any better. +I should not be happy till Magdalen knew.” + +“Why, no harm was done! There’s her precious machine all safe! It was +just for the fun of the thing, and to try how it goes. One can’t be kept +in like a blessed baby! She never has guessed it. That’s the fun of +it.” + +“I would not return her kindness in such an unladylike way when she is +trusting you, Vera.” + +Did Magdalen know what had been done? She did guess, for there was a +mark on the wheel that she did not remember to have known before, and it +cost her a bitter pang of mistrust; but she abstained from inquiries, +thinking that they might only do harm. But she bought a chain for her +bicycle; and Agatha felt more shame than did Vera, who tried to believe +herself amused by her tacit sense of emancipation. + + + + +CHAPTER X—FLOWN + + + “Till now thy soul hath been all glad and gay, + Bid it arise and look on grief to-day.” + + ADELAIDE PROCTOR. + +THERE was a Guild at St. Kenelm’s which was considered by the promoters +to be superior to the Girls’ Friendly Society, and which comprised about +a dozen young women, who attended classes held by Sister Beata, and +occasional modest entertainments given by Lady Flight. + +One of these was to take place the day before Miss Prescott’s garden +party. It was to be given at Carrara, the very pretty grounds on the top +of the cliff, belonging to Captain Henderson, the managing partner in the +extensive marble works of Mr. White, who lived at Rocca Marina, in the +Riviera. Mrs. Henderson had resided in Mr. Flight’s parish, and been a +member of his congregation, and while he was absent for a day or two she +had put her garden at the service of the Guild of St. Milburga’s for the +day. + +Of course Vera and Paula were delighted to assist; but Thekla was too +young for the amusements of grown-up maidens, and was much better pleased +to help her two elder sisters in preparations for the next day, placing +tennis nets, arranging croquet hoops, mustering chairs by the verandah, +and adorning tables with flowers. Agatha’s assistance was heartily +given, as making it her own concern, and, for that reason above all +others, it was a happy day, though a very tiring one, to Magdalen, in +spite of the sultry atmosphere and the sight of lurid-looking clouds over +the moors, which did not augur well for the next day’s weather, and +caused all the arrangement of chairs and rugs to be prudently broken up +and deposited under the verandah. + +This was done, and the evening meal had been taken, and Thekla had gone +to bed before some flashes of lightning made the two sisters wish to see +the other pair at home, especially as Vera was much afraid of lightning, +and Paula apt to be made quite ill by it. + +The storm rolled on, bringing violent gusts of wind and hail, though not +at the very nearest, and such a hurricane of wind and rain ensued that +the two watchers concluded that the two girls must have been housed for +the night by some of the friends at Rock Quay, and it was near midnight, +when just as they had gone to their rooms, a carriage was heard ascending +the hill, and they had reached the door before Paulina sprang out with +the cry, “Is she come home?” Then at sight of the blank faces of dismay, +she seized hold of Agatha’s hands and began to sob. Mr. Flight had +stepped out of the car at the same moment, and answered the incoherent +questions and exclamations. + +“Young Delrio offered to take photographs of the party, and that was the +last time she was seen.” + +“Yes,” sobbed Paula, “Sister Mena saw her there. We were trying to get +up croquet, and then I missed her. I tried to find her when the +lightning began, but I could not find her anywhere, though I looked in +all the summer-houses!” + +“At Mrs. Henderson’s? or Miss Mohun’s? or the Sisters’?” asked Magdalen, +catching alarm from each denial. “She might have gone home with one of +the girls.” + +“She would be wild in such a storm,” said Agatha, “and not know what she +was about.” + +“Sister Beata and I have gone to each house,” said Mr. Flight. + +“When did you say you saw her last?” + +“I saw her when we were grouped,” said Paula; “Sister Mena, when she was +helping him to put up his photos.” + +“The strange thing is,” said Mr. Flight, “though no doubt it will be +explained, that Delrio is missing too.” + +“Hubert Delrio!” exclaimed Agatha. “Impossible! He must have taken her +into the church to be out of the storm.” + +“We have tried,” said the clergyman. And as the round of suggestions +began to be despairingly reiterated, he said, hesitating, “Miss Mohun +told me that she thought she had seen a boat, Captain Henderson’s, she +believed, in the cave with some one rocking in it; and certainly that +little boat was there, when on the hope, if it can be called a hope, I +ran down the steps to look.” + +“Would it not have been put into the boathouse out of the rain?” said +Agatha. + +“The gardener was gone home, out of reach round the point, but we shall +know to-morrow.” + +“He thinks they may have rowed out and been caught in the storm,” cried +Paula, bursting into fresh weeping; and Magdalen saw the conjecture +confirmed by Mr. Flight’s countenance. + +“I am afraid it is the least distressing—the least unsatisfactory idea,” +said he, in much agitation. “I thought Mr. Delrio an excellent young +man; and she,” indicating his companion, “tells me you know him and his +family well.” + +“Oh, yes,” said Agatha and Magdalen in one breath. “We have known his +father all our lives. Nothing can be more respectable.” + +“And Hubert is as steady and good as possible,” continued Agatha. “His +mother used to come to Mrs. Best and praise him, till we were quite tired +of his name; I am sure he is all right.” + +“Or I should be much deceived in him,” said the clergyman. + +Yet there was an idea in Paulina’s mind. Could Vera have poured out such +an exaggerated tale of oppression and unhappiness as to have induced her +old playfellow to carry her off to his mother at Filsted? She had given +some such hint to Mr. Flight on the way; but he had not seemed to hear or +attend, and he was now promising to let the sisters know as soon as +possible in the morning whether anything had been discovered, and to +telegraph to Filsted and to the office in London if he should see +occasion. + +Then he drove off, in what would have been almost daylight but for the +pelting of the storm; and after a vain attempt to make Paula swallow some +nourishment, Magdalen thought it kinder to let Agatha carry her off to +bed, and then she confessed, what really gave a certain hope, that the +pair had been in the habit of murmuring against “sister” so much that, +considering poor Vera’s propensity to strong language, it was quite +possible that Hubert might think her cruelly oppressed, and for a freak +carry her off to his mother to be consoled. + +Agatha tried to believe it, for the sake of hushing the exhausted Paula, +who almost went into hysterics, as she laughed at the notion of +to-morrow’s telegram that Vera was safe at Filsted; and then allowed +herself to be calmed enough to sleep, while Agatha revolved the notion, +but found herself unable seriously to believe, that sufficient grievance +could be brought against sister to induce any man in his senses to take +such a step. But then Paula had inferred that he was a lover, and Agatha +did not know of what lovers might be capable, and she could not but blame +herself for not having given more importance to the semi-confidences of +her sisters on the first day of her arrival. It was all misery; and the +two poor girls could find no solace in the morning, save in talking to +Magdalen, though that involved the confession of all the murmurs against +her, the distrust of her kindness, and the explanation of the interviews, +which, as far as Paula had ever witnessed them, were absolutely harmless, +the only pity being in their concealment. + +Magdalen was manifestly as wretched as they, or even more so, being +convinced of her own shortcoming in not having won the affection or +confidence that would have made all open between them. She could not +understand why Hubert Delrio should not have been made known to her. + +“We thought,” said Paula, “we thought you might not think him +enough—enough—of a gentleman for your sort of society.” + +“I think you might have trusted me to know what was due to an old +friend,” said Magdalen “but, oh, I ought to have made you feel that we +could think together.” + +“Perhaps,” said Agatha, “there was a little consciousness on poor dear +Vera’s part that she did not want you to know the terms she was on.” + +They had tried only to let Thekla know that they were much alarmed +because Vera had gone out in a boat and not returned. It was observable +that, on the principle that where there is life there is hope, Paula +clung to the notion that Vera’s having fled to Filsted; while the two +elder sisters, perhaps because they better knew what such a flight might +seem to others, would almost have preferred to suppose there had been a +fatal accident in the midst of youthful, innocent sport. + +The two were lingering sadly over their uneaten breakfast, talking more +freely when they had sent Thekla to feed her pets, when Mr. Flight came +up on his bicycle; but it was plain at the first moment that he had no +good news. + +Nothing had been heard. It only appeared that one of the young gardeners +at Carrara had taken Captain Henderson’s boat without leave, to fetch one +of the girls, but on entering the cove had found the boathouse locked. +He had moored the boat to a stake for want of the ring that secured it +within. When the storm threatened he ran down to recover it, but it was +gone, and he had concluded that the gardeners had put it into the +boathouse. It now appeared that they had not seen it, and were very +angry at its having been meddled with. An oar had drifted up with the +morning tide, and had been recognised as belonging to the boat; but such +a gale was blowing that it was impossible to put out to sea or make any +search round the coast. Words could hardly describe the distress of Mr. +Flight or of his ladies at not having better looked after the young girl; +Sister Beata for never having thoroughly attended to the matter; and +Sister Mena for having accepted confidences which, if she had only +guessed it, told her more than there really was to be known. Both these +two were inclined to the elopement idea, partly because it was the least +shocking, and partly because they had looked at Vera’s grievances through +her own spectacles, and partly from their unlimited notions of young +men’s wickedness. Their vicar was not of the same opinion, knowing +Hubert better, and besides having found his work, his orders to his +subordinates, and the belongings at the lodgings in a state that showed +that whatever he had done had been unpremeditated. Sending off notes to +stop the garden party was a sort of occupation, broken by many signs, +much listening, and much sorrowful discussion, not quite vain, since it +made Paulina more one with Magdalen than ever before. Poor old Mr. +Delrio arrived in the afternoon, a thin, grey-haired and bearded old man, +who could only make it too certain that Paula’s theory of the innocent +flight to Filsted was impossible. Moreover, he was as certain as a +father could be, intimate with, and therefore confident of, his eldest +son, that though Hubert might indulge in a little lively flirtation, it +could never be otherwise than perfectly harmless. In the terrible +suspense and restlessness, he went vibrating about in the torrents of +moorland rain between Rock Quay and the Goyle, on the watch for telegrams +from the office in London or his wife at home, or for the discovery of +anything from the sea, or searching in his son’s lodgings, where nothing +was found that did not show him to have been a pure-hearted young man, +devoted to his art, and fond of poetry. Sundry compositions were in the +blotting-book, one, indeed, to Vera’s name, under the supposition (a +wrong one) {100} that it meant “true,” but mostly rough copies of a poem +about the Saints Julitta and her child Cyriac. Hope sank as another +stormy day rose; and still the poor old artist lingered in hopes of news +by some returning craft which might have picked up the derelict. His +chief comfort was in walking about between the showers with Magdalen, as +an old friend, and trying to think of the two as innocent creatures, +engulfed like mayflies in the stream. + +Sister Mena came over, wanting to join Paula in bewailing entreaties; but +Paula, in youthful hard-hearted wilfulness, declared that it was +impossible to see her; and it fell to Magdalen to try to discuss the +grief with her. + +It turned out that Mr. Flight had spoken severely to her and to the far +less implicated Sister Beata, declaring his confidence in them destroyed, +so that they had begun to consider of throwing up their work in his +parish. “And it was all my fault,” said Mena; “Sister Beata really knew +nothing, or hardly anything of what Vera told me.” + +“Indeed, I can quite understand that you had hardly experience enough to +know that it might be wiser not to encourage what was not quite open.” + +“But I thought,—I thought you—” + +“That I was unkind and unsympathising.” + +“Oh, you never could have been—” + +“Indeed I never meant to be, but I am afraid it seemed so to my young +sisters. I can quite see how you thought you were acting kindly.” + +“Oh, that is so good of you.” + +“And perhaps I, being only an elder sister, you would not feel that I was +the only authority the poor girls have to look to; and that it would have +been kinder to help them to be content with me.” + +“I did not know what you could be,” said Mena, greatly soothed and +surprised by her caresses. + +“We often do go on in ignorance, and get on a wrong tack; but you know +God pardons our mistakes, and I do believe that you will be wiser for all +this sorrow, and better able to rise to your work. I am sure, however it +ends, that is the reason that such blows are sent to us.” + +Mena went back sorrowful and chastened, but tenderly hopeful. If Miss +Prescott could forgive, surely Mr. Flight could, and One still greater. + + + + +CHAPTER XI—ADRIFT + + + “She splashed, and she dashed, and she turned herself round, + And heartily wished herself safe on the ground.” + + JANE TAYLOR. + +AND where were the missing pair? + +Vera had lingered about, fancying she was helping to pack the +photographic apparatus, while the others dispersed. Presently, seeing no +one near, Hubert Delrio said, in a gentle diffident voice, “It would be a +great pleasure to me if I might ask you to listen to the verses on St. +Cyriac and his mother that the design brought with it.” + +“I should love it better than anything,” said Vera, highly flattered. + +“If you would come down this way, there is a charming secluded cove, +where we should be free from interruption.” + +“How deliciously romantic! Quite stunning!” cried Vera, as her cavalier +conducted her down a steep path along the side of the cliff to the stony +beach, where a few red rocks had been manipulated into a tiny harbour, +with a boathouse for the little skiff in which Captain Henderson was wont +to go round to the marble works on the other side of the headland. The +boat looked very inviting as it lay swinging gently in the sluggish waves +in the advancing shade of the tall cliff; and Vera exclaimed with delight +as she was assisted into it, and placed herself comfortably on the +cushion, with one hand dabbling in the cool translucent wave. Hubert +Delrio opened his manuscript and began to read his ballad, if so it was +to be called, being the history of the little boy of four years old, who, +being taken with his mother before the tribunal at Tarsus, was lifted on +the proprætor’s knee, but struggled, crying out, “I am a Christian!” till +the proprætor, in a rage, hurled him down. His skull was fractured on +the marble pavement, and his mother gave thanks for his soul’s safety, +when she too was sentenced to be beheaded. Great pains had been taken +with the noble-minded tale; and the verses had considerable merit, more, +perhaps, than Vera could appreciate. But to read such a production of +his own, in such surroundings, to the auditor whom youthful fancy most +preferred, was such luxury to both that it was no wonder that under the +broad shady hat with the lily wreath she was nodding in the gentle +breeze, the lapping of the waves, and the soft cadence of the poetry, +till at an effective passage on the mother’s death, the poet looked up, +expecting to receive a responsive glance from those blue eyes. + +Not only were they hidden, but the cliff was farther off. The mooring +rope and the stake were dragging behind in the water. The tide had +turned, and the boat was already out of reach of the rock where it had +been drawn up. His exclamation of dismay awoke Vera, who would have +started up with a little shriek, but for his, “Don’t! Don’t! I’ll row +back.” + +But he was a landsman, whose only knowledge of the water was in an +occasional bathe, or in a river steamer; and his first attempt at placing +the oars in the rowlocks resulted in one falling overboard, while he +helplessly grasped the other; and Vera screamed again. + +“Don’t be frightened, my dear! Dearest, don’t! We must be seen. Some +one will come out and help us.” + +“Can’t you get on with one oar? They do in pictures.” + +“Punting? Yes, but there must be a bottom. No, don’t move, whatever you +do. There can’t be any danger. Fishermen must be about. Or we shall be +seen from the cliffs.” + +“They are getting farther off! Can’t you shout?” + +Hubert shouted, and Vera added her shriller cries; but all in vain, and +the outgoing tide was carrying them, not towards the quay and marble +rocks, but farther to sea. The waves grew rougher and had crests of +foam, and discomfort began. Once the feather of a steamer was seen on +the horizon. They waved handkerchiefs and redoubled their shouts, and +Hubert had to hold his companion to prevent her from leaping up; but they +never were within the vessel’s ken, and she went on her way, while the +sea bore them farther and farther. + +The shore was growing dim and indistinct, the sun was sinking, and the +cloud, that had at first shown only a golden border, was lifting tall +perpendicular masses, while the tossing of the little boat became more +and more distressing. Anxiety and sense of responsibility kept Hubert +from feeling physical discomfort; but Vera began to cry, and to declare +that it would be the death of her if she were not landed immediately. + +“If it were only possible!” sighed Delrio. + +“There must be some way! You are so stupid! Oh! There was a flash of +lightning.” + +“Summer lightning.” + +“No such thing! There will be a storm, and we shall be drowned. Oh, I +wish I had never listened to your nonsense, and got into this horrible +boat.” She was in a state for scolding, and scold she did, as the clouds +rose higher, and sheets of lightning more decided. “How could you? You, +who know nothing about boats, and going on, on, with those horrid +tiresome verses—not minding anything—I wish I had never come near you!” + +Vainly the poor young fellow tried to get in a word of consolation; it +only made her scold the more, till there was no question that the storm +was raging overhead; the hail rattled and splashed, the waves raised them +to a height, then subsided into endless depths; the thunder pealed, and +she clung to Hubert, too frightened for screaming. His fear was that the +cockleshell of a boat should fill and founder; he tried to bale out the +water with his hat, and to make her assist, but she seemed incapable, and +he could only devise laying her down in the bottom of the boat with his +coat over her, hiding her face in terror. Her hat had long ago been +blown away, and her hair was flapping about. Ejaculations were in his +heart, if not on his lips, and once or twice she cried out something +like, “Save me!” but in general it was, “We are sinking! Hold me! We +are going! Paula! Nag!” clutching at his legs, so as to hamper him in +the baling out the water. + +The hail passed, but there was a solid sheet of rain descending on them, +undistinguishable from the foam that rushed over them as they went down, +down, down. Vera was silenced; and Hubert, drenched and nearly beaten +out of life, almost welcomed every downward plunge as the last, tried to +commend his spirit, and was amazed to find his little boat lifted up +again, and the black darkness not so absolute. + + + + +CHAPTER XII—“THE KITTIWAKE” + + + “Good luck to your fishing! Whom watch ye to-night? + A man of mean, or a man of might?”—SCOTT. + +SOMETHING black was before the tossed boat! Yes, and light, not +lightning. A human voice seemed to be on the blast. Hubert Delrio +essayed to shout, but his voice was gone, or was blown away. He +understood that a vessel must be above him. Would it finish all by +running him down? He perceived that he was bidden to catch something. A +rope! His benumbed hands and the heaving of the boat made him fail once, +twice, and he was being swept away as at last he did grasp a rope, and +was drawn, as it ground his hands, close to the dark wall that rose +above, with lights visible. + +“Cheer up! cheer up!” he cried to Vera. “Thank God, we are saved!” + +Response from her there was none; but he could hear the yell of inquiry +from ahead, and answered, “Here! Two! A woman!” + +A second rope was lowered. “Lash her to it.” But as it was evident that +Delrio could do nothing but hold on, and that his companion was helpless, +a sailor descended from no great elevation, and, in another moment, the +senseless girl was hoisted up and received on deck; and, with some +assistance, Hubert was also on board, thinking of nothing but the +breathless question, “Is she safe?” + +“Oh, yes! She will soon come round! Here! They will see to her.” As +she was carried away, and Hubert had a perception that she was received +by female hands, but he was utterly exhausted, and unable to see or +speak, till some stimulant had been poured down his throat, and even then +he could hardly ask, “Is she safe? + +“Yes, yes! All right! Reviving fast! Here! Take some more! Bed is +ready! Get rid of those clothes!” It was an elderly, grey-haired man +who spoke, and Hubert was in no condition to resist, as the yacht was +pitching considerably, though after the boat the motion was almost rest. +He instinctively shook his head at the glass, but swallowed what was +forced upon him, and managed to say, “Thanks—sitting in boat—drifted +off—Rock Quay.” + +“All right! Never mind. Take him down. My berth, Ivy—Jephson. Tuck +him in. Don’t let him speak! Never mind, my lad! We will hear all +about it to-morrow!” + +Meantime, Vera, though reviving, was conscious of very little, save a +soft pillow, tender hands, and warm drink that choked her; and then she +fell asleep, though still she was aware of a strange tossing going on all +night, and by and by she found herself secured into a sort of narrow +shelf, and murmuring female voices were at hand. As she moved, she +heard, “There, you are better now. You can take this, then you will be +more comfortable.” + +Her eyes had opened to a curious sort of twilight, and there was a fair +girlish head over her, with a sweet smiling face. An elderly +weather-beaten face in a hood next appeared, and a brown hand holding a +cup closed over the top, in invalid fashion, and a kind strong arm +slightly raised her with, “There, there, poor dear! The spirit, my lady +dear, the spirit! That’s right, now then.” + +“You _must_ be a baby;” and a merry reassuring smile broke out as the +draught was administered. Vera tasted, thanked, swallowed, felt giddy, +and lay down, hearing a lively bit of self-gratulation. “There, Mrs. +Griggs, I’m getting my sea legs!” followed by an ignominious stumble as +Mrs. Griggs caught the cup in good time as the vessel gave a lurch which +completed Vera’s awakening in the fear of being shaken out on the floor. + +She looked round to find herself in a tiny room, cushioned throughout, +with strange dancing confused light coming in, and the few articles of +furniture carefully secured. Two young figures were there, both dressed +in stout blue serge, with white trimmings; one, the darker, beside her +bed, had a face full of kindness and solicitude, yet of fun dimpling over +continually; the other, even in that dim light, striking Vera as +something out of the loveliest visions of romance, so fair and beautiful +was the countenance. + +A man’s voice was at the door. “Fly! Francie! How is she?” + +“Much better! Nearly well! Good morning, Papa dear. Is he all right?” + +“As sound as a bell! Ha!” As the door escaped, the curtain over it +shook, and he nearly fell against it, saving himself with his hands. +“That was exercise!” As the young girls came tumbling up and disappeared +behind the curtain, where, however, the voices could be plainly heard, +“Had any sleep to-night or this morning?” + +“Between whiles! O yes! All our bones are still whole, as I hope yours +and Ivy’s are.” + +“Come and see. Griggs is getting breakfast under difficulties +insurmountable to any one but a sea-grasshopper! I came to call you +damsels, and present my inquiries to Miss Prescott.” + +“She will soon be all right! Francie and I are so proud of having had a +real downright adventure.” + +“I trust she will not be the worse, and will—excuse me, and regard me as +incognito.” + +This was said as another lurch drove the grizzled head into the cabin; +and recovering in another upheaval they all disappeared, leaving Vera in +a dreaming state, whence she was only half roused when Mrs. Griggs +returned to administer breakfast, so far as she could taste it, under +exhortations, pettings, and scoldings; and she very soon fell asleep +again, and was thus left, sensible all the time of tossings and +buffetings, but so worn out by the five hours of the boat, and so liable +to be made ill by the motion of the vessel, that it was thought best to +leave her to sleep in her berth. + +She was only aware of voices above talking and laughing, or sailor calls +being shouted out, or now and then of some one coming to look at her, and +insisting on her taking food. + +It was not till late in the afternoon that she awoke from what seemed +like a strange long uneasy dream, and found one of the girls sitting by +her and telling her she was better now. + +“Yes,” said Vera, trying to raise herself, finding something over her +head, and falling back on the pillow; “but what is it? Where is this?” + +“_This_ is somewhere out in the Channel, near off Guernsey, Griggs says, +but we cannot put in anywhere till the gale goes down.” + +“What is it? Is it a ship, then?” + +“O yes,” said the girl, laughing; “a yacht, the _Kittiwake_. Sir Robert +Audley has lent it to my brother, and we are all going to see the +Hebrides and Staffa and Iona.” + +“Not to take me all up there?” groaned poor Vera, in horror. “Can’t you +put me out somewhere, anywhere?” + +“Don’t be afraid,” was the much-amused reply. “As soon as ever we can +put in anywhere, we can telegraph to Rock Quay and put you ashore to go +home; but we can only run before the wind while the sea is so high. I +wish you could come on deck, it is so jolly!” + +“Oh! it was too dreadful!” + +“Beating about in the boat! It must have been, Mr. Delrio told us.” + +“It was so stupid in him never to see that we had got loose, and were +drifting off,” said Vera, who had never thought of inquiring after him. + +“My father and Griggs think he behaved quite like a hero,” was the +answer. “He must have managed very well to keep you afloat, and saved +you all this time.” + +“I suppose so,” said Vera. “We always did know him, or I should not have +let him get me into that boat, when he minded nothing but his verses.” + +“Those verses, they came all limp and wet out of his pocket, and Francie +made him let her dry them and copy them out; and she is so delighted with +them. It really is well it is too late to call the baby Cyriac.” + +“The baby?” + +“Oh, yes. We had to leave him behind, though Francie was ready to break +her heart over it; but they said that nothing would do for Ivinghoe—after +this second influenza—but a sea voyage, so she had to make up her mind to +leave him to my mother.” + +Vera was in a state of bewilderment, caring a great deal more for herself +and her own sensations than for any of her surroundings; and her next +question was, “When do you think we shall be out of this?” + +“We shall put into harbour somewhere as soon as the wind lulls. We +cannot venture yet, though we do steam; and then we can telegraph. I am +longing to relieve Miss Prescott. We can take you home all the way. We +were on our way into Rock Quay to take up Mysie Merrifield if she can go. +It really was a wonderful and most merciful thing that we made you out +just as it was getting light before running you down. My father saw you +first, and old Griggs would hardly believe it, but then we heard Mr. +Delrio’s hail! But it was a terrible business getting you up the ship’s +side.” + +“I did not know anything about it. It was so dreadful in the lightning. +And my new hat was blown away. And what is become of all my clothes?” + +“Mrs. Griggs has them, and is drying them. We will lend you a hat to +land in.” + +“Oh, when we do! I wish I had never got into that boat, but Hubert +Delrio did persuade me so.” + +“And he is an old friend?” + +“Yes, he is come to paint the roof of St. Kenelm’s Church, and we want to +be attentive to him because my eldest sister would be sure to be cross +and keep him at a distance, being only that sort of wall painter, you +know, and his father a drawing master.” + +“My father is very much pleased with him, and thinks him a very superior +young man. They have been sitting on deck together, talking as much as +they could about architecture and Italy, with their breath all blown away +every moment. There! You are really getting better! If you would eat +something and come on deck you would be well! I will call the sea gnat, +and see what we have.” + +It was all very wonderful to Vera; and she began to be interested and to +forget her troubles. A slice of very salt ham was brought to her and a +glass of something, she did not know what, and asked if she could have +some tea. + +“You could have tea if you like, but there’s no milk. You see, we ought +to have been in at Rock Quay yesterday evening, and our stores were not +adapted to hold out any longer! We shall have another curious +experience, though Mrs. Griggs says it won’t be so bad as once when they +were off the coast of Ireland, and when they put into a bay with a queer +name, all Kill and Bally, they could get nothing but potatoes and goat’s +milk.” + +“Who is Mrs. Griggs?” + +“She is wife to the sailing master; and, like the Norsemen, her home is +on the wave, at least in the yacht, for she always lives in it, and her +cabin is quite a sight; she is great fun, she cooks when there is +anything to cook, and is stewardess and everything. Francie and I knew a +maid would be a vain encumbrance, so we are taking care of ourselves, +and, if you will let me, I will try and set your hair to rights.” + +It was in a fearful tangle, after five hours at sea, and many more in the +berth in the cabin; but Vera was able to sit up in a dainty +dressing-gown, and submit to treatment not quite that of a hairdresser, +but made as lively as could be by little jokes and kindly apologies at +any extra hard pull at the knots, which really seemed “as if a witch had +twined them;” and the two began to feel well acquainted with each other +over the operation, though Vera was somewhat impressed when she observed +that the brush was ivory handled. + +Her bicycling skirt was in tolerable condition, but her once delicate +blue blouse was past renovation, so she was invested with a borrowed +white one, and led in triumph to the saloon, just as the beautiful +“Francie” came to call “Phyllis,” and give a helping hand. There were +two gentlemen besides Hubert Delrio, and there was a general rejoicing +welcome; but Vera did not think Hubert made half enough inquiries or +apologies, before she was seated at the table, where everything was +secured, and the fare was not very sumptuous or various, being chiefly +some concoction of rice and scraps of salt beef, which Francie said was a +shame, eating up the poor sailors’ fare; also there was potted meat, and +cheese, but all the fresh bread was gone, and they praised Mrs. Griggs’ +construction of ham and rice with all the warmth and drollery each could +contribute. Vera began to be puzzled as to who every one was, for no +names except Phyl, Fly, Francie and Ivy were heard, and the merry +grey-haired head of the family was “Father” or “Papa” to every one, +except of course Mr. Delrio, who, however, seemed at his ease, and took a +fair share in the talk, and once or twice Vera thought he said, “my +lord,” but she did not believe it. + +“I find you are a friend of a special pet of mine, Mysie Merrifield,” +said the father. + +“I know her a little,” stammered Vera, “but Primrose best.” + +“Nearer your age, eh? But Mysie is our gem! It looks fit for going on +deck.” + +After the apology for a dinner, the young married pair went their way, he +to endeavour to add a fish to their provisions, she to look on; the +father and Delrio went where the latter could best study the wonderful +tints of sunset over the purple retreating clouds, and the still agitated +foaming sea,—sights that seemed to be filling him with enchantment, and +revealing effects in colour, while his delight was evidently a new +pleasure to his companion. + +Vera was afraid to move, and sat on a deck chair, with her back to the +sunset, while Phyllis, who perhaps would have liked to share in the +admiration, sat by her, so that Vera began to accept her as a special +friend, and to pour out the explanation of how she came to be tossing in +an open boat with this one companion. + +“You see, poor fellow,” she said, simpering, “he has been always so +devoted to me. Everybody observed it, and I could not help just +gratifying him a little.” + +“He does seem to be very full of promise,” said Phyllis. “I suppose Miss +Prescott is much pleased with him.” + +“My sister Magdalen, do you mean? Well, we have not introduced him to +her yet. You see, he is _only_ painting the church, and she is so +devoted to swells, and makes such a fuss about our manners.” + +“Indeed! But surely you could not go out with him without her knowing +it.” + +“She was not at this St. Milburgha’s Guild, you know, and Sisters Beata +and Mena knew all about it. Oh, yes, she lets us go to them at St. +Kenelm’s, but they are not swells enough for her.” + +“Mr. Flight’s Sisterhood, are not they?” + +“And Primrose Merrifield says that Wilfred declares that they are not +ladies; but that’s all jealousy, you know, because Will doesn’t like my +friends, and Magdalen is altogether gone upon grandees.” + +“Fancy!” was all that Phyllis managed to say. + +“She doesn’t want us to be friends with anybody who don’t belong to some +one with a handle to her name. So foolish and stuck up! So we knew she +would not be kind to Hubert.” + +“I think you had better have tried. I thought her one of the kindest +people in the world.” + +“Ah! but, you know, unfortunately she has been a governess, and that +teaches toadying.” + +At that moment “Phyl” was called to see the first star over the sea, and +ran up to her father, so as to conceal how nearly she was laughing. +Hubert Delrio came towards Vera. + +“Can you forgive me, Vera?” he said. “I shall speak to your sister as +soon as I am at home, and ask her forgiveness, and—” + +“Oh, yes! yes! But do tell me who these people are.” + +“Did you not know? That most kind of men, is Lord Rotherwood. Those are +Lord and Lady Ivinghoe, and—” + +“Lady Phyllis! Oh!” + + + + +CHAPTER XIII—CHIMERAS DIRE + + + “Qu’allait-il faire dans cette galère?” + + FRENCH COMEDY. + +VERA’S first thorough awakening the next morning was to hear outside the +door, “Are you up, Fly?” + +“I shall be in a minute or two. Do you want me?” + +“You are a dab at _parlez-vous_. I want you to come ashore with me and +cater for the starving crew.” + +“What fun! Anon, anon, Sir!” + +Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady Phyllis’ cabin, +and that the proper owner was dressing herself in haste before the little +shelf of a toilette table. So great had been the confusion of last +night’s discovery that the poor silly child had only thought of hurrying +out of sight and tumbling into bed without speaking to any one, and she +had not distinctly known, when Lady Phyllis came down a good deal later +and disposed of herself on the sofa, that Mrs. Griggs had made ready for +her. And now the only thing she could think of was to say, “Oh! Lady +Phyllis, I didn’t know.” + +“Take care! Don’t knock your head! We ought to have remembered that +Boreas, or whichever it was, was hardly a sufficient introduction. Are +you all right now? You had better go to sleep again till I bring +something to eat. We are lying to off some little Breton fishing +village, and I am going with my brother to get some provisions, and +telegraph if we can.” + +It was long before they came back. Vera had another nap, dressed +herself, grew very hungry, and came out to find Lord Rotherwood fishing, +and his daughter-in-law watching for the boat to put out from the white +houses with grey roofs, which, clustered round their church-tower, seemed +descending to the water’s edge. They were equally famished, though Mrs. +Griggs stewed up the poor remnants of last night’s banquet; but at last +the little boat appeared, gaily dancing over the waves, and Phyllis +making signals of success. + +“Oh, yes, you may be thankful, you poor starving beings! Here, Mrs. +Griggs! Accept, and do all you can! Here are eggs, and some milk and +fresh water, four _poulets_, such as they are, and a huge monster of a +crab; but all the bread is leavened, and you little guess what Ivy and I +had to go through before we were allowed to buy anything. We were had up +to the Mayor, and had to _constater_ all manner of things about our ship, +to prove that we were no smugglers.” + +“I thought the fat old rogue would have come out to visit the yacht +before he would have allowed us a morsel,” said Lord Ivinghoe. + +“In which case you might have been found a skeleton, father, like Sir +Hugh Willoughby! And as to our telegrams, they won’t go till the +diligence gets to St. Malo, and what they will make of them there is +another question. I did not dare to send more than one, for fear they +should get mixed up.” + +Vera heard the joyous chaff as it fluttered round her, not half +understanding it any more than if it had been a strange tongue, and not +always guessing the cause of the fits of laughter, chiefly at Lord +Ivinghoe’s misadventures, over which his little sister and his father +were well pleased to tease his correctness, and his young wife looked a +little hurt at his being tormented. He could not remember that +_braconnier_ was a poacher by land, not by sea, and very unnecessarily +disclaimed to the Maire being such a thing. His father, he said, “was +_gentilhomme anglais en_—what’s a yacht?—_yac_. (Nonsense! that’s a +long-haired ox. No!) _Non point contrabandiste_, _mais galérien dans +galère_.” “And there I interposed,” said Phyllis, “for fear we should be +boarded as escaped _galériens_.” + +“Why, galley was a pleasure-boat sometimes,” said Ivinghoe, and his wife +supported him with “Cleopatra’s galley.” + +“Well done, Francie! To your oars for Ivy’s defence,” said Lord +Rotherwood. “How did you defend us, Fly, from being towed into harbour +at Brest as runaway convicts?” + +“She gabbled away most eloquently to the Maire, almost as fluently as a +born French-woman,” said Ivinghoe, “and persuaded him at last that it was +not necessary to come on board to inspect us, nor even to detain us till +he had sent for instructions to St. Malo.” + +“As Ivy managed matters, I thought we might be kept as hostages,” said +Phyllis. + +“But, thanks to her blandishments, the solemn official vouchsafed to send +off a messenger for us with a telegram.” + +“I do not think he sent directions to pursue our suspicious _galère_,” +added Phyllis; “but I own I shall be glad to be under the lee of old +England again.” + +“What was your telegram?” + +“Brevity was safest, nor had we money enough for two; so all I attempted +was, ‘Delrio to Flight, Rock Quay. Both safe. Picked up by +_Kittiwake_.’ I thought that would be the quickest means of relieving +anxiety, as we were not sure of other addresses; and as to ‘home,’ Mamma +probably hardly was aware of the storm, or, if she were, she knew the +capabilities of yachts and of Griggs.” + +“Right!” returned his father. “Poor Miss Prescott! she must have given +you up for lost. Have you been improving your mind with French +telegrams?” he added, turning to Delrio. + +“No, my lord, I found my way to the church, a wonderful piece of old +Norman!—if it may so be called.” + +“I see you have been sketching.” + +Griggs here interposed with tidings that eggs and coffee were ready in +the saloon, the worthy pair having had respect to the general famine, and +prepared what could be made ready in haste. Those who had eaten ashore +sat by, making an amusing account of their reception, and difficulties +with language and peasants, for, this not being an ordinary place of +call, nothing was ready for sale. + +Vera, finding herself for the first time in distinguished company, which +desired to set her at ease, began to be at ease, and to desire to shine, +so she giggled whenever she perceived the slightest excuse, even when +Lord Ivinghoe handed her the eggs, and, hoped she had not too British an +appetite for French eggs; and Lady Ivinghoe asked if she had seen the +fowls, and whether their feathers were ruffled up like a hen’s that had +been given to Aunt Cherry. Her little sister Joan, she added, had asked +whether eating the eggs would make her hair curl. + +“Or stand on end,” said Phyllis. + +“As I am afraid Miss Prescott’s is doing till your telegram reaches her. +Did you say it was to go from St. Malo?” + +“Yes. I thought that the safest place to have a comprehensible message +copied.” + +“To whom did you say?” asked Lady Ivinghoe. + +“‘Delrio to Flight.’ Oh, they will know his name and address fast enough +when it gets to Rock Quay.” + +“He is the clergyman at St. Kenelm’s,” put in Vera, in explanation; “very +very advanced Ritualist, you know.” + +“Indeed!” was the answer. + +“Oh, yes, that he is. My sister Polly is perfectly devoted to him; but +we don’t go to his church, except now and then, because my eldest sister +is just one of those very old-fashioned people, you know, who want +everything horrid and dull.” + +“That is hardly what our cousins think of Miss Prescott,” said Phyllis. +“I am so sorry for her anxiety! But I was not sure of the name of her +place.” + +“The Goyle! Isn’t it frightful?” said Vera. + +“You say she was unprepared for your adventure?” + +“Oh, yes, quite. Her notions are so dreadfully proper and old fashioned. +She hasn’t got any sympathy, has she, Hubert?” + +“I don’t know,” he said gravely. “I have always had the greatest respect +for her.” + +“Respect! So you ought. That’s just the thing one has for a slow dear +old fogey,” she said, laughing, “Oh, Hubert!” There was a silence, and +Lord Rotherwood made an observation upon the wind. + +Vera perceived an awkwardness, and, by way of repairing it, afterwards +thought it expedient to communicate to Lady Phyllis that it might be a +pity she had said “Hubert.” It was so awkward, only he was such an old +acquaintance. + +“I should have thought the awkwardness was incurred long ago,” said Lady +Phyllis. “Come, you will have no more concealments from Miss Prescott, +will you? You will be ever so much more comfortable, and find out how +kind she is.” + +“Oh, but!—” Vera wanted to talk over all her grievances for the pleasure +of talking, saying very much what she had said before, and Phyllis tried +to endure and put in as much sense as she could, without lecturing the +girl, who struck her as the very silliest she had ever encountered; but +she was continually called off to admire the receding French coast, or to +look at the creatures brought up by dredging. She always took care to +call Vera, and not let her feel herself left out; but Vera, if in +solitude for a moment, reflected on the neglect shown of little people by +great ones; and when called up to see uncanny slimy creatures, or even +transparent balls like watery umbrellas, only was disgusted and +horrified. + +She began to guess, rather truly, that Lady Phyllis wanted to hinder a +_tête-à-tête_ between her and Hubert Delrio. In fact, Lord Rotherwood, +who was much more of a sympathetic, confidence-inviting personage than +his stiffer, much older seeming son, had said to his daughter, “Don’t let +that poor lad and the girl get together alone, Fly; the boy thinks he is +bound to make her an offer.” + +“Oh, father! Surely not!” + +“No more than if they had been two babies in a walnut shell. So I told +him, but people don’t see what infants they are themselves, and I want to +hinder him from putting his foot in it before he has seen her +aunt—cousin—sister, or whoever it is that has the charge of her; and she +has depicted to him a Gorgon, with Medusa’s hair, claws and all—a fancy +sketch, isn’t it?” + +“Of course, sentimental schoolgirl colours! Mysie thinks her +delightful.” + +“At any rate, let him get a dose of common sense before committing +himself. He is a capital fellow, sure to rise; has the soul and head and +hands for it, but he ought not to weight himself with a drag.” + +“Do you think he is really in love with her?” + +Lord Rotherwood waved his hands. “He thinks so, but nobody knows with +those boys! I had to tell him at last that I would not have any +philandering on board _my_ ship; and whatever he might think it his duty +to say, must be put off for aunt—sister—Gorgon—Medusa or what not. And I +don’t think he’s very bad, Fly, for he modestly asked permission to +sketch Francie’s head for St. Mildred, or Milburg, or somebody; and was +ready to run crazy about the tints on that dogfish. The young fellow is +in the queerest state between the artist and the lover! delight and +shame! I should like to take him north with us; the colours of the +cliffs in the Isles would soon drive out Miss Victoria—what’s her name?” + +“You don’t think him like Stephen in the _Mill on the Floss_, who ought +to have married Maggie Tulliver.” + +“I believe that is his precedent—but it is sheer stuff—pure accident—as a +respectable old householder like me is ready to testify to the Gorgons +and Chimeras dire—Grundys and all. We must encounter Rock Quay, Fly, if +it is only to rescue this unlucky youth.” + +“What is he doing now? Oh, I see; drawing Francie, who sits as stiff as +a Saint of Burne-Jones! Well, I’ll have an eye to them! Vera! Have you +finished _Rudder Grange_?” + +“Not quite. I can’t make out who Lord Edward was.” + +“Why, the big dog! Did you think he was Pomona’s hero?” + +“I don’t know. Wasn’t Pomona very silly?” + +“If life was to be taken from story-books,” said Phyllis, in a very +didactic mood; “but you see she imbibed the best side, what they really +taught her of good.” + +“I thought, when you gave me the book, it was to be an adventure like +mine, not all standing still in an old river. What do you think Hubert +Delrio ought to do after persuading me into such an awful predicament?” + +“Tell your sister he is very sorry that you two foolish children got into +such a scrape, and very thankful that you were saved.” + +“We are very thankful to Lord Rotherwood.” + +“I didn’t mean to him. To some One else,” said Phyllis, reverently. + +“Oh, of course,” said Vera. “But what _do_ you think, Lady Phyllis?” +(Since her discovery of the title she made a liberal use of it.) “What +do you think people will say?” + +“That a little girl has had a dangerous adventure and a happy escape.” + +“I am seventeen, Lady Phyllis!” + +“One is nothing like grown up at seventeen! I declare there’s a big +steamer coming into sight. I wonder if it belongs to the Channel Fleet!” + +Nothing more sentimental could be extracted for the rest of the voyage. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV—PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED + + + “I marry without more ado, + My dear Dick Red Cap, what say you?” + + COWPER. + +THE telegram had been received about mid-day; and Mr. Flight rushed up +with it to the Goyle, just in time to prevent poor old Mr. Delrio from +starting hopelessly home. It had suffered a good deal in spelling and +precision, in spite of Lady Phyllis’s precautions; but “both safe” was +understood, as it was known in Rock Quay that “Lord Rotherwood and +family,” as the papers had it, were yachting in the _Kittiwake_ and might +be expected in the bay. + +Agatha and Paula threw their arms round one another and cried; Magdalen, +with a choke in her voice, struggled to ask Mr. Flight to lead them in a +few words of thanksgiving; and as soon as these were over, Thekla +expressed her hopes that they had been cast on a desert island and would +bring home Man Friday. + +The Goyle ladies walked over to Clipstone with the good news, and the +whole party went down afterwards to Rockstone to look out for yachts, and +inquire about possibilities. The _Kittiwake_ being a steamer, light and +swift, might be expected in harbour in the course of the night, and Mr. +Delrio meant to wait for her at his son’s lodgings. The ladies wished +they could do the same; and Paula was allowed to accept Sister Beata’s +humble entreaty to house her. But they did not know how long before the +telegraph from St. Malo the _Kittiwake_ from St. Cadoc had spread her +wings and hoisted her feather, for, happily, her coals had held out +better than her provisions. So, as they were looking their last look +from the cliffs of Beechcroft Miss Mohun exclaimed, “A steamer! a yacht! +_Kittiwake_!” + +Glasses were rushed for, and unaccustomed eyes could trace the graceful +course through the gentle evening waves towards the quay. + +Every one was on the quay in time to receive the boat, which, rowed by +four smart sailors, was seen with the party of six, two sailor hats, and +one red cap being at once spied out among the female figures. Then two +hats were waved and answered by cheers of welcome; and the figures were +recognised, and unnecessarily numerous hands stretched out to assist the +landing from the plank extended to the boat. + +Vera was put first by her kind rescuers, Lord Rotherwood’s hand guiding +her to the rail, and, after an insecure step or so, she found herself in +the arms of Paulina, sobbing for joy; and the little cluster of sisters +seemed to know nothing else, except Thekla, who presently, in the +confusion of the greetings, was found by Lord Rotherwood looking about +vaguely, and saying, “But where’s their man Friday?” + +“You must accept me for him,” said he. “’Tis Friday, unless we have lost +our reckoning! I hope you think me something promising in the way of +savages!” + +Young Delrio’s first proceeding, even while his father was wringing his +hand in speechless welcome and thankfulness, was to turn to Captain +Henderson. “Sir, your boat is safe, it will be brought in to-morrow. I +am much concerned, and beg your forgiveness, but I had no idea that it +was yours till Griggs found your name. Only one oar is lost, and a +cushion, which I will replace.” + +“Say no more, pray,” said Captain Henderson. “The fault was my +servant’s, who took it without leave, and left it out. He must repair +the very slight damage.” + +Miss Mohun wanted the whole troop to come up to Beechcroft to drink tea, +and her relations consented; but the hearts of the Prescotts were a great +deal too full for them not to wish to be alone together; and after +Magdalen had given her hand to Lord Rotherwood with a fervent, “You know +what I would say, my lord—beyond all words,” they turned homewards; but +Mr. Flight ran after them to say in a low voice, “Can we meet to-morrow +at eight for a service of thanksgiving?” And this was gladly accepted. + +Hubert was dragged off by his father. + +“Nonsense! they don’t want your apologies and explanations. It would +only be besetting them. Come home with me, and don’t be a fool! But +write a few lines to your poor mother, after the intolerable fright you +have given her; meddling and presuming where you had no business. A +Providence it is that you are not half across the Atlantic, if not at the +bottom of it.” + +Of course this was the reaction of great anxiety; but however meekly +Hubert submitted to the queer outpouring of affection, and however +thankful they both were, and glad and content over the particulars of the +youth’s work and progress, still he was not to be withheld from laying +hand and heart at Vera Prescott’s feet, as he insisted was due to her and +her family after the compromising situation in which he had placed her. +His father said it was talking novels and folly; but he was a man of +three and twenty, and could not well be stopped, as he was earning his +own livelihood, and had always been irreproachable. So Mr. Delrio had to +leave the matter, only expressing discouragement, and insisting that it +must be no more than an engagement. + +The thanksgiving took place as arranged, and Lord Rotherwood, his +daughter, and Mysie were there. For indeed there had been danger enough +during the thunderstorm to make the safety of the _Kittiwake_ a matter of +thankfulness, though the rescue of the boat had caused it to be almost +forgotten in the history of the night. + +Lady Flight had begged that all would come to breakfast with her, and +this was accepted by the Goyle party; but the Clipstone pony-carriage was +waiting for the others, and they could not accede to Lady Flight’s +impromptu, and rather nervous, invitation. But before they started Lord +Rotherwood managed to say a few words aside to Miss Prescott of the +impression he had divined from his voyage with Hubert Delrio, whom he +thought a young man of great ability and promise, and of excellent +principles, but with a chivalry it was quite refreshing to see in youth, +perhaps ready to strain honourable scruples almost too far for his own +good or that of others. + +Magdalen thought she perceived what had been in the marquis’s mind when, +immediately after her return home, Hubert and Vera came up, hand in hand, +and he informed her of their mutual attachment. + +“I am afraid, Miss Prescott,” he said, “that we may not have acted +rightly or squarely by you; and this last adventure was a most unhappy +result of my careless awkwardness and preoccupation.” + +“It was the merest accident. We all quite understand. It is not to be +thought of.” + +“You are very good to say so, but—” + +Both he and Magdalen wished that Vera had not been present, blushing and +smiling, or rather simpering; and as Hubert hesitated over his “but,” +Magdalen said: + +“Vera, my dear, Hubert and I can talk over this better without you. You +had better go and find Paula.” + +“Only, sister, please do understand that I care for Hubert with all my +heart,” said Vera, much less childishly than Magdalen had expected. + +However, she went, while Magdalen succeeded in saying what she had +intended—that Hubert must not consider himself in the smallest degree +bound by what had been accident, entirely unintentional and innocent. + +“You are generous, Miss Prescott. You understand! But the world! It +was public.” + +“Never mind the world. You see what sensible people think.” + +“But, indeed, Miss Prescott, I cannot leave you to suppose I am only +actuated by the fact of that awkward situation. Of course that would +never have been if I did not deeply, entirely love your sister. It has +only precipitated matters. I entreat of you to give her to me, as one +who is—who is devoted to her! If my station is inferior I will work—” + +“That is not the point. Vera is too young for such things. What does +your father say?” + +“My father sees that I am right.” + +“I see what that means,” said Magdalen, smiling. “But where is he? I +should like to talk to him.” + +Mr. Delrio, pretty well knowing what was going on, was found endeavouring +to distract his mind by sketching the Goyle. He and Magdalen walked up +and down the drive together, perfectly agreeing that it would be +senseless cruelty to permit an early marriage between these two young +people, and that it was a pity there should be an engagement; but this +could hardly be prevented, since Mr. Delrio could only give advice, and +leave a self-supporting worthy son to judge for himself; but the elder +sister and the trustee could stipulate for delay till Vera should be of +age. + +So Hubert was called, and acquiesced, cheerfully observing that he +trusted that four years would make him able to render Vera’s life an easy +and pleasant one; and after heartily thanking both Miss Prescott and his +father, he went off to rejoice the heart of the maiden, who was sitting +under the pear-tree, watching with anxious eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XV—BROODS ASTRAY + + + “But ill for him who, bettering not with time, + Corrupts the strength of Heaven-descended will, + And ever weaker grows through acted crime, + Or seeming genial venial fault.” + + —TENNYSON. + +“MAN Friday hope piccaniny live well—bring her buckra fish from sea!” +Such was the greeting from Lord Rotherwood to Thekla when the whole party +walked over in time for tea on the lawn, before church at Clipstone, as +he presented her with a facsimile oyster which he had hunted up in a +sweet shop, making an absurd bow and scrape. + +Poor Thekla coloured, and mumbled a shy, “Thank you, my—my—” having had a +lecture from Vera on treating a marquis with over familiarity and it was +left to Primrose to ask where Friday learnt nigger language. “By nature, +Missy buckra,” he responded; “all same nigger everywhere.” And he +repeated his bow so drolly that Primrose’s laugh carried Thekla’s along +with it, as Lady Phyllis walked up with, “Come, father, you are wanted to +congratulate.” + +“Eh! Am I? So they have perpetrated it, have they? More’s the pity is +what I should say in the Palace of Truth; but the maiden has landed a +better fish than she knows—that is, if she have landed him.” + +“There! take care, don’t be tiresome, Papa!” admonished Lady Phyllis, +drawing him on, when he met Vera with a courtly manner, and, “I hope I +see you recovered, Miss Prescott, and able to rejoice in the pleasant +consequences of your adventure.” + +Vera blushed, and looked very pretty and modest, making not much answer +as she retreated among her contemporaries to show them her ring, a hoop +of pearls, which Wilfred insisted were Roman pearls, fishes’ eyes, most +appropriate; but Flapsy felt immeasurably older than Wilfred to-day, and +able to despise his teasing, though Hubert Delrio was not present, and +indeed Wilfred was not disposed to bestow much of his attention upon her, +having much more inclination to beset his cousin, Lady Phyllis, who +surely ought to perceive that he had attained at least the same height as +his brother Jasper, and could, in his absence, pose as the young man of +the household. + +Phyllis had not much to say to him, nor after the first to Vera, though +she duly admired the ring so exultantly shown, and accepted the assurance +that Hubert was the dearest fellow in the world. But there was no +getting any condolence out of her upon the misery of having to wait four +whole years. She said, “It was a very good thing! There was her cousin +Gillian, who had insisted on waiting three years to finish her +education.” + +“Oh, but dear Hubert likes me as I am,” simpered Vera. + +“You might wish that he should find more in you to like. Gillian,” said +Phyllis, coming up to her and Agatha, “I want you to assure Vera that +four years is not such a great trial in waiting.” + +“It is what I have been trying to persuade her,” said Agatha; “she is +hardly seventeen.” + +“And I would not have been married at seventeen for anything,” said +Gillian to the pouting Vera. “I want to be more worth having.” + +Vera did not like it, she had heard the like at home, and she fell back +upon Valetta, while the others walked on. “Poor little Flapsy!” said +Agatha, “I do hope this engagement may make more of a woman of her.” + +“My father was very much struck by Mr. Delrio,” said Phyllis, “both as +artist and personally.” + +“You must be glad of the time for putting her up to his level,” said +Gillian. + +“Do you think such things are to be done?” asked Agatha. + +“Yes,” said Phyllis stoutly. “You may not make her able to be a Senior +Wrangler—(Oh you are Oxford!)—or capable of it, like this Gillyflower; +but you can get the stuff into her that makes a sound sensible wife.” + +Gillian caught a little hopeless sigh of “_can_,” and answered it with, +“When all this effervescence is blown off, then will be the time for +working at the substance, and she may be all the better wife—especially +for the artist temperament, if she is of the homely sort.” + +“How angry she would be if she heard you say so!” returned Agatha. “Yet +certainly I do feel relieved that wifehood is to be my poor Flapsy’s +portion, for she is not of the sort that can stand alone and make her own +way.” + +“There will always be plenty of such women in the world,” said Gillian. + +“So much the better for the world,” retorted Phyllis, who had never shown +any symptoms of exclusive devotion to any one of the other sex, except +her father. + +One thing Agatha wanted to know, and dared not ask, namely, what +impression Vera had made in the _Kittiwake_ and what Hubert had said +about her; for she and Paula had begun to remark that, lover as he was, +not a word about her heroism had escaped him. And it was as well that +she did not hear what the extra plain spoken Primrose did not spare the +boasting Thekla. “Cousin Rotherwood and Fly both say they can’t think +how Mr. Delrio got on with such a silly little hysterical goose upon his +hands; and that it is a foolish romantic unlucky notion that he ought to +be engaged to her. I think Mamma will tell Miss Prescott so.” + +The _Kittiwake_, having arrived three days later than had been expected, +there had been an amount of revolution in the general arrangements. The +break up of the High School was to be on an early day of the next week. +It had become a much more extensive and public matter than in the days of +Valetta and Maura, though these were not so very long ago, and there was +a great day of exhibitions and speeches to the parents and neighbourhood +generally. Two ladies had been secured for the purpose, Elizabeth +Merrifield and Miss Arthuret, and the former arrived on the Saturday +afternoon, but as the Rotherwood party almost overflowed Clipstone, she +was transferred to Miss Mohun. + +After the death of their parents, about three years previously, Susan and +Elizabeth had gone to live at Coalham, and to be useful to their brother +David’s parish; Susan betaking herself to the poor, and Bessie finding +herself specially available in the various forms of improvement +undertaken by ladies in modern days. To her own surprise, and her +sister’s discomfiture, her talent as a public speaker had become +developed. With a little assistance from her sister-in-law Agnes’s +unwilling stage experience, and entreaties, not easily to be withstood, +came from various quarters that she would come and advocate the good +cause. + +Of course she was ever welcome at Clipstone, and she walked up thither +with General Mohun, arriving just after the others from the Goyle; and in +the general confusion of greetings, and the Babel of cousinly tongues, +there were no introductions nor naming of names. Bessie declared herself +delighted with the chance of seeing Lady Ivinghoe, whom she considered +more to realise the beauty of women than any one she had hitherto beheld, +and the fair face had not lost its simplicity, but rather gained in +loveliness by the sweetness of early motherhood, as she and Phyllis sat +by Mysie, regaling her with tales of what they regarded as the remarkable +precocity of the infant Claude, reluctantly left to his grandmother. + +“But where’s Dolores?” asked Bessie. “I miss her among the swarm of +mice!” + +“Dolores is at Vale Leston,” answered Gillian. “She has been a long time +making up her mind to go there, to Gerald’s home; and now she is there, +they will not let her go till some birthday is over.” + +“Uncle Felix’s!” whispered Franceska to Mysie. “You know it was dear +Gerald’s place. She had never seen it.” + +Another voice was now raised, asking, “What had become of Miss Arthuret?” + +“She only comes down on Monday,” said Bessie. “Just in time for the +meeting. She is too valuable to come for more than one meeting.” + +“But who is she?” + +“Arthurine Arthuret? She is a girl, or rather woman, who has some +property at Stokesley. In fact, she is one of those magnets that seem to +attract inheritance without effort—like the Hapsburgs, though happily she +makes a most beneficent, though, sometimes, original use of them.” + +“Is not that very dangerous?” said Aunt Lily. + +“The first came to her early, and coming into it very young, and +overflowing with new ideas, she began rather grotesquely; but she has +tamed down a good deal since, and really has done an immense deal of good +in finding employment for people, making improvements and the like, +though she is Sam’s pet aversion, a tremendous Liberal, almost a +Socialist. They are so like cat and dog that Susan and I were really +glad to be away from Stokesley, especially at election times; but +altogether she is an admirable person.” + +Lady Merrifield thought she detected a start of Miss Prescott at the name +Stokesley, and that her eyes looked anxiously at the speaker. Bessie was +not of the sandy part of the family. Was the unattractive schoolboy, +once seen, like his sisters? All that was observable was startling +similitudes to her own children, though in them the elements of the +handsome dark Mohun generally predominated. + +But by and by, in a quiet moment, Bessie suddenly asked, “Did you say her +name was Magdalen?” + +Lady Merrifield laughed. “Four years _may_ do a good deal at that time +of life,” she said. “I suppose no time ever so changes—changes—what +shall I say?—eyes—views—characters. Only constancy in absence is the +dangerous thing. There are distinguished examples of—of the mischief of +being constant without knowing what one is constant to. Virulent +constancy, as Mrs. Malaprop has it.” + +Magdalen thanked and smiled. Perhaps there was a certain virulent +constancy in a remote corner of her heart which had been revived by a +certain indescribable look in the eyes and contour of Bessie Merrifield. + +And Bessie herself, while sitting under the verandah with Lady +Merrifield, while all the others were walking down to embark Lord and +Lady Ivinghoe in the yacht, suddenly repeated, “Did you say that her name +was Magdalen?” + +“Yes; I saw it startled you, my dear.” + +“It revived an old, old story. I do not know whether there was anything +in it. Who or what is she, Aunt Lily? I only know her as the sister of +the girl that the Ivinghoes picked up.” + +“She is the owner of a little property at Arnscombe, and has taken home +her four young half-sisters to live with her, after having slaved for +them as a governess till she came into this inheritance. She is an +excellent person.” + +“Ah! Was her house at Filsted?” + +“I am not sure. Yes, I think the young ones were at school there. You +think—” + +“I feel certain. May I tell you, Aunt Lily? Some of the others cannot +bear to mention my poor Hal; but to me the worst of the sting is gone, +since I know he repented.” + +“My dear, I should be very glad to hear. Your father and mother never +mention your brother, and we were away at the time.” + +“Poor Hal! I am afraid there was a weakness in him. He never had that +determination that carried all the others on. He never could get through +an examination, and my father put him into a bank at Filsted. By and by, +after some years, came a letter telling my father he was gambling very +seriously, getting into temptation, and engaging himself to an attorney’s +daughter. It was while I was living with grandmamma, and he used +sometimes to look in on me, and talk to me about this Magdalen. Once he +showed me her photograph and I thought I knew her face again. But my +father went off, very angry. I have always feared he found poor Hal on +the verge of tampering with the bank money, but he never would say a +word. He broke everything up, put an end to the engagement if there was +one, and sent Hal off to John and George, who had just got their farm in +Manitoba, and were getting on by dint of hard work.” + +“They have done very well, have they not?” + +“Yes, by working and living harder than any day labourer at Stokesley. +Hal could not stand it, and—and I’m afraid the boys were not very +merciful to him, poor fellow, and he got something to do in Winnipeg. +There he fell in with a speculator called Golding, they all did in fact; +he was a plausible man, whom they all liked, and used to put up at his +house when they took waggons in with their produce. He had a daughter, +and Johnnie got engaged to her, or thought he was. They all were +persuaded to put money into a horrid building speculation,—Henry, what he +had brought out, the other two what they had realised. Well, suddenly it +all ended. They were all gone, Golding, daughter, Hal and all—yes, +all—the money the other boys had put in the thing, off to the States, as +we suppose! No trace ever found.” + +“Really no trace?” + +“None! The poor boys lost all they had, and were obliged to begin over +again.” + +“And has really nothing been heard of this unfortunate Hal?” + +“There is one thing that does give me a hope. There did come to +Stokesley a letter from a Brisbane bank, addressed to J. and G. +Merrifield, to the care of Rear-Admiral Merrifield, and in it were bank +bills up to the value of what the boys had been robbed of, about two +hundred and fifty pounds. Poor Henry must have repented, and wished to +make restitution.” + +“Was there no name, no clue?” + +“None at all. We know no more.” + +“But was there no inquiry made at Brisbane?” + +“It was when my father was very ill. The parcel was not opened at first. +I have been always sorry he never heard of it; but after all there was no +asking of forgiveness, nor anything that could be answered. The boys got +it with the tidings of our dear father’s death. John came home to see +about things, George stayed to look after his Stokesley. They were well +over their troubles by that time, and they gave the restored money to +David for his churches.” + +“And no more was done, not even by David?” said Lady Merrifield, thinking +over what she had heard from Geraldine Grinstead, and how the Underwoods +would have accepted such a token from their lost sheep. + +“David did write to Brisbane to the bank, but there never was any answer. +There is no knowing how it might have been, if any one had gone out and +done his best; but you see we were all much taken up with home duties and +cares, and I am afraid we have not dwelt enough upon our poor boy, and he +had much against him. The discipline from my dear father, that all the +elders responded to with a sort of loyal exultation, only frightened him +and made him shifty. They despised him, and I do not think any of us +were as kind to him as we ought to have been; though on the whole he +liked me the best, for he cared for books and quiet pursuits, such as all +laughed at, except David. I wish he could have seen more of David.” + +“Did your mother hear of this ray of hope?” + +“Susan thought it best not to tell her. We used to hear her murmuring +his name among all ours in her prayers, Susie, Sam, Hal, Bessie, and so +on; but she never was herself enough to understand, and they thought it +might only stir her up to expect to see him. Oh, Aunt Lily, I don’t +think you—any of you—would have gone on so; but you are all much more +affectionate and demonstrative than our branch of the family.” + +“Ah, my dear, I am sure there was a pang in your mother’s heart that she +never durst mention,” said Lady Merrifield, her imagination dwelling in +terror on her Wilfred, the one child in whom she could not help detecting +the weakness of character of his unhappy cousin. “Depend upon it, +Bessie, her prayers were hovering round him all the time, and bringing +that act of restitution, though she was not allowed to hear of it.” + +“I had not thought of that,” said Bessie, in a low tone, “though I think +David has. I have heard his voice choke over an intercession for the +absent.” + +“Think of it now, my dear, and do not let habitual reserve hinder you +from speaking of it to Susan and David, though most likely they have the +habit already. Who knows what united prayer may do with Him who deviseth +means to bring home His banished?” + +Steps returning, Bessie wiped away her tears in haste, actually the first +she had shed for the lost Hal, though there was a heartache too deep for +tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI—THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN + + + “And happier than the merriest games + Is the joy of our new and nobler aims.” + + F. R. HAVERGAL. + +MISS MOHUN and Miss Merrifield encountered Miss Prescott and Agatha among +a perfect herd of cycles, making Bessie laugh over the recollections of +the horror caused at Stokesley by the arrival of Arthurine Arthuret on a +tricycle twelve years previously. + +The place was the Town Hall, the High School having proved too small for +the number of the intended audience, and Lord Rotherwood having been +captured, in spite of the _Kittiwake_ being pronounced ready to sail, and +all the younger passengers being actually on board, entertaining a party +from Clipstone. There he sat enthroned on the platform, with portraits +of himself, his Elizabethan ancestor, and the Prince of Wales overhead, +and, in _propria persona_ on either side, the Mayor of Rockstone, Captain +Henderson, and a sprinkling of the committee, Jane, of course, being one; +while in the space beneath was a sea of hats, more or less beflowered and +befeathered. + +Lord Rotherwood began by complaining of an act of piracy! After being +exposed to a tempest and forced to put in for supplies, here he was +captured, and called upon to distribute prizes! He perceived that it was +a new act of aggression on the part of the ladies, proving to what +lengths they were coming. Tyrants they had always been, but to find them +wreckers to boot was a novelty. However, prizes were the natural +sequence of a maritime exploit, and he was happy to distribute them to +the maidens about to start on the voyage of life, hoping that these +dainty logbooks would prove a stimulus and a compass to steer by even +into unexplored seas, such as he believed the better-informed ladies were +about to describe to them. + +Rockstone was used to its Marquis’s speeches, and always enjoyed them; +and he handed the prize-books to the recipients with a shake of the hand, +and a word or two of congratulation appropriate to each, especially when +he knew their names; and then he declared that they were about to hear +what education was good for, much better than from himself, from such +noted examples as Miss Arthuret and Miss Merrifield, better known to them +as Mesa. Wherewith he waved forward Miss Arthuret, a slight, +youthful-looking lady, fashionably attired, and made his escape with +rapid foot and hasty nods, almost furtively, while the audience were +clapping her. + +She spoke with voice and utterance notably superior to his well-known +halting periods, scarcely saved by long training and use from being a +stutter. The female population eagerly listened, while she painted in +vivid colours the aim of education, in raising the status of women, and +extending their spheres not only of influence in the occult manner which +had hitherto been their way of working through others, but in an open +manner, which compelled attention; and she dwelt on certain brilliant +achievements of women, and of others which stood before them, and towards +which their education, passing out of the old grooves, was preparing them +to take their place among men, and temper their harshness and +indifference to suffering with the laws of mercy and humanity, speaking +with an authority and equality such as should ensure attention, no longer +in home and nursery whispering alone, but with open face asserting and +claiming justice for the weakest. + +It was a powerful and effective speech; and Agatha’s eye lighted with +enthusiasm, as did those of several others of the elder scholars and +younger teachers, as these high aims were unfolded to them. + +Then followed Elizabeth Merrifield, not contradictory, but recognising +what wide fields had been opened to womanhood, dwelling on such being the +work of Christianity, which had always tended to repress the power of +brute animal strength and jealousy, and to give preponderance to the +force of character and the just influence of sweet homely affection. +Exceptional flashes, even in heathen lands, and still more under the +Divine guidance of the Israelites, showed what women were capable of; and +ever since a woman had been the chosen instrument of the mystery of the +Incarnation, the Church, the chosen emblem of the union of humanity with +her Lord, had gradually purified and exalted the sex by training them +through the duties of mercy, of wifehood and motherhood, to be capable of +undertaking and fulfilling higher and more extensive tasks, always by the +appointment and with the help of Him who had increased their outside +powers, for the sake of the weaker ones of His flock. What might, by His +will, in the government and politics of the country, be put into their +hands, no one could tell; but it was right to be prepared for it, by +extending their intellectual ability and knowledge of the past, as well +as of the laws of physical nature—all, in short, that modern education +aimed at opening young minds to pursue with growing faculties. This was +what made her rejoice in the studies here followed with good success, as +the prizes testified so pleasantly; and she trusted that the cultivation, +which here went on so prosperously, was leading—if she might use old +well-accustomed words—to the advancement of God’s glory, the good of His +Church, aye! and to the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and +her dominions. + +The words brought tears of feeling into the eyes of some; but Jane Mohun +could not help observing, “Ah! I was afraid you were going to hold up to +us the example of the ants and bees, where the old maids do all the +working and fighting and governing! Don’t make Gillian regret that she +is falling away from the spinsterhood.” + +“Come, Aunt Jane, Bessie never did make it the praise of spinsters. I am +sure married women can do as much as spinsters, and have more weight,” +said Gillian, facing round gallantly, and winning the approval of her +aunt and of Bessie. There was no doubt but that since her engagement she +had been much quieter and less opinionative. + +With what different sensations the same occasion may be attended! To +Bessie Merrifield, the primary object was, as ever, woman’s work, +especially her own, for the Church; and the actual business absorbed her. +In spite of her evenings’ talk to her Aunt Lilias, and the sad and +painful recollections it had aroused, still her only look at Magdalen +Prescott’s face was one half of curiosity half of sorrow, as of the +object of the brief calf-love of one of many brothers, and who had been +now lost sight of, with the passing wonder whether, if the affection had +survived and been encouraged, it might have led him to better things. + +While Magdalen felt the poignant renewal of the one romance of a +lifetime, as she caught tones, watched little gestures and recognised +those indescribable hereditary similarities which more and more bore in +upon her the fraternal connection of the bright earnest woman with the +lively pleasant young man who had brought the attraction of a higher tone +of manners and cultivation into the country town. No more had been heard +of him since his promise to write, a promise that had been only once +remembered, so that she had tried to take refuge in the supposition, +unlikely as it was, that her stepmother had confiscated his letters. All +was a blank since that last stolen kiss; and the wonder whether she could +by any means discover anything further from Lady Merrifield or Gillian, +so occupied her that she hardly heard the tenor of the two speeches, and +did not observe Agatha’s glowing cheeks and burning eyes, which might +have told her that this was one of the moments which direct the current +of life. + +When Hubert Delrio came up in the evening he was curious to hear about +the meeting. His young landlady, who had been a High School girl for a +short time, thought Miss Arthuret’s speech the most beautiful discourse +that ever was spoken; while other reports said that Lady Flight and Miss +Mohun were very much shocked, and thought it unwholesome, not to say +dangerous; and he wanted to know the meaning of it. Magdalen was quite +dismayed to find how entirely her attention had been absent, and how +little account she could give of what had passed by her like the wind; +but she need not have been at a loss, for Agatha, with sparkling eyes and +clasped hands, burst out into a very able and spirited abstract of the +speech, and the future it portrayed, showing perhaps more enthusiasm than +the practised public speaker thought it prudent to manifest. + +“I see,” said Hubert with something of a smile, “you ladies are charmed +with the great future opened to you.” + +“I’m sure,” said Vera, perhaps a little nettled by attention paid so long +to Agatha, “I can’t see the sense of it all; I think a woman is made just +to love her husband, and be his pet, without all that fuss about +societies, and speeches and learning and fuss!” And she gave a little +caress to Hubert’s hand, which was returned, as he said, “She may well be +loved, but, without publicly coming forward, she may become the more +valuable to her home.” + +“Of course she may, at home or abroad. She ought—” began Agatha, but +Vera snapped her off. “Well, it only comes to being one of a lot of +horrid old maids; and you don’t want me to be one of them, do you, +darling? Come and look at my doves!” + +“What do you think of it all, sister?” asked Paulina. + +“So far as I grasp the subject,” said Magdalen, to whom, of course, this +was not new, “I think that if a larger scope is to be given to women, it +is for the sake and under the direction of the Church that it can be +rightly and safely used.” + +She knew she was speaking by rote, and was not surprised that Agatha +said, “That is just what one has heard so often, and what Miss Merrifield +harped upon! I want to breathe in a fresh atmosphere beyond the old +traditions, and know which are Divine and which are only the +superstructure of those who have always had the dominion and justified it +in their own way!” + +“Who gave them that dominion?” said Magdalen. + +“Brute strength,” began Agatha. + +“Nag, Nag!” cried Paula. “Surely you believe—” + +“I did not say—I did not mean—I only meant to think it out, and +understand what is Divine and what is in the eternal fitness of things.” + +Here came an interruption, leaving Magdalen conscious of the want of +preparation for guiding the thought of these young things, and of +self-reproach too, for having let herself be so absorbed in the thought +of “her broken reed of earth beneath,” as not to have dwelt on what might +be the deep impressions of the young sisters under her charge. + +A few days later, as Agatha sat reading in the garden, two figures +appeared on the drive, wheeling up their bicycles. One was Gillian, the +other had a general air of the family, but much darker, and not one of +the old acquaintances. Advancing to meet them, she said, “I am the only +one at home. My sisters are all at lessons or in the village.” + +“I’ll leave a message,” said Gillian. “My mother wants you all to come +up to picnic tea to see the foxgloves in the dell, on Monday, and to +bring Mr. Delrio—” + +“Oh! thank you.” + +“I forgot, you had not seen my cousin Dolores Mohun before. Mysie calls +her a cousin-twin, if you know what that is.” + +Agatha thought the newcomer’s great pensive dark eyes and overhanging +brow under very black hair made her look older than Mysie, or indeed than +Gillian herself; and when the message had been disposed of, the latter +continued, “Dolores wanted to know about Miss Arthuret’s lecture, being +rather in that line herself. She could not get home in time for it, and +I was seeing the _Kittiwake_ party on board, and only crept in at the +other end of the hall in time for Bessie’s faint echoes.” + +“I was in the very antipodes,” said Dolores, “in a haunt of ancient +peace, whence they would not let me come away soon enough.” + +“And, Agatha, Aunt Jane says she saw you devouring Miss Arthuret with +your eyes,” said Gillian. + +“It gave one a sense of new life,” said Agatha; and she related again +Miss Arthuret’s speech, broken only by appreciative questions and +comments from Dolores’ auditor, to whom, in the true fashion of nineteen, +Agatha straightway lost her heart. Dolores, who had seen much more of +the outer world than her cousins, and had had besides a deeply felt +inward experience which might well render her far more responsive, and +able to comprehend the questions working in the girl’s mind, and which +found expression in, “I went to St. Robert’s only wanting to get my +education carried on so that I might be a better governess; but I see now +there are much farther on, much greater things to aim at, than I ever +thought of.” + +“Alps on Alps arise!” said Dolores. “Yes—till they lose themselves—and +where?” + +“Miss Merrifield would say in Heaven, by way of the Church.” + +“The all things in earth or under the earth rising up in circles of +praise to the Cherubim and the Great White Throne,” said Dolores, her +dark eyes raised in a moment’s contemplation. + +“Ah! One knows. But is that thought the one to be brought home to every +one, as if they could bear it always? Are not we to do +something—something—for the helping people here in this life, not always +going on to the other life—” + +“Temporal or spiritual?” said Dolores; “or spiritual through temporal?” + +“And our part in helping,” said Agatha. + +“There is an immense deal to be thought out,” said Dolores. “I feel only +at the beginning of the questions, and there is study and experience to +go to them.” + +“You mean what one gets at Oxford?” + +“Partly. Thorough—at least, as thorough as one can—of the physical and +material nature of things, then of the precedent which then results, also +of reasoning.” + +“Metaphysical, do you mean, or logical?” + +“That comes in; but I was thinking of mathematical in the indirect +training of the mind. It all works into needful equipment, and so does +actual life.” + +“It takes one’s breath away.” + +“Well, we have begun our training,” said Dolores, with a sweet sad smile. +“At least, I hope so.” + +“At St. Robert’s, you mean?” + +“You have, I think. But I believe my aunt will be expecting us.” + +“Oh! And then they talk about modesty and womanliness and retiring! +What do you think about all that?” + +“That we never shall do any good without it.” + +They were interrupted by the hasty rushing up of Paula, who had committed +her bicycle to Vera, and came dashing up the steep slope, crying, “O Nag, +Nag, they are going away!” + +The announcement was interrupted as she perceived the presence of the +visitor, and they rose to meet her, but saw that there were tears in her +eyes, and she had rushed up so fast that she was panting and could hardly +speak, though she gave her hand, as Agatha, after naming the two cousins, +asked, “Who are going?” + +“The Sisters—Sister Mena—” with another overflow of tears which made +Dolores and Gillian think they had better retreat and leave her to her +sister’s consolation; so they took leave hastily, Agatha however, coming +as far as their machines, and confiding to them, “Poor Polly, it is a +great blow to her, but I believe it is very good for her.” + +“There’s stuff in that girl,” said Dolores, as soon as they were out of +reach. “She has the faculty of hearkening as well as of hearing.” + +“You would say so if you saw her at a lecture; and she is also gaining +power of expressing and reproducing,” said Gillian. + +“She will be a power by and by, unless some blight comes across her.” + +“Will me, will me, it seems as if we _had_ to do it. Even Mamma, whose +ideal was chivalry, Church and home, has to be drawn out to take a +certain public part; Aunt Jane, who only wished to live to potter about +among neighbours, poor and rich, must needs come out of her traditional +conventions, and relate her experiences, and you—” + +“Oh, I am only trying to do the work Gerald aimed at!” + +“Any way we have our work before us, whether we call it for the Church or +mankind.” + +“Charity or Altruism,” said Dolores. + +“May not altruism lead to charity?” said Gillian. + +“Sometimes, but sometimes disappointment leads only to intolerance of +those whose methods differ. Altruism will not stand without a +foundation,” said Dolores. + +“Mysie has been impressing on me, with what she heard from Phyllis +Devereux, of the work Sister Angela has been doing at Albertstown—the +most utter self-abnegation, through bitter disappointment in her most +promising pupils—only the charity that is rooted could endure. It is +just the old difference Tennyson points out between Wisdom and +Knowledge.” + +“And with wisdom come those feminine attributes that Agatha began asking +about.” + +“Yes, softening, gentleness, tact. If people have not grown up to them, +they must be taught as parts of wisdom.” + +Gillian sighed. “I wonder what Ernley Armitage will say when he comes +home?” + +“He won’t want you to throw up everything.” + +“I don’t think he will! But if he did—No, I think he will be a staff to +guide a silly, priggish heart to the deeper wisdom.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVII—FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS + + + “With her venturous climbings, and tumbles, and childish escapes.” + + TENNYSON. + +HUBERT DELRIO, pleased and gratified, but very shy, joined the ladies +from the Goyle in their walk to Clipstone, expecting perhaps a good deal +of stiffness and constraint, since every one at St. Kenelm’s told him +what a severe and formidable person Sir Jasper Merrifield was, and that +all Lady Merrifield’s surroundings were “so very clever.” “They did want +_such_ books ordered in the library.” + +Magdalen laughed, and said her only chance of seeing a book she wanted +was that Lady Merrifield should have asked for it. At Clipstone, they +were directed to the dell where the foxgloves were unusually fine that +year, covering one of the banks of the ravine with a perfect cloud of +close-grown spikes, nodding with thick clustered bells, spotted +withinside, and without, of that indescribable light crimson or purple, +enchanting in reality but impossible to reproduce. It was like a dream +of fairy land to Hubert to wander thither with his Vera, count the tiers +of bells, admire the rings of purple and the crooked stamens, measure the +height of the tall ones, some almost equal to himself in stature, and +recall the fairy lore and poetry connected with them, while Vera listened +and thought she enjoyed, but kept herself entertained by surreptitiously +popping the blossoms, and trying to wreath her hat with wild roses. + +Thekla meantime admired from the opposite bank, in a state of much +elevation at acquiring a dear delicious brother-in-law, and insisted on +Primrose sharing her sentiments till her boasting at last provoked the +exclamation, “I wouldn’t be so cocky! I don’t make such a fuss if my +sisters do go and fall in love. I have two brothers-in-law out in India, +and Gillian has a captain, an Egyptian hero, with a medal, a post captain +out at sea in the _Nivelle_. You shall see his photograph coloured in +his lovely uniform, with his sword and all! Your Flapsy’s man isn’t even +an officer!” + +“He is a poet, and that’s better!” + +“Better! why, if you _will_ have it, Wilfred and Fergus always call him +that ‘painter cad,’” broke out Primrose, who had not outgrown her +childish power of rudeness, especially out of hearing of her elders. + +“Then it is very wicked of them,” exclaimed Thekla, “when the Marquis of +Rotherwood himself said that Hubert Delrio is a very superior young man” +(each syllable triumphantly rounded off). + +Primrose was equal to the occasion. “Oh, they all laugh at Cousin +Rotherwood; and, besides, a superior young man does not mean a +gentleman.” + +Thekla burst into angry tears and sobs, which brought Gillian, and a +grave, dark young lady from the other side of a rock to inquire what was +the matter—there was a confession on the two tongues of “she did,” and “I +didn’t” of “painter cad, superior young man and no gentleman,” but at +last it cleared itself into Primrose allowing that, to take down Thekla’s +conceit, she had declared that a very superior young man did not mean a +gentleman. + +“I could not have believed that you could have been so abominably +ill-mannered,” said Gillian gravely; “you ought to apologise to Thekla.” + +“Oh, never mind,” began Thekla ashamed; and at that moment a frantic +barking was heard in the depths, and Valetta, Wilfred, Fergus and a dog +or two darted headlong past, calling out, “Hedgehogs, hedgehogs! Run! +come!” And Primrose, giving a hand to Thekla, joined in the general rush +down the glade. + +“A situation relieved!” said the newcomer. + + “For all ran to see, + For they took him to be + An Egyptian porcupig,” + +quoted Gillian. “They have wanted such a beast for some time for their +menagerie; but really Primrose is getting much too old to indulge in such +babyish incivility to a guest, true though the speech was, ‘a superior +young man,’ not necessarily a gentleman.” + +“I am colonial enough to like him the better for the absence of a hall +mark.” + +“Should you have missed it? He is very good looking, and has a sensible +refined countenance, poor man!” + +“He is a little too point device, too obviously got up for the occasion!” + +“Too like the best electroplate! No; that is not fair, for it is not +pretence, at least, I should think there was sound material below, and +that never would brighten instead of dimming it.” + +“According to Mysie and Fly, there is plenty of good taste; and his +principle is vouched for. Mysie is quite furious at any lady-love having +gone to sleep to the sound of original verses from a lover!” + +“Dear old Mysie! No, she would not. She has a practical vein in her! +Would you?” + +“I’m not likely to be tried!” said Gillian merrily. “Catch Ernley either +practising or not minding his boat! But come! Mamma will want me, I +feel only deputy daughter, with Mysie away.” + +The two girls rose from the mossy bank, and proceeded across the paddock +to the opening of the glade. + +On the turf Lady Merrifield sat enthroned; making a nucleus to the +festivities and delicacies of all sorts, from sandwiches and cakes down +to strawberries, cherries and Devonshire cream, were displayed before +her; and the others drifted up gradually, Miss Mohun first. “I am later +than I meant to be,” she said, “but I was delayed by a talk with Sister +Beata. I never saw a woman more knocked down than she is by that +adventure of Vera’s.” + +“I know,” said Magdalen, rousing herself. “It has made her look ten +years older, and she could not talk it over or let a word be said to +comfort her. She says it was all her fault, and I should have thought it +was that silly little Sister Mena’s, if that is her name. + +“She considers it her fault for objecting to strict discipline in things +of which she did not see the use,” said Jane Mohun, “and so getting +absorbed in her own work, and having no fixed rule by which to train +Mena.” + +“I see,” said Lady Merrifield; “it reminds me of a story told in Madame +de Chantal’s life, how, when, _par mortification_, a Sister quietly ate +up a rotten apple without complaint and another made signs of amusement, +a rule was made that no one should raise her eyes at meals. It shows +that some rules which seem unreasonable may have a foundation.” + +“It is an unnatural life altogether,” said Dolores. “Why should the +rotten apple have been swallowed? or, if it was, I should think a joke +over it might have been wholesome.” + +“Hindering priggishness in the mortified Sister,” said Gillian. + +“The fact is,” said Lady Merrifield, “that if you vow yourself to an +unnatural life, so to speak, you must submit to the rules that have been +found best to work for it.” + +“And poor Sister Beata did neither the one nor the other, by her own +account,” said Jane. “She called herself a Sister, but disliked each +rule, and chose to go her own way, like any other benevolent woman, doing +very admirable work herself, but letting little Mena have the prestige of +a Sister, while too busy to look after her, and without rules to restrain +her.” + +“But surely there has been no harm!” exclaimed Lady Merrifield. + +“No harm, only a little incipient flirtation with the organist, nothing +in any one else, but not quite like a convent maid.” + +“Ah! I rather suspected,” said Agatha. + +“I should think the best thing for Sister Mena would be to go to a good +school, leave off her veil, in which she looks so pretty, and be treated +like an ordinary girl,” said Lady Merrifield. + +“That is just what Sister Beata intends,” said Miss Mohun. “She is to +sink down into Miss Marian Jenkins, to wear a straw hat and blue frock, +and go to school with the other girls, the pupils, while Sister Beata +begins life as a probationer at Dearport.” + +“Poor Sister Beata!” + +“She says she has experienced that it is best to learn to obey before one +begins to rule. It is most touching to see how humble she is. Such a +real good woman too! I doubt whether she gets a night’s rest three days +in a week, and she looks quite haggard with this distress,” said Jane. + +“She will be a great power by and by! But what will Mr. Flight and St. +Kenelm’s do without her?” + +“He is promised relays of Sisters from Dearport, which has stood so many +years that they have a supply. You see, he, like Sister Beata, tried a +little too much to be original and stand aloof.” + +“Ah!” said Lady Merrifield, “that is the benefit of institutions. They +hinder works from dying away with the original clergyman or the wonderful +woman.” + +“But, Aunt Lily,” put in Dolores, “institutions get slack?” + +“They have their _downs_, but they also have their ups. There is +something to fall back upon with public schools.” + +“Yes, like croquet,” laughed Aunt Jane. “We saw it rise and saw it fall; +and here come all the players, the revival. Well, how went the game?” + +So the party collected, and the two Generals came in from some vanity of +inspection to grumble a little merrily at the open air banquet, but to +take their places in all good humour, and the lively meal began with all +the home witticisms, yet not such as to exclude strangers. Indeed, +Hubert Delrio was treated with something like distinction, and was +evidently very happy, with Vera by his side. Perhaps Magdalen perceived +that there was not the perfect ease of absolute equality and familiarity; +but his poetical and chivalrous nature was gratified by the notice of a +Crimean hero, and he infinitely admired the dignity and courtesy of Lady +Merrifield, and the grace and ease of her daughters, finding himself in a +new world of exquisite charm for him. + +And before they broke up, Magdalen had a quiet time with Lady Merrifield, +in which she was able, not without a tell-tale blush even at her years, +to ascertain that there were two Henry Merrifields, and that, alas! there +was nothing good known of the son of Stokesley, except that anonymous +attempt at restitution which gave hopes of repentance. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII—PALACES OR CHURCHES + + + “And if I leave the thing that lieth next, + To go and do the thing that is afar, + I take the very strength out of my deed.” + + —MACDONALD. + +THOSE were happy days that succeeded Vera’s engagement. It had made her +more womanly, or at least less childish; and the intercourse with Hubert +Delrio became an increasing delight to her sisters, who had never known +anything so like a brother. + +He was at first shy and not at ease with Magdalen, who, on her side, +perceived the lack of public school and university training; but in grain +he was so completely a good man, a churchman, and a gentleman, and had so +much right sense as well as talent, that she liked him thoroughly and +began to rely on him, as a woman with unaccustomed property is glad to do +with a male relation. + +And to him, the society of the Goyle was a new charm. He had been +brought up to the technicalities and the business relations of art, and +had a cultivated taste; but to be with a thoughtful, highly educated +lady, able to enter into its higher and deeper associations, was an +unspeakable delight and improvement to him. Vera was fairly satisfied as +long as he sketched her in various attitudes, and held her hand while he +talked; though she did grudge having so much time spent on “taste, +Shakespeare and the musical glasses.” Paula had various ecclesiastical +interests in common with him, and began to expand and enter more into +realities, while Thekla had in him a dear delightful delicious brother, +who petted her, bantered her, mended her rabbit hutch, caught her +hedgehog, taught her to guide her bicycle, drew picture games for her, +and taught her to sketch. + +Agatha had endless discussions with him on his various aspirations, in +some of which Magdalen took her share, sometimes thinking with a pang of +regret and self-reproach that that brief time of intercourse with Hal +Merrifield had been spent in youthful nonsense that could have left no +permanent influence for good. + +In fact, whether through Hubert or through Agatha, a certain intellectual +waft had breathed upon the Goyle. Hubert was eager for assistance in +learning German and Italian, and read and discussed books of interest; +and even when he had left Rockstone, and his work at St. Kenelm’s being +finished, the stimulus was kept up by his letters, comments and +questions; and the younger girls had entirely ceased to form an opposite +camp, or to view “sister” as a taskmistress, even when Agatha had +returned to St. Robert’s. + +Mysie had come home, very brown, fuller of Scott than ever for her +mother, and of Hugh Miller for Fergus, for whom she had brought so many +specimens that Cousin Rotherwood declared that she would sink the +_Kittiwake_. Over the sketches and photographs of Iona, she and Paulina +became great friends, and Paula was admitted to hear accounts of the +modern missions that had come from the other Harry Merrifield among the +Karens in Burmah, or again through Franciska Ivinghoe, of her Aunt Angela +Underwood, who was considered to have a peculiar faculty for dealing with +those very unpromising natives, the Australian gins. Franciska +remembered her tender nursing and bright manner in the days of fever at +Vale Leston, and had a longing hope that she would take a holiday and +come home; but at present she was bound to the couch of her slowly +declining old friend, Sister Constance, the Mother of Dearport. It was +another bond of interest with Magdalen, to whom missions to the heathens +had always been a dream. + +Thus had passed a year uneventful and peaceable, with visits from Hubert +whenever he had a day or two to spare. They were looked forward to with +delight; but if there were a drawback it was in Vera’s viewing him partly +as one who held her in a sort of chain, and partly as one whom it was +pleasant to tease by allowing little casual civilities from Wilfred +Merrifield. + +For Wilfred was an embarrassment to his family. He had never been +strong, his public school career had been shortened by failure in health, +and headaches in the summer, and coughs in the winter made it needful to +keep him at home, and trust to cramming at Rockstone, enforced by his +father’s stern discipline and his mother’s authoritative influence. + +Thus he was always within reach of the mild social gaieties in which each +family indulged, and Vera was not quite so ready as were his sisters to +contrast unfavourably his hatred of all self-improvement with Hubert +Delrio’s eagerness to pick up every crumb of information, thus deservedly +getting on well in his profession. + +One morning, at breakfast, Hubert opened a letter and made a sudden +exclamation; and in answer to Vera’s vehement inquiry said, “It seems +that the great millionaire swell, Pettifer—is that his name?” + +“Oh, yes, he was at Rock Quay.” + +“Well, he went to see St. Kenelm’s, fell in love with the ceiling, and +offered Pratt and Pavis any sum they like to decorate a huge new hall he +is building in the same style. So they write to propose to me to come +and do it, with a promise of future work, at any terms I like to ask.” + +“Oh! but that’s jolly,” cried Vera. “Can’t you?” + +“No,” he said; “this is immediate, and I have two churches, reredos and +walls, on my hands, enough to last me all the year. Nor could I throw +over Eccles and Beamster.” + +“Is there an agreement with them?” asked Magdalen. + +“Not regularly; but Mr. Eccles has been very kind to me, and promised me +employment for four years to come; in fact, he has made engagements on +that understanding.” + +“I see,” said Magdalen. “You could not break with them.” + +“Certainly not. Nor do I entirely like the line of this other house. It +is a good deal more secular.” + +“And you have dedicated your talents to the Church!” cried Paulina. + +“Not that exactly, Paula,” he said, smiling; “but I had rather work for +the Church, so I am glad the matter is definitely settled for me.” + +To that he kept, though he had a very kind letter from Mr. Eccles, who +had evidently been applied to, wishing not to stand in his light, +especially as he was engaged to be married, and telling him how it might +be possible to fairly compensate for the loss to the firm. Between the +lines, however, it was plain that it would be a great blow, only possible +because the agreement had been neglected; and Hubert was only the more +determined, out of gratitude for the generosity, not to break what he +felt to be an implied pledge; and all the sisters sympathised with his +determination. + +He adhered to it even after his return to London, though his father +thought it a pity to lose the chance, if it could be accepted without +discourtesy to Mr. Eccles; and he had been interviewed by various parties +concerned, and there had been an attempt to dazzle him by the prospects +held out to him by an enthusiastic young member of the firm. Perhaps he +was too shrewd entirely to trust them, but at any rate he felt his good +faith to Eccles and Beamster a bond to hold him fast from the temptation; +and his heart was really set on the consecration of the higher uses of +his art; so that regard to the simple rule of honour was an absolute +relief to him. + +So he wrote to Vera, who, if there were a secret wish on her part, did +not dare to give it shape; while all her sisters, to whom she showed the +letters that she scarcely comprehended, were open-mouthed in their +admiration. Thekla, who had been seized with a fit of hagiology, went +the length of comparing him to St. Barbara; even Paula pronounced it a +far-fetched resemblance. + +It was some months later that Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood had decided +on building a magnificent cathedral-like church for the population rising +around him in the Rocky Mountains; and meeting Lord Rotherwood in London +heard of the work at St. Kenelm’s, and resorted to Eccles and Beamster as +the employers of young Delrio. There would be plenty of varieties of +beautiful material to be found near at hand in the mountains; but Hubert +was sent first for a short journey in Italy to study the effect of the +old mosaics as well as the frescoes, and then to go out to America to the +work that would last a considerable time. + +Vera was much excited by the notion of the Italian journey, and thought +she ought to have been married at once and have shared it, including as +it did a short visit to Rocca Marina. But she was scarcely eighteen, and +neither her trustee nor her elder sister thought it advisable to dispense +with the decision that her twenty-first birthday must be waited for, at +which she pouted. Hubert came for two nights on his return, and was +exceedingly full of his tour, talking over Italian scenes and churches +with Magdalen, who had never seen them, but had the descriptions and the +history at her fingers’ ends, and listened with delight to all the +impressions of a mind full of feeling and poetry. The time was only too +short to discuss or look out everything, and much was left to be copied +and sent after him, with many promises on Vera’s part of writing +everything for him, and translating the books that Magdalen would refer +to. He was allowed to take Vera and Paulina to Filsted for a hurried +visit to his parents. When they came home again, it soon became plain +that it had not been a success. “I am glad to be at home again,” said +Paula, as the pony carriage turned up the steep drive, and the girls +jumped out to walk. “I am quite glad to feel the stones under my feet +again!” + +Magdalen laughed. “A new sentiment!” she said. + +“I don’t like the stones,” said Vera, “but I did not know Filsted was +such a poky place.” + +“A dead flat!” added Paula. “No sea, no torrs! one wanted something to +look at! and _such_ a church!” + +“Did you see Minnie Maitland?” put in Thekla. + +“I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry,” said Vera. “I don’t remember which +was which. They were all dressed alike in horrid colours. Hubert said +they set his teeth on edge!” + +“How was old Mrs. Delrio?” + +“Just the same as ever, lean and pinched.” + +“But so kind!” added Paula. “She could not make enough of Flapsy.” + +“I should think not!” ejaculated Vera. “Enough! aye, and too much! just +fancy, no dinner napkins! and Edith went away and made the scones +herself!” + +“Very praiseworthy,” said Magdalen. “Don’t you know how Hubert always +tells us what a dear devoted good girl she is?” + +“Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in that way,” said +Vera. “His mother looks like a half-starved hare, and Edith is giving +lessons as a daily governess! + +“Edith is very nice,” said Paula; “and I never understood before how +excellent old Mr. Delrio’s pictures are! Do you remember his ‘Country +Lane’? What a pity it did not sell!” + +“Poor man!” said Magdalen. “He married too soon, and that has kept him +down.” + +“It is beautiful to see how proud they are of Hubert,” said Paula, “and +his pretty gentle attention and deference to them both. Mr. Delrio is +really a gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie,” she said, falling back with +her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, “it was very odd to see how +different things looked to us from what they seemed when we were at Mrs. +Best’s. Filsted High Street has grown so small, and one could hardly +breathe in Mrs. Delrio’s stuffy drawing-room. And as to Waring Grange, +which we used to think just perfect, it was all so pretentious and in +such bad taste. Hubert saw it as much as we did, but I could see he was +on thorns to hinder Flapsy from making observations.” + +Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making the girls +appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the Goyle. + +And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale Leston, asking +questions requiring some research in books, either Magdalen’s or at the +Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and sighed over them; and when the more +zealous Magdalen or Paula took all the trouble, and left nothing for her +to do but to copy their notes, and write the letters, she grew cross. +“It was for Hubert, and she did not want any one else to meddle! So +stupid! If he had only taken Pratt and Pavis’s offer, there would not +have been all this bother!” + +That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and Thekla, and +it made them both so furious that she declared she was only in joke, and +did not mean it. + +She was indulging in reflections on the general dulness of her lot, and +the lack of sympathy in her sisters, as she lingered by the +confectioner’s window, with her eyes fixed on a gorgeous combination of +coloured bonbons, when Wilfred Merrifield sauntered out. “Fresh from +Paris!” he said. “Going to choose some?” + +“Oh no, I haven’t got any cash. M. A. keeps us horribly short.” + +“As usual with governors! But look here! Pocket this. Sweets to the +sweet, from an old chum!” + +“Oh, Will, how jolly! Such a love of a box.” + +“Make haste! Some of the girls are lurking about, and if there is any +mischief to be made, trust Gill for doing it.” + +“Mischief!—” but before the words were out of her mouth, Gillian and +Mysie appeared from the next shop, a bootmaker’s, and Mysie stood aghast +with, “What _are_ you doing? Buying goodies! How very ridiculous!” + +“The proper thing between chums, isn’t it, Vera?” said Wilfred, with an +indifferent air. “We aren’t unlucky Sunday scholars, Mysie, to be jumped +upon! Good-bye, Vera, _au revoir_!” + +He sauntered away with his hands in his pockets; while Gillian, from her +eldership of two years, and her engagement, gravely said, “Vera, perhaps +you do not fully know, but I should say this is not quite the thing.” + +“He told you we are just chums!” exclaimed Vera. “As if there were any +harm in it! You’ve not got a sweet tooth yourself, so you need not +grudge me just a few goodies.” + +Gillian saw that it was of no use to prolong the dispute either for the +place or the time, and she hushed Mysie, who was about to expostulate +farther, and made her go away with a brief parting, such as she hoped +would impress on Vera that the sisters thought very badly of her +discretion and loyalty. They could not hear the reflection, “They need +not be so particular and so cross. Hubert never thought of giving me +anything nice like this. Why should not my chum? Such a sweet little +box too, with a dear girl’s head on it! Would Polly fuss about it, and +set on Sister? I shall put it into my own drawer, and then if they +notice it, they may think somebody at Filsted gave it! No one has any +business to worry me about Hubert, and Wilfred being civil to me. He +_is_ a gentleman.” + +The gentleman had been overtaken by his sisters. He was walking his +bicycle up the hill rather breathlessly and slowly. Mysie indignantly +began, “Of all the stupid things to do, to give goodies to that girl, +like a baby!” + +“I have been wishing to speak to you,” said Gillian. “You are going the +way to get that foolish girl into a scrape.” + +“Oh, yes, of course. Sisters uniformly object to a little civility to a +pretty girl,” carelessly answered Wilfred. + +“Nonsense!” returned Mysie, hotly. “We don’t care! only it is not fair +on Mr. Delrio.” + +“The painter cad! A very good thing too! The sacrifice ought to be +prevented. Is not that the general sentiment?” + +“Wilfred!” cried the scandalised Mysie, “when it is all the other way, +and he is ever so much too good for her.” + +“Consummate prig! The cheek of him pretending to a lady!” + +“But, Wilfred,” went on downright Mysie, “is it only mischief, or do you +want to marry her yourself?” + +“Draw your own conclusions,” responded Wilfred, mounting his machine, and +spinning down the hill faster than they could follow on foot. + +“What is to be done, Gill?” sighed Mysie. “Ought we to get mamma to +speak to him?” + +“Better not,” said Gillian, with more experience. “It would only make it +worse to take it seriously. Half of it is play—and half to tease you.” + +“And,” said Mysie, with due deference to the engaged sister, “how about +Mr. Delrio? Will it make him unhappy?” + +“If he finds out in time what a horrid little thing it is, I should say +it would be very well for him; but I don’t want Will to be the means.” + +“Oh! when his examination is over, and he gets an appointment, he will go +away, and it will be safe.” + +“I have not much hopes of his getting in!” + +“Oh, Gill, none of us ever failed before.” + +On the side of the Goyle not much was known or cared about Wilfred’s +little attentions, which were generally out of sight of Magdalen, and did +not amount to much; but Paula saw enough of them to consult Agatha on, +and to observe that Flapsy was going on just as she used to at Filsted, +and she thought Hubert would not like it. + +“I believe Flapsy can’t live without it,” sighed Agatha. + +“But would you speak to her? I don’t think she ought to let him give her +boxes of bonbons—to keep up in her room, and never give a hint to +Maidie.” + +Agatha did speak but the effect was to set Vera into crying out at every +one being so intolerably cross about such a trifle, Gillian Merrifield +and all! + +“Did Gillian speak to you?” + +“Yes, as if she had any business to do so!” + +“I am sure it is not the way she would treat Captain Armitage.” + +“I don’t believe she cares for Captain Armitage one bit! You said +yourself that all the girls at Oxford thought she cared much more for her +horrid examination! I wouldn’t be a dry, cold-hearted, insensible stick +like her for the world.” + +“Perhaps she is the more quietly in earnest,” said Agatha, repenting a +little that she had told before Vera the college jokes over what had +leaked out of Gillian’s reception of Ernley Armitage when he had hastened +up to Oxford as soon as his ship was paid off, and she had been called +down to him in the Lady Principal’s room. Report said that she had only +prayed him to keep out of the way, and not to upset her brain, and that +he had meekly obeyed—as one who knew what it was to have promotion +depending on it. + +It was a half truth, exaggerated, but it had not a happy effect on Vera. +Nevertheless, the finishing push of preparation brought on such a +succession of violent headaches as quite to disable the really delicate +boy. Moreover, the tutor declared that there had been little chance of +his success, and Dr. Dagger said that he had much better not try again. +The best hope for his health, and even for his life, was to keep him at +home for a few years, and give him light work. + +He had never been the pleasantest element in the household; and if his +parents were glad of the avoidance of the risk of a launch into the +world, and his mother’s love rejoiced in the power of watching over him, +there were others who felt his temper a continual trial, while his career +was a perplexity. + +However, Captain Henderson offered a clerkship at the Marble Works, +subject to Mr. White’s approval; and this was gratefully accepted. Nor +did Agatha come home again at the Long Vacation for more than two days, +in which there was no time for consultation with her sisters on matters +of uncertain import. + +Miss Arthuret and Elizabeth Merrifield had arranged together to take the +old roomy farmhouse on Penbeacon for three or four months, and there +receive parties of young women in need of rest, fresh air, and, in some +cases, of classes, or time for study. It was to be a sort of Holiday +House, though not altogether of idleness; and Dolores undertook to be a +kind of vice-president, with Agatha to pursue her reading under her +superintendence, and to assist in helping others, governesses, students, +schoolmistresses from Coalham, in whose behalf indeed the scheme had been +first started, and it was extremely delightful to Agatha, among many +others. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX—TWO WEDDINGS + + + “How happy by my mother’s side + When some dear friend became a bride! + To shine beyond the rest I was + In gay embroidery drest. + Vain of my drapery’s rich brocade, + I held my flowing locks to braid.” + + ANSTICE (_from the Greek_). + +“EPIDEMICS of marriage set in from time to time,” said Jane Mohun. +“Gillian has set the fashion.” + +For the Rock Quay neighbourhood was in a state of excitement over a +letter from Mrs. White, of Rocca Marina, announcing the approaching +marriage of Mr. White’s niece, Maura, with Lord Roger Grey, a nephew of +dear Emily’s husband, and heir to the Dukedom. The White family were +coming home for the wedding, and the interest entirely eclipsed that of +Gillian Merrifield’s. In fact, though that young lady somewhat justified +the Oxford stories, she was in a state of much inward agitation between +real love for Ernley, and pain in leaving home, so she put on an +absolutely imperturbable demeanour. Her reserve and dread of comments +made her so undemonstrative and repressive to her Captain that there were +those who doubted whether she cared for him at all, or only looked on her +wedding as a mediæval maiden might have done, as coming naturally a few +years after she had grown up. Ernley Armytage knew better, and so did +her parents. The wedding was hurried on by Captain Armytage’s +appointment to a frigate on the coast of Southern America, where he had +to join at once, in lieu of a captain invalided home; and Gillian +accepted the arrangements, which would take her to Rio, “as much a matter +of course,” said her aunt, “as if she had been a wife for ten years.” +Her uncle, Mr. Mohun, was anxious that the marriage of his sister Lily’s +daughter should take place at the family home, Beechcroft. If there had +been scruples, chiefly founded on the largeness of the party, and the +trouble to Mrs. Mohun, these were forgotten in the convenience of being +out of the way of Rockstone gossip, as well as for other reasons. + +“I should certainly have escaped,” said General Mohun. “I have no notion +of meeting that unmitigated scamp.” + +“Mr. White ought to be warned,” said Jane. + +“You’ll do so, I suppose; and much good it will be.” + +“I do not imagine that it will. It will be too charming to surpass +Franciska and Ivinghoe; but if neither you nor Jasper will speak to old +Tom, I shall deliver my conscience to Ada.” + +“And be advised to mind your own business.” + +Nevertheless, Jane Mohun did deliver her conscience, when, on the day +after the arrival, there had been loud lamentations over the intended +absence of the Merrifield family. “It would have looked well to make it +a double wedding, all in the family,” said Mr. White. + +To which Miss Mohun only answered by a silence which Mrs. White was +unwilling to break, but Maura exclaimed— + +“But I thought Valetta would be sure to be my bridesmaid. Such friends +as we were at the High School!” + +It did not strike Miss Mohun that the friendship had been very close or +very beneficial; but Adeline added, “We thought she would pair so well +with Vera Prescott, and then uncle will give all the dresses—white silk +with cerise trimmings. We ordered them in Paris.” + +“Uncle Tom is so generous!” said Maura. “There is no end to his +kindness. I’ll go and unpack some of the patterns, that Miss Mohun may +see them.” + +She tripped out of the room, and Jane exclaimed, “Poor child! Has Emily +written to you, Ada?” + +“Yes, rather stiffly. Mr. White thinks it aristocratic pride.” + +“Ada, you know it is not that.” + +“Well, I suppose the Greys are hardly gratified by the connection, though +Mr. White will make it worth their while. You see the Duke leaves +everything in his power to his daughters, so poor Roger will be very +badly off.” + +“But—” There was so much expressed in that “but” that Adeline began to +answer one of the sentiments she supposed it to convey. “He can do it +easily—for all the rest are provided for by the Marble Works—except the +two eldest brothers. Richard has gone away, and Alexis—oh, you know he +has notions of his own that Mr. White does not like.” + +“Does Mr. White know all about Lord Roger, or why the Duke should cut him +off as far as possible?” + +“My dear Jane, it is not charitable to bring things up against young +men’s follies.” + +“It is a pretty considerable folly to have done what compelled him to +retire. Reginald was called in at the inquiry, and knows all about it.” + +“But that was ages ago, and he has been quite distinguished in the +Turkish army.” + +“Yes; and I also know that English gentlemen have associated with him as +little as possible. I should call it a fatal thing to let Maura marry +him. What does Captain Henderson say?” + +“Mr. White thinks that it is all jealousy. And really, Jenny, I do not +in the least believe that he will make her unhappy. He is old enough to +have quite outgrown all his wild ways, and he has quite gentlemanly +manners and ways. Besides, Maura likes him, and is quite bent upon it.” + +Still there was a dissatisfied look on Jane’s face, and Adeline went on +answering it, with tears in her eyes. “My dear Jane, I know what you +would say, and what Reginald and all the rest feel, that it is not what +we should like! But, my dear, don’t let the whole family rise up in +arms! It would be of no use, only make it painful for me. Maura is +quite bent upon it, and she has arrived at turning her uncle round her +finger so much that I am sometimes hardly mistress of the house! Oh, I +don’t tell any one, not Lily nor any one, but it will really be a relief +to me when she is gone, with her Greek coaxing ways. Her uncle is +wrapped up in her, and so proud of her being a Duchess that he would +condone anything. Indeed, I am always afraid of her putting it into his +head to suppose that her disappointment about Ivinghoe was in any way +owing to my family pride.” + +Jane was sorry for Adeline, and able to perceive how the wifely feelings, +which she had taken on herself, by choosing a man of inferior breeding +and nature clashed with her hereditary character and principles. + +“You are absolutely relieved that the Beechcroft wedding takes all of us +out of the way naturally and without offence,” she said so kindly that +Ada laid her head on her sisterly shoulder, and allowed herself to shed a +few tears. + +“Yes, yes,” she said; “I am glad to have so good a reason to mention. +Only I do hope Jasper will not object to Valetta’s coming back to be +bridesmaid. That would really be a blow and give offence, and it would +make difficulties with others—even James Henderson, who swears by Jasper. +I have often wished they would have done as I advised, and have had this +wedding at Rocca Marina, out of the way of everybody! I sometimes think +it will be the death of me. Do come home to help me through it.” + +She spoke so like the Ada of old that it went to Jane’s heart. + +She promised that she would return in time to give the very substantial +assistance in which all believed, and the more sentimental support in +which nobody believed, though her distaste arose tenfold after seeing the +bridegroom, who looked like an old satyr, all the more because Maura was +like a Greek nymph. Mrs. Henderson was much grieved, and had tried +remonstrance with her sister, but found her quite impervious. + +Glad were all the Merrifields to escape to the quiet atmosphere of +Beechcroft, where the relations were able to congregate between the +Court, the Vicarage, and the more-distant Rotherwood; and the wedding was +an ideal one in ecclesiastical beauty, and the festivities of those who +had known and loved Lady Merrifield as Miss Lily in early youth, +grandmothers who had been her schoolchildren, and were pleased to hear +that she was a grandmother herself, and hoped in a year or two to welcome +her grandchildren. + +Alethea and her little Somervilles she had seen _en route_ to Canada, and +Phyllis was to come in due time when Bernard Underwood could be spared +from the bank in Colombo, and they would bring their little pair. + +In the matter of bridesmaids Gillian certainly had the advantage, for she +was amply provided with sisters and cousins, Dolores coming for a few +days for the wedding; whereas the six whom Maura had provided for +beforehand in Paris were only, as Miss Jane said, “scraped up” with +difficulty from former schoolfellows. Lord Roger’s nieces would not hear +of being present. Paulina was unwillingly pressed into the service, as +well as the more willing Vera; but Mysie Merrifield was not to be +persuaded to give up her visit to Lady Phyllis, and Aunt Jane could only +carry home Valetta, who held the whole as “capital fun,” and liked the +acquisition of the white silk and lace and cerise ribbons. Dolores had +negotiated that No. 6 of the Vanderkist girls should spend a year with +Miss Mohun for a final polish at the High School at Rock Quay, so as to +be with her brother Adrian, who was completing his term at the +preparatory school before his launch at Winchester. + +Wilfred also returned, father and uncle having decided that he did not +merit a game licence, nor to attack the partridges of Beechcroft, and the +prospect of the gaieties of Cliffe House consoled him. + +Adeline had to endure her husband’s mortification at other +disappointments. The Ducal family was wholly unrepresented. Even Emily, +the connecting link, would not venture on the journey; and the clerical +nephew was not sufficiently gratified by Lord Roger’s intention to _se +ranger_ to undertake to officiate; and a Bishop, who had enjoyed the +hospitality of Rocca Marina, proved to have other engagements. No +clergyman could be imported except Maura’s brother Alexis, who had been +two years at work at Coalham under Mr. Richard Burnet, and had just been +appointed by the newly-chosen Bishop of Onomootka, and both were to go +out with him as chaplains. In the meantime, while the Bishop was +preparing, by tours in England, Alexis undertook the duties of Mr. +Flight’s curate, rejoicing in the opportunity of seeing his elder sister, +and the old friends with whom he had never been since his unlucky +troubles with Gillian Merrifield, now no more. + +The delight of receiving him compensated to Kalliope Henderson for much +that was distressing to both in Maura’s choice. The seven years that had +passed had made him into a noble-looking man, with a handsome classical +countenance, lighted up by earnestness and devotion, a fine voice and +much musical skill, together with a bright attractive manner that, all +unconsciously on his part, had turned the heads of half the young +womanhood of Coalham, and soon had the same effect at Rock Quay. + +Vera and Paulina were in a state of much excitement over their white +silks, in which the three other sisters took great pleasure in arraying +them, and Thekla only wished that Hubert could see them. She should send +him out a photograph, buying it herself with her own money. + +She was, of course, to see the wedding, in her Sunday white and broad +pink sash, of the appropriateness of which she was satisfied when, at +Beechcroft, they met Miss Mohun’s young friend, Miss Vanderkist, in the +same garb. She and her brother had been put under Magdalen’s protection, +as Miss Mohun was too much wanted at Cliffe House to look after them; but +Sir Adrian, a big boy of twelve, wanted to go his own way, and only +handed her over with “Hallo, Miss Prescott! you’ll look after this +pussy-cat of ours while Aunt Jane is dosing Aunt Ada with salts and sal +volatile. She—I’ll introduce you! Miss Prescott, Miss Felicia +Vanderkist! She wants to be looked after, she is a little kitten that +has never seen anything! I’m off to Martin’s.” + +The stranger did look very shy. She was a slight creature, not yet +seventeen, with an abundant mass of long golden silk hair tied loosely, +and a very lovely face and complexion, so small that she was a miniature +edition of Lady Ivinghoe. + +Her name was Wilmet Felicia, but the latter half had been always used in +the family, and there was something in the kitten grace that suited the +arbitrary contractions well. In fact, Jane Mohun had been rather +startled to find that she had the charge of such a little beauty, when +she saw how people turned around at the station to look, certainly not at +Valetta, who was a dark bright damsel of no special mark. + +At church, however, every one was in much too anxious a state to gaze at +the coming procession to have any eyes to spare for a childish girl in a +quiet white frock. St. Andrew’s had never seen such a crowded +congregation, for it was a wedding after Mr. White’s own heart, in which +nobody dared to interfere, not even his wife, whatever her good taste +might think. So the church was filled, and more than filled, by all who +considered a wedding as legitimate gape seed, and themselves as not bound +to fit behaviour in church. On such an occasion Magdalen, being a +regular attendant, and connected with the bridesmaids, was marshalled by +a churchwarden into a reserved seat; but there they were dismayed by the +voices and the scrambling behind them, which, in the long waiting, the +Vicar from the vestry vainly tried to subdue by severe looks; and +Felicia, whose notions of wedding behaviour were moulded on Vale Lecton +and Beechcroft, looked as if she thought she had got into the house of +Duessa, amid all Pride’s procession, as in the prints in the +large-volumed “Faërie Queene.” + +And when, on the sounds of an arrival, the bridegroom stood forth, the +resemblance to Sans Foy was only too striking, while the party swept up +the church, the bride in the glories of cobweb veil, white satin, &c., +becomingly drooping on her uncle’s arm, while he beamed forth, expansive +in figure and countenance, with delight. Little Jasper Henderson, +anxious and patronising to his tiny brother Alexis, both in white pages’ +dresses picked out with cerise, did his best to support the endless +glistening train. + +The bridesmaids’ costumes taxed the descriptive powers of the milliners +in splendour and were scarcely eclipsed by the rich brocade and lace of +Mrs. White, as she sailed in on Captain Henderson’s arm; but her +elaborate veil and feathery bonnet hardly concealed the weary tedium of +her face, though to the shame, well nigh horror, of her sister, she was +rouged. “I must, I must,” she said; “he would be vexed if I looked +pale.” + +It was true that “he” loved her heartily, and that he put all the world +at her service; but she had learnt where he must not be offended, and was +on her guard. Hers had been the last wedding that Jane had attended in +St. Andrew’s. “Did she repent?” was Jane’s thought. No, probably not. +She had the outward luxuries she had craved for, and her husband was +essentially a good man, though not of the caste to which her instincts +belonged—very superior in nature and conscience to him to whom his +blinded vanity was now giving his beautiful niece, a willing sacrifice. + +It was over! More indecorous whispering and thronging; and the +procession came down the aisle, to be greeted outside by a hail of +confetti and rice; the schoolboys, profiting by the dinner interval, and +headed by Adrian, had jostled themselves into the foreground, and they +ran headlong to the portico of Cliffe House to renew the shower. + +And there, unluckily, Mr. White recognised the boy, and, pleased to have +anything with a title to show, turned him round to the bridegroom, with, +“Here, Lord Roger, let me introduce a guest, Sir Adrian Vanderkist.” + +“Ha, I didn’t know poor Van had left a son. I knew your father, my boy. +Where was it I saw him last? Poor old chap!” + +“You must come in to taste the cake, my boy,” began Mr. White. + +“Thank you, Mr. White, I must get back to Edgar’s. Late already. The +others are off.” + +“Not a holiday! For shame! He’ll excuse you. I’ll send a note down to +say you must stay to drink the health of your father’s old friend.” + +Those words settled the matter with Adrian. The holiday was enticing, +and might have overpowered the chances of a scholarship, for which he was +working; but he had begun to know that there were perplexities from which +it was safer to retreat; and that he had never transgressed his Uncle +Clement’s warning might be read in the clear open face that showed +already the benefits, not only of discipline, but of self-control. So +obedience answered the question; though, as he again thanked and refused, +he looked so dogged as he turned and walked off, that Ethel Varney +whispered to Vera that at school he was called, “the Dutchman, if not the +Boer.” + +Nor did he ever mention the temptation or his own resistance. Only Mr. +White asked Miss Mohun to bring him to the dance which was to be given in +the evening, telling her of his refusal of the invitation to wedding cake +and champagne and she—mindful of her duty to her charge as hinted by +Clement Underwood—had not granted the honour of his presence on the score +of his school obligations. + +The afternoon was spent in desultory wanderings about the gardens, +Magdalen and her sisters being invited guests, and Vera in a continual +state of agitated expectation. Had not Wilfred Merrifield always been a +cavalier of her own? And here he was, paying no attention to her, with +all the embellishment of her bridesmaid’s adornments, and squiring +instead that little insignificant Felicia, in a simple hat, and hair +still on her shoulders; whilst she had to put up with nothing better than +a young Varney, who was very shy, and had never probably mastered +croquet. + +She was an ill-used mortal; and why had she not Hubert to show how +superior she was to them all, in having a piece of property of her own to +show off? + +There was Paula, too, playing animated tennis with that clerical brother +of the bride, who had been talking to Magdalen about the frescoes of St. +Kenelm’s (as if she, Vera, had not the greatest right to know all about +those frescoes!). Even little Thekla was better off, for she was +reigning over a merry party of the little ones, which had been got up for +the benefit of the small Hendersons, and of which Theodore White had +constituted himself the leader, being a young man passionately devoted to +little children. + +So when the guests dispersed to eat their dinner at their homes and dress +for the dance, Vera was extremely cross. Each of the other three had +some delightful experiences to talk over; but whether it was Mr. +Theodore’s fun in acting ogre behind the great aloe, or Mr. Alexis’s +achievements with the croquet ball, or his information about the Red +Indians and Onomootka, she was equally ungracious to all; she scolded +Thekla for crumpling her skirt, and was quite sure that Paula had on the +wrong _fichu_ that was meant for her. Each bridesmaid had been presented +with a bracelet, like a snake with ruby eyes; but Vera, fingering hers +with fidgeting petulance, seemed to have managed to loosen the clasp, and +when arranging her dress for the evening thought that her snake had +escaped. + +Upstairs and downstairs she rushed in hopes of finding it. The cab in +which they had returned was gone home to come again, and there was the +chance that it might be there or in the Cliffe House gardens; and then +the others tried to console her, but they were not able to hinder a +violent burst of crying, which scandalised Thekla. + +“I am sure you couldn’t cry more if you had lost Hubert’s, and that would +be something worth crying about.” + +Hubert’s was an ingeniously worked circle of scales of Californian gold, +the first ornament that Vera had ever possessed, and that all the sisters +had set great store by. But with an outcry of joy Vera exclaimed, +“Here’s the snake all safe! I pushed the other up my arm because it +looked so plain and dull, and it was that which came off.” + +“That is a great deal worse than losing the snake,” said Thekla. “He has +a nasty face, and I don’t like him, with his red eyes.” + +“Don’t be silly,” returned Vera; “this is a great deal more valuable.” + +“Surely the value is in the giver,” said Paula; to which Vera returned in +the same vein, “Don’t be silly and sentimental, Polly.” + +She was so much cheered by the recovery of the snake that they brought +her off to the evening dance without a fresh fit of ill-humour, and she +sprang out under the portico of Cliffe House, with her spirits raised to +expectation pitch. + +But disappointment was in store for her. It was not disappointment in +other eyes. Paula had all the attention she expected or desired, she +danced almost every time and did not reckon greatly on who might be her +partner. What pleased and honoured her most was being asked to dance by +Captain Henderson himself. + +What was it to Vera, however, that partners came to her, young men of +Rock Quay whom she knew already and did not care about? And she never +once had the pleasure of saying that she was keeping the next dance for +Wilfred Merrifield! To her perceptions, he was always figuring away with +Felicia Vanderkist, her golden hair seemed always gleaming with him; and +though this was not always the case, as the nephew of the house was one +of those who had duties to guests and was not allowed by his aunts to be +remiss, yet whenever he was not ordered about by them, he was sure to be +found by Felicia’s side. + +Vera’s one consolation was that Alexis White took her to supper. To be +sure he was a clergyman, and had stood talking to Lady Flight half the +time, and his conversation turned at once to Hubert Delrio’s frescoes; +but then he was very handsome, and graceful in manner, and he sympathised +with her on the loss of her bracelet, and promised to have a search for +it by daylight in the gardens. + + + + +CHAPTER XX—FLEETING + + + “And variable as the shade + By the light quivering aspen made.” + + —SCOTT. + +THE bracelet came to light in the gardens of Cliffe House the next +morning, and Alexis White walked over to the Goyle to return it safely, +little guessing, when he set forth to enjoy the sight of the purple +moors, and to renew old recollections, what a flutter of gratified vanity +would be excited in one silly little breast, though he only stayed ten +minutes, and casually asked whether the sisters were coming to Lady +Flight’s garden party. Everybody was going there. Miss Mohun even took +Felicia, as it was on a Saturday’s holiday; and, unwittingly, she renewed +all the agitation caused by Wilfred’s admiration, and that of others, to +the all-unconscious girl. Vera could no longer think herself the +reigning belle of Rock Quay, though she talked of Felicia as a schoolgirl +or a baby, or a horrid little forward chit! Her excitement was, however, +divided between Wilfred and Mr. Alexis White, who could not look in her +direction without putting her in a state of eagerness. + +In this, however, she was not alone. Half the ladies were interested +about him; his manners were charming, his voice in church beautiful, and +his destination as chaplain to a missionary bishop made him doubly +interesting; while he himself, even though his mind was set on higher +things, was really enjoying his brief holiday, and his sister, Mrs. +Henderson, was delighted to promote his pleasure, and garden parties and +the like flourished as long as weather permitted; and as Vera was a +champion player, she was sure to be asked to the tournaments, and to have +to practise for them. + +Inopportunely there arrived a letter from Hubert, requiring an answer +about the form of ornament in the moulding of the fourteenth century! +Paula dutifully went to the library, looked out and traced two or three +examples, French and English. Nothing remained but for Vera to write the +letter after the early dinner. However, she went to sleep in a hammock, +and only roused herself to recollect that there was to be tea and lawn +tennis at Carrara. + +“Won’t you just write to Hubert first?” + +“Oh, bother, how can I now? Don’t worry so!” + +“But, Flapsy, he really needs it without loss of time.” + +“I’m sure he has no right to make me his clerk in that horrid peremptory +way, as if one had nothing else to do but wait on his fads.” + +“Flapsy, how can you?” broke out even Thekla. + +“Surely it is the greatest honour,” said Paula. + +“Well, do it yourself then, I’m not going to be bothered for ever.” + +Thekla went off, in great indignation, to beg “sister” to speak to +Flapsy, and beg her not to use dear Hubert so very very badly, which of +course Magdalen refused to do, and Thekla had her first lesson on the +futility of interfering with engaged folk; Paula meanwhile sent off the +despatch, with one line to say that Vera was too busy to write that day. + +There had been two or three letters from Hubert, over which Vera had +looked cross, but had said nothing; and at last she came down from her +own room, and announced passionately, “There! I have done with Mr. +Hubert Delrio, and have written to tell him so!” + +“Vera, what have you done?” + +“Written to tell him I have no notion of a man being so tiresome and +dictatorial! I don’t want a schoolmaster to lecture me, and expect me to +drudge over his work as if I was his clerk.” + +“My dear,” said Magdalen, “have you had a letter that vexed you? Had you +not better wait a little to think it over?” + +“No! Nonsense, Maidie! He has been provoking ever so long, and I won’t +bear it any longer!” and she flounced into a chair. + +“Provoking! Hubert!” was all Paulina could utter, in her amazement and +horror. + +“Oh, I daresay you would like it well enough! Always at me to slave for +him with stupid architectural drawings and stuff, as if I was only a sort +of clerk or fag! And boring me to read great dull books, and preaching +to me about them, expecting to know what I think! Dear me!” + +“Those nice letters!” sighed Paula. + +“Nice! As if any one that was one bit in love would write such as that! +No, I don’t want to marry a schoolmaster or a tyrant!” + +“How can you, Flapsy?” went on Paula, so vehemently that Magdalen left +the defence thus far to her; “when he only wishes for your sympathy and +improvement.” + +The worst plea she could have used, thought the elder sister, as Vera +broke out with, “Improvement, indeed! If he cared for me, he would not +think I wanted any _improving_! But he never did! Or he would have +taken Pratt and Povis’ offer, and I should have been living in London and +keeping my carriage! Or he would have taken me to Italy! But that +horrid home of his, and his mother just like a half-starved hare! I +might have seen then it was not fit for me; but I was a child, and +over-persuaded among you all! But I know better now, and I know my own +mind, as I didn’t then. So you need not talk! I have done with him.” + +“Oh, Flapsy, Flapsy, how can you grieve him so? You don’t know what you +are throwing away!” incoherently cried Paula, collapsing in a burst of +tears. “Maidie, Maidie, why don’t you speak to her, and tell her how +wicked it is—and—and—and—” + +The rest was cut short by sobs. + +“No, Paula, authority or reasoning of mine would not touch such a mood as +this. We must leave it to Hubert himself. If she really cares for him, +she will have recovered from her fit of temper by the time his letter can +come, and it may have an effect upon her, if our tongues have not +increased her spirit of opposition. I strongly advise you to say +nothing.” + +Paula tried to take her sister’s advice, and would have adhered to it, +but that Vera would talk and try to make her declare the rupture to have +been justified; and this produced an amount of wrangling which did good +to no one. Magdalen really rejoiced when the frequent golf and tennis +parties carried Vera on her bicycle out of reach of arguing, even if it +took her into the alternative of flirtation. + +Thekla cried bitterly, and declared that she should never speak to Flapsy +again; but in half an hour’s time was heard chattering about the +hedgehog’s meal of cockroaches. In another week the excitement was over. +The Bishop of Onomootka had come and gone, after holding meetings and +preaching sermons at Rock Quay and all the villages round, and had +carried off Alexis White with him. + +Nothing had come of the intercourse of the latter with his rich uncle, +nor of the varieties of encounters with the damsels of Rock Quay, except +that society was declared by more than one to have become horridly flat +and slow. + +Vera was one of these, and the letters received from Hubert Delrio did +not stir up a fresh excitement. There were no persuasions to revoke her +decision, no urgent entreaties, no declaration of being heart-broken. He +acquiesced in her assurance that the engagement had been a mistake; and +he wrote at more length to Magdalen, avowing that he had for some time +past traced discontent in Vera’s letters, and fearing that he had been +too didactic and peremptory in writing to her. He relinquished the +engagement with much regret, and should always regard it as having been a +fair summer dream—but, though undeserving, he hoped still to retain Miss +Prescott’s kindness and friendship, which had been of untold value to +him. + +A little more zeal and distress would have been much more pleasing to +Vera; and she began to be what Agatha and Thekla called cross, and Paula +called drooping, and even excited alarm in her, lest Flapsy should be +going into a decline. But a note came to the Goyle which Magdalen read +alone, and likewise she cycled alone to Rockstone. + +“Miss Mohun, can you give me a few minutes?” said she, as the trim little +figure emerged from beneath the copper beeches, basket in hand. + +“By all means; I shall not be due at the cutting-out meeting till three +o’clock.” + +“I wanted to consult you about an invitation that Mrs. White has been so +very kind as to give my little sister, Vera.” + +“Oh!” quoth Jane Mohun, in a dry sort of tone. + +“I know that she had wished to take out one of her own nieces to Rocca +Marina, but that Sir Jasper did not wish it, and I thought perhaps it +would be easier for you than for Lady Merrifield to tell me whether there +is any objection that would apply to Vera.” + +“I suppose Vera wishes to go?” + +“She is so wild with delight that it would be a serious thing to +disappoint her. Mrs. White is very kind and good, and has thought that +she has flagged of late, and has supposed it might be due to poor Hubert +Delrio, but, indeed, it was no fault of his.” + +“None at all, except for out-growing her.” + +“The offer was hinted at to go with Valetta even before we knew it was +declined at Clipstone, and that made me anxious to know whether it would +be well for me to send Vera. I suppose she would pick up pronunciation +of languages, which would be a great advantage, as she will have to earn +her own living, and Mrs. White is so good as to promise lessons in arts +and music. I hear, too, it is quite an English colony, with a church and +schools.” + +“Oh, yes, Mr. White is a very good and careful man about his workmen. I +have been there at the Henderson’s wedding, and it is a charming place, a +castle fit for Mrs. Radclyffe, with English comforts, and an Italian +garden and an English village on the mountain side. My sister would do +all that she promises, and would look after any young girl very well; you +may quite trust her.” + +“Then is there any fear of Italian society?—not that poor Vera has any +attraction _of that kind_,” hesitated Magdalen. + +“None at all. All the society they have is of English travellers coming +with introductions. I fancy it is very dull at times, and that Adeline +wants a young person about her. You need have no fears. Ah! I see you +still want to know why the Merrifields don’t consent. It is not their +way. They would not let the Rotherwoods have Mysie to bring up with +Phyllis, and—and Val is just the being that needs a mother’s eye over +her. But I really and honestly think that your Vera may quite safely be +put under Adeline’s care, and that she is likely to be all the better for +it.” + +“One thing more,” added Magdalen, with a little hesitation; “is your +nephew, Wilfred, likely to be one of the party?” + +“None at all. His father wants to keep him under his own eye, and his +mother is anxious about his health; nor do I think Mr. White wants him, +having his own two nephews, who are useful, so he will remain under +Captain Henderson here.” + +“Thank you! That settles it in my mind. I am sure the change to a fresh +home will be an excellent thing for my poor Vera, and that the training +of imitation of one to whom she looks up is what she most needs.” + +“Very true,” said Miss Mohun. + +And as she afterwards said to Lady Merrifield, “It was in all sincerity +and honesty that I gave the advice to Magdalen, who is very sensible in +the matter. In plain English, Ada can’t do without a lady in waiting, +and Vera probably fancies that Lords, young or old, start from every wave +like the spirits of our fathers, at Rocca Marina, in which she will +probably be disappointed; but Ada will be a very dragon as to her manners +and discretion, and not being his own niece, old Tom White will not be +deluded by his ambition and any blandishments of hers. As people go, +they are very safe guardians, and Vera—Flapsy as they call her—is just of +the composition to be improved, and not disimproved, by living with Ada.” + +“Probably, though I do not like the foolish little puss to be rewarded +for throwing over young Delrio.” + +“He was so much too good for her that I am more inclined to reward her +for doing so!” + +Agatha, however, came home somewhat annoyed by the whole arrangement. +She supposed the rupture with Hubert might have been inevitable; but she +was very sorry for it, thinking that Vera might have grown up to him, and +regretting the losing him as a brother. Nor did she like the atmosphere +of the Whites and Rocca Marina for her feather-brained young sister. +“Dolores had no great opinion of her Aunt Adeline,” she said. + +“My dear,” said Magdalen, as they sat over their early fire, “I have +talked it over with Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, and they both tell me +that Mrs. White is very sensible, and sure to be discreet for any girl in +her charge—probably better for Flapsy than a more intellectual woman.” + +“But—! Such a marriage as this one!” said Agatha. + +“It was Mr. White’s own niece, and taken out of Mrs. White’s hands,” said +Magdalen. “Besides,” as Agatha still looked unconvinced, “one thing that +made me think the invitation desirable was that it would break off any +foolishness with Wilfred Merrifield—I think it was in their minds too.” + +“Wilfred! Oh, there was a little nonsense.” + +“Less on his side, since Felicia Vanderkist has been here; but I think +Vera has been all the more disposed to—to—” + +“Run after him,” said Agatha. “I could fancy it in Flapsy; but he is +such a boy, and not half so nice-looking as the rest of them either.” + +“My dear Agatha, I must tell you he reminds me strangely of a young Mr. +Merrifield whom I knew at Filsted when I was younger than you.” + +“A brother of Bessie?” + +“Even so. He got into some kind of trouble at Filsted, his father came +and broke it off, and sent him out to Canada, where I fear he did not do +well, and nothing has been heard of him since, except—” + +She spoke with a catch in her voice which made Agatha look up at her, and +detect a rising colour. + +“Nothing!” she repeated. + +“Except an anonymous parcel, returning to the brothers in Canada the sum +he had taken with him. Strangely, the clue was not followed up, and he +is lost sight of! But Wilfred’s air, and still more his manner, is +always recalling his cousin to me, and, Nag, dear, I could not bear to +see Vera go through the same trial by my exposing her to the intercourse. +Not that I know any harm of Wilfred, but his parents could not like +anything of the kind.” + +“Certainly not! Yes, I suppose you are right, dear old Maidie.” But +Agatha pondered over those words that had slipped out, “the same trial.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXI—THE ELECTRICIANS + + + “Thou shalt have the air + Of freedom. Follow and do me service.” + + —“THE TEMPEST.” + +“IS Agatha in?” asked Dolores Mohun, jumping off her bicycle as she saw +Magdalen, on a frosty day the next Christmas vacation, in her garden. + +“She is doing scientific arithmetic with Thekla; giving me a holiday, in +fact! You University maidens quite take the shine out of us poor old +teachers.” + +“Ah! if we can give shine we can’t give substance. But I want to borrow +Nag, if you have no objection.” + +“Borrow her! I am sure it is something she will like.” + +“It is in the way of business, but she will like it all the same. They +want me to give a course of lectures on electricity at Bexley to the +Institute and the two High Schools, and I particularly want a skilled +assistant, whom I can depend upon; not masters, nor boys! Now Nag is +just what I should like. We should stay at Lancelot Underwood’s, a very +charming place to be at.” + +“Isn’t he some connection?” + +“Connection all round. Phyllis Merrifield married his brother, banking +in Ceylon, and may come home any day on a visit; and Ivinghoe’s pretty +wife is Lancelot’s niece. He edits what is really the crack newspaper of +the county, in spite of its being true blue Conservative, Church and +all.” + +“The _Pursuivant_? It has such good literary articles.” + +“Oh, yes! Mrs. Grinstead and Canon Harewood write them. His wife is a +daughter of old Dr. May—rather a peculiar person, but very jolly in her +way.” + +“But would they like to have Agatha imposed upon them?” + +“Certainly; they are just the people to like nothing better, and it will +only be for a fortnight. I have settled it all with them.” + +At which Magdalen looked a little doubtful, but Dolores reiterated that +there need be no scruple, she might ask Aunt Lily if she liked; but Lance +Underwood was Mayor, and member of all the committees, and the most +open-hearted man in the world besides, and it was all right. + +To the further demur as to safety, Dolores answered that to light a +candle or sit by the fire might be dangerous, but as long as people were +careful, it was all right, and Agatha had already assisted in some +experiments at Rock Quay, which had shown her to be thoroughly +understanding and trustworthy, and capable of keeping off the amateur—the +great bugbear. + +So Magdalen consented, after rapturous desires on the part of Agatha, and +assurances from General Mohun that Dolores had it in her by inheritance +and by training to meddle with the lightning as safely as human being +might; and Lady Merrifield owned with a sigh that she must accept as a +fact that what even the heathens owned as a Divine mystery and awful +attribute, had come to be treated as a commonplace business messenger and +scientific toy, though (as Mrs. Gatty puts it) the mystery had only gone +deeper. So much for the peril; and for the other scruple, it was set at +rest by a hospitable letter from Mrs. Underwood, heartily inviting Miss +Agatha Prescott, as an Oxford friend of Gillian. + +So off the two electricians set, and after two days of business and +sight-seeing in London, went down to Bexley. In the third-class carriage +in which they travelled they were struck by the sight of a tall lady in +mourning—a sort of compromise between a conventual and a secular bonnet +over short fair hair, and holding on her lap a tiny little girl of about +six years old, with a small, pinched, delicate face and slightly red +hair, to whom she pointed out by name each spot they passed, herself +wearing an earnest absorbed look of recognition as she pointed out +familiar landmark after landmark till the darkness came down. Also there +were two cages—one with a small pink cockatoo, and another with two +budgerigars. + +As the train began slackening Dolores exclaimed: + +“There he is! Lance—!” + +“Lance! Oh, Lance!” was echoed; and setting the child down, her +companion almost fell across Agatha, and was at the window as the train +stopped. + +What happened in the next moment no one could quite tell; but as the door +was torn open there was a mingled cry of “Angel!” and of “Lance!” and the +traveller was in his arms, turning the next moment to lift out the +frightened little girl, who clung tight round her neck; while Lance held +out his hand with, “Dolores! Yes. This is Dolores, Angel, whom you have +never seen.” + +Each knew who the other was in a moment, and clasped hands in greeting, +as well as they could with the one, and the other receiving bird-cages, +handbags, umbrellas, and rugs from Agatha, whom, however, Lance relieved +of them with a courteous, “Miss Prescott! You have come in for the +arrival of my Australian sister! What luggage have you?” Wherewith all +was absorbed in the recognition of boxes, and therewith a word or two to +an old railway official, “My sister Angela.” + +“Miss Angela! this is an unexpected pleasure!” + +“Tom Lightfoot! is it you? You are not much altered. Mr. Dane, I should +have known you anywhere!” with corresponding shakes of the hand. + +“Yes, that’s ours. Oh, the birds! There they are! All right! Oh! not +the omnibus, Lance! Let the traps go in that! Then Lena will like to +stretch her legs, and I must revel in the old street.” + +Dolores and Agatha felt it advisable to squeeze themselves with the +bird-cages into the omnibus, and leave the brother and sister to walk +down together, though the little girl still adhered closely to her +protector’s hand. + +“Poor Field’s little one? Yes, of course.” + +“But tell me! tell me of them all!” + +“All well! all right! But how—” + +“The _Mozambique_ was out of coal and had to put in at Falmouth. You +know, I came by her because they said the long sea voyage would be best +for this child, and it was so long since I had heard of any one that I +durst not send anywhere till I knew—and I knew Froggatt’s would be in its +own place. Oh! there’s the new hotel! the gas looks just the same! +There’s the tower of St. Oswald’s, all shadowy against the sky. Look, +Lena! Oh! this is home! I know the lamps. I’ve dreamt of them! Tired, +Lena, dear? cold? Shall I carry you?” + +“No, no; let me!” and he lifted her up, not unwillingly on her part, +though she did not speak. “You are a light weight,” he said. + +“I am afraid so,” answered Angel. “Oh! there’s the bus stopping at Mr. +Pratt’s door.” + +“Mine, now. We have annexed it.” + +“But let me go in by the dear old shop. The window is as of old, I see. +Ernest Lamb! don’t you know me?” as a respectable tradesman came forward. +“And Achille, is it? You are as much changed as this old shop is +transmogrified! And they are all well? Do you mean Bernard?” + +“Bernard and Phyllis may come home any day to deposit a child. They lost +their boy, and hope to save the elder one. But come, Angel! if you have +taken in enough we must go up to those electrical girls. Dolores is come +to give a lecture, with the other girl to assist, Miss Prescott.” + +“Dolores! Yes, poor Gerald’s love! They are almost myths to me. Ah!” +as Lancelot opened his office-door, “now I know where I am! And there’s +the old staircase! This is the real thing, and no mistake.” + +“Angel, Angel, come to tea!” And Gertrude, comfortable and substantial, +in loving greeting threw arms round the new comers, Lance still carrying +the child, who clung round his neck as he brought her into the room, full +of his late fellow travellers, and also of a group of children. + +“It is as if we had gone back thirty years or more,” was Angela’s cry, as +she looked forth on what had been as little altered as possible from the +old family centre; and Lance, setting down the child, spoke as the pretty +little blue-eyed girls advanced to exchange kisses with their new aunt. + +“Margaret, or Pearl, whom you knew as a baby; Etheldred, or Awdrey, and +Dickie! Fely is at Marlborough. There, take little Lena—is that her +name—to your table, and give her some tea.” + +“Her name is Magdalen,” said Angela, removing the little black hat and +smoothing the hair; but Lena backed against her, and let her hand hang +limp in Pearl’s patronising clasp. Nor would she amalgamate with the +children, nor even eat or drink except still beside “Sister,” as she +called Angela. In fact, she was so thoroughly worn out and tired, as +well as shy and frightened, that Angela’s attention was wholly given to +her and she could only be put to bed, but not in the nursery, which, as +Angel said, seemed to her like a den of little wild beasts. So she was +deposited in the chamber and bed hastily prepared for the unexpected +guest; and even there, being wakeful and feverish from over-fatigue, +there was no leaving her alone, and Gertrude, after seeing her safely +installed, could only go down with the hope that she would be able to +spare her slave or nurse, which was it? by dinner-time. + +“Who is that child so like?” said Dolores, in their own room. + +“Very like somebody, but I can’t tell whom,” said Agatha. “Who did you +say she is?” + +“I cannot say I exactly know,” said Dolores. “I believe she is the +daughter of Fulbert Underwood’s mate, on a sheep-farm in Queensland, and +that as her mother died when she was born, she has been always under the +care of this Angela, living in the Sisterhood there.” + +“Not a Sister?” + +“Not under vows, certainly. I never saw her before, but I believe she is +rather a funny flighty person, and that Fulbert was afraid at one time +that she would marry this child’s father.” + +“Is he alive?” + +“Which? Fulbert died four or five years ago, and I think the little +girl’s father must be dead, for she is in mourning.” + +“There’s something very charming about her—Miss Underwood.” + +“Yes there is. They all seem to be very fond of her, and yet to laugh +about her, and never to be quite sure what she will do next.” + +“Did I not hear of her being so useful among the Australian black women?” + +“No one has ever managed those very queer gins so well; and she is an +admirable nurse too, they say. I am very glad to have come in her way.” + +They did not, however, see much of her that evening. The head master of +the Grammar School and his wife, the head mistress of the High School, +and a few others had been invited to meet them; and Angela could only +just appear at dinner, trusting to a slumber of her charge, but, on +coming out of the dining-room, a wail summoned her upstairs at once, and +she was seen no more that night. + +However, with morning freshness, Lena showed herself much less +_farouche_, and willing to accept the attentions of Mr. Underwood first, +and, later, of his little daughter Pearl—a gentle, elder sisterly person, +who knew how to avert the too rough advances of Dick—and made warm +friends over the pink cockatoo; while Awdrey was entranced by the +beauties of the budgerigars. + +Robina had been informed by telegram, and came up from Minsterham with +her husband, looking just like his own father, and grown very broad. He +was greatly interested in the lecture, and went off to it, to consider +whether it would be desirable for the Choristers’ School. Lancelot had, +of course, to go, and Angela declared that she must be brought up to +date, and rejoiced that Lena was able to submit to be left with the other +children under the protection of Mrs. Underwood, who averred that she +abhorred electricity in all its forms, and that if Lance were induced to +light the town, or even the shop by that means, he must begin by +disposing of her by a shock. + +It was an excellent lecture, only the two sisters hardly heard it. They +could think of nothing but that they were once more sitting side by side +in the old hall, where they had heard and shared in so many concerts, on +the gala days of their home life. + +The two lecturers, as well as the rest of the party, were urgently +entreated to stay to tea at the High School; but when the interest of the +new arrival was explained, the sisters and brother were released to go +home, Canon Harewood remaining to content their hostesses. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII—ANGEL AND BEAR + + + “Enough of science and of art! + Close up those barren leaves, + Come forth, and bring with you a heart + That watches and receives.” + + —WORDSWORTH. + +A TELEGRAM had been handed to Mr. Mayor, which he kept to himself, +smiling over it, and he—at least—was not taken utterly by surprise at the +sight of a tall handsome man, who stepped forward with something like a +shout. + +“Angel! Lance! Why, is it Robin, too?” + +“Bear, Bear, old Bear, how did you come?” + +“I couldn’t stop when I heard at Clipstone that Angel was here, so I left +Phyllis and the kid with her mother. Oh, Angel, Angel, to meet at Bexley +after all!” + +They clung together almost as they had done when they were the riotous +elements of the household, while Lance opened the front door, and Robina, +mindful of appearances, impelled them into the hall, Bernard exclaiming, +“Pratt’s room! Whose teeth is it?” + +“Don’t you want Wilmet to hold your hands and make you open your mouth?” +said Lance, laughing. + +Gertrude, who had already received the Indian arrival, met Angela, who +was bounding up to see to her charge, with, “Not come in yet! She is +gone out with the children quite happily, with Awdrey’s doll in her arms. +Come and enjoy each other in peace.” + +“In the office, please,” said Angela. “That is home. We shall be our +four old selves.” + +Lance opened the office door, and gave a hint to Mr. Lamb, while they +looked at each other by the fire. + +Bernard was by far the most altered. The others were slightly changed, +but still their “old selves,” while he was a grave responsible man, +looking older than Lancelot, partly from the effects of climate; but +Angela saw enough to make her exclaim, “Here we are! Don’t you feel as +if we were had down to Felix to be blown up?” + +“Not a bit altered,” said Bernard, looking at the desks and shelves of +ledgers, with the photographs over the mantelpiece—Felix, Mr. Froggatt, +the old foreman, and a print of Garofalo’s Vision of St. Augustine, hung +up long ago by Felix, as Lance explained, as a token of the faith to +which all human science and learning should be subordinated. + +“A declaration of the _Pursuivant_,” said Angela. “How Fulbert did look +out for _Pur_! I believe it was his only literature.” + +“Phyllis declares,” said Bernard, “that nothing so upsets me as a failure +in _Pur’s_ arrival.” + +“And this is _Pur’s_ heart and centre!” said Robina. + +“Only,” added Angela, “I miss the smell of burnt clay that used to +pervade the place, and that Alda so hated.” + +“Happily the clay is used up,” said Lance. “I could not have brought +Gertrude and the children here if the ceramic art, as they call it, had +not departed. Cherry was so delighted at our coming to live here. She +loved the old struggling days.” + +“Fulbert said he never felt as if he had been at home till he came here. +He never _took_ to Vale Leston.” + +“Clement and Cherry have settled in very happily,” said Robina, “with +convalescent clergy in the Vicarage.” + +“I say, Angel, let us have a run over there,” cried Bernard, “you and I +together, for a bit of mischief.” + +“Do, _do_ let us! Though this is real home, our first waking to +perception and naughtiness, it is more than Vale Leston. We seem to have +been up in a balloon all those five happy years.” + +“A balloon?” said Bernard. “Nay, it seems to me that till they were +over, I never thought at all except how to get the most rollicking and +the finest rowing out of life. It seems to me that I had about as much +sense as a green monkey.” + +“Something sank in, though,” said Lance; “you did not drift off like poor +Edgar.” + +“Some one must have done so,” said Angela. “I wanted to ask you, Lancey, +about advertising for my little Lena’s people; the Bishop said I ought.” + +“I say,” exclaimed Bernard, “was it her father that was Fulbert’s mate? +I thought he was afraid of your taking up with him. You didn’t?” + +“No, no. Let me tell you, I want you to know. Field and a little wife +came over from Melbourne prospecting for a place to sit down in. They +had capital, but the poor wife was worn out and ill, and after taking +them in for a night, Fulbert liked them. Field was an educated man and a +gentleman, and Ful offered them to stay there in partnership. So they +stayed, and by and by this child was born, and the poor mother died. The +two great bearded men came galloping over to Albertstown from +Carrigaboola, with this new born baby, smaller than even Theodore was, +and I had the care of her from the very first, and Field used to ride +over and see the little thing.” + +“And—?” said Bernard, in a rather teasing voice, as his eyes actually +looked at Angela’s left hand. + +“I’ll own it _did_ tempt me. I had had some great disappointments with +my native women, running wild again, and I could not bear my child having +a horrid stepmother; and there was the glorious free bush life, and the +horses and the sheep! But then I thought of you all saying Angel had +broken out again; and by and by Fulbert came and told me that he was sure +there was some ugly mystery, and spoke to Mother Constance, and they made +me promise not to take him unless it was cleared up. Then, as you know, +dear Ful’s horse fell with him; Field came and fetched me to their hut, +and I was there to the last. Ful told each of us again that all must be +plain and explained before we thought of anything in the future. He, +Henry Field, said he had great hopes that he should be able to set it +right. Then, as you know, there was no saving dear Fulbert, and after +that Mother Constance’s illness began. Oh! Bear, do you recollect her +coming in and mothering us in the little sitting-room? I could not stir +from her, of course, while she was with us. And after that, Harry Field +came and said he had written a letter to England, and when the answer +came, he would tell me all, and I should judge! But I don’t think the +answer ever did come, and he went to Brisbane to see if it was at the +bank; and there he caught a delirious fever, and there was an end of it!” + +At that moment something between a whine or a call of “sister” was heard. +Up leapt Angela and hurried away, while Lance observed, “Well! That’s +averted, but I am sorry for her.” + +“It was not love,” said Robina. + +“Or only for the child,” said Bernard; “and that would have been a +dangerous speculation.” + +“The child or something else has been very good for her,” said Lance; “I +never saw her so gentle and quiet.” + +“And with the same charm about her as ever,” said Bernard. “I don’t +wonder that all the fellows fall in love with her. I hope she won’t make +havoc among Clement’s sick clergy.” + +“I suppose we ought to go up and fulfil the duties of society,” said +Robina, rising. “But first, Bear, tell me how is Phyllis?” + +“Pretty fair,” he answered. “Resting with her mother, but she has never +been quite the thing of late. I almost hope Sir Ferdinand will see his +way to keeping us at home, or we shall have to leave our little Lily.” + +Interruption occurred as a necessary summons to “Mr. Mayor,” and the +paternal conclave was broken up, and had to adjourn to Gertrude’s tea in +the old sitting-room. + +“I see!” exclaimed Agatha, as she looked at the party of children at +their supplementary table. “I see what the likeness is in that child. +Don’t you, Dolores? Is it not to Wilfred Merrifield?” + +“There is very apt to be a likeness between sandy people, begging your +pardon, Angel,” said Gertrude. + +“Yes, the carroty strain is apt to crop up in families,” said Lance, +“like golden tabbies, as you ladies call your stable cats.” + +“All the Mohuns are dark,” said Dolores, “and all Aunt Lily’s children, +except Wilfred; and is not your Phyllis of that colour?” + +“Phyllis’s hair is not red, but dark auburn,” said Bernard, in a tone +like offence. + +“I never saw Phyllis,” said dark-browed Dolores, “but I have heard the +aunts talk over the source of the—the fair variety, and trace it to the +Merrifields. Uncle Jasper is brown, and so is Bessie; but Susan is, to +put it politely, just a golden tabby, and David’s baby promises to be, to +her great delight, as she says he will be a real Merrifield. So much for +family feeling!” + +“Sister, Sister!” came in a bright tone, “may I go with Pearl and get a +stick for Ben? He wants something to play with! He is eating his +perch.” + +Ben, it appeared, was the pink cockatoo, who was biting his perch with +his hooked beak. The children had finished their meal, and consent was +given. “Only, Lena, come here,” said Angela, fastening a silk +handkerchief round her neck, and adding, “Don’t let Lena go on the dew, +Pearl; she is not used to early English autumn, I must get her a pair of +thicker boots.” + +“What is her name?” asked Agatha, catching the sound. + +“Magdalen Susanna. Her father made a point of it, instead of his wife’s +name, which, I think, was Caroline.” + +“I don’t think I ever knew a Magdalen except my own elder sister,” said +Agatha, “and Susanna! Did you say Miss Merrifield had a sister Susan?” + +“An excellent, sober-sided, dear old Susan! Yes, Susanna was their +mother’s name,” said Dolores “and now that you have put it into my head, +little Lena, when she is animated, puts me more in mind of Bessie than +even of Wilfred, though the colouring is different. Why?” + +“Did you never hear,” said Agatha, “that there was one of the brothers +who was a bad lot, and ran away. My sister says Wilfred is like him. I +believe,” she added, “that he was her romance!” + +“Ha!” exclaimed Bernard, “that’s queer! We had a clerk in the bank who +gave his name as Meriton, and who cut and ran the very day he heard that +Sir Jasper Merrifield was coming out as Commandant. Yes, he was carroty. +I rarely saw Wilfred at Clipstone, but this might very well have been the +fellow, afraid to face his uncle.” + +Angela did not look delighted. “She is not destitute, you know,” she +said, “I am her guardian, and she will have about two hundred a year.” + +“Is there a will?” asked Lance. + +“Oh, yes, I have it upstairs! It is all right. It was at the bank at +Brisbane, and they kept a copy. I brought her because the Bishop said it +was my duty to find out whether there were any relations.” + +“Certainly,” said Bernard. “In our own case, remember what joy Travis’s +letter was!” + +Angela was silent, and presently said, “You shall see the will when I +have unpacked it, but there is no doubt about my being guardian.” + +“Probably not,” said Bernard, rather drily. + +“If it be a valid will, signed by his proper name,” said Lance. + +Whereupon the two brothers fell into a discussion on points of law, not +unlike the editor of the _Pursuivant_, as he had become known to his +family, but most unlike the Bernard they had known before his departure +for the East. At any rate it dissipated the emotional tone of the party; +and by and by, when Bernard and Angela had agreed to make a bicycle rush +to Minsterham the next day, “that is,” said Angela “if Lena is happy +enough to spare me,” the Harewoods took leave. + +When the children had gone to bed, and Angela had stayed upstairs so long +that Gertrude augured that she was waiting till her charge had gone to +sleep, and that they should have no more of her henceforth but “Lena’s +baulked stepmother,” she came down, bringing a document with her, which +she displayed before her brothers. + +There was no question but that it was a will drawn up in due form, and +very short, bequeathing his property at Carrigaboola, Queensland, to his +daughter, Magdalen Susanna, and appointing Fulbert Underwood and Angela +Margaret Underwood and “my brother Samuel” her guardian. It was dated +the year after his daughter’s birth, and was signed Henry Field, with a +word interposed, which, as Lance said, might be anything, but was +certainly the right length for the first syllables of Merrifield. +Bernard looked at it, and declared it was, to the best of his belief, the +same signature as his former clerk used to write. + +“And this,” he said, looking at the seal, “is the crest of the +Merrifield’s—the demi lion. I know it well on Sir Jasper’s seal ring.” + +“Have you nothing else, Angel?” asked Lance. + +“Here is the certificate of her baptism, but that will tell you nothing.” + +No more it did, it only called the child the daughter of Henry and +Caroline Field, and the surname was omitted in the bequest. + +“Who was the mother?” asked Lance. + +“I never exactly knew. Fulbert thought she had been a person whom Field +had met in America or somewhere, and married in a hurry. Fulbert said +she was rather pretty, but she was a poor helpless, bewildered thing, and +very poorly. He wanted to bring her to Albertstown for fit help and +nursing; but she cried so much at the idea of either horse or wagon over +the-no-roads, that it was put off and off and she had only his shepherd’s +housekeeper, so it was no wonder she did not live! Field was dreadfully +cut up, and blamed himself extremely for having given way to her; but it +is as likely as not the journey would have been just as fatal.” + +“Poor thing!” + +“You never heard her surname?” + +“No, it did not signify.” + +“He did not name his child after her?” + +“No. I remember Fulbert saying he supposed she should be called +Caroline; and he exclaimed, ‘No, no, I always said it should be Magdalen +and Susanna.’” + +“My sister’s name,” repeated Agatha. + +“And Susan Merrifield,” added Dolores. + +“But she is mine, mine!” cried Angela, with a tone like herself, of a +sort of triumphant jealousy. “They can’t take her away from me!” + +“Gently, Angela, my dear,” said Lance, in a tone so like Felix of old, +that it almost startled her. “Tell me what arrangement is this about the +property. Your share of Fulbert’s has never been taken out, I think?” + +“No, Macpherson, the purchaser, you know, of Fulbert’s share, pays me my +amount out of it, and agreed to do the same by Lena. I don’t think the +value is quite what it used to be. It rather went down under Field; but +Macpherson is all there, and it has been a better season. I could sell +it all to him, hers and mine both; but I have thought how it would be, as +it is her native country, and I have not parted with my own to go out +again to Carrigaboola, and bring her up there. I assure you I am up to +it,” she added, meeting an amused look. “I know a good deal more about +sheep farming than either of you gentlemen. I can ride anything but a +buckjumper, and boss the shepherds, and I do love the life, no stifling +in fields and copses! I only wish you would come too, Bear; it would do +you ever so much good to get a little red paint on those white banker’s +hands of yours.” + +“Well done, sister Angel!” And the brothers both burst out laughing. + +“But really,” proceeded Angela, “it is by far the best hope of keeping up +Christianity among those hands. Fulbert had a sort of little hut for a +chapel, and once a month one of the clergy from Albertstown came over +there; I used to ride with him when I could, and if I were there, I could +keep a good deal going till the place is more peopled, and we can get a +cleric. It is a great opportunity, not to be thrown away. I can catch +those cockatoos better than a parson. And there are the blacks.” + +The brothers had not the least doubt of it. Angela was Angela still, for +better or for worse. Or was it for worse? Yet she went up to bed +chanting— + + “His sister she went beyond the seas, + And died an old maid among black savagees.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII—WILLOW WIDOWS + + + “Set your heart at rest. + The fairyland buys not that child of me.” + + —“MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.” + +AN expedition to Minsterham finished the visit of Dolores and her +faithful “Nag,” whose abilities as an assistant were highly appreciated, +and who came home brilliantly happy to keep her remaining holiday with +Magdalen; while Dolores repaired to Clipstone. Bernard had been obliged +to go to London, to report himself to Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood, but +his wife and little girl were the reigning joy at Clipstone. Phyllis +looked very white, much changed from the buxom girl who had gone out with +her father two years ago. She had never recovered the loss of the little +boy, and suffered the more from her husband’s inability to bear +expression, and it was an immense comfort to her to speak freely of her +little one to her mother. + +The little Lilias looked frail, but was healthy, happy, and as advanced +as a well-trained companion child of six could well be, and the darling +of the young aunts, who expected Dolores to echo their raptures, and +declare the infinite superiority of the Ceylonese to “that little +cornstalk,” as Valetta said. + +“There’s no difficulty as to that,” said Dolores, laughing. “The poor +little cornstalk looks as if she had grown up under a blight.” + +“It is a grand romance though,” said Mysie; “only I wish that Cousin +Harry had had any constancy in him.” + +“I wonder if Magdalen will adopt her!” was Valetta’s bold suggestion. + +“Poor Magdalen has had quite adopting enough to do,” said Mysie. + +“Besides,” said Dolores, “Sister Angela will never let her go. And +certainly I never saw any one more _taking_ than Sister Angela. She is +so full of life, and of a certain unexpectedness, and one knows she has +done such noble work. I want to see more of her.” + +“You will,” said Mysie. “Mamma is going to ask her to come, for Phyllis +says there is no one that Bernard cares for so much. She was his own +companion sister.” + +“Magdalen might have the little cornstalk,” said Valetta. + +“Well,” said Mysie, “it is rather funny to have two—what shall I +say?—willow widows, and a child that is neither of theirs! How will they +settle it?” + +Magdalen had heard from Agatha on the first evening of the arrival of the +sister, and the probability of the identification of little Lena’s father +with the Henry Merrifield of her former years, and she was deeply touched +by the bestowal of her name—so much that Nag avoided saying more, but +only kissed her and went to bed. + +The Merrifields discussed the subject dispassionately. + +Sir Jasper recollected what his brother had written to him of his +anxieties and disappointment in his son Henry, and of his absconding from +Manitoba, since which time all trace of him had been lost, except in the +restoration to the two brothers in Canada. To the surprise and +indignation of Sir Jasper, there had been no attempt to follow it up. + +“If my poor brother Edgar had done anything of the kind,” said Bernard, +“none of us would have rested.” + +So far as they could put recollections together this act of restitution +must have been made soon after the connection with Fulbert Underwood +began, perhaps at the time of the wife’s death. If there had been +another letter, as Sister Angela thought, it was more recent, certainly +within the last two years. + +Captain Samuel Merrifield, of Stokesley, had been on a voyage for four +years, and had not long been at home. His wife had been charged with the +forwarding of the letters that she thought of immediate interest, and +there was an accumulation of those that had been left for his return, as +yet not looked over. + +Of course, Sir Jasper impelled him to plunge into these, and by and by +one came to light, which Mrs. Merrifield had taken “for only some +Australian gold mines,” and left to wait, especially as it was directed +to his father instead of himself. + +It was a letter full of repentance, and entreaties for forgiveness, +describing in part poor Henry’s past life, and adding that the best thing +that had ever befallen him was his association with “such a fellow as +Underwood.” + +It was to be gathered that Fulbert’s uprightness of mind had led him to +the first impulse of restitution, and he went on to mention his first +hasty marriage and the loss of his wife, with the kindness of the +Carrigaboola Sisterhood; above all, of Sister Angela, and declaring his +love and admiration for her, and his sense that she was the one person +who could keep him straight now that her brother was gone. + +He had more than once offered to her, but he found that her brother had +solemnly charged her not to accept him till he had made all his past +clear before her, and could show her that he was acknowledged by his +family, and had his father’s forgiveness, and for this he humbly craved, +as one deeply sensible of his own demerits. + +It was piteous to think of the poor fellow waiting and hoping for an +answer to such a letter as this, and dying without one, while all the +time it was lying unread in the Captain’s desk, and no one even knew of +the changed life and fresh hopes. Sir Jasper was much moved by it; but +Sam said, “Ay, ay! poor Harry always was a plausible fellow!” and his +wife was chiefly concerned to show that the suppression was not by her +fault. Sir Jasper had brought the will with him, and the certificate of +the child’s baptism. + +Both were met with a little hesitation. So little had been said in the +letter about the marriage that the Captain wanted to know more, and also +whether the will had been properly proved in Australia, and whether it +had force in England. In that case he was surely the right person to +have the custody of his brother’s child. His wife, who had been bred up +in a different school, was not by any means satisfied that she should be +consigned to a member of a Sisterhood. + +David came to Stokesley, saw the letter, and agreed with his brother on +the expediency of obtaining full proof of the validity of the will in +both Queensland and England, and put in hand the writing of inquiries for +the purpose, from the legal authorities at Brisbane, for which purpose +Angela had to be consulted. + +She had been (having left the budgerigars to the delight of Pearl and +Awdrey), in the meantime, at Vale Leston, enjoying the atmosphere of +peace that prevailed wherever were Clement and Geraldine, and hailed with +delight by all her old village friends, as well as Lady Vanderkist and +her somewhat thinned flock. + +She won Adrian’s heart by skating or golfing with him, and even, on one +or two hunting days, joining in his pursuit of the chase, being +altogether, as he said, ever so much better a fellow than even his +youngest sister Joan, and entrancing them all with tales of kangaroos. +Lena had really a tame kangaroo at Carrigaboola. Oh, why did they not +bring it home as well as Ben, the polly? She quite pined for it, and had +tears in her eyes when it was spoken of. + +Indeed the joyous young Vanderkists were too much for the delicate little +girl, and sorry as Angela was to leave Vale Leston, she was not +ungrateful for an invitation to the Goyle, where there was more room for +them than at Clipstone in the holidays, and with the Bernard Underwoods +making it their headquarters. + +Lena and she were much better and happier with “Sister” always at her +service, and Paula and Thekla were delighted to amuse her. Paula was in +a state of delight with Sister Angela, only a little puzzled by the +irregularity of her course, though it was carefully explained that she +had never been under any vows. To hear of her doings among the +Australian women was a romance, often as there had been disappointment. +“Paula is a born Sister,” said Angela, “a much truer one than I have ever +been, for there does not seem to be any demon of waywardness to drive her +wild.” + +These talks with Magdalen, often prolonged hours after the young people +had gone to bed, were a great solace to both the elders. Girls like +Mysie Merrifield and Phyllis Devereux thought sitting up to converse a +propensity peculiar to themselves, and to their own age, of new +experiences and speculations; but the two “old girls,” whose experiences +were not new, and whose speculations had a certain material foundation, +they were equally fascinating. + +There were no small jealousies in either of them—“willow widows”—though +Mysie’s name stuck. There was nothing but comfort to Magdalen in the +certainty of the ultimate “coming home” of one who had finished a +delusive dream of her younger days, and been yearned after with a +heartache now quenched; and Angela, who had never been the least in love +with Henry Merrifield, could quite afford her interest in the scanty +records of his younger days, and fill up all she knew of the measure of +the latter and better days. There was another bond, for Mrs. Best’s +daughter was, “as distances go,” a neighbour to Carrigaboola, and +resorted thither on great occasions. + +Angela’s vision began to be, to take Magdalen and her sisters out to +Carrigaboola, where a superior school for colonists’ daughters was much +needed, and where Paula might enter the Sisterhood. She longed all the +more when she saw how much better Magdalen could deal with Lena as to +teaching and restraint than she could. The child was very backward, and +could hardly read words of one syllable, though she knew any amount of +Scripture history and legends of Saints, and was very fairly intelligent; +but though she was devoted to “Sister,” always hanging on her, and never +quite happy when out of sight of her, she had hardly any notion of prompt +obedience or of giving up her own way. + +Angela’s visit to Vale Leston had been partly spoilt by the little girl’s +fretful worry at the elder children, and by the somewhat uncalled for +fears that all the Vanderkists were hard on the poor little colonial +damsel; but whether it was the air of Rock Quay, or the quiet influence +of Miss Prescott, Lena certainly improved in health at the Goyle, and was +much more amenable, and less rudely shy. But her guardian trembled at +hearing that, pending Captain Merrifield’s correspondence with Brisbane, +the sisters, Susan and Elizabeth, were coming to Miss Mohun’s to see +their niece, there being no room for them at Clipstone. + +They came—Susan, plump, comfortable and good-natured looking, as like an +apricot as ever, with an air many years more than three above her sister +Bessie, who as ever was brisk and bright, scarcely middle aged in face, +dress or demeanour. They arrived too late for visiting, and only dined +at Clipstone to be introduced to Bernard Underwood, and see their cousin +Phyllis, whom they had once met when all were small children. Dolores +was much amused, as she told her Aunt Jane, to see how gratified they +were at the “sanguine” colouring of Phyllis and Wilfred, quite +Merrifields, they said, though Phyllis with auburn eyes and hair was far +handsomer than any other of the clan had ever been; and Wilfred had +simply commonplace carrots and freckles. + +“The fun is,” said Jane, “to remember how some of us Mohuns have sighed +at Lily’s having any yellow children, and, till we saw Stokesley +specimens, wondering where the strain came from! As if it signified!” + +“It does in some degree,” said Dolores; “something hereditary goes with +the complexion.” + +“I don’t know,” said Jane. “I believe too much is made in these days of +heredity, and by those who believe least in the Bible indications on the +effect, forgetting the counteracting grace.” + +“Well,” said Dolores, “Wilfred was always a _bête noire_ to me—no, not +_noire_—in my younger days, and I can’t help being glad he is not of our +strain! Though you know the likeness was the first step to identifying +that poor little girl.” + +“Poor child! I am afraid she will be a bone of contention.” + +The two aunts were at Clipstone early; and might be satisfied with the +true Merrifield tints of Magdalen Susanna, but perhaps she had been over +much warned to be gracious, for the very contrary was the effect. She +had been very civil to her great-aunt Lilias, and had allowed both her +uncles to take her up in their arms; but she retreated upon Angela, +planted an elbow on the well-known lap, turned her back, and put a skinny +little finger in her mouth by way of answer to Susan’s advances, advances +which had hardly ever before been repelled even by the most untamable of +infants. + +Angela tried to coax, lift her up and turn her round; but this only led +to the shoulder being the hiding-place, and it might be suspected that +there was a lurking perception that these strangers asserted a closer +claim than the beloved “Sister.” She would not even respond to Susan’s +doll or Bessie’s picture book; and Bessie advised leaving her alone, and +turned to the window with Agatha, who was nothing loth to tell of her +Bexley and Minsterham experiences. + +Angela tried to talk about the voyage, or any thing that might save the +child from being discussed or courted; but Susan’s heart was in the +subject, and she had not enough tact or knowledge of the world to turn +away from it. Regret for the past was strong within her, and she could +not keep from asking how much “little Magdalen” (at full length) +remembered of her father, how much she had been with him, whether he had +much altered, whether there were a photograph of him, and a great deal +more, with tears in her eyes and a trembling in her voice which made +Angela feel much for her, even while vexed at her pertinacity, for the +child was by no means the baby she looked like, but perfectly well able +to listen and understand, and this consciousness made her own +communications much briefer and more reserved than otherwise they would +have been. + +Bessie, with more perception, saw the embarrassment, turned round from +Agatha, went up to the cockatoo in his cage, and asked in a pleasant +voice if Magdalen would show him to her, and tell her his name. Angela +was glad enough to break off poor Susan’s questioning, and come forward, +with the child still clinging, to incite the bird to display the rose +colour under his crest, put up a grey claw to shake hands, and show off +his vocabulary, laughing herself and acting merriment as she did so, in +hopes to inspire Lena. + +“Come, Ben, tell how you were picked up under a gum tree, quite a baby, a +little grey ball, and brought over in the shepherd’s pocket for a present +to the little Boss, and how we fed you and nursed you till you turned all +rose-colour and lovely! There! put up your crest and make red +revelations. Can’t you speak? Fetch him a banana, Lena. That will open +his mouth.” + +At sight of the banana, the bird put his head on one side and croaked in +a hoarse whisper, “Yo ho!” + +“No, you need not be afraid of any more sailors’ language,” said Angela. +“They were as careful as possible on board. I overheard once, ‘Hold +hard, Tom, Polly Pink is up there, and she’s a regular lady born!” + +Whereupon Polly indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the banana +cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered more and more +nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the visitors by what Susan at +least took for unbecoming flippancy. + +“_That_ Sister,” said Susan, as they drove away, “does not seem to me at +all the person to have the charge of Henry’s poor little girl!” + +“I wish she had not thrust herself in,” said Bessie, “to prevent me from +getting on with the child over the cockatoo.” + +“She calls herself a Sister! I don’t understand it, for she seems to +have been bent on marrying poor Henry.” + +“She never took any vows.” + +“Then why does she wear a ridiculous cap over all that hair?” + +By and by they were met by Bernard Underwood striding along. “Holloa! +have you seen Angel and her darling? She is a perfect slave to the +little thing, and one only gets fragments of her.” + +“She seems very fond of her,” said Bessie. + +“Just kept her alive, you see. Poor old Angel! She is all for one thing +at a time! Are you going up to Clipstone?” + +“I think we shall find Phyllis at Beechcroft.” + +“Yes, she is driving there to lunch, and Angel is to bring the little +cornstalk over to make friends with our Lily! I trust the creature goes +to sleep now, and I may get a word out of Angel!” Wherewith he dashed +on, and the two ladies agreed that “those Underwoods seemed to be +curiously impulsive.” + +They were, however, much better satisfied with the Ceylonese Lily, who +was a very well trained civilised specimen, conversing very prettily over +one of Aunt Jane’s picture books, which Bessie looked at with her, and +showing herself fully able to read the titles beneath, a feat of which +Lena was quite incapable, though she was less on the defensive than she +had shown herself at the Goyle, and Angela was far more at her ease than +when she was conscious that “Field’s” original love was watching the +introduction to his sisters. Besides, Bernard’s presence was sunshine to +her, and the two expanded into bright reminiscences and merry comparisons +of their two lives, absolutely delightful to themselves, and to Phyllis +and her Aunt Jane, and which would have been the same to Elizabeth, if +she had not been worried at Susan’s evident misunderstanding of—and +displeasure at—the quips and cranks of the happy brother and sister; also +she was bent on promoting an intercourse between Lily and Lena, over the +doll she had brought for the former. She was a little hurt that Lena had +not been accompanied by the blue-eyed article with preposterously long +eyelashes that had been bestowed on her at the Goyle; but the little +Australian had no opinion of dolls, and had let the one bought for her at +Sydney be thrown overboard by the ship’s monkey. + +“That was cruel!” said Lily, fondling her black-eyed specimen. + +“She could not feel,” reasoned Lena, with contempt. + +“I don’t know,” said Lily, knitting her brows. “It’s not _all_ make +believe! I do love my Rosamunda Rowena, and she loves me, and I shall +tell her not to be jealous of this dear Betsinda. For, do you know, when +Rosamunda was ill in the Red Sea, father carried her up and down on deck, +and made her a dear little deck chair.” + +“But she is not alive. She _couldn’t_ be,” sighed Lena. “I like my Ben +and my kangaroo! Oh, I do want to go back to my kangaroo!” + +“And does Lily want to go back to her riki-tiki?” asked Lily’s father, +lifting a little girl on each knee, so that they might be _vis-à-vis_, +when certainly his own had the advantage in beauty, as she answered, +leaning against him, “Granny’s better than riki-tiki!” + +For which pretty speech some of the ladies gave her much credit; but her +father, with a tender arm round her, said, “Ah! you are a sentimental +little pussy-cat! Is anything here as good as Carrigaboola? Eh, Lena?” + +But Lena resolutely shook her carrots; but kept silence, while Bernard +turned over the leaves of a great book of natural history, till as a page +was displayed with a large kangaroo under a blue-gum tree, with a yellow +wattle tree beside him, her lips quivered, her face puckered, and she +burst into an uncontrollable fit of crying; “Oh! I want to go home, +home! Sister, Sister, take me home!” + +Angela was in a minute beside her, took her within loving arms, and +carried her off. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV—CRUEL LAWYERS + + + “Tender companions of our serious days, + Who colour with your kisses, smiles and tears, + Life’s worn web woven over wasted ways.” + + —LOWELL. + +THERE was a good deal of worry and anxiety for some little time, while +correspondence was going on about Henry Merrifield’s will, and in the +meantime Angela decided to board with Miss Prescott, since her charge was +certainly much better in health there; and besides, as Mrs. Bernard +Merrifield was naturally at Clipstone, it became the head quarters of her +husband, though he made many excursions to his own people, and on +business affairs to Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood in London. + +And Clipstone suited him well for his holiday. Sir Jasper had, of +course, a certain amount of intercourse with the garrison at Avoncester, +and the officers stationed there at present had already some acquaintance +with Bernard Underwood, who was known to be a champion in Ceylon in all +athletic sports, especially polo and cricket. Tall and well made, he had +been devoted to all such games in his youth, and they had kept up his +health in his sedentary occupation. Now, in his leisure time, his +prowess did much to efface the fame of the much younger and slighter +Alexis White, and, so far as might be, Angela enjoyed the games with him, +keeping well within bounds, but always feeling activity a wholesome +outlet for her superfluous strength, and, above all, delighting in an +interval of being a child again with her Bear of old times; and her +superabundant life, energy, and fun amazed all, especially by the +contrast with her poor little languid charge, who seemed, as Jane Mohun +said, centuries older. + +The Merrifield lads were also devoted to him. Even Fergus was somewhat +distracted from his allegiance to Dolores and her experiments, and in the +very few days that Christmas afforded for skating, could think of nothing +else. + +And as to Wilfred, his whole mind seemed to be set on sports, and marble +works to be only an incident thrown in. Bernard, whom he followed +assiduously, and who took him to Avoncester, and introduced him to young +officers, began to have doubts whether he had done wisely. Bernard had, +in his time, vexed Felix’s soul by idleness and amusement, but he had +been one betted upon, not himself given to betting. He loved football +and cricket for their bodily excitement, not the fictitious one of a +looker on, or reader of papers, and it struck him that Wilfred knew a +good deal too much about this more dangerous side of races and athletics. + +He said so to Angela, and she answered, “Oh, nonsense! Young men are out +of it if they don’t know the winning horse. Even _Pur_ had to be up to +the Derby.” + +And Angela had her own bitter trial in the decision of the lawyers. Not +only was the signature of the will unsatisfactory, from the confusion +between Field and Merrifield, but the two witnesses failed to be traced, +John Shepherd and George Jones were not to be identified, and though +Brisbane might accept wills easily, an English court of law required more +certainty. The little daughter being the only child and natural heiress, +this was not felt to be doing her any injury; but the decision deprived +her of the guardian her father had chosen, and Angela was in despair. +She was ready to write to the _Pursuivant_, to the Bishop of Albertstown, +to the Lord Chancellor, with an exposition of the wicked injustice and +hardness of heart of lawyers, and the inexpedience of taking the poor +child from her earliest motherly friend, expressly chosen by her father. +All Bernard’s common sense and Magdalen’s soothing were needed to make +her hold her peace, when correspondence made it plain that the +guardianship being assumed by the uncles, Captain Merrifield would not +hear for a moment of the scheme of taking the child out to Carrigaboola. +In his opinion, and his sister Susan’s, the only fit thing to be done +with her was to place her with the two aunts at Coalham to be educated. +He came down to Rock Quay to inspect her. It was a cold, raw day, with +the moors wrapped in mist, and the poor little maid looked small, peaky +and pinched. He was sure that the dry winds of the north were what she +needed, wanted to carry her off immediately, and looked regardless of +Angela’s opinion, though backed by Miss Prescott, that it would be highly +dangerous to take the delicate child of a semi-tropical climate off in +the depth of winter to a northerly town. Angela walked off to ask Dr. +Dagger to inspect the child and give his opinion, while Captain Sam +repaired to Clipstone to visit his relations and lunch with them. + +He did not meet with all the sympathy he expected. Lady Merrifield said +that Coalham had not agreed with her own son Harry, and that little Lena +ought not to be taken there till after the cold winds of spring were +over; and her daughters all chimed in with a declaration that Angela +Underwood was perfectly devoted to the little one, and that no one else +could make her happy. + +“Petting her! spoiling her!” scoffed the Captain. “Why, Susan and Bessie +were full of the contrast with your little girl.” + +“Health,” began Phyllis. + +“An Indian child too!” he went on. “Just showing what a little good +sense in the training can do! No, indeed! Since I am to be her +guardian, I have no notion of swerving from my duty, and letting poor +Hal’s child be bred up to Sisterhoods and all that flummery.” + +“It will just break Angela’s heart,” cried Valetta, with tears in her +eyes, at which the Captain looked contemptuous. + +“I must say,” added Bernard, “that I should think it little short of +murderous to take that unlucky child from the one woman who understands +her up into the bleak north at this time of year.” + +“Decidedly!” added Sir Jasper. “Miss Underwood deserves every +consideration in dealing with the child who has been always her sole +charge.” + +Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about Stokesley; but +he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, and as he was the only +person for whose opinion Captain Sam had any respect, it had its effect, +though there was a sense that he might be biassed by his son-in-law and +his herd of womanfolk, and that he did not partake Mrs. Samuel +Merrifield’s dislike to the very name of Sister or of anything not +commonplace. + +Angela obtained Dr. Dagger’s opinion to reinforce her own and Lady +Merrifield’s, and the Captain was obliged to give way so far as to +consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on calling her, being allowed to +remain at Arnscombe till after Easter, when her aunts were to fetch her +to Coalham, there to send her to the kindergarten. + +After Angela’s period of raging against law and lawyers and all the +Stokesley family, and being on the verge of impertinence to Captain +Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect more quietly than her friends +had dared to hope. Lance had almost expected her to deport her charge, +parrot and all, suddenly and secretly by an Australian liner, and had +advised Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to be on his guard if +she hinted at anything so preposterous; but Bernard shook his head, and +said Angel was more to be trusted than her elders thought. “Waves and +storms don’t go over us for nothing, I hope,” he said. + +And he found himself right on his return. Angela had bowed her head to +the inevitable, and was quietly trying to prepare her little charge for +the change, accustoming her to more discipline and less petting. When +Angela proposed to walk over to Clipstone with her brother on his return, +and the whine was set up, “Let me go, Sister,” it was answered, “No, my +dear, it is too far for you. You must stay and walk with Paula.” + +“I want to go with Sister.” + +“You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells you. No, I can’t have +any fretting. Paula will show you how to drive your hoop. Keep her +moving fast, Paula, don’t let her fret and get cold.” + +And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it into +Paulina’s, and, holding up her finger, silenced the burst of weeping, +though tears sprang to her own eyes as she resolutely turned away, and, +after running out and shutting the back gate after her, put her arm with +a clinging gesture into Bernard’s. + +“That’s right!” he said, pressing her hand. + +“Cruel,” she said, “but better by and by for her. Oh, Bear, if one could +but learn to lie still and say, ‘Thou didst it,’ when it is human agency +that takes away the desire of one’s eyes with a stroke.” + +“The desire of thine eyes!” repeated Bernard. “How often I thought of +that last February.” + +It was the only time he had referred to the loss of his little boy. His +wife had told her mother that he could not bear to mention it, and had +poured out all her own feelings of sorrow and her struggle for +cheerfulness and resignation alone with her or with Mysie; but he had +shrunk from the least allusion to the little two year old Felix, who +slept beneath a palm tree at Colombo. + +Now, however, still holding his sister’s hand, he drifted into all the +particulars of the little ways, the baby language, the dawning +understanding, and the very sudden sharp illness carrying the beautiful +boy away almost before they were aware of danger; and he took out the +photograph from his breast, and showed her the little face, so recalling +old fond remembrances. “Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead,” +he repeated. “Yes, the boy is saved the wear and tear and heat and +burthen of the day, but it is very hard to be thankful.” + +“Ah, and it is all the harder if you have to leave your Lily.” + +“If—yes; but Travis _may_ so arrange that we can stay, or I make only one +voyage out to settle matters and then come home for good. If you are +still bent on Carrigaboola you might come as far as Frisco with me. I +may have to go there about the Californian affairs.” + +“That would be jolly. Yes, I think it will clench the matter, for I +believe I am of more good at Carriga than anywhere else, though the heart +of it is taken out of it for me; but one lives on and gets on somehow +without a heart, or a heart set where I suppose it ought not to be +entirely at least! And, indeed, I think that little one taught me better +than ever before how to love.” + +“That’s what the creatures are sent us for,” said Bernard, in a low +voice. “And here are, looming in the distance, all the posse of girls to +meet us.” + +“Ah-h!” breathed Angela, withdrawing her arm. “Well, Bear, you have +given me something to look forward to, whether it comes to anything or +not. It will help me to be thankful. I know they are good people, and +the child will do well when once the pining and bracing are over. They +are her own people, and it is right.” + +“Right you are, Angel!” said Bernard, with a fresh squeeze of the hand, +as he resumed his own cheerful, resolute voice ere joining his +sisters-in-law. + +“What! Angela without her satellite!” cried Primrose. + +“Too far,” murmured Angela; but Mysie tried to hush her sister, +perceiving the weaning process, and respecting Angela for it. + +And the next moment Angela was challenging Bernard to a game at golf. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV—BEAR AS ADVISER + + + “Weary soul and burthened sore + Labouring with thy secret load.” + + —KEBLE. + +THE early spring brought a new development. Thekla, who attended classes +at the High School, came home with unmistakable tokens of measles, and +Primrose did the same, in common with most of their contemporaries at +Rockstone. Nor was there any chance that either Lily Underwood at +Clipstone or Lena Merrifield at the Goyle would escape; indeed, they both +showed an amount of discomfort that made it safer to keep them where they +were, than to try to escape in the sharp east wind and frost. + +No one was much dismayed at what all regarded as a trifling ailment, even +if dignified as German. Angela owned that she regarded it as a relief, +since infection might last till the summer, and the only person who +was—as he owned—trying to laugh at himself with Angela, was Bernard, who +could not keep out of his mind’s eye a little grave at Colombo. As he +walked home, at the turning he saw a figure wearily toiling upwards, +which proved to be Wilfred. “Holloa! you are at home early!” + +“I had an intolerable headache!” + +“Measles, eh?” + +“No such thing! Once when I was a kid in Malta. But I say, Bear,” he +added, coming up with quickened pace, “you could do me no end of a favour +if you would advance me twenty pounds.” + +“Whew!” Bernard whistled. + +“There is Lady Day coming, and I can pay you then—most assuredly.” And +an asseveration or two was beginning. + +“Twenty pounds don’t fly promiscuously about the country,” muttered +Bernard, chiefly for the sake of giving himself time. + +“But I tell you I shall have a quarter from the works, and a quarter from +my father (with his hand to his head). That’s—that’s—. Awful skinflints +both of them! How is a man to do, so cramped up as that?” + +“Oh! and how is a man to do if he spends it all beforehand?” + +“I tell you, Bernard, I must have it, or—or it will break my mother’s +heart! And as to my father, I’d—I’d cut my throat—I’d go to sea before +he knew! Advance it to me, Bear! You know what it is to be in an awful +scrape. Get me through this once and I’ll never—” + +Bernard did not observe that the scrape of his boyhood over the drowned +Stingo had hardly been of the magnitude that besought for twenty pounds. +He waived the personal appeal, and asked, “What is the scrape?” + +“Why, that intolerable swindler and ruffian, Hart, deceived me about +Racket, and—” + +“A horse at Avoncester?” said Bernard, light beginning to dawn on him. + +“I made sure it was the only way out of it all, and they said Racket was +as sure as death, and now the brute has come in third. Hart swears there +was foul play, but what’s that to me? I’m done for unless you will help +me over.” + +“If it is a betting debt, the only safe way is to have it out with your +father, and have done with it.” + +“You don’t know what my father is! Just made of iron. You might as well +put your hand under a Nasmyth’s hammer.” And as he saw that his hearer +was unconvinced, “Besides, it is ever so much more than what I put upon +Racket! That was only the way out of it! It is all up with me if he +hears of it. You might as well pitch me over the cliff at once!” + +“Well, what is it then?” + +Incoherently, Wilfred stammered out what Bernard understood at last to +mean that he had got into the habit of betting at the billiard table, +surreptitiously kept up in Ivinghoe Terrace in a house of Richard +White’s, not for any excessive sums, and with luck at first on his side +than otherwise; but at last he had become involved for a sum not in +itself very terrible to elder years, and his creditor was in great dread +of pressure from his employers, and insisted on payment. Wilfred, who +seemed to have a mortal terror of his father, beyond what Bernard could +understand, had been unable to believe that the offence for so slight a +sum might be forgiven if voluntarily confessed, had done the worst thing +he could, he had paid the debt with a cheque which had, unfortunately, +passed through his hands at the office, trusting in a few days to recover +the amount by a bet upon the horse, in full security of success! And +now! + +Before the predicament was made clear, Wilfred reeled, and would have +fallen if Bernard had not supported him, and he mumbled something about +giddiness and dazzling, insisting at the same time that it was nothing +but the miserable pickle, and that if Bernard would not see him out of +it, he might as well let him lie there and have done with it. + +Happily they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the house, and it was +possible to get him into the hall before he entirely collapsed upon a +chair; but seeming to recover fresh vigour from alarm at the sound of +voices, he rushed at the stairs and dashed up rapidly the two flights to +his own room, only throwing back the words, “Dead secret, mind!” + +Bernard was glad to have made no promise, and, indeed, Wilfred’s physical +condition chiefly occupied him at the moment, for one or two of the girls +were hurrying in, asking what was the matter, and at the answer, “He is +gone up to his room with a bad headache,” Valetta declared with +satisfaction, “Then he has got it! We told him so! But he would go to +the office! and, Bernard, so has Lily.” + +“Pleasing information!” said Bernard, nettled and amused at the tone of +triumph, while Mysie, throwing behind her the words, “It may be nothing,” +went off to call Mrs. Halfpenny, who was in a state of importance and +something very like pleasure. Bernard strode up to his wife’s room, +leaving Valetta half-way in her exposition that when all the family had +been laid low by measles at Malta, Wilfred had been a very young infant, +and it had always been doubtful whether he had been franked or not; and +how he had been reproached with looking ill in the morning, but had +fiercely insisted on going down to the office, which he was usually glad +to avoid on any excuse. + +By the time the household met at dinner, it was plain that they had to +resign themselves to being an infected family, though there were not many +probable victims, and they were likely only to have the disorder +favourably, with the exception of Wilfred, who had evidently got a severe +chill, and could only be reported as very ill, though still he vehemently +resented any suspicion of being subject to such a babyish complaint. But +when the break up for the night was just over, Lady Merrifield came in +search of Bernard, entreating him to come to speak to Wilfred, who was +more and more feverish, almost light-headed, and insisting that he must +speak to Bear, “Bear had not promised,” reiterating the summons, so that +there was no choice but to comply with it. + +He found Wilfred flushed with fever, and violently restless, starting up +in bed as he entered, and crying out, “Bear, Bear, will you? will you? +You did not promise!” + +“I will see about it! Lie down now! There’s nothing to be done +to-night.” + +“But promise! promise! And not a word!” + +All this was reiterated till Wilfred at last was exhausted for the time, +and to a certain degree pacified by the reassuring voice in which Bernard +soothed him and undertook to take the matter in hand, hardly knowing what +he undertook, and only feeling the necessity of quieting the perilous +excitement, and of helping the mother to bring a certain amount of +tranquillity. + +His own little girl was going on well, and quite capable of being amused +in the morning by being compared to a lobster or a tiger lily; and +Primrose was reported in an equally satisfactory state, ready either for +sleep or continuous reading by her sisters. Only Wilfred was in the +same, or a more anxious, state of fever; and as soon as Bernard had +satisfied himself that there was no special use in his remaining in the +house, he set out for the marble works office, having made up his mind as +to one part of what he had expressed as “seeing about it.” + +He had hardly turned into the Cliffe road before he met Captain Henderson +walking up, and they exchanged distant inquiries and answers as to +whether each might be thought dangerous to the other’s home; after which +they forgathered, and compared notes as to invalids. The Captain had +heard of Wilfred’s going home ill, and was coming, he said, to inquire. + +“He seems very seriously ill,” was the answer. “I imagine there has been +a chill, and a check. I was coming to speak to you about him.” + +“He has spoken to you?” + +Both could now consult freely. “It is a very anxious matter—not so much +for the actual amount as for the habits that it shows.” + +“The amount? Oh, I have made up that as regards the firm. I could not +let it come before Sir Jasper, especially in the present state of things! +I meant to give the young chap a desperate fright and rowing, but that +will have to be deferred.” + +“You must let me take it!” + +“No, no. Remember, Sir Jasper was my commanding officer, and I and my +wife owe everything to him. I could supply the amount, so that no one +would guess from the accounts that anything had been amiss.” + +Bernard could hardly allow himself to be thus relieved, but there was the +comfort of knowing that Wilfred’s name was safe, and that the unstained +family honour would not have to suffer shame. Still the other debts +remained, of which Captain Henderson had been only vaguely suspicious, +till the two took counsel on them. Wilfred had not given up the name of +the person for whom he had meant to borrow from the office; but Captain +Henderson had very little doubt who it was, and it was agreed that he +should receive the amount through a cheque of Bernard on Brown and Travis +Underwood, from Captain Henderson’s hands, with a scathing rebuke and +peremptory assurance of exposure to Mr. White, and consequent dismissal, +if anything more of the same kind among the younger men were detected. +The man was a clever artist in his first youth, and had always been +something of a favourite with the authorities, and had a highly +respectable father; so Captain Henderson meant to spare him as much as +possible, and endeavour to ascertain how far the mischief had gone among +the young men connected with the marble works, also to consult Mr. White +on the amount of stringency in the measures used to put a stop to it. +All this, of course, passed out of Bernard Underwood’s hands and +knowledge, but a sad and anxious day was before him. All the young girls +were going on well, but Wilfred was increasingly ill all day, and +continually calling for Bernard. Being told, “I have settled the matter” +did not satisfy him. He looked eagerly about the room to find whether +his mother were present, and fancying she was absent demanded, “Does he +know? Do they know?” reiterating again and again. It was necessary to +tell Lady Merrifield that there was an entanglement about money matters +on his mind, which had been settled; but towards evening he grew worse +and more light-headed, apparently under the impression that only Bernard +could guard him from something unknown, or conceal, whenever he was +conscious of the presence of his mother; and on his father’s entrance he +hid his face in the pillows and trembled, of course to their exceeding +distress and perplexity; and when he believed no one present but Bernard +and Mrs. Halfpenny, he became more and more rambling, sometimes insisting +that his father must not know, sometimes abusing all connected with the +racing bet, and more often fancying that he was going to be arrested for +robbing the firm, the enormity of the sum and of the danger increasing +with the fever, and therewith his horror of his father’s knowing. It was +of no use for his mother to hang over him, hold his hands, and assure him +that she knew (as, in fact, she did, for Bernard had been obliged to make +a cursory explanation), and that nothing could hinder her loving him +still; he forgot it in the next interruption, and turned from her with +terror and dismay, and once he nearly flung himself out of bed, fancying +that the policeman was coming. + +Bernard held him on this occasion, and told him, “Nothing will do you +good, Willie, but to tell your father, and he will keep all from you. +Let him know, and it will be all right.” + +It only seemed to add to his misery and terror. Something that passed in +his hearing, gave him the impression that he was in great danger, if not +actually dying; but his cry was still for Bernard, who had not ventured +to go to bed; but it was still, “Oh, Bear, save me! Don’t let me die +with this upon my name! I can’t go to God!” + +“There’s nothing for it, Wilfred, but to tell your father. He will +pardon you. Your mother has, you see. Tell him, and when he forgives, +you will know that God does. It will come right. Let me call him!” + +“Let me bring him, my boy, my dear boy!” entreated his mother. “You know +he will.” + +Wilfred seemed as if he did not know, but still held fast by Bernard’s +strong hands, as though there were support in them; and when in a few +moments Sir Jasper entered the room, there was the same clinging gesture +and endeavour to hide, in spite of the gentle sweetness of the tone of, +“Well, my poor boy.” + +It was Bernard who was obliged to say, turning the poor flushed face +towards him, “Wilfred wishes to say—” + +“Father,” it came with a gasp at last, “I’ve done it. I’ve disgraced us +all. Forgive!” + +He was repeating his own exaggerated ideas of what his crime had been, +and what Sir Jasper would have said to him if all had been discovered in +any other way. + +“Do not think of it now, my boy. I forgive you, whatever it is.” + +Thereupon Dr. Dagger entered. He turned every one out except Mrs. +Halfpenny, and gave a draught, which silenced the patient and put him to +sleep in a few minutes. While Bernard hastily satisfied the parents that +a good deal was exaggerated feeling, and that an old soldier must have +known of a good many worse things in his time, though not so near home. + +There was a general sense of relief in the morning, for Wilfred’s attack +had become an ordinary, though severe one, and the other cases were going +on well. But Sir Jasper, who had not been able to grasp the extent of +Wilfred’s delinquency, and had been persuaded by his despair that it was +much more serious than it really was, called his son-in-law into council, +and demanded whether the whole could have been told. + +Bernard was certain that it was so, and related his transactions with +Captain Henderson, much of course to the father’s relief, so far as the +outer world was concerned; but what principally grieved him, besides the +habits thus discovered, was his son’s abject terror of him, not only in +the exaggeration of illness, but in his mode of speaking of him. + +It had never been thus with any of his sons before. + +Claude, the soldier, had always been satisfactory, so had Harry the +clergyman, though often widely separated from the parents in their +wandering life; but the bond of confidence had never been broken. Jasper +had never teased any one but his sisters. Fergus, too, the youngest of +all the sons, and of an individual, rather peculiar nature, was growing +up in straight grooves of his own; but Wilfred, who from delicate health, +had been the most at home, had never seemed to open to his father. The +family discipline of the General seemed only to oppress and terrify him, +and the irregularities and subterfuges that had from time to time been +detected had been met with just anger, never received in such a manner as +to call forth the tenderness of forgiveness. Each discovery of a +misdemeanour had only been the prelude to fresh and worse concealments +and hardening. + +And experience of mankind did not give any decided hope that even the +last day’s agony of repentance would be the turning over of a new leaf, +when convalescence should bring the same surroundings and temptations, +and perhaps the like disproportionate indignation and impatience in +dealing with errors and constitutional weakness. “And the example of my +brother’s poor son is not encouraging,” he added. “He who seems to have +owed everything to your brother and sister.” + +“Yet poor Fulbert and I were to our homes, perhaps not the black sheep, +but at any rate the vagrant ones.” + +“And what made a difference to you, may I ask?” + +“Strong infusion by character and example of principle,” said Bernard +thoughtfully; “then, real life, and having to be one’s own safeguard, +with nothing to fall back on. As my brother told me at his last, I +should swim when my plank was gone.” + +“Yes, but, plainly, you were never weak,” and as Bernard did not answer +at once, “Old-fashioned severity used to be the rule with lads, but it +seems only to alienate them now and make them think themselves unjustly +treated. What is one to do with these boys?” + +A question which Bernard could not answer, though it carried him back +with a strange yearning, yet resignation, to the little figure that had +curled round on his knee, and the hopes connected with the hands that had +caressed his cheek. + +He thought over it the more the next week, when he was called to sit by +Wilfred, who was getting better and anxious to talk. + +“My father is very kind,” he said. “Oh, yes, very kind now; but it will +be all the same when I get well. You see, Bear, how can a man be always +dawdling about with a lot of girls? There’s Dolores bothering with her +science, and Fergus every bit as bad; and Mysie after her disgusting +schoolchildren; and Val and Prim horrid little empty chatterboxes; and if +one does turn to a jolly girl for a bit of fun, their tongues all go to +work, so that you would think the skies were going to fall; and if one +goes in for a bit of a spree, down comes the General like a +sledge-hammer! I wish you would take me out with you, Bear.” + +The same idea had already been undeveloped in Bernard’s mind, and ever on +his tongue when alone with his wife; but he kept it to himself, and only +committed himself to, “You would not find an office in Colombo much more +enlivening.” + +“There would be something to see—something to do. It would not be all as +dull as ditch-water—just driving one to do something to get away from the +girls and their fads.” + +This was nearly a fortnight from the night of crisis, when Wilfred, very +weak, was still in bed; when Primrose and Lily were up and about, but +threatened with whooping cough. Thekla much in the same case, and very +cross; and little Lena weak, caressing and dependant, but angelically +good and patient, so much so that Magdalen and Angela were quite anxious +about her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI—NEW PATHS + + + “I’ll put a girdle round the earth + In forty minutes.” + + —SHAKESPEARE. + +THE visitation had not been confined to the High School. The little +cheaply-built rows for workmen and fishermen had suffered much more +severely, owing chiefly to the parents’ callous indifference to +infection. “Kismet,” as they think it, said Jane Mohun, and still more +to their want of care. Chills were caught, fevers and diphtheria ensued, +and there was an actual mortality among the children at the works and at +Arnscombe. Mr. Flight begged for help from the Nursing Sisterhood at +Dearport, and, to her great joy, Sister Beata was sent down to him, with +another who was of the same standing as Angela, and delighted to have a +glimpse of her; though Angela thought it due to her delicate charge, and +the Merrifields, not to plunge into actual nursing while Lena needed her +hourly attention, and was not yet in a state for the training to do +without it to continue. Paulina, however, being regarded as infection +proof, was permitted to be an attendant and messenger of her dear Sister +Beata, to her own great joy. She was now nineteen, and her desire to +devote herself to a Sisterhood had never wavered, and intercourse with +Sister Angela had only strengthened it. + +“Oh, Maidie!” she said, “I do not think there can be any life so good or +so happy as being really given up to our Lord and His work among the sick +and poor.” + +“My dear, He can be served if you are in the world, provided you are not +_of_ the world, and if you keep yourself from the evil.” + +“Yes; but why should I run into the world? It is not evil, I know, so +far as you and all your friends can manage; but it stirs up the evil in +one’s self.” + +“And so would a Sisterhood. That is a world, too.” + +“I suppose it is, and that there would be temptation; but there is a +great deal to help one to keep right. And, oh! to have one’s work in +real good to Christ’s poor, or in missions, instead of in all these +outside silly nonsensical diversions that one doubts about all the time. +If you would only let me go back with dear Sister Beata and Sister +Elfleda as a probationer!” + +“You could not be any more yet,” said Magdalen; “but I will think about +it, and talk it over with Sister Angela. You know your friend Sister +Mena, as she called herself, does not mean to be a Sister, but a +governess.” + +“Yes; she wrote to me. She has never seen or known anything outside the +Convent, and it is all new and turns her head,” said Paulina, wisely. “I +know she helped me to be all the more silly about Vera and poor Hubert +Delrio.” + +Magdalen promised to talk the matter over with Sister Angela. + +“I should call it a vocation,” said Angela. “I have watched her ever +since I have been here, and I am sure her soul is set on these best +things, in a steady, earnest way.” + +“She has always been an exceedingly good girl ever since I have had to do +with her,” said Magdalen. “I have hardly had a fault to find with her, +except a little exaggeration in the direction of St. Kenelm’s.” + +“A steady, not a fitful flame,” said Angela. + +“But she is so young.” + +“If you will believe me, Magdalen, such a home as that Dearport +Sisterhood is a precious thing—I have not been worthy of it. I have been +a wild colt, carried about by all manner of passing excitements. Oh, +dear! love of sheer fun and daring enterprise, and amusement, in shocking +every one, even my very dearest, whom I loved best. I have done things +too dreadful to think of, and been utterly unreasonable and unmanageable, +and proud of it; but always that Sisterhood has been like a cord drawing +me! I never quite got free of it, even when I sent back my medal, and +fancied it had been playing at superstition. I was there for a month as +almost a baby, and the atmosphere has brought peace ever since. That, +and my brother, and Sister Constance, and Bishop Fulmort, have been the +saving of me, if anything has. I mean, if they will have me, to spend a +little time at Dearport after all this perplexity is over, and I know how +it is with Lena, and I could see how it is with Paula if you liked.” + +Magdalen accepted the suggestion, perhaps the more readily because of a +fleeting visit from Hubert Delrio, who had finished his frescoes at the +American Vale Leston, and came for a day or two to Mr. Flight’s. She had +sometimes doubted whether the supposed love of Vera had not been a good +deal diffused among the young ladies, and might not so far awaken in +Paulina as to render her vocation doubtful; but there were no such +symptoms. Paula was quiet and cheerful, with a friendly welcome, but no +excitement; but it was Thekla, now fifteen, who was all blushes whenever +Hubert looked or spoke to her, all her forwardness gone; and shyness, or +decidedly awkwardness, set in, resulting chiefly in giggle. + +Hubert looked more manly and substantial, and he had just had an order +for an important London church, which pleased him much, and involved +another journey to Italy to study some of the designs in the Lombardic +churches. + +Not that there was any chance of meeting Vera. Mr. and Mrs. White had +spent the last summer at Baden; and Vera, who had many pretty little +drawing-room talents, and was always obliging, had been very acceptable +there. This winter an attack of rheumatism had made them decide on +trying Algiers, with a view to the Atlas marbles, and then German baths +again might claim them for the summer. + +In fact, the fear of infection had rendered Rock Quay a deserted place +during the Easter vacation. Fergus Merrifield might not come near +Primrose and Lily, and was charmed to accept an invitation from his +friend and admirer, Adrian Vanderkist, to Vale Leston, where he would be +able to explore the geology of Penbeacon, to say nothing of the coast; +while his sister Felicia, who had been one of the victims, remained to be +disinfected with Miss Mohun. Dolores was at Vale Leston Priory, and +Agatha Prescott with her, so as to have a clean bill of health for her +return to Oxford for her last term. + +The Holy Week was calm and grave; and the two girls, with Anna Vanderkist +and her little sisters, were very happy over their primroses and anemones +on Easter Eve, with the beautiful Altar Cross that no one could manage +like Aunt Cherry, whose work was confined to that, and to the two crosses +on the graves. + +Another notion soon occupied them. There was a vague idea that a sort of +convalescent or children’s hospital might be established for the training +of women intending to study medicine or nursing, chiefly at Miss +Arthuret’s expense, and Dolores was anxious to consider the possibility +of placing it in the sweet mountain air, tempered by the sea breezes of +Penbeacon. + +It was an idea to make Mrs. Grinstead shudder; but neither she nor her +niece, Anna Vanderkist, could forget Gerald’s view that Penbeacon was not +only to be the playground of Vale Leston, and they always felt as if +Dolores had a certain widow’s right to influence any decision. So she +cheerfully acquiesced in what, in her secret heart, seemed only a feeble +echo of the past, though, to the young generations it was a very happy +hopeful present when all the youthful party, under the steerage of Mary +and Anna, and the escort of Sir Adrian and Fergus, started off with +ponies, donkeys, cycles and sturdy feet to picnic on Penbeacon, if +possible in the March winds—well out of the way of the clay works. + +How Fergus divided his cares between the strata and Dolores’ kodak, how +even his photography could not spoil Aunt Alda; how charming a group of +sisters Dolores contrived to produce; how Adrian was the proud pioneer +into a coach adorned with stalactites and antediluvian bones; how Anna +collected milkwort and violets for Aunt Cherry; how a sly push sent +little Joan in a headlong career down a slope that might have resulted in +a terrible fall, but did only cause a tumble and great fright, and a +severe reprimand from the elder sisters; how Agatha was entranced by the +glorious view in the clearness of spring, how they ate their sandwiches +and tried to think it was not cold; how grey east wind mist came over the +distance and warned them it was time to trot down,—all this must belong +to the annals of later Vale Leston; and of those years of youth which in +each generation leave impressions as of sunbeams for life. And on their +return, Dolores found a letter which filled her with a fresh idea. It +was from her father in New Zealand, telling her that there was an opening +for her to come and give a course of lectures on electricity at +Canterbury, Auckland and the other towns, and proposing to her to come +out with her lady assistant, when she might very probably extend her tour +to Australia. + +“Would you come, Naggie?” asked Dolores. + +“Oh! I should like nothing half so well. If you could only wait till my +turn is over, and the exam!” + +“Of course! Why, we shall not have finished the correspondence till +after the examination! How capital it will be! My father will like your +bright face, and you will think him like Fergus grown older. Will your +sister consent?” + +“Oh! Magdalen will be glad enough to have me off on a career. We will +write and prepare her mind. I believe I am not to go home, so as to +bring a clean bill of health to St. Robert’s.” + +“I really think,” added Dolores, “that Magdalen would make an admirable +head matron, or whatever you call it!” + +“Dear old thing! She is very fond of her Goyle.” + +“True, but Sophy’s engineer husband tells us that a new line is projected +to Rock Quay, through the very heart of the Goyle, Act of Parliament, +compulsory sale and all.” + +“Well! work might console her for being uprooted, and she is quite +youthful enough to take to it with spirit.” + +“Besides that she would greatly console Clement and Cherry for the +profanation of their Penbeacon. I declare I will suggest it to +Arthurine!” + +So the two young people resolved, not without a consciousness that what +was to them a fresh and inspiring gale, to the elder generation was +“winds have rent thy sheltering bowers.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII—A SENTENCE + + + “What should we give for our beloved?” + + —E. B. BROWNING. + +NO sooner had the visitors departed than the others now out of quarantine +appeared at Vale Leston. Angela was anxious to spend a little time +there, and likewise to have Lena overhauled by Tom May. The child had +never really recovered, and was always weakly; and whereas on the +journey, Lily, now in high health, was delighted with all she saw, though +she could not compare Penbeacon to Adam’s Peak, Lena lay back in Sister +Angela’s arms, almost a dead weight, hardly enduring the bustle of the +train, though she tried not to whine, as long as she saw her pink Ben +looking happy in his cage. + +Angela was an experienced nurse, and was alarmed at some of the symptoms +that others made light of. Mrs. Grinstead had thought things might be +made easier to her if the Miss Merrifields came to meet her and hear the +doctor’s opinion; and Elizabeth accepted her invitation, arriving to see +the lovely peaceful world in the sweet blossoming of an early May, the +hedges spangled with primroses, and the hawthorns showing sheets of snow; +while the pear trees lifted their snowy pyramids, and Lily in her white +frock darted about the lawn in joyous play with her father under the +tree, and the grey cloister was gay with wisteria. + +Angela was sitting in the boat, safely moored, with a book in her hand, +the pink cockatoo on the gunwale, nibbling at a stick, and the girl lying +on a rug, partly on her lap. Phyllis and Anna, who had come out on the +lawn, made Elizabeth pause. + +“That’s the way they go on!” said Phyllis. “All day long Angela is +reading to the child either the ‘Water Babies’ or the history of Joseph.” + +“Or crooning to her the story of the Cross,” said Anna; “and as soon as +one is ended she begins it again, and Lena will not let her miss or alter +a single word.” + +“They go on more than half the night,” added Phyllis. “Bear sat up long +over his letters and accounts, and as he went up he heard the crooning, +and looked in; and the very moment Angela paused, there came the little +plaintive voice, ‘Go on, please.’ ‘Women are following’—” + +“But is not that spoiling her?” asked Bessie. + +A look of sad meaning passed between her two companions. Phyllis shook +her head slightly, and, instead of answering, conducted Bessie on to the +bank, when Angela looked up and made a sign that she could not move or +speak, for the child was asleep. The yellow head was shaded by Angela’s +parasol, the thin hair lying ruffled on the black dress, and the small +face looked more pinched than when the aunt had last seen it, nearly a +year previously. She had watched the decay of aged folks, but she was +unused to the illnesses of children; and she recoiled with a little +shock, as she looked down at the little wasted face, with a slight flush +of sleep. “Recovery from measles,” she said. + +Phyllis smiled a little pitifully as her own little girl, all radiant +with health and joy, came skipping up, performing antics over her +father’s hand. “Take care, Lily, don’t wake poor little Lena,” was +murmured quietly. + +“Northern breezes—” began Bessie, but the voices had broken the light +slumber; and as Angela began, “See, Lena, here is Aunt Bessie,” the +effect was to make her throw herself over Angela’s shoulder and hide her +face; and when her protector tried to turn her round and reason her into +courtesy, she began to cry in a feeble manner. + +“She has had a bad night,” said motherly Phyllis; “let her alone.” + +“May not I get down into the boat?” asked Lily. “I’ll be very good.” + +There would have been a little hesitation, but at the voice Lena looked +up and called “Lily, Lily!” Bernard lifted his small daughter down, +Elizabeth was not sorry to be led away for the present, and when, after a +turn in the rose garden, she came back, the two children were sitting +with arms round one another, holding a conversation with Ben, the +cockatoo, and making him dance on one of the benches of the boat, under +Angela’s supervision, lest he should end by dancing overboard. The rich +fair hair, shining dark blue eyes, and plump glowing cheeks of Lily were +a contrast to the wan wasted colouring of her little cousin; but Lena was +more herself now than when just awake, and let Lily lead her up and +introduce her, as it might be called, to Cousin Bessie as Lily called +her, a less formidable sound than “Aunt Elizabeth.” They were both +kissed, and she endured it. Angela was, as her brothers and sisters +said, “very good,” and scrupulously abstained from absorbing the child +all the evening, letting Elizabeth show her pictures and tell her +stories, to which, by Lily’s example, she listened quietly enough and +with interest. + +When the two children went off, hand in hand, to their beds, Elizabeth +said, “Really, Magdalen is improved. If you leave Lily with her, +Phyllis, I think we should get on beautifully. The bracing air will do +wonders for them both.” + +“Thank you,” said poor Phyllis forbearingly; “we have not made our plans +about Lily yet.” + +But Elizabeth thought out a beautiful scheme of discipline and study in +the long light hours of the morning, and began to feel herself drawn +towards her delicate little niece, feeling sure that the little thing +would soon be Susan’s darling, if Susan could be brought to endure the +cockatoo walking loose about the house. + +Early in the day Professor May appeared, and was hailed as an old friend +by all the Underwoods. He rejoiced to see Clement looking well and +active; and “as to this fellow,” he said, looking at Bernard, “it shows +what development will do.” + +“Not quite the young Bear of Stoneborough,” said Clement, leaning +affectionately on his broad shoulder; “our skittish pair are grown very +sober-minded. But you have not told us of your father.” + +“My father is very well. He walks down every day to sit with my wife, +and visits a selection of his old patients, who are getting few enough +now. This is not my patient, I suppose?” + +“Unless you are ready to prescribe only laughing and good Jersey cows’ +milk,” said Bernard, pulling the long silky brown hair. “Where’s mother, +little one?” + +“Mother sent me to say Aunt Angel is ready, if Dr. May will come up to +Aunt Cherry’s room. Lena is frightened, and they did not like to leave +her.” + +It was a long visit, after Phyllis had come down; and, walking up and +down the cloister with Bessie Merrifield, listened to her schemes of +education for the little maidens. Lily she liked and admired, and she +was convinced that Magdalen’s weak health and spirits were the result of +the spoiling system. Phyllis trembled a little as she heard of the +knocking about, out-of-doors ways that had certainly produced fine strong +healthy frames and upright characters, but she forbore to say that if her +little girl had to be left, it would be to her mother and Mysie. + +By and by Tom came down, and finding Geraldine alone in the drawing-room, +he answered her inquiry with a very grave look. “Poor little thing! You +do not think well of her! Is it as Angel feared?” + +“Confirmed disease, from original want of development of heart. Measles +accelerated it. I doubt her lasting six months, though it may be longer +or less.” + +“Have you told Angel?” + +“She knew it, more or less. She is ready to bear it, though one can see +how her soul is wrapped up in the child, and the child in her.” + +“One thing, Tom, will you tell Miss Merrifield yourself, and alone, and +make her feel that it is an independent opinion? It may save both the +poor child and Angel a great deal.” + +“Are you prepared to keep her here?” + +“Of course we are. It is Angel’s natural home. Clement and I could +think of nothing else.” + +“I knew you would say so. If I understand rightly there is something +like a jealousy of her case in the Merrifields, prompted greatly by their +wish to expiate any neglect of her father.” + +“That is what I gather from what Phyllis tells me.” + +“What a lovely countenance hers is in expression! No wonder Bernard has +softened down. There is strength and solidity as well as sweetness in +her face. Ah, there they are!” + +“I will call Phyllis in. Bessie Merrifield has almost walked her to +death by this time.” + +So Phyllis was called and told. What she said was, “I only hope he will +make her understand that it could not be helped, and it was not Angela’s +fault.” + +Tom May had wisdom enough to make this clear in what was a greater shock +to Elizabeth than it was to Angela, who had suspected enough to be +prepared for the sentence, and had besides a good deal of hospital +experience, which enabled her thoroughly to understand the Professor’s +explanations. So, indeed, did it seem to Elizabeth at the time he was +speaking; but she had lived a good deal in London, and had a great idea +that a London physician must be superior to a man who had lived in the +country, and, moreover, whom all the household called Tom, and she asked +Mrs. Grinstead if he were really so clever. + +“Indeed, I think he is; and I have seen a great deal of his treatment. +You may quite trust him. He lives down here at Stoneborough for his +father’s sake, or he would be quite at the head of his profession.” + +“Superior to the two Doctors Brownlow?” + +“I should not say superior, but quite equal.” + +“The Brownlows,” said Clement, looking up from his paper, “helped me +through an ordinary malarial fever. John Lucas is a brilliant specialist +in such cases, but certifying an affection of the heart. Tom May +latterly has treated me better. As far as I understand the case of your +little niece, I should say both that it was more in the line of Tom May, +and likewise that it would be very hurtful to her to take her about and +subject her to more examinations.” + +“Poor little thing! no doubt it would be a terrible distress,” acquiesced +Bessie; “but still, if it is bracing that she needs—northern air might +make all the difference.” + +Clement sighed a little hopelessly over making a woman understand or give +way, and returned to his newspaper; while Geraldine tried to argue that +air could not make much difference, speaking in the interest of the child +herself and of her sister. Elizabeth listened and agreed; but there was +in the Merrifield family a fervour of almost jealous expiation of their +neglect of Henry, inattention to his daughter, and desire to appropriate +her, and to restore her to health, strength, and wisdom, in spite of her +would-be stepmother. + +“They hate me as much as if I were her stepmother!” cried Angela. “I +wish I was, to have a right to protect her! No, Clem; I’ll not break +out, if I can help it, as long as they don’t worry her; and I think +Bessie does see the rights of it.” + +Yes; the peaceful, thoughtful atmosphere of Vale Leston, unlike the +active bustle of Coalham, had an insensible influence on Elizabeth’s +mind; and she saw that Angela’s treatment of the child, always cheerful +though tender, was right, and that it would be sheer cruelty to separate +them. She promised to use all her power to prevent any such step, and +finally left Vale Leston, perfectly satisfied that it was impossible to +take Lena with her. + +But her family did not see it thus, especially Mrs. Samuel Merrifield, +the child’s guardian. She insisted that it was her husband’s duty to +bring the little one to London for advice, and to remove her from all the +weakening, morbid influences of Vale Leston. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII—SUMMONED + + + “What would we give to our beloved?” + + —E. B. BROWNING. + +“I WISH they all would not go so very fast,” said little Lena, hiding her +face against him from the whirl of cabs and omnibuses. + +“They bewilder us savages,” said Angela, smiling. “Remember we are from +the wilds.” + +“She shall have her tea, and a good rest,” said Marilda; “and then I have +asked her uncle and aunts to meet you at dinner, and Fernan hopes to +bring home another old friend. Whom do you think, Angel?” + +“Oh! Not our Bishop?” + +“Yes, the Bishop of Albertstown! He is actually in town; Fernan saw him +yesterday at the Church House.” + +“Oh! that is joy!” cried Angela; and Lena raised her head, with, “Is it +mine—mine own Bishop?” + +“Mine own, mine own Bishop and godfather, my sweet!” said Angela; “more +to us in our own way than any one else. Oh! it is joy! How happy +Clement will be!” + +It was with much feeling, almost akin to shame, that Bessie wrote to +Angela this decision of her brother, that a London authority must be +consulted—not Dr. Brownlow, but one whom Mrs. Sam had heard highly spoken +of. + +“That man!” cried Angela. “I have heard of him! He is a regular +mealy-mouthed old woman of a doctor! And she is so well just now! How +horrid to shake her up again! Oh, Bear! if I could only sail away with +her to Queensland!” + +“You would if it was ten years ago,” said Bernard. + +“Yes! Is it the way of the world, or learning resignation, that makes +one know one must submit? Giving up an idol is a worse thing when the +idol is made of flesh and blood.” + +Bernard wanted to see Sir Ferdinand, so made it an excuse for helping his +sister on the way; and he did so effectively, for his knee and broad +breast were Lena’s great resting-place; and his stories of monkeys and +elephants were almost as good as kangaroos. Was there not a kangaroo to +be seen in London, which she apparently thought would be a place of about +the size of Albertstown? + +Lady Underwood had insisted on receiving the travellers from Vale Leston +in her house in Kensington; and there was her broad, kindly face looking +out for them at the station, and her likewise broad and kindly carriage +ready to carry them from it. How natural all looked to Angela, with all +her associations of being a naughty, wild, mischievous schoolgirl, the +general plague and problem! + +“But always a dear,” said Marilda, with her habit of forgetting +everybody’s faults. “Why didn’t you bring your wife, Bernard, and your +little girl for this darling’s playfellow?” + +“She is her best playfellow,” said Angela; “Adela’s Joan is too rough, +and fitter for Adrian’s companion.” + +“She is my playfellow,” said Bernard, holding her up. “Look out, Lena. +Here’s Father Thames to go over.” + +“And Fernan is so glad,” added Marilda. + +For Bishop Robert Fulmort had, when Vicar of St. Wulstan’s, been the +guide and helper of Ferdinand Travis’s time of trial and disappointment, +as well as the spiritual father of Clement Underwood; he had known and +dealt with Angela in her wayward girlhood, and aided her bitter +repentance; and in these later days in Australia had been her true +fatherly friend, counsellor and comforter in the trials and perplexities +that had befallen her. Bernard read, in her lifted head and brightened +eye, that she felt the meeting him almost a compensation for the distress +and perplexity of this journey to London. + +Bernard carried the little girl up to the room and laid her down to sleep +off her fatigue, while Marilda waited on her and Angela with her wonted +bustling affection, extremely happy to have two of her best beloved +cousins under her roof. + +Bernard went off to find Sir Ferdinand at his office, and quiet prevailed +till nearly dinner time, when Lena awoke and would not be denied one +sight of her godfather. So Angela dressed her in her white frock, and +smoothed her thin yellow hair, and took her down to the great stiff +handsome room that all Emilia’s efforts had never made to look liveable. +Emilia Brown was there, very fashionably attired, but eager for news of +Vale Leston, and the Merrifields soon arrived with, “Oh! here she is!” +from the Captain, “Well! she looks better than I expected!” + +“Poor little dear!” observed his wife, dressed in a low dress and thin +fringe on her forehead in honour of what, to the country mind, was a +grand dinner party, at which Angela’s plain black dress and tight white +cap were an unbecoming sight. Elizabeth was there, kissing Angela with +real sympathy; and Lena, who had grown a good deal more accustomed to +strange relations, endured the various embraces without discourtesy. + +But when the door opened and the grey-headed Bishop came in there was a +low half scream of “Oh! oh!” and with one leap she was in his arms, as he +knelt on one knee, and clasped her, holding out a hand to Angela, whose +eyes were full of tears of relief and trust. Marilda gave a glad +welcome, but they were startled by perceiving that the joy of meeting had +brought on a spasm of choking on Lena, who was gasping in a strange sort +of agony. Angela took her in her arms and carried her out of the room. +Marilda presently following, came back reporting that the little girl had +been relieved by a shower of tears, but was still faint and agitated, and +that Angela could not leave her, but begged that they would not wait +dinner. + +“Such sensitiveness needs anxious care,” said Elizabeth. + +“If it be not the effect of spoiling. Just affectation!” replied the +sister-in-law in a decided voice, which made Bessie glad that the poor +child’s home was not to be among the rough boys at Stokesley, who were +not credited with any particular feelings. + +Angela’s absence gave the Bishop the opportunity of telling what she had +been during her years at Albertstown, what a wonderful power among the +natives, though not without disappointment, and she had been still more +effective among the settlers and their daughters. Carrigaboola, +Fulbert’s farm, had been an oasis of hope and rest to the few clergy of +his scanty staff, and Fulbert himself had been a tower of strength for +influence over the settlers who had fallen in his way, by his unswerving +uprightness and honour, with the deeper principles of religion, little +talked of but never belied. Even after his death, the power he had been +told over all with whom he had come in contact. + +Bernard heard it with immense pleasure, as did the faithful Ferdinand and +Marilda; while Elizabeth felt more and more that Sister Angela was not to +be treated, as she feared Sam and his wife were inclined to do, as a mere +interloper in their family affairs, but as one to be not merely +considered with gratitude, but even reverenced. + +Indeed, Sam began to feel it, as he saw how the other men, both practical +business men, listened, and were impressed; but it was not quite the case +with his wife, who did not particularly esteem colonial Bishops, and +still less Sisterhoods or devotion to missionary efforts, especially +among the Australian blacks, whom her old geography book had told her +were the most degraded and hopeless of natives, scarcely removed from +mere animals. + +When Angela appeared half through dinner time and said that Lena was +safely asleep, and Marilda sat her down to be happy in exchange of +Carrigaboola tidings with her Bishop, Fernando greeted her with a +reverence not undeserved, though perhaps all the more from the contrast +to the mischievous little sprite who used to disturb the days of his +philandering with Alda. + +How much shocked Mrs. Samuel was, when the magnificent Sir Ferdinand, +whom she regarded with awe as a millionaire, was flippantly answered by +this extraordinary Sister, “Thank you, Fernan, I should like to have a +sight of the old office. I hope you have a descendant of the old cat, +Betty. Didn’t she come from your grandmother, Marilda? Do you remember +her being found playing tricks with the nugget, just come from Victoria?” + +“That was in her kitten days,” said Ferdinand. + +“Is that personal, Fernan?” + +“A compliment, Angel,” said the Bishop. “Kittens alter a good deal.” + +“Not much for the better,” said Angela. “If you only could see Mrs. +Lamb, who used to be the very moral of a kitten, scratchiness and all!” + +“I thought her very much improved,” said Lady Underwood gravely. + +“Oh, yes; grown into a sleek and personable tabby, able to wave her tail +at the tip and tuck her paws—her velvet paws—well under her; and lick her +lips over the—oh, dear!—what do you call it?—your _menu_ is quite too +much for us poor savages, Marilda. A bit of damper is quite enough for +us, isn’t it, Bishop?” + +“Varied with opossum and fern root,” he said smiling; “but that’s only +when we have lost our way.” + +The talk drifted off to the history of a shepherd’s child, who had +strayed into the bush, and after much searching, in which the Bishop and +Fulbert had been half starved, had finally been found and carried home by +Angela’s “crack gin,” as she told it to Bernard; and as Marilda thought +the poor child was in a trap, it had to be translated into “favourite +pupil,” though Bernard carried on the joke by asking Marilda if she +thought the natives cannibals given to the snaring of mankind. + +Altogether it was a thoroughly merry evening, such as comes to pass in +the meeting of old friends and comrades in too large numbers for grave +discourse, but with habits of close intercourse and associations of all +kinds. Emilia and her husband tried in all courtesy not to let the +Merrifields feel themselves neglected; and indeed Bessie was only too +glad to listen and join at times in the talk; but it all went outside +Mrs. Sam, who was on the whole scandalised at the laughter of a Bishop, +and a Sister. Indeed, it was true that Bishop Fulmort, naturally a grave +man, very much so in his early days, comported himself on this occasion +as if he realised Southey’s wish— + + “That in mine age as cheerful I might be, + Like the green winter of the holly tree.” + +At any rate, that evening was long a bright remembrance. Lena slept all +night, and was so fresh and well in the morning that Angela foreboded +that the examination might not detect her delicacy. They met Mrs. +Merrifield, and took her with them to the doctor’s, Lady Underwood Travis +having placed her carriages at their disposal. + +It was very much as Angela had expected, knowing by hospital reputation +what the doctor was supposed to be to old ladies and fanciful mothers, +while perhaps he had also heard of her _fracas_ long ago at the hospital. +For he was not more courteous to her than could be helped, treating her +much as if she were only the nursery maid, and hardly looking at the +opinion which she had made Professor May write out for him. + +To her mind, it was a very cursory examination that he made; and the +upshot of his opinion, triumphantly accepted by Mrs. Merrifield, was that +there was nothing seriously amiss with the child, that she only needed +care, regularity and bracing, and that the stifling, gasping spasms were +simply the effect of hysteria. + +Hysteria! Angela felt as if she should run wild as she heard Mrs. +Merrifield’s complacent remarks on having always thought so, and being +sure that a few weeks of good air and good management would make an +immense difference. The need of not alarming or prejudicing the poor +little victim was all that kept Angela in any restraint; and Mrs. +Merrifield went on to say that she had promised her youngest boy, who was +with her in London, to take him to the Zoological Gardens, and it would +be a good opportunity for Magdalen to see them. + +“Is that where there is a kangaroo?” asked Lena, so eagerly that Angela, +though thinking that morning’s work enough for the feeble strength, could +not withstand her. Besides, if the Merrifields were to have her wholly +in another day, what was the use of standing out for one afternoon? One +comfort was that Elizabeth, who would really have the charge of the +child, had much more good sense and knowledge of the world than her +sister-in-law. + +Still Angela felt the only way of bearing it was that after setting Mrs. +Merrifield down, she stopped the carriage at a church she knew to have a +noon-tide Litany, knelt there, with the little girl beside her, and tried +to say, “Thy will be done! To Thy keeping I commit her.” Her “hours” +came to help her. + + “Quench Thou the fires of hate and strife, + The wasting fever of the heart, + From perils guard her feeble life, + And to our souls Thy help impart.” + +She was able to be calm, and to utter none of her rage when they came +back to luncheon; and Marilda, declaring she liked nothing so well as +seeing children at the Zoo, wished to go with the party. All, save Mrs. +Merrifield and her boy, had gone different ways in London, so there was +plenty of room in the barouche. + +The boy’s mind was set on riding on the elephant, and they walked on that +way, turning aside, however, to the yard where towered the kangaroo, +tall, gentle, graceful and gracious. Lena sprang forward with a cry of +joy, and clasped her hands; but in one moment the same spasm, at first of +ecstasy then of overpowering feeling, becoming agony, came over her, and +gasping and choking, Angela held her in her arms and carried her to a +seat, holding her up, loosening her clothes; but still she did not come +round. Her aunt tried to say, “hysteric.” Some one brought water, but +it was of no use—there were still the labouring gasps, and the convulsive +motion. “Let us take her home,” Marilda said. + +“Nothing but hysterics!” repeated the aunt. “I will stay with Jackie.” + +Marilda found her servant and the carriage, and in the long drive, a few +drops of strong stimulant at a chemist’s brought a little relief though +scarcely consciousness; and when Angela had carried her up to her room, +there was a blueness about the lips, a coldness about the fingers, that +told much. Marilda had at once sent for Dr. Brownlow as the nearest, and +he was at home; but he could only look and do nothing, but attempt to +revive circulation, all in vain; and with Marilda standing by, with one +convulsive clutch of Angela’s hand, the true mother of her orphaned life, +little Lena sank to a peaceful rest from the tribulations that awaited +her here. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX—SAFE + + + “Rest beyond all grief and pain, + Death to thee is truest gain.” + + KEBLE. + +ANGELA’S nearest and best friends had anticipated that the peaceful +climax of all her cares would be a relief to her; and so indeed in the +long run it would be to her higher sense, and she would be thankful. But +even those who knew her most thoroughly had not estimated the pangs of +personal affection and deprivation of the child she had fostered with a +mother’s tenderness for seven years, and the absolute suffering of the +sudden parting, even though it was to security of bliss, instead of doubt +and uneasiness. + +She was quite broken and really ill with neuralgia and exhaustion, unable +to attend the funeral, which the Merrifields wished to have at Stokesley, +and unfit for anything but lying still with the pink parrot on the rail +below, kindly watched over by good Marilda. The strain of many disturbed +nights, the perplexities, the struggle for resignation, all coming after +a succession of trying events in Australia, had told heavily upon her. +Indeed, no one guessed how much she had undergone, physically as well as +spiritually, till Marilda would not be denied the consulting Dr. +Brownlow, who questioned her closely, and extorted confessions of the +long continued strain of exertion. Rest was all she needed; and Marilda +took care that she had it, bringing Robina up from Minsterham to make it +more effectual, and letting her have visits from her Bishop and from +Bernard as they could afford the time, both being very and variously +busy. + +Angela had made up her mind to go out to Australia again, and to make +Carrigaboola an endowment for the Sisterhood; but the means of doing this +could best be arranged there, and she intended to go out when her Bishop +should return in the autumn, feeling that her vocation was there, though +there was a blank in all she had most cared for on earth in that home. + +As soon as she had recovered, she wished to spend a fortnight at +Dearport, beginning with a retreat that was held there. Remembering her +old career there, and the abrupt close of her novitiate, she felt and +spoke as if she was to be received as in penitence, but to the Sisters +who surrounded her it was more as if they were receiving a saint. + +When she came back to Vale Leston, she had recovered cheerfulness, more +equable than it had ever been, and Cherry and Alda found her a charming +companion. There was much going on at Vale Leston just then. Miss +Arthuret and Dolores were at Penbeacon, seriously considering of the +scheme of converting the old farm house into a kind of place of study for +girls who wanted to work at various technicalities, and to fit themselves +for usefulness or for self-maintenance. There was to be more or less of +the Convalescent Home or House of Rest in combination, and it had +occurred to Dolores that there could hardly be a better head of such an +establishment than Magdalen Prescott. + +Magdalen had been asked to the Priory to meet Angela, to whom it was now +a comfort and pleasure to talk of her treasure, so much less lost to her +than in the uncongenial surroundings threatened at Coalham. And the +invitation, followed by the proposal, came at a not unpropitious moment. +A railway company, after much surveying, much disputing, and many +heartburnings, were actually obtaining an Act of Parliament, empowering +it to lay its cruel hands upon the Goyle, running its viaducts down the +ravine of Arnscombe, and destroy all the peace and privacy! It did much, +as Agatha had said, to make the new scheme of Penbeacon acceptable +though. + +“That comes of making one’s nest,” she sighed, “and thinking one’s self +secure in it for life! Oh! it is worse and more changeable in this +latter century than in any other! Does the world go round faster?” + +“Of course it does,” said Geraldine. “Think how many fashions, how many +styles, how many ways of thinking, have passed away, even in our own +time.” + +“And what have they left behind them?” + +“Something good, I trust. Coral cells, stones for the next generation of +zoophytes to stand upon to reach up higher.” + +“Is it higher?” + +“In one sense, I hope. The same foundation, remember, and each cell +forms a rock for the future—a white and beautiful cell, remember, as it +grows unconsciously, beneath this creature.” + +Magdalen smiled, delighted with the illustration. + +“It forms into the rocks, the strong foundations of the earth,” she said. + +“When it has undergone its baptism beneath the sea,” added Geraldine. +“But practically and unpoetically, perhaps—how the young folk mount upon +all our little achievements in Church matters, and think them nearly as +old-fashioned and despicable as we did pews and black gowns! Or how +attempts like the schools that brought up Robina and Angela have shot out +into High Schools, colleges, professions, and I know not what besides.” + +“Ah! we come to my old notions for my sisters. I thought they would have +been governesses like myself, but they married; and now tell me, what do +you think of this scheme of Miss Mohun and Agatha?” + +“You know Dolores is going to her father first. I never saw him, but +Lady Merrifield and Jane tell me he is a very wise, highly-principled +person, perfectly to be trusted; and they like all that they have heard +of his young wife. I should think if Agatha is to become a scientific +lecturer, she could not begin her career under better training.” + +“Career, exactly! People used not to talk of careers.” + +“Life and career! Tortoise and hare, eh? But the hare may and ought +still to reach the goal, and have her cell built, even if she does have +her _wander yahr_, like the young barnacles, before becoming attached! +No! she need not become the barnacle goose. That is fabulous,” said Mrs. +Grinstead, laughing off a little of her seriousness, and adding, “Tell me +of the other girls. I think Vera did not come home last year.” + +“No; nor the year before. She has a good many pretty little talents, and +is very obliging. Mrs. White seems to be very fond of her, and did not +want to spare her when they went to Gastein for the summer. And this +year, when there was so much infection about, I could not press it.” + +“Is it true that there is anything between her and Petros White?” + +“I know Miss Mohun—Jane—infers it, but I don’t like to build upon it.” + +“I should build on most inferences that Jane Mohun ventured to make +known,” said Geraldine, smiling; “and Paulina’s fate is pretty well +fixed, I suppose!” + +“Dear child, she has never had any other purpose since I first knew her +thoroughly, and I do not think her present stay at Dearport will +disenchant her. I think she is really devoted, not to the theoretical +romance of a Sisterhood, but to the deeper full purpose of +self-devotion.” + +“I can fully believe it of her. Hers have not been the ups and downs of +my Angela, though indeed, after all she has gone through, there is +something in her face that brings to my mind, ‘After that ye have +suffered awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’” + +“It is a lovely countenance—so patient, and yet so bright.” + +“I do not think anything in all her life has tried her so much as the +distress about little Lena; and after knowing her wildness—to use a weak +word for it—under other troubles, I see what grace and self-control have +done for her. You still keep your Thekla!” she added, as the girl +flashed by, in company with a coeval Vanderkist. + +“For a few years to come, though I am beginning to feel like the old hens +who do but bring their children up to launch them on the waters.” + +“Well, it is happy if the launch can be made with hope present as well as +faith; and to see what Angel has become after many vicissitudes, not +confined to her first years of youth, is an immense encouragement.” + +To Angela’s great delight, the affairs of Brown and Underwood were found +to require inspection at San Francisco, as well as at Colombo, where +Bernard was to put the firm into the hands of one of the Browns, who was +to meet him there, and he would then be able to come home to the central +office in England. + +It was not expedient for Phyllis to make the voyage for so brief a stay, +so it was decided that she should remain with her mother, and she +declared that she should be happy about Bernard being taken care of if +Angela, before settling in at Carrigaboola, would go and stay with him at +Ceylon. “No one can tell the pleasure it is,” she said to Magdalen, “to +borrow one’s own especial brother from his wife for a little while. Oh, +yes, I know it goes against the grain with him, and it is right it +should; but the poor old sister enjoys her treat nevertheless and +notwithstanding.” + +There was a great family gathering at Vale Leston, including both the +Harewoods; and the Bishop of Albertstown came to spend that last +fortnight in England with Clement, the boy who had been committed to him +as a chorister, then trained as a young deacon, and almost driven out in +his inexperience to the critical charge of the neglected parish and the +old squire, only to be recalled after seven years to the more important +charge in London on the Bishop’s appointment, there to serve till +strength gave way, and he must perforce return to his former home. There +was a farewell picnic of the elders at Penbeacon, merry and yet wistful +in its hopeful auguries that the loved play place would be a glad and +beneficial home. + +It was a strange retrospect, talked over by the two old friends in deep +thankfulness, yet humility over their own shortcomings and failures, and +no less strange were the recollections of the wild noisy insubordinate +schoolgirl whom the Bishop’s sister had failed to tame, and who had to +both seemed to live only on sensation, whether religious or secular, and +who had been one continual care and perplexity to each. By turns they +had thought that the full Church system acted as a hotbed on her peculiar +temperament, and at others they had thought it only an alternative to the +amusements of vanity and flirtation. Each had felt himself a failure +with regard to her, and had hoped for a fresh start from each crisis of +repentance, notably, from the death of Felix, only to be disappointed by +some fresh aberration. + +However, in Queensland, her work had been noble, and thoroughly effective +in many cases; it had involved much self-denial and even danger, and +though these might agree with her native spirit of adventure, there had +likewise been not fitful, but steadily earnest devotion in her convent +life, as well as the tenderest reverent care of Mother Constance in a +long and painful decline, and therewith a steady cheerful influence which +had immensely assisted the growth of Fulbert’s character. For some years +past, Sister Angela had been not a care, but a trusty helper to the +Bishop; and the later trials and difficulties, especially the sore +rending of the tie with the being she had come to love with all the force +of her strong nature, had been borne in a manner that bore witness to the +subduing of that over-rebellious and vehement spirit. + +And, as she said to Geraldine on the last evening as they bade +good-night, “This has been the very happiest time I ever spent here—yes, +happier than in those exultant days of new possession and liberty. Oh, +yes, all experiments, as it were, bold ventures, self-reproach and +failure, defiance and fun, and then—oh, the ache I would not confess, the +glory of being provoking, and, oh, the final anguish I brought on myself +and on you all; and I went on, when it began to wear away, still stifling +the sting which revived whenever I came home, and all was renewed! +Really, whenever I shammed it was only remorse. I don’t think that real +repentance, and the peace after it, began till those quiet days with dear +Mother Constance.” + +“And is it peace now?” + +“Yes, I think so. Even the parting with my child has not torn me up. I +can say it is well—far better than leaving her, far better, indeed! And +Felix is what he meant to be, my treasure, not my accuser. Oh, I am glad +to have been at home, and made it all up, to bear away—and leave with you +the sense of Peace.” + +All who had loved and feared for her were very happy over her when all +joined in that farewell service on her own birthday, St. Michael and All +Angels’ Day. + +The party were joined by Dolores and Wilfred at Liverpool; Bernard having +undertaken to establish the latter at Colombo in hands as safe as might +be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX—THE MAIDEN ROCKS + + + “What need we more if hearts be true, + Our voyage safe, our port in view.” + + —KEBLE. + +A TELEGRAM that a steamer had been wrecked on the Maiden Rocks filled +three homes with dismay. The rocks were sought out in maps, and found to +be specks lying between County Antrim and Scotland—no doubt terrible in +their reality. + +Another day brought something more definite. It _was_ the +_Afra_,—“wrecked in the fog of October 11th. Boats got off.” + +That was all; but a day’s post brought letters, of which the fullest was +from Dolores: + + “CORNCASTLE, LARNE, CO. ANTRIM, IRELAND, + _October_ 12. + + “DEAREST AUNT LILY,— + + “I trust Phyllis has by this time heard from Bernard, as I heard him + called on, as a good oarsman, to go in the first boat, and we saw + Angela’s bonnet. We—that is Wilfred, Nag, and the Bishop—are all + safe here, with eight or nine others. Will will do well, I trust. + He quite owes his life to Nag. This is how it was: We had not long + been out of the Mersey before an impenetrable fog came down upon us, + and we could not see across the deck; but on we went, on what proved + to be our blind way, till, after a night and day, just as we were + getting up from dinner, there came a hideous shock and concussion, + throwing us all about the room; and in less than a minute it was + repeated, with horrible crackings, tearings, yells and shouts. No + one needed to tell us what it meant, and down came the call, ‘Don’t + wait to save your things, only wraps, ladies! Up on deck! + Life-belts if you can!’ I remember Bernard standing at the top of + the ladder, helping us up, and somehow, I understand from him, that + we were on a reef, and might either remain there, and sink, or be + washed off. The fog was clearing, and there was a dim light up high, + somewhere, one of the lighthouses, I believe. I don’t quite know how + it all went; I think we kept in the background, round the Bishop, and + that a boat full of emigrant women was put off. I know there were + only about half a dozen women left, who had been crying and refusing + to leave their husbands; and about thirty altogether, men and women, + were somehow got into our boat with the chief mate; the Bishop all + consolation and prayer; poor Wilfred limp, cold and trembling, for he + had been very seasick till the last moment, when Bernard pulled him + out of his berth, and put him into a lifebelt. The sea was not very + rough, with an east wind; but the mate said the current was so strong + he could make no way against it. It would bring us on to the Irish + cliffs, and then, God help us! Knowing what that coast is, I thought + there was no hope; and as it was beginning to grow light there rose + an awful wall, all black and white, ready to close upon us; but just + as I set my teeth and tried to recollect prayers, or follow the + Bishop’s, but I could only squeeze Agatha harder and harder, there + was a fresh shouting among the men, and the boat was heaved up in a + fearful way, then down. It was tide, and we were near upon breakers; + but there were answering shouts, or so they said—I believe a line was + thrown, and a light shown. But as the boat rose again, Nag and I + expected to be hurled on the rocks the next moment, and clung + together. But instead—though the waves had almost torn us asunder—we + were lying on a stony beach, and human hands were dragging at + us—voices calling and shouting about our not being dead. God had + helped us! We had been carried into a clift where there is a + coastguard station; and the good men had come down and were helping + us on shore. But before I well knew anything, Agatha was on her + feet; I heard her cry ‘Wilfred, Wilfred!’ and then I saw her dragging + him, quite like a dead thing, out of the surf, just in time before + another great wave rushed in which would have washed them both back, + if a man had not grappled her at the very moment, calling out, ‘Let + go, let go, he’s a dead man!’ She did not let go; when the wave + broke, happily, just short of them, and another came to help, and + saved them from being sucked back. Then the Bishop came and assured + us that he was alive, and got the men to carry him up to the + coastguard cottages; indeed, it was an awful escape; for of our + boatload most were lost altogether, three lie dead, dashed against + the rock, and two more, the mate one of them, have broken limbs. + Wilfred was unconscious for a long time, at least an hour; but by the + help of spoonfuls of whiskey he came round to a dreamy kind of state, + and he does not seem to suffer much; and the Bishop, the Preventive + man and Nag all are sure no limbs are broken, but he seems incapable + of movement except his hands. It may be only jar upon the spine, and + go off in another day or two; but we do not dare to send for a + doctor, or anything else, indeed, till we have some money; for we all + of us have lost everything except five shillings in my pocket and two + in Nag’s. Even our wraps were washed off—I believe Agatha gave hers + to a shivering woman in the boat. The Bishop, too, gave away his + coat, forgetting to secure his purse. But the people are very kind + to us—North, or Scotch Irish Presbyterians, I think—for they don’t + seem to know what to make of his being a Bishop when they found he + was not R.C., though they call him His Reverence. Please send us an + order to get cashed, at Larne, six miles off, where this is posted. + Wilfred lies on the good Preventive woman’s bed, clean and fairly + comfortable, and they have made a shake-down in their parlour for Nag + and me. The Bishop _says_ he is well off, but I believe he is always + looking after the mate and the other man in the other house, and + sleeps, if at all, in a chair. Nag is _the_ nurse. She had + ambulance lessons, you know, when at the High School, and profited by + them more than I ever did, and Wilfred likes to have her about him, + and when he is dazed, as he always is at first waking, he calls her + Vera. But don’t be uneasy about him, dear Aunt Lily. Deadly + sea-sickness, a night of tossing and cold, and then this terrible + landing may well upset him, and probably he will be on his legs by + the time you get this letter. + + “I find our disaster was on the Maiden Rocks, a horrible group, I + only wonder that any one gets past them. There are five of them, the + wicked Sirens, and three have lighthouses, but not very efficient + ones, and apt to disappear in the fog, and there are reefs beneath on + one of which we came to grief. The folk here think a wreck on these + Maidens absolutely fatal, so we cannot be but most thankful for being + alive, though it is a worse experience than the Rotuma earthquake. + + “Fergus would think the place worth all we have undergone. The crags + are wonderful, chalk at the bottom, basalt above, and of course all + round to the Giant’s Causeway it is finer still. Well may we, as the + Bishop is always doing, give thanks that we were taken, by the Divine + Hand guiding tide and current, to this milder and less inhospitable + opening. + + “We can afford to dispense with less majesty, for one of those finer + cliffs would have been our destruction. + + “This is going to Larne, where there is a railway station and + something of a town, and the Bishop has written to the doctor of the + place. I will write again when he has been here. I hope to send you + another and more cheery account to-morrow, or whenever post goes. + + “Nag is writing to her sister. I trust you will have heard of + Bernard and Angela. Their boat was a better one than ours, and + certainly got off safely. Let us know as soon you can. + + “Your most loving niece, + “D. M. MOHUN.” + +Agatha had also written to Magdalen, very briefly, to assure her of her +safety and thankfulness, and to say she could not leave Wilfred till more +efficient care arrived, or till she had means to come back with. She was +evidently too busy over her patient to have much possibility of writing, +even if she had paper, which seemed to be scarce at Corncastle. + +The Bishop also wrote to Clement, and to Sir Jasper and others; but he +also could say little, only that he trusted that Angela and Bernard were +safe elsewhere, having heard them called, and, as he believed, seen them +off in the first boat, so that probably they had been already heard of +before these letters arrived. Their own party had been spared from being +dashed against the rocks almost by a miracle; and Agatha Prescott’s +courage and readiness, as now her nursing faculties, were beyond all +praise, as indeed was the brave patience of Miss Mohun. He could only +look on and be thankful, and hope for tidings of those who were as his +own children. The next day’s letters spoke of the doctor as so much +perplexed about Wilfred, and nothing had been heard at Larne of the other +boats. + +But no tidings came; there was too much cause to fear that the first boat +had been borne away by the currents and swamped. Lady Merrifield could +not leave Phyllis in such a crisis of suspense, and Sir Jasper was hardly +fit for such a journey, so that his wife was much relieved when her +brother, General Mohun, came to Clipstone, and undertook to hasten out to +Corncastle, with money and appliances, including a nurse. + +“Oh, Reggie, always good at need! I hardly dare to send my good old +Halfpenny—!” + +“No, Mamma, send me. You know I had the ambulance lessons with Nag,” +said Mysie, “and we could get a real nurse from Belfast or Dublin, if it +was wanted.” + +So it was arranged, and uncle and niece started, but hope faded more and +more! Were those two precious young lives so early quenched? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI—THE WRECK + + + “How purer were earth, if all its martyrdoms, + If all its struggling sighs of sacrifice + Were swept away!” + + E. HAMILTON KING. + +NO tidings of Bernard and Angela. The suspense began to diminish into +“wanhope” or despair; and the brothers and sisters continued to say that +they were sorry above all for Phyllis, whose gentle sweetness had made +her one with them. + +But at last, one forenoon, a telegram was put into Clement’s hand, dated +from Ewmouth: + + _Muriel Ellen_, Ewmouth Harbour, October 14th. Blaine to Rev. + Underwood. Brother here. Come to infirmary. + +Clement and Geraldine lost no time in driving to the infirmary, too +anxious to speak to one another. Blaine’s name was known to them as a +Gwenworth lad, who had gone to sea, and risen to be sailing master of the +_Muriel Ellen_, a trader plying between Londonderry and Bristol. He, +with another, who proved to be the American captain of the _Afra_, were +at the gate of the hospital, where an ambulance had just entered. + +“Oh! Sir,” as Clement held out his hand, “I could not save her. I’d +have given my life!” + +“My brother?” as Clement returned his grasp fervently. + +“We’ve just got him in here, Sir. I hope! I hope! And here’s the +doctor.” + +The house surgeon, who, of course, knew the Rector of Vale Leston, met +him with, “Best see him before we touch him, it will set his mind at +rest—You must be prepared, Sir—No, better not you, Mrs. Grinstead.” + +Clement followed in silence, leaving Geraldine to the care of the matron. +All he was allowed to see was a ghastly, death-like face and form, +covered with rugs, lying prostrate on a mattress; but as he came in, at +the sound of his step, there was a quiver of recognition, the eyes opened +and looked up, the lips moved, and as Clement bent down with a kiss, +there was a faint sound gasped out, “Telegraph to Clipstone.” + +“I will, I will at once.” + +“It was noble!” Then was added, “She gave herself for the Bishop, for +me.” Then the eyes closed, and unconsciousness seemed to prevail. Some +one came and put Clement aside, saying— + +“Go now, Sir; you shall hear!” + +Clement, who thought it might be death, would have stayed at hand; but he +was turned away, and could only murmur an inarticulate blessing and +prayer, as he meant to fulfil the earnest desire that was thought to have +been conned over and over again by Bernard, as these half sentences +recurred again and again in semi-consciousness. His telegram despatched, +Clement returned to his sister, to hear from the two masters all they had +to tell. Captain Miller, of the _Afra_, had slight hurts, which had been +looked to before he should take the train for London; and Blaine had +waited to tell his story before pursuing his voyage to Bristol, both, +indeed, to hear the report of the patient, and likewise to collect the +news of the few who had been landed at Corncastle, to the great relief of +Captain Miller; but of the first boat there were no tidings, and Blaine +thought there was little probability that it had not sunk or been dashed +against the crags of the savage coast. + +Captain Miller’s account was, that not long after leaving the Mersey, +there had set in an impenetrable fog, lasting for a night and a day. +There was perhaps some confusion as to charts, and the scarcely visible +lights upon the Maidens. At any rate, the _Afra_ had suddenly struck on +a reef, and, shifting at once, had been hopelessly rent, so as to leave +no hope save in the boats. Every one seemed to have behaved with the +resolute fortitude and unselfishness generally shown by English and +Americans in the like circumstances. The sea was not in a dangerous +state, and there was a steady east wind, so that the boats were lowered +without much difficulty, and most of the women disposed of in the first. + +Before the second could be put off however, the water had reached the +fires; there was a violent lurch, the ship had heeled completely over, +washing many overboard, and of course causing a great confusion among +those who had been steady before, and making the deck almost +perpendicular. The captain, however, succeeded in lowering another boat, +and putting into it, as he trusted, the few remaining women, the Bishop, +and most of the men. This was, of course, that which had safely reached +Corncastle, and of which he only now heard. The last boat was so +overcrowded that he, with three of his crew, had thought it best to +remain for the almost desperate chance of being picked up before they +sank. + +He had supposed Mr. Underwood had been washed overboard in the heeling +over of the ship, and that his sister had been put into the first boat; +but presently he heard a call. + +“Oh, help me, please!” And he became aware that Sister Angela was +hanging over her brother, who lay crushed by a heavy chest which had +fallen on him, and thrown him against the gunwale, though a moan or two +showed him to be still alive. The remaining sailors removed the weight, +lifted him, and laid him in the best place and position they could, while +his sister hung over him and supported his head. To Miller’s dismayed +exclamation at finding a woman still on board, she replied— + +“It was no fault of yours. I hid below. Other lives—the Bishop’s—were +what mattered! I am glad to be here!” + +He believed that Mr. Underwood had revived enough to know his sister, for +he had heard her voice talking to him. Yes, and singing; but it was not +for very long. The wreck was in motion, being carried by current and +tide along the Channel, and if it did not sink, might be perceived now +that daylight had come, and a signal of distress might be seen by some +passing vessel. + +Seen it was, in fact, and that there were persons to be rescued; and +Blaine, who was on his way from Londonderry to Bristol, in the _Muriel +Ellen_, a cattle-boat, possessed a boat in which to attempt a rescue. + +All that experienced sailors could do in transferring the helpless and +unconscious form to the boat first, and then to the sloop had been done; +but it was no wonder that in the transit Angela, more heedful of her +brother’s safety than her own, had fallen between, and been lost in the +waves, to the extreme grief of Tom Blaine, who had been one of her +scholars, and devoted to her, as all the boys of Vale Leston were. + +The cattle-boat had few facilities for comfort, and all he could do was +to let Mr. Bernard Underwood lie, as softly as could be contrived, on +deck, and make sail for Ewmouth, so as to land him as near home as +possible. How far he had been conscious it was impossible to say, though +once he had asked for Angela, but had seemed to understand from an +evasion, that she was missing, and had said no more, but muttered parts +of these requests, as if afraid of not being capable of them. + +All this had been told or implied, while messages came down that the +surgeons did not think the injuries need be mortal, provided the +exhaustion and exposure had not fatal consequences. The left arm, two +ribs, and the leg had been broken, and were reduced before the doctors +ventured on a hopeful report with which to send home the brother and +sister. One sight, Clement was allowed of a more unconscious, but much +less distressed face, and one murmur, “Noble! Phyllis!” and he was +promised a telegram later in the day. The two hardly knew which to feel +most; grief or thankfulness, the loss or the mercy, and yet—and yet—after +the fitful, wayward, yet always devout life, with all its strains, there +was a sense of wistful acceptance of such a close. + +They felt it all the more deeply when, a day or two later, Bernard was +able to say, at intervals, for the injury rendered speech difficult and +almost dangerous, as Clement leant over him— + +“Yes! I woke to see her face over me, all bright in wavy hair just as +when we were children, and she said, ‘Bear! Bear! we are going +together!’ Then somehow she tried to help me to trust for Phyllis and +Lily.” + +Then his voice sank, but presently he added, “There was more, but it is +like a dream. She was singing in her own, own voice. There was ‘Lead, +kindly Light!’ and when it came to ‘Angel faces smile’ there was a +cry—quite glad—‘There! there on the water! Felix! Coming for us! Oh! +and another One! Lord, into Thy hands.’ That is all I know—a kiss here, +and ‘Yes! thanks! For me!’ But the lifting hurt so much that I lost all +sense, when she must have fallen between the wreck and the boat. You are +glad for her! Mine own! mine Angel!” + +“Safe home!” said Clement. “Oh, thankworthy!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII—ANCHORED + + + “Safe home, safe home in port, + Rent cordage, shattered deck; + Torn sails, provision short, + And only not a wreck; + But all the joy upon the shore, + To tell our voyage the perils o’er!” + +SAFE home! It might be said in another sense for Bernard, for he was +naturally so strong and healthy that the effects of exposure and +exhaustion were not long in passing off, the injury to the chest proved +to be only temporary; and having cased him like a statue in plaster of +Paris, the surgeons decided, to the joy of his family, that the more +serious injuries would be better recovered from in the fresh air of Vale +Leston, than in the fishy, muddy atmosphere of Ewmouth. + +So he was transported thither, and installed in Felix’s study, among the +familiar sights and sounds, and where another joy awaited him, and where +he lay in happy stillness. + +Phyllis had borne up bravely through the suspense, never relinquishing a +strong assurance of hope; but when that hope was actually crowned by the +first telegram, the reaction set in, and she had broken down so entirely +that her mother durst not let her move at first, and indeed accompanied +her and her little girl as far as the junction, being herself on the way +to Larne. + +And Geraldine’s heart was at peace when she saw Phyllis sitting by the +bed, her hand in his, content to see and not to speak. Another visitor +appeared the following day, namely, the Bishop of Albertstown, who had +remained at Larne till he could see his fellow passengers in safe hands. +Then he had crossed to Bristol, and before his hurried visit to his +sisters he could not but come to see his beloved old pupil, Clement, and +share with him those reminiscences of her, who, as he had only now +learnt, had given her young superabundant life for him, a man growing +into age, whose work might be nearly done. + +He only saw Bernard in silence, but heard from Clement the account of +those last moments, which showed how entirely Angela had been conscious +of what she was doing, and how willingly she had devoted herself to save +those whom she loved and valued. + +While yet they talked, there was a fresh arrival. Sir Ferdinand Travis +Underwood, who could not forbear the running down to hear perfectly all +that was to be heard, and to make arrangements that might relieve +Bernard’s mind, if he were indeed on the way of recovery. + +In fact, almost the first thought after that of the wife and child had +been the security of the drenched, stained, and soiled pocket-book; nor +would the patient be satisfied till he had been allowed himself to hand +it over to the head of his firm, with, “There, Fernan, safe, though +smashed with me. Tell Brown.” + +“Never mind Brown or anything else but getting well, Bernard. I have +taken our passage for next week. I shall get things arranged so that you +need not think of being wanted again out there. We will find a berth for +you in the office in town, as soon as you are about again.” + +Bernard’s eye lightened. “I hope—” + +But Ferdinand would not let him either thank or hope, scarcely even allow +any words from Phyllis, who could not be grateful enough for the relief. +To Alda, who had received her old companion, since Marilda seemed unable +to let her husband out of her sight; it was explained that she was going +too, happen what would. Oh, yes, it was true she was a shocking bad +sailor, but she was not going to have Fernan’s ships running upon rocks +or getting on fire, or anything of that sort, without her. She wanted to +see about Ludmilla Schmetterling, who was reported to have found a lover +while studying at a class in the States, and she also meant to settle her +own especial niece Emilia, whose husband was to take Bernard’s place in +Ceylon and who had become heartily tired of London’s second-rate +gaieties. + +Those thus concerned met at the memorial service in the morning before +the Bishop quitted them, where many parishioners gathered who had been +spellbound in Angela’s freakish days of early girlhood, and who were +greatly touched when the committal to the deep was inserted from the +Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea. + +It brought a deep sense of awe and thankfulness to those who had feared +and wondered through the stormy uncertain life, and now could exult in +what was almost a martyrdom, and had brought their beloved one to the +great pure grave, as her Baptism for eternity. + +Some months later, while Bernard still lay on his couch, but could speak +and be glad, he rejoiced indeed, for a sore in his heart was healed, when +two fair babes were brought to him,—a boy who would be as another +firstborn son, and a little maiden who would bear that name which had +become dear and saintly in the peculiar calendar of Vale Leston. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII—FAREWELL + + + “Nay, your pardon! Cry you, ‘Forward.’ Yours are youth, we hope—but + I?” + + —BROWNING. + +THE visit of the Bishop of Albertstown had, in fact, been deferred till +he could quit his fellow-sufferers, especially Wilfred, who could not +well be left to the charge of the two girls, with the Larne doctor +evidently in difficulty about his case. + +It was with great joy that a telegram was received with tidings that +General Mohun and Mysie were on the way, and also Magdalen Prescott, who +met them at Liverpool, being unable to stay away from Agatha under such +circumstances. At Belfast they obtained a trained nurse, and a doctor +was to follow them. + +The joy of the meeting between Magdalen and Agatha was almost that of +mother and daughter, and nothing could be more entirely convincing that +they were one. + +Indeed, Agatha was thoroughly worn out; for the main strain of attendance +had fallen upon her, since the Bishop was fully occupied with some of the +seriously hurt in other cottages; and though Dolores tried to be helpful, +it was chiefly in outside work, and attempts at sick cookery, in which +she was rather too scientific, and found the lack of appliances very +inconvenient. Besides, cousin though she was, or perhaps for that very +reason, Wilfred was far less amenable to her voice than Agatha’s; and if +she attempted authority it was sure to rouse all the resistance left in +him. Agatha had been constantly on the alert, liable to be called on +every half-hour, to soothe fretful distress over impossible impatience at +delay, anger at want of comforts, and dolefulness over the chances of +improvements, and abuse, whether just or not, of the only accessible +doctor. + +In fact, Magdalen, on seeing how utterly worn out she was, and how little +space the cottages afforded, thought it best, now that the patient was in +the hands of sister, uncle, and nurse, to carry her off at once by the +return car to Larne; and Dolores thought it best to accompany them, after +Mysie had hung on her as one restored from death. But Mysie was absorbed +in her brother, and Dolores had a strong yearning to be with her father, +so strong that she decided not to return to England, but to procure a +second outfit at Belfast, and to set forth again from thence, nothing +daunted, for, as she said (not carelessly), such things did not happen +immediately after, in a second voyage. In fact, though thankful and +impressed by the loss of the others, she had gone through the crisis of +the life of her heart and affections, and she had likewise been once in +imminent peril through a convulsion of nature. Thus she was inclined to +look on the wreck and the Irish cliffs as an experience in the way of +business, so she was resolved to see the Giant’s Causeway, and to make +notes upon it for her lectures. + +But it was a different thing with Agatha. She had been brought face to +face with death; and though the actual time had been spent in hurry and +bustle, and even the subsequent tossing in the boat had been not so much +waiting and thinking as attending to others more terrified and injured +than herself, and there followed the incessant waiting on Wilfred; still +the experiences had worked in. She rested very silently, dwelling little +to Magdalen on her thoughts; but each word she said, and her very +countenance, showed that she had made a great step in life and realised +the spiritual world, which hitherto had been outside her life—not +disbelieved, but almost matter of speculation and study. + +She was not at all desirous of falling back from Dolores, whose grave +steadiness and fortitude, the result of a truly brave and deep trust, had +given her a sense of confidence and protection. So they wrote, and +arranged for their passage, and, with Magdalen, spent the intermediate +time in needful preparations at Belfast, and in an expedition to the +Causeway, where they laid in a stock of notes and observations, all in a +spirit that made Magdalen feel that she knew both in a manner she had +never done before, and loved them with a deep value and confidence. + +Wilfred meanwhile made very slow, if any, progress. + +They took him to Belfast as soon as it was possible, and his mother came +to him. He was gentle and quiet, with little power of movement, and +scarcely any of thought; and in a consultation of doctors, the verdict +was given that he must be carefully tended for months, if not for years +to come; and though there might finally be full recovery, yet it would +depend on the most tender and careful treatment of body and mind. London +doctors, when he could be moved thither, confirmed the decision, and he +began a helpless invalid life, in which a certain indifference and +dulness made him a much less peevish and trying patient than would have +been anticipated. Mysie was his willing, but intelligent slave; and his +mother was not only thankful to have him brought back to her at any +price, but really—though she would not have confessed it even to +herself—was less troubled and anxious about him than she had been since +he had begun to “roam in youth’s uncertain wilds.” Indeed, there were +hopes that slow recovery might find him a much changed person in +character. + +He had become so uninterested in his former predilections that he heard +with little emotion that Vera was to marry Petros White. + +“I thought she would take up with some cad,” he said. But his family +were really glad that this wedding was to take place at Rocca Marina, +whither the two sisters and Magdalen were invited. + +Paulina would not go. She still resented the treatment of Hubert Delrio, +and she was devoted to her study of nursing at the Dearport Sisterhood; +but Magdalen thought it right to take Thekla, and give her the advantages +of improvement in languages, and the sight of fine scenery. + +And certainly Rocca Marina was a wonderful place for marriages. Vera, +handsome and happy and likely to turn into a fairly good commonplace +wife, had no sooner been sent off on a honeymoon tour to Greece and +Egypt, and Mrs. White had begged the other two to prolong their visit, +considering, perhaps, if one or the other aunt or niece could not be +promoted to the vacant post of lady-in-waiting, than Hubert Delrio came +to secure specimens of marble for some mosaic work on which he was +engaged. He was fast becoming a man of mark, whom the Whites were +delighted to receive and entertain, and who was delighted to be with the +old friends who had had so great an influence on his life. And was it +Magdalen alone to whom he chiefly looked up as his helper and guide? So +he thought; but before the time of separation had come, he had found out +that Thekla was far prettier than ever Vera had been, and with a mind and +principle—no Flapsy, but a real sympathetic and poetic nature, which had +grown up in these years. Young as she was, their destinies were fixed. + +And Magdalen? The railroad had obtained authority to pass through the +Goyle, and thus break up her home and shelter. Still she was not tempted +by Adeline White’s desire to make her a companion; but rather she +accepted the plan on which Dolores had first started, and on which +Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret were set, of making her the head +of their home at Penbeacon, partly a convalescent home, and partly a +training college for young women in need of technical instruction in +nursing or other possible feminine avocations. Tom May was delighted +with all it might set on foot, and Clement saw in her leading the hopes +that a high and pure spirit might inspire it. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{100} It is Russian, and means Faith. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN BROODS*** + + +******* This file should be named 7191-0.txt or 7191-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/7/1/9/7191 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Modern Broods + or Developments Unlooked For + + +Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge + + + +Release Date: December 24, 2014 [eBook #7191] +[This file was first posted on March 26, 2003] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN BROODS*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1900 Macmillan and Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>MODERN BROODS,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OR</span><br /> +<i>DEVELOPMENTS UNLOOKED FOR</i></h1> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br +/> +CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<blockquote><p>“<i>Youth and age are scholars yet but in +the lower school</i>.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">—<span +class="smcap">Tennyson</span>.</p> +</blockquote> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><b>London</b><br /> +MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br +/> +1900</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall"><i>All +rights reserved</i></span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Richard Clay +and Sons</span>, <span class="smcap">Limited</span>,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">LONDON AND BUNGAY.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall"><i>First +Edition</i></span><span class="GutSmall">, </span><span +class="GutSmall"><i>October</i></span><span class="GutSmall">, +1900.</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall"><i>Reprinted</i></span><span +class="GutSmall">, </span><span +class="GutSmall"><i>November</i></span><span class="GutSmall">, +1900.</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER I</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>TORTOISES AND HARES</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER II</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE GOYLE</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page16">16</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER III</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE FIRST SUNDAY</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER IV</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>CYCLES</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER V</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>CLIPSTONE FRIENDS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VI</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM’S</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>SISTER AND SISTERS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page67">67</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>SNOBBISHNESS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER IX</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page80">80</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER X</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>FLOWN</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XI</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>ADRIFT</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>“THE KITTIWAKE”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page108">108</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>CHIMERAS DIRE</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page119">119</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIV</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XV</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>BROODS ASTRAY</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page135">135</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XVI</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page146">146</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XVII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page158">158</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XVIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>PALACES OR CHURCHES</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page165">165</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIX</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>TWO WEDDINGS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XX</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>FLEETING</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page194">194</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXI</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE ELECTRICIANS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page204">204</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>ANGEL AND BEAR</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page213">213</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>WILLOW WIDOWS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page224">224</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXIV</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>CRUEL LAWYERS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page237">237</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXV</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>BEAR AS ADVISER</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page245">245</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXVI</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>NEW PATHS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page258">258</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXVII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A SENTENCE</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page266">266</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXVIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>SUMMONED</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page274">274</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXIX</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>SAFE</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page284">284</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXX</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE MAIDEN ROCKS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page293">293</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXI</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE WRECK</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page300">300</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>ANCHORED</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page306">306</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>FAREWELL</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page310">310</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CHAPTER +I—TORTOISES AND HARES</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Whate’er is good to wish, ask that of +Heaven,<br /> +Though it be what thou canst not hope to see.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span class="smcap">Hartley +Coleridge</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> scene was a drawing-room, with +old-fashioned heavy sash windows opening on a narrow brick-walled +town-garden sloping down to a river, and neatly kept. The +same might be said of the room, where heavy old-fashioned +furniture, handsome but not new, was concealed by various flimsy +modernisms, knicknacks, fans, brackets, china photographs and +water-colours, a canary singing loud in the window in the winter +sunshine.</p> +<p>“Miss Prescott,” announced the maid; but, finding +no auditor save the canary, she retreated, and Miss Prescott +looked round her with a half sigh of recognition of the +surroundings. She was herself a quiet-looking, gentle lady, +rather small, with a sweet mouth and eyes of hazel, in a rather +worn face, dressed in a soft woollen and grey fur, with headgear +to suit, and there was an air of glad expectation, a little +flush, that did not look permanent, on her thin cheeks.</p> +<p>“Is it you, my dear Miss Prescott?” was the +greeting of the older hostess as she entered, her grey hair rough +and uncovered, and her dress of well-used black silk, her +complexion of the red that shows wear and care. “Then +it is true?” she asked, as the kiss and double shake of the +hand was exchanged.</p> +<p>“May I ask? Is it true? May I congratulate +you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, it is true!” said Miss Prescott, +breathlessly. “I suppose the girls are at the High +School?”</p> +<p>“Yes, they will be at home at one. Or shall I send +for them?”</p> +<p>“No, thank you, Mrs. Best. I shall like to have a +little time with you first. I can stay till a quarter-past +three.”</p> +<p>“Then come and take off your things. I do not know +when I have been so glad!”</p> +<p>“Do the girls know?” asked Miss Prescott, +following upstairs to a comfortable bedroom, evidently serving +also the purposes of a private room, for writing table and +account books stood near the fire.</p> +<p>“They know something; Kate Bell heard a report from her +cousins, and they have been watching anxiously for news from +you.”</p> +<p>“I would not write till I knew more. I hope they +have not raised their expectations too high; for though it is +enough to be an immense relief, it is not exactly +affluence. I have been with Mr. Bell going into the matter +and seeing the place,” said Miss Prescott, sitting +comfortably down in the arm-chair Mrs. Best placed for her, while +she herself sat down in another, disposing themselves for a talk +over the fire.</p> +<p>“Mr. Bell reckons it at about £600 a +year.”</p> +<p>“And an estate?”</p> +<p>“A very pretty cottage in a Devonshire valley, with the +furniture and three acres of land.”</p> +<p>“Oh! I believe the girls fancy that it is at least +as large as Lord Coldhurst’s.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I was in hopes that they would have heard nothing +about it.”</p> +<p>“It came through some of their schoolfellows; one cannot +help things getting into the air.”</p> +<p>“And there getting inflated like bubbles,” said +Miss Prescott, smiling. “Well, their expectations +will have a fall, poor dears!”</p> +<p>“And it does not come from their side of the +family,” said Mrs. Best. “Of course not! +And it was wholly unexpected, was it not?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I had my name of Magdalen from my great aunt +Tremlett; but she had never really forgiven my mother’s +marriage, though she consented to be my godmother. She +offered to adopt me on my mother’s death, and once when my +father married again, and when we lost him, she wrote to propose +my coming to live with her; but there would have been no payment, +and so—”</p> +<p>“Yes, you dear good thing, you thought it your duty to +go and work for your poor little stepmother and her +children!”</p> +<p>“What else was my education good for, which has been a +costly thing to poor father? And then the old lady was +affronted for good, and never took any more notice of me, nor +answered my letters. I did not even know she was dead, till +I heard from Mr. Bell, who had learnt it from his +lawyers!”</p> +<p>“It was quite right of her. Dear Magdalen, I am so +glad,” said Mrs. Best, crossing over to kiss her; for the +first stiffness had worn off, and they were together again, as +had been the solicitor’s daughter and the chemist’s +daughter, who went to the same school till Magdalen had been sent +away to be finished in Germany.</p> +<p>“Dear Sophy, I wish you had the good fortune, +too!”</p> +<p>“Oh! my galleons are coming when George has prospered a +little more in Queensland, and comes to fetch me. Sophia +and he say they shall fight for me,” said Mrs. Best, who +had been bravely presiding over a high-school boarding-house ever +since her husband, a railway engineer, had been killed by an +accident, and left her with two children to bring up. +“Dear children, they are very good to me.”</p> +<p>“I am sure you have been goodness itself to us,” +said Magdalen, “in taking the care of these poor little +ones when their mother died. I don’t know how to be +thankful enough to you and for all the blessings we have +had! And that this should have come just now, especially +when my life with Lady Milsom is coming to an end.”</p> +<p>“Indeed!”</p> +<p>“Yes, the little boys are old enough for school, and the +Colonel is going to take a house at Shrewsbury, where his mother +will live with them, and want me no longer.”</p> +<p>“You have been there seven years.”</p> +<p>“Yes, and very happy. When Fanny married, Lady +Milsom was left alone, and would not part with me, and then came +the two little boys from India, so that she had an excuse for +retaining me; but that is over now, or will be in a few weeks +time. I had been trying for an engagement, and finding that +beside your high-school diploma young ladies I am considered +quite passée—”</p> +<p>“My dear! With your art, and music, and +all!”</p> +<p>“Too true! And while I was digesting a polite hint +that my terms were too high, and therewith Agatha’s earnest +appeal to be sent to Girton, there comes this inheritance! +Taking my burthen off my back, and making me ready to throw up my +heels like a young colt.”</p> +<p>“Ah! you will be taking another burthen, +perhaps.”</p> +<p>“No doubt, I suppose so, but let me find it out by +degrees. I can only think as yet of having my dear girls to +myself, <i>moi</i>, as the French would say, after having seen so +little of them.”</p> +<p>“It has been very unfortunate. Epidemics have been +strangely inconvenient.”</p> +<p>“Yes. First there was whooping cough here to +destroy the summer holidays; then came the Milsoms’ +measles, and I could not go and carry infection. Oh! and +then Freddy broke his leg, and his grandmother was too nervous to +be left with him. And by and by some one told her the +scarlatina was in the town.”</p> +<p>“It really was, you know.”</p> +<p>“Any way, it would have been sheer selfish inhumanity to +leave her, and then she had a real illness, which frightened us +all very much. Next came influenza to every one. And +these last holidays! What should the newly-come little one +from India do, but catch a fever in the Red Sea, and I had to +keep guard over the brothers at Weymouth till she was reported +safe, and I don’t believe it was infectious after +all! Still, I am tired of ‘other people’s +stairs.’”</p> +<p>“It is nearly five years since you have been with them, +except for that one peep you took at Weston.”</p> +<p>“And that is a great deal at their age. Agatha was +a vehement reader; she would hardly look at me, so absorbed was +she in ‘The York and Lancaster Rose’ which I had +brought her.”</p> +<p>“She is rather like that now. I conclude that you +will wish to take them away?”</p> +<p>“Not this time, at any rate till the house is fit to put +over their heads. Besides, you have so mothered them, dear +Sophy, that I could not bear to make a sudden parting.”</p> +<p>“There will be pain, especially over little Thekla and +Polly. But if George comes home this spring, and I go out +to Queensland with him, perhaps I should have asked you to take +this house off my hands. May be it would be prudent in you +to do so even now, considering all things; only I believe that +transplanting would be good for them all.”</p> +<p>“I am glad you think so, for I have a perfect longing +for that little house of my own.”</p> +<p>“You will be able to give them a superior kind of +society to what they have had access to here. There is a +good deal that I should like to talk over with you before they +come in.”</p> +<p>“Agatha seems to be in despair at her +failure.”</p> +<p>“So is all the house, for we were very proud of her, +and, of course, we all thought it a fad of the examiners, but +perhaps our headmistress might not say the same. She is a +good, hardworking girl though, and ambitious, and quite worth +further training.”</p> +<p>“I am glad of being able to secure it to her at least, +and by the time her course is finished I shall be able to judge +about the others.”</p> +<p>“You thought of taking them in hand yourself?”</p> +<p>“Certainly; how nice it will be to teach my own kin, and +not endless strangers, lovable as they have been!”</p> +<p>“It will be very good for them all to see something of +life and manners superior to what I can give them here. You +will take them into a fresh sphere, and—as things +were—besides that, I could not—I did not know whether +their lives would not lie among our people here.”</p> +<p>“Dear Sophy, don’t concern yourself. I am +quite certain you would never let them fall in with anything +hurtful.”</p> +<p>“Why, no! I hope not; but if I had known what was +coming, I don’t think I should have asked you to consent to +Vera and Thekla’s spending their holidays at Mr. +Waring’s country house.”</p> +<p>“Very worthy people, you said. I remember Tom +Waring, a very nice boy; and Jessie Dale went to school with +us—I liked her. Fancy them having a country +house.”</p> +<p>“Waring Grange they call it. He has got on +wonderfully as upholsterer, decorator, and auctioneer. It +is a very handsome one, with a garden that gets the prizes at the +horticultural shows. They are thoroughly good people, but I +was afraid afterwards that there had been a good deal of +noisiness among the young folks at Christmas. Hubert Delrio +was there, and I fancy there was some nonsense going +on.”</p> +<p>“Ah, the Delrios! Are they here?”</p> +<p>“Yes, poor Fred did not make his art succeed when he had +a family to provide for, and he is the head of the Art School +here. His son has a good deal of talent, and very prudently +has got taken on by the firm of Eccles and Co., who do a great +deal of architectural decoration. The boy is doing very +well, but there have been giggles and whispers that make me +rejoice that Vera should be out of the neighbourhood.”</p> +<p>“Is she not very pretty?”</p> +<p>“You will be very much struck with her, I think; and +Paulina is pretty too, and more thoughtful. She would not +go with Thekla, because Waring Grange is far from church, and she +would not disturb her Christmas and Epiphany. She is the +most religious of them all, and puts me in mind of our old +missionary castles in the air.”</p> +<p>“Ah, what castles they were! And they seem further +off than ever! Or perhaps you will fulfil them, and go and +teach the Australian blacks!”</p> +<p>“A very unpromising field,” said Mrs. Best, +“though I hear there is a Sister Angela at the station who +does wonders with them. I hear the quarter +striking—they will be back directly.”</p> +<p>“Ah! before they come, we ought to talk over +means! Something is owing for these last holidays. +Oh! Sophy, I cannot find words to say how thankful I am to you +for having helped me through this time, even to your own +loss! It has made our life possible.”</p> +<p>“Indeed, I was most thankful to do all I could for poor +Agnes’ children; and though I did not gain by them like my +other boarders, I never <i>lost</i>, and they have been a great +joy to me, yes, and a help, by giving my house a +character.”</p> +<p>“When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven +years ago, when their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused +help, and how despairingly I prayed, I feel all the more that +there is an answer to even feeble almost worldly +prayer.”</p> +<p>“That it could not be when it was that you might be +enabled to do the duty that was laid on you, my dear.”</p> +<p>And with the exchange of a kiss, the two good women set +themselves to practical pounds, shillings, and pence, which was +just concluded when the patter of feet up the stone steps and +voices in the hall announced the return of Mrs. Best’s +boarders.</p> +<p>Just as Magdalen was opening the door, there darted up, with +the air of a privileged favourite, a little person of ten years +old, with flying brown hair and round rosy cheeks, exclaiming +breathlessly, “Is she come?”</p> +<p>The answer was to take her up with a motherly hug, and +“My dear little Thekla!” There was not time for +more than a hurried glance and embrace of the three on the steps +of the stair, in their sailor hats and blue serge; but when in +ten minutes more, the whole party, twenty in number, were seated +round the dining table, observation was possible. Agatha, +as senior scholar, sat at the foot of the table, fully occupied +in dispensing Irish stew. She had a sensible face, to which +projecting teeth gave a character, and a brow that would have +shown itself finer but for the overhanging mass of hair. +Vera and Paulina were so much alike and so nearly of the same age +that they were often taken for twins, but on closer inspection +Vera proved to be the prettiest, with a more delicately cut nose, +clearer complexion, and bluer eyes; but Paulina, with paler +cheeks, had softer eyes, and more pencilled brows, as well as a +prettier lip and chin, though she would not strike the eye so +much as her sister. Little Thekla was a round-faced, rosy +little thing, childish for her nearly eleven years, smiling +broadly and displaying enough white teeth to make Magdalen +forebode that they would need much attention if they were not to +be a desight like Agatha’s.</p> +<p>She sat between Mrs. Best and Magdalen; and in the first +pause, when the first course had just been distributed, she +looked up with a great pair of grey eyes, and asked, in a shrill, +clear little voice, “Sister, may I have a +bicycle?”</p> +<p>“We will see about it, my dear,” returned +Magdalen, unwilling to pledge herself.</p> +<p>“But haven’t you got a fortune?” undauntedly +demanded Thekla.</p> +<p>“Something like it, Thekla. You shall hear about +it after dinner.” And Magdalen felt her colour +flushing up under all those young eyes.</p> +<p>“Kitty Best said—”</p> +<p>But here Mrs. Best interposed. “We don’t +talk over such things at table, Thekla. Take care with the +gravy. Did Mr. Jones give a lesson, this +morning?”</p> +<p>“Yes, a very long one,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“It was about the exact force of the words in the +Revised Version,” added Agatha, “compared with the +Greek.”</p> +<p>“That must have been very interesting!” said +Magdalen.</p> +<p>Vera and her neighbour looked at one another and shrugged +their shoulders; while some one else broke in with the news that +another girl had not come back because she was down with +influenza; and Magdalen, suspecting that “shop” was +not talked at table, and also that the Scripture passage could +not well be discussed there, saw that it was wise to let the +conversation drift off, by Mrs. Best’s leading, into +anecdotes of the influenza.</p> +<p>All were glad when grace was chanted, and the five sisters +could retreat into the drawing-room, which Mrs. Best let them +have to themselves for the half hour before Magdalen’s +train, and the young ones’ return to the High School. +She was at once established with Thekla on her lap, and the +others perched round on chairs and footstools. Of course +the first question was, “And is it really true?”</p> +<p>“It is true, my dears, that my old great aunt has left +me a house and some money; but you must not flatter yourselves +that it is a great estate.”</p> +<p>“Only mayn’t I have a bicycle?” began Thekla +again.</p> +<p>“Child, I believe you have bicycles on the brain,” +said Agatha. “But, sister, you do mean that we shall +be better off, and I shall be able to go on with my +education?”</p> +<p>“Yes, my dear, I think I can promise you so much,” +said Magdalen, caressing the serge shoulder.</p> +<p>“O thanks! Girton?” cried Agatha.</p> +<p>“There is much that I must inquire about before I +decide—”</p> +<p>Again came, “Elsie Warner has a bicycle, and she is no +older than me! Please, sister!”</p> +<p>“Hush now, my little Thekla,” said the sister +kindly; “I will talk to Mrs. Best, and see whether she +thinks it will be good for you.”</p> +<p>Thekla subsided with a pout, and Magdalen was able to explain +her circumstances and plans a little more in detail; seeing +however that the girls had no idea of the value of money, Paulina +asked whether it meant being as well off as the Colonel and Lady +Mary—</p> +<p>“Who keep a carriage and pair, and a butler,” +interposed Vera.</p> +<p>“Oh no, my dear. If I keep any kind of carriage it +will be only a basket or governess cart, and a pony or +donkey.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” said Agatha. +“I would not be rich and stupid for the world.”</p> +<p>“Small fear of that!” said Magdalen, +laughing. “Our home, the Goyle, is not more than a +cottage, in a beautiful Devonshire valley—”</p> +<p>“What’s the name of it?”</p> +<p>“The Goyle. I believe it is a diminutive of Gully, +a narrow ravine. It is lovely even now, and will be +delightful when you come to me in April—”</p> +<p>“Shall I leave school?” asked Vera. “I +shall be seventeen in May.”</p> +<p>“You will all leave school. Mrs. Best has made it +easy to me by her wonderful goodness in keeping you on cheaper +terms; but if Agatha goes to the University you must be content +to work for a time with me.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried Thekla. “Shall I have +always holidays? My bicycle!”</p> +<p>Everybody burst out laughing at this—not a very trained +cachinnation, but more of the giggle, even in Agatha; and +Magdalen answered:</p> +<p>“You will have plenty of time for bicycling if the hills +are not too steep, but I hope to make your lessons pleasant to +you.” She did not know whether to mention Mrs. +Best’s intention of soon giving up her house, which would +have much increased her difficulties but for her legacy; and +Agatha said, “You know, I think, that Vera and Polly both +ought to make a real study of music. They both have talent, +and cultivation would do a great deal for it.”</p> +<p>Agatha spoke in a dogmatic way that amused Magdalen, and she +said, “Well, I shall be able to judge when we are at the +Goyle. Vera, I think you sing—”</p> +<p>Vera looked shy, and Agatha said, “She has a good voice, +and Madame Lardner thinks it would answer to send her to some +superior Conservatoire in process of time.”</p> +<p>Vera did not commit herself as to her wishes, and Mrs. Best +returned to say that if Miss Prescott wished to see the +headmistress it was time to set out for the school; and +accordingly the whole party walked up together to the school, +Magdalen with Agatha, who was chiefly occupied in explaining how +entirely it was owing to the one-sidedness of the examiners that +she had not gained the scholarship. Magdalen had heard of +such examiners before from the mothers of her pupils.</p> +<p>She had to wish her sisters good-bye for the next three +months, not having gathered very much about them, except their +personal appearance. She administered a sovereign to each +of them as they parted. Agatha thanked her in a tone as if +afraid to betray what a boon it was; Vera, with an eager kiss, +asking if she could spend it as she liked; Paulina, with a +certain grave propriety; and Thekla, of course, wanted to know +whether it would buy a bicycle, or, if not, how many rides could +be purchased from it.</p> +<p>When they were absorbed in the routine of the day, the +interview with the head mistress disclosed, what Magdalen had +expected, that Agatha, was an industrious, ambitious girl, with +very good abilities quite worth cultivating, though not +extraordinary; that Vera had a certain sort of cleverness, but no +application and not much taste for anything but music; and that +Paulina was a good, dutiful, plodding girl, who surpassed +brighter powers by dint of diligence. The little one was a +mere child, who had not yet come much under notice from the +higher authorities.</p> +<p>On the whole, Magdalen went away with pleasant hopes, and the +affectionate impulses of kindred blood rising within her, to +complete her term with Lady Milsom, by whom she could not well be +spared till towards Easter; while, in the meantime, her house was +being repaired.</p> +<h2><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +16</span>CHAPTER II—THE GOYLE</h2> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“A poor thing, +but mine own.”—<span +class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“Thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, +thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—T. <span +class="smcap">Hughes</span>, <i>Scouring of the White +Horse</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Magdalen Prescott</span> stood on her own +little terrace. Her house was, like many Devonian ones, +built high on the slope of a steep hill, running down into a +narrow valley, and her abode was almost at the narrowest part, +where a little lively brawling stream descended from the moor +amid rocks and brushwood. If the history of the place were +told, it had been built for a shooting box, then inherited by a +lawyer who had embellished and spent his holidays there, and +afterwards, his youngest daughter, a lonely and retiring woman, +had spent her latter years there.</p> +<p>The house was low, stone built, and roofed with rough slate, +with a narrow verandah in front, and creepers in bud covering +it. Then came a terrace just wide enough for a carriage to +drive up; and below, flower-beds bordered with stones found what +vantage ground they could between the steep slopes of grass that +led almost precipitously down to the stream, where the ground +rose equally rapidly on the other side. Moss, ivy, +rhododendrons, primroses, anemones, and the promise of ferns were +there, and the adjacent beds had their full share of hepaticas +and all the early daffodil kinds. Behind and on the +southern side, lay the kitchen garden, also a succession of +steps, and beyond as the ravine widened were small meadows, each +with a big stone in the midst. The gulley, (or goyle) +narrowed as it rose, and there was a disused limestone quarry, +all wreathed over with creeping plants, a birch tree growing up +all white and silvery in the middle, and above the house and +garden was wood, not of fine trees, and interspersed with rocks, +but giving shade and shelter. The opposite side had +likewise fields below, with one grey farm house peeping in sight, +and red cattle feeding in one, and above the same rocky woodland, +meeting the other at the quarry; and then after a little cascade +had tumbled down from the steeper ground, giving place to the +heathery peaty moor, which ended, more than two miles off in a +torr like a small sphinx. This could not be seen from +Magdalen’s territory, but from the highest walk in her +kitchen garden, she could see the square tower of Arnscombe, her +parish church; and on a clear day, the glittering water of +Rockstone bay.</p> +<p>To Magdalen it was a delightful view, and delightful too had +been the arranging of her house, and preparing for her +sisters. All the furniture and contents of the abode had +been left to her. It was solid and handsome of its kind, +belonging to the days of the retired Q.C., and some of it would +have been displaced for what was more fresh and tasteful if +Magdalen had not consulted economy. So she depended on +basket-chairs, screens, brackets and drapery to enliven the +ancient mahagony and rosewood, and she had accumulated a good +many water colours, vases and knick-knacks. The old grand +piano was found to be past its work, so that she went the length +of purchasing a cottage one for the drawing-room, and another for +the sitting-room that was to be the girls’ own property, +and on which she expended much care and contrivance. It +opened into the drawing-room, and like it, had glass doors into +the verandah, as well as another door into the little hall. +The drawing-room had a bow window looking over the fields towards +the South, and this way too looked the dining-room, in which +Magdalen bestowed whatever was least interesting, such as the +“Hume and Smollett” and “Gibbon” of her +grandfather’s library and her own school books, from which +she hoped to teach Thekla.</p> +<p>Her upstairs arrangements had for the moment been rather +disturbed by Mrs. Best’s wishing to come with her pupils; +but she decided that Agatha should at once take possession of her +own pretty room, and the two next sisters of theirs, while she +herself would sleep in the dressing room which she destined to +Thekla, giving up her own chamber to Mrs. Best for these few +days, and sending Thekla’s little bed to Agatha’s +room.</p> +<p>And there she stood, on the little terrace, thinking how +lovely the purple light on the moor was, and how all the +newcomers would enjoy such a treat.</p> +<p>She had abstained from meeting them at the station, having +respect to the capacities of the horse, even upon his native +hills, and she had hired a farmer’s cart to meet them and +bring their luggage. Already she had a glimpse of the +carriage, toiling up one hill, then disappearing between the +hedges, and it was long before her gate, already open, was +reached, and at her own <i>own</i> door, she received her little +sister, followed by the others. And the first word she +heard even before she had time to pay the driver was, “My +dear Magdalen, what a road!”</p> +<p>Poor Mrs. Best! as the payment was put into the man’s +hand, Magdalen looked round and saw she looked quite worn +out.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Paulina, “bumped to pieces and +tired to death.”</p> +<p>“I was afraid they had been mending the roads,” +said Magdalen.</p> +<p>“Mending! Strewing them with rocks, if you +please,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“And such a distance!” added Paulina.</p> +<p>“Not quite three miles,” replied Magdalen. +“Here is some tea to repair you.”</p> +<p>“My dear Magdalen”—in a +chorus—“that really is quite impossible. It +must be five, at least.”</p> +<p>“Your nearest town ten miles off!” sighed +Vera.</p> +<p>“Your nearest church,” cried Paulina.</p> +<p>“Up in the wilds,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>Magdalen felt as if these speeches were so many drops of water +in her face and that of her beautiful Goyle, but she rose in its +defence.</p> +<p>“It actually is less than three miles,” she +said. “I have walked it several times, and the cabs +only charge three.”</p> +<p>“That is testimony,” said Mrs. Best, smiling; +“but hills, perhaps, reckon for miles in one’s +feelings!”</p> +<p>“Particularly before you are rested,” said +Magdalen, setting her down in a comfortable wicker chair. +“You will think little of it on your own feet, Vera, and +the church is much nearer, Paulina, only on the other side of the +hill.”</p> +<p>“May I have a bicycle of my own?” burst in Thekla, +again; while every one began laughing, and Agatha told her that +Sister would think her brains were cycling.</p> +<blockquote><p>“With centric and concentric scribbled +o’er<br /> +Cycle and epicycle orb in orb.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Epicycle?” cried Vera. “I saw it +advertised in the <i>Queen</i>. A splendid one.”</p> +<p>“Ah! Magdalen, you will think I have not taught +them their Milton,” said Mrs. Best, as both elders burst +out laughing; and Agatha said, in an undertone, +“Don’t make yourself such a goose, Vera.”</p> +<p>“I should think it rather rough sailing for +bikes,” said Paulina.</p> +<p>“I should have thought so, myself,” returned +Magdalen; “but the Clipstone girls do not seem to think +so. I see them sailing merrily into Rockstone.”</p> +<p>“You have neighbours, then?” said Vera.</p> +<p>“Certainly. Rockstone supplies a good deal. +Here are various cards of people whose visits are yet to be +returned. Clipstone is further off; but the daughters will +be nice friends for you. I met one of them before, when she +was staying at Lord Rotherwood’s. But I am afraid +your boxes are hardly come yet. Still, you will like to +take off your things before dinner, even if you cannot +unpack.”</p> +<p>She led the way, and disposed of each girl in her new +quarters, explaining to Agatha that her’s and her little +lodger were only temporary; but it struck upon her rather +painfully that the only word of approbation or comfort came from +Mrs. Best, and there were no notes at all of admiration of the +scenery.</p> +<p>“Well,” she said to herself, “much is not to +be expected from people who have been tired and shaken up in a +station cab over newly-mended roads! Were they as bad when +I came? But then I could look out, and did not hear poor +Sophy’s groans all the way. I rather wish she had not +come with them, though I am glad to see her again for this last +time.”</p> +<p>Meantime the four girls had congregated in the room +appropriated to Vera and Paulina. “Here are the +necessaries of life,” said Agatha, handing out a brush and +comb. “That slow wain may roll its course in utter +darkness before it comes here.”</p> +<p>“To the other end of nowhere,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“And I am so tired,” whined Thekla. +“These tight boots do hurt me so! I want to go to +bed.”</p> +<p>Paulina was already on her knees, removing the boots and +accommodating a pair of slippers to the little feet.</p> +<p>“We might as well be in a desert island,” +continued Vera, “shut up from everything with an old +frump.”</p> +<p>“Take care,” said Agatha, in warning, signing +towards Thekla.</p> +<p>“I am sure she looks jolly and good-natured,” said +Paulina.</p> +<p>“But did you hear what Elsie Lee always calls her, +‘our maiden aunt’?”</p> +<p>All three laughed, and Vera added, “All the girls say +she can’t be less than fifty.”</p> +<p>“Topsy! You know she is only sixteen years older +than I am.”</p> +<p>“Well, that’s half a hundred!”</p> +<p>“Sixteen and nineteen, what do they make?”</p> +<p>“Oh, never mind your sums. She has got the face +and look of half a hundred!”</p> +<p>“Now, I thought her face and her dress like a +girl’s,” said Paulina.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Vera, “that’s just the way +with old maids. They dress themselves up youthfully and +affect girlish airs, and are all the more horrid.”</p> +<p>“That’s your experience!” said Agatha. +“But there’s the waggon creeping up at a +snail’s pace. Let us run down and see after our +things.”</p> +<h2><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +23</span>CHAPTER III—THE FIRST SUNDAY</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Speed on, speed on, the footpath way,<br /> + And merrily hunt the stile-a;<br /> +A merry heart goes all the way,<br /> + A sad tires in a mile-a.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Sunday</span> morning rose with new and +bright hopes. The girls looked out at their window, and saw +that it was a beautiful morning, and that the spring sunshine +glowed upon the purple summits of the hills. Agatha +supposed there would be a pleasant walk to church; Paulina said +she had heard good accounts of the services in that part of the +country; Vera hoped that they would see what their neighbours +were like, and Thekla was delighted with the jolly garden and +places to scramble in.</p> +<p>On this first Sunday they were let alone to explore the garden +before the walk to church, which Magdalen foresaw would be a long +affair with Mrs. Best. After their decorous stillness at +breakfast, it was a contrast to hear the merry voices and +laughter outside, but it subsided as soon as she approached, +though she did not hear the murmured ripple, “Here comes +maiden aunt! Behold—Quite a spicy hat!”</p> +<p>In truth, Magdalen’s hat was a pretty new one, not by +any means unsuitable to her age and appearance, and altogether +her air was more stylish than the country town breeding was +accustomed to; her dress perfectly plain, but well made.</p> +<p>Vera was perhaps the most sensible of the perfection of the +turn-out; Agatha chiefly felt that her more decorated skirt and +mantle had their inconveniences in walking through the red mud of +the lanes, impeded by books and umbrella, which left no leisure +to admire the primroses that studded the deep banks and which +delighted Thekla in the freedom of short skirts.</p> +<p>Magdalen herself had enough to do in steering along such a +substantial craft as poor Mrs. Best, used to church-going along a +street, and shrouded under a squirrel mantle of many pounds +weight.</p> +<p>Barely in time was the convoy when at last the exhausted lady +was helped over the stone stile that led to the churchyard. +Highly picturesque was the grey structure outside, but within +modernism had not done much; the chancel was feebly fitted after +the ideas of the “fifties,” but the faded woodwork of +the nave was intact, and Magdalen still had to sit in the grim +pew of her predecessors.</p> +<p>The girls’ looks at each other might have suited the +entrance to a condemned cell, and the pulpit towered above them +with a faded green cushion, that seemed in danger of tumbling +down over their heads.</p> +<p>The service was a plain one, but reverent and careful; the +music had a considerable element of harmonium mixed with +schoolchild voices, and the sermon from an elderly man was a good +one; but when the move to go out was made, and the young ones +were beyond ear-shot of their elders, the exclamations were, +“Well, I never thought to have gone back to Georgian +era.”</p> +<p>“Exactly the element of our maiden aunt.”</p> +<p>“And nobody to be seen.”</p> +<p>“Naggie, why do they shut one up in boxes?”</p> +<p>“Just to daunt Flapsy’s roving eye, Tickle, my +dear.”</p> +<p>“Don’t, Polly. There was nobody to be seen +if we hadn’t been in a box. Of course no one comes +there but stately old farmers and their smart daughters. I +saw one with a Gainsborough hat, and a bunch of cock’s +feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking it up behind.”</p> +<p>“Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see. +Being ‘emparocked in a pew’ cannot daunt her spirit +of research.”</p> +<p>“Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible +people they are.”</p> +<p>“Natives who will repay the study perhaps,” +continued Agatha, reading as though from a book of travels. +“We were able to observe a group of the aborigines at their +devotions. Conspicuous was a not ungraceful young female, +whose head, ornamented with a plume of feathers, towered above +the enclosure in which she was secluded, while an aged fakir, +hakem or medicine man pronounced from a loftier structure +resembling a sentry box.”</p> +<p>“Children, children, that’s the wrong way,” +came Magdalen’s voice from behind. “You must +turn into that lane. Wait a moment.”</p> +<p>They waited till Mrs. Best’s lagging steps allowed +Magdalen to come up with them, but dead silence fell on them when +Mrs. Best observed, “You were very merry.” They +could not speak of the cause. Perhaps Magdalen divined +something, for she said, “We hope to make some +improvements, and so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he is very +poor. Besides, newcomers must work slowly.”</p> +<p>The doubt whether she had heard Agatha’s speech made the +girls conscious enough to keep from responding, as she meant them +to do, by cheerful criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering +and dragging on Mrs. Best was quite enough to occupy her. +There was only three years difference in their ages, but this +seemed to have made a great interval between one whose +<i>métier</i> had been to be youthful and active, and her +who had to be staid and dignified.</p> +<p>The early dinner passed in all demureness and formality, and +the poor visitor was too much tired for any more services to be +thought of for her. Magdalen explained that when the days +would be longer, she thought of walking to Rockstone for +evensong, but now the best way was to go to the chapel at +Clipstone, which was nearer than either of the others.</p> +<p>“There is a lovely little chapel there, beautifully +fitted up by Lord Rotherwood and Sir Jasper Merrifield, for the +hamlet,” she said.</p> +<p>“How far?” asked Mrs. Best.</p> +<p>“About a mile and a half across the fields; further by +the road. You will find your bicycles available when you +know the way.”</p> +<p>“Don’t we go to Rockstone?” asked +Paulina. “I am sure there is a really satisfactory +church there.”</p> +<p>“St. Kenelm’s, do you mean? That is not so +near as St. Andrew’s Church, but that is very satisfactory, +and I go to one or other of them on week-days. It is too +late to come back on these spring Sundays.”</p> +<p>“I should not like to live among so many +churches,” said Mrs. Best, “and so far from them +all!”</p> +<p>“You love your old parish church, like a faithful old +churchwoman,” said Magdalen. “Well, you see, I +am faithful enough to go to my parish in the morning, but I think +we may be discursive afterwards. There is a Sunday school +in which I was waiting to offer help till our party was made +up.”</p> +<p>Magdalen had looked twice for a responding smile, first from +Agatha, and then from Paulina, but none was awakened. The +girls clustered together in the bedroom, and the word +“Goody” passed between them.</p> +<p>“Tempered by respect for my Lord and Sir Jasper,” +added Agatha.</p> +<p>“And avoiding St. Kenelm’s because it is the real +correct church,” said Paulina.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Vera. “Mr. Hubert +Delrio went to see it in case Eccles and Beamster should have an +order. We must go there.”</p> +<p>“Of course,” said Paulina, with a sympathetic +nod.</p> +<p>“But,” said Agatha, “there will be an +embargo on all acquaintance except the grandees at +Clipstone.”</p> +<p>“I shall never drop old friends,” cried +Vera. “I am a rock of crystal as regards them, +whatever swells may require, if they burst themselves like the +frog and the ox.”</p> +<p>“Well done, crystal rock; but suppose the old friends +slide off and drop you?” laughed Agatha.</p> +<p>Vera tossed her head; and Thekla ran in to say that Sister was +ready.</p> +<p>The walk was shorter and pleasanter than that in the morning, +over moorland, but with a good road; but all Magdalen discovered +on the walk was that though the girls had attended botanical +classes, they did not recognise spear-wort when they saw it, and +Agatha thought the old catalogue fashions of botany were quite +exploded. This was a sentiment, and it gave hopes of +something like an argument and a conversation, but they were at +that moment overtaken by the neighbouring farmer’s wife, +who wanted to give Miss Prescott some information about a setting +of eggs, which she did at some length, and with a rapid utterance +of dialect that amused, while it puzzled, Magdalen, and her +inquiries and comments were decided to be “thoroughly +good-wife” by all save Thekla, who hailed the possible +ownership of a hen and chicken as almost equal to that of a +bicycle.</p> +<p>Magdalen further discovered that Thekla’s name in common +use was “Tickle,” or else “Tick-tick”; +Paulina was, of course, Paula or Polly; Vera had her old baby +title of Flapsy, which somehow suited her restless nervous +motions, and Agatha had become Nag. Well, it was the +fashion of the day, though not a pretty one; but Magdalen +recollected, with some pain, her father’s pleasure in the +selection of saintly names for his little daughters, and she +wondered how he would have liked to hear them thus +transmuted. There had been something bordering on sentiment +in her father’s character, and something in Paulina’s +expression made her hope to see it repeated by inheritance. +She saw the countenance brighten out of the morning’s +antagonistic air when they entered the little chapel at +Clipstone, and saw the altar adorned and carefully decked with +white narcissus and golden daffodils.</p> +<p>The little chapel was old and plain, very small, but +reverently cared for. There was no choir, but the chairs of +those who could sing were placed near the harmonium, which was +played by one of the young ladies from the large gabled house to +which the chapel was attached, and the singing had the refined +tones that belong to the music of cultivated people. The +congregation was evidently of poor folks from the hamlet, +dependants of the great house, and the family itself, a +grey-haired, fine-looking general, a tall dark-eyed lady, a tall +youth, a schoolboy, and four girls—one of whom was +musician, and the other presided over the school children. +The service was reverent, the catechising good and effective, the +sermon brief, and summing up in a spiritual and devotional +manner; Magdalen was happy, and trusted that Paulina was so +likewise.</p> +<p>She expected to hear some commendation as they walked home, +but Vera alone kept with her, to examine her on the names and +standing of the persons she had seen, on which there was as yet +little to tell, for the first move towards acquaintance had not +yet been made. All that was known was that there were Sir +Jasper and Lady Merrifield, connections of Lord Rotherwood, who +owned most of the Rockstone property, and who with his family had +once been staying in the country house where Magdalen had been +governess; but it was a long time ago, and she only recollected +that there were some nice little girls. At least she said +no more, but her friend thought the more.</p> +<p>“I suppose they will call?” said Vera.</p> +<p>“Most likely they will.”</p> +<p>“Has nobody called?”</p> +<p>“Mr. Earl, the Vicar of Arnscombe. He has promised +to tell me how we can be of use here. I believe there is +great want of a lady at the Sunday school.”</p> +<p>This did not interest Vera—and she went on asking +questions about the neighbourhood, and whether any of the +Rockstone people had left cards, and whether there were any +parties, garden or evening, at Rockstone—more than Magdalen +could yet answer, though she was glad to promote any sort of +conversation with either of the girls who did not stand aloof +from her.</p> +<p>“I say, the M.A. (maiden aunt) knows nobody but that old +clergyman, who wants her to teach his Sunday school.”</p> +<p>“I’m out of that, thank goodness,” said +Agatha.</p> +<p>“And Sunday schools are a delusion, only hindering the +children from going to church with their parents,” said +Paulina.</p> +<p>“And if nobody calls, and they all think her no better +than an old governess, how awfully slow it will be,” +continued Vera.</p> +<p>“I do not suppose that will last,” said +Agatha. “There is Rockstone, remember.”</p> +<p>“Ten miles off,” said Vera disconsolately. +“Oh, Nag, Nag, isn’t it horrid! We shall be +just smart enough to be taken for swells, and know nobody; and +the swells won’t have us because she is a governess. +We might as well be upon a desert island at once.”</p> +<p>Agatha could not help laughing and repeating—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I am out of humanity’s reach,<br /> + I must finish my journey alone—<br /> +Never hear the sweet music of speech,<br /> + I start at the sound of my own.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“But really, Nag,” broke in Paulina, “it is +horrid. Here we are equidistant from three or four +churches, and condemned to the most behind the world of them all, +and then to the one where there is this distant fragrance of +swells, instead of the only Catholic one.”</p> +<p>Agatha had a little more common sense than the other two, and +she responded—</p> +<p>“After all, you know, you are better off than if you +were still at school; and the M.A. is a good old soul at the +bottom, and you may manage her, depend on it. Though I wish +she had let me go to Girton.”</p> +<p>Magdalen and Mrs. Best meantime were going over future +prospects and old times. Mrs. Best’s destination was +Albertstown, in Queensland, where her son George had a good +practice as a doctor, and where he assured her she would find +church privileges—even a cathedral, so-called, and a +bishop—though Bishop Fulmort was always out on some +expedition among the colonists or the natives, but among his +clergy there was always Sunday service. In fact, Magdalen +thought the good old lady expected to find a town more like +Filsted than the Goyle. There was a sisterhood located +there too, which tried, mostly in vain, to train the wild native +women—an attempt at which George Best laughed, though he +allowed that the sisters were splendid nurses, especially Sister +Angela, who had a wonderful way of bringing cases round.</p> +<p>Magdalen could feel secure that her old friend would be near +kind people; and presently Mrs. Best, returning to the actual +neighbourhood, observed—</p> +<p>“Merrifield! It is not a common name.”</p> +<p>“No; but I do not think this is the same family. +This is a retired general, living in a house of Lord +Rotherwood’s. I once met one of his little girls, who +came to Castle Towers with the Rotherwood party, and though she +had a brother of the name, he was evidently not the same +person.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Best asked no more, for tell-tale colour had arisen in +Magdalen’s cheeks; and she had been the confidante of an +engagement with a certain Henry Merrifield, who had been employed +in the bank at Filsted when Magdalen was a very young girl. +His father had come down suddenly, had found debt and +dissipation, had broken all off decidedly, and no more had been +heard of the young man. It was many years previously; but +those cheeks and the tone of the reply made her suspect that +there was still poignancy in the remembrance.</p> +<h2><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +34</span>CHAPTER IV—CYCLES</h2> +<blockquote><p>“What flowers grow in my field wherewith to +dress thee.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—E. <span +class="smcap">Barrett Browning</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Best</span> departed early the next +morning. It was probably a parting for life between the two +old friends; and Magdalen keenly felt the severance from the one +person whom she had always known, and on whose sympathy she could +rely. Their conversations had been very precious to her, +and she felt desolate without the entire companionship. +Yet, on the other hand, she felt as if she could have begun +better with her sisters if Sophy Best had not come with them, to +hand them over, as it were, when she wanted to start on the same +level with them, and be more like their contemporary than their +authority.</p> +<p>They all stood on the terrace, watching the fly go down the +hill, and she turned to them and said—</p> +<p>“We will all settle ourselves this morning, and you will +see how the land lies, so that to-morrow we can arrange our day +and see what work to do. Thekla, when you have had a run +round the garden, you might bring your books to the dining-room +and let me see how far you have gone.”</p> +<p>“Oh, sister, it is holidays!”</p> +<p>“Well, my dear, you have had a week, and your holiday +time cannot last for ever. Looking at your books cannot +spoil it.”</p> +<p>“Yes, it will; they are so nasty.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps you will not always think so; but now you had +better put on your hat and your thick boots, for the grass is +still very wet, and explore the country. The same advice to +you,” she added, turning to the others; “it is warm +here, but the dew lies long on the slopes.”</p> +<p>“We have got a great deal too much to do,” said +Agatha, “for dawdling about just now.”</p> +<p>Really, she was chiefly prompted by the satisfaction of not +being ordered about; and the other two followed suit, while +Magdalen turned away to her household business.</p> +<p>They found the housemaid in possession of the bedrooms, so +that the unpacking plans could not conveniently be begun; and +while Agatha was struggling with the straps of a book box, Thekla +burst in upon them.</p> +<p>“Oh, Nag, Nag, there is the loveliest angel of a bicycle +in the stable, and a dear little pony besides! ‘New +tyre wheels,’ he says.”</p> +<p>“A bicycle! Well, if she has got it for us, she is +an angel indeed,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“It is a big one,” said Thekla, “but the +pony is a dear little thing; Pixy is his name, and I can ride +him! Do come, Flapsy, and see! Earwaker will show +you. It is he that does the oiling of Pixy and harnessing +the bicycle. I mean—”</p> +<p>“Tick, Tick, which does he oil and which does he +harness?” said Paula.</p> +<p>“That little tongue wants both,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“But do, do come and see,” said Thekla, not at all +disconcerted by being laughed at; and Vera came, only asserting +her independence by not putting on either hat or boots.</p> +<p>Thekla led the way to the stable, tucked under the hill at the +back, and presiding over a linhay, as she had already learnt to +call the tiny farm-court, containing accommodation for two cows, +a pig, and sundry fowls. There was a shed attached with a +wicker pony carriage and the bicycle, a handsome modern one, with +all the newest appendages, including the +“Nevertires,” as Thekla had translated them.</p> +<p>But disappointment was in store for Vera. Magdalen came +out during the inspection, and was received with—</p> +<p>“Sister, you never told us of this beauty.”</p> +<p>“It was a parting present from General Mansell,” +she said, “and he took great pains to get me a very good +one.”</p> +<p>“And you bike!”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; I learnt to go out with the Colvins. But +I do not venture to use it much here, unless the road is +good. Those rocks, freshly laid towards Rockstone, would +make regular havoc of the pneumatic tyres.”</p> +<p>Vera saw that this was prohibitive, and felt too much vexed to +mention Thekla’s version of the same; but Magdalen asked, +“Have you learnt?”</p> +<p>“They were always going to teach me at Warner Grange, +but it always snowed, or rained, or skated, I mean we skated, or +something, whenever Hubert had time; but I am perfectly dying to +learn.”</p> +<p>“Well, before you expire, we may teach you a little on +these smoother paths; and hire one perhaps, by the time the +stones are passable. Just at present, I think our own legs +and Pixy’s are safer for that descent.”</p> +<p>Vera was pacified enough to look on with a certain degree of +complacency, while Thekla was enraptured at being set to take out +the eggs from the hens’ nests.</p> +<p>But the conclave in the sitting-room on Vera’s report +decided, “Selfish old thing, it is only an excuse! Of +course we should take care not to spoil it. It shows what +will be the way with everything.”</p> +<p>No one knew of a still more secret conclave within +Magdalen’s own breast, one of those held at times by many +an elder, between the claims of loyalty to the keepsakes of +affection and old association and the gratification of present +desires. Magdalen thought of the rules of convents +forbidding the appropriation of personal trifles, and wondered if +it were wise, if stern; but for the present she decided that it +could not be her duty to risk what had been carefully and kindly +selected for her in unpractised and careless hands; and she +further compromised the matter by reckoning whether her funds, +which were not excessive, would admit of the hire or purchase of +machines that might allay the burning aspirations of her young +people.</p> +<p>The upshot of her reckoning was that when they all met at the +early dinner, she announced, “I think we might go to Rock +Quay this afternoon, between the pony carriage and Shanks’s +mare. I want to ask about some lessons, and we could see +about the hire of a bicycle for you to learn upon.”</p> +<p>It was only Agatha who answered, “Thank you, but it is +not worth while for me, I shall be away so soon.”</p> +<p>Thekla cried out, “Me too!”—and Paulina +mumbled something. In truth, besides the thought of the +bicycle in the stable, the other two had lived enough in the +country-town atmosphere to be foolishly disgusted at being +obliged to dine early. That they had always been used to it +made them only think it beneath their age as well as their +dignity, and, “What a horrid nuisance!” had been on +their tongues when the bell was ringing.</p> +<p>Moreover, they had enough of silly prejudice about them to +feel aggrieved at the sight of hash, nice as it was with fresh +vegetables, and they were not disposed to good temper when they +sat down to their meal. “They” perhaps properly +means the middle pair, for Agatha had more notion of manners and +of respect, and Thekla had an endless store of chatter about her +discoveries.</p> +<p>The pony-carriage was brought round in due time, but just then +another vehicle of the same kind, only prettier and with two +ponies, was seen at the gate, too late for the barbarian instinct +of rushing away to hide from morning visitors to be carried out, +before Lady Merrifield and a daughter, were up the slope and on +the levelled road before the verandah.</p> +<p>“I think this is an old acquaintance,” said Lady +Merrifield as she shook hands, “though perhaps Mysie is +grown out of remembrance.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes,” said an honest open-faced maiden, +eagerly putting out her hand. “Don’t you +remember, Miss Prescott, our all staying at Castle Towers? +I came with Phyllis Devereux, and she and I took poor Betty +Bernard out after blackberries, and she thought it was a mad bull +when it was a railway whistle, and ran into a cow-pond, and +Cousin Rotherwood came and Captain Grantley and got her +out.”</p> +<p>Magdalen was smiling and nodding recollection, and added, +“It was really one of the boys.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes.”</p> +<blockquote><p>“I thought it was a crazy bull<br /> + Firing a blunderbuss—”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>She paused for recollection, and Magdalen went on—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I thought it was a crazy bull<br /> + Firing a blunderbuss;<br /> +I looked again, and, lo, it was<br /> + A water polypus.<br /> +‘Oh, guard my life,’ I said, ‘for she<br /> + Will make an awful fuss.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Ah! do you remember that?” cried Mysie. +“I have so often tried to recollect what it really was when +she looked again. Captain Grantley made it, you know, when +we were trying to comfort Betty.”</p> +<p>“I remember you and Lady Phyllis said you would go and +confess to Mrs. Bernard and take all the blame, and Lord +Rotherwood said he would escort you!”</p> +<p>“Yes, and Betty said it was no good, for if her mother +forgave her ten times over, still that spiteful French maid would +put her to bed and say she had no <i>robe convenable</i>,” +went on Mysie. “But then you took her to your own +room, and washed her and mended her, so that she came out all +right at luncheon, and nobody knew anything, but she thought that +horrid woman guessed and tweaked her hair all the harder for +it.”</p> +<p>“Poor child, she looked as if she were under a +tyranny.”</p> +<p>“Have you seen her since?”</p> +<p>“No; but Phyllis tells me she has burst forth into +liberty, bicycles, and wild doings that would drive her parents +to distraction if she dreamt of them.”</p> +<p>“How is Lady Phyllis? Did I not hear that the +family had gone abroad for her health?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, and I went with them. They all had +influenza, and were frightened, but it ended in our meeting with +Franceska Vanderkist, the very most charming looking being I ever +did see; and Ivinghoe had fallen in love with her when she was +Miranda, and he married her like a real old hero. Do you +remember Ivinghoe?”</p> +<p>“No; I suppose he was one of an indistinguishable troop +of schoolboys.”</p> +<p>“I remember Lord Rotherwood’s good nature and fun +when he met the bedraggled party,” said Magdalen, +smiling.</p> +<p>“That is what every one remembers about him,” said +Lady Merrifield, smiling. “You have imported a large +party of youth, Miss Prescott.”</p> +<p>“My young sisters,” responded Magdalen; “but +I shall soon part with Agatha; she is going to Oxford.”</p> +<p>“Indeed! To which College? I have a daughter +at Oxford, and a niece just leaving Cambridge. Such is our +lot in these days. No, not this one, but her elder sister +Gillian is at Lady Catharine’s.”</p> +<p>“I am going to St. Robert’s,” said Agatha, +abruptly.</p> +<p>“Close to Lady Catharine’s! Gillian will be +glad to tell her anything she would like to ask about it. +You had better come over to tea some afternoon.”</p> +<p>The time was fixed, and then Magdalen showed some of the +advertisements of tuition in art, music, languages, and +everything imaginable, which had begun to pour in upon her, and +was very glad of a little counsel on the reputation of each +professor. Lady Merrifield saying, however, that her +experience was small, as her young people in general were not +musical, with the single exception of her son Wilfred, who was at +home, reading to go up for the Civil Service, and recreating +himself with the Choral Society and lessons on the violin. +“My youngest is fifteen,” she said, “and we +provide for her lessons amongst us, except for the School of Art, +and calisthenics at the High School, which is under superior +management now, and very much improved.”</p> +<p>Mysie echoed, “Oh, calisthenics are such fun!” and +took the reins to drive away.</p> +<p>“Oh! she is very nice,” exclaimed Mysie, as they +drove down the hill.</p> +<p>“Yes, there is something very charming about her. +I wonder whether Sam made a great mistake.”</p> +<p>“Mamma, what do you mean?”</p> +<p>“Have I been meditating aloud? You said when you +met her at Castle Towers, she asked you whether you had a brother +Harry.”</p> +<p>“Yes, she did. I only said yes, but he was going +to be a clergyman, and when she heard his age, she said he was +not the one she had known; I did not speak of cousin Henry +because you said we were not to mention him. What was it, +if I may know, mamma?”</p> +<p>“There is no reason that you should not, except that it +is a painful matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley +cousins. Harry was never like the rest, I believe, but I +had never seen him since he was almost a baby. He never +would work, and was not fit for any examination.”</p> +<p>“Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried +off all the brains of the family.”</p> +<p>“The others have sense and principle, though. +Well, they put their Hal into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by +they found he was in a great scrape, with gambling debts; and I +believe that but for the forbearance of the partners, he might +have been prosecuted for embezzling a sum—or at least he +was very near it; besides which he had engaged himself to an +attorney’s daughter, very young, and with a very +disagreeable mother or stepmother. The Admiral came down in +great indignation, thought these Prescotts had inveigled poor +Henry, broke everything hastily off, and shipped him off to +Canada to his brothers, George and John. They found some +employment for him, but Susan and Bessie doubt whether they were +very kind to him, and in a few years more he was in fresh +scrapes, and with worse stains and questions of his +integrity. It ended in his running away to the States, and +no trace has been found of him since. I am afraid he took +away money of his brothers.”</p> +<p>“How long ago was it, mamma?”</p> +<p>“At least twenty years. It was while we were in +Malta.”</p> +<p>“Who would have thought of those dear Stokesley cousins +having such a skeleton in their cupboard?”</p> +<p>“Ah! my dear, no one knows the secrets of others’ +hearts.”</p> +<p>“And you really think that this Miss Prescott was his +love?”</p> +<p>“I know it was the same name, and Bessie told me that he +used to talk to her of his Magdalen, or Maidie; and when I heard +of your meeting her at Castle Towers I wondered if it were the +same. And now I see what she is, and what she is +undertaking for these young sisters; I have wondered whether your +uncle was wise to insist on the utter break, and whether she +might not have been an anchor to hold him fast to his +moorings.”</p> +<p>“Only,” said Mysie, “if he had really cared, +would he have let his father break it off so entirely?”</p> +<p>“I think your uncle expected implicit +obedience.”</p> +<p>“But—,” said Mysie, and left the rest +unsaid, while both she and her mother went off into meditations +on different lines on the exigencies of parental discipline and +of the requirements of full-grown hearts.</p> +<p>And, on the whole, the younger one was the most for strict +obedience, the experienced parent in favour of liberty. But +then Mysie was old-fashioned and dutiful.</p> +<h2><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +45</span>CHAPTER V—CLIPSTONE FRIENDS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“What idle progeny succeed<br /> +To chase the rolling circle’s speed,<br /> +Or urge the flying ball.”—<span +class="smcap">Gray</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> afternoon at Clipstone was a +success. Gillian was at home, and every one found +congeners. Lady Merrifield’s sister, Miss Mohun, +pounced upon Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in the alphabet of good +works needed in the neglected district of Arnscombe, where Mr. +Earl was wifeless, and the farm ladies heedless; but they were +interrupted by Mysie running up to claim Miss Prescott for a game +at croquet. “Uncle Redgie was so glad to see the +hoops come into fashion again,” and Vera and Paula hardly +knew the game, they had always played at lawn tennis; but they +were delighted to learn, for Uncle Redgie proved to be a very +fine-looking retired General, and there was a lad besides, grown +to manly height; and one boy, at home for Easter, who, caring not +for croquet, went with Primrose to exhibit to Thekla the tame +menagerie, where a mungoose, called of course Raki raki, was the +last acquisition. She was also shown the kittens of the +beloved Begum, and presented with Phœbus, a tabby with a +wise face and a head marked like a Greek lyre, to be transplanted +to the Goyle in due time.</p> +<p>“If Sister will let me have it,” said Thekla.</p> +<p>“Of course she will,” said Primrose. +“Mysie says she is so jolly.”</p> +<p>“Dear me! all the girls at our school said she was a +regular Old Maid.”</p> +<p>“What shocking bad form!” exclaimed +Primrose. “Just like cads of girls,” muttered +Fergus, unheard; for Thekla continued—“Why, they said +she must be our maiden aunt, instead of our sister.”</p> +<p>“The best thing going!” said Fergus.</p> +<p>“Maiden aunts in books are always horrid,” said +Thekla.</p> +<p>“Then the books ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, +and spifflicated besides,” said Fergus.</p> +<p>“Fergus doesn’t like anybody so well as Aunt +Jane,” said Primrose, “because nobody else +understands his machines.”</p> +<p>Thekla made a grimace.</p> +<p>“Ah!” said Primrose. “I see it is just +as mamma and Mysie said when they came home, that Miss Prescott +was very nice indeed, and it was famous that she should make a +home for you all, only they were afraid you seemed as +if—you might be—tiresome,” ended Primrose, +looking for a word.</p> +<p>“Well, you know she wants to be our governess,” +said Thekla.</p> +<p>“Well?” repeated Primrose.</p> +<p>“And of course no one ever likes their +governess.”</p> +<p>This aphorism, so uttered by Thekla, provoked a yell from +Primrose, echoed by Fergus; and Primrose, getting her breath, +declared that dear Miss Winter was a great darling, and since she +had gone away, more’s the pity, mamma was real governess to +herself, Valetta, and Mysie, and she always looked at their +translations and heard their reading if Gillian was not at +home.</p> +<p>“And they are quite grown-up young ladies!”</p> +<p>“Mysie is; but I don’t know about Val. Only +I don’t see why any one should be silly and do nothing if +one is grown up ever so much,” said Primrose.</p> +<p>“As the Eiffel Tower,” put in Fergus.</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” said Primrose, bent on being +improving. “Don’t you know what that old book +of mamma’s says, ‘When will Miss Rosamond’s +education be finished?’ She answered +‘Never.’”</p> +<p>Thekla gave a groan, whether of pity for Rosamond or for +herself might be doubted; and a lop-eared rabbit was a favourable +diversion.</p> +<p>There was a triad who seemed to be of Rosamond’s opinion +regarding education, for Agatha was eagerly availing herself of +the counsel of Gillian, and the books shown to her; with the +further assistance of the cousin, Dolores Mohun, now an +accredited lecturer in technical classes, though making her home +and headquarters at Clipstone.</p> +<p>Thekla’s views of young ladyhood were a good deal more +fulfilled by the lessons on cycling which were going on among the +other young people after the game of croquet had ended. +Every size and variety seemed to exist among the Clipstone +population, under certain regulations of not coasting down the +hills, the girls not going out alone, and never into the town, +but always “putting up” at Aunt Jane’s.</p> +<p>Vera and Paulina were in ecstasy, and there was a continual +mounting, attempting and nearly falling, or turning anywhere but +the right, little screams, and much laughter, Jasper attending +upon Vera, who, in spite of her failures, looked remarkably +pretty and graceful upon Valetta’s machine; while Paula, +whom Mysie and Valetta were both assisting, learnt more easily +and steadily, but looked on with a few qualms as to the entire +crystal rock constancy that Vera had professed, more especially +when Jasper volunteered to come over to the Goyle and give +another lesson.</p> +<p>Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant +time with Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they +were imperiously summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to +the transfer of Phœbus, or to choose between him and the +Mufti, to whom Thekla had begun to incline.</p> +<p>The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where +Magdalen was edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired +the Begum and her progeny with a heartiness that would have won +Thekla’s heart, save that she remembered hearing Vera say, +over the domestic cat in the morning, that M.A.’s were +always devoted to cats. But, on the whole, the visit had +done much to reconcile the young sisters to their new +surroundings; books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled them +even to the intimacy with “swells.”</p> +<p>The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, +and the moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three +younger ones all rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes +past the appointed hour for the early reading and study, Agatha +felt obliged to go out and tell them that the M.A. was sitting +like Patience on a monument, waiting for them; on which three +tongues said “Bother,” and “She ought to let us +off till the proper end of the holidays.”</p> +<p>“Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave +after the Scripture was done,” said Agatha; “you +might have known she would not let you off that.”</p> +<p>“Bother,” said Vera again; “just like an +M.A.”</p> +<p>“I did forget,” said Paula; “and you know it +was only just going through a lesson for form’s sake, like +the old superlative.”</p> +<p>They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made +such frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by +one or two observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of +Samuel’s history and of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she +had resolved to endeavour at a thorough teaching of the Old and +New Testaments for the first hour on alternate days, giving one +day in the week to Catechism and Prayer Book.</p> +<p>She asked what they had done before.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Best always read something at prayers.”</p> +<p>“Something?”</p> +<p>“Something out of the Bible.”</p> +<p>“No, the Testament.”</p> +<p>“I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat.”</p> +<p>“And Saul was in it, and we had him +yesterday.”</p> +<p>“That was St. Paul before he was converted,” said +Paula.</p> +<p>There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared +that Mrs. Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from +the unconfirmed, and had tried to get the Gospel repeated by +heart, but had not succeeded.</p> +<p>“We did not think it fair,” said Vera. +“None of the other houses did.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Agatha, “Miss Ferris’s +did.”</p> +<p>“Oh, she is a regular old Prot,” said Paula, +“almost a Dissenter, and it is not the Gospel either, only +texts out of her own head.”</p> +<p>“Polly!” said Agatha. “Texts out of +her own head!”</p> +<p>“It is Bible, of course, only what she fancies; and they +have to work out the sermon, and if they can’t do the +sermon, a text. They might as well be Dissenters at +once!” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Janet M’Leod is,” said Vera. +“It was really Dissentish.”</p> +<p>Magdalen could not help saying, “So you would not learn +the Gospel because Dissenters learnt pieces of Scripture! +You seem to me like the Roman Catholic child, who said there were +five sacraments, there ought to be seven, but the Protestants had +got two of them.”</p> +<p>She was sorry she had said it, for though Agatha laughed, the +other two drew into themselves, as if their feelings were +hurt. “These are the boarding-house habits,” +she said. “What is done at the High School +itself?”</p> +<p>“The Vicar comes when he has time, and gives a lecture +on an Epistle,” said Agatha, “or a curate, if he +doesn’t; but I was working for the exam., and didn’t +go this last term. What was it, Polly?”</p> +<p>“On the—on the Apollonians,” answered +Paulina, hesitating.</p> +<p>“My dear, where did he find it?”</p> +<p>“I know it was something about Apollo,” said +Vera.</p> +<p>“It was Corinthians,” said Paula. “I +ought to have recollected, but the lectures are very dull and +disjointed; you said so yourself, Nag, and the Rector is very low +church.”</p> +<p>“So you could not learn from him!”</p> +<p>“Really, sister,” said Agatha, “the lectures +are not well managed, they are in too many hands, and too +uncertain, and it is not easy to learn much from them.”</p> +<p>“Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin +at the beginning. Suppose I ask you to say the first answer +in the Catechism.”</p> +<p>On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, +and passed it on to her.</p> +<p>However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be +recounted, and the moment half-past ten chimed out the young +ladies jumped up, and would have been off to the bicycles, if +Magdalen had not felt that the time was come for asserting +authority, and said, “Not yet, if you please. We +cannot waste whole days. You know Herr Gnadiger is coming +to-morrow, and it would be well to practise that sonata +beforehand; you ought each to practise it; Paula, you had better +begin, and Vera, you prepare this first scene of Marie Stuart to +read with me when Thekla’s lessons are over. Change +over when Paula has done.”</p> +<p>“It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is +playing,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“Nonsense,” Agatha muttered; but Magdalen said, +“You can sit in the drawing-room or your own room. +Come, Tick-tick, where’s your slate? Come +along.”</p> +<p>“Don’t sulk, Flapsy,” said the elder sister, +“it is of no use. The M.A. means to be minded, and +will be, and you know it is all for your good.”</p> +<p>“I hate my good,” said naughty Vera.</p> +<p>“So does every one when it is against the grain,” +said Agatha; “but remember it is a preparation for a free +life of our own.”</p> +<p>“It is our cross,” said Paula, as she placed +herself on the music stool with a look of resignation almost +comical.</p> +<p>Nor did her performance interfere with the equations which +Agatha was diligently working out; but Vera, though refusing to +take refuge from the piano, to which, in fact, she was perfectly +inured, worried her elder as much as she durst, by inquiries +after the meaning of words, or what horrid verb to look out in +the dictionary; and it was a pleasing change when Paula proceeded +to work the same scene out for herself without having recourse to +explanations, so that Agatha was undisturbed except by the +careless notes, which almost equally worried Magdalen in the more +distant dining-room.</p> +<p>This was really the crisis of the battle of study. As +the girls were accustomed to it, and knew that they were of an +age to be ground down, they followed Agatha’s advice, and +submitted without further open struggle, though there was a good +deal of low murmur, and the foreman’s work was not +essentially disagreeable, even while Vera maintained, what she +believed to be an axiom, that governesses were detestable, and +that the M.A. must incur the penalty of acting as such.</p> +<p>Very soon after luncheon appeared three figures on +bicycles. Wilfred Merrifield, with Mysie and Valetta, come +to give another lesson on the “flying circle’s +speed.”</p> +<p>Magdalen came out with her young people to enjoy their +amusement, as well as to watch over her own precious machine, as +Vera said. It was admired, as became connoisseurs in the +article; and she soon saw that Wilfred was to be trusted with the +care of it, so she consented to its being ridden in the practice, +provided it was not taken out into the lanes.</p> +<p>Mysie turned off from the practising, where she was not +wanted, and joined Miss Prescott in walking through the garden +terraces, and planning what would best adorn them, talking over +favourite books, and enjoying themselves very much; then going on +to the quarry, where Mysie looked about with a critical eye to +see if it displayed any fresh geological treasures to send Fergus +in quest of. She began eagerly to pour forth the +sister’s never-ending tale of her brother’s +cleverness, and thus they came down the outside lane to the lower +gate, seeing beforehand the sparkle of bicycles in its immediate +proximity.</p> +<p>It was not open, but Vera might be seen standing with one hand +on the latch, the other on Magdalen’s bicycle, her face +lifted with imploring, enticing smiles to Wilfred, who had fallen +a little back, while Paula had decidedly drawn away.</p> +<p>None of them had seen Magdalen and Mysie till they were round +the low stone wall and close upon them. There was a general +start, and Vera exclaimed, “We haven’t been +outside! No, we haven’t! And it is not the +Rockquay Road either, sister! I only wanted a run down that +lane up above.”</p> +<p>Wilfred laughed a little oddly. It was quite plain that +he had been withstanding the temptress, only how long would the +resistance have lasted?</p> +<p>Downright Mysie exclaimed, “It would have been a great +shame if you had, and I am glad Wilfred hindered you.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Magdalen, smiling to him. +“You know better than my sisters what Devon lanes and +pneumatic tyres are!”</p> +<p>Perhaps Wilfred was a little vexed, though he had resisted, +for he was ready to agree with Mysie that they could not stay and +drink tea.</p> +<p>But he did not escape his sister’s displeasure, for +Mysie began at once, “How lucky it was that we came in +time. I do believe that naughty little thing was just going +to talk you over into doing what her sister had +forbidden.”</p> +<p>“A savage, old, selfish bear. It was only the +lane.”</p> +<p>“Full of crystals as sharp as needles, enough to cut any +tyre in two,” said Mysie.</p> +<p>“Like your tongue, eh, Mysie?”</p> +<p>“Well, you did not do it! That is a comfort. +You would not let her transgress, and ruin her sister’s +good bicycle.”</p> +<p>“She is an uncommonly pretty little sprite, and the +selfish hag of a sister only left orders that I was to take care +of the bike! I could see where there was a stone as well as +anybody else.”</p> +<p>“Hag!” angrily cried Mysie, “she is the only +nice one of the whole lot. Vera is a nasty little thing, or +she would never think of meddling with what does not belong to +her, or trying to persuade you to allow it.”</p> +<p>“I call it abominable selfishness, dog in the mangerish, +to shut up such a machine as that, and condemn her sisters to one +great lumbering one.”</p> +<p>“That’s one account,” said Valetta. +“Paula said it was only till they had learnt to ride +properly, and till the stones have a little worn in.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Mysie, “I could see Vera is an +exaggerating monkey, just talking over and deluding Will, just as +men like when they get a silly fit.”</p> +<p>By this time Wilfred had thought it expedient to put his +bicycle to greater speed, and indulge in a long whistle to show +how contemptible he thought his sisters as he went out of +hearing.</p> +<p>“Paulina is nice and good,” said Valetta, +“she has heard all about St. Kenelm’s, and wants to +go there. Yes, and she means to be a Sister of Charity, +only she is afraid her sister is narrow and low +church.”</p> +<p>“That is stuff and nonsense,” said Mysie. +“I have had a great deal of talk with Miss Prescott. +She loves all the same books that we do. She is going to +have G. F. S. and Mothers’ Union, and all at poor +Arnscombe, and she told me to call her Magdalen.”</p> +<p>With which proofs of congeniality Valetta could not choose but +be impressed.</p> +<h2><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +57</span>CHAPTER VI—THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM’S</h2> +<blockquote><p>Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed<br /> +Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay.—<span +class="smcap">Tennyson</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> deferred expedition to Rockquay +also began, Magdalen driving Vera and Thekla. She was +pleased with her visitors, and hoped that the girls would feel +the same, but Vera began by declaring that <i>that</i> Miss +Merrifield was not pretty.</p> +<p>“Not exactly, but it is an honest, winning +face.”</p> +<p>“So broad, and such a wide mouth, and no style at all, +as I should have expected after all that about lords and +ladies! An old blue serge and sailor hat!”</p> +<p>“You don’t expect people to drive about the +country in silk attire?”</p> +<p>“Well, perhaps she is not out! Sister, do you know +I am seventeen?”</p> +<p>“Yes, my dear, certainly.”</p> +<p>“Oh, look, look, there’s a dear little +calf!” broke in Thekla, “and, oh! what horns the cows +have. I shall be afraid to go near them! Was it only +a sham mad bull when the little girl ran into the +pond?”</p> +<p>“It was the railway whistle, and she had never heard it +in the fields. She rushed away in a great fright and ran +into the pond, full of horrible black mud. The gentlemen +heard the scream and dragged her out, and it would have all been +fun and a good story if she had not been so much afraid of the +French lady’s maid. It is curious how the sight of +those brown eyes brought the whole scene back to me. We all +grew so fond of Mysie Merrifield in the few days we spent +together, and she is very little altered.”</p> +<p>“Is she out?” asked Vera once more.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, she cannot be less than twenty.”</p> +<p>“And I am seventeen,” said Vera, returning to the +charge. “I ought to be out.”</p> +<p>“If there are nice invitations, I shall be quite ready +to accept them for you.”</p> +<p>“But I am too old for the schoolroom and lessons and +masters.”</p> +<p>“Too old or too wise?” said Magdalen laughing.</p> +<p>“I have got into the highest form in everything. +Every one at Filston of my age is leaving off all the +bother.”</p> +<p>“Not Agatha.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but Agatha is—!”</p> +<p>“Is what?</p> +<p>“Agatha is awfully clever, and wants to be +something!”</p> +<p>“Something? But do you want to evaporate? To +be nothing at all, I mean,” said Magdalen, seeing her first +word was bewildering, and Thekla put in—</p> +<p>“Flapsy couldn’t go off in steam, could she? +Isn’t that evaporating?”</p> +<p>“I think what she wants is to be a young lady at +large! Eh, Vera? Only I don’t quite see how +that is to be managed, even if it is quite a worthy +ambition. But we will talk that over another time. Do +you see how pretty those sails are crossing the bay?”</p> +<p>Neither girl seemed to have eyes for the lovely blue of the +sea in the spring sunshine, nor the striking forms of ruddy peaks +of rock that enclosed it. Uneducated eyes, she thought, as +she slowly manœuvred the pony down the steep hill before +coming to the Rockstone Cliff Road. The other two girls +were following her direction across field and road, and making +their observations.</p> +<p>“A dose of lords and ladies,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I thought they were rather nice,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“I see how it will be,” said Agatha. +“They will patronise the M.A. as Lady Somebody’s old +governess, and she will fawn upon them and run after them, and we +shall be on those terms.”</p> +<p>“But I thought you meant to be a governess?”</p> +<p>“I shall make my own line. I know how swells look +on a governess of the <i>ancien régime</i>, and how they +will introduce her as the kindly old goody who mends my little +lady’s frock!”</p> +<p>“The girl had not any airs,” said Paula. +“She told me about the churches down there in the +town—not the ones we went to on Sunday; but there’s +one that is very low indeed, and St. Andrew’s, which is +their parish church, was suiting the moderate high church folk; +and there is St. Kenelm’s, very high indeed, Mr. +Flight’s, I think I have heard of him, and it is just the +right thing, I am sure.”</p> +<p>“Don’t flatter yourself that the M.A. will let you +have much pleasure in it. It is just what people of her +sort think dangerous.”</p> +<p>“But do you know, Nag, I do believe that it is the +church that Hubert Delrio was sent down to study and make a +design for.”</p> +<p>“Whew! There will be a pretty kettle of fish if he +comes down about it! That is, if he and Flapsy have not +forgotten all about the ice and the forfeits at Warner’s +Grange, as is devoutly to be hoped.”</p> +<p>“Do you hope it really, Nag, for Flapsy really was very +much—did care very much.”</p> +<p>“I have no great faith in Flapsy’s affections +surviving the contact with greater swells.”</p> +<p>“Poor Hubert!”</p> +<p>“Perhaps his will not survive common sense. I am +sure I hope not for both their sakes.”</p> +<p>“But, Nag, it would be very horrid of them if they had +no constancy,” declared the more romantic Paula.</p> +<p>“It will be a regular mess if they do have it, and bring +on horrid scrapes with the M.A. Just think. It is all +very well to say she has known Hubert all his life; but she +can’t treat him as a gentleman, or she won’t. +She has a position to keep up with all these swells, and he will +be only the man who paints the church! I only hope he will +not come. There will be nothing but bother if he does, +unless they both have more sense and less constancy than you +expect. Well, this really is a splendid view. Old Mr. +Delrio would be wild about it.”</p> +<p>Here the steep and stony hill brought them into contact with +the pony carriage, nor were there any more confidential +conversations. The pony was put up at the top of the hill +leading from Rockstone to Rockquay, and thence the party walked +down for Miss Prescott to make a few purchases, and, moreover, to +begin by gratifying Thekla’s reiterated entreaty for a +bicycle, though, as she was unpractised and growing so fast, it +was decided to be better to hire a tricycle for practice, and one +bicycle on which Vera and Paula might learn the art.</p> +<p>The choice was a long one, and left only just time for a peep +into the two churches and a study of the hours of their +services. St. Kenelm’s was decided to be a +“perfect gem,” ornaments, beauty, and all, a little +overdone, perhaps, in Magdalen’s opinion, but perfectly +“the thing” in her sisters’.</p> +<p>This St. Andrew’s fulfilled to her mind, being handsome, +reverent, and decorous in all the arrangements, while to the +younger folk it was “all very well,” but quite of the +old times. Little did they know of “old times” +beyond the quarter century of their birth! Poor old +Arnscombe might feebly represent them, but even that had +struggled out of the modern “dark ages.” +Magdalen had decided on talking to Agatha and seeing how far she +understood the situation, and she came to her room to put her in +possession now that Mrs. Best had left the guest chamber +free.</p> +<p>“This is your home when you are here. You must put +up any belongings that you do not want to take to St. +Robert’s.”</p> +<p>“Thank you; it is a nice pleasant room.”</p> +<p>“And, my dear, may I stay a few minutes? I think +we had better have a talk, and quite understand one +another.”</p> +<p>“Very well.”</p> +<p>It was not quite encouraging, but Agatha really wished to +hear, and she advanced a wicker chair for her elder sister, and +sat down on the window seat.</p> +<p>“Thank you, my dear; I do not know how much Mrs. Best +has told you.”</p> +<p>“She told us that you had always been very good to us, +and that you had been our guardian ever since we lost our +mother.”</p> +<p>“Did she tell you what we have of our own that our +father could leave us?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>“What amounts to about £40 a year apiece. +Mrs. Best in her very great goodness has taken you four for that +amount, though her proper charge is eighty.”</p> +<p>“And she never let any one guess it,” said Agatha, +more warmly, “for fear we might feel the difference. +How very good of her.”</p> +<p>She seemed more impressed by Mrs. Best’s bounty than by +Magdalen’s, but probably she took the latter as a matter of +course and obligation; besides, the sense of it involved a sum in +subtraction. However, this was not observed by her sister, +who did not want to feel obliged.</p> +<p>“Now that this property has come in,” continued +Magdalen, “we can live comfortably together upon it for the +present, and your expenses at Oxford can be paid, as well as +masters in what may be needful for the others, and an allowance +for dress. I suppose you will want the £40 while you +are at St. Robert’s, besides the regular +expenses?”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” warmly said.</p> +<p>“But I want you to understand, as I think you do, about +the future, for you must be prepared to be +independent.”</p> +<p>“I should have wished for a career if I had been a +millionaire,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I believe you would, and it is well that you should +have every advantage. But the others. If I left you +all this property, it would not be a comfortable maintenance +divided among four; and you would not like to be dependent, or to +leave the last who might not marry to a pittance +alone.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not,” said Agatha, with flashing +eyes.</p> +<p>“Then you see that it is needful that you should be able +to do something for yourselves. I can give one of you at a +time the power of going to the University.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think Vera or Polly would wish for +that,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“Well, what would they wish for? I can do +something towards preparing them, and I can teach Thekla, but I +should like to know what you think would be best for +them.”</p> +<p>“Vera’s strong point is music,” said +Agatha. “She cares for that more than anything else, +and Mr. Selby thought she had talent and might sing, only she +must not strain her voice. I don’t believe she will +do much in any other line. And Polly—she is very +good, and always does her best because it is right, but I +don’t think anything is any particular pleasure to her, +except needlework. She is always wanting to make things for +the church. She really has a better voice than Flapsy, and +can play better, but that is because she is so much +steadier.”</p> +<p>“Seventeen and sixteen, are they not?”</p> +<p>“Yes; but Polly seems ever so much older than +Flapsy.”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Best showed me that she had higher marks. +She must be a thoroughly good girl.”</p> +<p>“That she is,” cried Agatha, warmly. +“She never had any task for getting into +mischief.”</p> +<p>“Well, they are both so young that a little study with +me will be good for them, and there will be time to judge what +they are fit for. In art I think they are not much +interested.”</p> +<p>“Paula draws pretty well, but Vera hates it. Old +Mr. Delrio is always cross to her now; but—” Agatha +stopped short, remembering that there might be a reason why the +drawing master no longer made her a favourite pupil.</p> +<p>“Do you think him a good judge?”</p> +<p>“Yes; Mrs. Best thinks much of him. He had an +artist’s education, and sometimes has a picture in the +Water Colour Exhibition; but I believe he did not find it answer, +and so he took our school of art.”</p> +<p>Agatha had talked sensibly throughout the conference, but not +confidentially; much, in fact, as she would have discussed her +sisters with Mrs. Best. She was glad that at the moment the +sound of the piano set them listening. She did not feel +bound to mention to “sister” any more than she would +to the head mistress, that when staying at Mr. Waring’s +country house a sort of semi-flirtation had begun with Hubert +Delrio, a young man to whose education his father had sacrificed +a great deal, and who was a well-informed and intelligent +gentleman in all his ways. He had engaged himself to the +great firm of Eccles and Beamster, ecclesiastical decorators, and +might be employed upon the intended frescoes of St. +Kenelm’s Church.</p> +<p>Ought “Sister” to be told?</p> +<p>But Agatha thought it would be betraying confidence to +“set on the dragon”; and besides nobody ever could +tell how much Vera’s descriptions meant. She knew +already that the sweetest countenance in the world and the +loveliest dark eyes belonged to a fairly good-looking young man, +and she could also suspect that the “squeeze of my +hand” might be an ordinary shake, and the kneeling before +the one he loved best might have been only the customary +forfeit. On the whole, it would be better to let things +take their course; it was not likely that either was seriously +smitten, and it was more than probable that Hubert Delrio would +be too busy to look after a young lady now in a different +stratum, and that Vera would have found another sweetest +countenance in the world.</p> +<p>All this passed through her mind while Magdalen listened, and +pronounced—</p> +<p>“That is brilliant—a clever +touch—only—”</p> +<p>“Yes, that is Vera—I know what you are noticing, +but this is only amusement; she is not taking pains.”</p> +<p>“It is very clever—especially as probably she has +no music. But there—”</p> +<p>“Polly’s? Oh, yes; she is really +steady-going. That is just what you will find her. +This is a charming room, sister; thank you very much.”</p> +<p>“Make it your home, my dear.”</p> +<p>But in reality they were not much nearer together than before +the conference.</p> +<h2><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>CHAPTER VII—SISTER AND SISTERS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Have we not all, amid earth’s petty +strife,<br /> +Some pure ideal of a nobler life?<br /> +We lost it in the daily jar and fact,<br /> +And now live idly in a vain regret.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Adelaide +Procter</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Agatha</span> was so much absorbed in her +preparation for St. Robert’s that she did not pay very much +heed to her younger sisters or their relations with +Magdalen. She had induced them to submit to the regulation +of their studies with her pretty much as if she had been Mrs. +Best, looking upon her, however, as something out of date, and +hardly up to recent opinions, not realising that, of late, +Magdalen’s world had been a wide one.</p> +<p>Perhaps, in Agatha’s feelings, there was an undercurrent +inherited from her mother, who had always felt the better +connected, better educated step-daughter, a sort of alien +element, exciting jealousy by her companionship to her father, +and after his death, apt to be regarded as a scarcely willing, +and perhaps censorious pay-master.</p> +<p>“Your sister might call it too expensive.” +“I must ask your sister.” “No, your +sister does not think she can afford it. I am sure she +might. Her expenses must be nothing.” All this +had been no preparation for full sisterly confidence with +“Sister,” even when a sort of grudging gratitude was +extracted, and Agatha had been quite old enough to imbibe an +undefined antagonism, though, being a sensible girl, she +repressed the manifestations, kept her sisters in order and +taught them not to love but to submit, and herself remained in a +state of civil coolness, without an approach beyond formal signs +of affection, and such confidence.</p> +<p>It was the more disappointing to Magdalen, because Agatha and +Paulina both showed so much unconscious likeness to their father, +not only in features, but in little touches of gesture and +manner. She longed to pet them, and say, “Oh, my +dears, how like papa!” but the only time she attempted it, +she was met by a severe, uncomprehending look and manner.</p> +<p>And Agatha went away to Oxford without any thawing on her +part.</p> +<p>The only real ground that had been gained was with little +Thekla, who was soon very fond of “Sister,” and +depended on her more and more for sympathy and amusement. +Girls of seventeen and sixteen do not delight in the sports of +nine-year-olds, except in the case of special pets and +<i>protégées</i>, and Thekla was snubbed when a +partner was required to assist in doll’s dramas, or in +evening games. Only “Sister” would play +unreservedly with her, unaware or unheeding that this was looked +on as keeping up the <i>métier</i> of governess. +Indeed, Thekla’s reports of schoolroom murmurs and sneers +about the M.A. had to be silenced. Peace and good will +could best be guarded by closed ears. Yet, even then, +Thekla missed child companionship, and, even more, competition, +the lack of which rendered her dull and listless over her +lessons, and when reproved, she would beg to be sent to school, +or, at least, to attend the High School on her bicycle. Not +admiring the manners or the attainments of the specimens before +her, Magdalen felt bound to refuse, and the sisters’ pity +kept alive the grievance.</p> +<p>She had, however, decided on granting the bicycles. She +had found plenty of use for her own, for it was possible with +prudent use of it, avoiding the worst parts of the road, to be at +early celebration at St. Andrew’s, and get to the Sunday +school at Arnscombe afterwards; and Paulina, with a little demur, +decided on giving her assistance there.</p> +<p>At a Propagation of the Gospel meeting at the town hall, the +Misses Prescott were introduced to the Reverend Augustine Flight, +of St. Kenelm’s, and his mother, Lady Flight, who sat next +to Magdalen, and began to talk eagerly of the designs for the +ceiling of their church, and the very promising young artist who +was coming down from Eccles and Beamster to undertake the +work.</p> +<p>The church had not yet been seen, and the conversation ended +in the sisters coming back to tea, at which Paula was very happy, +for the talk had something of the rather exclusive High Church +tone that was her ideal. She had seen it in books, but had +never heard it before in real life, and Vera was in a restless +state, longing to hear whether the promising young artist was +really Hubert Delrio, and hoping, while she believed that she +feared, that she should blush when she heard his name. +However, she did not, though Mr. Flight unfolded his rough plans +for the frescoes, which were to be of virgin and child martyrs, +Magdalen hesitating a little over those that seemed too +legendary; while old Lady Flight, portly and sentimental, +declared them so sweet and touching. After tea, they went +on to the church. Just at the entrance of the porch, Vera +clutched at Paula, with the whisper, “Wasn’t that +Wilfred Merrifield? There, crossing?”</p> +<p>“Nonsense,” was Paula’s reply, as she +lingered over the illuminated list of the hours of services +displayed at the door, and feeling as if she had attained +dreamland, as she saw two fully habited Sisters enter, and bend +low as they did so.</p> +<p>The church was very elaborately ornamented, small, but showing +that no expense had been spared, though there was something that +did not quite accord with Magdalen’s ideas of the best +taste; so that when they went out she answered Paula’s +raptures of admiration somewhat coldly, or what so appeared to +the enthusiastic girl.</p> +<p>The next day, meeting Miss Mohun over cutting out for a +working party, Magdalen asked her about the Flights and St. +Kenelm’s.</p> +<p>“He is an excellent good man,” said Jane Mohun, +“and has laid out immense sums on the church and +parish.”</p> +<p>“All his own? Not subscription?”</p> +<p>“No. He is the only son of a very rich City man, a +brewer, and came here with his mother as a curate, as a good +place for health. They found a miserable little +corrugated-iron place, called the Kennel Chapel, and worked it +up, raising the people, and doing no end of good till it came to +be a district, as St. Kenelm’s.”</p> +<p>“Very ornamental?”</p> +<p>“Oh, very,” said Jane, warming out of caution, as +she felt she might venture showing city gorgeousness all +over. “But it is infinitely to his credit. He +had a Fortunatus’ purse, and was a spoilt child—not +in the bad sense—but with an utterly idolising mother, and +he tried a good many experiments that made our hair stand on end; +but he has sobered down, and is a much wiser man now—though +I would not be bound to admire all he does.”</p> +<p>“I see there are Sisters? Do they belong to his +arrangements?”</p> +<p>“Yes. They are what my brother calls Cousins of +Mercy. The elder one has tried two or three Sisterhoods, +and being dissatisfied with all the rules, I fancy she has some +notion of trying to set up one on her own account at Mr. +Flight’s. They are both relations of his mother, and +are really one of his experiments—fancy names and fancy +rules, of course. I believe the young one wanted to call +herself Sister Philomena, but that he could not stand. So +they act as parish women here, and they do it very well. I +liked Sister Beata when I have come in contact with her, and I am +sure she is an excellent nurse. They will do your nieces no +harm, though I don’t like the irregular.”</p> +<p>Of this assurance Magdalen felt very glad, when at the door of +the parish room, where the ladies were to hold a working party +for the missions, Carrigaboola Missions at Albertstown, she and +her nieces were introduced to the two ladies in hoods and veils; +and Paula’s eyes sparkled with delight as she settled into +a chair next to Sister Mena. She looked as happy as Vera +looked bored! Conversation was not possible while a +missionary memoir was being read aloud, but the history of Mother +Constance, once Lady Herbert Somerville, but then head at +Dearport, and founder of the Daughter Sisterhood at +Carrigaboola. To the Merrifields it was intensely +interesting, and also to Magdalen; but all the time she could see +demonstrations passing between Paula and Sister Mena, a +nice-looking girl, much embellished by the setting of the hood +and veil, as if the lending of a pair of scissors or the turning +of a hem were an act of tender admiration. So sweet a look +came out on Paula’s face that she longed to awaken the +like. Vera meantime looked as if her only consolation lay +in the neighbourhood of a window, whence she could see up the +street, as soon as she had found whispers to Mysie Merrifield +treated as impossible.</p> +<p>The party at the Goyle had begun to fall into regular habits, +and struggles were infrequent. There was study in the +forenoon, walks or cycle expeditions in the afternoon, varied by +the lessons in music and in art, which Vera and Paula attended on +Wednesdays and Fridays, the one in the morning, the other after +dinner. It was possible to go to St. Andrew’s matins +at ten o’clock before the drawing class, and to St. +Kenelm’s at five, after the music was over. Magdalen, +whenever it was possible, went with her sisters on their bicycles +to St. Andrew’s, and sometimes devised errands that she +might join them at St. Kenelm’s, but neither could always +be done by the head of the household. And she could +perceive that her company was not specially welcome.</p> +<p>Valetta, the only one of the Clipstone family whose drawing +was worth cultivating, used to ride into Rockstone, escorted by +her brother Wilfred, who was in course of “cramming” +with a curate on his way to his tutor, and Vera found in casual +but well-cultivated meetings and partings, abundant excitement in +“nods and becks and wreathed smiles,” and now and +then in the gift of a flower.</p> +<p>Paula on the other hand found equal interest and delight in +meetings with Sister Mena, especially after a thunderstorm had +driven the two to take refuge at what the Sisters called +“the cell of St. Kenelm,” and tea had unfolded their +young simple hearts to one another! Magdalen had called on +the Sisters and asked them to tea at the Goyle, and there had +come to the conclusion that Sister Beata was an admirable, +religious, hardworking woman, of strong opinions, and not much +cultivated, with a certain provincial twang in her voice. +She had a vehement desire for self-devotion and consecration, but +perhaps not the same for obedience. She sharply criticised +all the regulations of the Sisterhoods with which she was +acquainted, wore a dress of her own device, and with Sister Mena, +a young cousin of her own, meant to make St. Kenelm’s a +nucleus for a Sisterhood of her own invention.</p> +<p>Sister Mena had been bred up in a Sisterhood’s school, +from five years old and upwards, and had no near relatives. +Mr. Flight was Saint, Pope and hero to both, and Mena knew little +beyond the horizon of St. Kenelm’s, but she and Paula were +fascinated with one another; and Magdalen saw more danger in +interfering than in acquiescing, though she gave no consent to +Paulina’s aspirations after admission into the perfect +Sisterhood that was to be.</p> +<h2><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +75</span>CHAPTER VIII—SNOBBISHNESS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Why then should vain repinings rise,<br /> +That to thy lover fate denies<br /> +A nobler name, a wide domain?”—<span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> friendship with the Sisters was +about three weeks old when, one morning, scaffold poles were +being erected in the new side aisle of St. Kenelm’s Church, +and superintending them was a tall dark-haired young man. +There was a start of mutual recognition; and by and by he met +Paula and Vera in the porch, and there were eager hand-clasps and +greetings, as befitted old friends meeting in a strange +place.</p> +<p>“Mr. Hubert! I heard you were coming!”</p> +<p>“Miss Vera! Miss Paula! This is a +pleasure.”</p> +<p>Then followed an introduction of Sister Mena, whose elder +companion was away, attending a sick person.</p> +<p>“May I ask whether you are living here?”</p> +<p>“Two miles off at the Goyle, at Arnscombe, with our +sister.”</p> +<p>“So I heard! I shall see you again.” +And he turned aside to give an order, bowing as he did so.</p> +<p>“Is he the artist of those sweet designs?” asked +Sister Mena.</p> +<p>“Did we not tell you?”</p> +<p>“And now he is going to execute them? How +delicious!”</p> +<p>“I trust so! We must see him again. We have +not heard of Edie and Nellie, nor any one.”</p> +<p>“He will call on you?” said Sister Mena.</p> +<p>“I do not think so,” said Paula. “At +least his father is really an artist, but he is drawing-master at +the High School, and Hubert works for this firm. They are +not what you call in society, and our sister is all for getting +in with Lady Merrifield and General Mohun and all the swells, so +it would never do for him to call.”</p> +<p>“She would first be stiff and stuck up,” said +Vera, “and I could not stand that.”</p> +<p>“I thought she was so kind,” said Mena.</p> +<p>“You don’t understand,” said Vera. +“She would be kind to a workman in a fever; but this +sort—oh, no.”</p> +<p>“To be on an equality with the man painting the +church?” said Paula. “No, indeed! not if he +were Fra Angelico and Ary Scheffer and Michelangelo rolled into +one.”</p> +<p>At that moment the subject referred to in that mighty +conglomeration reappeared. He was a handsome young man, his +touch of Italian blood showing just enough to give him a romantic +air; and Sister Philomena listened, much impressed by the +interchange of question and answer about “Edie and +Nellie,” and the dear Warings, and the happy Christmas at +the Grange; and Vera blushed again, and Paula coloured in +sympathy, as it appeared that Mr. Delrio had never had such a +splendid time.</p> +<p>The colloquy was ended by Mr. Flight being descried, +approaching with his mother, whereupon the two girls fled away +like guilty creatures.</p> +<p>Presently Vera exclaimed, “Oh, Polly dear, what a +complication! Poor dear fellow! he cares for me as much as +ever.”</p> +<p>“And you will be staunch to him in spite of all the +worldly allurements,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Well, I mean Mr. Wilfred Merrifield is not half so +handsome,” returned Vera.</p> +<p>“Nor is he engaged in sacred work; only bent on +frivolity,” said Paula; “yet see how the M.A. +encourages him with tennis and games and nonsense.”</p> +<p>Poor M.A., when the encouragement had only been some general +merriment, and a few games on the lawn Paulina, who had heard +many confidences when Vera returned from Waring Grange, believed +altogether in the true love of the damsel and Hubert Delrio, who +had been wont to single out the prettiest of the girls at +Filstead, and she was resolved to do all she could in their +cause, being schoolgirl enough to have no scruple as to secrecy +towards Magdalen, though on the next opportunity she poured out +all to Sister Philomena’s by no means unwilling ears.</p> +<p>Lovers had never fallen within the young Sister’s +experience, either personally or through friends; and they had +only been revealed to her in a few very carefully-selected tales, +where they were more the necessary machinery than the main +interest, for she had been bred up in an orphanage by Sister +Beata, and had never seen beyond it. So to her +Paula’s story, little as there was of it, was a perfect +romance, and it gained in colour when she related it to her +senior.</p> +<p>Sister Beata hesitated a little, having rather more knowledge +of the world, remembering that Vera Prescott was not eighteen +years old, and doubting whether an underhand intimacy ought to be +encouraged; but then Mr. Flight had spoken of Mr. Delrio as a +highly praiseworthy young man, of decided Catholic principles; he +was regular at Church services, and had dined or supped at the +Vicarage. The intercourse, as the girls had explained, had +been sanctioned by Mrs. Best in their native town, where all +parties were well known, and thus there could be no harm in +letting it continue. While as to the elder Miss Prescott, +she was understood to be unduly bent on county and titled +society, and to be exclusive towards inferiors. Moreover, +she was an attendant at St. Andrew’s Church, and thus +regarded as out of the pale of sympathy of the St. Kenelm’s +flock.</p> +<p>So no obstacle was put in the way of the gossips, for they +were really nothing more, except that there was admiration of the +designs for the side chapel, which were of the Scripture children +on one side, and on the other of child martyrs. Now and +then there was a reference to the chilliness and hardship of +living with an unsympathising sister, and being obliged to go to +churches of which they did not approve. Sometimes too there +were airy castles of a distant future to be shared by the +magnificent architect, together with Vera, while Paula nursed in +the convent with Mother Beata and Sister Philomena.</p> +<p>But all this did not prevent an excitement and eager laughter +and chatter whenever Wilfred Merrifield came in the way, and he +certainly was enough attracted by Vera’s pretty face and +lively graces to make his sisters think him very absurd; but his +mother had seen so many passing fancies among her elder sons as +to hold that blindness was better than serious treatment.</p> +<p>There was the further effect that Magdalen had no suspicion +that the vehement attraction to St. Kenelm’s went beyond +the harmless quarter of the two nursing Sisters and some hero +worship of Mr. Flight. Miss Mohun, who knew everything, had +indeed hinted that something foolish might be going on there; but +Magdalen had not decided on the mutual fairness of the two +congregations, and deferred investigation till Agatha should come +home, when she would have a reasonable, if cold, person to deal +with. Nor did Thekla’s chatter excite any suspicion; +for the only time when she had been present at a meeting with Mr. +Delrio, she had been half bribed, half threatened into silence, +and she was quite schoolgirl enough to feel that such was the +natural treatment of authority, though she had become really fond +of “sister.”</p> +<h2><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>CHAPTER IX—GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY</h2> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“Can I teach +thee, my beloved? can I teach thee?”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">E. B. <span +class="smcap">Browning</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Agatha</span> came home in due time, and +Magdalen sent her sister to meet her at the station, where they +found a merry Clipstone party in the waggonette waiting for +Gillian, who was to come home at the same time. There was +so much discussion of the new golf ground, that Vera had hardly a +hand or a glance to bestow on Mr. Delrio, who jumped out of the +same train, shook hands with Agatha, and bestirred himself in +finding her luggage and calling a cab.</p> +<p>“How he is improved! What a pleasing, gentlemanly +fellow he looks!” she exclaimed, as she waved her thanks, +while driving off in the cab.</p> +<p>“Is he not?” said Paula, while Vera bridled and +blushed. “You will be delighted with his work. +I never saw anything more lovely than little St. Cyriac the +martyr.”</p> +<p>“He is taken from Mrs. Henderson’s little +boy,” added Vera; “such a dear little +darling.”</p> +<p>“And his mother is to be done; indeed, he has sketched +her for St. Juliet.”</p> +<p>“Flapsy! St. Romeo, too, I suppose?”</p> +<p>“Nonsense, Nag! There really was a St. Juliet or +Julitta, and she was his mother, and they both were +martyrs. I will tell you all the history,” began +Paula; but Agatha interposed.</p> +<p>“You must like having him down here. Sister must +be much pleased with him. She used to like old Mr. +Delrio.”</p> +<p>“Well, we have not said much about him,” owned +Paula. “He does not seem to wish it, or expect to be +in with swells.”</p> +<p>“We could not stand his being treated like a common +house-painter and upholsterer,” added Vera.</p> +<p>“Surely no one does so,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“Not exactly,” said Paula; “at least, he has +had supper at St. Kenelm’s Vicarage with Lady Flight, and +luncheon at Carrara with Captain and Mrs. Henderson.”</p> +<p>“Because he was <i>doing</i> the child,” +interposed Vera; “and Thekla says that Primrose Merrifield +says that her Aunt Jane—that is, old Miss Mohun—says +that Lady Flight is not a gentlewoman.”</p> +<p>“What has that to do with Magdalen?”</p> +<p>“Why, she is so taken up with those swells of hers, +especially now that there is a talk of Lord Somebody’s +yacht coming in, that she would never treat him as on equal +terms, but just keep him at a distance, like a mere +decorator.”</p> +<p>“That seemed to me just what you were doing,” said +Agatha, “when he was so kind and helpful about my +box.”</p> +<p>“Oh, <i>they</i> were all there, and we did not want to +be talked of,” said Vera, blushing. “He +understands.”</p> +<p>“He understands,” repeated Paula. “We +do see him at the church and at the Sisters’. Those +dear Sisters! There is no nonsense about them. You +will love them, Nag.”</p> +<p>“Well, it does not seem to me to be treating our own +sister Magdalen fairly.”</p> +<p>“The M.A.!” said Vera, in a tone of wonder.</p> +<p>“No; not to be intimate with a person you do not +introduce to her, because you do not think she would consider him +as on equal terms.”</p> +<p>“Sister Beata quite approves,” added Paula, +sincerely, not guessing how little Sister Beata knew of the +situation, of which she only heard through the medium of her own +representations to Sister Mena.</p> +<p>The two girls rushed into the charms of these two Sisters, and +the plan for an entertainment for the maidens of the Guild of St. +Milburgha, at which they were to assist. It lasted up to +the gate of the Goyle, where Magdalen and Thekla were ready to +meet them; and they trooped merrily up the hill, Agatha keeping +to Magdalen’s side in a way that struck her as friendly and +affectionate. It seemed to be more truly coming <i>home</i> +than the elder sister had dared to anticipate; nor, indeed, did +she feel the veiled antagonism to herself that had previously +disappointed her.</p> +<p>The talk was about St. Robert’s, about Oxford in +general, the new friends, the principal, the games, the debates, +the lectures, the sermons, the celebrities, the undergraduates, +the concerts, the chapels, the boats, the architecture; all were +touched on for further discussion by and by as they sat at the +evening meal, and then on the chairs and cushions in the +verandah; and through all there was no exclusion of the elder +sister, but rather she was the one who could appreciate the +interest of what Agatha had seen and heard; and even she was +allowed to enter into the amusement of an Oxford <i>bon mot</i>, +sometimes, indeed, when it was far beyond Paula and Vera.</p> +<p>There was no doubt that the term had much improved Agatha even +in appearance and manner. She held herself better, +pronounced better, uttered no slangish expressions, and twice she +repressed little discourtesies on the part of her sisters, and +neglects such as were not the offspring of tender familiarity, +but of an indifference akin to rudeness. Magdalen had +endured, knowing how bad it was for their manners, but unwilling +to become more of an annoyance than could be helped. The +indescribable difference in Agatha’s whole manner sent +Magdalen to bed happier than she had been since the arrival of +her sisters, and feeling as if Agatha had come to her own side of +a barrier.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was quite true; for the last two months had been a +time of growth with the maiden, changing her from a schoolgirl to +a student, from the “brook to the river.” She +had, indeed, studied hard, but that she had always done, as being +clever, intellectual and ambitious. The difference had been +from her intercourse with persons slightly her elders, but who +did not look on authorities as natural enemies, to be tolerated +for one’s own good. There had been a development of +the conscience and soul even in this first term that made her +regard her elder sister not merely with a sense of compulsory +gratitude and duty, but with sympathy and fellow feeling, which +were the more excited when she saw her own chilliness of last +spring carried further by the two young girls.</p> +<p>So breakfast went off merrily; and after the round of the +garden and the pets, Agatha promised to come, when summoned, to +hear how well Thekla could read French. In the meantime she +waited in the morning-room, looking at her sisters’ books; +Vera pushed aside the Venetian blind.</p> +<p>“Don’t come in that way, Flapsy!” called +Paula. “You’ll be heard in the dining-room, and +the M.A. will tremble at your dusty feet.”</p> +<p>“They aren’t dusty,” said Vera, pulling up +the blind with a clatter.</p> +<p>“Aren’t they?” laughed Paula, pointing.</p> +<p>“You had better go and wipe them,” said +Agatha.</p> +<p>“I don’t believe in M.A.’s fidgets,” +returned Vera.</p> +<p>“But I do, in proper deference to the head of the +house,” said Agatha, gravely.</p> +<p>“Murder in Irish!” cried Vera, bouncing away, +while Paula argued, “Really, Nag, life is not long enough +to attend to all the M.A.’s little worries.”</p> +<p>“Polly, dear, I am afraid we have been on a wrong tack +with our sister. I don’t like calling her by that +name.”</p> +<p>“You began it!” exclaimed Vera, dashing in by the +door as she spoke.</p> +<p>“I could not have meant it as a nickname to be always in +use.”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, you did, I remember”—and an +argument was beginning, which Agatha cut short by saying, +“Any way, it is bad taste.”</p> +<p>“Nag has been so much among the real M.A. that she is +tender about their title.”</p> +<p>“She wants to be one herself,” said Vera; +“and so she will if she goes on getting learned and +faddy.”</p> +<p>“In both senses?” said Paula.</p> +<p>Agatha laughed a little, but added, “No, Polly, the +thing is that it is hardly kind or right to put that sort of +label upon a person like Magdalen—who has done so much for +us—and—”</p> +<p>The perverse young hearts could not bear a touch on the chord +of gratitude; and Paula burst in, “Label or libel, do you +mean?”</p> +<p>“It becomes a libel as you use it.”</p> +<p>“Do you want us to call her sister or Magdalen, the +whole scriptural mouthful at once?”</p> +<p>“I believe that to call her Magdalen or Maidie, as my +father did, would make her feel nearer to us than the formal way +of saying ‘Sister.’”</p> +<p>“I don’t mind about changing,” said +Paula. “She can never be the same to us as dear +Sister Mena.”</p> +<p>“She is so tiresome,” added Vera. “She +bothers so over my music; calling out if I make ever so small a +slip, and making me go over all again.”</p> +<p>“Well she may,” said Paula. “She is +making little Tick play so nicely. Just listen! But I +can’t bear her dragging us off to that horrid old Arnscombe +Church and the nasty stuffy Sunday school.”</p> +<p>“That reminds me,” said Agatha; “Gillian +Merrifield met a relation of Mr. Earl’s, who said that Miss +Prescott had brought quite new life and spirit to the poor old +man, who had been getting quite out of heart for want of any one +to help and sympathise with him.”</p> +<p>“Then he ought to make his services more +Catholic,” said Paula. “But nothing will wean +her from the old parochial idea. Why, she would not let me +give my winter stockings to Sister Beata’s poor girls, but +made me darn them and put them by.”</p> +<p>“Yes, and mine, which were bad enough to give away, she +made me darn first,” cried Vera. “She is ever +so much worse than the superlative about mending one’s +clothes.”</p> +<p>“There ought to be another degree of comparison,” +said Paula,—“Botheratissima!”</p> +<p>“For, only think!” said Vera. “She +won’t let us have new hats, but only did up the old ones, +and not with feathers, though there is such a love at +Tebbitts’s at Rockstone.”</p> +<p>“She says it is cruel,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Cruel to me, I am sure; and what difference does it +make when the birds are once killed?”</p> +<p>“Well, she did give us those lovely wreaths of +lilies,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Of course, but nothing to make them stylish! +What’s the good of being out if one is to have nothing +<i>chic</i>? And she won’t let me have a hockey +outfit. She says she must see more of it to be able to +judge whether to let us play!”</p> +<p>“That just means seeing whether her dear Merrifields +do,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Gillian did at St. Catherine’s. But you +will know soon. Did I not hear something about a garden +party?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; she is talking of one, but it will be all +swells and croquet, and deadly dull.”</p> +<p>“I thought you seemed to be getting on well with the +swells, if you mean the Merrifields, especially Wilfred, if that +is his name.”</p> +<p>“Bil—Bil! Oh, he is all very well,” +said Vera, “if he would not be always so silly and come +after me! As if I cared!”</p> +<p>“And only think,” said Paula, “that she was +going to have it on the very day that St. Milburga’s Guild +has their festival! Just as if it was on +purpose!”</p> +<p>“Did you ask her to keep clear of your +engagements?”</p> +<p>“I told her, but I don’t think she +listened.” And as another grievance suggested itself +to Vera, she declared, “And she won’t let us join the +Girls’ Magazine Club, because she saw one she didn’t +like on somebody’s table. As if we were little +babies!”</p> +<p>“She won’t let us order books at the library, but +gets such awfully slow ones,” chimed in Paula, “or +only baby stories fit for Thekla. She made me return that +book dear Sister Mena lent me, because she said it was Roman +Catholic.”</p> +<p>“And hasn’t she got Thomas à Kempis on her +table? and I’m sure he was Roman Catholic. +There’s consistency!”</p> +<p>“You don’t understand,” began Agatha. +“He was a great Saint before the Catholics became so +Roman.”</p> +<p>“Oh, never mind! It is anything to thwart +us,” cried Vera. “It is ever so much worse than +school.”</p> +<p>“But,” began Agatha, and the tone of consideration +to that one conjunction caused an outburst. “Oh, Nag, +Nag, if you are gone over to the enemy, what will life be +worth?”</p> +<p>As that terrible question was propounded, in burst Thekla +with, “Oh, Nag, Nag, they are cutting the hay in the high +torr field, and sister says we may go and see them before I read +my French.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried Vera, with a prolongation into a +groan, “is she going to be tiresome?”</p> +<p>“She has come to be quite a don,” said Paula; +“but never mind, we will soon make her all right +again.”</p> +<p>The two sisters had to go to their different classes in the +afternoon, and wanted Agatha to go with them; but it was a very +warm day, and she preferred resting in the garden, and, to +Magdalen’s surprise and pleasure, conversation with +her. At first it was about Oxford matters, very +interesting, but public and external to the home, and it did not +draw the cords materially closer; but when Thekla had privately +decided that even hanging upon the newly recovered Nag was not +worth the endurance of anything so tedious, and had gone off to +assist her beloved old gardener in gathering green gooseberries, +Magdalen observed that she was a very pleasant little pupil, and +was getting on very well, especially with arithmetic.</p> +<p>“That was the strong point in the junior classes,” +said Agatha; “better taught than it was in my +time.”</p> +<p>“I wish she could have more playfellows,” said +Magdalen. “She would like to go to the High School at +Rockquay, but there are foundations I should wish to lay before +having her out of my own hands.”</p> +<p>“I should think you were her best playfellow. She +seems very fond of you, and very happy.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Magdalen, rather wistfully. +“I think she generally is so.”</p> +<p>“Maidie! may I call you by the old home +name?” And as Magdalen answered with a kiss and +tearful smile, “Do tell me, please, if Polly and Flapsy are +nice to you?”</p> +<p>Magdalen was taken by surprise at the pressure of the hand and +the eyes that gazed into her face full of expression.</p> +<p>She could not keep the drops from rushing to her own eyes, +though she smiled through them and said, “As nice as they +know how.”</p> +<p>“I am afraid I know what that means,” said +Agatha.</p> +<p>“If I only knew how to prevent their looking on me as +their governess,” continued Magdalen; “but I must +have got into the groove, and I suppose I do not always remember +how much must be tolerated if love has to be won; and Paula is a +thoroughly good girl.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I am sure she wishes to be,” said +Agatha. “Are those Sisters nice that she talks of so +eagerly?”</p> +<p>“They are very excellent women, but somehow I should +have had more confidence in them if they were not unattached, or +belonged to some regular Sisterhood. I wish she had taken +instead to Mysie Merrifield, who is more of my sort; but no one +can control those likings.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think Gillian very attractive; she is so +wrapped up in her work,” confessed Agatha.</p> +<p>“You will see them all, I hope, for I am giving a garden +party next week, perhaps. Have not they told +you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; but Polly seemed bent on its not clashing with +some festival at St. Kenelm’s.”</p> +<p>“Therefore I had not fixed the day till I had heard what +is settled. I have invited people for Thursday, which will +hardly interfere.”</p> +<p>“Did you know that the young man who is painting the +ceiling at St. Kenelm’s Church is old Mr. Delrio’s +son Hubert?”</p> +<p>“Indeed! Is he staying here? We must ask him +to come up to luncheon or to tea. I am glad he is doing so +well. I heard Eccles and Beamster were to do the +decorations; I suppose they employ him. I should think it +was a very good line to get into.”</p> +<p>This was on a Friday; and the next day Magdalen proposed +driving down in the cool of the evening to see the decorations at +St. Kenelm’s and their artist; but it turned out that he +was gone to spend Sunday at the Cathedral city, and all that +could be done was to admire the designs, and listen to +Paula’s enthusiastic explanation.</p> +<p>Magdalen consulted Agatha whether to send young Delrio a card +for the garden party; but they decided that it was too late for +an invitation to be sent, though a spoken one might have been +possible. Besides, it was not likely to be pleasant to a +stranger who knew no one but the Flights and Hendersons, and +those professionally. Agatha told her sisters, and with one +voice they declared that they would not see him patronised; while +Agatha’s acute senses doubted whether Vera’s +objection was not secretly based on the embarrassment of a double +flirtation with him and with Wilfred Merrifield.</p> +<p>Indeed, Vera told her gaily: “Only think, Nag, I did +have a jolly ride on the M.A.’s bike after all.”</p> +<p>“Indeed! Then she lent it to you.”</p> +<p>“Not she! But she and the little kid were safe +gone to Avoncester, and Paula was with her dear Sisters, so Will +and I took a jolly spin along the cliff road; and it was such +screaming fun. Only once we thought we saw old Sir Jasper +coming, and we got behind a barn, but it turned out to be only a +tripper, and we had such a laugh.”</p> +<p>“Paula does not know?”</p> +<p>“What would be the good of telling her, with her little +nun’s schoolgirl mind? She would only make no end of +a fuss about a mere bit of fun and nonsense.”</p> +<p>“I think if Wilfred Merrifield was afraid to meet his +father, it showed a sense of wrong.”</p> +<p>“Sir Jasper is a horrid old martineau, who never gives +them any peace at home, but is always after them.”</p> +<p>“A martinet, I suppose you mean. I don’t +think that makes it any better. I should not be happy till +Magdalen knew.”</p> +<p>“Why, no harm was done! There’s her precious +machine all safe! It was just for the fun of the thing, and +to try how it goes. One can’t be kept in like a +blessed baby! She never has guessed it. That’s +the fun of it.”</p> +<p>“I would not return her kindness in such an unladylike +way when she is trusting you, Vera.”</p> +<p>Did Magdalen know what had been done? She did guess, for +there was a mark on the wheel that she did not remember to have +known before, and it cost her a bitter pang of mistrust; but she +abstained from inquiries, thinking that they might only do +harm. But she bought a chain for her bicycle; and Agatha +felt more shame than did Vera, who tried to believe herself +amused by her tacit sense of emancipation.</p> +<h2><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>CHAPTER X—FLOWN</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Till now thy soul hath been all glad and +gay,<br /> +Bid it arise and look on grief to-day.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Adelaide +Proctor</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was a Guild at St. +Kenelm’s which was considered by the promoters to be +superior to the Girls’ Friendly Society, and which +comprised about a dozen young women, who attended classes held by +Sister Beata, and occasional modest entertainments given by Lady +Flight.</p> +<p>One of these was to take place the day before Miss +Prescott’s garden party. It was to be given at +Carrara, the very pretty grounds on the top of the cliff, +belonging to Captain Henderson, the managing partner in the +extensive marble works of Mr. White, who lived at Rocca Marina, +in the Riviera. Mrs. Henderson had resided in Mr. +Flight’s parish, and been a member of his congregation, and +while he was absent for a day or two she had put her garden at +the service of the Guild of St. Milburga’s for the day.</p> +<p>Of course Vera and Paula were delighted to assist; but Thekla +was too young for the amusements of grown-up maidens, and was +much better pleased to help her two elder sisters in preparations +for the next day, placing tennis nets, arranging croquet hoops, +mustering chairs by the verandah, and adorning tables with +flowers. Agatha’s assistance was heartily given, as +making it her own concern, and, for that reason above all others, +it was a happy day, though a very tiring one, to Magdalen, in +spite of the sultry atmosphere and the sight of lurid-looking +clouds over the moors, which did not augur well for the next +day’s weather, and caused all the arrangement of chairs and +rugs to be prudently broken up and deposited under the +verandah.</p> +<p>This was done, and the evening meal had been taken, and Thekla +had gone to bed before some flashes of lightning made the two +sisters wish to see the other pair at home, especially as Vera +was much afraid of lightning, and Paula apt to be made quite ill +by it.</p> +<p>The storm rolled on, bringing violent gusts of wind and hail, +though not at the very nearest, and such a hurricane of wind and +rain ensued that the two watchers concluded that the two girls +must have been housed for the night by some of the friends at +Rock Quay, and it was near midnight, when just as they had gone +to their rooms, a carriage was heard ascending the hill, and they +had reached the door before Paulina sprang out with the cry, +“Is she come home?” Then at sight of the blank +faces of dismay, she seized hold of Agatha’s hands and +began to sob. Mr. Flight had stepped out of the car at the +same moment, and answered the incoherent questions and +exclamations.</p> +<p>“Young Delrio offered to take photographs of the party, +and that was the last time she was seen.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” sobbed Paula, “Sister Mena saw her +there. We were trying to get up croquet, and then I missed +her. I tried to find her when the lightning began, but I +could not find her anywhere, though I looked in all the +summer-houses!”</p> +<p>“At Mrs. Henderson’s? or Miss Mohun’s? or +the Sisters’?” asked Magdalen, catching alarm from +each denial. “She might have gone home with one of +the girls.”</p> +<p>“She would be wild in such a storm,” said Agatha, +“and not know what she was about.”</p> +<p>“Sister Beata and I have gone to each house,” said +Mr. Flight.</p> +<p>“When did you say you saw her last?”</p> +<p>“I saw her when we were grouped,” said Paula; +“Sister Mena, when she was helping him to put up his +photos.”</p> +<p>“The strange thing is,” said Mr. Flight, +“though no doubt it will be explained, that Delrio is +missing too.”</p> +<p>“Hubert Delrio!” exclaimed Agatha. +“Impossible! He must have taken her into the church +to be out of the storm.”</p> +<p>“We have tried,” said the clergyman. And as +the round of suggestions began to be despairingly reiterated, he +said, hesitating, “Miss Mohun told me that she thought she +had seen a boat, Captain Henderson’s, she believed, in the +cave with some one rocking in it; and certainly that little boat +was there, when on the hope, if it can be called a hope, I ran +down the steps to look.”</p> +<p>“Would it not have been put into the boathouse out of +the rain?” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“The gardener was gone home, out of reach round the +point, but we shall know to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“He thinks they may have rowed out and been caught in +the storm,” cried Paula, bursting into fresh weeping; and +Magdalen saw the conjecture confirmed by Mr. Flight’s +countenance.</p> +<p>“I am afraid it is the least distressing—the least +unsatisfactory idea,” said he, in much agitation. +“I thought Mr. Delrio an excellent young man; and +she,” indicating his companion, “tells me you know +him and his family well.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes,” said Agatha and Magdalen in one +breath. “We have known his father all our +lives. Nothing can be more respectable.”</p> +<p>“And Hubert is as steady and good as possible,” +continued Agatha. “His mother used to come to Mrs. +Best and praise him, till we were quite tired of his name; I am +sure he is all right.”</p> +<p>“Or I should be much deceived in him,” said the +clergyman.</p> +<p>Yet there was an idea in Paulina’s mind. Could +Vera have poured out such an exaggerated tale of oppression and +unhappiness as to have induced her old playfellow to carry her +off to his mother at Filsted? She had given some such hint +to Mr. Flight on the way; but he had not seemed to hear or +attend, and he was now promising to let the sisters know as soon +as possible in the morning whether anything had been discovered, +and to telegraph to Filsted and to the office in London if he +should see occasion.</p> +<p>Then he drove off, in what would have been almost daylight but +for the pelting of the storm; and after a vain attempt to make +Paula swallow some nourishment, Magdalen thought it kinder to let +Agatha carry her off to bed, and then she confessed, what really +gave a certain hope, that the pair had been in the habit of +murmuring against “sister” so much that, considering +poor Vera’s propensity to strong language, it was quite +possible that Hubert might think her cruelly oppressed, and for a +freak carry her off to his mother to be consoled.</p> +<p>Agatha tried to believe it, for the sake of hushing the +exhausted Paula, who almost went into hysterics, as she laughed +at the notion of to-morrow’s telegram that Vera was safe at +Filsted; and then allowed herself to be calmed enough to sleep, +while Agatha revolved the notion, but found herself unable +seriously to believe, that sufficient grievance could be brought +against sister to induce any man in his senses to take such a +step. But then Paula had inferred that he was a lover, and +Agatha did not know of what lovers might be capable, and she +could not but blame herself for not having given more importance +to the semi-confidences of her sisters on the first day of her +arrival. It was all misery; and the two poor girls could +find no solace in the morning, save in talking to Magdalen, +though that involved the confession of all the murmurs against +her, the distrust of her kindness, and the explanation of the +interviews, which, as far as Paula had ever witnessed them, were +absolutely harmless, the only pity being in their +concealment.</p> +<p>Magdalen was manifestly as wretched as they, or even more so, +being convinced of her own shortcoming in not having won the +affection or confidence that would have made all open between +them. She could not understand why Hubert Delrio should not +have been made known to her.</p> +<p>“We thought,” said Paula, “we thought you +might not think him enough—enough—of a gentleman for +your sort of society.”</p> +<p>“I think you might have trusted me to know what was due +to an old friend,” said Magdalen “but, oh, I ought to +have made you feel that we could think together.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps,” said Agatha, “there was a little +consciousness on poor dear Vera’s part that she did not +want you to know the terms she was on.”</p> +<p>They had tried only to let Thekla know that they were much +alarmed because Vera had gone out in a boat and not +returned. It was observable that, on the principle that +where there is life there is hope, Paula clung to the notion that +Vera’s having fled to Filsted; while the two elder sisters, +perhaps because they better knew what such a flight might seem to +others, would almost have preferred to suppose there had been a +fatal accident in the midst of youthful, innocent sport.</p> +<p>The two were lingering sadly over their uneaten breakfast, +talking more freely when they had sent Thekla to feed her pets, +when Mr. Flight came up on his bicycle; but it was plain at the +first moment that he had no good news.</p> +<p>Nothing had been heard. It only appeared that one of the +young gardeners at Carrara had taken Captain Henderson’s +boat without leave, to fetch one of the girls, but on entering +the cove had found the boathouse locked. He had moored the +boat to a stake for want of the ring that secured it +within. When the storm threatened he ran down to recover +it, but it was gone, and he had concluded that the gardeners had +put it into the boathouse. It now appeared that they had +not seen it, and were very angry at its having been meddled +with. An oar had drifted up with the morning tide, and had +been recognised as belonging to the boat; but such a gale was +blowing that it was impossible to put out to sea or make any +search round the coast. Words could hardly describe the +distress of Mr. Flight or of his ladies at not having better +looked after the young girl; Sister Beata for never having +thoroughly attended to the matter; and Sister Mena for having +accepted confidences which, if she had only guessed it, told her +more than there really was to be known. Both these two were +inclined to the elopement idea, partly because it was the least +shocking, and partly because they had looked at Vera’s +grievances through her own spectacles, and partly from their +unlimited notions of young men’s wickedness. Their +vicar was not of the same opinion, knowing Hubert better, and +besides having found his work, his orders to his subordinates, +and the belongings at the lodgings in a state that showed that +whatever he had done had been unpremeditated. Sending off +notes to stop the garden party was a sort of occupation, broken +by many signs, much listening, and much sorrowful discussion, not +quite vain, since it made Paulina more one with Magdalen than +ever before. Poor old Mr. Delrio arrived in the afternoon, +a thin, grey-haired and bearded old man, who could only make it +too certain that Paula’s theory of the innocent flight to +Filsted was impossible. Moreover, he was as certain as a +father could be, intimate with, and therefore confident of, his +eldest son, that though Hubert might indulge in a little lively +flirtation, it could never be otherwise than perfectly +harmless. In the terrible suspense and restlessness, he +went vibrating about in the torrents of moorland rain between +Rock Quay and the Goyle, on the watch for telegrams from the +office in London or his wife at home, or for the discovery of +anything from the sea, or searching in his son’s lodgings, +where nothing was found that did not show him to have been a +pure-hearted young man, devoted to his art, and fond of +poetry. Sundry compositions were in the blotting-book, one, +indeed, to Vera’s name, under the supposition (a wrong one) +<a name="citation100"></a><a href="#footnote100" +class="citation">[100]</a> that it meant “true,” but +mostly rough copies of a poem about the Saints Julitta and her +child Cyriac. Hope sank as another stormy day rose; and +still the poor old artist lingered in hopes of news by some +returning craft which might have picked up the derelict. +His chief comfort was in walking about between the showers with +Magdalen, as an old friend, and trying to think of the two as +innocent creatures, engulfed like mayflies in the stream.</p> +<p>Sister Mena came over, wanting to join Paula in bewailing +entreaties; but Paula, in youthful hard-hearted wilfulness, +declared that it was impossible to see her; and it fell to +Magdalen to try to discuss the grief with her.</p> +<p>It turned out that Mr. Flight had spoken severely to her and +to the far less implicated Sister Beata, declaring his confidence +in them destroyed, so that they had begun to consider of throwing +up their work in his parish. “And it was all my +fault,” said Mena; “Sister Beata really knew nothing, +or hardly anything of what Vera told me.”</p> +<p>“Indeed, I can quite understand that you had hardly +experience enough to know that it might be wiser not to encourage +what was not quite open.”</p> +<p>“But I thought,—I thought you—”</p> +<p>“That I was unkind and unsympathising.”</p> +<p>“Oh, you never could have been—”</p> +<p>“Indeed I never meant to be, but I am afraid it seemed +so to my young sisters. I can quite see how you thought you +were acting kindly.”</p> +<p>“Oh, that is so good of you.”</p> +<p>“And perhaps I, being only an elder sister, you would +not feel that I was the only authority the poor girls have to +look to; and that it would have been kinder to help them to be +content with me.”</p> +<p>“I did not know what you could be,” said Mena, +greatly soothed and surprised by her caresses.</p> +<p>“We often do go on in ignorance, and get on a wrong +tack; but you know God pardons our mistakes, and I do believe +that you will be wiser for all this sorrow, and better able to +rise to your work. I am sure, however it ends, that is the +reason that such blows are sent to us.”</p> +<p>Mena went back sorrowful and chastened, but tenderly +hopeful. If Miss Prescott could forgive, surely Mr. Flight +could, and One still greater.</p> +<h2><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +103</span>CHAPTER XI—ADRIFT</h2> +<blockquote><p>“She splashed, and she dashed, and she +turned herself round,<br /> +And heartily wished herself safe on the ground.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Jane +Taylor</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">And</span> where were the missing +pair?</p> +<p>Vera had lingered about, fancying she was helping to pack the +photographic apparatus, while the others dispersed. +Presently, seeing no one near, Hubert Delrio said, in a gentle +diffident voice, “It would be a great pleasure to me if I +might ask you to listen to the verses on St. Cyriac and his +mother that the design brought with it.”</p> +<p>“I should love it better than anything,” said +Vera, highly flattered.</p> +<p>“If you would come down this way, there is a charming +secluded cove, where we should be free from +interruption.”</p> +<p>“How deliciously romantic! Quite stunning!” +cried Vera, as her cavalier conducted her down a steep path along +the side of the cliff to the stony beach, where a few red rocks +had been manipulated into a tiny harbour, with a boathouse for +the little skiff in which Captain Henderson was wont to go round +to the marble works on the other side of the headland. The +boat looked very inviting as it lay swinging gently in the +sluggish waves in the advancing shade of the tall cliff; and Vera +exclaimed with delight as she was assisted into it, and placed +herself comfortably on the cushion, with one hand dabbling in the +cool translucent wave. Hubert Delrio opened his manuscript +and began to read his ballad, if so it was to be called, being +the history of the little boy of four years old, who, being taken +with his mother before the tribunal at Tarsus, was lifted on the +proprætor’s knee, but struggled, crying out, “I +am a Christian!” till the proprætor, in a rage, +hurled him down. His skull was fractured on the marble +pavement, and his mother gave thanks for his soul’s safety, +when she too was sentenced to be beheaded. Great pains had +been taken with the noble-minded tale; and the verses had +considerable merit, more, perhaps, than Vera could +appreciate. But to read such a production of his own, in +such surroundings, to the auditor whom youthful fancy most +preferred, was such luxury to both that it was no wonder that +under the broad shady hat with the lily wreath she was nodding in +the gentle breeze, the lapping of the waves, and the soft cadence +of the poetry, till at an effective passage on the mother’s +death, the poet looked up, expecting to receive a responsive +glance from those blue eyes.</p> +<p>Not only were they hidden, but the cliff was farther +off. The mooring rope and the stake were dragging behind in +the water. The tide had turned, and the boat was already +out of reach of the rock where it had been drawn up. His +exclamation of dismay awoke Vera, who would have started up with +a little shriek, but for his, “Don’t! +Don’t! I’ll row back.”</p> +<p>But he was a landsman, whose only knowledge of the water was +in an occasional bathe, or in a river steamer; and his first +attempt at placing the oars in the rowlocks resulted in one +falling overboard, while he helplessly grasped the other; and +Vera screamed again.</p> +<p>“Don’t be frightened, my dear! Dearest, +don’t! We must be seen. Some one will come out +and help us.”</p> +<p>“Can’t you get on with one oar? They do in +pictures.”</p> +<p>“Punting? Yes, but there must be a bottom. +No, don’t move, whatever you do. There can’t be +any danger. Fishermen must be about. Or we shall be +seen from the cliffs.”</p> +<p>“They are getting farther off! Can’t you +shout?”</p> +<p>Hubert shouted, and Vera added her shriller cries; but all in +vain, and the outgoing tide was carrying them, not towards the +quay and marble rocks, but farther to sea. The waves grew +rougher and had crests of foam, and discomfort began. Once +the feather of a steamer was seen on the horizon. They +waved handkerchiefs and redoubled their shouts, and Hubert had to +hold his companion to prevent her from leaping up; but they never +were within the vessel’s ken, and she went on her way, +while the sea bore them farther and farther.</p> +<p>The shore was growing dim and indistinct, the sun was sinking, +and the cloud, that had at first shown only a golden border, was +lifting tall perpendicular masses, while the tossing of the +little boat became more and more distressing. Anxiety and +sense of responsibility kept Hubert from feeling physical +discomfort; but Vera began to cry, and to declare that it would +be the death of her if she were not landed immediately.</p> +<p>“If it were only possible!” sighed Delrio.</p> +<p>“There must be some way! You are so stupid! +Oh! There was a flash of lightning.”</p> +<p>“Summer lightning.”</p> +<p>“No such thing! There will be a storm, and we +shall be drowned. Oh, I wish I had never listened to your +nonsense, and got into this horrible boat.” She was +in a state for scolding, and scold she did, as the clouds rose +higher, and sheets of lightning more decided. “How +could you? You, who know nothing about boats, and going on, +on, with those horrid tiresome verses—not minding +anything—I wish I had never come near you!”</p> +<p>Vainly the poor young fellow tried to get in a word of +consolation; it only made her scold the more, till there was no +question that the storm was raging overhead; the hail rattled and +splashed, the waves raised them to a height, then subsided into +endless depths; the thunder pealed, and she clung to Hubert, too +frightened for screaming. His fear was that the cockleshell +of a boat should fill and founder; he tried to bale out the water +with his hat, and to make her assist, but she seemed incapable, +and he could only devise laying her down in the bottom of the +boat with his coat over her, hiding her face in terror. Her +hat had long ago been blown away, and her hair was flapping +about. Ejaculations were in his heart, if not on his lips, +and once or twice she cried out something like, “Save +me!” but in general it was, “We are sinking! +Hold me! We are going! Paula! Nag!” +clutching at his legs, so as to hamper him in the baling out the +water.</p> +<p>The hail passed, but there was a solid sheet of rain +descending on them, undistinguishable from the foam that rushed +over them as they went down, down, down. Vera was silenced; +and Hubert, drenched and nearly beaten out of life, almost +welcomed every downward plunge as the last, tried to commend his +spirit, and was amazed to find his little boat lifted up again, +and the black darkness not so absolute.</p> +<h2><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>CHAPTER XII—“THE KITTIWAKE”</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Good luck to your fishing! Whom watch +ye to-night?<br /> +A man of mean, or a man of might?”—<span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Something</span> black was before the +tossed boat! Yes, and light, not lightning. A human +voice seemed to be on the blast. Hubert Delrio essayed to +shout, but his voice was gone, or was blown away. He +understood that a vessel must be above him. Would it finish +all by running him down? He perceived that he was bidden to +catch something. A rope! His benumbed hands and the +heaving of the boat made him fail once, twice, and he was being +swept away as at last he did grasp a rope, and was drawn, as it +ground his hands, close to the dark wall that rose above, with +lights visible.</p> +<p>“Cheer up! cheer up!” he cried to Vera. +“Thank God, we are saved!”</p> +<p>Response from her there was none; but he could hear the yell +of inquiry from ahead, and answered, “Here! +Two! A woman!”</p> +<p>A second rope was lowered. “Lash her to +it.” But as it was evident that Delrio could do +nothing but hold on, and that his companion was helpless, a +sailor descended from no great elevation, and, in another moment, +the senseless girl was hoisted up and received on deck; and, with +some assistance, Hubert was also on board, thinking of nothing +but the breathless question, “Is she safe?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! She will soon come round! +Here! They will see to her.” As she was carried +away, and Hubert had a perception that she was received by female +hands, but he was utterly exhausted, and unable to see or speak, +till some stimulant had been poured down his throat, and even +then he could hardly ask, “Is she safe?</p> +<p>“Yes, yes! All right! Reviving fast! +Here! Take some more! Bed is ready! Get rid of +those clothes!” It was an elderly, grey-haired man +who spoke, and Hubert was in no condition to resist, as the yacht +was pitching considerably, though after the boat the motion was +almost rest. He instinctively shook his head at the glass, +but swallowed what was forced upon him, and managed to say, +“Thanks—sitting in boat—drifted off—Rock +Quay.”</p> +<p>“All right! Never mind. Take him down. +My berth, Ivy—Jephson. Tuck him in. Don’t +let him speak! Never mind, my lad! We will hear all +about it to-morrow!”</p> +<p>Meantime, Vera, though reviving, was conscious of very little, +save a soft pillow, tender hands, and warm drink that choked her; +and then she fell asleep, though still she was aware of a strange +tossing going on all night, and by and by she found herself +secured into a sort of narrow shelf, and murmuring female voices +were at hand. As she moved, she heard, “There, you +are better now. You can take this, then you will be more +comfortable.”</p> +<p>Her eyes had opened to a curious sort of twilight, and there +was a fair girlish head over her, with a sweet smiling +face. An elderly weather-beaten face in a hood next +appeared, and a brown hand holding a cup closed over the top, in +invalid fashion, and a kind strong arm slightly raised her with, +“There, there, poor dear! The spirit, my lady dear, +the spirit! That’s right, now then.”</p> +<p>“You <i>must</i> be a baby;” and a merry +reassuring smile broke out as the draught was administered. +Vera tasted, thanked, swallowed, felt giddy, and lay down, +hearing a lively bit of self-gratulation. “There, +Mrs. Griggs, I’m getting my sea legs!” followed by an +ignominious stumble as Mrs. Griggs caught the cup in good time as +the vessel gave a lurch which completed Vera’s awakening in +the fear of being shaken out on the floor.</p> +<p>She looked round to find herself in a tiny room, cushioned +throughout, with strange dancing confused light coming in, and +the few articles of furniture carefully secured. Two young +figures were there, both dressed in stout blue serge, with white +trimmings; one, the darker, beside her bed, had a face full of +kindness and solicitude, yet of fun dimpling over continually; +the other, even in that dim light, striking Vera as something out +of the loveliest visions of romance, so fair and beautiful was +the countenance.</p> +<p>A man’s voice was at the door. “Fly! +Francie! How is she?”</p> +<p>“Much better! Nearly well! Good morning, +Papa dear. Is he all right?”</p> +<p>“As sound as a bell! Ha!” As the door +escaped, the curtain over it shook, and he nearly fell against +it, saving himself with his hands. “That was +exercise!” As the young girls came tumbling up and +disappeared behind the curtain, where, however, the voices could +be plainly heard, “Had any sleep to-night or this +morning?”</p> +<p>“Between whiles! O yes! All our bones are +still whole, as I hope yours and Ivy’s are.”</p> +<p>“Come and see. Griggs is getting breakfast under +difficulties insurmountable to any one but a +sea-grasshopper! I came to call you damsels, and present my +inquiries to Miss Prescott.”</p> +<p>“She will soon be all right! Francie and I are so +proud of having had a real downright adventure.”</p> +<p>“I trust she will not be the worse, and +will—excuse me, and regard me as incognito.”</p> +<p>This was said as another lurch drove the grizzled head into +the cabin; and recovering in another upheaval they all +disappeared, leaving Vera in a dreaming state, whence she was +only half roused when Mrs. Griggs returned to administer +breakfast, so far as she could taste it, under exhortations, +pettings, and scoldings; and she very soon fell asleep again, and +was thus left, sensible all the time of tossings and buffetings, +but so worn out by the five hours of the boat, and so liable to +be made ill by the motion of the vessel, that it was thought best +to leave her to sleep in her berth.</p> +<p>She was only aware of voices above talking and laughing, or +sailor calls being shouted out, or now and then of some one +coming to look at her, and insisting on her taking food.</p> +<p>It was not till late in the afternoon that she awoke from what +seemed like a strange long uneasy dream, and found one of the +girls sitting by her and telling her she was better now.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Vera, trying to raise herself, finding +something over her head, and falling back on the pillow; +“but what is it? Where is this?”</p> +<p>“<i>This</i> is somewhere out in the Channel, near off +Guernsey, Griggs says, but we cannot put in anywhere till the +gale goes down.”</p> +<p>“What is it? Is it a ship, then?”</p> +<p>“O yes,” said the girl, laughing; “a yacht, +the <i>Kittiwake</i>. Sir Robert Audley has lent it to my +brother, and we are all going to see the Hebrides and Staffa and +Iona.”</p> +<p>“Not to take me all up there?” groaned poor Vera, +in horror. “Can’t you put me out somewhere, +anywhere?”</p> +<p>“Don’t be afraid,” was the much-amused +reply. “As soon as ever we can put in anywhere, we +can telegraph to Rock Quay and put you ashore to go home; but we +can only run before the wind while the sea is so high. I +wish you could come on deck, it is so jolly!”</p> +<p>“Oh! it was too dreadful!”</p> +<p>“Beating about in the boat! It must have been, Mr. +Delrio told us.”</p> +<p>“It was so stupid in him never to see that we had got +loose, and were drifting off,” said Vera, who had never +thought of inquiring after him.</p> +<p>“My father and Griggs think he behaved quite like a +hero,” was the answer. “He must have managed +very well to keep you afloat, and saved you all this +time.”</p> +<p>“I suppose so,” said Vera. “We always +did know him, or I should not have let him get me into that boat, +when he minded nothing but his verses.”</p> +<p>“Those verses, they came all limp and wet out of his +pocket, and Francie made him let her dry them and copy them out; +and she is so delighted with them. It really is well it is +too late to call the baby Cyriac.”</p> +<p>“The baby?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes. We had to leave him behind, though +Francie was ready to break her heart over it; but they said that +nothing would do for Ivinghoe—after this second +influenza—but a sea voyage, so she had to make up her mind +to leave him to my mother.”</p> +<p>Vera was in a state of bewilderment, caring a great deal more +for herself and her own sensations than for any of her +surroundings; and her next question was, “When do you think +we shall be out of this?”</p> +<p>“We shall put into harbour somewhere as soon as the wind +lulls. We cannot venture yet, though we do steam; and then +we can telegraph. I am longing to relieve Miss +Prescott. We can take you home all the way. We were +on our way into Rock Quay to take up Mysie Merrifield if she can +go. It really was a wonderful and most merciful thing that +we made you out just as it was getting light before running you +down. My father saw you first, and old Griggs would hardly +believe it, but then we heard Mr. Delrio’s hail! But +it was a terrible business getting you up the ship’s +side.”</p> +<p>“I did not know anything about it. It was so +dreadful in the lightning. And my new hat was blown +away. And what is become of all my clothes?”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Griggs has them, and is drying them. We will +lend you a hat to land in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, when we do! I wish I had never got into that +boat, but Hubert Delrio did persuade me so.”</p> +<p>“And he is an old friend?”</p> +<p>“Yes, he is come to paint the roof of St. Kenelm’s +Church, and we want to be attentive to him because my eldest +sister would be sure to be cross and keep him at a distance, +being only that sort of wall painter, you know, and his father a +drawing master.”</p> +<p>“My father is very much pleased with him, and thinks him +a very superior young man. They have been sitting on deck +together, talking as much as they could about architecture and +Italy, with their breath all blown away every moment. +There! You are really getting better! If you would +eat something and come on deck you would be well! I will +call the sea gnat, and see what we have.”</p> +<p>It was all very wonderful to Vera; and she began to be +interested and to forget her troubles. A slice of very salt +ham was brought to her and a glass of something, she did not know +what, and asked if she could have some tea.</p> +<p>“You could have tea if you like, but there’s no +milk. You see, we ought to have been in at Rock Quay +yesterday evening, and our stores were not adapted to hold out +any longer! We shall have another curious experience, +though Mrs. Griggs says it won’t be so bad as once when +they were off the coast of Ireland, and when they put into a bay +with a queer name, all Kill and Bally, they could get nothing but +potatoes and goat’s milk.”</p> +<p>“Who is Mrs. Griggs?”</p> +<p>“She is wife to the sailing master; and, like the +Norsemen, her home is on the wave, at least in the yacht, for she +always lives in it, and her cabin is quite a sight; she is great +fun, she cooks when there is anything to cook, and is stewardess +and everything. Francie and I knew a maid would be a vain +encumbrance, so we are taking care of ourselves, and, if you will +let me, I will try and set your hair to rights.”</p> +<p>It was in a fearful tangle, after five hours at sea, and many +more in the berth in the cabin; but Vera was able to sit up in a +dainty dressing-gown, and submit to treatment not quite that of a +hairdresser, but made as lively as could be by little jokes and +kindly apologies at any extra hard pull at the knots, which +really seemed “as if a witch had twined them;” and +the two began to feel well acquainted with each other over the +operation, though Vera was somewhat impressed when she observed +that the brush was ivory handled.</p> +<p>Her bicycling skirt was in tolerable condition, but her once +delicate blue blouse was past renovation, so she was invested +with a borrowed white one, and led in triumph to the saloon, just +as the beautiful “Francie” came to call +“Phyllis,” and give a helping hand. There were +two gentlemen besides Hubert Delrio, and there was a general +rejoicing welcome; but Vera did not think Hubert made half enough +inquiries or apologies, before she was seated at the table, where +everything was secured, and the fare was not very sumptuous or +various, being chiefly some concoction of rice and scraps of salt +beef, which Francie said was a shame, eating up the poor +sailors’ fare; also there was potted meat, and cheese, but +all the fresh bread was gone, and they praised Mrs. Griggs’ +construction of ham and rice with all the warmth and drollery +each could contribute. Vera began to be puzzled as to who +every one was, for no names except Phyl, Fly, Francie and Ivy +were heard, and the merry grey-haired head of the family was +“Father” or “Papa” to every one, except +of course Mr. Delrio, who, however, seemed at his ease, and took +a fair share in the talk, and once or twice Vera thought he said, +“my lord,” but she did not believe it.</p> +<p>“I find you are a friend of a special pet of mine, Mysie +Merrifield,” said the father.</p> +<p>“I know her a little,” stammered Vera, “but +Primrose best.”</p> +<p>“Nearer your age, eh? But Mysie is our gem! +It looks fit for going on deck.”</p> +<p>After the apology for a dinner, the young married pair went +their way, he to endeavour to add a fish to their provisions, she +to look on; the father and Delrio went where the latter could +best study the wonderful tints of sunset over the purple +retreating clouds, and the still agitated foaming +sea,—sights that seemed to be filling him with enchantment, +and revealing effects in colour, while his delight was evidently +a new pleasure to his companion.</p> +<p>Vera was afraid to move, and sat on a deck chair, with her +back to the sunset, while Phyllis, who perhaps would have liked +to share in the admiration, sat by her, so that Vera began to +accept her as a special friend, and to pour out the explanation +of how she came to be tossing in an open boat with this one +companion.</p> +<p>“You see, poor fellow,” she said, simpering, +“he has been always so devoted to me. Everybody +observed it, and I could not help just gratifying him a +little.”</p> +<p>“He does seem to be very full of promise,” said +Phyllis. “I suppose Miss Prescott is much pleased +with him.”</p> +<p>“My sister Magdalen, do you mean? Well, we have +not introduced him to her yet. You see, he is <i>only</i> +painting the church, and she is so devoted to swells, and makes +such a fuss about our manners.”</p> +<p>“Indeed! But surely you could not go out with him +without her knowing it.”</p> +<p>“She was not at this St. Milburgha’s Guild, you +know, and Sisters Beata and Mena knew all about it. Oh, +yes, she lets us go to them at St. Kenelm’s, but they are +not swells enough for her.”</p> +<p>“Mr. Flight’s Sisterhood, are not they?”</p> +<p>“And Primrose Merrifield says that Wilfred declares that +they are not ladies; but that’s all jealousy, you know, +because Will doesn’t like my friends, and Magdalen is +altogether gone upon grandees.”</p> +<p>“Fancy!” was all that Phyllis managed to say.</p> +<p>“She doesn’t want us to be friends with anybody +who don’t belong to some one with a handle to her +name. So foolish and stuck up! So we knew she would +not be kind to Hubert.”</p> +<p>“I think you had better have tried. I thought her +one of the kindest people in the world.”</p> +<p>“Ah! but, you know, unfortunately she has been a +governess, and that teaches toadying.”</p> +<p>At that moment “Phyl” was called to see the first +star over the sea, and ran up to her father, so as to conceal how +nearly she was laughing. Hubert Delrio came towards +Vera.</p> +<p>“Can you forgive me, Vera?” he said. +“I shall speak to your sister as soon as I am at home, and +ask her forgiveness, and—”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! yes! But do tell me who these people +are.”</p> +<p>“Did you not know? That most kind of men, is Lord +Rotherwood. Those are Lord and Lady Ivinghoe, +and—”</p> +<p>“Lady Phyllis! Oh!”</p> +<h2><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +119</span>CHAPTER XIII—CHIMERAS DIRE</h2> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: +center">“Qu’allait-il faire dans cette +galère?”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">French +Comedy</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Vera’s</span> first thorough +awakening the next morning was to hear outside the door, +“Are you up, Fly?”</p> +<p>“I shall be in a minute or two. Do you want +me?”</p> +<p>“You are a dab at <i>parlez-vous</i>. I want you +to come ashore with me and cater for the starving +crew.”</p> +<p>“What fun! Anon, anon, Sir!”</p> +<p>Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady +Phyllis’ cabin, and that the proper owner was dressing +herself in haste before the little shelf of a toilette +table. So great had been the confusion of last +night’s discovery that the poor silly child had only +thought of hurrying out of sight and tumbling into bed without +speaking to any one, and she had not distinctly known, when Lady +Phyllis came down a good deal later and disposed of herself on +the sofa, that Mrs. Griggs had made ready for her. And now +the only thing she could think of was to say, “Oh! +Lady Phyllis, I didn’t know.”</p> +<p>“Take care! Don’t knock your head! We +ought to have remembered that Boreas, or whichever it was, was +hardly a sufficient introduction. Are you all right +now? You had better go to sleep again till I bring +something to eat. We are lying to off some little Breton +fishing village, and I am going with my brother to get some +provisions, and telegraph if we can.”</p> +<p>It was long before they came back. Vera had another nap, +dressed herself, grew very hungry, and came out to find Lord +Rotherwood fishing, and his daughter-in-law watching for the boat +to put out from the white houses with grey roofs, which, +clustered round their church-tower, seemed descending to the +water’s edge. They were equally famished, though Mrs. +Griggs stewed up the poor remnants of last night’s banquet; +but at last the little boat appeared, gaily dancing over the +waves, and Phyllis making signals of success.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, you may be thankful, you poor starving +beings! Here, Mrs. Griggs! Accept, and do all you +can! Here are eggs, and some milk and fresh water, four +<i>poulets</i>, such as they are, and a huge monster of a crab; +but all the bread is leavened, and you little guess what Ivy and +I had to go through before we were allowed to buy anything. +We were had up to the Mayor, and had to <i>constater</i> all +manner of things about our ship, to prove that we were no +smugglers.”</p> +<p>“I thought the fat old rogue would have come out to +visit the yacht before he would have allowed us a morsel,” +said Lord Ivinghoe.</p> +<p>“In which case you might have been found a skeleton, +father, like Sir Hugh Willoughby! And as to our telegrams, +they won’t go till the diligence gets to St. Malo, and what +they will make of them there is another question. I did not +dare to send more than one, for fear they should get mixed +up.”</p> +<p>Vera heard the joyous chaff as it fluttered round her, not +half understanding it any more than if it had been a strange +tongue, and not always guessing the cause of the fits of +laughter, chiefly at Lord Ivinghoe’s misadventures, over +which his little sister and his father were well pleased to tease +his correctness, and his young wife looked a little hurt at his +being tormented. He could not remember that +<i>braconnier</i> was a poacher by land, not by sea, and very +unnecessarily disclaimed to the Maire being such a thing. +His father, he said, “was <i>gentilhomme anglais +en</i>—what’s a yacht?—<i>yac</i>. +(Nonsense! that’s a long-haired ox. No!) <i>Non +point contrabandiste</i>, <i>mais galérien dans +galère</i>.” “And there I +interposed,” said Phyllis, “for fear we should be +boarded as escaped <i>galériens</i>.”</p> +<p>“Why, galley was a pleasure-boat sometimes,” said +Ivinghoe, and his wife supported him with +“Cleopatra’s galley.”</p> +<p>“Well done, Francie! To your oars for Ivy’s +defence,” said Lord Rotherwood. “How did you +defend us, Fly, from being towed into harbour at Brest as runaway +convicts?”</p> +<p>“She gabbled away most eloquently to the Maire, almost +as fluently as a born French-woman,” said Ivinghoe, +“and persuaded him at last that it was not necessary to +come on board to inspect us, nor even to detain us till he had +sent for instructions to St. Malo.”</p> +<p>“As Ivy managed matters, I thought we might be kept as +hostages,” said Phyllis.</p> +<p>“But, thanks to her blandishments, the solemn official +vouchsafed to send off a messenger for us with a +telegram.”</p> +<p>“I do not think he sent directions to pursue our +suspicious <i>galère</i>,” added Phyllis; “but +I own I shall be glad to be under the lee of old England +again.”</p> +<p>“What was your telegram?”</p> +<p>“Brevity was safest, nor had we money enough for two; so +all I attempted was, ‘Delrio to Flight, Rock Quay. +Both safe. Picked up by <i>Kittiwake</i>.’ I +thought that would be the quickest means of relieving anxiety, as +we were not sure of other addresses; and as to +‘home,’ Mamma probably hardly was aware of the storm, +or, if she were, she knew the capabilities of yachts and of +Griggs.”</p> +<p>“Right!” returned his father. “Poor +Miss Prescott! she must have given you up for lost. Have +you been improving your mind with French telegrams?” he +added, turning to Delrio.</p> +<p>“No, my lord, I found my way to the church, a wonderful +piece of old Norman!—if it may so be called.”</p> +<p>“I see you have been sketching.”</p> +<p>Griggs here interposed with tidings that eggs and coffee were +ready in the saloon, the worthy pair having had respect to the +general famine, and prepared what could be made ready in +haste. Those who had eaten ashore sat by, making an amusing +account of their reception, and difficulties with language and +peasants, for, this not being an ordinary place of call, nothing +was ready for sale.</p> +<p>Vera, finding herself for the first time in distinguished +company, which desired to set her at ease, began to be at ease, +and to desire to shine, so she giggled whenever she perceived the +slightest excuse, even when Lord Ivinghoe handed her the eggs, +and, hoped she had not too British an appetite for French eggs; +and Lady Ivinghoe asked if she had seen the fowls, and whether +their feathers were ruffled up like a hen’s that had been +given to Aunt Cherry. Her little sister Joan, she added, +had asked whether eating the eggs would make her hair curl.</p> +<p>“Or stand on end,” said Phyllis.</p> +<p>“As I am afraid Miss Prescott’s is doing till your +telegram reaches her. Did you say it was to go from St. +Malo?”</p> +<p>“Yes. I thought that the safest place to have a +comprehensible message copied.”</p> +<p>“To whom did you say?” asked Lady Ivinghoe.</p> +<p>“‘Delrio to Flight.’ Oh, they will +know his name and address fast enough when it gets to Rock +Quay.”</p> +<p>“He is the clergyman at St. Kenelm’s,” put +in Vera, in explanation; “very very advanced Ritualist, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Indeed!” was the answer.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, that he is. My sister Polly is perfectly +devoted to him; but we don’t go to his church, except now +and then, because my eldest sister is just one of those very +old-fashioned people, you know, who want everything horrid and +dull.”</p> +<p>“That is hardly what our cousins think of Miss +Prescott,” said Phyllis. “I am so sorry for her +anxiety! But I was not sure of the name of her +place.”</p> +<p>“The Goyle! Isn’t it frightful?” said +Vera.</p> +<p>“You say she was unprepared for your +adventure?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, quite. Her notions are so dreadfully +proper and old fashioned. She hasn’t got any +sympathy, has she, Hubert?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” he said gravely. +“I have always had the greatest respect for her.”</p> +<p>“Respect! So you ought. That’s just +the thing one has for a slow dear old fogey,” she said, +laughing, “Oh, Hubert!” There was a silence, +and Lord Rotherwood made an observation upon the wind.</p> +<p>Vera perceived an awkwardness, and, by way of repairing it, +afterwards thought it expedient to communicate to Lady Phyllis +that it might be a pity she had said “Hubert.” +It was so awkward, only he was such an old acquaintance.</p> +<p>“I should have thought the awkwardness was incurred long +ago,” said Lady Phyllis. “Come, you will have +no more concealments from Miss Prescott, will you? You will +be ever so much more comfortable, and find out how kind she +is.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but!—” Vera wanted to talk over all her +grievances for the pleasure of talking, saying very much what she +had said before, and Phyllis tried to endure and put in as much +sense as she could, without lecturing the girl, who struck her as +the very silliest she had ever encountered; but she was +continually called off to admire the receding French coast, or to +look at the creatures brought up by dredging. She always +took care to call Vera, and not let her feel herself left out; +but Vera, if in solitude for a moment, reflected on the neglect +shown of little people by great ones; and when called up to see +uncanny slimy creatures, or even transparent balls like watery +umbrellas, only was disgusted and horrified.</p> +<p>She began to guess, rather truly, that Lady Phyllis wanted to +hinder a <i>tête-à-tête</i> between her and +Hubert Delrio. In fact, Lord Rotherwood, who was much more +of a sympathetic, confidence-inviting personage than his stiffer, +much older seeming son, had said to his daughter, +“Don’t let that poor lad and the girl get together +alone, Fly; the boy thinks he is bound to make her an +offer.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father! Surely not!”</p> +<p>“No more than if they had been two babies in a walnut +shell. So I told him, but people don’t see what +infants they are themselves, and I want to hinder him from +putting his foot in it before he has seen her +aunt—cousin—sister, or whoever it is that has the +charge of her; and she has depicted to him a Gorgon, with +Medusa’s hair, claws and all—a fancy sketch, +isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Of course, sentimental schoolgirl colours! Mysie +thinks her delightful.”</p> +<p>“At any rate, let him get a dose of common sense before +committing himself. He is a capital fellow, sure to rise; +has the soul and head and hands for it, but he ought not to +weight himself with a drag.”</p> +<p>“Do you think he is really in love with her?”</p> +<p>Lord Rotherwood waved his hands. “He thinks so, +but nobody knows with those boys! I had to tell him at last +that I would not have any philandering on board <i>my</i> ship; +and whatever he might think it his duty to say, must be put off +for aunt—sister—Gorgon—Medusa or what +not. And I don’t think he’s very bad, Fly, for +he modestly asked permission to sketch Francie’s head for +St. Mildred, or Milburg, or somebody; and was ready to run crazy +about the tints on that dogfish. The young fellow is in the +queerest state between the artist and the lover! delight and +shame! I should like to take him north with us; the colours +of the cliffs in the Isles would soon drive out Miss +Victoria—what’s her name?”</p> +<p>“You don’t think him like Stephen in the <i>Mill +on the Floss</i>, who ought to have married Maggie +Tulliver.”</p> +<p>“I believe that is his precedent—but it is sheer +stuff—pure accident—as a respectable old householder +like me is ready to testify to the Gorgons and Chimeras +dire—Grundys and all. We must encounter Rock Quay, +Fly, if it is only to rescue this unlucky youth.”</p> +<p>“What is he doing now? Oh, I see; drawing Francie, +who sits as stiff as a Saint of Burne-Jones! Well, +I’ll have an eye to them! Vera! Have you +finished <i>Rudder Grange</i>?”</p> +<p>“Not quite. I can’t make out who Lord Edward +was.”</p> +<p>“Why, the big dog! Did you think he was +Pomona’s hero?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know. Wasn’t Pomona very +silly?”</p> +<p>“If life was to be taken from story-books,” said +Phyllis, in a very didactic mood; “but you see she imbibed +the best side, what they really taught her of good.”</p> +<p>“I thought, when you gave me the book, it was to be an +adventure like mine, not all standing still in an old +river. What do you think Hubert Delrio ought to do after +persuading me into such an awful predicament?”</p> +<p>“Tell your sister he is very sorry that you two foolish +children got into such a scrape, and very thankful that you were +saved.”</p> +<p>“We are very thankful to Lord Rotherwood.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t mean to him. To some One +else,” said Phyllis, reverently.</p> +<p>“Oh, of course,” said Vera. “But what +<i>do</i> you think, Lady Phyllis?” (Since her +discovery of the title she made a liberal use of it.) +“What do you think people will say?”</p> +<p>“That a little girl has had a dangerous adventure and a +happy escape.”</p> +<p>“I am seventeen, Lady Phyllis!”</p> +<p>“One is nothing like grown up at seventeen! I +declare there’s a big steamer coming into sight. I +wonder if it belongs to the Channel Fleet!”</p> +<p>Nothing more sentimental could be extracted for the rest of +the voyage.</p> +<h2><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>CHAPTER XIV—PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED</h2> +<blockquote><p>“I marry without more ado,<br /> +My dear Dick Red Cap, what say you?”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Cowper</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> telegram had been received +about mid-day; and Mr. Flight rushed up with it to the Goyle, +just in time to prevent poor old Mr. Delrio from starting +hopelessly home. It had suffered a good deal in spelling +and precision, in spite of Lady Phyllis’s precautions; but +“both safe” was understood, as it was known in Rock +Quay that “Lord Rotherwood and family,” as the papers +had it, were yachting in the <i>Kittiwake</i> and might be +expected in the bay.</p> +<p>Agatha and Paula threw their arms round one another and cried; +Magdalen, with a choke in her voice, struggled to ask Mr. Flight +to lead them in a few words of thanksgiving; and as soon as these +were over, Thekla expressed her hopes that they had been cast on +a desert island and would bring home Man Friday.</p> +<p>The Goyle ladies walked over to Clipstone with the good news, +and the whole party went down afterwards to Rockstone to look out +for yachts, and inquire about possibilities. The +<i>Kittiwake</i> being a steamer, light and swift, might be +expected in harbour in the course of the night, and Mr. Delrio +meant to wait for her at his son’s lodgings. The +ladies wished they could do the same; and Paula was allowed to +accept Sister Beata’s humble entreaty to house her. +But they did not know how long before the telegraph from St. Malo +the <i>Kittiwake</i> from St. Cadoc had spread her wings and +hoisted her feather, for, happily, her coals had held out better +than her provisions. So, as they were looking their last +look from the cliffs of Beechcroft Miss Mohun exclaimed, “A +steamer! a yacht! <i>Kittiwake</i>!”</p> +<p>Glasses were rushed for, and unaccustomed eyes could trace the +graceful course through the gentle evening waves towards the +quay.</p> +<p>Every one was on the quay in time to receive the boat, which, +rowed by four smart sailors, was seen with the party of six, two +sailor hats, and one red cap being at once spied out among the +female figures. Then two hats were waved and answered by +cheers of welcome; and the figures were recognised, and +unnecessarily numerous hands stretched out to assist the landing +from the plank extended to the boat.</p> +<p>Vera was put first by her kind rescuers, Lord +Rotherwood’s hand guiding her to the rail, and, after an +insecure step or so, she found herself in the arms of Paulina, +sobbing for joy; and the little cluster of sisters seemed to know +nothing else, except Thekla, who presently, in the confusion of +the greetings, was found by Lord Rotherwood looking about +vaguely, and saying, “But where’s their man +Friday?”</p> +<p>“You must accept me for him,” said he. +“’Tis Friday, unless we have lost our +reckoning! I hope you think me something promising in the +way of savages!”</p> +<p>Young Delrio’s first proceeding, even while his father +was wringing his hand in speechless welcome and thankfulness, was +to turn to Captain Henderson. “Sir, your boat is +safe, it will be brought in to-morrow. I am much concerned, +and beg your forgiveness, but I had no idea that it was yours +till Griggs found your name. Only one oar is lost, and a +cushion, which I will replace.”</p> +<p>“Say no more, pray,” said Captain Henderson. +“The fault was my servant’s, who took it without +leave, and left it out. He must repair the very slight +damage.”</p> +<p>Miss Mohun wanted the whole troop to come up to Beechcroft to +drink tea, and her relations consented; but the hearts of the +Prescotts were a great deal too full for them not to wish to be +alone together; and after Magdalen had given her hand to Lord +Rotherwood with a fervent, “You know what I would say, my +lord—beyond all words,” they turned homewards; but +Mr. Flight ran after them to say in a low voice, “Can we +meet to-morrow at eight for a service of +thanksgiving?” And this was gladly accepted.</p> +<p>Hubert was dragged off by his father.</p> +<p>“Nonsense! they don’t want your apologies and +explanations. It would only be besetting them. Come +home with me, and don’t be a fool! But write a few +lines to your poor mother, after the intolerable fright you have +given her; meddling and presuming where you had no +business. A Providence it is that you are not half across +the Atlantic, if not at the bottom of it.”</p> +<p>Of course this was the reaction of great anxiety; but however +meekly Hubert submitted to the queer outpouring of affection, and +however thankful they both were, and glad and content over the +particulars of the youth’s work and progress, still he was +not to be withheld from laying hand and heart at Vera +Prescott’s feet, as he insisted was due to her and her +family after the compromising situation in which he had placed +her. His father said it was talking novels and folly; but +he was a man of three and twenty, and could not well be stopped, +as he was earning his own livelihood, and had always been +irreproachable. So Mr. Delrio had to leave the matter, only +expressing discouragement, and insisting that it must be no more +than an engagement.</p> +<p>The thanksgiving took place as arranged, and Lord Rotherwood, +his daughter, and Mysie were there. For indeed there had +been danger enough during the thunderstorm to make the safety of +the <i>Kittiwake</i> a matter of thankfulness, though the rescue +of the boat had caused it to be almost forgotten in the history +of the night.</p> +<p>Lady Flight had begged that all would come to breakfast with +her, and this was accepted by the Goyle party; but the Clipstone +pony-carriage was waiting for the others, and they could not +accede to Lady Flight’s impromptu, and rather nervous, +invitation. But before they started Lord Rotherwood managed +to say a few words aside to Miss Prescott of the impression he +had divined from his voyage with Hubert Delrio, whom he thought a +young man of great ability and promise, and of excellent +principles, but with a chivalry it was quite refreshing to see in +youth, perhaps ready to strain honourable scruples almost too far +for his own good or that of others.</p> +<p>Magdalen thought she perceived what had been in the +marquis’s mind when, immediately after her return home, +Hubert and Vera came up, hand in hand, and he informed her of +their mutual attachment.</p> +<p>“I am afraid, Miss Prescott,” he said, “that +we may not have acted rightly or squarely by you; and this last +adventure was a most unhappy result of my careless awkwardness +and preoccupation.”</p> +<p>“It was the merest accident. We all quite +understand. It is not to be thought of.”</p> +<p>“You are very good to say so, but—”</p> +<p>Both he and Magdalen wished that Vera had not been present, +blushing and smiling, or rather simpering; and as Hubert +hesitated over his “but,” Magdalen said:</p> +<p>“Vera, my dear, Hubert and I can talk over this better +without you. You had better go and find Paula.”</p> +<p>“Only, sister, please do understand that I care for +Hubert with all my heart,” said Vera, much less childishly +than Magdalen had expected.</p> +<p>However, she went, while Magdalen succeeded in saying what she +had intended—that Hubert must not consider himself in the +smallest degree bound by what had been accident, entirely +unintentional and innocent.</p> +<p>“You are generous, Miss Prescott. You +understand! But the world! It was public.”</p> +<p>“Never mind the world. You see what sensible +people think.”</p> +<p>“But, indeed, Miss Prescott, I cannot leave you to +suppose I am only actuated by the fact of that awkward +situation. Of course that would never have been if I did +not deeply, entirely love your sister. It has only +precipitated matters. I entreat of you to give her to me, +as one who is—who is devoted to her! If my station is +inferior I will work—”</p> +<p>“That is not the point. Vera is too young for such +things. What does your father say?”</p> +<p>“My father sees that I am right.”</p> +<p>“I see what that means,” said Magdalen, +smiling. “But where is he? I should like to +talk to him.”</p> +<p>Mr. Delrio, pretty well knowing what was going on, was found +endeavouring to distract his mind by sketching the Goyle. +He and Magdalen walked up and down the drive together, perfectly +agreeing that it would be senseless cruelty to permit an early +marriage between these two young people, and that it was a pity +there should be an engagement; but this could hardly be +prevented, since Mr. Delrio could only give advice, and leave a +self-supporting worthy son to judge for himself; but the elder +sister and the trustee could stipulate for delay till Vera should +be of age.</p> +<p>So Hubert was called, and acquiesced, cheerfully observing +that he trusted that four years would make him able to render +Vera’s life an easy and pleasant one; and after heartily +thanking both Miss Prescott and his father, he went off to +rejoice the heart of the maiden, who was sitting under the +pear-tree, watching with anxious eyes.</p> +<h2><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +135</span>CHAPTER XV—BROODS ASTRAY</h2> +<blockquote><p>“But ill for him who, bettering not with +time,<br /> +Corrupts the strength of Heaven-descended will,<br /> +And ever weaker grows through acted crime,<br /> +Or seeming genial venial fault.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Tennyson</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Man</span> Friday hope piccaniny +live well—bring her buckra fish from sea!” Such +was the greeting from Lord Rotherwood to Thekla when the whole +party walked over in time for tea on the lawn, before church at +Clipstone, as he presented her with a facsimile oyster which he +had hunted up in a sweet shop, making an absurd bow and +scrape.</p> +<p>Poor Thekla coloured, and mumbled a shy, “Thank you, +my—my—” having had a lecture from Vera on +treating a marquis with over familiarity and it was left to +Primrose to ask where Friday learnt nigger language. +“By nature, Missy buckra,” he responded; “all +same nigger everywhere.” And he repeated his bow so +drolly that Primrose’s laugh carried Thekla’s along +with it, as Lady Phyllis walked up with, “Come, father, you +are wanted to congratulate.”</p> +<p>“Eh! Am I? So they have perpetrated it, have +they? More’s the pity is what I should say in the +Palace of Truth; but the maiden has landed a better fish than she +knows—that is, if she have landed him.”</p> +<p>“There! take care, don’t be tiresome, Papa!” +admonished Lady Phyllis, drawing him on, when he met Vera with a +courtly manner, and, “I hope I see you recovered, Miss +Prescott, and able to rejoice in the pleasant consequences of +your adventure.”</p> +<p>Vera blushed, and looked very pretty and modest, making not +much answer as she retreated among her contemporaries to show +them her ring, a hoop of pearls, which Wilfred insisted were +Roman pearls, fishes’ eyes, most appropriate; but Flapsy +felt immeasurably older than Wilfred to-day, and able to despise +his teasing, though Hubert Delrio was not present, and indeed +Wilfred was not disposed to bestow much of his attention upon +her, having much more inclination to beset his cousin, Lady +Phyllis, who surely ought to perceive that he had attained at +least the same height as his brother Jasper, and could, in his +absence, pose as the young man of the household.</p> +<p>Phyllis had not much to say to him, nor after the first to +Vera, though she duly admired the ring so exultantly shown, and +accepted the assurance that Hubert was the dearest fellow in the +world. But there was no getting any condolence out of her +upon the misery of having to wait four whole years. She +said, “It was a very good thing! There was her cousin +Gillian, who had insisted on waiting three years to finish her +education.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but dear Hubert likes me as I am,” simpered +Vera.</p> +<p>“You might wish that he should find more in you to +like. Gillian,” said Phyllis, coming up to her and +Agatha, “I want you to assure Vera that four years is not +such a great trial in waiting.”</p> +<p>“It is what I have been trying to persuade her,” +said Agatha; “she is hardly seventeen.”</p> +<p>“And I would not have been married at seventeen for +anything,” said Gillian to the pouting Vera. “I +want to be more worth having.”</p> +<p>Vera did not like it, she had heard the like at home, and she +fell back upon Valetta, while the others walked on. +“Poor little Flapsy!” said Agatha, “I do hope +this engagement may make more of a woman of her.”</p> +<p>“My father was very much struck by Mr. Delrio,” +said Phyllis, “both as artist and personally.”</p> +<p>“You must be glad of the time for putting her up to his +level,” said Gillian.</p> +<p>“Do you think such things are to be done?” asked +Agatha.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Phyllis stoutly. “You may +not make her able to be a Senior Wrangler—(Oh you are +Oxford!)—or capable of it, like this Gillyflower; but you +can get the stuff into her that makes a sound sensible +wife.”</p> +<p>Gillian caught a little hopeless sigh of +“<i>can</i>,” and answered it with, “When all +this effervescence is blown off, then will be the time for +working at the substance, and she may be all the better +wife—especially for the artist temperament, if she is of +the homely sort.”</p> +<p>“How angry she would be if she heard you say so!” +returned Agatha. “Yet certainly I do feel relieved +that wifehood is to be my poor Flapsy’s portion, for she is +not of the sort that can stand alone and make her own +way.”</p> +<p>“There will always be plenty of such women in the +world,” said Gillian.</p> +<p>“So much the better for the world,” retorted +Phyllis, who had never shown any symptoms of exclusive devotion +to any one of the other sex, except her father.</p> +<p>One thing Agatha wanted to know, and dared not ask, namely, +what impression Vera had made in the <i>Kittiwake</i> and what +Hubert had said about her; for she and Paula had begun to remark +that, lover as he was, not a word about her heroism had escaped +him. And it was as well that she did not hear what the +extra plain spoken Primrose did not spare the boasting +Thekla. “Cousin Rotherwood and Fly both say they +can’t think how Mr. Delrio got on with such a silly little +hysterical goose upon his hands; and that it is a foolish +romantic unlucky notion that he ought to be engaged to her. +I think Mamma will tell Miss Prescott so.”</p> +<p>The <i>Kittiwake</i>, having arrived three days later than had +been expected, there had been an amount of revolution in the +general arrangements. The break up of the High School was +to be on an early day of the next week. It had become a +much more extensive and public matter than in the days of Valetta +and Maura, though these were not so very long ago, and there was +a great day of exhibitions and speeches to the parents and +neighbourhood generally. Two ladies had been secured for +the purpose, Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret, and the +former arrived on the Saturday afternoon, but as the Rotherwood +party almost overflowed Clipstone, she was transferred to Miss +Mohun.</p> +<p>After the death of their parents, about three years +previously, Susan and Elizabeth had gone to live at Coalham, and +to be useful to their brother David’s parish; Susan +betaking herself to the poor, and Bessie finding herself +specially available in the various forms of improvement +undertaken by ladies in modern days. To her own surprise, +and her sister’s discomfiture, her talent as a public +speaker had become developed. With a little assistance from +her sister-in-law Agnes’s unwilling stage experience, and +entreaties, not easily to be withstood, came from various +quarters that she would come and advocate the good cause.</p> +<p>Of course she was ever welcome at Clipstone, and she walked up +thither with General Mohun, arriving just after the others from +the Goyle; and in the general confusion of greetings, and the +Babel of cousinly tongues, there were no introductions nor naming +of names. Bessie declared herself delighted with the chance +of seeing Lady Ivinghoe, whom she considered more to realise the +beauty of women than any one she had hitherto beheld, and the +fair face had not lost its simplicity, but rather gained in +loveliness by the sweetness of early motherhood, as she and +Phyllis sat by Mysie, regaling her with tales of what they +regarded as the remarkable precocity of the infant Claude, +reluctantly left to his grandmother.</p> +<p>“But where’s Dolores?” asked Bessie. +“I miss her among the swarm of mice!”</p> +<p>“Dolores is at Vale Leston,” answered +Gillian. “She has been a long time making up her mind +to go there, to Gerald’s home; and now she is there, they +will not let her go till some birthday is over.”</p> +<p>“Uncle Felix’s!” whispered Franceska to +Mysie. “You know it was dear Gerald’s +place. She had never seen it.”</p> +<p>Another voice was now raised, asking, “What had become +of Miss Arthuret?”</p> +<p>“She only comes down on Monday,” said +Bessie. “Just in time for the meeting. She is +too valuable to come for more than one meeting.”</p> +<p>“But who is she?”</p> +<p>“Arthurine Arthuret? She is a girl, or rather +woman, who has some property at Stokesley. In fact, she is +one of those magnets that seem to attract inheritance without +effort—like the Hapsburgs, though happily she makes a most +beneficent, though, sometimes, original use of them.”</p> +<p>“Is not that very dangerous?” said Aunt Lily.</p> +<p>“The first came to her early, and coming into it very +young, and overflowing with new ideas, she began rather +grotesquely; but she has tamed down a good deal since, and really +has done an immense deal of good in finding employment for +people, making improvements and the like, though she is +Sam’s pet aversion, a tremendous Liberal, almost a +Socialist. They are so like cat and dog that Susan and I +were really glad to be away from Stokesley, especially at +election times; but altogether she is an admirable +person.”</p> +<p>Lady Merrifield thought she detected a start of Miss Prescott +at the name Stokesley, and that her eyes looked anxiously at the +speaker. Bessie was not of the sandy part of the +family. Was the unattractive schoolboy, once seen, like his +sisters? All that was observable was startling similitudes +to her own children, though in them the elements of the handsome +dark Mohun generally predominated.</p> +<p>But by and by, in a quiet moment, Bessie suddenly asked, +“Did you say her name was Magdalen?”</p> +<p>Lady Merrifield laughed. “Four years <i>may</i> do +a good deal at that time of life,” she said. “I +suppose no time ever so changes—changes—what shall I +say?—eyes—views—characters. Only +constancy in absence is the dangerous thing. There are +distinguished examples of—of the mischief of being constant +without knowing what one is constant to. Virulent +constancy, as Mrs. Malaprop has it.”</p> +<p>Magdalen thanked and smiled. Perhaps there was a certain +virulent constancy in a remote corner of her heart which had been +revived by a certain indescribable look in the eyes and contour +of Bessie Merrifield.</p> +<p>And Bessie herself, while sitting under the verandah with Lady +Merrifield, while all the others were walking down to embark Lord +and Lady Ivinghoe in the yacht, suddenly repeated, “Did you +say that her name was Magdalen?”</p> +<p>“Yes; I saw it startled you, my dear.”</p> +<p>“It revived an old, old story. I do not know +whether there was anything in it. Who or what is she, Aunt +Lily? I only know her as the sister of the girl that the +Ivinghoes picked up.”</p> +<p>“She is the owner of a little property at Arnscombe, and +has taken home her four young half-sisters to live with her, +after having slaved for them as a governess till she came into +this inheritance. She is an excellent person.”</p> +<p>“Ah! Was her house at Filsted?”</p> +<p>“I am not sure. Yes, I think the young ones were +at school there. You think—”</p> +<p>“I feel certain. May I tell you, Aunt Lily? +Some of the others cannot bear to mention my poor Hal; but to me +the worst of the sting is gone, since I know he +repented.”</p> +<p>“My dear, I should be very glad to hear. Your +father and mother never mention your brother, and we were away at +the time.”</p> +<p>“Poor Hal! I am afraid there was a weakness in +him. He never had that determination that carried all the +others on. He never could get through an examination, and +my father put him into a bank at Filsted. By and by, after +some years, came a letter telling my father he was gambling very +seriously, getting into temptation, and engaging himself to an +attorney’s daughter. It was while I was living with +grandmamma, and he used sometimes to look in on me, and talk to +me about this Magdalen. Once he showed me her photograph +and I thought I knew her face again. But my father went +off, very angry. I have always feared he found poor Hal on +the verge of tampering with the bank money, but he never would +say a word. He broke everything up, put an end to the +engagement if there was one, and sent Hal off to John and George, +who had just got their farm in Manitoba, and were getting on by +dint of hard work.”</p> +<p>“They have done very well, have they not?”</p> +<p>“Yes, by working and living harder than any day labourer +at Stokesley. Hal could not stand it, and—and +I’m afraid the boys were not very merciful to him, poor +fellow, and he got something to do in Winnipeg. There he +fell in with a speculator called Golding, they all did in fact; +he was a plausible man, whom they all liked, and used to put up +at his house when they took waggons in with their produce. +He had a daughter, and Johnnie got engaged to her, or thought he +was. They all were persuaded to put money into a horrid +building speculation,—Henry, what he had brought out, the +other two what they had realised. Well, suddenly it all +ended. They were all gone, Golding, daughter, Hal and +all—yes, all—the money the other boys had put in the +thing, off to the States, as we suppose! No trace ever +found.”</p> +<p>“Really no trace?”</p> +<p>“None! The poor boys lost all they had, and were +obliged to begin over again.”</p> +<p>“And has really nothing been heard of this unfortunate +Hal?”</p> +<p>“There is one thing that does give me a hope. +There did come to Stokesley a letter from a Brisbane bank, +addressed to J. and G. Merrifield, to the care of Rear-Admiral +Merrifield, and in it were bank bills up to the value of what the +boys had been robbed of, about two hundred and fifty +pounds. Poor Henry must have repented, and wished to make +restitution.”</p> +<p>“Was there no name, no clue?”</p> +<p>“None at all. We know no more.”</p> +<p>“But was there no inquiry made at Brisbane?”</p> +<p>“It was when my father was very ill. The parcel +was not opened at first. I have been always sorry he never +heard of it; but after all there was no asking of forgiveness, +nor anything that could be answered. The boys got it with +the tidings of our dear father’s death. John came +home to see about things, George stayed to look after his +Stokesley. They were well over their troubles by that time, +and they gave the restored money to David for his +churches.”</p> +<p>“And no more was done, not even by David?” said +Lady Merrifield, thinking over what she had heard from Geraldine +Grinstead, and how the Underwoods would have accepted such a +token from their lost sheep.</p> +<p>“David did write to Brisbane to the bank, but there +never was any answer. There is no knowing how it might have +been, if any one had gone out and done his best; but you see we +were all much taken up with home duties and cares, and I am +afraid we have not dwelt enough upon our poor boy, and he had +much against him. The discipline from my dear father, that +all the elders responded to with a sort of loyal exultation, only +frightened him and made him shifty. They despised him, and +I do not think any of us were as kind to him as we ought to have +been; though on the whole he liked me the best, for he cared for +books and quiet pursuits, such as all laughed at, except +David. I wish he could have seen more of David.”</p> +<p>“Did your mother hear of this ray of hope?”</p> +<p>“Susan thought it best not to tell her. We used to +hear her murmuring his name among all ours in her prayers, Susie, +Sam, Hal, Bessie, and so on; but she never was herself enough to +understand, and they thought it might only stir her up to expect +to see him. Oh, Aunt Lily, I don’t think +you—any of you—would have gone on so; but you are all +much more affectionate and demonstrative than our branch of the +family.”</p> +<p>“Ah, my dear, I am sure there was a pang in your +mother’s heart that she never durst mention,” said +Lady Merrifield, her imagination dwelling in terror on her +Wilfred, the one child in whom she could not help detecting the +weakness of character of his unhappy cousin. “Depend +upon it, Bessie, her prayers were hovering round him all the +time, and bringing that act of restitution, though she was not +allowed to hear of it.”</p> +<p>“I had not thought of that,” said Bessie, in a low +tone, “though I think David has. I have heard his +voice choke over an intercession for the absent.”</p> +<p>“Think of it now, my dear, and do not let habitual +reserve hinder you from speaking of it to Susan and David, though +most likely they have the habit already. Who knows what +united prayer may do with Him who deviseth means to bring home +His banished?”</p> +<p>Steps returning, Bessie wiped away her tears in haste, +actually the first she had shed for the lost Hal, though there +was a heartache too deep for tears.</p> +<h2><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +146</span>CHAPTER XVI—THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN</h2> +<blockquote><p>“And happier than the merriest games<br /> +Is the joy of our new and nobler aims.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">F. R. <span +class="smcap">Havergal</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Mohun</span> and Miss Merrifield +encountered Miss Prescott and Agatha among a perfect herd of +cycles, making Bessie laugh over the recollections of the horror +caused at Stokesley by the arrival of Arthurine Arthuret on a +tricycle twelve years previously.</p> +<p>The place was the Town Hall, the High School having proved too +small for the number of the intended audience, and Lord +Rotherwood having been captured, in spite of the <i>Kittiwake</i> +being pronounced ready to sail, and all the younger passengers +being actually on board, entertaining a party from +Clipstone. There he sat enthroned on the platform, with +portraits of himself, his Elizabethan ancestor, and the Prince of +Wales overhead, and, in <i>propria persona</i> on either side, +the Mayor of Rockstone, Captain Henderson, and a sprinkling of +the committee, Jane, of course, being one; while in the space +beneath was a sea of hats, more or less beflowered and +befeathered.</p> +<p>Lord Rotherwood began by complaining of an act of +piracy! After being exposed to a tempest and forced to put +in for supplies, here he was captured, and called upon to +distribute prizes! He perceived that it was a new act of +aggression on the part of the ladies, proving to what lengths +they were coming. Tyrants they had always been, but to find +them wreckers to boot was a novelty. However, prizes were +the natural sequence of a maritime exploit, and he was happy to +distribute them to the maidens about to start on the voyage of +life, hoping that these dainty logbooks would prove a stimulus +and a compass to steer by even into unexplored seas, such as he +believed the better-informed ladies were about to describe to +them.</p> +<p>Rockstone was used to its Marquis’s speeches, and always +enjoyed them; and he handed the prize-books to the recipients +with a shake of the hand, and a word or two of congratulation +appropriate to each, especially when he knew their names; and +then he declared that they were about to hear what education was +good for, much better than from himself, from such noted examples +as Miss Arthuret and Miss Merrifield, better known to them as +Mesa. Wherewith he waved forward Miss Arthuret, a slight, +youthful-looking lady, fashionably attired, and made his escape +with rapid foot and hasty nods, almost furtively, while the +audience were clapping her.</p> +<p>She spoke with voice and utterance notably superior to his +well-known halting periods, scarcely saved by long training and +use from being a stutter. The female population eagerly +listened, while she painted in vivid colours the aim of +education, in raising the status of women, and extending their +spheres not only of influence in the occult manner which had +hitherto been their way of working through others, but in an open +manner, which compelled attention; and she dwelt on certain +brilliant achievements of women, and of others which stood before +them, and towards which their education, passing out of the old +grooves, was preparing them to take their place among men, and +temper their harshness and indifference to suffering with the +laws of mercy and humanity, speaking with an authority and +equality such as should ensure attention, no longer in home and +nursery whispering alone, but with open face asserting and +claiming justice for the weakest.</p> +<p>It was a powerful and effective speech; and Agatha’s eye +lighted with enthusiasm, as did those of several others of the +elder scholars and younger teachers, as these high aims were +unfolded to them.</p> +<p>Then followed Elizabeth Merrifield, not contradictory, but +recognising what wide fields had been opened to womanhood, +dwelling on such being the work of Christianity, which had always +tended to repress the power of brute animal strength and +jealousy, and to give preponderance to the force of character and +the just influence of sweet homely affection. Exceptional +flashes, even in heathen lands, and still more under the Divine +guidance of the Israelites, showed what women were capable of; +and ever since a woman had been the chosen instrument of the +mystery of the Incarnation, the Church, the chosen emblem of the +union of humanity with her Lord, had gradually purified and +exalted the sex by training them through the duties of mercy, of +wifehood and motherhood, to be capable of undertaking and +fulfilling higher and more extensive tasks, always by the +appointment and with the help of Him who had increased their +outside powers, for the sake of the weaker ones of His +flock. What might, by His will, in the government and +politics of the country, be put into their hands, no one could +tell; but it was right to be prepared for it, by extending their +intellectual ability and knowledge of the past, as well as of the +laws of physical nature—all, in short, that modern +education aimed at opening young minds to pursue with growing +faculties. This was what made her rejoice in the studies +here followed with good success, as the prizes testified so +pleasantly; and she trusted that the cultivation, which here went +on so prosperously, was leading—if she might use old +well-accustomed words—to the advancement of God’s +glory, the good of His Church, aye! and to the safety, honour, +and welfare of our Sovereign and her dominions.</p> +<p>The words brought tears of feeling into the eyes of some; but +Jane Mohun could not help observing, “Ah! I was +afraid you were going to hold up to us the example of the ants +and bees, where the old maids do all the working and fighting and +governing! Don’t make Gillian regret that she is +falling away from the spinsterhood.”</p> +<p>“Come, Aunt Jane, Bessie never did make it the praise of +spinsters. I am sure married women can do as much as +spinsters, and have more weight,” said Gillian, facing +round gallantly, and winning the approval of her aunt and of +Bessie. There was no doubt but that since her engagement +she had been much quieter and less opinionative.</p> +<p>With what different sensations the same occasion may be +attended! To Bessie Merrifield, the primary object was, as +ever, woman’s work, especially her own, for the Church; and +the actual business absorbed her. In spite of her +evenings’ talk to her Aunt Lilias, and the sad and painful +recollections it had aroused, still her only look at Magdalen +Prescott’s face was one half of curiosity half of sorrow, +as of the object of the brief calf-love of one of many brothers, +and who had been now lost sight of, with the passing wonder +whether, if the affection had survived and been encouraged, it +might have led him to better things.</p> +<p>While Magdalen felt the poignant renewal of the one romance of +a lifetime, as she caught tones, watched little gestures and +recognised those indescribable hereditary similarities which more +and more bore in upon her the fraternal connection of the bright +earnest woman with the lively pleasant young man who had brought +the attraction of a higher tone of manners and cultivation into +the country town. No more had been heard of him since his +promise to write, a promise that had been only once remembered, +so that she had tried to take refuge in the supposition, unlikely +as it was, that her stepmother had confiscated his letters. +All was a blank since that last stolen kiss; and the wonder +whether she could by any means discover anything further from +Lady Merrifield or Gillian, so occupied her that she hardly heard +the tenor of the two speeches, and did not observe Agatha’s +glowing cheeks and burning eyes, which might have told her that +this was one of the moments which direct the current of life.</p> +<p>When Hubert Delrio came up in the evening he was curious to +hear about the meeting. His young landlady, who had been a +High School girl for a short time, thought Miss Arthuret’s +speech the most beautiful discourse that ever was spoken; while +other reports said that Lady Flight and Miss Mohun were very much +shocked, and thought it unwholesome, not to say dangerous; and he +wanted to know the meaning of it. Magdalen was quite +dismayed to find how entirely her attention had been absent, and +how little account she could give of what had passed by her like +the wind; but she need not have been at a loss, for Agatha, with +sparkling eyes and clasped hands, burst out into a very able and +spirited abstract of the speech, and the future it portrayed, +showing perhaps more enthusiasm than the practised public speaker +thought it prudent to manifest.</p> +<p>“I see,” said Hubert with something of a smile, +“you ladies are charmed with the great future opened to +you.”</p> +<p>“I’m sure,” said Vera, perhaps a little +nettled by attention paid so long to Agatha, “I can’t +see the sense of it all; I think a woman is made just to love her +husband, and be his pet, without all that fuss about societies, +and speeches and learning and fuss!” And she gave a +little caress to Hubert’s hand, which was returned, as he +said, “She may well be loved, but, without publicly coming +forward, she may become the more valuable to her home.”</p> +<p>“Of course she may, at home or abroad. She +ought—” began Agatha, but Vera snapped her off. +“Well, it only comes to being one of a lot of horrid old +maids; and you don’t want me to be one of them, do you, +darling? Come and look at my doves!”</p> +<p>“What do you think of it all, sister?” asked +Paulina.</p> +<p>“So far as I grasp the subject,” said Magdalen, to +whom, of course, this was not new, “I think that if a +larger scope is to be given to women, it is for the sake and +under the direction of the Church that it can be rightly and +safely used.”</p> +<p>She knew she was speaking by rote, and was not surprised that +Agatha said, “That is just what one has heard so often, and +what Miss Merrifield harped upon! I want to breathe in a +fresh atmosphere beyond the old traditions, and know which are +Divine and which are only the superstructure of those who have +always had the dominion and justified it in their own +way!”</p> +<p>“Who gave them that dominion?” said Magdalen.</p> +<p>“Brute strength,” began Agatha.</p> +<p>“Nag, Nag!” cried Paula. “Surely you +believe—”</p> +<p>“I did not say—I did not mean—I only meant +to think it out, and understand what is Divine and what is in the +eternal fitness of things.”</p> +<p>Here came an interruption, leaving Magdalen conscious of the +want of preparation for guiding the thought of these young +things, and of self-reproach too, for having let herself be so +absorbed in the thought of “her broken reed of earth +beneath,” as not to have dwelt on what might be the deep +impressions of the young sisters under her charge.</p> +<p>A few days later, as Agatha sat reading in the garden, two +figures appeared on the drive, wheeling up their bicycles. +One was Gillian, the other had a general air of the family, but +much darker, and not one of the old acquaintances. +Advancing to meet them, she said, “I am the only one at +home. My sisters are all at lessons or in the +village.”</p> +<p>“I’ll leave a message,” said Gillian. +“My mother wants you all to come up to picnic tea to see +the foxgloves in the dell, on Monday, and to bring Mr. +Delrio—”</p> +<p>“Oh! thank you.”</p> +<p>“I forgot, you had not seen my cousin Dolores Mohun +before. Mysie calls her a cousin-twin, if you know what +that is.”</p> +<p>Agatha thought the newcomer’s great pensive dark eyes +and overhanging brow under very black hair made her look older +than Mysie, or indeed than Gillian herself; and when the message +had been disposed of, the latter continued, “Dolores wanted +to know about Miss Arthuret’s lecture, being rather in that +line herself. She could not get home in time for it, and I +was seeing the <i>Kittiwake</i> party on board, and only crept in +at the other end of the hall in time for Bessie’s faint +echoes.”</p> +<p>“I was in the very antipodes,” said Dolores, +“in a haunt of ancient peace, whence they would not let me +come away soon enough.”</p> +<p>“And, Agatha, Aunt Jane says she saw you devouring Miss +Arthuret with your eyes,” said Gillian.</p> +<p>“It gave one a sense of new life,” said Agatha; +and she related again Miss Arthuret’s speech, broken only +by appreciative questions and comments from Dolores’ +auditor, to whom, in the true fashion of nineteen, Agatha +straightway lost her heart. Dolores, who had seen much more +of the outer world than her cousins, and had had besides a deeply +felt inward experience which might well render her far more +responsive, and able to comprehend the questions working in the +girl’s mind, and which found expression in, “I went +to St. Robert’s only wanting to get my education carried on +so that I might be a better governess; but I see now there are +much farther on, much greater things to aim at, than I ever +thought of.”</p> +<p>“Alps on Alps arise!” said Dolores. +“Yes—till they lose themselves—and +where?”</p> +<p>“Miss Merrifield would say in Heaven, by way of the +Church.”</p> +<p>“The all things in earth or under the earth rising up in +circles of praise to the Cherubim and the Great White +Throne,” said Dolores, her dark eyes raised in a +moment’s contemplation.</p> +<p>“Ah! One knows. But is that thought the one +to be brought home to every one, as if they could bear it +always? Are not we to do +something—something—for the helping people here in +this life, not always going on to the other +life—”</p> +<p>“Temporal or spiritual?” said Dolores; “or +spiritual through temporal?”</p> +<p>“And our part in helping,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“There is an immense deal to be thought out,” said +Dolores. “I feel only at the beginning of the +questions, and there is study and experience to go to +them.”</p> +<p>“You mean what one gets at Oxford?”</p> +<p>“Partly. Thorough—at least, as thorough as +one can—of the physical and material nature of things, then +of the precedent which then results, also of +reasoning.”</p> +<p>“Metaphysical, do you mean, or logical?”</p> +<p>“That comes in; but I was thinking of mathematical in +the indirect training of the mind. It all works into +needful equipment, and so does actual life.”</p> +<p>“It takes one’s breath away.”</p> +<p>“Well, we have begun our training,” said Dolores, +with a sweet sad smile. “At least, I hope +so.”</p> +<p>“At St. Robert’s, you mean?”</p> +<p>“You have, I think. But I believe my aunt will be +expecting us.”</p> +<p>“Oh! And then they talk about modesty and +womanliness and retiring! What do you think about all +that?”</p> +<p>“That we never shall do any good without it.”</p> +<p>They were interrupted by the hasty rushing up of Paula, who +had committed her bicycle to Vera, and came dashing up the steep +slope, crying, “O Nag, Nag, they are going away!”</p> +<p>The announcement was interrupted as she perceived the presence +of the visitor, and they rose to meet her, but saw that there +were tears in her eyes, and she had rushed up so fast that she +was panting and could hardly speak, though she gave her hand, as +Agatha, after naming the two cousins, asked, “Who are +going?”</p> +<p>“The Sisters—Sister Mena—” with +another overflow of tears which made Dolores and Gillian think +they had better retreat and leave her to her sister’s +consolation; so they took leave hastily, Agatha however, coming +as far as their machines, and confiding to them, “Poor +Polly, it is a great blow to her, but I believe it is very good +for her.”</p> +<p>“There’s stuff in that girl,” said Dolores, +as soon as they were out of reach. “She has the +faculty of hearkening as well as of hearing.”</p> +<p>“You would say so if you saw her at a lecture; and she +is also gaining power of expressing and reproducing,” said +Gillian.</p> +<p>“She will be a power by and by, unless some blight comes +across her.”</p> +<p>“Will me, will me, it seems as if we <i>had</i> to do +it. Even Mamma, whose ideal was chivalry, Church and home, +has to be drawn out to take a certain public part; Aunt Jane, who +only wished to live to potter about among neighbours, poor and +rich, must needs come out of her traditional conventions, and +relate her experiences, and you—”</p> +<p>“Oh, I am only trying to do the work Gerald aimed +at!”</p> +<p>“Any way we have our work before us, whether we call it +for the Church or mankind.”</p> +<p>“Charity or Altruism,” said Dolores.</p> +<p>“May not altruism lead to charity?” said +Gillian.</p> +<p>“Sometimes, but sometimes disappointment leads only to +intolerance of those whose methods differ. Altruism will +not stand without a foundation,” said Dolores.</p> +<p>“Mysie has been impressing on me, with what she heard +from Phyllis Devereux, of the work Sister Angela has been doing +at Albertstown—the most utter self-abnegation, through +bitter disappointment in her most promising pupils—only the +charity that is rooted could endure. It is just the old +difference Tennyson points out between Wisdom and +Knowledge.”</p> +<p>“And with wisdom come those feminine attributes that +Agatha began asking about.”</p> +<p>“Yes, softening, gentleness, tact. If people have +not grown up to them, they must be taught as parts of +wisdom.”</p> +<p>Gillian sighed. “I wonder what Ernley Armitage +will say when he comes home?”</p> +<p>“He won’t want you to throw up +everything.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think he will! But if he +did—No, I think he will be a staff to guide a silly, +priggish heart to the deeper wisdom.”</p> +<h2><a name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +258</span>CHAPTER XVII—FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS</h2> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“With her +venturous climbings, and tumbles, and childish +escapes.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Tennyson</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Hubert Delrio</span>, pleased and +gratified, but very shy, joined the ladies from the Goyle in +their walk to Clipstone, expecting perhaps a good deal of +stiffness and constraint, since every one at St. Kenelm’s +told him what a severe and formidable person Sir Jasper +Merrifield was, and that all Lady Merrifield’s surroundings +were “so very clever.” “They did want +<i>such</i> books ordered in the library.”</p> +<p>Magdalen laughed, and said her only chance of seeing a book +she wanted was that Lady Merrifield should have asked for +it. At Clipstone, they were directed to the dell where the +foxgloves were unusually fine that year, covering one of the +banks of the ravine with a perfect cloud of close-grown spikes, +nodding with thick clustered bells, spotted withinside, and +without, of that indescribable light crimson or purple, +enchanting in reality but impossible to reproduce. It was +like a dream of fairy land to Hubert to wander thither with his +Vera, count the tiers of bells, admire the rings of purple and +the crooked stamens, measure the height of the tall ones, some +almost equal to himself in stature, and recall the fairy lore and +poetry connected with them, while Vera listened and thought she +enjoyed, but kept herself entertained by surreptitiously popping +the blossoms, and trying to wreath her hat with wild roses.</p> +<p>Thekla meantime admired from the opposite bank, in a state of +much elevation at acquiring a dear delicious brother-in-law, and +insisted on Primrose sharing her sentiments till her boasting at +last provoked the exclamation, “I wouldn’t be so +cocky! I don’t make such a fuss if my sisters do go +and fall in love. I have two brothers-in-law out in India, +and Gillian has a captain, an Egyptian hero, with a medal, a post +captain out at sea in the <i>Nivelle</i>. You shall see his +photograph coloured in his lovely uniform, with his sword and +all! Your Flapsy’s man isn’t even an +officer!”</p> +<p>“He is a poet, and that’s better!”</p> +<p>“Better! why, if you <i>will</i> have it, Wilfred and +Fergus always call him that ‘painter cad,’” +broke out Primrose, who had not outgrown her childish power of +rudeness, especially out of hearing of her elders.</p> +<p>“Then it is very wicked of them,” exclaimed +Thekla, “when the Marquis of Rotherwood himself said that +Hubert Delrio is a very superior young man” (each syllable +triumphantly rounded off).</p> +<p>Primrose was equal to the occasion. “Oh, they all +laugh at Cousin Rotherwood; and, besides, a superior young man +does not mean a gentleman.”</p> +<p>Thekla burst into angry tears and sobs, which brought Gillian, +and a grave, dark young lady from the other side of a rock to +inquire what was the matter—there was a confession on the +two tongues of “she did,” and “I +didn’t” of “painter cad, superior young man and +no gentleman,” but at last it cleared itself into Primrose +allowing that, to take down Thekla’s conceit, she had +declared that a very superior young man did not mean a +gentleman.</p> +<p>“I could not have believed that you could have been so +abominably ill-mannered,” said Gillian gravely; “you +ought to apologise to Thekla.”</p> +<p>“Oh, never mind,” began Thekla ashamed; and at +that moment a frantic barking was heard in the depths, and +Valetta, Wilfred, Fergus and a dog or two darted headlong past, +calling out, “Hedgehogs, hedgehogs! Run! +come!” And Primrose, giving a hand to Thekla, joined +in the general rush down the glade.</p> +<p>“A situation relieved!” said the newcomer.</p> +<blockquote><p>“For all ran to see,<br /> +For they took him to be<br /> + An Egyptian porcupig,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>quoted Gillian. “They have wanted such a beast for +some time for their menagerie; but really Primrose is getting +much too old to indulge in such babyish incivility to a guest, +true though the speech was, ‘a superior young man,’ +not necessarily a gentleman.”</p> +<p>“I am colonial enough to like him the better for the +absence of a hall mark.”</p> +<p>“Should you have missed it? He is very good +looking, and has a sensible refined countenance, poor +man!”</p> +<p>“He is a little too point device, too obviously got up +for the occasion!”</p> +<p>“Too like the best electroplate! No; that is not +fair, for it is not pretence, at least, I should think there was +sound material below, and that never would brighten instead of +dimming it.”</p> +<p>“According to Mysie and Fly, there is plenty of good +taste; and his principle is vouched for. Mysie is quite +furious at any lady-love having gone to sleep to the sound of +original verses from a lover!”</p> +<p>“Dear old Mysie! No, she would not. She has +a practical vein in her! Would you?”</p> +<p>“I’m not likely to be tried!” said Gillian +merrily. “Catch Ernley either practising or not +minding his boat! But come! Mamma will want me, I +feel only deputy daughter, with Mysie away.”</p> +<p>The two girls rose from the mossy bank, and proceeded across +the paddock to the opening of the glade.</p> +<p>On the turf Lady Merrifield sat enthroned; making a nucleus to +the festivities and delicacies of all sorts, from sandwiches and +cakes down to strawberries, cherries and Devonshire cream, were +displayed before her; and the others drifted up gradually, Miss +Mohun first. “I am later than I meant to be,” +she said, “but I was delayed by a talk with Sister +Beata. I never saw a woman more knocked down than she is by +that adventure of Vera’s.”</p> +<p>“I know,” said Magdalen, rousing herself. +“It has made her look ten years older, and she could not +talk it over or let a word be said to comfort her. She says +it was all her fault, and I should have thought it was that silly +little Sister Mena’s, if that is her name.</p> +<p>“She considers it her fault for objecting to strict +discipline in things of which she did not see the use,” +said Jane Mohun, “and so getting absorbed in her own work, +and having no fixed rule by which to train Mena.”</p> +<p>“I see,” said Lady Merrifield; “it reminds +me of a story told in Madame de Chantal’s life, how, when, +<i>par mortification</i>, a Sister quietly ate up a rotten apple +without complaint and another made signs of amusement, a rule was +made that no one should raise her eyes at meals. It shows +that some rules which seem unreasonable may have a +foundation.”</p> +<p>“It is an unnatural life altogether,” said +Dolores. “Why should the rotten apple have been +swallowed? or, if it was, I should think a joke over it might +have been wholesome.”</p> +<p>“Hindering priggishness in the mortified Sister,” +said Gillian.</p> +<p>“The fact is,” said Lady Merrifield, “that +if you vow yourself to an unnatural life, so to speak, you must +submit to the rules that have been found best to work for +it.”</p> +<p>“And poor Sister Beata did neither the one nor the +other, by her own account,” said Jane. “She +called herself a Sister, but disliked each rule, and chose to go +her own way, like any other benevolent woman, doing very +admirable work herself, but letting little Mena have the prestige +of a Sister, while too busy to look after her, and without rules +to restrain her.”</p> +<p>“But surely there has been no harm!” exclaimed +Lady Merrifield.</p> +<p>“No harm, only a little incipient flirtation with the +organist, nothing in any one else, but not quite like a convent +maid.”</p> +<p>“Ah! I rather suspected,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I should think the best thing for Sister Mena would be +to go to a good school, leave off her veil, in which she looks so +pretty, and be treated like an ordinary girl,” said Lady +Merrifield.</p> +<p>“That is just what Sister Beata intends,” said +Miss Mohun. “She is to sink down into Miss Marian +Jenkins, to wear a straw hat and blue frock, and go to school +with the other girls, the pupils, while Sister Beata begins life +as a probationer at Dearport.”</p> +<p>“Poor Sister Beata!”</p> +<p>“She says she has experienced that it is best to learn +to obey before one begins to rule. It is most touching to +see how humble she is. Such a real good woman too! I +doubt whether she gets a night’s rest three days in a week, +and she looks quite haggard with this distress,” said +Jane.</p> +<p>“She will be a great power by and by! But what +will Mr. Flight and St. Kenelm’s do without her?”</p> +<p>“He is promised relays of Sisters from Dearport, which +has stood so many years that they have a supply. You see, +he, like Sister Beata, tried a little too much to be original and +stand aloof.”</p> +<p>“Ah!” said Lady Merrifield, “that is the +benefit of institutions. They hinder works from dying away +with the original clergyman or the wonderful woman.”</p> +<p>“But, Aunt Lily,” put in Dolores, +“institutions get slack?”</p> +<p>“They have their <i>downs</i>, but they also have their +ups. There is something to fall back upon with public +schools.”</p> +<p>“Yes, like croquet,” laughed Aunt Jane. +“We saw it rise and saw it fall; and here come all the +players, the revival. Well, how went the game?”</p> +<p>So the party collected, and the two Generals came in from some +vanity of inspection to grumble a little merrily at the open air +banquet, but to take their places in all good humour, and the +lively meal began with all the home witticisms, yet not such as +to exclude strangers. Indeed, Hubert Delrio was treated +with something like distinction, and was evidently very happy, +with Vera by his side. Perhaps Magdalen perceived that +there was not the perfect ease of absolute equality and +familiarity; but his poetical and chivalrous nature was gratified +by the notice of a Crimean hero, and he infinitely admired the +dignity and courtesy of Lady Merrifield, and the grace and ease +of her daughters, finding himself in a new world of exquisite +charm for him.</p> +<p>And before they broke up, Magdalen had a quiet time with Lady +Merrifield, in which she was able, not without a tell-tale blush +even at her years, to ascertain that there were two Henry +Merrifields, and that, alas! there was nothing good known of the +son of Stokesley, except that anonymous attempt at restitution +which gave hopes of repentance.</p> +<h2><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +165</span>CHAPTER XVIII—PALACES OR CHURCHES</h2> +<blockquote><p>“And if I leave the thing that lieth +next,<br /> +To go and do the thing that is afar,<br /> +I take the very strength out of my deed.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Macdonald</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Those</span> were happy days that +succeeded Vera’s engagement. It had made her more +womanly, or at least less childish; and the intercourse with +Hubert Delrio became an increasing delight to her sisters, who +had never known anything so like a brother.</p> +<p>He was at first shy and not at ease with Magdalen, who, on her +side, perceived the lack of public school and university +training; but in grain he was so completely a good man, a +churchman, and a gentleman, and had so much right sense as well +as talent, that she liked him thoroughly and began to rely on +him, as a woman with unaccustomed property is glad to do with a +male relation.</p> +<p>And to him, the society of the Goyle was a new charm. He +had been brought up to the technicalities and the business +relations of art, and had a cultivated taste; but to be with a +thoughtful, highly educated lady, able to enter into its higher +and deeper associations, was an unspeakable delight and +improvement to him. Vera was fairly satisfied as long as he +sketched her in various attitudes, and held her hand while he +talked; though she did grudge having so much time spent on +“taste, Shakespeare and the musical glasses.” +Paula had various ecclesiastical interests in common with him, +and began to expand and enter more into realities, while Thekla +had in him a dear delightful delicious brother, who petted her, +bantered her, mended her rabbit hutch, caught her hedgehog, +taught her to guide her bicycle, drew picture games for her, and +taught her to sketch.</p> +<p>Agatha had endless discussions with him on his various +aspirations, in some of which Magdalen took her share, sometimes +thinking with a pang of regret and self-reproach that that brief +time of intercourse with Hal Merrifield had been spent in +youthful nonsense that could have left no permanent influence for +good.</p> +<p>In fact, whether through Hubert or through Agatha, a certain +intellectual waft had breathed upon the Goyle. Hubert was +eager for assistance in learning German and Italian, and read and +discussed books of interest; and even when he had left Rockstone, +and his work at St. Kenelm’s being finished, the stimulus +was kept up by his letters, comments and questions; and the +younger girls had entirely ceased to form an opposite camp, or to +view “sister” as a taskmistress, even when Agatha had +returned to St. Robert’s.</p> +<p>Mysie had come home, very brown, fuller of Scott than ever for +her mother, and of Hugh Miller for Fergus, for whom she had +brought so many specimens that Cousin Rotherwood declared that +she would sink the <i>Kittiwake</i>. Over the sketches and +photographs of Iona, she and Paulina became great friends, and +Paula was admitted to hear accounts of the modern missions that +had come from the other Harry Merrifield among the Karens in +Burmah, or again through Franciska Ivinghoe, of her Aunt Angela +Underwood, who was considered to have a peculiar faculty for +dealing with those very unpromising natives, the Australian +gins. Franciska remembered her tender nursing and bright +manner in the days of fever at Vale Leston, and had a longing +hope that she would take a holiday and come home; but at present +she was bound to the couch of her slowly declining old friend, +Sister Constance, the Mother of Dearport. It was another +bond of interest with Magdalen, to whom missions to the heathens +had always been a dream.</p> +<p>Thus had passed a year uneventful and peaceable, with visits +from Hubert whenever he had a day or two to spare. They +were looked forward to with delight; but if there were a drawback +it was in Vera’s viewing him partly as one who held her in +a sort of chain, and partly as one whom it was pleasant to tease +by allowing little casual civilities from Wilfred Merrifield.</p> +<p>For Wilfred was an embarrassment to his family. He had +never been strong, his public school career had been shortened by +failure in health, and headaches in the summer, and coughs in the +winter made it needful to keep him at home, and trust to cramming +at Rockstone, enforced by his father’s stern discipline and +his mother’s authoritative influence.</p> +<p>Thus he was always within reach of the mild social gaieties in +which each family indulged, and Vera was not quite so ready as +were his sisters to contrast unfavourably his hatred of all +self-improvement with Hubert Delrio’s eagerness to pick up +every crumb of information, thus deservedly getting on well in +his profession.</p> +<p>One morning, at breakfast, Hubert opened a letter and made a +sudden exclamation; and in answer to Vera’s vehement +inquiry said, “It seems that the great millionaire swell, +Pettifer—is that his name?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, he was at Rock Quay.”</p> +<p>“Well, he went to see St. Kenelm’s, fell in love +with the ceiling, and offered Pratt and Pavis any sum they like +to decorate a huge new hall he is building in the same +style. So they write to propose to me to come and do it, +with a promise of future work, at any terms I like to +ask.”</p> +<p>“Oh! but that’s jolly,” cried Vera. +“Can’t you?”</p> +<p>“No,” he said; “this is immediate, and I +have two churches, reredos and walls, on my hands, enough to last +me all the year. Nor could I throw over Eccles and +Beamster.”</p> +<p>“Is there an agreement with them?” asked +Magdalen.</p> +<p>“Not regularly; but Mr. Eccles has been very kind to me, +and promised me employment for four years to come; in fact, he +has made engagements on that understanding.”</p> +<p>“I see,” said Magdalen. “You could not +break with them.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not. Nor do I entirely like the line of +this other house. It is a good deal more +secular.”</p> +<p>“And you have dedicated your talents to the +Church!” cried Paulina.</p> +<p>“Not that exactly, Paula,” he said, smiling; +“but I had rather work for the Church, so I am glad the +matter is definitely settled for me.”</p> +<p>To that he kept, though he had a very kind letter from Mr. +Eccles, who had evidently been applied to, wishing not to stand +in his light, especially as he was engaged to be married, and +telling him how it might be possible to fairly compensate for the +loss to the firm. Between the lines, however, it was plain +that it would be a great blow, only possible because the +agreement had been neglected; and Hubert was only the more +determined, out of gratitude for the generosity, not to break +what he felt to be an implied pledge; and all the sisters +sympathised with his determination.</p> +<p>He adhered to it even after his return to London, though his +father thought it a pity to lose the chance, if it could be +accepted without discourtesy to Mr. Eccles; and he had been +interviewed by various parties concerned, and there had been an +attempt to dazzle him by the prospects held out to him by an +enthusiastic young member of the firm. Perhaps he was too +shrewd entirely to trust them, but at any rate he felt his good +faith to Eccles and Beamster a bond to hold him fast from the +temptation; and his heart was really set on the consecration of +the higher uses of his art; so that regard to the simple rule of +honour was an absolute relief to him.</p> +<p>So he wrote to Vera, who, if there were a secret wish on her +part, did not dare to give it shape; while all her sisters, to +whom she showed the letters that she scarcely comprehended, were +open-mouthed in their admiration. Thekla, who had been +seized with a fit of hagiology, went the length of comparing him +to St. Barbara; even Paula pronounced it a far-fetched +resemblance.</p> +<p>It was some months later that Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood +had decided on building a magnificent cathedral-like church for +the population rising around him in the Rocky Mountains; and +meeting Lord Rotherwood in London heard of the work at St. +Kenelm’s, and resorted to Eccles and Beamster as the +employers of young Delrio. There would be plenty of +varieties of beautiful material to be found near at hand in the +mountains; but Hubert was sent first for a short journey in Italy +to study the effect of the old mosaics as well as the frescoes, +and then to go out to America to the work that would last a +considerable time.</p> +<p>Vera was much excited by the notion of the Italian journey, +and thought she ought to have been married at once and have +shared it, including as it did a short visit to Rocca +Marina. But she was scarcely eighteen, and neither her +trustee nor her elder sister thought it advisable to dispense +with the decision that her twenty-first birthday must be waited +for, at which she pouted. Hubert came for two nights on his +return, and was exceedingly full of his tour, talking over +Italian scenes and churches with Magdalen, who had never seen +them, but had the descriptions and the history at her +fingers’ ends, and listened with delight to all the +impressions of a mind full of feeling and poetry. The time +was only too short to discuss or look out everything, and much +was left to be copied and sent after him, with many promises on +Vera’s part of writing everything for him, and translating +the books that Magdalen would refer to. He was allowed to +take Vera and Paulina to Filsted for a hurried visit to his +parents. When they came home again, it soon became plain +that it had not been a success. “I am glad to be at +home again,” said Paula, as the pony carriage turned up the +steep drive, and the girls jumped out to walk. “I am +quite glad to feel the stones under my feet again!”</p> +<p>Magdalen laughed. “A new sentiment!” she +said.</p> +<p>“I don’t like the stones,” said Vera, +“but I did not know Filsted was such a poky +place.”</p> +<p>“A dead flat!” added Paula. “No sea, +no torrs! one wanted something to look at! and <i>such</i> a +church!”</p> +<p>“Did you see Minnie Maitland?” put in Thekla.</p> +<p>“I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry,” said +Vera. “I don’t remember which was which. +They were all dressed alike in horrid colours. Hubert said +they set his teeth on edge!”</p> +<p>“How was old Mrs. Delrio?”</p> +<p>“Just the same as ever, lean and pinched.”</p> +<p>“But so kind!” added Paula. “She could +not make enough of Flapsy.”</p> +<p>“I should think not!” ejaculated Vera. +“Enough! aye, and too much! just fancy, no dinner napkins! +and Edith went away and made the scones herself!”</p> +<p>“Very praiseworthy,” said Magdalen. +“Don’t you know how Hubert always tells us what a +dear devoted good girl she is?”</p> +<p>“Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in +that way,” said Vera. “His mother looks like a +half-starved hare, and Edith is giving lessons as a daily +governess!</p> +<p>“Edith is very nice,” said Paula; “and I +never understood before how excellent old Mr. Delrio’s +pictures are! Do you remember his ‘Country +Lane’? What a pity it did not sell!”</p> +<p>“Poor man!” said Magdalen. “He married +too soon, and that has kept him down.”</p> +<p>“It is beautiful to see how proud they are of +Hubert,” said Paula, “and his pretty gentle attention +and deference to them both. Mr. Delrio is really a +gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie,” she said, falling back +with her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, “it was +very odd to see how different things looked to us from what they +seemed when we were at Mrs. Best’s. Filsted High +Street has grown so small, and one could hardly breathe in Mrs. +Delrio’s stuffy drawing-room. And as to Waring +Grange, which we used to think just perfect, it was all so +pretentious and in such bad taste. Hubert saw it as much as +we did, but I could see he was on thorns to hinder Flapsy from +making observations.”</p> +<p>Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making +the girls appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the +Goyle.</p> +<p>And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale +Leston, asking questions requiring some research in books, either +Magdalen’s or at the Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and +sighed over them; and when the more zealous Magdalen or Paula +took all the trouble, and left nothing for her to do but to copy +their notes, and write the letters, she grew cross. +“It was for Hubert, and she did not want any one else to +meddle! So stupid! If he had only taken Pratt and +Pavis’s offer, there would not have been all this +bother!”</p> +<p>That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and +Thekla, and it made them both so furious that she declared she +was only in joke, and did not mean it.</p> +<p>She was indulging in reflections on the general dulness of her +lot, and the lack of sympathy in her sisters, as she lingered by +the confectioner’s window, with her eyes fixed on a +gorgeous combination of coloured bonbons, when Wilfred Merrifield +sauntered out. “Fresh from Paris!” he +said. “Going to choose some?”</p> +<p>“Oh no, I haven’t got any cash. M. A. keeps +us horribly short.”</p> +<p>“As usual with governors! But look here! +Pocket this. Sweets to the sweet, from an old +chum!”</p> +<p>“Oh, Will, how jolly! Such a love of a +box.”</p> +<p>“Make haste! Some of the girls are lurking about, +and if there is any mischief to be made, trust Gill for doing +it.”</p> +<p>“Mischief!—” but before the words were out +of her mouth, Gillian and Mysie appeared from the next shop, a +bootmaker’s, and Mysie stood aghast with, “What +<i>are</i> you doing? Buying goodies! How very +ridiculous!”</p> +<p>“The proper thing between chums, isn’t it, +Vera?” said Wilfred, with an indifferent air. +“We aren’t unlucky Sunday scholars, Mysie, to be +jumped upon! Good-bye, Vera, <i>au revoir</i>!”</p> +<p>He sauntered away with his hands in his pockets; while +Gillian, from her eldership of two years, and her engagement, +gravely said, “Vera, perhaps you do not fully know, but I +should say this is not quite the thing.”</p> +<p>“He told you we are just chums!” exclaimed +Vera. “As if there were any harm in it! +You’ve not got a sweet tooth yourself, so you need not +grudge me just a few goodies.”</p> +<p>Gillian saw that it was of no use to prolong the dispute +either for the place or the time, and she hushed Mysie, who was +about to expostulate farther, and made her go away with a brief +parting, such as she hoped would impress on Vera that the sisters +thought very badly of her discretion and loyalty. They +could not hear the reflection, “They need not be so +particular and so cross. Hubert never thought of giving me +anything nice like this. Why should not my chum? Such +a sweet little box too, with a dear girl’s head on +it! Would Polly fuss about it, and set on Sister? I +shall put it into my own drawer, and then if they notice it, they +may think somebody at Filsted gave it! No one has any +business to worry me about Hubert, and Wilfred being civil to +me. He <i>is</i> a gentleman.”</p> +<p>The gentleman had been overtaken by his sisters. He was +walking his bicycle up the hill rather breathlessly and +slowly. Mysie indignantly began, “Of all the stupid +things to do, to give goodies to that girl, like a +baby!”</p> +<p>“I have been wishing to speak to you,” said +Gillian. “You are going the way to get that foolish +girl into a scrape.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, of course. Sisters uniformly object to a +little civility to a pretty girl,” carelessly answered +Wilfred.</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” returned Mysie, hotly. “We +don’t care! only it is not fair on Mr. Delrio.”</p> +<p>“The painter cad! A very good thing too! The +sacrifice ought to be prevented. Is not that the general +sentiment?”</p> +<p>“Wilfred!” cried the scandalised Mysie, +“when it is all the other way, and he is ever so much too +good for her.”</p> +<p>“Consummate prig! The cheek of him pretending to a +lady!”</p> +<p>“But, Wilfred,” went on downright Mysie, “is +it only mischief, or do you want to marry her +yourself?”</p> +<p>“Draw your own conclusions,” responded Wilfred, +mounting his machine, and spinning down the hill faster than they +could follow on foot.</p> +<p>“What is to be done, Gill?” sighed Mysie. +“Ought we to get mamma to speak to him?”</p> +<p>“Better not,” said Gillian, with more +experience. “It would only make it worse to take it +seriously. Half of it is play—and half to tease +you.”</p> +<p>“And,” said Mysie, with due deference to the +engaged sister, “how about Mr. Delrio? Will it make +him unhappy?”</p> +<p>“If he finds out in time what a horrid little thing it +is, I should say it would be very well for him; but I don’t +want Will to be the means.”</p> +<p>“Oh! when his examination is over, and he gets an +appointment, he will go away, and it will be safe.”</p> +<p>“I have not much hopes of his getting in!”</p> +<p>“Oh, Gill, none of us ever failed before.”</p> +<p>On the side of the Goyle not much was known or cared about +Wilfred’s little attentions, which were generally out of +sight of Magdalen, and did not amount to much; but Paula saw +enough of them to consult Agatha on, and to observe that Flapsy +was going on just as she used to at Filsted, and she thought +Hubert would not like it.</p> +<p>“I believe Flapsy can’t live without it,” +sighed Agatha.</p> +<p>“But would you speak to her? I don’t think +she ought to let him give her boxes of bonbons—to keep up +in her room, and never give a hint to Maidie.”</p> +<p>Agatha did speak but the effect was to set Vera into crying +out at every one being so intolerably cross about such a trifle, +Gillian Merrifield and all!</p> +<p>“Did Gillian speak to you?”</p> +<p>“Yes, as if she had any business to do so!”</p> +<p>“I am sure it is not the way she would treat Captain +Armitage.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe she cares for Captain Armitage +one bit! You said yourself that all the girls at Oxford +thought she cared much more for her horrid examination! I +wouldn’t be a dry, cold-hearted, insensible stick like her +for the world.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps she is the more quietly in earnest,” said +Agatha, repenting a little that she had told before Vera the +college jokes over what had leaked out of Gillian’s +reception of Ernley Armitage when he had hastened up to Oxford as +soon as his ship was paid off, and she had been called down to +him in the Lady Principal’s room. Report said that +she had only prayed him to keep out of the way, and not to upset +her brain, and that he had meekly obeyed—as one who knew +what it was to have promotion depending on it.</p> +<p>It was a half truth, exaggerated, but it had not a happy +effect on Vera. Nevertheless, the finishing push of +preparation brought on such a succession of violent headaches as +quite to disable the really delicate boy. Moreover, the +tutor declared that there had been little chance of his success, +and Dr. Dagger said that he had much better not try again. +The best hope for his health, and even for his life, was to keep +him at home for a few years, and give him light work.</p> +<p>He had never been the pleasantest element in the household; +and if his parents were glad of the avoidance of the risk of a +launch into the world, and his mother’s love rejoiced in +the power of watching over him, there were others who felt his +temper a continual trial, while his career was a perplexity.</p> +<p>However, Captain Henderson offered a clerkship at the Marble +Works, subject to Mr. White’s approval; and this was +gratefully accepted. Nor did Agatha come home again at the +Long Vacation for more than two days, in which there was no time +for consultation with her sisters on matters of uncertain +import.</p> +<p>Miss Arthuret and Elizabeth Merrifield had arranged together +to take the old roomy farmhouse on Penbeacon for three or four +months, and there receive parties of young women in need of rest, +fresh air, and, in some cases, of classes, or time for +study. It was to be a sort of Holiday House, though not +altogether of idleness; and Dolores undertook to be a kind of +vice-president, with Agatha to pursue her reading under her +superintendence, and to assist in helping others, governesses, +students, schoolmistresses from Coalham, in whose behalf indeed +the scheme had been first started, and it was extremely +delightful to Agatha, among many others.</p> +<h2><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +179</span>CHAPTER XIX—TWO WEDDINGS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“How happy by my mother’s side<br /> +When some dear friend became a bride!<br /> +To shine beyond the rest I was<br /> + In gay embroidery drest.<br /> +Vain of my drapery’s rich brocade,<br /> +I held my flowing locks to braid.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Anstice</span> +(<i>from the Greek</i>).</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Epidemics</span> of marriage set in +from time to time,” said Jane Mohun. “Gillian +has set the fashion.”</p> +<p>For the Rock Quay neighbourhood was in a state of excitement +over a letter from Mrs. White, of Rocca Marina, announcing the +approaching marriage of Mr. White’s niece, Maura, with Lord +Roger Grey, a nephew of dear Emily’s husband, and heir to +the Dukedom. The White family were coming home for the +wedding, and the interest entirely eclipsed that of Gillian +Merrifield’s. In fact, though that young lady +somewhat justified the Oxford stories, she was in a state of much +inward agitation between real love for Ernley, and pain in +leaving home, so she put on an absolutely imperturbable +demeanour. Her reserve and dread of comments made her so +undemonstrative and repressive to her Captain that there were +those who doubted whether she cared for him at all, or only +looked on her wedding as a mediæval maiden might have done, +as coming naturally a few years after she had grown up. +Ernley Armytage knew better, and so did her parents. The +wedding was hurried on by Captain Armytage’s appointment to +a frigate on the coast of Southern America, where he had to join +at once, in lieu of a captain invalided home; and Gillian +accepted the arrangements, which would take her to Rio, “as +much a matter of course,” said her aunt, “as if she +had been a wife for ten years.” Her uncle, Mr. Mohun, +was anxious that the marriage of his sister Lily’s daughter +should take place at the family home, Beechcroft. If there +had been scruples, chiefly founded on the largeness of the party, +and the trouble to Mrs. Mohun, these were forgotten in the +convenience of being out of the way of Rockstone gossip, as well +as for other reasons.</p> +<p>“I should certainly have escaped,” said General +Mohun. “I have no notion of meeting that unmitigated +scamp.”</p> +<p>“Mr. White ought to be warned,” said Jane.</p> +<p>“You’ll do so, I suppose; and much good it will +be.”</p> +<p>“I do not imagine that it will. It will be too +charming to surpass Franciska and Ivinghoe; but if neither you +nor Jasper will speak to old Tom, I shall deliver my conscience +to Ada.”</p> +<p>“And be advised to mind your own business.”</p> +<p>Nevertheless, Jane Mohun did deliver her conscience, when, on +the day after the arrival, there had been loud lamentations over +the intended absence of the Merrifield family. “It +would have looked well to make it a double wedding, all in the +family,” said Mr. White.</p> +<p>To which Miss Mohun only answered by a silence which Mrs. +White was unwilling to break, but Maura exclaimed—</p> +<p>“But I thought Valetta would be sure to be my +bridesmaid. Such friends as we were at the High +School!”</p> +<p>It did not strike Miss Mohun that the friendship had been very +close or very beneficial; but Adeline added, “We thought +she would pair so well with Vera Prescott, and then uncle will +give all the dresses—white silk with cerise +trimmings. We ordered them in Paris.”</p> +<p>“Uncle Tom is so generous!” said Maura. +“There is no end to his kindness. I’ll go and +unpack some of the patterns, that Miss Mohun may see +them.”</p> +<p>She tripped out of the room, and Jane exclaimed, “Poor +child! Has Emily written to you, Ada?”</p> +<p>“Yes, rather stiffly. Mr. White thinks it +aristocratic pride.”</p> +<p>“Ada, you know it is not that.”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose the Greys are hardly gratified by the +connection, though Mr. White will make it worth their +while. You see the Duke leaves everything in his power to +his daughters, so poor Roger will be very badly off.”</p> +<p>“But—” There was so much expressed in +that “but” that Adeline began to answer one of the +sentiments she supposed it to convey. “He can do it +easily—for all the rest are provided for by the Marble +Works—except the two eldest brothers. Richard has +gone away, and Alexis—oh, you know he has notions of his +own that Mr. White does not like.”</p> +<p>“Does Mr. White know all about Lord Roger, or why the +Duke should cut him off as far as possible?”</p> +<p>“My dear Jane, it is not charitable to bring things up +against young men’s follies.”</p> +<p>“It is a pretty considerable folly to have done what +compelled him to retire. Reginald was called in at the +inquiry, and knows all about it.”</p> +<p>“But that was ages ago, and he has been quite +distinguished in the Turkish army.”</p> +<p>“Yes; and I also know that English gentlemen have +associated with him as little as possible. I should call it +a fatal thing to let Maura marry him. What does Captain +Henderson say?”</p> +<p>“Mr. White thinks that it is all jealousy. And +really, Jenny, I do not in the least believe that he will make +her unhappy. He is old enough to have quite outgrown all +his wild ways, and he has quite gentlemanly manners and +ways. Besides, Maura likes him, and is quite bent upon +it.”</p> +<p>Still there was a dissatisfied look on Jane’s face, and +Adeline went on answering it, with tears in her eyes. +“My dear Jane, I know what you would say, and what Reginald +and all the rest feel, that it is not what we should like! +But, my dear, don’t let the whole family rise up in +arms! It would be of no use, only make it painful for +me. Maura is quite bent upon it, and she has arrived at +turning her uncle round her finger so much that I am sometimes +hardly mistress of the house! Oh, I don’t tell any +one, not Lily nor any one, but it will really be a relief to me +when she is gone, with her Greek coaxing ways. Her uncle is +wrapped up in her, and so proud of her being a Duchess that he +would condone anything. Indeed, I am always afraid of her +putting it into his head to suppose that her disappointment about +Ivinghoe was in any way owing to my family pride.”</p> +<p>Jane was sorry for Adeline, and able to perceive how the +wifely feelings, which she had taken on herself, by choosing a +man of inferior breeding and nature clashed with her hereditary +character and principles.</p> +<p>“You are absolutely relieved that the Beechcroft wedding +takes all of us out of the way naturally and without +offence,” she said so kindly that Ada laid her head on her +sisterly shoulder, and allowed herself to shed a few tears.</p> +<p>“Yes, yes,” she said; “I am glad to have so +good a reason to mention. Only I do hope Jasper will not +object to Valetta’s coming back to be bridesmaid. +That would really be a blow and give offence, and it would make +difficulties with others—even James Henderson, who swears +by Jasper. I have often wished they would have done as I +advised, and have had this wedding at Rocca Marina, out of the +way of everybody! I sometimes think it will be the death of +me. Do come home to help me through it.”</p> +<p>She spoke so like the Ada of old that it went to Jane’s +heart.</p> +<p>She promised that she would return in time to give the very +substantial assistance in which all believed, and the more +sentimental support in which nobody believed, though her distaste +arose tenfold after seeing the bridegroom, who looked like an old +satyr, all the more because Maura was like a Greek nymph. +Mrs. Henderson was much grieved, and had tried remonstrance with +her sister, but found her quite impervious.</p> +<p>Glad were all the Merrifields to escape to the quiet +atmosphere of Beechcroft, where the relations were able to +congregate between the Court, the Vicarage, and the more-distant +Rotherwood; and the wedding was an ideal one in ecclesiastical +beauty, and the festivities of those who had known and loved Lady +Merrifield as Miss Lily in early youth, grandmothers who had been +her schoolchildren, and were pleased to hear that she was a +grandmother herself, and hoped in a year or two to welcome her +grandchildren.</p> +<p>Alethea and her little Somervilles she had seen <i>en +route</i> to Canada, and Phyllis was to come in due time when +Bernard Underwood could be spared from the bank in Colombo, and +they would bring their little pair.</p> +<p>In the matter of bridesmaids Gillian certainly had the +advantage, for she was amply provided with sisters and cousins, +Dolores coming for a few days for the wedding; whereas the six +whom Maura had provided for beforehand in Paris were only, as +Miss Jane said, “scraped up” with difficulty from +former schoolfellows. Lord Roger’s nieces would not +hear of being present. Paulina was unwillingly pressed into +the service, as well as the more willing Vera; but Mysie +Merrifield was not to be persuaded to give up her visit to Lady +Phyllis, and Aunt Jane could only carry home Valetta, who held +the whole as “capital fun,” and liked the acquisition +of the white silk and lace and cerise ribbons. Dolores had +negotiated that No. 6 of the Vanderkist girls should spend a year +with Miss Mohun for a final polish at the High School at Rock +Quay, so as to be with her brother Adrian, who was completing his +term at the preparatory school before his launch at +Winchester.</p> +<p>Wilfred also returned, father and uncle having decided that he +did not merit a game licence, nor to attack the partridges of +Beechcroft, and the prospect of the gaieties of Cliffe House +consoled him.</p> +<p>Adeline had to endure her husband’s mortification at +other disappointments. The Ducal family was wholly +unrepresented. Even Emily, the connecting link, would not +venture on the journey; and the clerical nephew was not +sufficiently gratified by Lord Roger’s intention to <i>se +ranger</i> to undertake to officiate; and a Bishop, who had +enjoyed the hospitality of Rocca Marina, proved to have other +engagements. No clergyman could be imported except +Maura’s brother Alexis, who had been two years at work at +Coalham under Mr. Richard Burnet, and had just been appointed by +the newly-chosen Bishop of Onomootka, and both were to go out +with him as chaplains. In the meantime, while the Bishop +was preparing, by tours in England, Alexis undertook the duties +of Mr. Flight’s curate, rejoicing in the opportunity of +seeing his elder sister, and the old friends with whom he had +never been since his unlucky troubles with Gillian Merrifield, +now no more.</p> +<p>The delight of receiving him compensated to Kalliope Henderson +for much that was distressing to both in Maura’s +choice. The seven years that had passed had made him into a +noble-looking man, with a handsome classical countenance, lighted +up by earnestness and devotion, a fine voice and much musical +skill, together with a bright attractive manner that, all +unconsciously on his part, had turned the heads of half the young +womanhood of Coalham, and soon had the same effect at Rock +Quay.</p> +<p>Vera and Paulina were in a state of much excitement over their +white silks, in which the three other sisters took great pleasure +in arraying them, and Thekla only wished that Hubert could see +them. She should send him out a photograph, buying it +herself with her own money.</p> +<p>She was, of course, to see the wedding, in her Sunday white +and broad pink sash, of the appropriateness of which she was +satisfied when, at Beechcroft, they met Miss Mohun’s young +friend, Miss Vanderkist, in the same garb. She and her +brother had been put under Magdalen’s protection, as Miss +Mohun was too much wanted at Cliffe House to look after them; but +Sir Adrian, a big boy of twelve, wanted to go his own way, and +only handed her over with “Hallo, Miss Prescott! +you’ll look after this pussy-cat of ours while Aunt Jane is +dosing Aunt Ada with salts and sal volatile. +She—I’ll introduce you! Miss Prescott, Miss +Felicia Vanderkist! She wants to be looked after, she is a +little kitten that has never seen anything! I’m off +to Martin’s.”</p> +<p>The stranger did look very shy. She was a slight +creature, not yet seventeen, with an abundant mass of long golden +silk hair tied loosely, and a very lovely face and complexion, so +small that she was a miniature edition of Lady Ivinghoe.</p> +<p>Her name was Wilmet Felicia, but the latter half had been +always used in the family, and there was something in the kitten +grace that suited the arbitrary contractions well. In fact, +Jane Mohun had been rather startled to find that she had the +charge of such a little beauty, when she saw how people turned +around at the station to look, certainly not at Valetta, who was +a dark bright damsel of no special mark.</p> +<p>At church, however, every one was in much too anxious a state +to gaze at the coming procession to have any eyes to spare for a +childish girl in a quiet white frock. St. Andrew’s +had never seen such a crowded congregation, for it was a wedding +after Mr. White’s own heart, in which nobody dared to +interfere, not even his wife, whatever her good taste might +think. So the church was filled, and more than filled, by +all who considered a wedding as legitimate gape seed, and +themselves as not bound to fit behaviour in church. On such +an occasion Magdalen, being a regular attendant, and connected +with the bridesmaids, was marshalled by a churchwarden into a +reserved seat; but there they were dismayed by the voices and the +scrambling behind them, which, in the long waiting, the Vicar +from the vestry vainly tried to subdue by severe looks; and +Felicia, whose notions of wedding behaviour were moulded on Vale +Lecton and Beechcroft, looked as if she thought she had got into +the house of Duessa, amid all Pride’s procession, as in the +prints in the large-volumed “Faërie Queene.”</p> +<p>And when, on the sounds of an arrival, the bridegroom stood +forth, the resemblance to Sans Foy was only too striking, while +the party swept up the church, the bride in the glories of cobweb +veil, white satin, &c., becomingly drooping on her +uncle’s arm, while he beamed forth, expansive in figure and +countenance, with delight. Little Jasper Henderson, anxious +and patronising to his tiny brother Alexis, both in white +pages’ dresses picked out with cerise, did his best to +support the endless glistening train.</p> +<p>The bridesmaids’ costumes taxed the descriptive powers +of the milliners in splendour and were scarcely eclipsed by the +rich brocade and lace of Mrs. White, as she sailed in on Captain +Henderson’s arm; but her elaborate veil and feathery bonnet +hardly concealed the weary tedium of her face, though to the +shame, well nigh horror, of her sister, she was rouged. +“I must, I must,” she said; “he would be vexed +if I looked pale.”</p> +<p>It was true that “he” loved her heartily, and that +he put all the world at her service; but she had learnt where he +must not be offended, and was on her guard. Hers had been +the last wedding that Jane had attended in St. +Andrew’s. “Did she repent?” was +Jane’s thought. No, probably not. She had the +outward luxuries she had craved for, and her husband was +essentially a good man, though not of the caste to which her +instincts belonged—very superior in nature and conscience +to him to whom his blinded vanity was now giving his beautiful +niece, a willing sacrifice.</p> +<p>It was over! More indecorous whispering and thronging; +and the procession came down the aisle, to be greeted outside by +a hail of confetti and rice; the schoolboys, profiting by the +dinner interval, and headed by Adrian, had jostled themselves +into the foreground, and they ran headlong to the portico of +Cliffe House to renew the shower.</p> +<p>And there, unluckily, Mr. White recognised the boy, and, +pleased to have anything with a title to show, turned him round +to the bridegroom, with, “Here, Lord Roger, let me +introduce a guest, Sir Adrian Vanderkist.”</p> +<p>“Ha, I didn’t know poor Van had left a son. +I knew your father, my boy. Where was it I saw him +last? Poor old chap!”</p> +<p>“You must come in to taste the cake, my boy,” +began Mr. White.</p> +<p>“Thank you, Mr. White, I must get back to +Edgar’s. Late already. The others are +off.”</p> +<p>“Not a holiday! For shame! He’ll +excuse you. I’ll send a note down to say you must +stay to drink the health of your father’s old +friend.”</p> +<p>Those words settled the matter with Adrian. The holiday +was enticing, and might have overpowered the chances of a +scholarship, for which he was working; but he had begun to know +that there were perplexities from which it was safer to retreat; +and that he had never transgressed his Uncle Clement’s +warning might be read in the clear open face that showed already +the benefits, not only of discipline, but of self-control. +So obedience answered the question; though, as he again thanked +and refused, he looked so dogged as he turned and walked off, +that Ethel Varney whispered to Vera that at school he was called, +“the Dutchman, if not the Boer.”</p> +<p>Nor did he ever mention the temptation or his own +resistance. Only Mr. White asked Miss Mohun to bring him to +the dance which was to be given in the evening, telling her of +his refusal of the invitation to wedding cake and champagne and +she—mindful of her duty to her charge as hinted by Clement +Underwood—had not granted the honour of his presence on the +score of his school obligations.</p> +<p>The afternoon was spent in desultory wanderings about the +gardens, Magdalen and her sisters being invited guests, and Vera +in a continual state of agitated expectation. Had not +Wilfred Merrifield always been a cavalier of her own? And +here he was, paying no attention to her, with all the +embellishment of her bridesmaid’s adornments, and squiring +instead that little insignificant Felicia, in a simple hat, and +hair still on her shoulders; whilst she had to put up with +nothing better than a young Varney, who was very shy, and had +never probably mastered croquet.</p> +<p>She was an ill-used mortal; and why had she not Hubert to show +how superior she was to them all, in having a piece of property +of her own to show off?</p> +<p>There was Paula, too, playing animated tennis with that +clerical brother of the bride, who had been talking to Magdalen +about the frescoes of St. Kenelm’s (as if she, Vera, had +not the greatest right to know all about those frescoes!). +Even little Thekla was better off, for she was reigning over a +merry party of the little ones, which had been got up for the +benefit of the small Hendersons, and of which Theodore White had +constituted himself the leader, being a young man passionately +devoted to little children.</p> +<p>So when the guests dispersed to eat their dinner at their +homes and dress for the dance, Vera was extremely cross. +Each of the other three had some delightful experiences to talk +over; but whether it was Mr. Theodore’s fun in acting ogre +behind the great aloe, or Mr. Alexis’s achievements with +the croquet ball, or his information about the Red Indians and +Onomootka, she was equally ungracious to all; she scolded Thekla +for crumpling her skirt, and was quite sure that Paula had on the +wrong <i>fichu</i> that was meant for her. Each bridesmaid +had been presented with a bracelet, like a snake with ruby eyes; +but Vera, fingering hers with fidgeting petulance, seemed to have +managed to loosen the clasp, and when arranging her dress for the +evening thought that her snake had escaped.</p> +<p>Upstairs and downstairs she rushed in hopes of finding +it. The cab in which they had returned was gone home to +come again, and there was the chance that it might be there or in +the Cliffe House gardens; and then the others tried to console +her, but they were not able to hinder a violent burst of crying, +which scandalised Thekla.</p> +<p>“I am sure you couldn’t cry more if you had lost +Hubert’s, and that would be something worth crying +about.”</p> +<p>Hubert’s was an ingeniously worked circle of scales of +Californian gold, the first ornament that Vera had ever +possessed, and that all the sisters had set great store by. +But with an outcry of joy Vera exclaimed, “Here’s the +snake all safe! I pushed the other up my arm because it +looked so plain and dull, and it was that which came +off.”</p> +<p>“That is a great deal worse than losing the +snake,” said Thekla. “He has a nasty face, and +I don’t like him, with his red eyes.”</p> +<p>“Don’t be silly,” returned Vera; “this +is a great deal more valuable.”</p> +<p>“Surely the value is in the giver,” said Paula; to +which Vera returned in the same vein, “Don’t be silly +and sentimental, Polly.”</p> +<p>She was so much cheered by the recovery of the snake that they +brought her off to the evening dance without a fresh fit of +ill-humour, and she sprang out under the portico of Cliffe House, +with her spirits raised to expectation pitch.</p> +<p>But disappointment was in store for her. It was not +disappointment in other eyes. Paula had all the attention +she expected or desired, she danced almost every time and did not +reckon greatly on who might be her partner. What pleased +and honoured her most was being asked to dance by Captain +Henderson himself.</p> +<p>What was it to Vera, however, that partners came to her, young +men of Rock Quay whom she knew already and did not care +about? And she never once had the pleasure of saying that +she was keeping the next dance for Wilfred Merrifield! To +her perceptions, he was always figuring away with Felicia +Vanderkist, her golden hair seemed always gleaming with him; and +though this was not always the case, as the nephew of the house +was one of those who had duties to guests and was not allowed by +his aunts to be remiss, yet whenever he was not ordered about by +them, he was sure to be found by Felicia’s side.</p> +<p>Vera’s one consolation was that Alexis White took her to +supper. To be sure he was a clergyman, and had stood +talking to Lady Flight half the time, and his conversation turned +at once to Hubert Delrio’s frescoes; but then he was very +handsome, and graceful in manner, and he sympathised with her on +the loss of her bracelet, and promised to have a search for it by +daylight in the gardens.</p> +<h2><a name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +194</span>CHAPTER XX—FLEETING</h2> +<blockquote><p>“And variable as the shade<br /> +By the light quivering aspen made.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> bracelet came to light in the +gardens of Cliffe House the next morning, and Alexis White walked +over to the Goyle to return it safely, little guessing, when he +set forth to enjoy the sight of the purple moors, and to renew +old recollections, what a flutter of gratified vanity would be +excited in one silly little breast, though he only stayed ten +minutes, and casually asked whether the sisters were coming to +Lady Flight’s garden party. Everybody was going +there. Miss Mohun even took Felicia, as it was on a +Saturday’s holiday; and, unwittingly, she renewed all the +agitation caused by Wilfred’s admiration, and that of +others, to the all-unconscious girl. Vera could no longer +think herself the reigning belle of Rock Quay, though she talked +of Felicia as a schoolgirl or a baby, or a horrid little forward +chit! Her excitement was, however, divided between Wilfred +and Mr. Alexis White, who could not look in her direction without +putting her in a state of eagerness.</p> +<p>In this, however, she was not alone. Half the ladies +were interested about him; his manners were charming, his voice +in church beautiful, and his destination as chaplain to a +missionary bishop made him doubly interesting; while he himself, +even though his mind was set on higher things, was really +enjoying his brief holiday, and his sister, Mrs. Henderson, was +delighted to promote his pleasure, and garden parties and the +like flourished as long as weather permitted; and as Vera was a +champion player, she was sure to be asked to the tournaments, and +to have to practise for them.</p> +<p>Inopportunely there arrived a letter from Hubert, requiring an +answer about the form of ornament in the moulding of the +fourteenth century! Paula dutifully went to the library, +looked out and traced two or three examples, French and +English. Nothing remained but for Vera to write the letter +after the early dinner. However, she went to sleep in a +hammock, and only roused herself to recollect that there was to +be tea and lawn tennis at Carrara.</p> +<p>“Won’t you just write to Hubert first?”</p> +<p>“Oh, bother, how can I now? Don’t worry +so!”</p> +<p>“But, Flapsy, he really needs it without loss of +time.”</p> +<p>“I’m sure he has no right to make me his clerk in +that horrid peremptory way, as if one had nothing else to do but +wait on his fads.”</p> +<p>“Flapsy, how can you?” broke out even Thekla.</p> +<p>“Surely it is the greatest honour,” said +Paula.</p> +<p>“Well, do it yourself then, I’m not going to be +bothered for ever.”</p> +<p>Thekla went off, in great indignation, to beg +“sister” to speak to Flapsy, and beg her not to use +dear Hubert so very very badly, which of course Magdalen refused +to do, and Thekla had her first lesson on the futility of +interfering with engaged folk; Paula meanwhile sent off the +despatch, with one line to say that Vera was too busy to write +that day.</p> +<p>There had been two or three letters from Hubert, over which +Vera had looked cross, but had said nothing; and at last she came +down from her own room, and announced passionately, +“There! I have done with Mr. Hubert Delrio, and have +written to tell him so!”</p> +<p>“Vera, what have you done?”</p> +<p>“Written to tell him I have no notion of a man being so +tiresome and dictatorial! I don’t want a schoolmaster +to lecture me, and expect me to drudge over his work as if I was +his clerk.”</p> +<p>“My dear,” said Magdalen, “have you had a +letter that vexed you? Had you not better wait a little to +think it over?”</p> +<p>“No! Nonsense, Maidie! He has been provoking +ever so long, and I won’t bear it any longer!” and +she flounced into a chair.</p> +<p>“Provoking! Hubert!” was all Paulina could +utter, in her amazement and horror.</p> +<p>“Oh, I daresay you would like it well enough! +Always at me to slave for him with stupid architectural drawings +and stuff, as if I was only a sort of clerk or fag! And +boring me to read great dull books, and preaching to me about +them, expecting to know what I think! Dear me!”</p> +<p>“Those nice letters!” sighed Paula.</p> +<p>“Nice! As if any one that was one bit in love +would write such as that! No, I don’t want to marry a +schoolmaster or a tyrant!”</p> +<p>“How can you, Flapsy?” went on Paula, so +vehemently that Magdalen left the defence thus far to her; +“when he only wishes for your sympathy and +improvement.”</p> +<p>The worst plea she could have used, thought the elder sister, +as Vera broke out with, “Improvement, indeed! If he +cared for me, he would not think I wanted any +<i>improving</i>! But he never did! Or he would have +taken Pratt and Povis’ offer, and I should have been living +in London and keeping my carriage! Or he would have taken +me to Italy! But that horrid home of his, and his mother +just like a half-starved hare! I might have seen then it +was not fit for me; but I was a child, and over-persuaded among +you all! But I know better now, and I know my own mind, as +I didn’t then. So you need not talk! I have +done with him.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Flapsy, Flapsy, how can you grieve him so? +You don’t know what you are throwing away!” +incoherently cried Paula, collapsing in a burst of tears. +“Maidie, Maidie, why don’t you speak to her, and tell +her how wicked it +is—and—and—and—”</p> +<p>The rest was cut short by sobs.</p> +<p>“No, Paula, authority or reasoning of mine would not +touch such a mood as this. We must leave it to Hubert +himself. If she really cares for him, she will have +recovered from her fit of temper by the time his letter can come, +and it may have an effect upon her, if our tongues have not +increased her spirit of opposition. I strongly advise you +to say nothing.”</p> +<p>Paula tried to take her sister’s advice, and would have +adhered to it, but that Vera would talk and try to make her +declare the rupture to have been justified; and this produced an +amount of wrangling which did good to no one. Magdalen +really rejoiced when the frequent golf and tennis parties carried +Vera on her bicycle out of reach of arguing, even if it took her +into the alternative of flirtation.</p> +<p>Thekla cried bitterly, and declared that she should never +speak to Flapsy again; but in half an hour’s time was heard +chattering about the hedgehog’s meal of cockroaches. +In another week the excitement was over. The Bishop of +Onomootka had come and gone, after holding meetings and preaching +sermons at Rock Quay and all the villages round, and had carried +off Alexis White with him.</p> +<p>Nothing had come of the intercourse of the latter with his +rich uncle, nor of the varieties of encounters with the damsels +of Rock Quay, except that society was declared by more than one +to have become horridly flat and slow.</p> +<p>Vera was one of these, and the letters received from Hubert +Delrio did not stir up a fresh excitement. There were no +persuasions to revoke her decision, no urgent entreaties, no +declaration of being heart-broken. He acquiesced in her +assurance that the engagement had been a mistake; and he wrote at +more length to Magdalen, avowing that he had for some time past +traced discontent in Vera’s letters, and fearing that he +had been too didactic and peremptory in writing to her. He +relinquished the engagement with much regret, and should always +regard it as having been a fair summer dream—but, though +undeserving, he hoped still to retain Miss Prescott’s +kindness and friendship, which had been of untold value to +him.</p> +<p>A little more zeal and distress would have been much more +pleasing to Vera; and she began to be what Agatha and Thekla +called cross, and Paula called drooping, and even excited alarm +in her, lest Flapsy should be going into a decline. But a +note came to the Goyle which Magdalen read alone, and likewise +she cycled alone to Rockstone.</p> +<p>“Miss Mohun, can you give me a few minutes?” said +she, as the trim little figure emerged from beneath the copper +beeches, basket in hand.</p> +<p>“By all means; I shall not be due at the cutting-out +meeting till three o’clock.”</p> +<p>“I wanted to consult you about an invitation that Mrs. +White has been so very kind as to give my little sister, +Vera.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” quoth Jane Mohun, in a dry sort of tone.</p> +<p>“I know that she had wished to take out one of her own +nieces to Rocca Marina, but that Sir Jasper did not wish it, and +I thought perhaps it would be easier for you than for Lady +Merrifield to tell me whether there is any objection that would +apply to Vera.”</p> +<p>“I suppose Vera wishes to go?”</p> +<p>“She is so wild with delight that it would be a serious +thing to disappoint her. Mrs. White is very kind and good, +and has thought that she has flagged of late, and has supposed it +might be due to poor Hubert Delrio, but, indeed, it was no fault +of his.”</p> +<p>“None at all, except for out-growing her.”</p> +<p>“The offer was hinted at to go with Valetta even before +we knew it was declined at Clipstone, and that made me anxious to +know whether it would be well for me to send Vera. I +suppose she would pick up pronunciation of languages, which would +be a great advantage, as she will have to earn her own living, +and Mrs. White is so good as to promise lessons in arts and +music. I hear, too, it is quite an English colony, with a +church and schools.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, Mr. White is a very good and careful man about +his workmen. I have been there at the Henderson’s +wedding, and it is a charming place, a castle fit for Mrs. +Radclyffe, with English comforts, and an Italian garden and an +English village on the mountain side. My sister would do +all that she promises, and would look after any young girl very +well; you may quite trust her.”</p> +<p>“Then is there any fear of Italian society?—not +that poor Vera has any attraction <i>of that kind</i>,” +hesitated Magdalen.</p> +<p>“None at all. All the society they have is of +English travellers coming with introductions. I fancy it is +very dull at times, and that Adeline wants a young person about +her. You need have no fears. Ah! I see you +still want to know why the Merrifields don’t consent. +It is not their way. They would not let the Rotherwoods +have Mysie to bring up with Phyllis, and—and Val is just +the being that needs a mother’s eye over her. But I +really and honestly think that your Vera may quite safely be put +under Adeline’s care, and that she is likely to be all the +better for it.”</p> +<p>“One thing more,” added Magdalen, with a little +hesitation; “is your nephew, Wilfred, likely to be one of +the party?”</p> +<p>“None at all. His father wants to keep him under +his own eye, and his mother is anxious about his health; nor do I +think Mr. White wants him, having his own two nephews, who are +useful, so he will remain under Captain Henderson +here.”</p> +<p>“Thank you! That settles it in my mind. I am +sure the change to a fresh home will be an excellent thing for my +poor Vera, and that the training of imitation of one to whom she +looks up is what she most needs.”</p> +<p>“Very true,” said Miss Mohun.</p> +<p>And as she afterwards said to Lady Merrifield, “It was +in all sincerity and honesty that I gave the advice to Magdalen, +who is very sensible in the matter. In plain English, Ada +can’t do without a lady in waiting, and Vera probably +fancies that Lords, young or old, start from every wave like the +spirits of our fathers, at Rocca Marina, in which she will +probably be disappointed; but Ada will be a very dragon as to her +manners and discretion, and not being his own niece, old Tom +White will not be deluded by his ambition and any blandishments +of hers. As people go, they are very safe guardians, and +Vera—Flapsy as they call her—is just of the +composition to be improved, and not disimproved, by living with +Ada.”</p> +<p>“Probably, though I do not like the foolish little puss +to be rewarded for throwing over young Delrio.”</p> +<p>“He was so much too good for her that I am more inclined +to reward her for doing so!”</p> +<p>Agatha, however, came home somewhat annoyed by the whole +arrangement. She supposed the rupture with Hubert might +have been inevitable; but she was very sorry for it, thinking +that Vera might have grown up to him, and regretting the losing +him as a brother. Nor did she like the atmosphere of the +Whites and Rocca Marina for her feather-brained young +sister. “Dolores had no great opinion of her Aunt +Adeline,” she said.</p> +<p>“My dear,” said Magdalen, as they sat over their +early fire, “I have talked it over with Lady Merrifield and +Miss Mohun, and they both tell me that Mrs. White is very +sensible, and sure to be discreet for any girl in her +charge—probably better for Flapsy than a more intellectual +woman.”</p> +<p>“But—! Such a marriage as this one!” +said Agatha.</p> +<p>“It was Mr. White’s own niece, and taken out of +Mrs. White’s hands,” said Magdalen. +“Besides,” as Agatha still looked unconvinced, +“one thing that made me think the invitation desirable was +that it would break off any foolishness with Wilfred +Merrifield—I think it was in their minds too.”</p> +<p>“Wilfred! Oh, there was a little +nonsense.”</p> +<p>“Less on his side, since Felicia Vanderkist has been +here; but I think Vera has been all the more disposed +to—to—”</p> +<p>“Run after him,” said Agatha. “I could +fancy it in Flapsy; but he is such a boy, and not half so +nice-looking as the rest of them either.”</p> +<p>“My dear Agatha, I must tell you he reminds me strangely +of a young Mr. Merrifield whom I knew at Filsted when I was +younger than you.”</p> +<p>“A brother of Bessie?”</p> +<p>“Even so. He got into some kind of trouble at +Filsted, his father came and broke it off, and sent him out to +Canada, where I fear he did not do well, and nothing has been +heard of him since, except—”</p> +<p>She spoke with a catch in her voice which made Agatha look up +at her, and detect a rising colour.</p> +<p>“Nothing!” she repeated.</p> +<p>“Except an anonymous parcel, returning to the brothers +in Canada the sum he had taken with him. Strangely, the +clue was not followed up, and he is lost sight of! But +Wilfred’s air, and still more his manner, is always +recalling his cousin to me, and, Nag, dear, I could not bear to +see Vera go through the same trial by my exposing her to the +intercourse. Not that I know any harm of Wilfred, but his +parents could not like anything of the kind.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not! Yes, I suppose you are right, dear +old Maidie.” But Agatha pondered over those words +that had slipped out, “the same trial.”</p> +<h2><a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +204</span>CHAPTER XXI—THE ELECTRICIANS</h2> +<blockquote><p> “Thou shalt have the +air<br /> +Of freedom. Follow and do me service.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—“<span +class="smcap">The Tempest</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Is</span> Agatha in?” asked +Dolores Mohun, jumping off her bicycle as she saw Magdalen, on a +frosty day the next Christmas vacation, in her garden.</p> +<p>“She is doing scientific arithmetic with Thekla; giving +me a holiday, in fact! You University maidens quite take +the shine out of us poor old teachers.”</p> +<p>“Ah! if we can give shine we can’t give +substance. But I want to borrow Nag, if you have no +objection.”</p> +<p>“Borrow her! I am sure it is something she will +like.”</p> +<p>“It is in the way of business, but she will like it all +the same. They want me to give a course of lectures on +electricity at Bexley to the Institute and the two High Schools, +and I particularly want a skilled assistant, whom I can depend +upon; not masters, nor boys! Now Nag is just what I should +like. We should stay at Lancelot Underwood’s, a very +charming place to be at.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t he some connection?”</p> +<p>“Connection all round. Phyllis Merrifield married +his brother, banking in Ceylon, and may come home any day on a +visit; and Ivinghoe’s pretty wife is Lancelot’s +niece. He edits what is really the crack newspaper of the +county, in spite of its being true blue Conservative, Church and +all.”</p> +<p>“The <i>Pursuivant</i>? It has such good literary +articles.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! Mrs. Grinstead and Canon Harewood write +them. His wife is a daughter of old Dr. May—rather a +peculiar person, but very jolly in her way.”</p> +<p>“But would they like to have Agatha imposed upon +them?”</p> +<p>“Certainly; they are just the people to like nothing +better, and it will only be for a fortnight. I have settled +it all with them.”</p> +<p>At which Magdalen looked a little doubtful, but Dolores +reiterated that there need be no scruple, she might ask Aunt Lily +if she liked; but Lance Underwood was Mayor, and member of all +the committees, and the most open-hearted man in the world +besides, and it was all right.</p> +<p>To the further demur as to safety, Dolores answered that to +light a candle or sit by the fire might be dangerous, but as long +as people were careful, it was all right, and Agatha had already +assisted in some experiments at Rock Quay, which had shown her to +be thoroughly understanding and trustworthy, and capable of +keeping off the amateur—the great bugbear.</p> +<p>So Magdalen consented, after rapturous desires on the part of +Agatha, and assurances from General Mohun that Dolores had it in +her by inheritance and by training to meddle with the lightning +as safely as human being might; and Lady Merrifield owned with a +sigh that she must accept as a fact that what even the heathens +owned as a Divine mystery and awful attribute, had come to be +treated as a commonplace business messenger and scientific toy, +though (as Mrs. Gatty puts it) the mystery had only gone +deeper. So much for the peril; and for the other scruple, +it was set at rest by a hospitable letter from Mrs. Underwood, +heartily inviting Miss Agatha Prescott, as an Oxford friend of +Gillian.</p> +<p>So off the two electricians set, and after two days of +business and sight-seeing in London, went down to Bexley. +In the third-class carriage in which they travelled they were +struck by the sight of a tall lady in mourning—a sort of +compromise between a conventual and a secular bonnet over short +fair hair, and holding on her lap a tiny little girl of about six +years old, with a small, pinched, delicate face and slightly red +hair, to whom she pointed out by name each spot they passed, +herself wearing an earnest absorbed look of recognition as she +pointed out familiar landmark after landmark till the darkness +came down. Also there were two cages—one with a small +pink cockatoo, and another with two budgerigars.</p> +<p>As the train began slackening Dolores exclaimed:</p> +<p>“There he is! Lance—!”</p> +<p>“Lance! Oh, Lance!” was echoed; and setting +the child down, her companion almost fell across Agatha, and was +at the window as the train stopped.</p> +<p>What happened in the next moment no one could quite tell; but +as the door was torn open there was a mingled cry of +“Angel!” and of “Lance!” and the +traveller was in his arms, turning the next moment to lift out +the frightened little girl, who clung tight round her neck; while +Lance held out his hand with, “Dolores! Yes. +This is Dolores, Angel, whom you have never seen.”</p> +<p>Each knew who the other was in a moment, and clasped hands in +greeting, as well as they could with the one, and the other +receiving bird-cages, handbags, umbrellas, and rugs from Agatha, +whom, however, Lance relieved of them with a courteous, +“Miss Prescott! You have come in for the arrival of +my Australian sister! What luggage have you?” +Wherewith all was absorbed in the recognition of boxes, and +therewith a word or two to an old railway official, “My +sister Angela.”</p> +<p>“Miss Angela! this is an unexpected pleasure!”</p> +<p>“Tom Lightfoot! is it you? You are not much +altered. Mr. Dane, I should have known you anywhere!” +with corresponding shakes of the hand.</p> +<p>“Yes, that’s ours. Oh, the birds! +There they are! All right! Oh! not the omnibus, +Lance! Let the traps go in that! Then Lena will like +to stretch her legs, and I must revel in the old +street.”</p> +<p>Dolores and Agatha felt it advisable to squeeze themselves +with the bird-cages into the omnibus, and leave the brother and +sister to walk down together, though the little girl still +adhered closely to her protector’s hand.</p> +<p>“Poor Field’s little one? Yes, of +course.”</p> +<p>“But tell me! tell me of them all!”</p> +<p>“All well! all right! But how—”</p> +<p>“The <i>Mozambique</i> was out of coal and had to put in +at Falmouth. You know, I came by her because they said the +long sea voyage would be best for this child, and it was so long +since I had heard of any one that I durst not send anywhere till +I knew—and I knew Froggatt’s would be in its own +place. Oh! there’s the new hotel! the gas looks just +the same! There’s the tower of St. Oswald’s, +all shadowy against the sky. Look, Lena! Oh! this is +home! I know the lamps. I’ve dreamt of +them! Tired, Lena, dear? cold? Shall I carry +you?”</p> +<p>“No, no; let me!” and he lifted her up, not +unwillingly on her part, though she did not speak. +“You are a light weight,” he said.</p> +<p>“I am afraid so,” answered Angel. “Oh! +there’s the bus stopping at Mr. Pratt’s +door.”</p> +<p>“Mine, now. We have annexed it.”</p> +<p>“But let me go in by the dear old shop. The window +is as of old, I see. Ernest Lamb! don’t you know +me?” as a respectable tradesman came forward. +“And Achille, is it? You are as much changed as this +old shop is transmogrified! And they are all well? Do +you mean Bernard?”</p> +<p>“Bernard and Phyllis may come home any day to deposit a +child. They lost their boy, and hope to save the elder +one. But come, Angel! if you have taken in enough we must +go up to those electrical girls. Dolores is come to give a +lecture, with the other girl to assist, Miss Prescott.”</p> +<p>“Dolores! Yes, poor Gerald’s love! +They are almost myths to me. Ah!” as Lancelot opened +his office-door, “now I know where I am! And +there’s the old staircase! This is the real thing, +and no mistake.”</p> +<p>“Angel, Angel, come to tea!” And Gertrude, +comfortable and substantial, in loving greeting threw arms round +the new comers, Lance still carrying the child, who clung round +his neck as he brought her into the room, full of his late fellow +travellers, and also of a group of children.</p> +<p>“It is as if we had gone back thirty years or +more,” was Angela’s cry, as she looked forth on what +had been as little altered as possible from the old family +centre; and Lance, setting down the child, spoke as the pretty +little blue-eyed girls advanced to exchange kisses with their new +aunt.</p> +<p>“Margaret, or Pearl, whom you knew as a baby; Etheldred, +or Awdrey, and Dickie! Fely is at Marlborough. There, +take little Lena—is that her name—to your table, and +give her some tea.”</p> +<p>“Her name is Magdalen,” said Angela, removing the +little black hat and smoothing the hair; but Lena backed against +her, and let her hand hang limp in Pearl’s patronising +clasp. Nor would she amalgamate with the children, nor even +eat or drink except still beside “Sister,” as she +called Angela. In fact, she was so thoroughly worn out and +tired, as well as shy and frightened, that Angela’s +attention was wholly given to her and she could only be put to +bed, but not in the nursery, which, as Angel said, seemed to her +like a den of little wild beasts. So she was deposited in +the chamber and bed hastily prepared for the unexpected guest; +and even there, being wakeful and feverish from over-fatigue, +there was no leaving her alone, and Gertrude, after seeing her +safely installed, could only go down with the hope that she would +be able to spare her slave or nurse, which was it? by +dinner-time.</p> +<p>“Who is that child so like?” said Dolores, in +their own room.</p> +<p>“Very like somebody, but I can’t tell whom,” +said Agatha. “Who did you say she is?”</p> +<p>“I cannot say I exactly know,” said Dolores. +“I believe she is the daughter of Fulbert Underwood’s +mate, on a sheep-farm in Queensland, and that as her mother died +when she was born, she has been always under the care of this +Angela, living in the Sisterhood there.”</p> +<p>“Not a Sister?”</p> +<p>“Not under vows, certainly. I never saw her +before, but I believe she is rather a funny flighty person, and +that Fulbert was afraid at one time that she would marry this +child’s father.”</p> +<p>“Is he alive?”</p> +<p>“Which? Fulbert died four or five years ago, and I +think the little girl’s father must be dead, for she is in +mourning.”</p> +<p>“There’s something very charming about +her—Miss Underwood.”</p> +<p>“Yes there is. They all seem to be very fond of +her, and yet to laugh about her, and never to be quite sure what +she will do next.”</p> +<p>“Did I not hear of her being so useful among the +Australian black women?”</p> +<p>“No one has ever managed those very queer gins so well; +and she is an admirable nurse too, they say. I am very glad +to have come in her way.”</p> +<p>They did not, however, see much of her that evening. The +head master of the Grammar School and his wife, the head mistress +of the High School, and a few others had been invited to meet +them; and Angela could only just appear at dinner, trusting to a +slumber of her charge, but, on coming out of the dining-room, a +wail summoned her upstairs at once, and she was seen no more that +night.</p> +<p>However, with morning freshness, Lena showed herself much less +<i>farouche</i>, and willing to accept the attentions of Mr. +Underwood first, and, later, of his little daughter Pearl—a +gentle, elder sisterly person, who knew how to avert the too +rough advances of Dick—and made warm friends over the pink +cockatoo; while Awdrey was entranced by the beauties of the +budgerigars.</p> +<p>Robina had been informed by telegram, and came up from +Minsterham with her husband, looking just like his own father, +and grown very broad. He was greatly interested in the +lecture, and went off to it, to consider whether it would be +desirable for the Choristers’ School. Lancelot had, +of course, to go, and Angela declared that she must be brought up +to date, and rejoiced that Lena was able to submit to be left +with the other children under the protection of Mrs. Underwood, +who averred that she abhorred electricity in all its forms, and +that if Lance were induced to light the town, or even the shop by +that means, he must begin by disposing of her by a shock.</p> +<p>It was an excellent lecture, only the two sisters hardly heard +it. They could think of nothing but that they were once +more sitting side by side in the old hall, where they had heard +and shared in so many concerts, on the gala days of their home +life.</p> +<p>The two lecturers, as well as the rest of the party, were +urgently entreated to stay to tea at the High School; but when +the interest of the new arrival was explained, the sisters and +brother were released to go home, Canon Harewood remaining to +content their hostesses.</p> +<h2><a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +213</span>CHAPTER XXII—ANGEL AND BEAR</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Enough of science and of art!<br /> + Close up those barren leaves,<br /> +Come forth, and bring with you a heart<br /> + That watches and receives.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Wordsworth</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A <span class="smcap">telegram</span> had been handed to Mr. +Mayor, which he kept to himself, smiling over it, and he—at +least—was not taken utterly by surprise at the sight of a +tall handsome man, who stepped forward with something like a +shout.</p> +<p>“Angel! Lance! Why, is it Robin, +too?”</p> +<p>“Bear, Bear, old Bear, how did you come?”</p> +<p>“I couldn’t stop when I heard at Clipstone that +Angel was here, so I left Phyllis and the kid with her +mother. Oh, Angel, Angel, to meet at Bexley after +all!”</p> +<p>They clung together almost as they had done when they were the +riotous elements of the household, while Lance opened the front +door, and Robina, mindful of appearances, impelled them into the +hall, Bernard exclaiming, “Pratt’s room! Whose +teeth is it?”</p> +<p>“Don’t you want Wilmet to hold your hands and make +you open your mouth?” said Lance, laughing.</p> +<p>Gertrude, who had already received the Indian arrival, met +Angela, who was bounding up to see to her charge, with, +“Not come in yet! She is gone out with the children +quite happily, with Awdrey’s doll in her arms. Come +and enjoy each other in peace.”</p> +<p>“In the office, please,” said Angela. +“That is home. We shall be our four old +selves.”</p> +<p>Lance opened the office door, and gave a hint to Mr. Lamb, +while they looked at each other by the fire.</p> +<p>Bernard was by far the most altered. The others were +slightly changed, but still their “old selves,” while +he was a grave responsible man, looking older than Lancelot, +partly from the effects of climate; but Angela saw enough to make +her exclaim, “Here we are! Don’t you feel as if +we were had down to Felix to be blown up?”</p> +<p>“Not a bit altered,” said Bernard, looking at the +desks and shelves of ledgers, with the photographs over the +mantelpiece—Felix, Mr. Froggatt, the old foreman, and a +print of Garofalo’s Vision of St. Augustine, hung up long +ago by Felix, as Lance explained, as a token of the faith to +which all human science and learning should be subordinated.</p> +<p>“A declaration of the <i>Pursuivant</i>,” said +Angela. “How Fulbert did look out for +<i>Pur</i>! I believe it was his only +literature.”</p> +<p>“Phyllis declares,” said Bernard, “that +nothing so upsets me as a failure in <i>Pur’s</i> +arrival.”</p> +<p>“And this is <i>Pur’s</i> heart and centre!” +said Robina.</p> +<p>“Only,” added Angela, “I miss the smell of +burnt clay that used to pervade the place, and that Alda so +hated.”</p> +<p>“Happily the clay is used up,” said Lance. +“I could not have brought Gertrude and the children here if +the ceramic art, as they call it, had not departed. Cherry +was so delighted at our coming to live here. She loved the +old struggling days.”</p> +<p>“Fulbert said he never felt as if he had been at home +till he came here. He never <i>took</i> to Vale +Leston.”</p> +<p>“Clement and Cherry have settled in very happily,” +said Robina, “with convalescent clergy in the +Vicarage.”</p> +<p>“I say, Angel, let us have a run over there,” +cried Bernard, “you and I together, for a bit of +mischief.”</p> +<p>“Do, <i>do</i> let us! Though this is real home, +our first waking to perception and naughtiness, it is more than +Vale Leston. We seem to have been up in a balloon all those +five happy years.”</p> +<p>“A balloon?” said Bernard. “Nay, it +seems to me that till they were over, I never thought at all +except how to get the most rollicking and the finest rowing out +of life. It seems to me that I had about as much sense as a +green monkey.”</p> +<p>“Something sank in, though,” said Lance; +“you did not drift off like poor Edgar.”</p> +<p>“Some one must have done so,” said Angela. +“I wanted to ask you, Lancey, about advertising for my +little Lena’s people; the Bishop said I ought.”</p> +<p>“I say,” exclaimed Bernard, “was it her +father that was Fulbert’s mate? I thought he was +afraid of your taking up with him. You +didn’t?”</p> +<p>“No, no. Let me tell you, I want you to +know. Field and a little wife came over from Melbourne +prospecting for a place to sit down in. They had capital, +but the poor wife was worn out and ill, and after taking them in +for a night, Fulbert liked them. Field was an educated man +and a gentleman, and Ful offered them to stay there in +partnership. So they stayed, and by and by this child was +born, and the poor mother died. The two great bearded men +came galloping over to Albertstown from Carrigaboola, with this +new born baby, smaller than even Theodore was, and I had the care +of her from the very first, and Field used to ride over and see +the little thing.”</p> +<p>“And—?” said Bernard, in a rather teasing +voice, as his eyes actually looked at Angela’s left +hand.</p> +<p>“I’ll own it <i>did</i> tempt me. I had had +some great disappointments with my native women, running wild +again, and I could not bear my child having a horrid stepmother; +and there was the glorious free bush life, and the horses and the +sheep! But then I thought of you all saying Angel had +broken out again; and by and by Fulbert came and told me that he +was sure there was some ugly mystery, and spoke to Mother +Constance, and they made me promise not to take him unless it was +cleared up. Then, as you know, dear Ful’s horse fell +with him; Field came and fetched me to their hut, and I was there +to the last. Ful told each of us again that all must be +plain and explained before we thought of anything in the +future. He, Henry Field, said he had great hopes that he +should be able to set it right. Then, as you know, there +was no saving dear Fulbert, and after that Mother +Constance’s illness began. Oh! Bear, do you recollect +her coming in and mothering us in the little sitting-room? +I could not stir from her, of course, while she was with +us. And after that, Harry Field came and said he had +written a letter to England, and when the answer came, he would +tell me all, and I should judge! But I don’t think +the answer ever did come, and he went to Brisbane to see if it +was at the bank; and there he caught a delirious fever, and there +was an end of it!”</p> +<p>At that moment something between a whine or a call of +“sister” was heard. Up leapt Angela and hurried +away, while Lance observed, “Well! That’s +averted, but I am sorry for her.”</p> +<p>“It was not love,” said Robina.</p> +<p>“Or only for the child,” said Bernard; “and +that would have been a dangerous speculation.”</p> +<p>“The child or something else has been very good for +her,” said Lance; “I never saw her so gentle and +quiet.”</p> +<p>“And with the same charm about her as ever,” said +Bernard. “I don’t wonder that all the fellows +fall in love with her. I hope she won’t make havoc +among Clement’s sick clergy.”</p> +<p>“I suppose we ought to go up and fulfil the duties of +society,” said Robina, rising. “But first, +Bear, tell me how is Phyllis?”</p> +<p>“Pretty fair,” he answered. “Resting +with her mother, but she has never been quite the thing of +late. I almost hope Sir Ferdinand will see his way to +keeping us at home, or we shall have to leave our little +Lily.”</p> +<p>Interruption occurred as a necessary summons to “Mr. +Mayor,” and the paternal conclave was broken up, and had to +adjourn to Gertrude’s tea in the old sitting-room.</p> +<p>“I see!” exclaimed Agatha, as she looked at the +party of children at their supplementary table. “I +see what the likeness is in that child. Don’t you, +Dolores? Is it not to Wilfred Merrifield?”</p> +<p>“There is very apt to be a likeness between sandy +people, begging your pardon, Angel,” said Gertrude.</p> +<p>“Yes, the carroty strain is apt to crop up in +families,” said Lance, “like golden tabbies, as you +ladies call your stable cats.”</p> +<p>“All the Mohuns are dark,” said Dolores, +“and all Aunt Lily’s children, except Wilfred; and is +not your Phyllis of that colour?”</p> +<p>“Phyllis’s hair is not red, but dark +auburn,” said Bernard, in a tone like offence.</p> +<p>“I never saw Phyllis,” said dark-browed Dolores, +“but I have heard the aunts talk over the source of +the—the fair variety, and trace it to the +Merrifields. Uncle Jasper is brown, and so is Bessie; but +Susan is, to put it politely, just a golden tabby, and +David’s baby promises to be, to her great delight, as she +says he will be a real Merrifield. So much for family +feeling!”</p> +<p>“Sister, Sister!” came in a bright tone, +“may I go with Pearl and get a stick for Ben? He +wants something to play with! He is eating his +perch.”</p> +<p>Ben, it appeared, was the pink cockatoo, who was biting his +perch with his hooked beak. The children had finished their +meal, and consent was given. “Only, Lena, come +here,” said Angela, fastening a silk handkerchief round her +neck, and adding, “Don’t let Lena go on the dew, +Pearl; she is not used to early English autumn, I must get her a +pair of thicker boots.”</p> +<p>“What is her name?” asked Agatha, catching the +sound.</p> +<p>“Magdalen Susanna. Her father made a point of it, +instead of his wife’s name, which, I think, was +Caroline.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think I ever knew a Magdalen except my +own elder sister,” said Agatha, “and Susanna! +Did you say Miss Merrifield had a sister Susan?”</p> +<p>“An excellent, sober-sided, dear old Susan! Yes, +Susanna was their mother’s name,” said Dolores +“and now that you have put it into my head, little Lena, +when she is animated, puts me more in mind of Bessie than even of +Wilfred, though the colouring is different. Why?”</p> +<p>“Did you never hear,” said Agatha, “that +there was one of the brothers who was a bad lot, and ran +away. My sister says Wilfred is like him. I +believe,” she added, “that he was her +romance!”</p> +<p>“Ha!” exclaimed Bernard, “that’s +queer! We had a clerk in the bank who gave his name as +Meriton, and who cut and ran the very day he heard that Sir +Jasper Merrifield was coming out as Commandant. Yes, he was +carroty. I rarely saw Wilfred at Clipstone, but this might +very well have been the fellow, afraid to face his +uncle.”</p> +<p>Angela did not look delighted. “She is not +destitute, you know,” she said, “I am her guardian, +and she will have about two hundred a year.”</p> +<p>“Is there a will?” asked Lance.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, I have it upstairs! It is all +right. It was at the bank at Brisbane, and they kept a +copy. I brought her because the Bishop said it was my duty +to find out whether there were any relations.”</p> +<p>“Certainly,” said Bernard. “In our own +case, remember what joy Travis’s letter was!”</p> +<p>Angela was silent, and presently said, “You shall see +the will when I have unpacked it, but there is no doubt about my +being guardian.”</p> +<p>“Probably not,” said Bernard, rather drily.</p> +<p>“If it be a valid will, signed by his proper +name,” said Lance.</p> +<p>Whereupon the two brothers fell into a discussion on points of +law, not unlike the editor of the <i>Pursuivant</i>, as he had +become known to his family, but most unlike the Bernard they had +known before his departure for the East. At any rate it +dissipated the emotional tone of the party; and by and by, when +Bernard and Angela had agreed to make a bicycle rush to +Minsterham the next day, “that is,” said Angela +“if Lena is happy enough to spare me,” the Harewoods +took leave.</p> +<p>When the children had gone to bed, and Angela had stayed +upstairs so long that Gertrude augured that she was waiting till +her charge had gone to sleep, and that they should have no more +of her henceforth but “Lena’s baulked +stepmother,” she came down, bringing a document with her, +which she displayed before her brothers.</p> +<p>There was no question but that it was a will drawn up in due +form, and very short, bequeathing his property at Carrigaboola, +Queensland, to his daughter, Magdalen Susanna, and appointing +Fulbert Underwood and Angela Margaret Underwood and “my +brother Samuel” her guardian. It was dated the year +after his daughter’s birth, and was signed Henry Field, +with a word interposed, which, as Lance said, might be anything, +but was certainly the right length for the first syllables of +Merrifield. Bernard looked at it, and declared it was, to +the best of his belief, the same signature as his former clerk +used to write.</p> +<p>“And this,” he said, looking at the seal, +“is the crest of the Merrifield’s—the demi +lion. I know it well on Sir Jasper’s seal +ring.”</p> +<p>“Have you nothing else, Angel?” asked Lance.</p> +<p>“Here is the certificate of her baptism, but that will +tell you nothing.”</p> +<p>No more it did, it only called the child the daughter of Henry +and Caroline Field, and the surname was omitted in the +bequest.</p> +<p>“Who was the mother?” asked Lance.</p> +<p>“I never exactly knew. Fulbert thought she had +been a person whom Field had met in America or somewhere, and +married in a hurry. Fulbert said she was rather pretty, but +she was a poor helpless, bewildered thing, and very poorly. +He wanted to bring her to Albertstown for fit help and nursing; +but she cried so much at the idea of either horse or wagon over +the-no-roads, that it was put off and off and she had only his +shepherd’s housekeeper, so it was no wonder she did not +live! Field was dreadfully cut up, and blamed himself +extremely for having given way to her; but it is as likely as not +the journey would have been just as fatal.”</p> +<p>“Poor thing!”</p> +<p>“You never heard her surname?”</p> +<p>“No, it did not signify.”</p> +<p>“He did not name his child after her?”</p> +<p>“No. I remember Fulbert saying he supposed she +should be called Caroline; and he exclaimed, ‘No, no, I +always said it should be Magdalen and Susanna.’”</p> +<p>“My sister’s name,” repeated Agatha.</p> +<p>“And Susan Merrifield,” added Dolores.</p> +<p>“But she is mine, mine!” cried Angela, with a tone +like herself, of a sort of triumphant jealousy. “They +can’t take her away from me!”</p> +<p>“Gently, Angela, my dear,” said Lance, in a tone +so like Felix of old, that it almost startled her. +“Tell me what arrangement is this about the property. +Your share of Fulbert’s has never been taken out, I +think?”</p> +<p>“No, Macpherson, the purchaser, you know, of +Fulbert’s share, pays me my amount out of it, and agreed to +do the same by Lena. I don’t think the value is quite +what it used to be. It rather went down under Field; but +Macpherson is all there, and it has been a better season. I +could sell it all to him, hers and mine both; but I have thought +how it would be, as it is her native country, and I have not +parted with my own to go out again to Carrigaboola, and bring her +up there. I assure you I am up to it,” she added, +meeting an amused look. “I know a good deal more +about sheep farming than either of you gentlemen. I can +ride anything but a buckjumper, and boss the shepherds, and I do +love the life, no stifling in fields and copses! I only +wish you would come too, Bear; it would do you ever so much good +to get a little red paint on those white banker’s hands of +yours.”</p> +<p>“Well done, sister Angel!” And the brothers +both burst out laughing.</p> +<p>“But really,” proceeded Angela, “it is by +far the best hope of keeping up Christianity among those +hands. Fulbert had a sort of little hut for a chapel, and +once a month one of the clergy from Albertstown came over there; +I used to ride with him when I could, and if I were there, I +could keep a good deal going till the place is more peopled, and +we can get a cleric. It is a great opportunity, not to be +thrown away. I can catch those cockatoos better than a +parson. And there are the blacks.”</p> +<p>The brothers had not the least doubt of it. Angela was +Angela still, for better or for worse. Or was it for +worse? Yet she went up to bed chanting—</p> +<blockquote><p>“His sister she went beyond the seas,<br /> +And died an old maid among black savagees.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><a name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +224</span>CHAPTER XXIII—WILLOW WIDOWS</h2> + +<blockquote><p> “Set +your heart at rest.<br /> +The fairyland buys not that child of me.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—“<span +class="smcap">Midsummer Night’s Dream</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">An</span> expedition to Minsterham +finished the visit of Dolores and her faithful “Nag,” +whose abilities as an assistant were highly appreciated, and who +came home brilliantly happy to keep her remaining holiday with +Magdalen; while Dolores repaired to Clipstone. Bernard had +been obliged to go to London, to report himself to Sir Ferdinand +Travis Underwood, but his wife and little girl were the reigning +joy at Clipstone. Phyllis looked very white, much changed +from the buxom girl who had gone out with her father two years +ago. She had never recovered the loss of the little boy, +and suffered the more from her husband’s inability to bear +expression, and it was an immense comfort to her to speak freely +of her little one to her mother.</p> +<p>The little Lilias looked frail, but was healthy, happy, and as +advanced as a well-trained companion child of six could well be, +and the darling of the young aunts, who expected Dolores to echo +their raptures, and declare the infinite superiority of the +Ceylonese to “that little cornstalk,” as Valetta +said.</p> +<p>“There’s no difficulty as to that,” said +Dolores, laughing. “The poor little cornstalk looks +as if she had grown up under a blight.”</p> +<p>“It is a grand romance though,” said Mysie; +“only I wish that Cousin Harry had had any constancy in +him.”</p> +<p>“I wonder if Magdalen will adopt her!” was +Valetta’s bold suggestion.</p> +<p>“Poor Magdalen has had quite adopting enough to +do,” said Mysie.</p> +<p>“Besides,” said Dolores, “Sister Angela will +never let her go. And certainly I never saw any one more +<i>taking</i> than Sister Angela. She is so full of life, +and of a certain unexpectedness, and one knows she has done such +noble work. I want to see more of her.”</p> +<p>“You will,” said Mysie. “Mamma is +going to ask her to come, for Phyllis says there is no one that +Bernard cares for so much. She was his own companion +sister.”</p> +<p>“Magdalen might have the little cornstalk,” said +Valetta.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Mysie, “it is rather funny to +have two—what shall I say?—willow widows, and a child +that is neither of theirs! How will they settle +it?”</p> +<p>Magdalen had heard from Agatha on the first evening of the +arrival of the sister, and the probability of the identification +of little Lena’s father with the Henry Merrifield of her +former years, and she was deeply touched by the bestowal of her +name—so much that Nag avoided saying more, but only kissed +her and went to bed.</p> +<p>The Merrifields discussed the subject dispassionately.</p> +<p>Sir Jasper recollected what his brother had written to him of +his anxieties and disappointment in his son Henry, and of his +absconding from Manitoba, since which time all trace of him had +been lost, except in the restoration to the two brothers in +Canada. To the surprise and indignation of Sir Jasper, +there had been no attempt to follow it up.</p> +<p>“If my poor brother Edgar had done anything of the +kind,” said Bernard, “none of us would have +rested.”</p> +<p>So far as they could put recollections together this act of +restitution must have been made soon after the connection with +Fulbert Underwood began, perhaps at the time of the wife’s +death. If there had been another letter, as Sister Angela +thought, it was more recent, certainly within the last two +years.</p> +<p>Captain Samuel Merrifield, of Stokesley, had been on a voyage +for four years, and had not long been at home. His wife had +been charged with the forwarding of the letters that she thought +of immediate interest, and there was an accumulation of those +that had been left for his return, as yet not looked over.</p> +<p>Of course, Sir Jasper impelled him to plunge into these, and +by and by one came to light, which Mrs. Merrifield had taken +“for only some Australian gold mines,” and left to +wait, especially as it was directed to his father instead of +himself.</p> +<p>It was a letter full of repentance, and entreaties for +forgiveness, describing in part poor Henry’s past life, and +adding that the best thing that had ever befallen him was his +association with “such a fellow as Underwood.”</p> +<p>It was to be gathered that Fulbert’s uprightness of mind +had led him to the first impulse of restitution, and he went on +to mention his first hasty marriage and the loss of his wife, +with the kindness of the Carrigaboola Sisterhood; above all, of +Sister Angela, and declaring his love and admiration for her, and +his sense that she was the one person who could keep him straight +now that her brother was gone.</p> +<p>He had more than once offered to her, but he found that her +brother had solemnly charged her not to accept him till he had +made all his past clear before her, and could show her that he +was acknowledged by his family, and had his father’s +forgiveness, and for this he humbly craved, as one deeply +sensible of his own demerits.</p> +<p>It was piteous to think of the poor fellow waiting and hoping +for an answer to such a letter as this, and dying without one, +while all the time it was lying unread in the Captain’s +desk, and no one even knew of the changed life and fresh +hopes. Sir Jasper was much moved by it; but Sam said, +“Ay, ay! poor Harry always was a plausible fellow!” +and his wife was chiefly concerned to show that the suppression +was not by her fault. Sir Jasper had brought the will with +him, and the certificate of the child’s baptism.</p> +<p>Both were met with a little hesitation. So little had +been said in the letter about the marriage that the Captain +wanted to know more, and also whether the will had been properly +proved in Australia, and whether it had force in England. +In that case he was surely the right person to have the custody +of his brother’s child. His wife, who had been bred +up in a different school, was not by any means satisfied that she +should be consigned to a member of a Sisterhood.</p> +<p>David came to Stokesley, saw the letter, and agreed with his +brother on the expediency of obtaining full proof of the validity +of the will in both Queensland and England, and put in hand the +writing of inquiries for the purpose, from the legal authorities +at Brisbane, for which purpose Angela had to be consulted.</p> +<p>She had been (having left the budgerigars to the delight of +Pearl and Awdrey), in the meantime, at Vale Leston, enjoying the +atmosphere of peace that prevailed wherever were Clement and +Geraldine, and hailed with delight by all her old village +friends, as well as Lady Vanderkist and her somewhat thinned +flock.</p> +<p>She won Adrian’s heart by skating or golfing with him, +and even, on one or two hunting days, joining in his pursuit of +the chase, being altogether, as he said, ever so much better a +fellow than even his youngest sister Joan, and entrancing them +all with tales of kangaroos. Lena had really a tame +kangaroo at Carrigaboola. Oh, why did they not bring it +home as well as Ben, the polly? She quite pined for it, and +had tears in her eyes when it was spoken of.</p> +<p>Indeed the joyous young Vanderkists were too much for the +delicate little girl, and sorry as Angela was to leave Vale +Leston, she was not ungrateful for an invitation to the Goyle, +where there was more room for them than at Clipstone in the +holidays, and with the Bernard Underwoods making it their +headquarters.</p> +<p>Lena and she were much better and happier with +“Sister” always at her service, and Paula and Thekla +were delighted to amuse her. Paula was in a state of +delight with Sister Angela, only a little puzzled by the +irregularity of her course, though it was carefully explained +that she had never been under any vows. To hear of her +doings among the Australian women was a romance, often as there +had been disappointment. “Paula is a born +Sister,” said Angela, “a much truer one than I have +ever been, for there does not seem to be any demon of waywardness +to drive her wild.”</p> +<p>These talks with Magdalen, often prolonged hours after the +young people had gone to bed, were a great solace to both the +elders. Girls like Mysie Merrifield and Phyllis Devereux +thought sitting up to converse a propensity peculiar to +themselves, and to their own age, of new experiences and +speculations; but the two “old girls,” whose +experiences were not new, and whose speculations had a certain +material foundation, they were equally fascinating.</p> +<p>There were no small jealousies in either of +them—“willow widows”—though Mysie’s +name stuck. There was nothing but comfort to Magdalen in +the certainty of the ultimate “coming home” of one +who had finished a delusive dream of her younger days, and been +yearned after with a heartache now quenched; and Angela, who had +never been the least in love with Henry Merrifield, could quite +afford her interest in the scanty records of his younger days, +and fill up all she knew of the measure of the latter and better +days. There was another bond, for Mrs. Best’s +daughter was, “as distances go,” a neighbour to +Carrigaboola, and resorted thither on great occasions.</p> +<p>Angela’s vision began to be, to take Magdalen and her +sisters out to Carrigaboola, where a superior school for +colonists’ daughters was much needed, and where Paula might +enter the Sisterhood. She longed all the more when she saw +how much better Magdalen could deal with Lena as to teaching and +restraint than she could. The child was very backward, and +could hardly read words of one syllable, though she knew any +amount of Scripture history and legends of Saints, and was very +fairly intelligent; but though she was devoted to +“Sister,” always hanging on her, and never quite +happy when out of sight of her, she had hardly any notion of +prompt obedience or of giving up her own way.</p> +<p>Angela’s visit to Vale Leston had been partly spoilt by +the little girl’s fretful worry at the elder children, and +by the somewhat uncalled for fears that all the Vanderkists were +hard on the poor little colonial damsel; but whether it was the +air of Rock Quay, or the quiet influence of Miss Prescott, Lena +certainly improved in health at the Goyle, and was much more +amenable, and less rudely shy. But her guardian trembled at +hearing that, pending Captain Merrifield’s correspondence +with Brisbane, the sisters, Susan and Elizabeth, were coming to +Miss Mohun’s to see their niece, there being no room for +them at Clipstone.</p> +<p>They came—Susan, plump, comfortable and good-natured +looking, as like an apricot as ever, with an air many years more +than three above her sister Bessie, who as ever was brisk and +bright, scarcely middle aged in face, dress or demeanour. +They arrived too late for visiting, and only dined at Clipstone +to be introduced to Bernard Underwood, and see their cousin +Phyllis, whom they had once met when all were small +children. Dolores was much amused, as she told her Aunt +Jane, to see how gratified they were at the +“sanguine” colouring of Phyllis and Wilfred, quite +Merrifields, they said, though Phyllis with auburn eyes and hair +was far handsomer than any other of the clan had ever been; and +Wilfred had simply commonplace carrots and freckles.</p> +<p>“The fun is,” said Jane, “to remember how +some of us Mohuns have sighed at Lily’s having any yellow +children, and, till we saw Stokesley specimens, wondering where +the strain came from! As if it signified!”</p> +<p>“It does in some degree,” said Dolores; +“something hereditary goes with the complexion.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Jane. “I +believe too much is made in these days of heredity, and by those +who believe least in the Bible indications on the effect, +forgetting the counteracting grace.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Dolores, “Wilfred was always a +<i>bête noire</i> to me—no, not <i>noire</i>—in +my younger days, and I can’t help being glad he is not of +our strain! Though you know the likeness was the first step +to identifying that poor little girl.”</p> +<p>“Poor child! I am afraid she will be a bone of +contention.”</p> +<p>The two aunts were at Clipstone early; and might be satisfied +with the true Merrifield tints of Magdalen Susanna, but perhaps +she had been over much warned to be gracious, for the very +contrary was the effect. She had been very civil to her +great-aunt Lilias, and had allowed both her uncles to take her up +in their arms; but she retreated upon Angela, planted an elbow on +the well-known lap, turned her back, and put a skinny little +finger in her mouth by way of answer to Susan’s advances, +advances which had hardly ever before been repelled even by the +most untamable of infants.</p> +<p>Angela tried to coax, lift her up and turn her round; but this +only led to the shoulder being the hiding-place, and it might be +suspected that there was a lurking perception that these +strangers asserted a closer claim than the beloved +“Sister.” She would not even respond to +Susan’s doll or Bessie’s picture book; and Bessie +advised leaving her alone, and turned to the window with Agatha, +who was nothing loth to tell of her Bexley and Minsterham +experiences.</p> +<p>Angela tried to talk about the voyage, or any thing that might +save the child from being discussed or courted; but Susan’s +heart was in the subject, and she had not enough tact or +knowledge of the world to turn away from it. Regret for the +past was strong within her, and she could not keep from asking +how much “little Magdalen” (at full length) +remembered of her father, how much she had been with him, whether +he had much altered, whether there were a photograph of him, and +a great deal more, with tears in her eyes and a trembling in her +voice which made Angela feel much for her, even while vexed at +her pertinacity, for the child was by no means the baby she +looked like, but perfectly well able to listen and understand, +and this consciousness made her own communications much briefer +and more reserved than otherwise they would have been.</p> +<p>Bessie, with more perception, saw the embarrassment, turned +round from Agatha, went up to the cockatoo in his cage, and asked +in a pleasant voice if Magdalen would show him to her, and tell +her his name. Angela was glad enough to break off poor +Susan’s questioning, and come forward, with the child still +clinging, to incite the bird to display the rose colour under his +crest, put up a grey claw to shake hands, and show off his +vocabulary, laughing herself and acting merriment as she did so, +in hopes to inspire Lena.</p> +<p>“Come, Ben, tell how you were picked up under a gum +tree, quite a baby, a little grey ball, and brought over in the +shepherd’s pocket for a present to the little Boss, and how +we fed you and nursed you till you turned all rose-colour and +lovely! There! put up your crest and make red +revelations. Can’t you speak? Fetch him a +banana, Lena. That will open his mouth.”</p> +<p>At sight of the banana, the bird put his head on one side and +croaked in a hoarse whisper, “Yo ho!”</p> +<p>“No, you need not be afraid of any more sailors’ +language,” said Angela. “They were as careful +as possible on board. I overheard once, ‘Hold hard, +Tom, Polly Pink is up there, and she’s a regular lady +born!”</p> +<p>Whereupon Polly indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the +banana cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered +more and more nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the +visitors by what Susan at least took for unbecoming +flippancy.</p> +<p>“<i>That</i> Sister,” said Susan, as they drove +away, “does not seem to me at all the person to have the +charge of Henry’s poor little girl!”</p> +<p>“I wish she had not thrust herself in,” said +Bessie, “to prevent me from getting on with the child over +the cockatoo.”</p> +<p>“She calls herself a Sister! I don’t +understand it, for she seems to have been bent on marrying poor +Henry.”</p> +<p>“She never took any vows.”</p> +<p>“Then why does she wear a ridiculous cap over all that +hair?”</p> +<p>By and by they were met by Bernard Underwood striding +along. “Holloa! have you seen Angel and her +darling? She is a perfect slave to the little thing, and +one only gets fragments of her.”</p> +<p>“She seems very fond of her,” said Bessie.</p> +<p>“Just kept her alive, you see. Poor old +Angel! She is all for one thing at a time! Are you +going up to Clipstone?”</p> +<p>“I think we shall find Phyllis at Beechcroft.”</p> +<p>“Yes, she is driving there to lunch, and Angel is to +bring the little cornstalk over to make friends with our +Lily! I trust the creature goes to sleep now, and I may get +a word out of Angel!” Wherewith he dashed on, and the +two ladies agreed that “those Underwoods seemed to be +curiously impulsive.”</p> +<p>They were, however, much better satisfied with the Ceylonese +Lily, who was a very well trained civilised specimen, conversing +very prettily over one of Aunt Jane’s picture books, which +Bessie looked at with her, and showing herself fully able to read +the titles beneath, a feat of which Lena was quite incapable, +though she was less on the defensive than she had shown herself +at the Goyle, and Angela was far more at her ease than when she +was conscious that “Field’s” original love was +watching the introduction to his sisters. Besides, +Bernard’s presence was sunshine to her, and the two +expanded into bright reminiscences and merry comparisons of their +two lives, absolutely delightful to themselves, and to Phyllis +and her Aunt Jane, and which would have been the same to +Elizabeth, if she had not been worried at Susan’s evident +misunderstanding of—and displeasure at—the quips and +cranks of the happy brother and sister; also she was bent on +promoting an intercourse between Lily and Lena, over the doll she +had brought for the former. She was a little hurt that Lena +had not been accompanied by the blue-eyed article with +preposterously long eyelashes that had been bestowed on her at +the Goyle; but the little Australian had no opinion of dolls, and +had let the one bought for her at Sydney be thrown overboard by +the ship’s monkey.</p> +<p>“That was cruel!” said Lily, fondling her +black-eyed specimen.</p> +<p>“She could not feel,” reasoned Lena, with +contempt.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Lily, knitting her +brows. “It’s not <i>all</i> make believe! +I do love my Rosamunda Rowena, and she loves me, and I shall tell +her not to be jealous of this dear Betsinda. For, do you +know, when Rosamunda was ill in the Red Sea, father carried her +up and down on deck, and made her a dear little deck +chair.”</p> +<p>“But she is not alive. She <i>couldn’t</i> +be,” sighed Lena. “I like my Ben and my +kangaroo! Oh, I do want to go back to my +kangaroo!”</p> +<p>“And does Lily want to go back to her riki-tiki?” +asked Lily’s father, lifting a little girl on each knee, so +that they might be <i>vis-à-vis</i>, when certainly his +own had the advantage in beauty, as she answered, leaning against +him, “Granny’s better than riki-tiki!”</p> +<p>For which pretty speech some of the ladies gave her much +credit; but her father, with a tender arm round her, said, +“Ah! you are a sentimental little pussy-cat! Is +anything here as good as Carrigaboola? Eh, Lena?”</p> +<p>But Lena resolutely shook her carrots; but kept silence, while +Bernard turned over the leaves of a great book of natural +history, till as a page was displayed with a large kangaroo under +a blue-gum tree, with a yellow wattle tree beside him, her lips +quivered, her face puckered, and she burst into an uncontrollable +fit of crying; “Oh! I want to go home, home! +Sister, Sister, take me home!”</p> +<p>Angela was in a minute beside her, took her within loving +arms, and carried her off.</p> +<h2><a name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +237</span>CHAPTER XXIV—CRUEL LAWYERS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Tender companions of our serious days,<br +/> + Who colour with your kisses, smiles and tears,<br /> +Life’s worn web woven over wasted ways.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Lowell</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was a good deal of worry and +anxiety for some little time, while correspondence was going on +about Henry Merrifield’s will, and in the meantime Angela +decided to board with Miss Prescott, since her charge was +certainly much better in health there; and besides, as Mrs. +Bernard Merrifield was naturally at Clipstone, it became the head +quarters of her husband, though he made many excursions to his +own people, and on business affairs to Sir Ferdinand Travis +Underwood in London.</p> +<p>And Clipstone suited him well for his holiday. Sir +Jasper had, of course, a certain amount of intercourse with the +garrison at Avoncester, and the officers stationed there at +present had already some acquaintance with Bernard Underwood, who +was known to be a champion in Ceylon in all athletic sports, +especially polo and cricket. Tall and well made, he had +been devoted to all such games in his youth, and they had kept up +his health in his sedentary occupation. Now, in his leisure +time, his prowess did much to efface the fame of the much younger +and slighter Alexis White, and, so far as might be, Angela +enjoyed the games with him, keeping well within bounds, but +always feeling activity a wholesome outlet for her superfluous +strength, and, above all, delighting in an interval of being a +child again with her Bear of old times; and her superabundant +life, energy, and fun amazed all, especially by the contrast with +her poor little languid charge, who seemed, as Jane Mohun said, +centuries older.</p> +<p>The Merrifield lads were also devoted to him. Even +Fergus was somewhat distracted from his allegiance to Dolores and +her experiments, and in the very few days that Christmas afforded +for skating, could think of nothing else.</p> +<p>And as to Wilfred, his whole mind seemed to be set on sports, +and marble works to be only an incident thrown in. Bernard, +whom he followed assiduously, and who took him to Avoncester, and +introduced him to young officers, began to have doubts whether he +had done wisely. Bernard had, in his time, vexed +Felix’s soul by idleness and amusement, but he had been one +betted upon, not himself given to betting. He loved +football and cricket for their bodily excitement, not the +fictitious one of a looker on, or reader of papers, and it struck +him that Wilfred knew a good deal too much about this more +dangerous side of races and athletics.</p> +<p>He said so to Angela, and she answered, “Oh, +nonsense! Young men are out of it if they don’t know +the winning horse. Even <i>Pur</i> had to be up to the +Derby.”</p> +<p>And Angela had her own bitter trial in the decision of the +lawyers. Not only was the signature of the will +unsatisfactory, from the confusion between Field and Merrifield, +but the two witnesses failed to be traced, John Shepherd and +George Jones were not to be identified, and though Brisbane might +accept wills easily, an English court of law required more +certainty. The little daughter being the only child and +natural heiress, this was not felt to be doing her any injury; +but the decision deprived her of the guardian her father had +chosen, and Angela was in despair. She was ready to write +to the <i>Pursuivant</i>, to the Bishop of Albertstown, to the +Lord Chancellor, with an exposition of the wicked injustice and +hardness of heart of lawyers, and the inexpedience of taking the +poor child from her earliest motherly friend, expressly chosen by +her father. All Bernard’s common sense and +Magdalen’s soothing were needed to make her hold her peace, +when correspondence made it plain that the guardianship being +assumed by the uncles, Captain Merrifield would not hear for a +moment of the scheme of taking the child out to +Carrigaboola. In his opinion, and his sister Susan’s, +the only fit thing to be done with her was to place her with the +two aunts at Coalham to be educated. He came down to Rock +Quay to inspect her. It was a cold, raw day, with the moors +wrapped in mist, and the poor little maid looked small, peaky and +pinched. He was sure that the dry winds of the north were +what she needed, wanted to carry her off immediately, and looked +regardless of Angela’s opinion, though backed by Miss +Prescott, that it would be highly dangerous to take the delicate +child of a semi-tropical climate off in the depth of winter to a +northerly town. Angela walked off to ask Dr. Dagger to +inspect the child and give his opinion, while Captain Sam +repaired to Clipstone to visit his relations and lunch with +them.</p> +<p>He did not meet with all the sympathy he expected. Lady +Merrifield said that Coalham had not agreed with her own son +Harry, and that little Lena ought not to be taken there till +after the cold winds of spring were over; and her daughters all +chimed in with a declaration that Angela Underwood was perfectly +devoted to the little one, and that no one else could make her +happy.</p> +<p>“Petting her! spoiling her!” scoffed the +Captain. “Why, Susan and Bessie were full of the +contrast with your little girl.”</p> +<p>“Health,” began Phyllis.</p> +<p>“An Indian child too!” he went on. +“Just showing what a little good sense in the training can +do! No, indeed! Since I am to be her guardian, I have +no notion of swerving from my duty, and letting poor Hal’s +child be bred up to Sisterhoods and all that flummery.”</p> +<p>“It will just break Angela’s heart,” cried +Valetta, with tears in her eyes, at which the Captain looked +contemptuous.</p> +<p>“I must say,” added Bernard, “that I should +think it little short of murderous to take that unlucky child +from the one woman who understands her up into the bleak north at +this time of year.”</p> +<p>“Decidedly!” added Sir Jasper. “Miss +Underwood deserves every consideration in dealing with the child +who has been always her sole charge.”</p> +<p>Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about +Stokesley; but he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, +and as he was the only person for whose opinion Captain Sam had +any respect, it had its effect, though there was a sense that he +might be biassed by his son-in-law and his herd of womanfolk, and +that he did not partake Mrs. Samuel Merrifield’s dislike to +the very name of Sister or of anything not commonplace.</p> +<p>Angela obtained Dr. Dagger’s opinion to reinforce her +own and Lady Merrifield’s, and the Captain was obliged to +give way so far as to consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on +calling her, being allowed to remain at Arnscombe till after +Easter, when her aunts were to fetch her to Coalham, there to +send her to the kindergarten.</p> +<p>After Angela’s period of raging against law and lawyers +and all the Stokesley family, and being on the verge of +impertinence to Captain Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect +more quietly than her friends had dared to hope. Lance had +almost expected her to deport her charge, parrot and all, +suddenly and secretly by an Australian liner, and had advised +Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to be on his guard if +she hinted at anything so preposterous; but Bernard shook his +head, and said Angel was more to be trusted than her elders +thought. “Waves and storms don’t go over us for +nothing, I hope,” he said.</p> +<p>And he found himself right on his return. Angela had +bowed her head to the inevitable, and was quietly trying to +prepare her little charge for the change, accustoming her to more +discipline and less petting. When Angela proposed to walk +over to Clipstone with her brother on his return, and the whine +was set up, “Let me go, Sister,” it was answered, +“No, my dear, it is too far for you. You must stay +and walk with Paula.”</p> +<p>“I want to go with Sister.”</p> +<p>“You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells +you. No, I can’t have any fretting. Paula will +show you how to drive your hoop. Keep her moving fast, +Paula, don’t let her fret and get cold.”</p> +<p>And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it +into Paulina’s, and, holding up her finger, silenced the +burst of weeping, though tears sprang to her own eyes as she +resolutely turned away, and, after running out and shutting the +back gate after her, put her arm with a clinging gesture into +Bernard’s.</p> +<p>“That’s right!” he said, pressing her +hand.</p> +<p>“Cruel,” she said, “but better by and by for +her. Oh, Bear, if one could but learn to lie still and say, +‘Thou didst it,’ when it is human agency that takes +away the desire of one’s eyes with a stroke.”</p> +<p>“The desire of thine eyes!” repeated +Bernard. “How often I thought of that last +February.”</p> +<p>It was the only time he had referred to the loss of his little +boy. His wife had told her mother that he could not bear to +mention it, and had poured out all her own feelings of sorrow and +her struggle for cheerfulness and resignation alone with her or +with Mysie; but he had shrunk from the least allusion to the +little two year old Felix, who slept beneath a palm tree at +Colombo.</p> +<p>Now, however, still holding his sister’s hand, he +drifted into all the particulars of the little ways, the baby +language, the dawning understanding, and the very sudden sharp +illness carrying the beautiful boy away almost before they were +aware of danger; and he took out the photograph from his breast, +and showed her the little face, so recalling old fond +remembrances. “Forbear to cry, make no mourning for +the dead,” he repeated. “Yes, the boy is saved +the wear and tear and heat and burthen of the day, but it is very +hard to be thankful.”</p> +<p>“Ah, and it is all the harder if you have to leave your +Lily.”</p> +<p>“If—yes; but Travis <i>may</i> so arrange that we +can stay, or I make only one voyage out to settle matters and +then come home for good. If you are still bent on +Carrigaboola you might come as far as Frisco with me. I may +have to go there about the Californian affairs.”</p> +<p>“That would be jolly. Yes, I think it will clench +the matter, for I believe I am of more good at Carriga than +anywhere else, though the heart of it is taken out of it for me; +but one lives on and gets on somehow without a heart, or a heart +set where I suppose it ought not to be entirely at least! +And, indeed, I think that little one taught me better than ever +before how to love.”</p> +<p>“That’s what the creatures are sent us for,” +said Bernard, in a low voice. “And here are, looming +in the distance, all the posse of girls to meet us.”</p> +<p>“Ah-h!” breathed Angela, withdrawing her +arm. “Well, Bear, you have given me something to look +forward to, whether it comes to anything or not. It will +help me to be thankful. I know they are good people, and +the child will do well when once the pining and bracing are +over. They are her own people, and it is right.”</p> +<p>“Right you are, Angel!” said Bernard, with a fresh +squeeze of the hand, as he resumed his own cheerful, resolute +voice ere joining his sisters-in-law.</p> +<p>“What! Angela without her satellite!” cried +Primrose.</p> +<p>“Too far,” murmured Angela; but Mysie tried to +hush her sister, perceiving the weaning process, and respecting +Angela for it.</p> +<p>And the next moment Angela was challenging Bernard to a game +at golf.</p> +<h2><a name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +245</span>CHAPTER XXV—BEAR AS ADVISER</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Weary soul and burthened sore<br /> +Labouring with thy secret load.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Keble</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> early spring brought a new +development. Thekla, who attended classes at the High +School, came home with unmistakable tokens of measles, and +Primrose did the same, in common with most of their +contemporaries at Rockstone. Nor was there any chance that +either Lily Underwood at Clipstone or Lena Merrifield at the +Goyle would escape; indeed, they both showed an amount of +discomfort that made it safer to keep them where they were, than +to try to escape in the sharp east wind and frost.</p> +<p>No one was much dismayed at what all regarded as a trifling +ailment, even if dignified as German. Angela owned that she +regarded it as a relief, since infection might last till the +summer, and the only person who was—as he +owned—trying to laugh at himself with Angela, was Bernard, +who could not keep out of his mind’s eye a little grave at +Colombo. As he walked home, at the turning he saw a figure +wearily toiling upwards, which proved to be Wilfred. +“Holloa! you are at home early!”</p> +<p>“I had an intolerable headache!”</p> +<p>“Measles, eh?”</p> +<p>“No such thing! Once when I was a kid in +Malta. But I say, Bear,” he added, coming up with +quickened pace, “you could do me no end of a favour if you +would advance me twenty pounds.”</p> +<p>“Whew!” Bernard whistled.</p> +<p>“There is Lady Day coming, and I can pay you +then—most assuredly.” And an asseveration or +two was beginning.</p> +<p>“Twenty pounds don’t fly promiscuously about the +country,” muttered Bernard, chiefly for the sake of giving +himself time.</p> +<p>“But I tell you I shall have a quarter from the works, +and a quarter from my father (with his hand to his head). +That’s—that’s—. Awful skinflints +both of them! How is a man to do, so cramped up as +that?”</p> +<p>“Oh! and how is a man to do if he spends it all +beforehand?”</p> +<p>“I tell you, Bernard, I must have it, or—or it +will break my mother’s heart! And as to my father, +I’d—I’d cut my throat—I’d go to sea +before he knew! Advance it to me, Bear! You know what +it is to be in an awful scrape. Get me through this once +and I’ll never—”</p> +<p>Bernard did not observe that the scrape of his boyhood over +the drowned Stingo had hardly been of the magnitude that besought +for twenty pounds. He waived the personal appeal, and +asked, “What is the scrape?”</p> +<p>“Why, that intolerable swindler and ruffian, Hart, +deceived me about Racket, and—”</p> +<p>“A horse at Avoncester?” said Bernard, light +beginning to dawn on him.</p> +<p>“I made sure it was the only way out of it all, and they +said Racket was as sure as death, and now the brute has come in +third. Hart swears there was foul play, but what’s +that to me? I’m done for unless you will help me +over.”</p> +<p>“If it is a betting debt, the only safe way is to have +it out with your father, and have done with it.”</p> +<p>“You don’t know what my father is! Just made +of iron. You might as well put your hand under a +Nasmyth’s hammer.” And as he saw that his +hearer was unconvinced, “Besides, it is ever so much more +than what I put upon Racket! That was only the way out of +it! It is all up with me if he hears of it. You might +as well pitch me over the cliff at once!”</p> +<p>“Well, what is it then?”</p> +<p>Incoherently, Wilfred stammered out what Bernard understood at +last to mean that he had got into the habit of betting at the +billiard table, surreptitiously kept up in Ivinghoe Terrace in a +house of Richard White’s, not for any excessive sums, and +with luck at first on his side than otherwise; but at last he had +become involved for a sum not in itself very terrible to elder +years, and his creditor was in great dread of pressure from his +employers, and insisted on payment. Wilfred, who seemed to +have a mortal terror of his father, beyond what Bernard could +understand, had been unable to believe that the offence for so +slight a sum might be forgiven if voluntarily confessed, had done +the worst thing he could, he had paid the debt with a cheque +which had, unfortunately, passed through his hands at the office, +trusting in a few days to recover the amount by a bet upon the +horse, in full security of success! And now!</p> +<p>Before the predicament was made clear, Wilfred reeled, and +would have fallen if Bernard had not supported him, and he +mumbled something about giddiness and dazzling, insisting at the +same time that it was nothing but the miserable pickle, and that +if Bernard would not see him out of it, he might as well let him +lie there and have done with it.</p> +<p>Happily they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the house, +and it was possible to get him into the hall before he entirely +collapsed upon a chair; but seeming to recover fresh vigour from +alarm at the sound of voices, he rushed at the stairs and dashed +up rapidly the two flights to his own room, only throwing back +the words, “Dead secret, mind!”</p> +<p>Bernard was glad to have made no promise, and, indeed, +Wilfred’s physical condition chiefly occupied him at the +moment, for one or two of the girls were hurrying in, asking what +was the matter, and at the answer, “He is gone up to his +room with a bad headache,” Valetta declared with +satisfaction, “Then he has got it! We told him +so! But he would go to the office! and, Bernard, so has +Lily.”</p> +<p>“Pleasing information!” said Bernard, nettled and +amused at the tone of triumph, while Mysie, throwing behind her +the words, “It may be nothing,” went off to call Mrs. +Halfpenny, who was in a state of importance and something very +like pleasure. Bernard strode up to his wife’s room, +leaving Valetta half-way in her exposition that when all the +family had been laid low by measles at Malta, Wilfred had been a +very young infant, and it had always been doubtful whether he had +been franked or not; and how he had been reproached with looking +ill in the morning, but had fiercely insisted on going down to +the office, which he was usually glad to avoid on any excuse.</p> +<p>By the time the household met at dinner, it was plain that +they had to resign themselves to being an infected family, though +there were not many probable victims, and they were likely only +to have the disorder favourably, with the exception of Wilfred, +who had evidently got a severe chill, and could only be reported +as very ill, though still he vehemently resented any suspicion of +being subject to such a babyish complaint. But when the +break up for the night was just over, Lady Merrifield came in +search of Bernard, entreating him to come to speak to Wilfred, +who was more and more feverish, almost light-headed, and +insisting that he must speak to Bear, “Bear had not +promised,” reiterating the summons, so that there was no +choice but to comply with it.</p> +<p>He found Wilfred flushed with fever, and violently restless, +starting up in bed as he entered, and crying out, “Bear, +Bear, will you? will you? You did not promise!”</p> +<p>“I will see about it! Lie down now! +There’s nothing to be done to-night.”</p> +<p>“But promise! promise! And not a word!”</p> +<p>All this was reiterated till Wilfred at last was exhausted for +the time, and to a certain degree pacified by the reassuring +voice in which Bernard soothed him and undertook to take the +matter in hand, hardly knowing what he undertook, and only +feeling the necessity of quieting the perilous excitement, and of +helping the mother to bring a certain amount of tranquillity.</p> +<p>His own little girl was going on well, and quite capable of +being amused in the morning by being compared to a lobster or a +tiger lily; and Primrose was reported in an equally satisfactory +state, ready either for sleep or continuous reading by her +sisters. Only Wilfred was in the same, or a more anxious, +state of fever; and as soon as Bernard had satisfied himself that +there was no special use in his remaining in the house, he set +out for the marble works office, having made up his mind as to +one part of what he had expressed as “seeing about +it.”</p> +<p>He had hardly turned into the Cliffe road before he met +Captain Henderson walking up, and they exchanged distant +inquiries and answers as to whether each might be thought +dangerous to the other’s home; after which they +forgathered, and compared notes as to invalids. The Captain +had heard of Wilfred’s going home ill, and was coming, he +said, to inquire.</p> +<p>“He seems very seriously ill,” was the +answer. “I imagine there has been a chill, and a +check. I was coming to speak to you about him.”</p> +<p>“He has spoken to you?”</p> +<p>Both could now consult freely. “It is a very +anxious matter—not so much for the actual amount as for the +habits that it shows.”</p> +<p>“The amount? Oh, I have made up that as regards +the firm. I could not let it come before Sir Jasper, +especially in the present state of things! I meant to give +the young chap a desperate fright and rowing, but that will have +to be deferred.”</p> +<p>“You must let me take it!”</p> +<p>“No, no. Remember, Sir Jasper was my commanding +officer, and I and my wife owe everything to him. I could +supply the amount, so that no one would guess from the accounts +that anything had been amiss.”</p> +<p>Bernard could hardly allow himself to be thus relieved, but +there was the comfort of knowing that Wilfred’s name was +safe, and that the unstained family honour would not have to +suffer shame. Still the other debts remained, of which +Captain Henderson had been only vaguely suspicious, till the two +took counsel on them. Wilfred had not given up the name of +the person for whom he had meant to borrow from the office; but +Captain Henderson had very little doubt who it was, and it was +agreed that he should receive the amount through a cheque of +Bernard on Brown and Travis Underwood, from Captain +Henderson’s hands, with a scathing rebuke and peremptory +assurance of exposure to Mr. White, and consequent dismissal, if +anything more of the same kind among the younger men were +detected. The man was a clever artist in his first youth, +and had always been something of a favourite with the +authorities, and had a highly respectable father; so Captain +Henderson meant to spare him as much as possible, and endeavour +to ascertain how far the mischief had gone among the young men +connected with the marble works, also to consult Mr. White on the +amount of stringency in the measures used to put a stop to +it. All this, of course, passed out of Bernard +Underwood’s hands and knowledge, but a sad and anxious day +was before him. All the young girls were going on well, but +Wilfred was increasingly ill all day, and continually calling for +Bernard. Being told, “I have settled the +matter” did not satisfy him. He looked eagerly about +the room to find whether his mother were present, and fancying +she was absent demanded, “Does he know? Do they +know?” reiterating again and again. It was necessary +to tell Lady Merrifield that there was an entanglement about +money matters on his mind, which had been settled; but towards +evening he grew worse and more light-headed, apparently under the +impression that only Bernard could guard him from something +unknown, or conceal, whenever he was conscious of the presence of +his mother; and on his father’s entrance he hid his face in +the pillows and trembled, of course to their exceeding distress +and perplexity; and when he believed no one present but Bernard +and Mrs. Halfpenny, he became more and more rambling, sometimes +insisting that his father must not know, sometimes abusing all +connected with the racing bet, and more often fancying that he +was going to be arrested for robbing the firm, the enormity of +the sum and of the danger increasing with the fever, and +therewith his horror of his father’s knowing. It was +of no use for his mother to hang over him, hold his hands, and +assure him that she knew (as, in fact, she did, for Bernard had +been obliged to make a cursory explanation), and that nothing +could hinder her loving him still; he forgot it in the next +interruption, and turned from her with terror and dismay, and +once he nearly flung himself out of bed, fancying that the +policeman was coming.</p> +<p>Bernard held him on this occasion, and told him, +“Nothing will do you good, Willie, but to tell your father, +and he will keep all from you. Let him know, and it will be +all right.”</p> +<p>It only seemed to add to his misery and terror. +Something that passed in his hearing, gave him the impression +that he was in great danger, if not actually dying; but his cry +was still for Bernard, who had not ventured to go to bed; but it +was still, “Oh, Bear, save me! Don’t let me die +with this upon my name! I can’t go to God!”</p> +<p>“There’s nothing for it, Wilfred, but to tell your +father. He will pardon you. Your mother has, you +see. Tell him, and when he forgives, you will know that God +does. It will come right. Let me call him!”</p> +<p>“Let me bring him, my boy, my dear boy!” entreated +his mother. “You know he will.”</p> +<p>Wilfred seemed as if he did not know, but still held fast by +Bernard’s strong hands, as though there were support in +them; and when in a few moments Sir Jasper entered the room, +there was the same clinging gesture and endeavour to hide, in +spite of the gentle sweetness of the tone of, “Well, my +poor boy.”</p> +<p>It was Bernard who was obliged to say, turning the poor +flushed face towards him, “Wilfred wishes to +say—”</p> +<p>“Father,” it came with a gasp at last, +“I’ve done it. I’ve disgraced us +all. Forgive!”</p> +<p>He was repeating his own exaggerated ideas of what his crime +had been, and what Sir Jasper would have said to him if all had +been discovered in any other way.</p> +<p>“Do not think of it now, my boy. I forgive you, +whatever it is.”</p> +<p>Thereupon Dr. Dagger entered. He turned every one out +except Mrs. Halfpenny, and gave a draught, which silenced the +patient and put him to sleep in a few minutes. While +Bernard hastily satisfied the parents that a good deal was +exaggerated feeling, and that an old soldier must have known of a +good many worse things in his time, though not so near home.</p> +<p>There was a general sense of relief in the morning, for +Wilfred’s attack had become an ordinary, though severe one, +and the other cases were going on well. But Sir Jasper, who +had not been able to grasp the extent of Wilfred’s +delinquency, and had been persuaded by his despair that it was +much more serious than it really was, called his son-in-law into +council, and demanded whether the whole could have been told.</p> +<p>Bernard was certain that it was so, and related his +transactions with Captain Henderson, much of course to the +father’s relief, so far as the outer world was concerned; +but what principally grieved him, besides the habits thus +discovered, was his son’s abject terror of him, not only in +the exaggeration of illness, but in his mode of speaking of +him.</p> +<p>It had never been thus with any of his sons before.</p> +<p>Claude, the soldier, had always been satisfactory, so had +Harry the clergyman, though often widely separated from the +parents in their wandering life; but the bond of confidence had +never been broken. Jasper had never teased any one but his +sisters. Fergus, too, the youngest of all the sons, and of +an individual, rather peculiar nature, was growing up in straight +grooves of his own; but Wilfred, who from delicate health, had +been the most at home, had never seemed to open to his +father. The family discipline of the General seemed only to +oppress and terrify him, and the irregularities and subterfuges +that had from time to time been detected had been met with just +anger, never received in such a manner as to call forth the +tenderness of forgiveness. Each discovery of a misdemeanour +had only been the prelude to fresh and worse concealments and +hardening.</p> +<p>And experience of mankind did not give any decided hope that +even the last day’s agony of repentance would be the +turning over of a new leaf, when convalescence should bring the +same surroundings and temptations, and perhaps the like +disproportionate indignation and impatience in dealing with +errors and constitutional weakness. “And the example +of my brother’s poor son is not encouraging,” he +added. “He who seems to have owed everything to your +brother and sister.”</p> +<p>“Yet poor Fulbert and I were to our homes, perhaps not +the black sheep, but at any rate the vagrant ones.”</p> +<p>“And what made a difference to you, may I +ask?”</p> +<p>“Strong infusion by character and example of +principle,” said Bernard thoughtfully; “then, real +life, and having to be one’s own safeguard, with nothing to +fall back on. As my brother told me at his last, I should +swim when my plank was gone.”</p> +<p>“Yes, but, plainly, you were never weak,” and as +Bernard did not answer at once, “Old-fashioned severity +used to be the rule with lads, but it seems only to alienate them +now and make them think themselves unjustly treated. What +is one to do with these boys?”</p> +<p>A question which Bernard could not answer, though it carried +him back with a strange yearning, yet resignation, to the little +figure that had curled round on his knee, and the hopes connected +with the hands that had caressed his cheek.</p> +<p>He thought over it the more the next week, when he was called +to sit by Wilfred, who was getting better and anxious to +talk.</p> +<p>“My father is very kind,” he said. +“Oh, yes, very kind now; but it will be all the same when I +get well. You see, Bear, how can a man be always dawdling +about with a lot of girls? There’s Dolores bothering +with her science, and Fergus every bit as bad; and Mysie after +her disgusting schoolchildren; and Val and Prim horrid little +empty chatterboxes; and if one does turn to a jolly girl for a +bit of fun, their tongues all go to work, so that you would think +the skies were going to fall; and if one goes in for a bit of a +spree, down comes the General like a sledge-hammer! I wish +you would take me out with you, Bear.”</p> +<p>The same idea had already been undeveloped in Bernard’s +mind, and ever on his tongue when alone with his wife; but he +kept it to himself, and only committed himself to, “You +would not find an office in Colombo much more +enlivening.”</p> +<p>“There would be something to see—something to +do. It would not be all as dull as ditch-water—just +driving one to do something to get away from the girls and their +fads.”</p> +<p>This was nearly a fortnight from the night of crisis, when +Wilfred, very weak, was still in bed; when Primrose and Lily were +up and about, but threatened with whooping cough. Thekla +much in the same case, and very cross; and little Lena weak, +caressing and dependant, but angelically good and patient, so +much so that Magdalen and Angela were quite anxious about +her.</p> +<h2><a name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +158</span>CHAPTER XXVI—NEW PATHS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“I’ll put a girdle round the earth<br +/> +In forty minutes.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> visitation had not been +confined to the High School. The little cheaply-built rows +for workmen and fishermen had suffered much more severely, owing +chiefly to the parents’ callous indifference to +infection. “Kismet,” as they think it, said +Jane Mohun, and still more to their want of care. Chills +were caught, fevers and diphtheria ensued, and there was an +actual mortality among the children at the works and at +Arnscombe. Mr. Flight begged for help from the Nursing +Sisterhood at Dearport, and, to her great joy, Sister Beata was +sent down to him, with another who was of the same standing as +Angela, and delighted to have a glimpse of her; though Angela +thought it due to her delicate charge, and the Merrifields, not +to plunge into actual nursing while Lena needed her hourly +attention, and was not yet in a state for the training to do +without it to continue. Paulina, however, being regarded as +infection proof, was permitted to be an attendant and messenger +of her dear Sister Beata, to her own great joy. She was now +nineteen, and her desire to devote herself to a Sisterhood had +never wavered, and intercourse with Sister Angela had only +strengthened it.</p> +<p>“Oh, Maidie!” she said, “I do not think +there can be any life so good or so happy as being really given +up to our Lord and His work among the sick and poor.”</p> +<p>“My dear, He can be served if you are in the world, +provided you are not <i>of</i> the world, and if you keep +yourself from the evil.”</p> +<p>“Yes; but why should I run into the world? It is +not evil, I know, so far as you and all your friends can manage; +but it stirs up the evil in one’s self.”</p> +<p>“And so would a Sisterhood. That is a world, +too.”</p> +<p>“I suppose it is, and that there would be temptation; +but there is a great deal to help one to keep right. And, +oh! to have one’s work in real good to Christ’s poor, +or in missions, instead of in all these outside silly nonsensical +diversions that one doubts about all the time. If you would +only let me go back with dear Sister Beata and Sister Elfleda as +a probationer!”</p> +<p>“You could not be any more yet,” said Magdalen; +“but I will think about it, and talk it over with Sister +Angela. You know your friend Sister Mena, as she called +herself, does not mean to be a Sister, but a +governess.”</p> +<p>“Yes; she wrote to me. She has never seen or known +anything outside the Convent, and it is all new and turns her +head,” said Paulina, wisely. “I know she helped +me to be all the more silly about Vera and poor Hubert +Delrio.”</p> +<p>Magdalen promised to talk the matter over with Sister +Angela.</p> +<p>“I should call it a vocation,” said Angela. +“I have watched her ever since I have been here, and I am +sure her soul is set on these best things, in a steady, earnest +way.”</p> +<p>“She has always been an exceedingly good girl ever since +I have had to do with her,” said Magdalen. “I +have hardly had a fault to find with her, except a little +exaggeration in the direction of St. Kenelm’s.”</p> +<p>“A steady, not a fitful flame,” said Angela.</p> +<p>“But she is so young.”</p> +<p>“If you will believe me, Magdalen, such a home as that +Dearport Sisterhood is a precious thing—I have not been +worthy of it. I have been a wild colt, carried about by all +manner of passing excitements. Oh, dear! love of sheer fun +and daring enterprise, and amusement, in shocking every one, even +my very dearest, whom I loved best. I have done things too +dreadful to think of, and been utterly unreasonable and +unmanageable, and proud of it; but always that Sisterhood has +been like a cord drawing me! I never quite got free of it, +even when I sent back my medal, and fancied it had been playing +at superstition. I was there for a month as almost a baby, +and the atmosphere has brought peace ever since. That, and +my brother, and Sister Constance, and Bishop Fulmort, have been +the saving of me, if anything has. I mean, if they will +have me, to spend a little time at Dearport after all this +perplexity is over, and I know how it is with Lena, and I could +see how it is with Paula if you liked.”</p> +<p>Magdalen accepted the suggestion, perhaps the more readily +because of a fleeting visit from Hubert Delrio, who had finished +his frescoes at the American Vale Leston, and came for a day or +two to Mr. Flight’s. She had sometimes doubted +whether the supposed love of Vera had not been a good deal +diffused among the young ladies, and might not so far awaken in +Paulina as to render her vocation doubtful; but there were no +such symptoms. Paula was quiet and cheerful, with a +friendly welcome, but no excitement; but it was Thekla, now +fifteen, who was all blushes whenever Hubert looked or spoke to +her, all her forwardness gone; and shyness, or decidedly +awkwardness, set in, resulting chiefly in giggle.</p> +<p>Hubert looked more manly and substantial, and he had just had +an order for an important London church, which pleased him much, +and involved another journey to Italy to study some of the +designs in the Lombardic churches.</p> +<p>Not that there was any chance of meeting Vera. Mr. and +Mrs. White had spent the last summer at Baden; and Vera, who had +many pretty little drawing-room talents, and was always obliging, +had been very acceptable there. This winter an attack of +rheumatism had made them decide on trying Algiers, with a view to +the Atlas marbles, and then German baths again might claim them +for the summer.</p> +<p>In fact, the fear of infection had rendered Rock Quay a +deserted place during the Easter vacation. Fergus +Merrifield might not come near Primrose and Lily, and was charmed +to accept an invitation from his friend and admirer, Adrian +Vanderkist, to Vale Leston, where he would be able to explore the +geology of Penbeacon, to say nothing of the coast; while his +sister Felicia, who had been one of the victims, remained to be +disinfected with Miss Mohun. Dolores was at Vale Leston +Priory, and Agatha Prescott with her, so as to have a clean bill +of health for her return to Oxford for her last term.</p> +<p>The Holy Week was calm and grave; and the two girls, with Anna +Vanderkist and her little sisters, were very happy over their +primroses and anemones on Easter Eve, with the beautiful Altar +Cross that no one could manage like Aunt Cherry, whose work was +confined to that, and to the two crosses on the graves.</p> +<p>Another notion soon occupied them. There was a vague +idea that a sort of convalescent or children’s hospital +might be established for the training of women intending to study +medicine or nursing, chiefly at Miss Arthuret’s expense, +and Dolores was anxious to consider the possibility of placing it +in the sweet mountain air, tempered by the sea breezes of +Penbeacon.</p> +<p>It was an idea to make Mrs. Grinstead shudder; but neither she +nor her niece, Anna Vanderkist, could forget Gerald’s view +that Penbeacon was not only to be the playground of Vale Leston, +and they always felt as if Dolores had a certain widow’s +right to influence any decision. So she cheerfully +acquiesced in what, in her secret heart, seemed only a feeble +echo of the past, though, to the young generations it was a very +happy hopeful present when all the youthful party, under the +steerage of Mary and Anna, and the escort of Sir Adrian and +Fergus, started off with ponies, donkeys, cycles and sturdy feet +to picnic on Penbeacon, if possible in the March winds—well +out of the way of the clay works.</p> +<p>How Fergus divided his cares between the strata and +Dolores’ kodak, how even his photography could not spoil +Aunt Alda; how charming a group of sisters Dolores contrived to +produce; how Adrian was the proud pioneer into a coach adorned +with stalactites and antediluvian bones; how Anna collected +milkwort and violets for Aunt Cherry; how a sly push sent little +Joan in a headlong career down a slope that might have resulted +in a terrible fall, but did only cause a tumble and great fright, +and a severe reprimand from the elder sisters; how Agatha was +entranced by the glorious view in the clearness of spring, how +they ate their sandwiches and tried to think it was not cold; how +grey east wind mist came over the distance and warned them it was +time to trot down,—all this must belong to the annals of +later Vale Leston; and of those years of youth which in each +generation leave impressions as of sunbeams for life. And +on their return, Dolores found a letter which filled her with a +fresh idea. It was from her father in New Zealand, telling +her that there was an opening for her to come and give a course +of lectures on electricity at Canterbury, Auckland and the other +towns, and proposing to her to come out with her lady assistant, +when she might very probably extend her tour to Australia.</p> +<p>“Would you come, Naggie?” asked Dolores.</p> +<p>“Oh! I should like nothing half so well. If +you could only wait till my turn is over, and the +exam!”</p> +<p>“Of course! Why, we shall not have finished the +correspondence till after the examination! How capital it +will be! My father will like your bright face, and you will +think him like Fergus grown older. Will your sister +consent?”</p> +<p>“Oh! Magdalen will be glad enough to have me off +on a career. We will write and prepare her mind. I +believe I am not to go home, so as to bring a clean bill of +health to St. Robert’s.”</p> +<p>“I really think,” added Dolores, “that +Magdalen would make an admirable head matron, or whatever you +call it!”</p> +<p>“Dear old thing! She is very fond of her +Goyle.”</p> +<p>“True, but Sophy’s engineer husband tells us that +a new line is projected to Rock Quay, through the very heart of +the Goyle, Act of Parliament, compulsory sale and all.”</p> +<p>“Well! work might console her for being uprooted, and +she is quite youthful enough to take to it with +spirit.”</p> +<p>“Besides that she would greatly console Clement and +Cherry for the profanation of their Penbeacon. I declare I +will suggest it to Arthurine!”</p> +<p>So the two young people resolved, not without a consciousness +that what was to them a fresh and inspiring gale, to the elder +generation was “winds have rent thy sheltering +bowers.”</p> +<h2><a name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +266</span>CHAPTER XXVII—A SENTENCE</h2> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“What should we +give for our beloved?”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—E. B. <span +class="smcap">Browning</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">No</span> sooner had the visitors departed +than the others now out of quarantine appeared at Vale +Leston. Angela was anxious to spend a little time there, +and likewise to have Lena overhauled by Tom May. The child +had never really recovered, and was always weakly; and whereas on +the journey, Lily, now in high health, was delighted with all she +saw, though she could not compare Penbeacon to Adam’s Peak, +Lena lay back in Sister Angela’s arms, almost a dead +weight, hardly enduring the bustle of the train, though she tried +not to whine, as long as she saw her pink Ben looking happy in +his cage.</p> +<p>Angela was an experienced nurse, and was alarmed at some of +the symptoms that others made light of. Mrs. Grinstead had +thought things might be made easier to her if the Miss +Merrifields came to meet her and hear the doctor’s opinion; +and Elizabeth accepted her invitation, arriving to see the lovely +peaceful world in the sweet blossoming of an early May, the +hedges spangled with primroses, and the hawthorns showing sheets +of snow; while the pear trees lifted their snowy pyramids, and +Lily in her white frock darted about the lawn in joyous play with +her father under the tree, and the grey cloister was gay with +wisteria.</p> +<p>Angela was sitting in the boat, safely moored, with a book in +her hand, the pink cockatoo on the gunwale, nibbling at a stick, +and the girl lying on a rug, partly on her lap. Phyllis and +Anna, who had come out on the lawn, made Elizabeth pause.</p> +<p>“That’s the way they go on!” said +Phyllis. “All day long Angela is reading to the child +either the ‘Water Babies’ or the history of +Joseph.”</p> +<p>“Or crooning to her the story of the Cross,” said +Anna; “and as soon as one is ended she begins it again, and +Lena will not let her miss or alter a single word.”</p> +<p>“They go on more than half the night,” added +Phyllis. “Bear sat up long over his letters and +accounts, and as he went up he heard the crooning, and looked in; +and the very moment Angela paused, there came the little +plaintive voice, ‘Go on, please.’ ‘Women +are following’—”</p> +<p>“But is not that spoiling her?” asked Bessie.</p> +<p>A look of sad meaning passed between her two companions. +Phyllis shook her head slightly, and, instead of answering, +conducted Bessie on to the bank, when Angela looked up and made a +sign that she could not move or speak, for the child was +asleep. The yellow head was shaded by Angela’s +parasol, the thin hair lying ruffled on the black dress, and the +small face looked more pinched than when the aunt had last seen +it, nearly a year previously. She had watched the decay of +aged folks, but she was unused to the illnesses of children; and +she recoiled with a little shock, as she looked down at the +little wasted face, with a slight flush of sleep. +“Recovery from measles,” she said.</p> +<p>Phyllis smiled a little pitifully as her own little girl, all +radiant with health and joy, came skipping up, performing antics +over her father’s hand. “Take care, Lily, +don’t wake poor little Lena,” was murmured +quietly.</p> +<p>“Northern breezes—” began Bessie, but the +voices had broken the light slumber; and as Angela began, +“See, Lena, here is Aunt Bessie,” the effect was to +make her throw herself over Angela’s shoulder and hide her +face; and when her protector tried to turn her round and reason +her into courtesy, she began to cry in a feeble manner.</p> +<p>“She has had a bad night,” said motherly Phyllis; +“let her alone.”</p> +<p>“May not I get down into the boat?” asked +Lily. “I’ll be very good.”</p> +<p>There would have been a little hesitation, but at the voice +Lena looked up and called “Lily, Lily!” Bernard +lifted his small daughter down, Elizabeth was not sorry to be led +away for the present, and when, after a turn in the rose garden, +she came back, the two children were sitting with arms round one +another, holding a conversation with Ben, the cockatoo, and +making him dance on one of the benches of the boat, under +Angela’s supervision, lest he should end by dancing +overboard. The rich fair hair, shining dark blue eyes, and +plump glowing cheeks of Lily were a contrast to the wan wasted +colouring of her little cousin; but Lena was more herself now +than when just awake, and let Lily lead her up and introduce her, +as it might be called, to Cousin Bessie as Lily called her, a +less formidable sound than “Aunt Elizabeth.” +They were both kissed, and she endured it. Angela was, as +her brothers and sisters said, “very good,” and +scrupulously abstained from absorbing the child all the evening, +letting Elizabeth show her pictures and tell her stories, to +which, by Lily’s example, she listened quietly enough and +with interest.</p> +<p>When the two children went off, hand in hand, to their beds, +Elizabeth said, “Really, Magdalen is improved. If you +leave Lily with her, Phyllis, I think we should get on +beautifully. The bracing air will do wonders for them +both.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said poor Phyllis forbearingly; +“we have not made our plans about Lily yet.”</p> +<p>But Elizabeth thought out a beautiful scheme of discipline and +study in the long light hours of the morning, and began to feel +herself drawn towards her delicate little niece, feeling sure +that the little thing would soon be Susan’s darling, if +Susan could be brought to endure the cockatoo walking loose about +the house.</p> +<p>Early in the day Professor May appeared, and was hailed as an +old friend by all the Underwoods. He rejoiced to see +Clement looking well and active; and “as to this +fellow,” he said, looking at Bernard, “it shows what +development will do.”</p> +<p>“Not quite the young Bear of Stoneborough,” said +Clement, leaning affectionately on his broad shoulder; “our +skittish pair are grown very sober-minded. But you have not +told us of your father.”</p> +<p>“My father is very well. He walks down every day +to sit with my wife, and visits a selection of his old patients, +who are getting few enough now. This is not my patient, I +suppose?”</p> +<p>“Unless you are ready to prescribe only laughing and +good Jersey cows’ milk,” said Bernard, pulling the +long silky brown hair. “Where’s mother, little +one?”</p> +<p>“Mother sent me to say Aunt Angel is ready, if Dr. May +will come up to Aunt Cherry’s room. Lena is +frightened, and they did not like to leave her.”</p> +<p>It was a long visit, after Phyllis had come down; and, walking +up and down the cloister with Bessie Merrifield, listened to her +schemes of education for the little maidens. Lily she liked +and admired, and she was convinced that Magdalen’s weak +health and spirits were the result of the spoiling system. +Phyllis trembled a little as she heard of the knocking about, +out-of-doors ways that had certainly produced fine strong healthy +frames and upright characters, but she forbore to say that if her +little girl had to be left, it would be to her mother and +Mysie.</p> +<p>By and by Tom came down, and finding Geraldine alone in the +drawing-room, he answered her inquiry with a very grave +look. “Poor little thing! You do not think well +of her! Is it as Angel feared?”</p> +<p>“Confirmed disease, from original want of development of +heart. Measles accelerated it. I doubt her lasting +six months, though it may be longer or less.”</p> +<p>“Have you told Angel?”</p> +<p>“She knew it, more or less. She is ready to bear +it, though one can see how her soul is wrapped up in the child, +and the child in her.”</p> +<p>“One thing, Tom, will you tell Miss Merrifield yourself, +and alone, and make her feel that it is an independent +opinion? It may save both the poor child and Angel a great +deal.”</p> +<p>“Are you prepared to keep her here?”</p> +<p>“Of course we are. It is Angel’s natural +home. Clement and I could think of nothing else.”</p> +<p>“I knew you would say so. If I understand rightly +there is something like a jealousy of her case in the +Merrifields, prompted greatly by their wish to expiate any +neglect of her father.”</p> +<p>“That is what I gather from what Phyllis tells +me.”</p> +<p>“What a lovely countenance hers is in expression! +No wonder Bernard has softened down. There is strength and +solidity as well as sweetness in her face. Ah, there they +are!”</p> +<p>“I will call Phyllis in. Bessie Merrifield has +almost walked her to death by this time.”</p> +<p>So Phyllis was called and told. What she said was, +“I only hope he will make her understand that it could not +be helped, and it was not Angela’s fault.”</p> +<p>Tom May had wisdom enough to make this clear in what was a +greater shock to Elizabeth than it was to Angela, who had +suspected enough to be prepared for the sentence, and had besides +a good deal of hospital experience, which enabled her thoroughly +to understand the Professor’s explanations. So, +indeed, did it seem to Elizabeth at the time he was speaking; but +she had lived a good deal in London, and had a great idea that a +London physician must be superior to a man who had lived in the +country, and, moreover, whom all the household called Tom, and +she asked Mrs. Grinstead if he were really so clever.</p> +<p>“Indeed, I think he is; and I have seen a great deal of +his treatment. You may quite trust him. He lives down +here at Stoneborough for his father’s sake, or he would be +quite at the head of his profession.”</p> +<p>“Superior to the two Doctors Brownlow?”</p> +<p>“I should not say superior, but quite equal.”</p> +<p>“The Brownlows,” said Clement, looking up from his +paper, “helped me through an ordinary malarial fever. +John Lucas is a brilliant specialist in such cases, but +certifying an affection of the heart. Tom May latterly has +treated me better. As far as I understand the case of your +little niece, I should say both that it was more in the line of +Tom May, and likewise that it would be very hurtful to her to +take her about and subject her to more examinations.”</p> +<p>“Poor little thing! no doubt it would be a terrible +distress,” acquiesced Bessie; “but still, if it is +bracing that she needs—northern air might make all the +difference.”</p> +<p>Clement sighed a little hopelessly over making a woman +understand or give way, and returned to his newspaper; while +Geraldine tried to argue that air could not make much difference, +speaking in the interest of the child herself and of her +sister. Elizabeth listened and agreed; but there was in the +Merrifield family a fervour of almost jealous expiation of their +neglect of Henry, inattention to his daughter, and desire to +appropriate her, and to restore her to health, strength, and +wisdom, in spite of her would-be stepmother.</p> +<p>“They hate me as much as if I were her +stepmother!” cried Angela. “I wish I was, to +have a right to protect her! No, Clem; I’ll not break +out, if I can help it, as long as they don’t worry her; and +I think Bessie does see the rights of it.”</p> +<p>Yes; the peaceful, thoughtful atmosphere of Vale Leston, +unlike the active bustle of Coalham, had an insensible influence +on Elizabeth’s mind; and she saw that Angela’s +treatment of the child, always cheerful though tender, was right, +and that it would be sheer cruelty to separate them. She +promised to use all her power to prevent any such step, and +finally left Vale Leston, perfectly satisfied that it was +impossible to take Lena with her.</p> +<p>But her family did not see it thus, especially Mrs. Samuel +Merrifield, the child’s guardian. She insisted that +it was her husband’s duty to bring the little one to London +for advice, and to remove her from all the weakening, morbid +influences of Vale Leston.</p> +<h2><a name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +274</span>CHAPTER XXVIII—SUMMONED</h2> +<blockquote><p>“What would we give to our +beloved?”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—E. B. <span +class="smcap">Browning</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“I <span class="smcap">wish</span> they all would not go +so very fast,” said little Lena, hiding her face against +him from the whirl of cabs and omnibuses.</p> +<p>“They bewilder us savages,” said Angela, +smiling. “Remember we are from the wilds.”</p> +<p>“She shall have her tea, and a good rest,” said +Marilda; “and then I have asked her uncle and aunts to meet +you at dinner, and Fernan hopes to bring home another old +friend. Whom do you think, Angel?”</p> +<p>“Oh! Not our Bishop?”</p> +<p>“Yes, the Bishop of Albertstown! He is actually in +town; Fernan saw him yesterday at the Church House.”</p> +<p>“Oh! that is joy!” cried Angela; and Lena raised +her head, with, “Is it mine—mine own +Bishop?”</p> +<p>“Mine own, mine own Bishop and godfather, my +sweet!” said Angela; “more to us in our own way than +any one else. Oh! it is joy! How happy Clement will +be!”</p> +<p>It was with much feeling, almost akin to shame, that Bessie +wrote to Angela this decision of her brother, that a London +authority must be consulted—not Dr. Brownlow, but one whom +Mrs. Sam had heard highly spoken of.</p> +<p>“That man!” cried Angela. “I have +heard of him! He is a regular mealy-mouthed old woman of a +doctor! And she is so well just now! How horrid to +shake her up again! Oh, Bear! if I could only sail away +with her to Queensland!”</p> +<p>“You would if it was ten years ago,” said +Bernard.</p> +<p>“Yes! Is it the way of the world, or learning +resignation, that makes one know one must submit? Giving up +an idol is a worse thing when the idol is made of flesh and +blood.”</p> +<p>Bernard wanted to see Sir Ferdinand, so made it an excuse for +helping his sister on the way; and he did so effectively, for his +knee and broad breast were Lena’s great resting-place; and +his stories of monkeys and elephants were almost as good as +kangaroos. Was there not a kangaroo to be seen in London, +which she apparently thought would be a place of about the size +of Albertstown?</p> +<p>Lady Underwood had insisted on receiving the travellers from +Vale Leston in her house in Kensington; and there was her broad, +kindly face looking out for them at the station, and her likewise +broad and kindly carriage ready to carry them from it. How +natural all looked to Angela, with all her associations of being +a naughty, wild, mischievous schoolgirl, the general plague and +problem!</p> +<p>“But always a dear,” said Marilda, with her habit +of forgetting everybody’s faults. “Why +didn’t you bring your wife, Bernard, and your little girl +for this darling’s playfellow?”</p> +<p>“She is her best playfellow,” said Angela; +“Adela’s Joan is too rough, and fitter for +Adrian’s companion.”</p> +<p>“She is my playfellow,” said Bernard, holding her +up. “Look out, Lena. Here’s Father Thames +to go over.”</p> +<p>“And Fernan is so glad,” added Marilda.</p> +<p>For Bishop Robert Fulmort had, when Vicar of St. +Wulstan’s, been the guide and helper of Ferdinand +Travis’s time of trial and disappointment, as well as the +spiritual father of Clement Underwood; he had known and dealt +with Angela in her wayward girlhood, and aided her bitter +repentance; and in these later days in Australia had been her +true fatherly friend, counsellor and comforter in the trials and +perplexities that had befallen her. Bernard read, in her +lifted head and brightened eye, that she felt the meeting him +almost a compensation for the distress and perplexity of this +journey to London.</p> +<p>Bernard carried the little girl up to the room and laid her +down to sleep off her fatigue, while Marilda waited on her and +Angela with her wonted bustling affection, extremely happy to +have two of her best beloved cousins under her roof.</p> +<p>Bernard went off to find Sir Ferdinand at his office, and +quiet prevailed till nearly dinner time, when Lena awoke and +would not be denied one sight of her godfather. So Angela +dressed her in her white frock, and smoothed her thin yellow +hair, and took her down to the great stiff handsome room that all +Emilia’s efforts had never made to look liveable. +Emilia Brown was there, very fashionably attired, but eager for +news of Vale Leston, and the Merrifields soon arrived with, +“Oh! here she is!” from the Captain, “Well! she +looks better than I expected!”</p> +<p>“Poor little dear!” observed his wife, dressed in +a low dress and thin fringe on her forehead in honour of what, to +the country mind, was a grand dinner party, at which +Angela’s plain black dress and tight white cap were an +unbecoming sight. Elizabeth was there, kissing Angela with +real sympathy; and Lena, who had grown a good deal more +accustomed to strange relations, endured the various embraces +without discourtesy.</p> +<p>But when the door opened and the grey-headed Bishop came in +there was a low half scream of “Oh! oh!” and with one +leap she was in his arms, as he knelt on one knee, and clasped +her, holding out a hand to Angela, whose eyes were full of tears +of relief and trust. Marilda gave a glad welcome, but they +were startled by perceiving that the joy of meeting had brought +on a spasm of choking on Lena, who was gasping in a strange sort +of agony. Angela took her in her arms and carried her out +of the room. Marilda presently following, came back +reporting that the little girl had been relieved by a shower of +tears, but was still faint and agitated, and that Angela could +not leave her, but begged that they would not wait dinner.</p> +<p>“Such sensitiveness needs anxious care,” said +Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“If it be not the effect of spoiling. Just +affectation!” replied the sister-in-law in a decided voice, +which made Bessie glad that the poor child’s home was not +to be among the rough boys at Stokesley, who were not credited +with any particular feelings.</p> +<p>Angela’s absence gave the Bishop the opportunity of +telling what she had been during her years at Albertstown, what a +wonderful power among the natives, though not without +disappointment, and she had been still more effective among the +settlers and their daughters. Carrigaboola, Fulbert’s +farm, had been an oasis of hope and rest to the few clergy of his +scanty staff, and Fulbert himself had been a tower of strength +for influence over the settlers who had fallen in his way, by his +unswerving uprightness and honour, with the deeper principles of +religion, little talked of but never belied. Even after his +death, the power he had been told over all with whom he had come +in contact.</p> +<p>Bernard heard it with immense pleasure, as did the faithful +Ferdinand and Marilda; while Elizabeth felt more and more that +Sister Angela was not to be treated, as she feared Sam and his +wife were inclined to do, as a mere interloper in their family +affairs, but as one to be not merely considered with gratitude, +but even reverenced.</p> +<p>Indeed, Sam began to feel it, as he saw how the other men, +both practical business men, listened, and were impressed; but it +was not quite the case with his wife, who did not particularly +esteem colonial Bishops, and still less Sisterhoods or devotion +to missionary efforts, especially among the Australian blacks, +whom her old geography book had told her were the most degraded +and hopeless of natives, scarcely removed from mere animals.</p> +<p>When Angela appeared half through dinner time and said that +Lena was safely asleep, and Marilda sat her down to be happy in +exchange of Carrigaboola tidings with her Bishop, Fernando +greeted her with a reverence not undeserved, though perhaps all +the more from the contrast to the mischievous little sprite who +used to disturb the days of his philandering with Alda.</p> +<p>How much shocked Mrs. Samuel was, when the magnificent Sir +Ferdinand, whom she regarded with awe as a millionaire, was +flippantly answered by this extraordinary Sister, “Thank +you, Fernan, I should like to have a sight of the old +office. I hope you have a descendant of the old cat, +Betty. Didn’t she come from your grandmother, +Marilda? Do you remember her being found playing tricks +with the nugget, just come from Victoria?”</p> +<p>“That was in her kitten days,” said Ferdinand.</p> +<p>“Is that personal, Fernan?”</p> +<p>“A compliment, Angel,” said the Bishop. +“Kittens alter a good deal.”</p> +<p>“Not much for the better,” said Angela. +“If you only could see Mrs. Lamb, who used to be the very +moral of a kitten, scratchiness and all!”</p> +<p>“I thought her very much improved,” said Lady +Underwood gravely.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; grown into a sleek and personable tabby, able +to wave her tail at the tip and tuck her paws—her velvet +paws—well under her; and lick her lips over the—oh, +dear!—what do you call it?—your <i>menu</i> is quite +too much for us poor savages, Marilda. A bit of damper is +quite enough for us, isn’t it, Bishop?”</p> +<p>“Varied with opossum and fern root,” he said +smiling; “but that’s only when we have lost our +way.”</p> +<p>The talk drifted off to the history of a shepherd’s +child, who had strayed into the bush, and after much searching, +in which the Bishop and Fulbert had been half starved, had +finally been found and carried home by Angela’s +“crack gin,” as she told it to Bernard; and as +Marilda thought the poor child was in a trap, it had to be +translated into “favourite pupil,” though Bernard +carried on the joke by asking Marilda if she thought the natives +cannibals given to the snaring of mankind.</p> +<p>Altogether it was a thoroughly merry evening, such as comes to +pass in the meeting of old friends and comrades in too large +numbers for grave discourse, but with habits of close intercourse +and associations of all kinds. Emilia and her husband tried +in all courtesy not to let the Merrifields feel themselves +neglected; and indeed Bessie was only too glad to listen and join +at times in the talk; but it all went outside Mrs. Sam, who was +on the whole scandalised at the laughter of a Bishop, and a +Sister. Indeed, it was true that Bishop Fulmort, naturally +a grave man, very much so in his early days, comported himself on +this occasion as if he realised Southey’s wish—</p> +<blockquote><p>“That in mine age as cheerful I might be,<br +/> +Like the green winter of the holly tree.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>At any rate, that evening was long a bright remembrance. +Lena slept all night, and was so fresh and well in the morning +that Angela foreboded that the examination might not detect her +delicacy. They met Mrs. Merrifield, and took her with them +to the doctor’s, Lady Underwood Travis having placed her +carriages at their disposal.</p> +<p>It was very much as Angela had expected, knowing by hospital +reputation what the doctor was supposed to be to old ladies and +fanciful mothers, while perhaps he had also heard of her +<i>fracas</i> long ago at the hospital. For he was not more +courteous to her than could be helped, treating her much as if +she were only the nursery maid, and hardly looking at the opinion +which she had made Professor May write out for him.</p> +<p>To her mind, it was a very cursory examination that he made; +and the upshot of his opinion, triumphantly accepted by Mrs. +Merrifield, was that there was nothing seriously amiss with the +child, that she only needed care, regularity and bracing, and +that the stifling, gasping spasms were simply the effect of +hysteria.</p> +<p>Hysteria! Angela felt as if she should run wild as she +heard Mrs. Merrifield’s complacent remarks on having always +thought so, and being sure that a few weeks of good air and good +management would make an immense difference. The need of +not alarming or prejudicing the poor little victim was all that +kept Angela in any restraint; and Mrs. Merrifield went on to say +that she had promised her youngest boy, who was with her in +London, to take him to the Zoological Gardens, and it would be a +good opportunity for Magdalen to see them.</p> +<p>“Is that where there is a kangaroo?” asked Lena, +so eagerly that Angela, though thinking that morning’s work +enough for the feeble strength, could not withstand her. +Besides, if the Merrifields were to have her wholly in another +day, what was the use of standing out for one afternoon? +One comfort was that Elizabeth, who would really have the charge +of the child, had much more good sense and knowledge of the world +than her sister-in-law.</p> +<p>Still Angela felt the only way of bearing it was that after +setting Mrs. Merrifield down, she stopped the carriage at a +church she knew to have a noon-tide Litany, knelt there, with the +little girl beside her, and tried to say, “Thy will be +done! To Thy keeping I commit her.” Her +“hours” came to help her.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Quench Thou the fires of hate and +strife,<br /> + The wasting fever of the heart,<br /> +From perils guard her feeble life,<br /> + And to our souls Thy help impart.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>She was able to be calm, and to utter none of her rage when +they came back to luncheon; and Marilda, declaring she liked +nothing so well as seeing children at the Zoo, wished to go with +the party. All, save Mrs. Merrifield and her boy, had gone +different ways in London, so there was plenty of room in the +barouche.</p> +<p>The boy’s mind was set on riding on the elephant, and +they walked on that way, turning aside, however, to the yard +where towered the kangaroo, tall, gentle, graceful and +gracious. Lena sprang forward with a cry of joy, and +clasped her hands; but in one moment the same spasm, at first of +ecstasy then of overpowering feeling, becoming agony, came over +her, and gasping and choking, Angela held her in her arms and +carried her to a seat, holding her up, loosening her clothes; but +still she did not come round. Her aunt tried to say, +“hysteric.” Some one brought water, but it was +of no use—there were still the labouring gasps, and the +convulsive motion. “Let us take her home,” +Marilda said.</p> +<p>“Nothing but hysterics!” repeated the aunt. +“I will stay with Jackie.”</p> +<p>Marilda found her servant and the carriage, and in the long +drive, a few drops of strong stimulant at a chemist’s +brought a little relief though scarcely consciousness; and when +Angela had carried her up to her room, there was a blueness about +the lips, a coldness about the fingers, that told much. +Marilda had at once sent for Dr. Brownlow as the nearest, and he +was at home; but he could only look and do nothing, but attempt +to revive circulation, all in vain; and with Marilda standing by, +with one convulsive clutch of Angela’s hand, the true +mother of her orphaned life, little Lena sank to a peaceful rest +from the tribulations that awaited her here.</p> +<h2><a name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +284</span>CHAPTER XXIX—SAFE</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Rest beyond all grief and pain,<br /> +Death to thee is truest gain.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Keble</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Angela’s</span> nearest and best +friends had anticipated that the peaceful climax of all her cares +would be a relief to her; and so indeed in the long run it would +be to her higher sense, and she would be thankful. But even +those who knew her most thoroughly had not estimated the pangs of +personal affection and deprivation of the child she had fostered +with a mother’s tenderness for seven years, and the +absolute suffering of the sudden parting, even though it was to +security of bliss, instead of doubt and uneasiness.</p> +<p>She was quite broken and really ill with neuralgia and +exhaustion, unable to attend the funeral, which the Merrifields +wished to have at Stokesley, and unfit for anything but lying +still with the pink parrot on the rail below, kindly watched over +by good Marilda. The strain of many disturbed nights, the +perplexities, the struggle for resignation, all coming after a +succession of trying events in Australia, had told heavily upon +her. Indeed, no one guessed how much she had undergone, +physically as well as spiritually, till Marilda would not be +denied the consulting Dr. Brownlow, who questioned her closely, +and extorted confessions of the long continued strain of +exertion. Rest was all she needed; and Marilda took care +that she had it, bringing Robina up from Minsterham to make it +more effectual, and letting her have visits from her Bishop and +from Bernard as they could afford the time, both being very and +variously busy.</p> +<p>Angela had made up her mind to go out to Australia again, and +to make Carrigaboola an endowment for the Sisterhood; but the +means of doing this could best be arranged there, and she +intended to go out when her Bishop should return in the autumn, +feeling that her vocation was there, though there was a blank in +all she had most cared for on earth in that home.</p> +<p>As soon as she had recovered, she wished to spend a fortnight +at Dearport, beginning with a retreat that was held there. +Remembering her old career there, and the abrupt close of her +novitiate, she felt and spoke as if she was to be received as in +penitence, but to the Sisters who surrounded her it was more as +if they were receiving a saint.</p> +<p>When she came back to Vale Leston, she had recovered +cheerfulness, more equable than it had ever been, and Cherry and +Alda found her a charming companion. There was much going +on at Vale Leston just then. Miss Arthuret and Dolores were +at Penbeacon, seriously considering of the scheme of converting +the old farm house into a kind of place of study for girls who +wanted to work at various technicalities, and to fit themselves +for usefulness or for self-maintenance. There was to be +more or less of the Convalescent Home or House of Rest in +combination, and it had occurred to Dolores that there could +hardly be a better head of such an establishment than Magdalen +Prescott.</p> +<p>Magdalen had been asked to the Priory to meet Angela, to whom +it was now a comfort and pleasure to talk of her treasure, so +much less lost to her than in the uncongenial surroundings +threatened at Coalham. And the invitation, followed by the +proposal, came at a not unpropitious moment. A railway +company, after much surveying, much disputing, and many +heartburnings, were actually obtaining an Act of Parliament, +empowering it to lay its cruel hands upon the Goyle, running its +viaducts down the ravine of Arnscombe, and destroy all the peace +and privacy! It did much, as Agatha had said, to make the +new scheme of Penbeacon acceptable though.</p> +<p>“That comes of making one’s nest,” she +sighed, “and thinking one’s self secure in it for +life! Oh! it is worse and more changeable in this latter +century than in any other! Does the world go round +faster?”</p> +<p>“Of course it does,” said Geraldine. +“Think how many fashions, how many styles, how many ways of +thinking, have passed away, even in our own time.”</p> +<p>“And what have they left behind them?”</p> +<p>“Something good, I trust. Coral cells, stones for +the next generation of zoophytes to stand upon to reach up +higher.”</p> +<p>“Is it higher?”</p> +<p>“In one sense, I hope. The same foundation, +remember, and each cell forms a rock for the future—a white +and beautiful cell, remember, as it grows unconsciously, beneath +this creature.”</p> +<p>Magdalen smiled, delighted with the illustration.</p> +<p>“It forms into the rocks, the strong foundations of the +earth,” she said.</p> +<p>“When it has undergone its baptism beneath the +sea,” added Geraldine. “But practically and +unpoetically, perhaps—how the young folk mount upon all our +little achievements in Church matters, and think them nearly as +old-fashioned and despicable as we did pews and black +gowns! Or how attempts like the schools that brought up +Robina and Angela have shot out into High Schools, colleges, +professions, and I know not what besides.”</p> +<p>“Ah! we come to my old notions for my sisters. I +thought they would have been governesses like myself, but they +married; and now tell me, what do you think of this scheme of +Miss Mohun and Agatha?”</p> +<p>“You know Dolores is going to her father first. I +never saw him, but Lady Merrifield and Jane tell me he is a very +wise, highly-principled person, perfectly to be trusted; and they +like all that they have heard of his young wife. I should +think if Agatha is to become a scientific lecturer, she could not +begin her career under better training.”</p> +<p>“Career, exactly! People used not to talk of +careers.”</p> +<p>“Life and career! Tortoise and hare, eh? But +the hare may and ought still to reach the goal, and have her cell +built, even if she does have her <i>wander yahr</i>, like the +young barnacles, before becoming attached! No! she need not +become the barnacle goose. That is fabulous,” said +Mrs. Grinstead, laughing off a little of her seriousness, and +adding, “Tell me of the other girls. I think Vera did +not come home last year.”</p> +<p>“No; nor the year before. She has a good many +pretty little talents, and is very obliging. Mrs. White +seems to be very fond of her, and did not want to spare her when +they went to Gastein for the summer. And this year, when +there was so much infection about, I could not press +it.”</p> +<p>“Is it true that there is anything between her and +Petros White?”</p> +<p>“I know Miss Mohun—Jane—infers it, but I +don’t like to build upon it.”</p> +<p>“I should build on most inferences that Jane Mohun +ventured to make known,” said Geraldine, smiling; +“and Paulina’s fate is pretty well fixed, I +suppose!”</p> +<p>“Dear child, she has never had any other purpose since I +first knew her thoroughly, and I do not think her present stay at +Dearport will disenchant her. I think she is really +devoted, not to the theoretical romance of a Sisterhood, but to +the deeper full purpose of self-devotion.”</p> +<p>“I can fully believe it of her. Hers have not been +the ups and downs of my Angela, though indeed, after all she has +gone through, there is something in her face that brings to my +mind, ‘After that ye have suffered awhile, stablish, +strengthen, settle you.’”</p> +<p>“It is a lovely countenance—so patient, and yet so +bright.”</p> +<p>“I do not think anything in all her life has tried her +so much as the distress about little Lena; and after knowing her +wildness—to use a weak word for it—under other +troubles, I see what grace and self-control have done for +her. You still keep your Thekla!” she added, as the +girl flashed by, in company with a coeval Vanderkist.</p> +<p>“For a few years to come, though I am beginning to feel +like the old hens who do but bring their children up to launch +them on the waters.”</p> +<p>“Well, it is happy if the launch can be made with hope +present as well as faith; and to see what Angel has become after +many vicissitudes, not confined to her first years of youth, is +an immense encouragement.”</p> +<p>To Angela’s great delight, the affairs of Brown and +Underwood were found to require inspection at San Francisco, as +well as at Colombo, where Bernard was to put the firm into the +hands of one of the Browns, who was to meet him there, and he +would then be able to come home to the central office in +England.</p> +<p>It was not expedient for Phyllis to make the voyage for so +brief a stay, so it was decided that she should remain with her +mother, and she declared that she should be happy about Bernard +being taken care of if Angela, before settling in at +Carrigaboola, would go and stay with him at Ceylon. +“No one can tell the pleasure it is,” she said to +Magdalen, “to borrow one’s own especial brother from +his wife for a little while. Oh, yes, I know it goes +against the grain with him, and it is right it should; but the +poor old sister enjoys her treat nevertheless and +notwithstanding.”</p> +<p>There was a great family gathering at Vale Leston, including +both the Harewoods; and the Bishop of Albertstown came to spend +that last fortnight in England with Clement, the boy who had been +committed to him as a chorister, then trained as a young deacon, +and almost driven out in his inexperience to the critical charge +of the neglected parish and the old squire, only to be recalled +after seven years to the more important charge in London on the +Bishop’s appointment, there to serve till strength gave +way, and he must perforce return to his former home. There +was a farewell picnic of the elders at Penbeacon, merry and yet +wistful in its hopeful auguries that the loved play place would +be a glad and beneficial home.</p> +<p>It was a strange retrospect, talked over by the two old +friends in deep thankfulness, yet humility over their own +shortcomings and failures, and no less strange were the +recollections of the wild noisy insubordinate schoolgirl whom the +Bishop’s sister had failed to tame, and who had to both +seemed to live only on sensation, whether religious or secular, +and who had been one continual care and perplexity to each. +By turns they had thought that the full Church system acted as a +hotbed on her peculiar temperament, and at others they had +thought it only an alternative to the amusements of vanity and +flirtation. Each had felt himself a failure with regard to +her, and had hoped for a fresh start from each crisis of +repentance, notably, from the death of Felix, only to be +disappointed by some fresh aberration.</p> +<p>However, in Queensland, her work had been noble, and +thoroughly effective in many cases; it had involved much +self-denial and even danger, and though these might agree with +her native spirit of adventure, there had likewise been not +fitful, but steadily earnest devotion in her convent life, as +well as the tenderest reverent care of Mother Constance in a long +and painful decline, and therewith a steady cheerful influence +which had immensely assisted the growth of Fulbert’s +character. For some years past, Sister Angela had been not +a care, but a trusty helper to the Bishop; and the later trials +and difficulties, especially the sore rending of the tie with the +being she had come to love with all the force of her strong +nature, had been borne in a manner that bore witness to the +subduing of that over-rebellious and vehement spirit.</p> +<p>And, as she said to Geraldine on the last evening as they bade +good-night, “This has been the very happiest time I ever +spent here—yes, happier than in those exultant days of new +possession and liberty. Oh, yes, all experiments, as it +were, bold ventures, self-reproach and failure, defiance and fun, +and then—oh, the ache I would not confess, the glory of +being provoking, and, oh, the final anguish I brought on myself +and on you all; and I went on, when it began to wear away, still +stifling the sting which revived whenever I came home, and all +was renewed! Really, whenever I shammed it was only +remorse. I don’t think that real repentance, and the +peace after it, began till those quiet days with dear Mother +Constance.”</p> +<p>“And is it peace now?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I think so. Even the parting with my child +has not torn me up. I can say it is well—far better +than leaving her, far better, indeed! And Felix is what he +meant to be, my treasure, not my accuser. Oh, I am glad to +have been at home, and made it all up, to bear away—and +leave with you the sense of Peace.”</p> +<p>All who had loved and feared for her were very happy over her +when all joined in that farewell service on her own birthday, St. +Michael and All Angels’ Day.</p> +<p>The party were joined by Dolores and Wilfred at Liverpool; +Bernard having undertaken to establish the latter at Colombo in +hands as safe as might be.</p> +<h2><a name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +293</span>CHAPTER XXX—THE MAIDEN ROCKS</h2> +<blockquote><p>“What need we more if hearts be true,<br /> +Our voyage safe, our port in view.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Keble</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A <span class="smcap">telegram</span> that a steamer had been +wrecked on the Maiden Rocks filled three homes with dismay. +The rocks were sought out in maps, and found to be specks lying +between County Antrim and Scotland—no doubt terrible in +their reality.</p> +<p>Another day brought something more definite. It +<i>was</i> the <i>Afra</i>,—“wrecked in the fog of +October 11th. Boats got off.”</p> +<p>That was all; but a day’s post brought letters, of which +the fullest was from Dolores:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Corncastle</span>, <span +class="smcap">Larne</span>, <span class="smcap">co</span>. <span +class="smcap">Antrim</span>, <span +class="smcap">Ireland</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 12.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dearest Aunt +Lily</span>,—</p> +<p>“I trust Phyllis has by this time heard from Bernard, as +I heard him called on, as a good oarsman, to go in the first +boat, and we saw Angela’s bonnet. We—that is +Wilfred, Nag, and the Bishop—are all safe here, with eight +or nine others. Will will do well, I trust. He quite +owes his life to Nag. This is how it was: We had not long +been out of the Mersey before an impenetrable fog came down upon +us, and we could not see across the deck; but on we went, on what +proved to be our blind way, till, after a night and day, just as +we were getting up from dinner, there came a hideous shock and +concussion, throwing us all about the room; and in less than a +minute it was repeated, with horrible crackings, tearings, yells +and shouts. No one needed to tell us what it meant, and +down came the call, ‘Don’t wait to save your things, +only wraps, ladies! Up on deck! Life-belts if you +can!’ I remember Bernard standing at the top of the +ladder, helping us up, and somehow, I understand from him, that +we were on a reef, and might either remain there, and sink, or be +washed off. The fog was clearing, and there was a dim light +up high, somewhere, one of the lighthouses, I believe. I +don’t quite know how it all went; I think we kept in the +background, round the Bishop, and that a boat full of emigrant +women was put off. I know there were only about half a +dozen women left, who had been crying and refusing to leave their +husbands; and about thirty altogether, men and women, were +somehow got into our boat with the chief mate; the Bishop all +consolation and prayer; poor Wilfred limp, cold and trembling, +for he had been very seasick till the last moment, when Bernard +pulled him out of his berth, and put him into a lifebelt. +The sea was not very rough, with an east wind; but the mate said +the current was so strong he could make no way against it. +It would bring us on to the Irish cliffs, and then, God help +us! Knowing what that coast is, I thought there was no +hope; and as it was beginning to grow light there rose an awful +wall, all black and white, ready to close upon us; but just as I +set my teeth and tried to recollect prayers, or follow the +Bishop’s, but I could only squeeze Agatha harder and +harder, there was a fresh shouting among the men, and the boat +was heaved up in a fearful way, then down. It was tide, and +we were near upon breakers; but there were answering shouts, or +so they said—I believe a line was thrown, and a light +shown. But as the boat rose again, Nag and I expected to be +hurled on the rocks the next moment, and clung together. +But instead—though the waves had almost torn us +asunder—we were lying on a stony beach, and human hands +were dragging at us—voices calling and shouting about our +not being dead. God had helped us! We had been +carried into a clift where there is a coastguard station; and the +good men had come down and were helping us on shore. But +before I well knew anything, Agatha was on her feet; I heard her +cry ‘Wilfred, Wilfred!’ and then I saw her dragging +him, quite like a dead thing, out of the surf, just in time +before another great wave rushed in which would have washed them +both back, if a man had not grappled her at the very moment, +calling out, ‘Let go, let go, he’s a dead +man!’ She did not let go; when the wave broke, +happily, just short of them, and another came to help, and saved +them from being sucked back. Then the Bishop came and +assured us that he was alive, and got the men to carry him up to +the coastguard cottages; indeed, it was an awful escape; for of +our boatload most were lost altogether, three lie dead, dashed +against the rock, and two more, the mate one of them, have broken +limbs. Wilfred was unconscious for a long time, at least an +hour; but by the help of spoonfuls of whiskey he came round to a +dreamy kind of state, and he does not seem to suffer much; and +the Bishop, the Preventive man and Nag all are sure no limbs are +broken, but he seems incapable of movement except his +hands. It may be only jar upon the spine, and go off in +another day or two; but we do not dare to send for a doctor, or +anything else, indeed, till we have some money; for we all of us +have lost everything except five shillings in my pocket and two +in Nag’s. Even our wraps were washed off—I +believe Agatha gave hers to a shivering woman in the boat. +The Bishop, too, gave away his coat, forgetting to secure his +purse. But the people are very kind to us—North, or +Scotch Irish Presbyterians, I think—for they don’t +seem to know what to make of his being a Bishop when they found +he was not R.C., though they call him His Reverence. Please +send us an order to get cashed, at Larne, six miles off, where +this is posted. Wilfred lies on the good Preventive +woman’s bed, clean and fairly comfortable, and they have +made a shake-down in their parlour for Nag and me. The +Bishop <i>says</i> he is well off, but I believe he is always +looking after the mate and the other man in the other house, and +sleeps, if at all, in a chair. Nag is <i>the</i> +nurse. She had ambulance lessons, you know, when at the +High School, and profited by them more than I ever did, and +Wilfred likes to have her about him, and when he is dazed, as he +always is at first waking, he calls her Vera. But +don’t be uneasy about him, dear Aunt Lily. Deadly +sea-sickness, a night of tossing and cold, and then this terrible +landing may well upset him, and probably he will be on his legs +by the time you get this letter.</p> +<p>“I find our disaster was on the Maiden Rocks, a horrible +group, I only wonder that any one gets past them. There are +five of them, the wicked Sirens, and three have lighthouses, but +not very efficient ones, and apt to disappear in the fog, and +there are reefs beneath on one of which we came to grief. +The folk here think a wreck on these Maidens absolutely fatal, so +we cannot be but most thankful for being alive, though it is a +worse experience than the Rotuma earthquake.</p> +<p>“Fergus would think the place worth all we have +undergone. The crags are wonderful, chalk at the bottom, +basalt above, and of course all round to the Giant’s +Causeway it is finer still. Well may we, as the Bishop is +always doing, give thanks that we were taken, by the Divine Hand +guiding tide and current, to this milder and less inhospitable +opening.</p> +<p>“We can afford to dispense with less majesty, for one of +those finer cliffs would have been our destruction.</p> +<p>“This is going to Larne, where there is a railway +station and something of a town, and the Bishop has written to +the doctor of the place. I will write again when he has +been here. I hope to send you another and more cheery +account to-morrow, or whenever post goes.</p> +<p>“Nag is writing to her sister. I trust you will +have heard of Bernard and Angela. Their boat was a better +one than ours, and certainly got off safely. Let us know as +soon you can.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Your most loving niece,<br /> +“D. M. <span class="smcap">Mohun</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Agatha had also written to Magdalen, very briefly, to assure +her of her safety and thankfulness, and to say she could not +leave Wilfred till more efficient care arrived, or till she had +means to come back with. She was evidently too busy over +her patient to have much possibility of writing, even if she had +paper, which seemed to be scarce at Corncastle.</p> +<p>The Bishop also wrote to Clement, and to Sir Jasper and +others; but he also could say little, only that he trusted that +Angela and Bernard were safe elsewhere, having heard them called, +and, as he believed, seen them off in the first boat, so that +probably they had been already heard of before these letters +arrived. Their own party had been spared from being dashed +against the rocks almost by a miracle; and Agatha +Prescott’s courage and readiness, as now her nursing +faculties, were beyond all praise, as indeed was the brave +patience of Miss Mohun. He could only look on and be +thankful, and hope for tidings of those who were as his own +children. The next day’s letters spoke of the doctor +as so much perplexed about Wilfred, and nothing had been heard at +Larne of the other boats.</p> +<p>But no tidings came; there was too much cause to fear that the +first boat had been borne away by the currents and swamped. +Lady Merrifield could not leave Phyllis in such a crisis of +suspense, and Sir Jasper was hardly fit for such a journey, so +that his wife was much relieved when her brother, General Mohun, +came to Clipstone, and undertook to hasten out to Corncastle, +with money and appliances, including a nurse.</p> +<p>“Oh, Reggie, always good at need! I hardly dare to +send my good old Halfpenny—!”</p> +<p>“No, Mamma, send me. You know I had the ambulance +lessons with Nag,” said Mysie, “and we could get a +real nurse from Belfast or Dublin, if it was wanted.”</p> +<p>So it was arranged, and uncle and niece started, but hope +faded more and more! Were those two precious young lives so +early quenched?</p> +<h2><a name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +300</span>CHAPTER XXXI—THE WRECK</h2> +<blockquote><p>“How purer were earth, if all its +martyrdoms,<br /> +If all its struggling sighs of sacrifice<br /> +Were swept away!”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">E. <span class="smcap">Hamilton +King</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">No</span> tidings of Bernard and +Angela. The suspense began to diminish into +“wanhope” or despair; and the brothers and sisters +continued to say that they were sorry above all for Phyllis, +whose gentle sweetness had made her one with them.</p> +<p>But at last, one forenoon, a telegram was put into +Clement’s hand, dated from Ewmouth:</p> +<blockquote><p><i>Muriel Ellen</i>, Ewmouth Harbour, October +14th. Blaine to Rev. Underwood. Brother here. +Come to infirmary.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Clement and Geraldine lost no time in driving to the +infirmary, too anxious to speak to one another. +Blaine’s name was known to them as a Gwenworth lad, who had +gone to sea, and risen to be sailing master of the <i>Muriel +Ellen</i>, a trader plying between Londonderry and Bristol. +He, with another, who proved to be the American captain of the +<i>Afra</i>, were at the gate of the hospital, where an ambulance +had just entered.</p> +<p>“Oh! Sir,” as Clement held out his hand, +“I could not save her. I’d have given my +life!”</p> +<p>“My brother?” as Clement returned his grasp +fervently.</p> +<p>“We’ve just got him in here, Sir. I +hope! I hope! And here’s the doctor.”</p> +<p>The house surgeon, who, of course, knew the Rector of Vale +Leston, met him with, “Best see him before we touch him, it +will set his mind at rest—You must be prepared, +Sir—No, better not you, Mrs. Grinstead.”</p> +<p>Clement followed in silence, leaving Geraldine to the care of +the matron. All he was allowed to see was a ghastly, +death-like face and form, covered with rugs, lying prostrate on a +mattress; but as he came in, at the sound of his step, there was +a quiver of recognition, the eyes opened and looked up, the lips +moved, and as Clement bent down with a kiss, there was a faint +sound gasped out, “Telegraph to Clipstone.”</p> +<p>“I will, I will at once.”</p> +<p>“It was noble!” Then was added, “She +gave herself for the Bishop, for me.” Then the eyes +closed, and unconsciousness seemed to prevail. Some one +came and put Clement aside, saying—</p> +<p>“Go now, Sir; you shall hear!”</p> +<p>Clement, who thought it might be death, would have stayed at +hand; but he was turned away, and could only murmur an +inarticulate blessing and prayer, as he meant to fulfil the +earnest desire that was thought to have been conned over and over +again by Bernard, as these half sentences recurred again and +again in semi-consciousness. His telegram despatched, +Clement returned to his sister, to hear from the two masters all +they had to tell. Captain Miller, of the <i>Afra</i>, had +slight hurts, which had been looked to before he should take the +train for London; and Blaine had waited to tell his story before +pursuing his voyage to Bristol, both, indeed, to hear the report +of the patient, and likewise to collect the news of the few who +had been landed at Corncastle, to the great relief of Captain +Miller; but of the first boat there were no tidings, and Blaine +thought there was little probability that it had not sunk or been +dashed against the crags of the savage coast.</p> +<p>Captain Miller’s account was, that not long after +leaving the Mersey, there had set in an impenetrable fog, lasting +for a night and a day. There was perhaps some confusion as +to charts, and the scarcely visible lights upon the +Maidens. At any rate, the <i>Afra</i> had suddenly struck +on a reef, and, shifting at once, had been hopelessly rent, so as +to leave no hope save in the boats. Every one seemed to +have behaved with the resolute fortitude and unselfishness +generally shown by English and Americans in the like +circumstances. The sea was not in a dangerous state, and +there was a steady east wind, so that the boats were lowered +without much difficulty, and most of the women disposed of in the +first.</p> +<p>Before the second could be put off however, the water had +reached the fires; there was a violent lurch, the ship had heeled +completely over, washing many overboard, and of course causing a +great confusion among those who had been steady before, and +making the deck almost perpendicular. The captain, however, +succeeded in lowering another boat, and putting into it, as he +trusted, the few remaining women, the Bishop, and most of the +men. This was, of course, that which had safely reached +Corncastle, and of which he only now heard. The last boat +was so overcrowded that he, with three of his crew, had thought +it best to remain for the almost desperate chance of being picked +up before they sank.</p> +<p>He had supposed Mr. Underwood had been washed overboard in the +heeling over of the ship, and that his sister had been put into +the first boat; but presently he heard a call.</p> +<p>“Oh, help me, please!” And he became aware +that Sister Angela was hanging over her brother, who lay crushed +by a heavy chest which had fallen on him, and thrown him against +the gunwale, though a moan or two showed him to be still +alive. The remaining sailors removed the weight, lifted +him, and laid him in the best place and position they could, +while his sister hung over him and supported his head. To +Miller’s dismayed exclamation at finding a woman still on +board, she replied—</p> +<p>“It was no fault of yours. I hid below. +Other lives—the Bishop’s—were what +mattered! I am glad to be here!”</p> +<p>He believed that Mr. Underwood had revived enough to know his +sister, for he had heard her voice talking to him. Yes, and +singing; but it was not for very long. The wreck was in +motion, being carried by current and tide along the Channel, and +if it did not sink, might be perceived now that daylight had +come, and a signal of distress might be seen by some passing +vessel.</p> +<p>Seen it was, in fact, and that there were persons to be +rescued; and Blaine, who was on his way from Londonderry to +Bristol, in the <i>Muriel Ellen</i>, a cattle-boat, possessed a +boat in which to attempt a rescue.</p> +<p>All that experienced sailors could do in transferring the +helpless and unconscious form to the boat first, and then to the +sloop had been done; but it was no wonder that in the transit +Angela, more heedful of her brother’s safety than her own, +had fallen between, and been lost in the waves, to the extreme +grief of Tom Blaine, who had been one of her scholars, and +devoted to her, as all the boys of Vale Leston were.</p> +<p>The cattle-boat had few facilities for comfort, and all he +could do was to let Mr. Bernard Underwood lie, as softly as could +be contrived, on deck, and make sail for Ewmouth, so as to land +him as near home as possible. How far he had been conscious +it was impossible to say, though once he had asked for Angela, +but had seemed to understand from an evasion, that she was +missing, and had said no more, but muttered parts of these +requests, as if afraid of not being capable of them.</p> +<p>All this had been told or implied, while messages came down +that the surgeons did not think the injuries need be mortal, +provided the exhaustion and exposure had not fatal +consequences. The left arm, two ribs, and the leg had been +broken, and were reduced before the doctors ventured on a hopeful +report with which to send home the brother and sister. One +sight, Clement was allowed of a more unconscious, but much less +distressed face, and one murmur, “Noble! +Phyllis!” and he was promised a telegram later in the +day. The two hardly knew which to feel most; grief or +thankfulness, the loss or the mercy, and yet—and +yet—after the fitful, wayward, yet always devout life, with +all its strains, there was a sense of wistful acceptance of such +a close.</p> +<p>They felt it all the more deeply when, a day or two later, +Bernard was able to say, at intervals, for the injury rendered +speech difficult and almost dangerous, as Clement leant over +him—</p> +<p>“Yes! I woke to see her face over me, all bright +in wavy hair just as when we were children, and she said, +‘Bear! Bear! we are going together!’ Then +somehow she tried to help me to trust for Phyllis and +Lily.”</p> +<p>Then his voice sank, but presently he added, “There was +more, but it is like a dream. She was singing in her own, +own voice. There was ‘Lead, kindly Light!’ and +when it came to ‘Angel faces smile’ there was a +cry—quite glad—‘There! there on the +water! Felix! Coming for us! Oh! and another +One! Lord, into Thy hands.’ That is all I +know—a kiss here, and ‘Yes! thanks! For +me!’ But the lifting hurt so much that I lost all +sense, when she must have fallen between the wreck and the +boat. You are glad for her! Mine own! mine +Angel!”</p> +<p>“Safe home!” said Clement. “Oh, +thankworthy!”</p> +<h2><a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +306</span>CHAPTER XXXII—ANCHORED</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Safe home, safe home in port,<br /> + Rent cordage, shattered deck;<br /> +Torn sails, provision short,<br /> + And only not a wreck;<br /> +But all the joy upon the shore,<br /> +To tell our voyage the perils o’er!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Safe</span> home! It might be said +in another sense for Bernard, for he was naturally so strong and +healthy that the effects of exposure and exhaustion were not long +in passing off, the injury to the chest proved to be only +temporary; and having cased him like a statue in plaster of +Paris, the surgeons decided, to the joy of his family, that the +more serious injuries would be better recovered from in the fresh +air of Vale Leston, than in the fishy, muddy atmosphere of +Ewmouth.</p> +<p>So he was transported thither, and installed in Felix’s +study, among the familiar sights and sounds, and where another +joy awaited him, and where he lay in happy stillness.</p> +<p>Phyllis had borne up bravely through the suspense, never +relinquishing a strong assurance of hope; but when that hope was +actually crowned by the first telegram, the reaction set in, and +she had broken down so entirely that her mother durst not let her +move at first, and indeed accompanied her and her little girl as +far as the junction, being herself on the way to Larne.</p> +<p>And Geraldine’s heart was at peace when she saw Phyllis +sitting by the bed, her hand in his, content to see and not to +speak. Another visitor appeared the following day, namely, +the Bishop of Albertstown, who had remained at Larne till he +could see his fellow passengers in safe hands. Then he had +crossed to Bristol, and before his hurried visit to his sisters +he could not but come to see his beloved old pupil, Clement, and +share with him those reminiscences of her, who, as he had only +now learnt, had given her young superabundant life for him, a man +growing into age, whose work might be nearly done.</p> +<p>He only saw Bernard in silence, but heard from Clement the +account of those last moments, which showed how entirely Angela +had been conscious of what she was doing, and how willingly she +had devoted herself to save those whom she loved and valued.</p> +<p>While yet they talked, there was a fresh arrival. Sir +Ferdinand Travis Underwood, who could not forbear the running +down to hear perfectly all that was to be heard, and to make +arrangements that might relieve Bernard’s mind, if he were +indeed on the way of recovery.</p> +<p>In fact, almost the first thought after that of the wife and +child had been the security of the drenched, stained, and soiled +pocket-book; nor would the patient be satisfied till he had been +allowed himself to hand it over to the head of his firm, with, +“There, Fernan, safe, though smashed with me. Tell +Brown.”</p> +<p>“Never mind Brown or anything else but getting well, +Bernard. I have taken our passage for next week. I +shall get things arranged so that you need not think of being +wanted again out there. We will find a berth for you in the +office in town, as soon as you are about again.”</p> +<p>Bernard’s eye lightened. “I +hope—”</p> +<p>But Ferdinand would not let him either thank or hope, scarcely +even allow any words from Phyllis, who could not be grateful +enough for the relief. To Alda, who had received her old +companion, since Marilda seemed unable to let her husband out of +her sight; it was explained that she was going too, happen what +would. Oh, yes, it was true she was a shocking bad sailor, +but she was not going to have Fernan’s ships running upon +rocks or getting on fire, or anything of that sort, without +her. She wanted to see about Ludmilla Schmetterling, who +was reported to have found a lover while studying at a class in +the States, and she also meant to settle her own especial niece +Emilia, whose husband was to take Bernard’s place in Ceylon +and who had become heartily tired of London’s second-rate +gaieties.</p> +<p>Those thus concerned met at the memorial service in the +morning before the Bishop quitted them, where many parishioners +gathered who had been spellbound in Angela’s freakish days +of early girlhood, and who were greatly touched when the +committal to the deep was inserted from the Forms of Prayer to be +used at Sea.</p> +<p>It brought a deep sense of awe and thankfulness to those who +had feared and wondered through the stormy uncertain life, and +now could exult in what was almost a martyrdom, and had brought +their beloved one to the great pure grave, as her Baptism for +eternity.</p> +<p>Some months later, while Bernard still lay on his couch, but +could speak and be glad, he rejoiced indeed, for a sore in his +heart was healed, when two fair babes were brought to +him,—a boy who would be as another firstborn son, and a +little maiden who would bear that name which had become dear and +saintly in the peculiar calendar of Vale Leston.</p> +<h2><a name="page310"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +310</span>CHAPTER XXXIII—FAREWELL</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Nay, your pardon! Cry you, +‘Forward.’ Yours are youth, we hope—but +I?”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Browning</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> visit of the Bishop of +Albertstown had, in fact, been deferred till he could quit his +fellow-sufferers, especially Wilfred, who could not well be left +to the charge of the two girls, with the Larne doctor evidently +in difficulty about his case.</p> +<p>It was with great joy that a telegram was received with +tidings that General Mohun and Mysie were on the way, and also +Magdalen Prescott, who met them at Liverpool, being unable to +stay away from Agatha under such circumstances. At Belfast +they obtained a trained nurse, and a doctor was to follow +them.</p> +<p>The joy of the meeting between Magdalen and Agatha was almost +that of mother and daughter, and nothing could be more entirely +convincing that they were one.</p> +<p>Indeed, Agatha was thoroughly worn out; for the main strain of +attendance had fallen upon her, since the Bishop was fully +occupied with some of the seriously hurt in other cottages; and +though Dolores tried to be helpful, it was chiefly in outside +work, and attempts at sick cookery, in which she was rather too +scientific, and found the lack of appliances very +inconvenient. Besides, cousin though she was, or perhaps +for that very reason, Wilfred was far less amenable to her voice +than Agatha’s; and if she attempted authority it was sure +to rouse all the resistance left in him. Agatha had been +constantly on the alert, liable to be called on every half-hour, +to soothe fretful distress over impossible impatience at delay, +anger at want of comforts, and dolefulness over the chances of +improvements, and abuse, whether just or not, of the only +accessible doctor.</p> +<p>In fact, Magdalen, on seeing how utterly worn out she was, and +how little space the cottages afforded, thought it best, now that +the patient was in the hands of sister, uncle, and nurse, to +carry her off at once by the return car to Larne; and Dolores +thought it best to accompany them, after Mysie had hung on her as +one restored from death. But Mysie was absorbed in her +brother, and Dolores had a strong yearning to be with her father, +so strong that she decided not to return to England, but to +procure a second outfit at Belfast, and to set forth again from +thence, nothing daunted, for, as she said (not carelessly), such +things did not happen immediately after, in a second +voyage. In fact, though thankful and impressed by the loss +of the others, she had gone through the crisis of the life of her +heart and affections, and she had likewise been once in imminent +peril through a convulsion of nature. Thus she was inclined +to look on the wreck and the Irish cliffs as an experience in the +way of business, so she was resolved to see the Giant’s +Causeway, and to make notes upon it for her lectures.</p> +<p>But it was a different thing with Agatha. She had been +brought face to face with death; and though the actual time had +been spent in hurry and bustle, and even the subsequent tossing +in the boat had been not so much waiting and thinking as +attending to others more terrified and injured than herself, and +there followed the incessant waiting on Wilfred; still the +experiences had worked in. She rested very silently, +dwelling little to Magdalen on her thoughts; but each word she +said, and her very countenance, showed that she had made a great +step in life and realised the spiritual world, which hitherto had +been outside her life—not disbelieved, but almost matter of +speculation and study.</p> +<p>She was not at all desirous of falling back from Dolores, +whose grave steadiness and fortitude, the result of a truly brave +and deep trust, had given her a sense of confidence and +protection. So they wrote, and arranged for their passage, +and, with Magdalen, spent the intermediate time in needful +preparations at Belfast, and in an expedition to the Causeway, +where they laid in a stock of notes and observations, all in a +spirit that made Magdalen feel that she knew both in a manner she +had never done before, and loved them with a deep value and +confidence.</p> +<p>Wilfred meanwhile made very slow, if any, progress.</p> +<p>They took him to Belfast as soon as it was possible, and his +mother came to him. He was gentle and quiet, with little +power of movement, and scarcely any of thought; and in a +consultation of doctors, the verdict was given that he must be +carefully tended for months, if not for years to come; and though +there might finally be full recovery, yet it would depend on the +most tender and careful treatment of body and mind. London +doctors, when he could be moved thither, confirmed the decision, +and he began a helpless invalid life, in which a certain +indifference and dulness made him a much less peevish and trying +patient than would have been anticipated. Mysie was his +willing, but intelligent slave; and his mother was not only +thankful to have him brought back to her at any price, but +really—though she would not have confessed it even to +herself—was less troubled and anxious about him than she +had been since he had begun to “roam in youth’s +uncertain wilds.” Indeed, there were hopes that slow +recovery might find him a much changed person in character.</p> +<p>He had become so uninterested in his former predilections that +he heard with little emotion that Vera was to marry Petros +White.</p> +<p>“I thought she would take up with some cad,” he +said. But his family were really glad that this wedding was +to take place at Rocca Marina, whither the two sisters and +Magdalen were invited.</p> +<p>Paulina would not go. She still resented the treatment +of Hubert Delrio, and she was devoted to her study of nursing at +the Dearport Sisterhood; but Magdalen thought it right to take +Thekla, and give her the advantages of improvement in languages, +and the sight of fine scenery.</p> +<p>And certainly Rocca Marina was a wonderful place for +marriages. Vera, handsome and happy and likely to turn into +a fairly good commonplace wife, had no sooner been sent off on a +honeymoon tour to Greece and Egypt, and Mrs. White had begged the +other two to prolong their visit, considering, perhaps, if one or +the other aunt or niece could not be promoted to the vacant post +of lady-in-waiting, than Hubert Delrio came to secure specimens +of marble for some mosaic work on which he was engaged. He +was fast becoming a man of mark, whom the Whites were delighted +to receive and entertain, and who was delighted to be with the +old friends who had had so great an influence on his life. +And was it Magdalen alone to whom he chiefly looked up as his +helper and guide? So he thought; but before the time of +separation had come, he had found out that Thekla was far +prettier than ever Vera had been, and with a mind and +principle—no Flapsy, but a real sympathetic and poetic +nature, which had grown up in these years. Young as she +was, their destinies were fixed.</p> +<p>And Magdalen? The railroad had obtained authority to +pass through the Goyle, and thus break up her home and +shelter. Still she was not tempted by Adeline White’s +desire to make her a companion; but rather she accepted the plan +on which Dolores had first started, and on which Elizabeth +Merrifield and Miss Arthuret were set, of making her the head of +their home at Penbeacon, partly a convalescent home, and partly a +training college for young women in need of technical instruction +in nursing or other possible feminine avocations. Tom May +was delighted with all it might set on foot, and Clement saw in +her leading the hopes that a high and pure spirit might inspire +it.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote100"></a><a href="#citation100" +class="footnote">[100]</a> It is Russian, and means +Faith.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN BROODS***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 7191-h.htm or 7191-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/7/1/9/7191 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Modern Broods + +Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7191] +[This file was first posted on March 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MODERN BROODS *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1900 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +MODERN BROODS, or DEVELOPMENTS UNLOOKED FOR + + + + +CHAPTER I--TORTOISES AND HARES + + + +"Whate'er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven, +Though it be what thou canst not hope to see." +- HARTLEY COLERIDGE. + + +The scene was a drawing-room, with old-fashioned heavy sash windows +opening on a narrow brick-walled town-garden sloping down to a river, +and neatly kept. The same might be said of the room, where heavy +old-fashioned furniture, handsome but not new, was concealed by +various flimsy modernisms, knicknacks, fans, brackets, china +photographs and water-colours, a canary singing loud in the window in +the winter sunshine. + +"Miss Prescott," announced the maid; but, finding no auditor save the +canary, she retreated, and Miss Prescott looked round her with a half +sigh of recognition of the surroundings. She was herself a quiet- +looking, gentle lady, rather small, with a sweet mouth and eyes of +hazel, in a rather worn face, dressed in a soft woollen and grey fur, +with headgear to suit, and there was an air of glad expectation, a +little flush, that did not look permanent, on her thin cheeks. + +"Is it you, my dear Miss Prescott?" was the greeting of the older +hostess as she entered, her grey hair rough and uncovered, and her +dress of well-used black silk, her complexion of the red that shows +wear and care. "Then it is true?" she asked, as the kiss and double +shake of the hand was exchanged. + +"May I ask? Is it true? May I congratulate you?" + +"Oh, yes, it is true!" said Miss Prescott, breathlessly. "I suppose +the girls are at the High School?" + +"Yes, they will be at home at one. Or shall I send for them?" + +"No, thank you, Mrs. Best. I shall like to have a little time with +you first. I can stay till a quarter-past three." + +"Then come and take off your things. I do not know when I have been +so glad!" + +"Do the girls know?" asked Miss Prescott, following upstairs to a +comfortable bedroom, evidently serving also the purposes of a private +room, for writing table and account books stood near the fire. + +"They know something; Kate Bell heard a report from her cousins, and +they have been watching anxiously for news from you." + +"I would not write till I knew more. I hope they have not raised +their expectations too high; for though it is enough to be an immense +relief, it is not exactly affluence. I have been with Mr. Bell going +into the matter and seeing the place," said Miss Prescott, sitting +comfortably down in the arm-chair Mrs. Best placed for her, while she +herself sat down in another, disposing themselves for a talk over the +fire. + +"Mr. Bell reckons it at about 600 pounds a year." + +"And an estate?" + +"A very pretty cottage in a Devonshire valley, with the furniture and +three acres of land." + +"Oh! I believe the girls fancy that it is at least as large as Lord +Coldhurst's." + +"Yes, I was in hopes that they would have heard nothing about it." + +"It came through some of their schoolfellows; one cannot help things +getting into the air." + +"And there getting inflated like bubbles," said Miss Prescott, +smiling. "Well, their expectations will have a fall, poor dears!" + +"And it does not come from their side of the family," said Mrs. Best. +"Of course not! And it was wholly unexpected, was it not?" + +"Yes, I had my name of Magdalen from my great aunt Tremlett; but she +had never really forgiven my mother's marriage, though she consented +to be my godmother. She offered to adopt me on my mother's death, +and once when my father married again, and when we lost him, she +wrote to propose my coming to live with her; but there would have +been no payment, and so--" + +"Yes, you dear good thing, you thought it your duty to go and work +for your poor little stepmother and her children!" + +"What else was my education good for, which has been a costly thing +to poor father? And then the old lady was affronted for good, and +never took any more notice of me, nor answered my letters. I did not +even know she was dead, till I heard from Mr. Bell, who had learnt it +from his lawyers!" + +"It was quite right of her. Dear Magdalen, I am so glad," said Mrs. +Best, crossing over to kiss her; for the first stiffness had worn +off, and they were together again, as had been the solicitor's +daughter and the chemist's daughter, who went to the same school till +Magdalen had been sent away to be finished in Germany. + +"Dear Sophy, I wish you had the good fortune, too!" + +"Oh! my galleons are coming when George has prospered a little more +in Queensland, and comes to fetch me. Sophia and he say they shall +fight for me," said Mrs. Best, who had been bravely presiding over a +high-school boarding-house ever since her husband, a railway +engineer, had been killed by an accident, and left her with two +children to bring up. "Dear children, they are very good to me." + +"I am sure you have been goodness itself to us," said Magdalen, "in +taking the care of these poor little ones when their mother died. I +don't know how to be thankful enough to you and for all the blessings +we have had! And that this should have come just now, especially +when my life with Lady Milsom is coming to an end." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, the little boys are old enough for school, and the Colonel is +going to take a house at Shrewsbury, where his mother will live with +them, and want me no longer." + +"You have been there seven years." + +"Yes, and very happy. When Fanny married, Lady Milsom was left +alone, and would not part with me, and then came the two little boys +from India, so that she had an excuse for retaining me; but that is +over now, or will be in a few weeks time. I had been trying for an +engagement, and finding that beside your high-school diploma young +ladies I am considered quite passee--" + +"My dear! With your art, and music, and all!" + +"Too true! And while I was digesting a polite hint that my terms +were too high, and therewith Agatha's earnest appeal to be sent to +Girton, there comes this inheritance! Taking my burthen off my back, +and making me ready to throw up my heels like a young colt." + +"Ah! you will be taking another burthen, perhaps." + +"No doubt, I suppose so, but let me find it out by degrees. I can +only think as yet of having my dear girls to myself, moi, as the +French would say, after having seen so little of them." + +"It has been very unfortunate. Epidemics have been strangely +inconvenient." + +"Yes. First there was whooping cough here to destroy the summer +holidays; then came the Milsoms' measles, and I could not go and +carry infection. Oh! and then Freddy broke his leg, and his +grandmother was too nervous to be left with him. And by and by some +one told her the scarlatina was in the town." + +"It really was, you know." + +"Any way, it would have been sheer selfish inhumanity to leave her, +and then she had a real illness, which frightened us all very much. +Next came influenza to every one. And these last holidays! What +should the newly-come little one from India do, but catch a fever in +the Red Sea, and I had to keep guard over the brothers at Weymouth +till she was reported safe, and I don't believe it was infectious +after all! Still, I am tired of 'other people's stairs.'" + +"It is nearly five years since you have been with them, except for +that one peep you took at Weston." + +"And that is a great deal at their age. Agatha was a vehement +reader; she would hardly look at me, so absorbed was she in 'The York +and Lancaster Rose' which I had brought her." + +"She is rather like that now. I conclude that you will wish to take +them away?" + +"Not this time, at any rate till the house is fit to put over their +heads. Besides, you have so mothered them, dear Sophy, that I could +not bear to make a sudden parting." + +"There will be pain, especially over little Thekla and Polly. But if +George comes home this spring, and I go out to Queensland with him, +perhaps I should have asked you to take this house off my hands. May +be it would be prudent in you to do so even now, considering all +things; only I believe that transplanting would be good for them +all." + +"I am glad you think so, for I have a perfect longing for that little +house of my own." + +"You will be able to give them a superior kind of society to what +they have had access to here. There is a good deal that I should +like to talk over with you before they come in." + +"Agatha seems to be in despair at her failure." + +"So is all the house, for we were very proud of her, and, of course, +we all thought it a fad of the examiners, but perhaps our +headmistress might not say the same. She is a good, hardworking girl +though, and ambitious, and quite worth further training." + +"I am glad of being able to secure it to her at least, and by the +time her course is finished I shall be able to judge about the +others." + +"You thought of taking them in hand yourself?" + +"Certainly; how nice it will be to teach my own kin, and not endless +strangers, lovable as they have been!" + +"It will be very good for them all to see something of life and +manners superior to what I can give them here. You will take them +into a fresh sphere, and--as things were--besides that, I could not-- +I did not know whether their lives would not lie among our people +here." + +"Dear Sophy, don't concern yourself. I am quite certain you would +never let them fall in with anything hurtful." + +"Why, no! I hope not; but if I had known what was coming, I don't +think I should have asked you to consent to Vera and Thekla's +spending their holidays at Mr. Waring's country house." + +"Very worthy people, you said. I remember Tom Waring, a very nice +boy; and Jessie Dale went to school with us--I liked her. Fancy them +having a country house." + +"Waring Grange they call it. He has got on wonderfully as +upholsterer, decorator, and auctioneer. It is a very handsome one, +with a garden that gets the prizes at the horticultural shows. They +are thoroughly good people, but I was afraid afterwards that there +had been a good deal of noisiness among the young folks at Christmas. +Hubert Delrio was there, and I fancy there was some nonsense going +on." + +"Ah, the Delrios! Are they here?" + +"Yes, poor Fred did not make his art succeed when he had a family to +provide for, and he is the head of the Art School here. His son has +a good deal of talent, and very prudently has got taken on by the +firm of Eccles and Co., who do a great deal of architectural +decoration. The boy is doing very well, but there have been giggles +and whispers that make me rejoice that Vera should be out of the +neighbourhood." + +"Is she not very pretty?" + +"You will be very much struck with her, I think; and Paulina is +pretty too, and more thoughtful. She would not go with Thekla, +because Waring Grange is far from church, and she would not disturb +her Christmas and Epiphany. She is the most religious of them all, +and puts me in mind of our old missionary castles in the air." + +"Ah, what castles they were! And they seem further off than ever! +Or perhaps you will fulfil them, and go and teach the Australian +blacks!" + +"A very unpromising field," said Mrs. Best, "though I hear there is a +Sister Angela at the station who does wonders with them. I hear the +quarter striking--they will be back directly." + +"Ah! before they come, we ought to talk over means! Something is +owing for these last holidays. Oh! Sophy, I cannot find words to say +how thankful I am to you for having helped me through this time, even +to your own loss! It has made our life possible." + +"Indeed, I was most thankful to do all I could for poor Agnes' +children; and though I did not gain by them like my other boarders, I +never LOST, and they have been a great joy to me, yes, and a help, by +giving my house a character." + +"When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven years ago, +when their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused help, and how +despairingly I prayed, I feel all the more that there is an answer to +even feeble almost worldly prayer." + +"That it could not be when it was that you might be enabled to do the +duty that was laid on you, my dear." + +And with the exchange of a kiss, the two good women set themselves to +practical pounds, shillings, and pence, which was just concluded when +the patter of feet up the stone steps and voices in the hall +announced the return of Mrs. Best's boarders. + +Just as Magdalen was opening the door, there darted up, with the air +of a privileged favourite, a little person of ten years old, with +flying brown hair and round rosy cheeks, exclaiming breathlessly, "Is +she come?" + +The answer was to take her up with a motherly hug, and "My dear +little Thekla!" There was not time for more than a hurried glance +and embrace of the three on the steps of the stair, in their sailor +hats and blue serge; but when in ten minutes more, the whole party, +twenty in number, were seated round the dining table, observation was +possible. Agatha, as senior scholar, sat at the foot of the table, +fully occupied in dispensing Irish stew. She had a sensible face, to +which projecting teeth gave a character, and a brow that would have +shown itself finer but for the overhanging mass of hair. Vera and +Paulina were so much alike and so nearly of the same age that they +were often taken for twins, but on closer inspection Vera proved to +be the prettiest, with a more delicately cut nose, clearer +complexion, and bluer eyes; but Paulina, with paler cheeks, had +softer eyes, and more pencilled brows, as well as a prettier lip and +chin, though she would not strike the eye so much as her sister. +Little Thekla was a round-faced, rosy little thing, childish for her +nearly eleven years, smiling broadly and displaying enough white +teeth to make Magdalen forebode that they would need much attention +if they were not to be a desight like Agatha's. + +She sat between Mrs. Best and Magdalen; and in the first pause, when +the first course had just been distributed, she looked up with a +great pair of grey eyes, and asked, in a shrill, clear little voice, +"Sister, may I have a bicycle?" + +"We will see about it, my dear," returned Magdalen, unwilling to +pledge herself. + +"But haven't you got a fortune?" undauntedly demanded Thekla. + +"Something like it, Thekla. You shall hear about it after dinner." +And Magdalen felt her colour flushing up under all those young eyes. + +"Kitty Best said--" + +But here Mrs. Best interposed. "We don't talk over such things at +table, Thekla. Take care with the gravy. Did Mr. Jones give a +lesson, this morning?" + +"Yes, a very long one," said Vera. + +"It was about the exact force of the words in the Revised Version," +added Agatha, "compared with the Greek." + +"That must have been very interesting!" said Magdalen. + +Vera and her neighbour looked at one another and shrugged their +shoulders; while some one else broke in with the news that another +girl had not come back because she was down with influenza; and +Magdalen, suspecting that "shop" was not talked at table, and also +that the Scripture passage could not well be discussed there, saw +that it was wise to let the conversation drift off, by Mrs. Best's +leading, into anecdotes of the influenza. + +All were glad when grace was chanted, and the five sisters could +retreat into the drawing-room, which Mrs. Best let them have to +themselves for the half hour before Magdalen's train, and the young +ones' return to the High School. She was at once established with +Thekla on her lap, and the others perched round on chairs and +footstools. Of course the first question was, "And is it really +true?" + +"It is true, my dears, that my old great aunt has left me a house and +some money; but you must not flatter yourselves that it is a great +estate." + +"Only mayn't I have a bicycle?" began Thekla again. + +"Child, I believe you have bicycles on the brain," said Agatha. +"But, sister, you do mean that we shall be better off, and I shall be +able to go on with my education?" + +"Yes, my dear, I think I can promise you so much," said Magdalen, +caressing the serge shoulder. + +"O thanks! Girton?" cried Agatha. + +"There is much that I must inquire about before I decide--" + +Again came, "Elsie Warner has a bicycle, and she is no older than me! +Please, sister!" + +"Hush now, my little Thekla," said the sister kindly; "I will talk to +Mrs. Best, and see whether she thinks it will be good for you." + +Thekla subsided with a pout, and Magdalen was able to explain her +circumstances and plans a little more in detail; seeing however that +the girls had no idea of the value of money, Paulina asked whether it +meant being as well off as the Colonel and Lady Mary - + +"Who keep a carriage and pair, and a butler," interposed Vera. + +"Oh no, my dear. If I keep any kind of carriage it will be only a +basket or governess cart, and a pony or donkey." + +"That's all right," said Agatha. "I would not be rich and stupid for +the world." + +"Small fear of that!" said Magdalen, laughing. "Our home, the Goyle, +is not more than a cottage, in a beautiful Devonshire valley--" + +"What's the name of it?" + +"The Goyle. I believe it is a diminutive of Gully, a narrow ravine. +It is lovely even now, and will be delightful when you come to me in +April--" + +"Shall I leave school?" asked Vera. "I shall be seventeen in May." + +"You will all leave school. Mrs. Best has made it easy to me by her +wonderful goodness in keeping you on cheaper terms; but if Agatha +goes to the University you must be content to work for a time with +me." + +"Oh!" cried Thekla. "Shall I have always holidays? My bicycle!" + +Everybody burst out laughing at this--not a very trained +cachinnation, but more of the giggle, even in Agatha; and Magdalen +answered: + +"You will have plenty of time for bicycling if the hills are not too +steep, but I hope to make your lessons pleasant to you." She did not +know whether to mention Mrs. Best's intention of soon giving up her +house, which would have much increased her difficulties but for her +legacy; and Agatha said, "You know, I think, that Vera and Polly both +ought to make a real study of music. They both have talent, and +cultivation would do a great deal for it." + +Agatha spoke in a dogmatic way that amused Magdalen, and she said, +"Well, I shall be able to judge when we are at the Goyle. Vera, I +think you sing--" + +Vera looked shy, and Agatha said, "She has a good voice, and Madame +Lardner thinks it would answer to send her to some superior +Conservatoire in process of time." + +Vera did not commit herself as to her wishes, and Mrs. Best returned +to say that if Miss Prescott wished to see the headmistress it was +time to set out for the school; and accordingly the whole party +walked up together to the school, Magdalen with Agatha, who was +chiefly occupied in explaining how entirely it was owing to the one- +sidedness of the examiners that she had not gained the scholarship. +Magdalen had heard of such examiners before from the mothers of her +pupils. + +She had to wish her sisters good-bye for the next three months, not +having gathered very much about them, except their personal +appearance. She administered a sovereign to each of them as they +parted. Agatha thanked her in a tone as if afraid to betray what a +boon it was; Vera, with an eager kiss, asking if she could spend it +as she liked; Paulina, with a certain grave propriety; and Thekla, of +course, wanted to know whether it would buy a bicycle, or, if not, +how many rides could be purchased from it. + +When they were absorbed in the routine of the day, the interview with +the head mistress disclosed, what Magdalen had expected, that Agatha, +was an industrious, ambitious girl, with very good abilities quite +worth cultivating, though not extraordinary; that Vera had a certain +sort of cleverness, but no application and not much taste for +anything but music; and that Paulina was a good, dutiful, plodding +girl, who surpassed brighter powers by dint of diligence. The little +one was a mere child, who had not yet come much under notice from the +higher authorities. + +On the whole, Magdalen went away with pleasant hopes, and the +affectionate impulses of kindred blood rising within her, to complete +her term with Lady Milsom, by whom she could not well be spared till +towards Easter; while, in the meantime, her house was being repaired. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE GOYLE + + + +"A poor thing, but mine own."--SHAKESPEARE. + +"Thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns." +--T. HUGHES, Scouring of the White Horse. + +Magdalen Prescott stood on her own little terrace. Her house was, +like many Devonian ones, built high on the slope of a steep hill, +running down into a narrow valley, and her abode was almost at the +narrowest part, where a little lively brawling stream descended from +the moor amid rocks and brushwood. If the history of the place were +told, it had been built for a shooting box, then inherited by a +lawyer who had embellished and spent his holidays there, and +afterwards, his youngest daughter, a lonely and retiring woman, had +spent her latter years there. + +The house was low, stone built, and roofed with rough slate, with a +narrow verandah in front, and creepers in bud covering it. Then came +a terrace just wide enough for a carriage to drive up; and below, +flower-beds bordered with stones found what vantage ground they could +between the steep slopes of grass that led almost precipitously down +to the stream, where the ground rose equally rapidly on the other +side. Moss, ivy, rhododendrons, primroses, anemones, and the promise +of ferns were there, and the adjacent beds had their full share of +hepaticas and all the early daffodil kinds. Behind and on the +southern side, lay the kitchen garden, also a succession of steps, +and beyond as the ravine widened were small meadows, each with a big +stone in the midst. The gulley, (or goyle) narrowed as it rose, and +there was a disused limestone quarry, all wreathed over with creeping +plants, a birch tree growing up all white and silvery in the middle, +and above the house and garden was wood, not of fine trees, and +interspersed with rocks, but giving shade and shelter. The opposite +side had likewise fields below, with one grey farm house peeping in +sight, and red cattle feeding in one, and above the same rocky +woodland, meeting the other at the quarry; and then after a little +cascade had tumbled down from the steeper ground, giving place to the +heathery peaty moor, which ended, more than two miles off in a torr +like a small sphinx. This could not be seen from Magdalen's +territory, but from the highest walk in her kitchen garden, she could +see the square tower of Arnscombe, her parish church; and on a clear +day, the glittering water of Rockstone bay. + +To Magdalen it was a delightful view, and delightful too had been the +arranging of her house, and preparing for her sisters. All the +furniture and contents of the abode had been left to her. It was +solid and handsome of its kind, belonging to the days of the retired +Q.C., and some of it would have been displaced for what was more +fresh and tasteful if Magdalen had not consulted economy. So she +depended on basket-chairs, screens, brackets and drapery to enliven +the ancient mahagony and rosewood, and she had accumulated a good +many water colours, vases and knick-knacks. The old grand piano was +found to be past its work, so that she went the length of purchasing +a cottage one for the drawing-room, and another for the sitting-room +that was to be the girls' own property, and on which she expended +much care and contrivance. It opened into the drawing-room, and like +it, had glass doors into the verandah, as well as another door into +the little hall. The drawing-room had a bow window looking over the +fields towards the South, and this way too looked the dining-room, in +which Magdalen bestowed whatever was least interesting, such as the +"Hume and Smollett" and "Gibbon" of her grandfather's library and her +own school books, from which she hoped to teach Thekla. + +Her upstairs arrangements had for the moment been rather disturbed by +Mrs. Best's wishing to come with her pupils; but she decided that +Agatha should at once take possession of her own pretty room, and the +two next sisters of theirs, while she herself would sleep in the +dressing room which she destined to Thekla, giving up her own chamber +to Mrs. Best for these few days, and sending Thekla's little bed to +Agatha's room. + +And there she stood, on the little terrace, thinking how lovely the +purple light on the moor was, and how all the newcomers would enjoy +such a treat. + +She had abstained from meeting them at the station, having respect to +the capacities of the horse, even upon his native hills, and she had +hired a farmer's cart to meet them and bring their luggage. Already +she had a glimpse of the carriage, toiling up one hill, then +disappearing between the hedges, and it was long before her gate, +already open, was reached, and at her own OWN door, she received her +little sister, followed by the others. And the first word she heard +even before she had time to pay the driver was, "My dear Magdalen, +what a road!" + +Poor Mrs. Best! as the payment was put into the man's hand, Magdalen +looked round and saw she looked quite worn out. + +"Yes," said Paulina, "bumped to pieces and tired to death." + +"I was afraid they had been mending the roads," said Magdalen. + +"Mending! Strewing them with rocks, if you please," said Agatha. + +"And such a distance!" added Paulina. + +"Not quite three miles," replied Magdalen. "Here is some tea to +repair you." + +"My dear Magdalen"--in a chorus--"that really is quite impossible. +It must be five, at least." + +"Your nearest town ten miles off!" sighed Vera. + +"Your nearest church," cried Paulina. + +"Up in the wilds," said Agatha. + +Magdalen felt as if these speeches were so many drops of water in her +face and that of her beautiful Goyle, but she rose in its defence. + +"It actually is less than three miles," she said. "I have walked it +several times, and the cabs only charge three." + +"That is testimony," said Mrs. Best, smiling; "but hills, perhaps, +reckon for miles in one's feelings!" + +"Particularly before you are rested," said Magdalen, setting her down +in a comfortable wicker chair. "You will think little of it on your +own feet, Vera, and the church is much nearer, Paulina, only on the +other side of the hill." + +"May I have a bicycle of my own?" burst in Thekla, again; while every +one began laughing, and Agatha told her that Sister would think her +brains were cycling. + + +"With centric and concentric scribbled o'er +Cycle and epicycle orb in orb." + + +"Epicycle?" cried Vera. "I saw it advertised in the Queen. A +splendid one." + +"Ah! Magdalen, you will think I have not taught them their Milton," +said Mrs. Best, as both elders burst out laughing; and Agatha said, +in an undertone, "Don't make yourself such a goose, Vera." + +"I should think it rather rough sailing for bikes," said Paulina. + +"I should have thought so, myself," returned Magdalen; "but the +Clipstone girls do not seem to think so. I see them sailing merrily +into Rockstone." + +"You have neighbours, then?" said Vera. + +"Certainly. Rockstone supplies a good deal. Here are various cards +of people whose visits are yet to be returned. Clipstone is further +off; but the daughters will be nice friends for you. I met one of +them before, when she was staying at Lord Rotherwood's. But I am +afraid your boxes are hardly come yet. Still, you will like to take +off your things before dinner, even if you cannot unpack." + +She led the way, and disposed of each girl in her new quarters, +explaining to Agatha that her's and her little lodger were only +temporary; but it struck upon her rather painfully that the only word +of approbation or comfort came from Mrs. Best, and there were no +notes at all of admiration of the scenery. + +"Well," she said to herself, "much is not to be expected from people +who have been tired and shaken up in a station cab over newly-mended +roads! Were they as bad when I came? But then I could look out, and +did not hear poor Sophy's groans all the way. I rather wish she had +not come with them, though I am glad to see her again for this last +time." + +Meantime the four girls had congregated in the room appropriated to +Vera and Paulina. "Here are the necessaries of life," said Agatha, +handing out a brush and comb. "That slow wain may roll its course in +utter darkness before it comes here." + +"To the other end of nowhere," said Vera. + +"And I am so tired," whined Thekla. "These tight boots do hurt me +so! I want to go to bed." + +Paulina was already on her knees, removing the boots and +accommodating a pair of slippers to the little feet. + +"We might as well be in a desert island," continued Vera, "shut up +from everything with an old frump." + +"Take care," said Agatha, in warning, signing towards Thekla. + +"I am sure she looks jolly and good-natured," said Paulina. + +"But did you hear what Elsie Lee always calls her, 'our maiden +aunt'?" + +All three laughed, and Vera added, "All the girls say she can't be +less than fifty." + +"Topsy! You know she is only sixteen years older than I am." + +"Well, that's half a hundred!" + +"Sixteen and nineteen, what do they make?" + +"Oh, never mind your sums. She has got the face and look of half a +hundred!" + +"Now, I thought her face and her dress like a girl's," said Paulina. + +"Yes," said Vera, "that's just the way with old maids. They dress +themselves up youthfully and affect girlish airs, and are all the +more horrid." + +"That's your experience!" said Agatha. "But there's the waggon +creeping up at a snail's pace. "Let us run down and see after our +things." + + + +CHAPTER III--THE FIRST SUNDAY + + + +"Speed on, speed on, the footpath way, + And merrily hunt the stile-a; +A merry heart goes all the way, + A sad tires in a mile-a." +- SHAKESPEARE. + + +Sunday morning rose with new and bright hopes. The girls looked out +at their window, and saw that it was a beautiful morning, and that +the spring sunshine glowed upon the purple summits of the hills. +Agatha supposed there would be a pleasant walk to church; Paulina +said she had heard good accounts of the services in that part of the +country; Vera hoped that they would see what their neighbours were +like, and Thekla was delighted with the jolly garden and places to +scramble in. + +On this first Sunday they were let alone to explore the garden before +the walk to church, which Magdalen foresaw would be a long affair +with Mrs. Best. After their decorous stillness at breakfast, it was +a contrast to hear the merry voices and laughter outside, but it +subsided as soon as she approached, though she did not hear the +murmured ripple, "Here comes maiden aunt! Behold--Quite a spicy +hat!" + +In truth, Magdalen's hat was a pretty new one, not by any means +unsuitable to her age and appearance, and altogether her air was more +stylish than the country town breeding was accustomed to; her dress +perfectly plain, but well made. + +Vera was perhaps the most sensible of the perfection of the turn-out; +Agatha chiefly felt that her more decorated skirt and mantle had +their inconveniences in walking through the red mud of the lanes, +impeded by books and umbrella, which left no leisure to admire the +primroses that studded the deep banks and which delighted Thekla in +the freedom of short skirts. + +Magdalen herself had enough to do in steering along such a +substantial craft as poor Mrs. Best, used to church-going along a +street, and shrouded under a squirrel mantle of many pounds weight. + +Barely in time was the convoy when at last the exhausted lady was +helped over the stone stile that led to the churchyard. Highly +picturesque was the grey structure outside, but within modernism had +not done much; the chancel was feebly fitted after the ideas of the +"fifties," but the faded woodwork of the nave was intact, and +Magdalen still had to sit in the grim pew of her predecessors. + +The girls' looks at each other might have suited the entrance to a +condemned cell, and the pulpit towered above them with a faded green +cushion, that seemed in danger of tumbling down over their heads. + +The service was a plain one, but reverent and careful; the music had +a considerable element of harmonium mixed with schoolchild voices, +and the sermon from an elderly man was a good one; but when the move +to go out was made, and the young ones were beyond ear-shot of their +elders, the exclamations were, "Well, I never thought to have gone +back to Georgian era." + +"Exactly the element of our maiden aunt." + +"And nobody to be seen." + +"Naggie, why do they shut one up in boxes?" + +"Just to daunt Flapsy's roving eye, Tickle, my dear." + +"Don't, Polly. There was nobody to be seen if we hadn't been in a +box. Of course no one comes there but stately old farmers and their +smart daughters. I saw one with a Gainsborough hat, and a bunch of +cock's feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking it up behind." + +"Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see. Being 'emparocked in +a pew' cannot daunt her spirit of research." + +"Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible people they are." + +"Natives who will repay the study perhaps," continued Agatha, reading +as though from a book of travels. "We were able to observe a group +of the aborigines at their devotions. Conspicuous was a not +ungraceful young female, whose head, ornamented with a plume of +feathers, towered above the enclosure in which she was secluded, +while an aged fakir, hakem or medicine man pronounced from a loftier +structure resembling a sentry box." + +"Children, children, that's the wrong way," came Magdalen's voice +from behind. "You must turn into that lane. Wait a moment." + +They waited till Mrs. Best's lagging steps allowed Magdalen to come +up with them, but dead silence fell on them when Mrs. Best observed, +"You were very merry." They could not speak of the cause. Perhaps +Magdalen divined something, for she said, "We hope to make some +improvements, and so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he is very poor. +Besides, newcomers must work slowly." + +The doubt whether she had heard Agatha's speech made the girls +conscious enough to keep from responding, as she meant them to do, by +cheerful criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering and dragging on +Mrs. Best was quite enough to occupy her. There was only three years +difference in their ages, but this seemed to have made a great +interval between one whose metier had been to be youthful and active, +and her who had to be staid and dignified. + +The early dinner passed in all demureness and formality, and the poor +visitor was too much tired for any more services to be thought of for +her. Magdalen explained that when the days would be longer, she +thought of walking to Rockstone for evensong, but now the best way +was to go to the chapel at Clipstone, which was nearer than either of +the others. + +"There is a lovely little chapel there, beautifully fitted up by Lord +Rotherwood and Sir Jasper Merrifield, for the hamlet," she said. + +"How far?" asked Mrs. Best. + +"About a mile and a half across the fields; further by the road. You +will find your bicycles available when you know the way." + +"Don't we go to Rockstone?" asked Paulina. "I am sure there is a +really satisfactory church there." + +"St. Kenelm's, do you mean? That is not so near as St. Andrew's +Church, but that is very satisfactory, and I go to one or other of +them on week-days. It is too late to come back on these spring +Sundays." + +"I should not like to live among so many churches," said Mrs. Best, +"and so far from them all!" + +"You love your old parish church, like a faithful old churchwoman," +said Magdalen. "Well, you see, I am faithful enough to go to my +parish in the morning, but I think we may be discursive afterwards. +There is a Sunday school in which I was waiting to offer help till +our party was made up." + +Magdalen had looked twice for a responding smile, first from Agatha, +and then from Paulina, but none was awakened. The girls clustered +together in the bedroom, and the word "Goody" passed between them. + +"Tempered by respect for my Lord and Sir Jasper," added Agatha. + +"And avoiding St. Kenelm's because it is the real correct church," +said Paulina. + +"Oh, yes!" cried Vera. "Mr. Hubert Delrio went to see it in case +Eccles and Beamster should have an order. We must go there." + +"Of course," said Paulina, with a sympathetic nod. + +"But," said Agatha, "there will be an embargo on all acquaintance +except the grandees at Clipstone." + +"I shall never drop old friends," cried Vera. "I am a rock of +crystal as regards them, whatever swells may require, if they burst +themselves like the frog and the ox." + +"Well done, crystal rock; but suppose the old friends slide off and +drop you?" laughed Agatha. + +Vera tossed her head; and Thekla ran in to say that Sister was ready. + +The walk was shorter and pleasanter than that in the morning, over +moorland, but with a good road; but all Magdalen discovered on the +walk was that though the girls had attended botanical classes, they +did not recognise spear-wort when they saw it, and Agatha thought the +old catalogue fashions of botany were quite exploded. This was a +sentiment, and it gave hopes of something like an argument and a +conversation, but they were at that moment overtaken by the +neighbouring farmer's wife, who wanted to give Miss Prescott some +information about a setting of eggs, which she did at some length, +and with a rapid utterance of dialect that amused, while it puzzled, +Magdalen, and her inquiries and comments were decided to be +"thoroughly good-wife" by all save Thekla, who hailed the possible +ownership of a hen and chicken as almost equal to that of a bicycle. + +Magdalen further discovered that Thekla's name in common use was +"Tickle," or else "Tick-tick"; Paulina was, of course, Paula or +Polly; Vera had her old baby title of Flapsy, which somehow suited +her restless nervous motions, and Agatha had become Nag. Well, it +was the fashion of the day, though not a pretty one; but Magdalen +recollected, with some pain, her father's pleasure in the selection +of saintly names for his little daughters, and she wondered how he +would have liked to hear them thus transmuted. There had been +something bordering on sentiment in her father's character, and +something in Paulina's expression made her hope to see it repeated by +inheritance. She saw the countenance brighten out of the morning's +antagonistic air when they entered the little chapel at Clipstone, +and saw the altar adorned and carefully decked with white narcissus +and golden daffodils. + +The little chapel was old and plain, very small, but reverently cared +for. There was no choir, but the chairs of those who could sing were +placed near the harmonium, which was played by one of the young +ladies from the large gabled house to which the chapel was attached, +and the singing had the refined tones that belong to the music of +cultivated people. The congregation was evidently of poor folks from +the hamlet, dependants of the great house, and the family itself, a +grey-haired, fine-looking general, a tall dark-eyed lady, a tall +youth, a schoolboy, and four girls--one of whom was musician, and the +other presided over the school children. The service was reverent, +the catechising good and effective, the sermon brief, and summing up +in a spiritual and devotional manner; Magdalen was happy, and trusted +that Paulina was so likewise. + +She expected to hear some commendation as they walked home, but Vera +alone kept with her, to examine her on the names and standing of the +persons she had seen, on which there was as yet little to tell, for +the first move towards acquaintance had not yet been made. All that +was known was that there were Sir Jasper and Lady Merrifield, +connections of Lord Rotherwood, who owned most of the Rockstone +property, and who with his family had once been staying in the +country house where Magdalen had been governess; but it was a long +time ago, and she only recollected that there were some nice little +girls. At least she said no more, but her friend thought the more. + +"I suppose they will call?" said Vera. + +"Most likely they will." + +"Has nobody called?" + +"Mr. Earl, the Vicar of Arnscombe. He has promised to tell me how we +can be of use here. I believe there is great want of a lady at the +Sunday school." + +This did not interest Vera--and she went on asking questions about +the neighbourhood, and whether any of the Rockstone people had left +cards, and whether there were any parties, garden or evening, at +Rockstone--more than Magdalen could yet answer, though she was glad +to promote any sort of conversation with either of the girls who did +not stand aloof from her. + +"I say, the M.A. (maiden aunt) knows nobody but that old clergyman, +who wants her to teach his Sunday school." + +"I'm out of that, thank goodness," said Agatha. + +"And Sunday schools are a delusion, only hindering the children from +going to church with their parents," said Paulina. + +"And if nobody calls, and they all think her no better than an old +governess, how awfully slow it will be," continued Vera. + +"I do not suppose that will last," said Agatha. "There is Rockstone, +remember." + +"Ten miles off," said Vera disconsolately. "Oh, Nag, Nag, isn't it +horrid! We shall be just smart enough to be taken for swells, and +know nobody; and the swells won't have us because she is a governess. +We might as well be upon a desert island at once." + +Agatha could not help laughing and repeating - + + +"I am out of humanity's reach, + I must finish my journey alone - +Never hear the sweet music of speech, + I start at the sound of my own." + + +"But really, Nag," broke in Paulina, "it is horrid. Here we are +equidistant from three or four churches, and condemned to the most +behind the world of them all, and then to the one where there is this +distant fragrance of swells, instead of the only Catholic one." + +Agatha had a little more common sense than the other two, and she +responded - + +"After all, you know, you are better off than if you were still at +school; and the M.A. is a good old soul at the bottom, and you may +manage her, depend on it. Though I wish she had let me go to +Girton." + +Magdalen and Mrs. Best meantime were going over future prospects and +old times. Mrs. Best's destination was Albertstown, in Queensland, +where her son George had a good practice as a doctor, and where he +assured her she would find church privileges--even a cathedral, so- +called, and a bishop--though Bishop Fulmort was always out on some +expedition among the colonists or the natives, but among his clergy +there was always Sunday service. In fact, Magdalen thought the good +old lady expected to find a town more like Filsted than the Goyle. +There was a sisterhood located there too, which tried, mostly in +vain, to train the wild native women--an attempt at which George Best +laughed, though he allowed that the sisters were splendid nurses, +especially Sister Angela, who had a wonderful way of bringing cases +round. + +Magdalen could feel secure that her old friend would be near kind +people; and presently Mrs. Best, returning to the actual +neighbourhood, observed - + +"Merrifield! It is not a common name." + +"No; but I do not think this is the same family. This is a retired +general, living in a house of Lord Rotherwood's. I once met one of +his little girls, who came to Castle Towers with the Rotherwood +party, and though she had a brother of the name, he was evidently not +the same person." + +Mrs. Best asked no more, for tell-tale colour had arisen in +Magdalen's cheeks; and she had been the confidante of an engagement +with a certain Henry Merrifield, who had been employed in the bank at +Filsted when Magdalen was a very young girl. His father had come +down suddenly, had found debt and dissipation, had broken all off +decidedly, and no more had been heard of the young man. It was many +years previously; but those cheeks and the tone of the reply made her +suspect that there was still poignancy in the remembrance. + + + +CHAPTER IV--CYCLES + + + +"What flowers grow in my field wherewith to dress thee." +- E. BARRETT BROWNING. + +Mrs. Best departed early the next morning. It was probably a parting +for life between the two old friends; and Magdalen keenly felt the +severance from the one person whom she had always known, and on whose +sympathy she could rely. Their conversations had been very precious +to her, and she felt desolate without the entire companionship. Yet, +on the other hand, she felt as if she could have begun better with +her sisters if Sophy Best had not come with them, to hand them over, +as it were, when she wanted to start on the same level with them, and +be more like their contemporary than their authority. + +They all stood on the terrace, watching the fly go down the hill, and +she turned to them and said - + +"We will all settle ourselves this morning, and you will see how the +land lies, so that to-morrow we can arrange our day and see what work +to do. Thekla, when you have had a run round the garden, you might +bring your books to the dining-room and let me see how far you have +gone." + +"Oh, sister, it is holidays!" + +"Well, my dear, you have had a week, and your holiday time cannot +last for ever. Looking at your books cannot spoil it." + +"Yes, it will; they are so nasty." + +"Perhaps you will not always think so; but now you had better put on +your hat and your thick boots, for the grass is still very wet, and +explore the country. The same advice to you," she added, turning to +the others; "it is warm here, but the dew lies long on the slopes." + +"We have got a great deal too much to do," said Agatha, "for dawdling +about just now." + +Really, she was chiefly prompted by the satisfaction of not being +ordered about; and the other two followed suit, while Magdalen turned +away to her household business. + +They found the housemaid in possession of the bedrooms, so that the +unpacking plans could not conveniently be begun; and while Agatha was +struggling with the straps of a book box, Thekla burst in upon them. + +"Oh, Nag, Nag, there is the loveliest angel of a bicycle in the +stable, and a dear little pony besides! 'New tyre wheels,' he says." + +"A bicycle! Well, if she has got it for us, she is an angel indeed," +said Vera. + +"It is a big one," said Thekla, "but the pony is a dear little thing; +Pixy is his name, and I can ride him! Do come, Flapsy, and see! +Earwaker will show you. It is he that does the oiling of Pixy and +harnessing the bicycle. I mean--" + +"Tick, Tick, which does he oil and which does he harness?" said +Paula. + +"That little tongue wants both," said Agatha. + +"But do, do come and see," said Thekla, not at all disconcerted by +being laughed at; and Vera came, only asserting her independence by +not putting on either hat or boots. + +Thekla led the way to the stable, tucked under the hill at the back, +and presiding over a linhay, as she had already learnt to call the +tiny farm-court, containing accommodation for two cows, a pig, and +sundry fowls. There was a shed attached with a wicker pony carriage +and the bicycle, a handsome modern one, with all the newest +appendages, including the "Nevertires," as Thekla had translated +them. + +But disappointment was in store for Vera. Magdalen came out during +the inspection, and was received with - + +"Sister, you never told us of this beauty." + +"It was a parting present from General Mansell," she said, "and he +took great pains to get me a very good one." + +"And you bike!" + +"Oh, yes; I learnt to go out with the Colvins. But I do not venture +to use it much here, unless the road is good. Those rocks, freshly +laid towards Rockstone, would make regular havoc of the pneumatic +tyres." + +Vera saw that this was prohibitive, and felt too much vexed to +mention Thekla's version of the same; but Magdalen asked, "Have you +learnt?" + +"They were always going to teach me at Warner Grange, but it always +snowed, or rained, or skated, I mean we skated, or something, +whenever Hubert had time; but I am perfectly dying to learn." + +"Well, before you expire, we may teach you a little on these smoother +paths; and hire one perhaps, by the time the stones are passable. +Just at present, I think our own legs and Pixy's are safer for that +descent." + +Vera was pacified enough to look on with a certain degree of +complacency, while Thekla was enraptured at being set to take out the +eggs from the hens' nests. + +But the conclave in the sitting-room on Vera's report decided, +"Selfish old thing, it is only an excuse! Of course we should take +care not to spoil it. It shows what will be the way with +everything." + +No one knew of a still more secret conclave within Magdalen's own +breast, one of those held at times by many an elder, between the +claims of loyalty to the keepsakes of affection and old association +and the gratification of present desires. Magdalen thought of the +rules of convents forbidding the appropriation of personal trifles, +and wondered if it were wise, if stern; but for the present she +decided that it could not be her duty to risk what had been carefully +and kindly selected for her in unpractised and careless hands; and +she further compromised the matter by reckoning whether her funds, +which were not excessive, would admit of the hire or purchase of +machines that might allay the burning aspirations of her young +people. + +The upshot of her reckoning was that when they all met at the early +dinner, she announced, "I think we might go to Rock Quay this +afternoon, between the pony carriage and Shanks's mare. I want to +ask about some lessons, and we could see about the hire of a bicycle +for you to learn upon." + +It was only Agatha who answered, "Thank you, but it is not worth +while for me, I shall be away so soon." + +Thekla cried out, "Me too!"--and Paulina mumbled something. In +truth, besides the thought of the bicycle in the stable, the other +two had lived enough in the country-town atmosphere to be foolishly +disgusted at being obliged to dine early. That they had always been +used to it made them only think it beneath their age as well as their +dignity, and, "What a horrid nuisance!" had been on their tongues +when the bell was ringing. + +Moreover, they had enough of silly prejudice about them to feel +aggrieved at the sight of hash, nice as it was with fresh vegetables, +and they were not disposed to good temper when they sat down to their +meal. "They" perhaps properly means the middle pair, for Agatha had +more notion of manners and of respect, and Thekla had an endless +store of chatter about her discoveries. + +The pony-carriage was brought round in due time, but just then +another vehicle of the same kind, only prettier and with two ponies, +was seen at the gate, too late for the barbarian instinct of rushing +away to hide from morning visitors to be carried out, before Lady +Merrifield and a daughter, were up the slope and on the levelled road +before the verandah. + +"I think this is an old acquaintance," said Lady Merrifield as she +shook hands, "though perhaps Mysie is grown out of remembrance." + +"Oh, yes," said an honest open-faced maiden, eagerly putting out her +hand. "Don't you remember, Miss Prescott, our all staying at Castle +Towers? I came with Phyllis Devereux, and she and I took poor Betty +Bernard out after blackberries, and she thought it was a mad bull +when it was a railway whistle, and ran into a cow-pond, and Cousin +Rotherwood came and Captain Grantley and got her out." + +Magdalen was smiling and nodding recollection, and added, "It was +really one of the boys." + +"Oh, yes." + + +"I thought it was a crazy bull + Firing a blunderbuss--" + + +She paused for recollection, and Magdalen went on - + + +"I thought it was a crazy bull + Firing a blunderbuss; +I looked again, and, lo, it was + A water polypus. +'Oh, guard my life,' I said, 'for she + Will make an awful fuss.'" + + +"Ah! do you remember that?" cried Mysie. "I have so often tried to +recollect what it really was when she looked again. Captain Grantley +made it, you know, when we were trying to comfort Betty." + +"I remember you and Lady Phyllis said you would go and confess to +Mrs. Bernard and take all the blame, and Lord Rotherwood said he +would escort you!" + +"Yes, and Betty said it was no good, for if her mother forgave her +ten times over, still that spiteful French maid would put her to bed +and say she had no robe convenable," went on Mysie. "But then you +took her to your own room, and washed her and mended her, so that she +came out all right at luncheon, and nobody knew anything, but she +thought that horrid woman guessed and tweaked her hair all the harder +for it." + +"Poor child, she looked as if she were under a tyranny." + +"Have you seen her since?" + +"No; but Phyllis tells me she has burst forth into liberty, bicycles, +and wild doings that would drive her parents to distraction if she +dreamt of them." + +"How is Lady Phyllis? Did I not hear that the family had gone abroad +for her health?" + +"Oh yes, and I went with them. They all had influenza, and were +frightened, but it ended in our meeting with Franceska Vanderkist, +the very most charming looking being I ever did see; and Ivinghoe had +fallen in love with her when she was Miranda, and he married her like +a real old hero. Do you remember Ivinghoe?" + +"No; I suppose he was one of an indistinguishable troop of +schoolboys." + +"I remember Lord Rotherwood's good nature and fun when he met the +bedraggled party," said Magdalen, smiling. + +"That is what every one remembers about him," said Lady Merrifield, +smiling. "You have imported a large party of youth, Miss Prescott." + +"My young sisters," responded Magdalen; "but I shall soon part with +Agatha; she is going to Oxford." + +"Indeed! To which College? I have a daughter at Oxford, and a niece +just leaving Cambridge. Such is our lot in these days. No, not this +one, but her elder sister Gillian is at Lady Catharine's." + +"I am going to St. Robert's," said Agatha, abruptly. + +"Close to Lady Catharine's! Gillian will be glad to tell her +anything she would like to ask about it. You had better come over to +tea some afternoon." + +The time was fixed, and then Magdalen showed some of the +advertisements of tuition in art, music, languages, and everything +imaginable, which had begun to pour in upon her, and was very glad of +a little counsel on the reputation of each professor. Lady +Merrifield saying, however, that her experience was small, as her +young people in general were not musical, with the single exception +of her son Wilfred, who was at home, reading to go up for the Civil +Service, and recreating himself with the Choral Society and lessons +on the violin. "My youngest is fifteen," she said, "and we provide +for her lessons amongst us, except for the School of Art, and +calisthenics at the High School, which is under superior management +now, and very much improved." + +Mysie echoed, "Oh, calisthenics are such fun!" and took the reins to +drive away. + +"Oh! she is very nice," exclaimed Mysie, as they drove down the hill. + +"Yes, there is something very charming about her. I wonder whether +Sam made a great mistake." + +"Mamma, what do you mean?" + +"Have I been meditating aloud? You said when you met her at Castle +Towers, she asked you whether you had a brother Harry." + +"Yes, she did. I only said yes, but he was going to be a clergyman, +and when she heard his age, she said he was not the one she had +known; I did not speak of cousin Henry because you said we were not +to mention him. What was it, if I may know, mamma?" + +"There is no reason that you should not, except that it is a painful +matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley cousins. Harry +was never like the rest, I believe, but I had never seen him since he +was almost a baby. He never would work, and was not fit for any +examination." + +"Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried off all the +brains of the family." + +"The others have sense and principle, though. Well, they put their +Hal into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by they found he was in a +great scrape, with gambling debts; and I believe that but for the +forbearance of the partners, he might have been prosecuted for +embezzling a sum--or at least he was very near it; besides which he +had engaged himself to an attorney's daughter, very young, and with a +very disagreeable mother or stepmother. The Admiral came down in +great indignation, thought these Prescotts had inveigled poor Henry, +broke everything hastily off, and shipped him off to Canada to his +brothers, George and John. They found some employment for him, but +Susan and Bessie doubt whether they were very kind to him, and in a +few years more he was in fresh scrapes, and with worse stains and +questions of his integrity. It ended in his running away to the +States, and no trace has been found of him since. I am afraid he +took away money of his brothers." + +"How long ago was it, mamma?" + +"At least twenty years. It was while we were in Malta." + +"Who would have thought of those dear Stokesley cousins having such a +skeleton in their cupboard?" + +"Ah! my dear, no one knows the secrets of others' hearts." + +"And you really think that this Miss Prescott was his love?" + +"I know it was the same name, and Bessie told me that he used to talk +to her of his Magdalen, or Maidie; and when I heard of your meeting +her at Castle Towers I wondered if it were the same. And now I see +what she is, and what she is undertaking for these young sisters; I +have wondered whether your uncle was wise to insist on the utter +break, and whether she might not have been an anchor to hold him fast +to his moorings." + +"Only," said Mysie, "if he had really cared, would he have let his +father break it off so entirely?" + +"I think your uncle expected implicit obedience." + +"But--," said Mysie, and left the rest unsaid, while both she and her +mother went off into meditations on different lines on the exigencies +of parental discipline and of the requirements of full-grown hearts. + +And, on the whole, the younger one was the most for strict obedience, +the experienced parent in favour of liberty. But then Mysie was old- +fashioned and dutiful. + + + +CHAPTER V--CLIPSTONE FRIENDS + + + +"What idle progeny succeed +To chase the rolling circle's speed, +Or urge the flying ball."--GRAY. + + +The afternoon at Clipstone was a success. Gillian was at home, and +every one found congeners. Lady Merrifield's sister, Miss Mohun, +pounced upon Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in the alphabet of good +works needed in the neglected district of Arnscombe, where Mr. Earl +was wifeless, and the farm ladies heedless; but they were interrupted +by Mysie running up to claim Miss Prescott for a game at croquet. +"Uncle Redgie was so glad to see the hoops come into fashion again," +and Vera and Paula hardly knew the game, they had always played at +lawn tennis; but they were delighted to learn, for Uncle Redgie +proved to be a very fine-looking retired General, and there was a lad +besides, grown to manly height; and one boy, at home for Easter, who, +caring not for croquet, went with Primrose to exhibit to Thekla the +tame menagerie, where a mungoose, called of course Raki raki, was the +last acquisition. She was also shown the kittens of the beloved +Begum, and presented with Phoebus, a tabby with a wise face and a +head marked like a Greek lyre, to be transplanted to the Goyle in due +time. + +"If Sister will let me have it," said Thekla. + +"Of course she will," said Primrose. "Mysie says she is so jolly." + +"Dear me! all the girls at our school said she was a regular Old +Maid." + +"What shocking bad form!" exclaimed Primrose. "Just like cads of +girls," muttered Fergus, unheard; for Thekla continued--"Why, they +said she must be our maiden aunt, instead of our sister." + +"The best thing going!" said Fergus. + +"Maiden aunts in books are always horrid," said Thekla. + +"Then the books ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, and +spifflicated besides," said Fergus. + +"Fergus doesn't like anybody so well as Aunt Jane," said Primrose, +"because nobody else understands his machines." + +Thekla made a grimace. + +"Ah!" said Primrose. "I see it is just as mamma and Mysie said when +they came home, that Miss Prescott was very nice indeed, and it was +famous that she should make a home for you all, only they were afraid +you seemed as if--you might be--tiresome," ended Primrose, looking +for a word. + +"Well, you know she wants to be our governess," said Thekla. + +"Well?" repeated Primrose. + +"And of course no one ever likes their governess." + +This aphorism, so uttered by Thekla, provoked a yell from Primrose, +echoed by Fergus; and Primrose, getting her breath, declared that +dear Miss Winter was a great darling, and since she had gone away, +more's the pity, mamma was real governess to herself, Valetta, and +Mysie, and she always looked at their translations and heard their +reading if Gillian was not at home. + +"And they are quite grown-up young ladies!" + +"Mysie is; but I don't know about Val. Only I don't see why any one +should be silly and do nothing if one is grown up ever so much," said +Primrose. + +"As the Eiffel Tower," put in Fergus. + +"Nonsense!" said Primrose, bent on being improving. "Don't you know +what that old book of mamma's says, 'When will Miss Rosamond's +education be finished?' She answered 'Never.'" + +Thekla gave a groan, whether of pity for Rosamond or for herself +might be doubted; and a lop-eared rabbit was a favourable diversion. + +There was a triad who seemed to be of Rosamond's opinion regarding +education, for Agatha was eagerly availing herself of the counsel of +Gillian, and the books shown to her; with the further assistance of +the cousin, Dolores Mohun, now an accredited lecturer in technical +classes, though making her home and headquarters at Clipstone. + +Thekla's views of young ladyhood were a good deal more fulfilled by +the lessons on cycling which were going on among the other young +people after the game of croquet had ended. Every size and variety +seemed to exist among the Clipstone population, under certain +regulations of not coasting down the hills, the girls not going out +alone, and never into the town, but always "putting up" at Aunt +Jane's. + +Vera and Paulina were in ecstasy, and there was a continual mounting, +attempting and nearly falling, or turning anywhere but the right, +little screams, and much laughter, Jasper attending upon Vera, who, +in spite of her failures, looked remarkably pretty and graceful upon +Valetta's machine; while Paula, whom Mysie and Valetta were both +assisting, learnt more easily and steadily, but looked on with a few +qualms as to the entire crystal rock constancy that Vera had +professed, more especially when Jasper volunteered to come over to +the Goyle and give another lesson. + +Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant time +with Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they were +imperiously summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to the +transfer of Phoebus, or to choose between him and the Mufti, to whom +Thekla had begun to incline. + +The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where Magdalen was +edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired the Begum and her +progeny with a heartiness that would have won Thekla's heart, save +that she remembered hearing Vera say, over the domestic cat in the +morning, that M.A.'s were always devoted to cats. But, on the whole, +the visit had done much to reconcile the young sisters to their new +surroundings; books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled them even to +the intimacy with "swells." + +The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, and the +moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three younger ones +all rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes past the +appointed hour for the early reading and study, Agatha felt obliged +to go out and tell them that the M.A. was sitting like Patience on a +monument, waiting for them; on which three tongues said "Bother," and +"She ought to let us off till the proper end of the holidays." + +"Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave after the +Scripture was done," said Agatha; "you might have known she would not +let you off that." + +"Bother," said Vera again; "just like an M.A." + +"I did forget," said Paula; "and you know it was only just going +through a lesson for form's sake, like the old superlative." + +They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made such +frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by one or +two observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of Samuel's +history and of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she had resolved to +endeavour at a thorough teaching of the Old and New Testaments for +the first hour on alternate days, giving one day in the week to +Catechism and Prayer Book. + +She asked what they had done before. + +"Mrs. Best always read something at prayers." + +"Something?" + +"Something out of the Bible." + +"No, the Testament." + +"I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat." + +"And Saul was in it, and we had him yesterday." + +"That was St. Paul before he was converted," said Paula. + +There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared that +Mrs. Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from the +unconfirmed, and had tried to get the Gospel repeated by heart, but +had not succeeded. + +"We did not think it fair," said Vera. "None of the other houses +did." + +"Yes," said Agatha, "Miss Ferris's did." + +"Oh, she is a regular old Prot," said Paula, "almost a Dissenter, and +it is not the Gospel either, only texts out of her own head." + +"Polly!" said Agatha. "Texts out of her own head!" + +"It is Bible, of course, only what she fancies; and they have to work +out the sermon, and if they can't do the sermon, a text. They might +as well be Dissenters at once!" said Paula. + +"Janet M'Leod is," said Vera. "It was really Dissentish." + +Magdalen could not help saying, "So you would not learn the Gospel +because Dissenters learnt pieces of Scripture! You seem to me like +the Roman Catholic child, who said there were five sacraments, there +ought to be seven, but the Protestants had got two of them." + +She was sorry she had said it, for though Agatha laughed, the other +two drew into themselves, as if their feelings were hurt. "These are +the boarding-house habits," she said. "What is done at the High +School itself?" + +"The Vicar comes when he has time, and gives a lecture on an +Epistle," said Agatha, "or a curate, if he doesn't; but I was working +for the exam., and didn't go this last term. What was it, Polly?" + +"On the--on the Apollonians," answered Paulina, hesitating. + +"My dear, where did he find it?" + +"I know it was something about Apollo," said Vera. + +"It was Corinthians," said Paula. "I ought to have recollected, but +the lectures are very dull and disjointed; you said so yourself, Nag, +and the Rector is very low church." + +"So you could not learn from him!" + +"Really, sister," said Agatha, "the lectures are not well managed, +they are in too many hands, and too uncertain, and it is not easy to +learn much from them." + +"Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin at the +beginning. Suppose I ask you to say the first answer in the +Catechism." + +On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, and +passed it on to her. + +However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be recounted, and +the moment half-past ten chimed out the young ladies jumped up, and +would have been off to the bicycles, if Magdalen had not felt that +the time was come for asserting authority, and said, "Not yet, if you +please. We cannot waste whole days. You know Herr Gnadiger is +coming to-morrow, and it would be well to practise that sonata +beforehand; you ought each to practise it; Paula, you had better +begin, and Vera, you prepare this first scene of Marie Stuart to read +with me when Thekla's lessons are over. Change over when Paula has +done." + +"It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is playing," said +Vera. + +"Nonsense," Agatha muttered; but Magdalen said, "You can sit in the +drawing-room or your own room. Come, Tick-tick, where's your slate? +Come along." + +"Don't sulk, Flapsy," said the elder sister, "it is of no use. The +M.A. means to be minded, and will be, and you know it is all for your +good." + +"I hate my good," said naughty Vera. + +"So does every one when it is against the grain," said Agatha; "but +remember it is a preparation for a free life of our own." + +"It is our cross," said Paula, as she placed herself on the music +stool with a look of resignation almost comical. + +Nor did her performance interfere with the equations which Agatha was +diligently working out; but Vera, though refusing to take refuge from +the piano, to which, in fact, she was perfectly inured, worried her +elder as much as she durst, by inquiries after the meaning of words, +or what horrid verb to look out in the dictionary; and it was a +pleasing change when Paula proceeded to work the same scene out for +herself without having recourse to explanations, so that Agatha was +undisturbed except by the careless notes, which almost equally +worried Magdalen in the more distant dining-room. + +This was really the crisis of the battle of study. As the girls were +accustomed to it, and knew that they were of an age to be ground +down, they followed Agatha's advice, and submitted without further +open struggle, though there was a good deal of low murmur, and the +foreman's work was not essentially disagreeable, even while Vera +maintained, what she believed to be an axiom, that governesses were +detestable, and that the M.A. must incur the penalty of acting as +such. + +Very soon after luncheon appeared three figures on bicycles. Wilfred +Merrifield, with Mysie and Valetta, come to give another lesson on +the "flying circle's speed." + +Magdalen came out with her young people to enjoy their amusement, as +well as to watch over her own precious machine, as Vera said. It was +admired, as became connoisseurs in the article; and she soon saw that +Wilfred was to be trusted with the care of it, so she consented to +its being ridden in the practice, provided it was not taken out into +the lanes. + +Mysie turned off from the practising, where she was not wanted, and +joined Miss Prescott in walking through the garden terraces, and +planning what would best adorn them, talking over favourite books, +and enjoying themselves very much; then going on to the quarry, where +Mysie looked about with a critical eye to see if it displayed any +fresh geological treasures to send Fergus in quest of. She began +eagerly to pour forth the sister's never-ending tale of her brother's +cleverness, and thus they came down the outside lane to the lower +gate, seeing beforehand the sparkle of bicycles in its immediate +proximity. + +It was not open, but Vera might be seen standing with one hand on the +latch, the other on Magdalen's bicycle, her face lifted with +imploring, enticing smiles to Wilfred, who had fallen a little back, +while Paula had decidedly drawn away. + +None of them had seen Magdalen and Mysie till they were round the low +stone wall and close upon them. There was a general start, and Vera +exclaimed, "We haven't been outside! No, we haven't! And it is not +the Rockquay Road either, sister! I only wanted a run down that lane +up above." + +Wilfred laughed a little oddly. It was quite plain that he had been +withstanding the temptress, only how long would the resistance have +lasted? + +Downright Mysie exclaimed, "It would have been a great shame if you +had, and I am glad Wilfred hindered you." + +"Thank you," said Magdalen, smiling to him. "You know better than my +sisters what Devon lanes and pneumatic tyres are!" + +Perhaps Wilfred was a little vexed, though he had resisted, for he +was ready to agree with Mysie that they could not stay and drink tea. + +But he did not escape his sister's displeasure, for Mysie began at +once, "How lucky it was that we came in time. I do believe that +naughty little thing was just going to talk you over into doing what +her sister had forbidden." + +"A savage, old, selfish bear. It was only the lane." + +"Full of crystals as sharp as needles, enough to cut any tyre in +two," said Mysie. + +"Like your tongue, eh, Mysie?" + +"Well, you did not do it! That is a comfort. You would not let her +transgress, and ruin her sister's good bicycle." + +"She is an uncommonly pretty little sprite, and the selfish hag of a +sister only left orders that I was to take care of the bike! I could +see where there was a stone as well as anybody else." + +"Hag!" angrily cried Mysie, "she is the only nice one of the whole +lot. Vera is a nasty little thing, or she would never think of +meddling with what does not belong to her, or trying to persuade you +to allow it." + +"I call it abominable selfishness, dog in the mangerish, to shut up +such a machine as that, and condemn her sisters to one great +lumbering one." + +"That's one account," said Valetta. "Paula said it was only till +they had learnt to ride properly, and till the stones have a little +worn in." + +"Yes," said Mysie, "I could see Vera is an exaggerating monkey, just +talking over and deluding Will, just as men like when they get a +silly fit." + +By this time Wilfred had thought it expedient to put his bicycle to +greater speed, and indulge in a long whistle to show how contemptible +he thought his sisters as he went out of hearing. + +"Paulina is nice and good," said Valetta, "she has heard all about +St. Kenelm's, and wants to go there. Yes, and she means to be a +Sister of Charity, only she is afraid her sister is narrow and low +church." + +"That is stuff and nonsense," said Mysie. "I have had a great deal +of talk with Miss Prescott. She loves all the same books that we do. +She is going to have G. F. S. and Mothers' Union, and all at poor +Arnscombe, and she told me to call her Magdalen." + +With which proofs of congeniality Valetta could not choose but be +impressed. + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM'S + + + +Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed +Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay.--TENNYSON. + + +The deferred expedition to Rockquay also began, Magdalen driving Vera +and Thekla. She was pleased with her visitors, and hoped that the +girls would feel the same, but Vera began by declaring that THAT Miss +Merrifield was not pretty. + +"Not exactly, but it is an honest, winning face." + +"So broad, and such a wide mouth, and no style at all, as I should +have expected after all that about lords and ladies! An old blue +serge and sailor hat!" + +"You don't expect people to drive about the country in silk attire?" + +"Well, perhaps she is not out! Sister, do you know I am seventeen?" + +"Yes, my dear, certainly." + +"Oh, look, look, there's a dear little calf!" broke in Thekla, "and, +oh! what horns the cows have. I shall be afraid to go near them! +Was it only a sham mad bull when the little girl ran into the pond?" + +"It was the railway whistle, and she had never heard it in the +fields. She rushed away in a great fright and ran into the pond, +full of horrible black mud. The gentlemen heard the scream and +dragged her out, and it would have all been fun and a good story if +she had not been so much afraid of the French lady's maid. It is +curious how the sight of those brown eyes brought the whole scene +back to me. We all grew so fond of Mysie Merrifield in the few days +we spent together, and she is very little altered." + +"Is she out?" asked Vera once more. + +"Oh, yes, she cannot be less than twenty." + +"And I am seventeen," said Vera, returning to the charge. "I ought +to be out." + +"If there are nice invitations, I shall be quite ready to accept them +for you." + +"But I am too old for the schoolroom and lessons and masters." + +"Too old or too wise?" said Magdalen laughing. + +"I have got into the highest form in everything. Every one at +Filston of my age is leaving off all the bother." + +"Not Agatha." + +"Oh, but Agatha is--!" + +"Is what? + +"Agatha is awfully clever, and wants to be something!" + +"Something? But do you want to evaporate? To be nothing at all, I +mean," said Magdalen, seeing her first word was bewildering, and +Thekla put in - + +"Flapsy couldn't go off in steam, could she? Isn't that +evaporating?" + +"I think what she wants is to be a young lady at large! Eh, Vera? +Only I don't quite see how that is to be managed, even if it is quite +a worthy ambition. But we will talk that over another time. Do you +see how pretty those sails are crossing the bay?" + +Neither girl seemed to have eyes for the lovely blue of the sea in +the spring sunshine, nor the striking forms of ruddy peaks of rock +that enclosed it. Uneducated eyes, she thought, as she slowly +manoeuvred the pony down the steep hill before coming to the +Rockstone Cliff Road. The other two girls were following her +direction across field and road, and making their observations. + +"A dose of lords and ladies," said Agatha. + +"I thought they were rather nice," said Paula. + +"I see how it will be," said Agatha. "They will patronise the M.A. +as Lady Somebody's old governess, and she will fawn upon them and run +after them, and we shall be on those terms." + +"But I thought you meant to be a governess?" + +"I shall make my own line. I know how swells look on a governess of +the ancien regime, and how they will introduce her as the kindly old +goody who mends my little lady's frock!" + +"The girl had not any airs," said Paula. "She told me about the +churches down there in the town--not the ones we went to on Sunday; +but there's one that is very low indeed, and St. Andrew's, which is +their parish church, was suiting the moderate high church folk; and +there is St. Kenelm's, very high indeed, Mr. Flight's, I think I have +heard of him, and it is just the right thing, I am sure." + +"Don't flatter yourself that the M.A. will let you have much pleasure +in it. It is just what people of her sort think dangerous." + +"But do you know, Nag, I do believe that it is the church that Hubert +Delrio was sent down to study and make a design for." + +"Whew! There will be a pretty kettle of fish if he comes down about +it! That is, if he and Flapsy have not forgotten all about the ice +and the forfeits at Warner's Grange, as is devoutly to be hoped." + +"Do you hope it really, Nag, for Flapsy really was very much--did +care very much." + +"I have no great faith in Flapsy's affections surviving the contact +with greater swells." + +"Poor Hubert!" + +"Perhaps his will not survive common sense. I am sure I hope not for +both their sakes." + +"But, Nag, it would be very horrid of them if they had no constancy," +declared the more romantic Paula. + +"It will be a regular mess if they do have it, and bring on horrid +scrapes with the M.A. Just think. It is all very well to say she +has known Hubert all his life; but she can't treat him as a +gentleman, or she won't. She has a position to keep up with all +these swells, and he will be only the man who paints the church! I +only hope he will not come. There will be nothing but bother if he +does, unless they both have more sense and less constancy than you +expect. Well, this really is a splendid view. Old Mr. Delrio would +be wild about it." + +Here the steep and stony hill brought them into contact with the pony +carriage, nor were there any more confidential conversations. The +pony was put up at the top of the hill leading from Rockstone to +Rockquay, and thence the party walked down for Miss Prescott to make +a few purchases, and, moreover, to begin by gratifying Thekla's +reiterated entreaty for a bicycle, though, as she was unpractised and +growing so fast, it was decided to be better to hire a tricycle for +practice, and one bicycle on which Vera and Paula might learn the +art. + +The choice was a long one, and left only just time for a peep into +the two churches and a study of the hours of their services. St. +Kenelm's was decided to be a "perfect gem," ornaments, beauty, and +all, a little overdone, perhaps, in Magdalen's opinion, but perfectly +"the thing" in her sisters'. + +This St. Andrew's fulfilled to her mind, being handsome, reverent, +and decorous in all the arrangements, while to the younger folk it +was "all very well," but quite of the old times. Little did they +know of "old times" beyond the quarter century of their birth! Poor +old Arnscombe might feebly represent them, but even that had +struggled out of the modern "dark ages." Magdalen had decided on +talking to Agatha and seeing how far she understood the situation, +and she came to her room to put her in possession now that Mrs. Best +had left the guest chamber free. + +"This is your home when you are here. You must put up any belongings +that you do not want to take to St. Robert's." + +"Thank you; it is a nice pleasant room." + +"And, my dear, may I stay a few minutes? I think we had better have +a talk, and quite understand one another." + +"Very well." + +It was not quite encouraging, but Agatha really wished to hear, and +she advanced a wicker chair for her elder sister, and sat down on the +window seat. + +"Thank you, my dear; I do not know how much Mrs. Best has told you." + +"She told us that you had always been very good to us, and that you +had been our guardian ever since we lost our mother." + +"Did she tell you what we have of our own that our father could leave +us?" + +"No." + +"What amounts to about 40 pounds a year apiece. Mrs. Best in her +very great goodness has taken you four for that amount, though her +proper charge is eighty." + +"And she never let any one guess it," said Agatha, more warmly, "for +fear we might feel the difference. How very good of her." + +She seemed more impressed by Mrs. Best's bounty than by Magdalen's, +but probably she took the latter as a matter of course and +obligation; besides, the sense of it involved a sum in subtraction. +However, this was not observed by her sister, who did not want to +feel obliged. + +"Now that this property has come in," continued Magdalen, "we can +live comfortably together upon it for the present, and your expenses +at Oxford can be paid, as well as masters in what may be needful for +the others, and an allowance for dress. I suppose you will want the +40 pounds while you are at St. Robert's, besides the regular +expenses?" + +"Thank you," warmly said. + +"But I want you to understand, as I think you do, about the future, +for you must be prepared to be independent." + +"I should have wished for a career if I had been a millionaire," said +Agatha. + +"I believe you would, and it is well that you should have every +advantage. But the others. If I left you all this property, it +would not be a comfortable maintenance divided among four; and you +would not like to be dependent, or to leave the last who might not +marry to a pittance alone." + +"Certainly not," said Agatha, with flashing eyes. + +"Then you see that it is needful that you should be able to do +something for yourselves. I can give one of you at a time the power +of going to the University." + +"I don't think Vera or Polly would wish for that," said Agatha. + +"Well, what would they wish for? I can do something towards +preparing them, and I can teach Thekla, but I should like to know +what you think would be best for them." + +"Vera's strong point is music," said Agatha. "She cares for that +more than anything else, and Mr. Selby thought she had talent and +might sing, only she must not strain her voice. I don't believe she +will do much in any other line. And Polly--she is very good, and +always does her best because it is right, but I don't think anything +is any particular pleasure to her, except needlework. She is always +wanting to make things for the church. She really has a better voice +than Flapsy, and can play better, but that is because she is so much +steadier." + +"Seventeen and sixteen, are they not?" + +"Yes; but Polly seems ever so much older than Flapsy." + +"Mrs. Best showed me that she had higher marks. She must be a +thoroughly good girl." + +"That she is," cried Agatha, warmly. "She never had any task for +getting into mischief." + +"Well, they are both so young that a little study with me will be +good for them, and there will be time to judge what they are fit for. +In art I think they are not much interested." + +"Paula draws pretty well, but Vera hates it. Old Mr. Delrio is +always cross to her now; but--" Agatha stopped short, remembering +that there might be a reason why the drawing master no longer made +her a favourite pupil. + +"Do you think him a good judge?" + +"Yes; Mrs. Best thinks much of him. He had an artist's education, +and sometimes has a picture in the Water Colour Exhibition; but I +believe he did not find it answer, and so he took our school of art." + +Agatha had talked sensibly throughout the conference, but not +confidentially; much, in fact, as she would have discussed her +sisters with Mrs. Best. She was glad that at the moment the sound of +the piano set them listening. She did not feel bound to mention to +"sister" any more than she would to the head mistress, that when +staying at Mr. Waring's country house a sort of semi-flirtation had +begun with Hubert Delrio, a young man to whose education his father +had sacrificed a great deal, and who was a well-informed and +intelligent gentleman in all his ways. He had engaged himself to the +great firm of Eccles and Beamster, ecclesiastical decorators, and +might be employed upon the intended frescoes of St. Kenelm's Church. + +Ought "Sister" to be told? + +But Agatha thought it would be betraying confidence to "set on the +dragon"; and besides nobody ever could tell how much Vera's +descriptions meant. She knew already that the sweetest countenance +in the world and the loveliest dark eyes belonged to a fairly good- +looking young man, and she could also suspect that the "squeeze of my +hand" might be an ordinary shake, and the kneeling before the one he +loved best might have been only the customary forfeit. On the whole, +it would be better to let things take their course; it was not likely +that either was seriously smitten, and it was more than probable that +Hubert Delrio would be too busy to look after a young lady now in a +different stratum, and that Vera would have found another sweetest +countenance in the world. + +All this passed through her mind while Magdalen listened, and +pronounced - + +"That is brilliant--a clever touch--only--" + +"Yes, that is Vera--I know what you are noticing, but this is only +amusement; she is not taking pains." + +"It is very clever--especially as probably she has no music. But +there--" + +"Polly's? Oh, yes; she is really steady-going. That is just what +you will find her. This is a charming room, sister; thank you very +much." + +"Make it your home, my dear." + +But in reality they were not much nearer together than before the +conference. + + + +CHAPTER VII--SISTER AND SISTERS + + + +"Have we not all, amid earth's petty strife, +Some pure ideal of a nobler life? +We lost it in the daily jar and fact, +And now live idly in a vain regret." +ADELAIDE PROCTER. + + +Agatha was so much absorbed in her preparation for St. Robert's that +she did not pay very much heed to her younger sisters or their +relations with Magdalen. She had induced them to submit to the +regulation of their studies with her pretty much as if she had been +Mrs. Best, looking upon her, however, as something out of date, and +hardly up to recent opinions, not realising that, of late, Magdalen's +world had been a wide one. + +Perhaps, in Agatha's feelings, there was an undercurrent inherited +from her mother, who had always felt the better connected, better +educated step-daughter, a sort of alien element, exciting jealousy by +her companionship to her father, and after his death, apt to be +regarded as a scarcely willing, and perhaps censorious pay-master. + +"Your sister might call it too expensive." "I must ask your sister." +"No, your sister does not think she can afford it. I am sure she +might. Her expenses must be nothing." All this had been no +preparation for full sisterly confidence with "Sister," even when a +sort of grudging gratitude was extracted, and Agatha had been quite +old enough to imbibe an undefined antagonism, though, being a +sensible girl, she repressed the manifestations, kept her sisters in +order and taught them not to love but to submit, and herself remained +in a state of civil coolness, without an approach beyond formal signs +of affection, and such confidence. + +It was the more disappointing to Magdalen, because Agatha and Paulina +both showed so much unconscious likeness to their father, not only in +features, but in little touches of gesture and manner. She longed to +pet them, and say, "Oh, my dears, how like papa!" but the only time +she attempted it, she was met by a severe, uncomprehending look and +manner. + +And Agatha went away to Oxford without any thawing on her part. + +The only real ground that had been gained was with little Thekla, who +was soon very fond of "Sister," and depended on her more and more for +sympathy and amusement. Girls of seventeen and sixteen do not +delight in the sports of nine-year-olds, except in the case of +special pets and protegees, and Thekla was snubbed when a partner was +required to assist in doll's dramas, or in evening games. Only +"Sister" would play unreservedly with her, unaware or unheeding that +this was looked on as keeping up the metier of governess. Indeed, +Thekla's reports of schoolroom murmurs and sneers about the M.A. had +to be silenced. Peace and good will could best be guarded by closed +ears. Yet, even then, Thekla missed child companionship, and, even +more, competition, the lack of which rendered her dull and listless +over her lessons, and when reproved, she would beg to be sent to +school, or, at least, to attend the High School on her bicycle. Not +admiring the manners or the attainments of the specimens before her, +Magdalen felt bound to refuse, and the sisters' pity kept alive the +grievance. + +She had, however, decided on granting the bicycles. She had found +plenty of use for her own, for it was possible with prudent use of +it, avoiding the worst parts of the road, to be at early celebration +at St. Andrew's, and get to the Sunday school at Arnscombe +afterwards; and Paulina, with a little demur, decided on giving her +assistance there. + +At a Propagation of the Gospel meeting at the town hall, the Misses +Prescott were introduced to the Reverend Augustine Flight, of St. +Kenelm's, and his mother, Lady Flight, who sat next to Magdalen, and +began to talk eagerly of the designs for the ceiling of their church, +and the very promising young artist who was coming down from Eccles +and Beamster to undertake the work. + +The church had not yet been seen, and the conversation ended in the +sisters coming back to tea, at which Paula was very happy, for the +talk had something of the rather exclusive High Church tone that was +her ideal. She had seen it in books, but had never heard it before +in real life, and Vera was in a restless state, longing to hear +whether the promising young artist was really Hubert Delrio, and +hoping, while she believed that she feared, that she should blush +when she heard his name. However, she did not, though Mr. Flight +unfolded his rough plans for the frescoes, which were to be of virgin +and child martyrs, Magdalen hesitating a little over those that +seemed too legendary; while old Lady Flight, portly and sentimental, +declared them so sweet and touching. After tea, they went on to the +church. Just at the entrance of the porch, Vera clutched at Paula, +with the whisper, "Wasn't that Wilfred Merrifield? There, crossing?" + +"Nonsense," was Paula's reply, as she lingered over the illuminated +list of the hours of services displayed at the door, and feeling as +if she had attained dreamland, as she saw two fully habited Sisters +enter, and bend low as they did so. + +The church was very elaborately ornamented, small, but showing that +no expense had been spared, though there was something that did not +quite accord with Magdalen's ideas of the best taste; so that when +they went out she answered Paula's raptures of admiration somewhat +coldly, or what so appeared to the enthusiastic girl. + +The next day, meeting Miss Mohun over cutting out for a working +party, Magdalen asked her about the Flights and St. Kenelm's. + +"He is an excellent good man," said Jane Mohun, "and has laid out +immense sums on the church and parish." + +"All his own? Not subscription?" + +"No. He is the only son of a very rich City man, a brewer, and came +here with his mother as a curate, as a good place for health. They +found a miserable little corrugated-iron place, called the Kennel +Chapel, and worked it up, raising the people, and doing no end of +good till it came to be a district, as St. Kenelm's." + +"Very ornamental?" + +"Oh, very," said Jane, warming out of caution, as she felt she might +venture showing city gorgeousness all over. "But it is infinitely to +his credit. He had a Fortunatus' purse, and was a spoilt child--not +in the bad sense--but with an utterly idolising mother, and he tried +a good many experiments that made our hair stand on end; but he has +sobered down, and is a much wiser man now--though I would not be +bound to admire all he does." + +"I see there are Sisters? Do they belong to his arrangements?" + +"Yes. They are what my brother calls Cousins of Mercy. The elder +one has tried two or three Sisterhoods, and being dissatisfied with +all the rules, I fancy she has some notion of trying to set up one on +her own account at Mr. Flight's. They are both relations of his +mother, and are really one of his experiments--fancy names and fancy +rules, of course. I believe the young one wanted to call herself +Sister Philomena, but that he could not stand. So they act as parish +women here, and they do it very well. I liked Sister Beata when I +have come in contact with her, and I am sure she is an excellent +nurse. They will do your nieces no harm, though I don't like the +irregular." + +Of this assurance Magdalen felt very glad, when at the door of the +parish room, where the ladies were to hold a working party for the +missions, Carrigaboola Missions at Albertstown, she and her nieces +were introduced to the two ladies in hoods and veils; and Paula's +eyes sparkled with delight as she settled into a chair next to Sister +Mena. She looked as happy as Vera looked bored! Conversation was +not possible while a missionary memoir was being read aloud, but the +history of Mother Constance, once Lady Herbert Somerville, but then +head at Dearport, and founder of the Daughter Sisterhood at +Carrigaboola. To the Merrifields it was intensely interesting, and +also to Magdalen; but all the time she could see demonstrations +passing between Paula and Sister Mena, a nice-looking girl, much +embellished by the setting of the hood and veil, as if the lending of +a pair of scissors or the turning of a hem were an act of tender +admiration. So sweet a look came out on Paula's face that she longed +to awaken the like. Vera meantime looked as if her only consolation +lay in the neighbourhood of a window, whence she could see up the +street, as soon as she had found whispers to Mysie Merrifield treated +as impossible. + +The party at the Goyle had begun to fall into regular habits, and +struggles were infrequent. There was study in the forenoon, walks or +cycle expeditions in the afternoon, varied by the lessons in music +and in art, which Vera and Paula attended on Wednesdays and Fridays, +the one in the morning, the other after dinner. It was possible to +go to St. Andrew's matins at ten o'clock before the drawing class, +and to St. Kenelm's at five, after the music was over. Magdalen, +whenever it was possible, went with her sisters on their bicycles to +St. Andrew's, and sometimes devised errands that she might join them +at St. Kenelm's, but neither could always be done by the head of the +household. And she could perceive that her company was not specially +welcome. + +Valetta, the only one of the Clipstone family whose drawing was worth +cultivating, used to ride into Rockstone, escorted by her brother +Wilfred, who was in course of "cramming" with a curate on his way to +his tutor, and Vera found in casual but well-cultivated meetings and +partings, abundant excitement in "nods and becks and wreathed +smiles," and now and then in the gift of a flower. + +Paula on the other hand found equal interest and delight in meetings +with Sister Mena, especially after a thunderstorm had driven the two +to take refuge at what the Sisters called "the cell of St. Kenelm," +and tea had unfolded their young simple hearts to one another! +Magdalen had called on the Sisters and asked them to tea at the +Goyle, and there had come to the conclusion that Sister Beata was an +admirable, religious, hardworking woman, of strong opinions, and not +much cultivated, with a certain provincial twang in her voice. She +had a vehement desire for self-devotion and consecration, but perhaps +not the same for obedience. She sharply criticised all the +regulations of the Sisterhoods with which she was acquainted, wore a +dress of her own device, and with Sister Mena, a young cousin of her +own, meant to make St. Kenelm's a nucleus for a Sisterhood of her own +invention. + +Sister Mena had been bred up in a Sisterhood's school, from five +years old and upwards, and had no near relatives. Mr. Flight was +Saint, Pope and hero to both, and Mena knew little beyond the horizon +of St. Kenelm's, but she and Paula were fascinated with one another; +and Magdalen saw more danger in interfering than in acquiescing, +though she gave no consent to Paulina's aspirations after admission +into the perfect Sisterhood that was to be. + + + +CHAPTER VIII--SNOBBISHNESS + + + +"Why then should vain repinings rise, +That to thy lover fate denies +A nobler name, a wide domain?"--SCOTT. + + +The friendship with the Sisters was about three weeks old when, one +morning, scaffold poles were being erected in the new side aisle of +St. Kenelm's Church, and superintending them was a tall dark-haired +young man. There was a start of mutual recognition; and by and by he +met Paula and Vera in the porch, and there were eager hand-clasps and +greetings, as befitted old friends meeting in a strange place. + +"Mr. Hubert! I heard you were coming!" + +"Miss Vera! Miss Paula! This is a pleasure." + +Then followed an introduction of Sister Mena, whose elder companion +was away, attending a sick person. + +"May I ask whether you are living here?" + +"Two miles off at the Goyle, at Arnscombe, with our sister." + +"So I heard! I shall see you again." And he turned aside to give an +order, bowing as he did so. + +"Is he the artist of those sweet designs?" asked Sister Mena. + +"Did we not tell you?" + +"And now he is going to execute them? How delicious!" + +"I trust so! We must see him again. We have not heard of Edie and +Nellie, nor any one." + +"He will call on you?" said Sister Mena. + +"I do not think so," said Paula. "At least his father is really an +artist, but he is drawing-master at the High School, and Hubert works +for this firm. They are not what you call in society, and our sister +is all for getting in with Lady Merrifield and General Mohun and all +the swells, so it would never do for him to call." + +"She would first be stiff and stuck up," said Vera, "and I could not +stand that." + +"I thought she was so kind," said Mena. + +"You don't understand," said Vera. "She would be kind to a workman +in a fever; but this sort--oh, no." + +"To be on an equality with the man painting the church?" said Paula. +"No, indeed! not if he were Fra Angelico and Ary Scheffer and +Michelangelo rolled into one." + +At that moment the subject referred to in that mighty conglomeration +reappeared. He was a handsome young man, his touch of Italian blood +showing just enough to give him a romantic air; and Sister Philomena +listened, much impressed by the interchange of question and answer +about "Edie and Nellie," and the dear Warings, and the happy +Christmas at the Grange; and Vera blushed again, and Paula coloured +in sympathy, as it appeared that Mr. Delrio had never had such a +splendid time. + +The colloquy was ended by Mr. Flight being descried, approaching with +his mother, whereupon the two girls fled away like guilty creatures. + +Presently Vera exclaimed, "Oh, Polly dear, what a complication! Poor +dear fellow! he cares for me as much as ever." + +"And you will be staunch to him in spite of all the worldly +allurements," said Paula. + +"Well, I mean Mr. Wilfred Merrifield is not half so handsome," +returned Vera. + +"Nor is he engaged in sacred work; only bent on frivolity," said +Paula; "yet see how the M.A. encourages him with tennis and games and +nonsense." + +Poor M.A., when the encouragement had only been some general +merriment, and a few games on the lawn Paulina, who had heard many +confidences when Vera returned from Waring Grange, believed +altogether in the true love of the damsel and Hubert Delrio, who had +been wont to single out the prettiest of the girls at Filstead, and +she was resolved to do all she could in their cause, being schoolgirl +enough to have no scruple as to secrecy towards Magdalen, though on +the next opportunity she poured out all to Sister Philomena's by no +means unwilling ears. + +Lovers had never fallen within the young Sister's experience, either +personally or through friends; and they had only been revealed to her +in a few very carefully-selected tales, where they were more the +necessary machinery than the main interest, for she had been bred up +in an orphanage by Sister Beata, and had never seen beyond it. So to +her Paula's story, little as there was of it, was a perfect romance, +and it gained in colour when she related it to her senior. + +Sister Beata hesitated a little, having rather more knowledge of the +world, remembering that Vera Prescott was not eighteen years old, and +doubting whether an underhand intimacy ought to be encouraged; but +then Mr. Flight had spoken of Mr. Delrio as a highly praiseworthy +young man, of decided Catholic principles; he was regular at Church +services, and had dined or supped at the Vicarage. The intercourse, +as the girls had explained, had been sanctioned by Mrs. Best in their +native town, where all parties were well known, and thus there could +be no harm in letting it continue. While as to the elder Miss +Prescott, she was understood to be unduly bent on county and titled +society, and to be exclusive towards inferiors. Moreover, she was an +attendant at St. Andrew's Church, and thus regarded as out of the +pale of sympathy of the St. Kenelm's flock. + +So no obstacle was put in the way of the gossips, for they were +really nothing more, except that there was admiration of the designs +for the side chapel, which were of the Scripture children on one +side, and on the other of child martyrs. Now and then there was a +reference to the chilliness and hardship of living with an +unsympathising sister, and being obliged to go to churches of which +they did not approve. Sometimes too there were airy castles of a +distant future to be shared by the magnificent architect, together +with Vera, while Paula nursed in the convent with Mother Beata and +Sister Philomena. + +But all this did not prevent an excitement and eager laughter and +chatter whenever Wilfred Merrifield came in the way, and he certainly +was enough attracted by Vera's pretty face and lively graces to make +his sisters think him very absurd; but his mother had seen so many +passing fancies among her elder sons as to hold that blindness was +better than serious treatment. + +There was the further effect that Magdalen had no suspicion that the +vehement attraction to St. Kenelm's went beyond the harmless quarter +of the two nursing Sisters and some hero worship of Mr. Flight. Miss +Mohun, who knew everything, had indeed hinted that something foolish +might be going on there; but Magdalen had not decided on the mutual +fairness of the two congregations, and deferred investigation till +Agatha should come home, when she would have a reasonable, if cold, +person to deal with. Nor did Thekla's chatter excite any suspicion; +for the only time when she had been present at a meeting with Mr. +Delrio, she had been half bribed, half threatened into silence, and +she was quite schoolgirl enough to feel that such was the natural +treatment of authority, though she had become really fond of +"sister." + + + +CHAPTER IX--GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY + + + +"Can I teach thee, my beloved? can I teach thee?" +E. B. BROWNING. + + +Agatha came home in due time, and Magdalen sent her sister to meet +her at the station, where they found a merry Clipstone party in the +waggonette waiting for Gillian, who was to come home at the same +time. There was so much discussion of the new golf ground, that Vera +had hardly a hand or a glance to bestow on Mr. Delrio, who jumped out +of the same train, shook hands with Agatha, and bestirred himself in +finding her luggage and calling a cab. + +"How he is improved! What a pleasing, gentlemanly fellow he looks!" +she exclaimed, as she waved her thanks, while driving off in the cab. + +"Is he not?" said Paula, while Vera bridled and blushed. "You will +be delighted with his work. I never saw anything more lovely than +little St. Cyriac the martyr." + +"He is taken from Mrs. Henderson's little boy," added Vera; "such a +dear little darling." + +"And his mother is to be done; indeed, he has sketched her for St. +Juliet." + +"Flapsy! St. Romeo, too, I suppose?" + +"Nonsense, Nag! There really was a St. Juliet or Julitta, and she +was his mother, and they both were martyrs. I will tell you all the +history," began Paula; but Agatha interposed. + +"You must like having him down here. Sister must be much pleased +with him. She used to like old Mr. Delrio." + +"Well, we have not said much about him," owned Paula. "He does not +seem to wish it, or expect to be in with swells." + +"We could not stand his being treated like a common house-painter and +upholsterer," added Vera. + +"Surely no one does so," said Agatha. + +"Not exactly," said Paula; "at least, he has had supper at St. +Kenelm's Vicarage with Lady Flight, and luncheon at Carrara with +Captain and Mrs. Henderson." + +"Because he was DOING the child," interposed Vera; "and Thekla says +that Primrose Merrifield says that her Aunt Jane--that is, old Miss +Mohun--says that Lady Flight is not a gentlewoman." + +"What has that to do with Magdalen?" + +"Why, she is so taken up with those swells of hers, especially now +that there is a talk of Lord Somebody's yacht coming in, that she +would never treat him as on equal terms, but just keep him at a +distance, like a mere decorator." + +"That seemed to me just what you were doing," said Agatha, "when he +was so kind and helpful about my box." + +"Oh, THEY were all there, and we did not want to be talked of," said +Vera, blushing. "He understands." + +"He understands," repeated Paula. "We do see him at the church and +at the Sisters'. Those dear Sisters! There is no nonsense about +them. You will love them, Nag." + +"Well, it does not seem to me to be treating our own sister Magdalen +fairly." + +"The M.A.!" said Vera, in a tone of wonder. + +"No; not to be intimate with a person you do not introduce to her, +because you do not think she would consider him as on equal terms." + +"Sister Beata quite approves," added Paula, sincerely, not guessing +how little Sister Beata knew of the situation, of which she only +heard through the medium of her own representations to Sister Mena. + +The two girls rushed into the charms of these two Sisters, and the +plan for an entertainment for the maidens of the Guild of St. +Milburgha, at which they were to assist. It lasted up to the gate of +the Goyle, where Magdalen and Thekla were ready to meet them; and +they trooped merrily up the hill, Agatha keeping to Magdalen's side +in a way that struck her as friendly and affectionate. It seemed to +be more truly coming HOME than the elder sister had dared to +anticipate; nor, indeed, did she feel the veiled antagonism to +herself that had previously disappointed her. + +The talk was about St. Robert's, about Oxford in general, the new +friends, the principal, the games, the debates, the lectures, the +sermons, the celebrities, the undergraduates, the concerts, the +chapels, the boats, the architecture; all were touched on for further +discussion by and by as they sat at the evening meal, and then on the +chairs and cushions in the verandah; and through all there was no +exclusion of the elder sister, but rather she was the one who could +appreciate the interest of what Agatha had seen and heard; and even +she was allowed to enter into the amusement of an Oxford bon mot, +sometimes, indeed, when it was far beyond Paula and Vera. + +There was no doubt that the term had much improved Agatha even in +appearance and manner. She held herself better, pronounced better, +uttered no slangish expressions, and twice she repressed little +discourtesies on the part of her sisters, and neglects such as were +not the offspring of tender familiarity, but of an indifference akin +to rudeness. Magdalen had endured, knowing how bad it was for their +manners, but unwilling to become more of an annoyance than could be +helped. The indescribable difference in Agatha's whole manner sent +Magdalen to bed happier than she had been since the arrival of her +sisters, and feeling as if Agatha had come to her own side of a +barrier. + +Perhaps it was quite true; for the last two months had been a time of +growth with the maiden, changing her from a schoolgirl to a student, +from the "brook to the river." She had, indeed, studied hard, but +that she had always done, as being clever, intellectual and +ambitious. The difference had been from her intercourse with persons +slightly her elders, but who did not look on authorities as natural +enemies, to be tolerated for one's own good. There had been a +development of the conscience and soul even in this first term that +made her regard her elder sister not merely with a sense of +compulsory gratitude and duty, but with sympathy and fellow feeling, +which were the more excited when she saw her own chilliness of last +spring carried further by the two young girls. + +So breakfast went off merrily; and after the round of the garden and +the pets, Agatha promised to come, when summoned, to hear how well +Thekla could read French. In the meantime she waited in the morning- +room, looking at her sisters' books; Vera pushed aside the Venetian +blind. + +"Don't come in that way, Flapsy!" called Paula. "You'll be heard in +the dining-room, and the M.A. will tremble at your dusty feet." + +"They aren't dusty," said Vera, pulling up the blind with a clatter. + +"Aren't they?" laughed Paula, pointing. + +"You had better go and wipe them," said Agatha. + +"I don't believe in M.A.'s fidgets," returned Vera. + +"But I do, in proper deference to the head of the house," said +Agatha, gravely. + +"Murder in Irish!" cried Vera, bouncing away, while Paula argued, +"Really, Nag, life is not long enough to attend to all the M.A.'s +little worries." + +"Polly, dear, I am afraid we have been on a wrong tack with our +sister. I don't like calling her by that name." + +"You began it!" exclaimed Vera, dashing in by the door as she spoke. + +"I could not have meant it as a nickname to be always in use." + +"Oh yes, you did, I remember"--and an argument was beginning, which +Agatha cut short by saying, "Any way, it is bad taste." + +"Nag has been so much among the real M.A. that she is tender about +their title." + +"She wants to be one herself," said Vera; "and so she will if she +goes on getting learned and faddy." + +"In both senses?" said Paula. + +Agatha laughed a little, but added, "No, Polly, the thing is that it +is hardly kind or right to put that sort of label upon a person like +Magdalen--who has done so much for us--and--" + +The perverse young hearts could not bear a touch on the chord of +gratitude; and Paula burst in, "Label or libel, do you mean?" + +"It becomes a libel as you use it." + +"Do you want us to call her sister or Magdalen, the whole scriptural +mouthful at once?" + +"I believe that to call her Magdalen or Maidie, as my father did, +would make her feel nearer to us than the formal way of saying +'Sister.'" + +"I don't mind about changing," said Paula. "She can never be the +same to us as dear Sister Mena." + +"She is so tiresome," added Vera. "She bothers so over my music; +calling out if I make ever so small a slip, and making me go over all +again." + +"Well she may," said Paula. "She is making little Tick play so +nicely. Just listen! But I can't bear her dragging us off to that +horrid old Arnscombe Church and the nasty stuffy Sunday school." + +"That reminds me," said Agatha; "Gillian Merrifield met a relation of +Mr. Earl's, who said that Miss Prescott had brought quite new life +and spirit to the poor old man, who had been getting quite out of +heart for want of any one to help and sympathise with him." + +"Then he ought to make his services more Catholic," said Paula. "But +nothing will wean her from the old parochial idea. Why, she would +not let me give my winter stockings to Sister Beata's poor girls, but +made me darn them and put them by." + +"Yes, and mine, which were bad enough to give away, she made me darn +first," cried Vera. "She is ever so much worse than the superlative +about mending one's clothes." + +"There ought to be another degree of comparison," said Paula,-- +"Botheratissima!" + +"For, only think!" said Vera. "She won't let us have new hats, but +only did up the old ones, and not with feathers, though there is such +a love at Tebbitts's at Rockstone." + +"She says it is cruel," said Paula. + +"Cruel to me, I am sure; and what difference does it make when the +birds are once killed?" + +"Well, she did give us those lovely wreaths of lilies," said Paula. + +"Of course, but nothing to make them stylish! What's the good of +being out if one is to have nothing chic? And she won't let me have +a hockey outfit. She says she must see more of it to be able to +judge whether to let us play!" + +"That just means seeing whether her dear Merrifields do," said Paula. + +"Gillian did at St. Catherine's. But you will know soon. Did I not +hear something about a garden party?" + +"Oh, yes; she is talking of one, but it will be all swells and +croquet, and deadly dull." + +"I thought you seemed to be getting on well with the swells, if you +mean the Merrifields, especially Wilfred, if that is his name." + +"Bil--Bil! Oh, he is all very well," said Vera, "if he would not be +always so silly and come after me! As if I cared!" + +"And only think," said Paula, "that she was going to have it on the +very day that St. Milburga's Guild has their festival! Just as if it +was on purpose!" + +"Did you ask her to keep clear of your engagements?" + +"I told her, but I don't think she listened." And as another +grievance suggested itself to Vera, she declared, "And she won't let +us join the Girls' Magazine Club, because she saw one she didn't like +on somebody's table. As if we were little babies!" + +"She won't let us order books at the library, but gets such awfully +slow ones," chimed in Paula, "or only baby stories fit for Thekla. +She made me return that book dear Sister Mena lent me, because she +said it was Roman Catholic." + +"And hasn't she got Thomas a Kempis on her table? and I'm sure he was +Roman Catholic. There's consistency!" + +"You don't understand," began Agatha. "He was a great Saint before +the Catholics became so Roman." + +"Oh, never mind! It is anything to thwart us," cried Vera. "It is +ever so much worse than school." + +"But," began Agatha, and the tone of consideration to that one +conjunction caused an outburst. "Oh, Nag, Nag, if you are gone over +to the enemy, what will life be worth?" + +As that terrible question was propounded, in burst Thekla with, "Oh, +Nag, Nag, they are cutting the hay in the high torr field, and sister +says we may go and see them before I read my French." + +"Oh!" cried Vera, with a prolongation into a groan, "is she going to +be tiresome?" + +"She has come to be quite a don," said Paula; "but never mind, we +will soon make her all right again." + +The two sisters had to go to their different classes in the +afternoon, and wanted Agatha to go with them; but it was a very warm +day, and she preferred resting in the garden, and, to Magdalen's +surprise and pleasure, conversation with her. At first it was about +Oxford matters, very interesting, but public and external to the +home, and it did not draw the cords materially closer; but when +Thekla had privately decided that even hanging upon the newly +recovered Nag was not worth the endurance of anything so tedious, and +had gone off to assist her beloved old gardener in gathering green +gooseberries, Magdalen observed that she was a very pleasant little +pupil, and was getting on very well, especially with arithmetic. + +"That was the strong point in the junior classes," said Agatha; +"better taught than it was in my time." + +"I wish she could have more playfellows," said Magdalen. "She would +like to go to the High School at Rockquay, but there are foundations +I should wish to lay before having her out of my own hands." + +"I should think you were her best playfellow. She seems very fond of +you, and very happy." + +"Yes," said Magdalen, rather wistfully. "I think she generally is +so." + +"Maidie! may I call you by the old home name?" And as Magdalen +answered with a kiss and tearful smile, "Do tell me, please, if Polly +and Flapsy are nice to you?" + +Magdalen was taken by surprise at the pressure of the hand and the +eyes that gazed into her face full of expression. + +She could not keep the drops from rushing to her own eyes, though she +smiled through them and said, "As nice as they know how." + +"I am afraid I know what that means," said Agatha. + +"If I only knew how to prevent their looking on me as their +governess," continued Magdalen; "but I must have got into the groove, +and I suppose I do not always remember how much must be tolerated if +love has to be won; and Paula is a thoroughly good girl." + +"Yes, I am sure she wishes to be," said Agatha. "Are those Sisters +nice that she talks of so eagerly?" + +"They are very excellent women, but somehow I should have had more +confidence in them if they were not unattached, or belonged to some +regular Sisterhood. I wish she had taken instead to Mysie +Merrifield, who is more of my sort; but no one can control those +likings." + +"I don't think Gillian very attractive; she is so wrapped up in her +work," confessed Agatha. + +"You will see them all, I hope, for I am giving a garden party next +week, perhaps. Have not they told you?" + +"Oh, yes; but Polly seemed bent on its not clashing with some +festival at St. Kenelm's." + +"Therefore I had not fixed the day till I had heard what is settled. +I have invited people for Thursday, which will hardly interfere." + +"Did you know that the young man who is painting the ceiling at St. +Kenelm's Church is old Mr. Delrio's son Hubert?" + +"Indeed! Is he staying here? We must ask him to come up to luncheon +or to tea. I am glad he is doing so well. I heard Eccles and +Beamster were to do the decorations; I suppose they employ him. I +should think it was a very good line to get into." + +This was on a Friday; and the next day Magdalen proposed driving down +in the cool of the evening to see the decorations at St. Kenelm's and +their artist; but it turned out that he was gone to spend Sunday at +the Cathedral city, and all that could be done was to admire the +designs, and listen to Paula's enthusiastic explanation. + +Magdalen consulted Agatha whether to send young Delrio a card for the +garden party; but they decided that it was too late for an invitation +to be sent, though a spoken one might have been possible. Besides, +it was not likely to be pleasant to a stranger who knew no one but +the Flights and Hendersons, and those professionally. Agatha told +her sisters, and with one voice they declared that they would not see +him patronised; while Agatha's acute senses doubted whether Vera's +objection was not secretly based on the embarrassment of a double +flirtation with him and with Wilfred Merrifield. + +Indeed, Vera told her gaily: "Only think, Nag, I did have a jolly +ride on the M.A.'s bike after all." + +"Indeed! Then she lent it to you." + +"Not she! But she and the little kid were safe gone to Avoncester, +and Paula was with her dear Sisters, so Will and I took a jolly spin +along the cliff road; and it was such screaming fun. Only once we +thought we saw old Sir Jasper coming, and we got behind a barn, but +it turned out to be only a tripper, and we had such a laugh." + +"Paula does not know?" + +"What would be the good of telling her, with her little nun's +schoolgirl mind? She would only make no end of a fuss about a mere +bit of fun and nonsense." + +"I think if Wilfred Merrifield was afraid to meet his father, it +showed a sense of wrong." + +"Sir Jasper is a horrid old martineau, who never gives them any peace +at home, but is always after them." + +"A martinet, I suppose you mean. I don't think that makes it any +better. I should not be happy till Magdalen knew." + +"Why, no harm was done! There's her precious machine all safe! It +was just for the fun of the thing, and to try how it goes. One can't +be kept in like a blessed baby! She never has guessed it. That's +the fun of it." + +"I would not return her kindness in such an unladylike way when she +is trusting you, Vera." + +Did Magdalen know what had been done? She did guess, for there was a +mark on the wheel that she did not remember to have known before, and +it cost her a bitter pang of mistrust; but she abstained from +inquiries, thinking that they might only do harm. But she bought a +chain for her bicycle; and Agatha felt more shame than did Vera, who +tried to believe herself amused by her tacit sense of emancipation. + + + +CHAPTER X--FLOWN + + + +"Till now thy soul hath been all glad and gay, +Bid it arise and look on grief to-day." +ADELAIDE PROCTOR. + + +There was a Guild at St. Kenelm's which was considered by the +promoters to be superior to the Girls' Friendly Society, and which +comprised about a dozen young women, who attended classes held by +Sister Beata, and occasional modest entertainments given by Lady +Flight. + +One of these was to take place the day before Miss Prescott's garden +party. It was to be given at Carrara, the very pretty grounds on the +top of the cliff, belonging to Captain Henderson, the managing +partner in the extensive marble works of Mr. White, who lived at +Rocca Marina, in the Riviera. Mrs. Henderson had resided in Mr. +Flight's parish, and been a member of his congregation, and while he +was absent for a day or two she had put her garden at the service of +the Guild of St. Milburga's for the day. + +Of course Vera and Paula were delighted to assist; but Thekla was too +young for the amusements of grown-up maidens, and was much better +pleased to help her two elder sisters in preparations for the next +day, placing tennis nets, arranging croquet hoops, mustering chairs +by the verandah, and adorning tables with flowers. Agatha's +assistance was heartily given, as making it her own concern, and, for +that reason above all others, it was a happy day, though a very +tiring one, to Magdalen, in spite of the sultry atmosphere and the +sight of lurid-looking clouds over the moors, which did not augur +well for the next day's weather, and caused all the arrangement of +chairs and rugs to be prudently broken up and deposited under the +verandah. + +This was done, and the evening meal had been taken, and Thekla had +gone to bed before some flashes of lightning made the two sisters +wish to see the other pair at home, especially as Vera was much +afraid of lightning, and Paula apt to be made quite ill by it. + +The storm rolled on, bringing violent gusts of wind and hail, though +not at the very nearest, and such a hurricane of wind and rain ensued +that the two watchers concluded that the two girls must have been +housed for the night by some of the friends at Rock Quay, and it was +near midnight, when just as they had gone to their rooms, a carriage +was heard ascending the hill, and they had reached the door before +Paulina sprang out with the cry, "Is she come home?" Then at sight +of the blank faces of dismay, she seized hold of Agatha's hands and +began to sob. Mr. Flight had stepped out of the car at the same +moment, and answered the incoherent questions and exclamations. + +"Young Delrio offered to take photographs of the party, and that was +the last time she was seen." + +"Yes," sobbed Paula, "Sister Mena saw her there. We were trying to +get up croquet, and then I missed her. I tried to find her when the +lightning began, but I could not find her anywhere, though I looked +in all the summer-houses!" + +"At Mrs. Henderson's? or Miss Mohun's? or the Sisters'?" asked +Magdalen, catching alarm from each denial. "She might have gone home +with one of the girls." + +"She would be wild in such a storm," said Agatha, "and not know what +she was about." + +"Sister Beata and I have gone to each house," said Mr. Flight. + +"When did you say you saw her last?" + +"I saw her when we were grouped," said Paula; "Sister Mena, when she +was helping him to put up his photos." + +"The strange thing is," said Mr. Flight, "though no doubt it will be +explained, that Delrio is missing too." + +"Hubert Delrio!" exclaimed Agatha. "Impossible! He must have taken +her into the church to be out of the storm." + +"We have tried," said the clergyman. And as the round of suggestions +began to be despairingly reiterated, he said, hesitating, "Miss Mohun +told me that she thought she had seen a boat, Captain Henderson's, +she believed, in the cave with some one rocking in it; and certainly +that little boat was there, when on the hope, if it can be called a +hope, I ran down the steps to look." + +"Would it not have been put into the boathouse out of the rain?" said +Agatha. + +"The gardener was gone home, out of reach round the point, but we +shall know to-morrow." + +"He thinks they may have rowed out and been caught in the storm," +cried Paula, bursting into fresh weeping; and Magdalen saw the +conjecture confirmed by Mr. Flight's countenance. + +"I am afraid it is the least distressing--the least unsatisfactory +idea," said he, in much agitation. "I thought Mr. Delrio an +excellent young man; and she," indicating his companion, "tells me +you know him and his family well." + +"Oh, yes," said Agatha and Magdalen in one breath. "We have known +his father all our lives. Nothing can be more respectable." + +"And Hubert is as steady and good as possible," continued Agatha. +"His mother used to come to Mrs. Best and praise him, till we were +quite tired of his name; I am sure he is all right." + +"Or I should be much deceived in him," said the clergyman. + +Yet there was an idea in Paulina's mind. Could Vera have poured out +such an exaggerated tale of oppression and unhappiness as to have +induced her old playfellow to carry her off to his mother at Filsted? +She had given some such hint to Mr. Flight on the way; but he had not +seemed to hear or attend, and he was now promising to let the sisters +know as soon as possible in the morning whether anything had been +discovered, and to telegraph to Filsted and to the office in London +if he should see occasion. + +Then he drove off, in what would have been almost daylight but for +the pelting of the storm; and after a vain attempt to make Paula +swallow some nourishment, Magdalen thought it kinder to let Agatha +carry her off to bed, and then she confessed, what really gave a +certain hope, that the pair had been in the habit of murmuring +against "sister" so much that, considering poor Vera's propensity to +strong language, it was quite possible that Hubert might think her +cruelly oppressed, and for a freak carry her off to his mother to be +consoled. + +Agatha tried to believe it, for the sake of hushing the exhausted +Paula, who almost went into hysterics, as she laughed at the notion +of to-morrow's telegram that Vera was safe at Filsted; and then +allowed herself to be calmed enough to sleep, while Agatha revolved +the notion, but found herself unable seriously to believe, that +sufficient grievance could be brought against sister to induce any +man in his senses to take such a step. But then Paula had inferred +that he was a lover, and Agatha did not know of what lovers might be +capable, and she could not but blame herself for not having given +more importance to the semi-confidences of her sisters on the first +day of her arrival. It was all misery; and the two poor girls could +find no solace in the morning, save in talking to Magdalen, though +that involved the confession of all the murmurs against her, the +distrust of her kindness, and the explanation of the interviews, +which, as far as Paula had ever witnessed them, were absolutely +harmless, the only pity being in their concealment. + +Magdalen was manifestly as wretched as they, or even more so, being +convinced of her own shortcoming in not having won the affection or +confidence that would have made all open between them. She could not +understand why Hubert Delrio should not have been made known to her. + +"We thought," said Paula, "we thought you might not think him enough- +-enough--of a gentleman for your sort of society." + +"I think you might have trusted me to know what was due to an old +friend," said Magdalen "but, oh, I ought to have made you feel that +we could think together." + +"Perhaps," said Agatha, "there was a little consciousness on poor +dear Vera's part that she did not want you to know the terms she was +on." + +They had tried only to let Thekla know that they were much alarmed +because Vera had gone out in a boat and not returned. It was +observable that, on the principle that where there is life there is +hope, Paula clung to the notion that Vera's having fled to Filsted; +while the two elder sisters, perhaps because they better knew what +such a flight might seem to others, would almost have preferred to +suppose there had been a fatal accident in the midst of youthful, +innocent sport. + +The two were lingering sadly over their uneaten breakfast, talking +more freely when they had sent Thekla to feed her pets, when Mr. +Flight came up on his bicycle; but it was plain at the first moment +that he had no good news. + +Nothing had been heard. It only appeared that one of the young +gardeners at Carrara had taken Captain Henderson's boat without +leave, to fetch one of the girls, but on entering the cove had found +the boathouse locked. He had moored the boat to a stake for want of +the ring that secured it within. When the storm threatened he ran +down to recover it, but it was gone, and he had concluded that the +gardeners had put it into the boathouse. It now appeared that they +had not seen it, and were very angry at its having been meddled with. +An oar had drifted up with the morning tide, and had been recognised +as belonging to the boat; but such a gale was blowing that it was +impossible to put out to sea or make any search round the coast. +Words could hardly describe the distress of Mr. Flight or of his +ladies at not having better looked after the young girl; Sister Beata +for never having thoroughly attended to the matter; and Sister Mena +for having accepted confidences which, if she had only guessed it, +told her more than there really was to be known. Both these two were +inclined to the elopement idea, partly because it was the least +shocking, and partly because they had looked at Vera's grievances +through her own spectacles, and partly from their unlimited notions +of young men's wickedness. Their vicar was not of the same opinion, +knowing Hubert better, and besides having found his work, his orders +to his subordinates, and the belongings at the lodgings in a state +that showed that whatever he had done had been unpremeditated. +Sending off notes to stop the garden party was a sort of occupation, +broken by many signs, much listening, and much sorrowful discussion, +not quite vain, since it made Paulina more one with Magdalen than +ever before. Poor old Mr. Delrio arrived in the afternoon, a thin, +grey-haired and bearded old man, who could only make it too certain +that Paula's theory of the innocent flight to Filsted was impossible. +Moreover, he was as certain as a father could be, intimate with, and +therefore confident of, his eldest son, that though Hubert might +indulge in a little lively flirtation, it could never be otherwise +than perfectly harmless. In the terrible suspense and restlessness, +he went vibrating about in the torrents of moorland rain between Rock +Quay and the Goyle, on the watch for telegrams from the office in +London or his wife at home, or for the discovery of anything from the +sea, or searching in his son's lodgings, where nothing was found that +did not show him to have been a pure-hearted young man, devoted to +his art, and fond of poetry. Sundry compositions were in the +blotting-book, one, indeed, to Vera's name, under the supposition (a +wrong one) {100} that it meant "true," but mostly rough copies of a +poem about the Saints Julitta and her child Cyriac. Hope sank as +another stormy day rose; and still the poor old artist lingered in +hopes of news by some returning craft which might have picked up the +derelict. His chief comfort was in walking about between the showers +with Magdalen, as an old friend, and trying to think of the two as +innocent creatures, engulfed like mayflies in the stream. + +Sister Mena came over, wanting to join Paula in bewailing entreaties; +but Paula, in youthful hard-hearted wilfulness, declared that it was +impossible to see her; and it fell to Magdalen to try to discuss the +grief with her. + +It turned out that Mr. Flight had spoken severely to her and to the +far less implicated Sister Beata, declaring his confidence in them +destroyed, so that they had begun to consider of throwing up their +work in his parish. "And it was all my fault," said Mena; "Sister +Beata really knew nothing, or hardly anything of what Vera told me." + +"Indeed, I can quite understand that you had hardly experience enough +to know that it might be wiser not to encourage what was not quite +open." + +"But I thought,--I thought you--" + +"That I was unkind and unsympathising." + +"Oh, you never could have been--" + +"Indeed I never meant to be, but I am afraid it seemed so to my young +sisters. I can quite see how you thought you were acting kindly." + +"Oh, that is so good of you." + +"And perhaps I, being only an elder sister, you would not feel that I +was the only authority the poor girls have to look to; and that it +would have been kinder to help them to be content with me." + +"I did not know what you could be," said Mena, greatly soothed and +surprised by her caresses. + +"We often do go on in ignorance, and get on a wrong tack; but you +know God pardons our mistakes, and I do believe that you will be +wiser for all this sorrow, and better able to rise to your work. I +am sure, however it ends, that is the reason that such blows are sent +to us." + +Mena went back sorrowful and chastened, but tenderly hopeful. If +Miss Prescott could forgive, surely Mr. Flight could, and One still +greater. + + + +CHAPTER XI--ADRIFT + + + +"She splashed, and she dashed, and she turned herself round, +And heartily wished herself safe on the ground." +JANE TAYLOR. + + +And where were the missing pair? + +Vera had lingered about, fancying she was helping to pack the +photographic apparatus, while the others dispersed. Presently, +seeing no one near, Hubert Delrio said, in a gentle diffident voice, +"It would be a great pleasure to me if I might ask you to listen to +the verses on St. Cyriac and his mother that the design brought with +it." + +"I should love it better than anything," said Vera, highly flattered. + +"If you would come down this way, there is a charming secluded cove, +where we should be free from interruption." + +"How deliciously romantic! Quite stunning!" cried Vera, as her +cavalier conducted her down a steep path along the side of the cliff +to the stony beach, where a few red rocks had been manipulated into a +tiny harbour, with a boathouse for the little skiff in which Captain +Henderson was wont to go round to the marble works on the other side +of the headland. The boat looked very inviting as it lay swinging +gently in the sluggish waves in the advancing shade of the tall +cliff; and Vera exclaimed with delight as she was assisted into it, +and placed herself comfortably on the cushion, with one hand dabbling +in the cool translucent wave. Hubert Delrio opened his manuscript +and began to read his ballad, if so it was to be called, being the +history of the little boy of four years old, who, being taken with +his mother before the tribunal at Tarsus, was lifted on the +propraetor's knee, but struggled, crying out, "I am a Christian!" +till the propraetor, in a rage, hurled him down. His skull was +fractured on the marble pavement, and his mother gave thanks for his +soul's safety, when she too was sentenced to be beheaded. Great +pains had been taken with the noble-minded tale; and the verses had +considerable merit, more, perhaps, than Vera could appreciate. But +to read such a production of his own, in such surroundings, to the +auditor whom youthful fancy most preferred, was such luxury to both +that it was no wonder that under the broad shady hat with the lily +wreath she was nodding in the gentle breeze, the lapping of the +waves, and the soft cadence of the poetry, till at an effective +passage on the mother's death, the poet looked up, expecting to +receive a responsive glance from those blue eyes. + +Not only were they hidden, but the cliff was farther off. The +mooring rope and the stake were dragging behind in the water. The +tide had turned, and the boat was already out of reach of the rock +where it had been drawn up. His exclamation of dismay awoke Vera, +who would have started up with a little shriek, but for his, "Don't! +Don't! I'll row back." + +But he was a landsman, whose only knowledge of the water was in an +occasional bathe, or in a river steamer; and his first attempt at +placing the oars in the rowlocks resulted in one falling overboard, +while he helplessly grasped the other; and Vera screamed again. + +"Don't be frightened, my dear! Dearest, don't! We must be seen. +Some one will come out and help us." + +"Can't you get on with one oar? They do in pictures." + +"Punting? Yes, but there must be a bottom. No, don't move, whatever +you do. There can't be any danger. Fishermen must be about. Or we +shall be seen from the cliffs." + +"They are getting farther off! Can't you shout?" + +Hubert shouted, and Vera added her shriller cries; but all in vain, +and the outgoing tide was carrying them, not towards the quay and +marble rocks, but farther to sea. The waves grew rougher and had +crests of foam, and discomfort began. Once the feather of a steamer +was seen on the horizon. They waved handkerchiefs and redoubled +their shouts, and Hubert had to hold his companion to prevent her +from leaping up; but they never were within the vessel's ken, and she +went on her way, while the sea bore them farther and farther. + +The shore was growing dim and indistinct, the sun was sinking, and +the cloud, that had at first shown only a golden border, was lifting +tall perpendicular masses, while the tossing of the little boat +became more and more distressing. Anxiety and sense of +responsibility kept Hubert from feeling physical discomfort; but Vera +began to cry, and to declare that it would be the death of her if she +were not landed immediately. + +"If it were only possible!" sighed Delrio. + +"There must be some way! You are so stupid! Oh! There was a flash +of lightning." + +"Summer lightning." + +"No such thing! There will be a storm, and we shall be drowned. Oh, +I wish I had never listened to your nonsense, and got into this +horrible boat." She was in a state for scolding, and scold she did, +as the clouds rose higher, and sheets of lightning more decided. +"How could you? You, who know nothing about boats, and going on, on, +with those horrid tiresome verses--not minding anything--I wish I had +never come near you!" + +Vainly the poor young fellow tried to get in a word of consolation; +it only made her scold the more, till there was no question that the +storm was raging overhead; the hail rattled and splashed, the waves +raised them to a height, then subsided into endless depths; the +thunder pealed, and she clung to Hubert, too frightened for +screaming. His fear was that the cockleshell of a boat should fill +and founder; he tried to bale out the water with his hat, and to make +her assist, but she seemed incapable, and he could only devise laying +her down in the bottom of the boat with his coat over her, hiding her +face in terror. Her hat had long ago been blown away, and her hair +was flapping about. Ejaculations were in his heart, if not on his +lips, and once or twice she cried out something like, "Save me!" but +in general it was, "We are sinking! Hold me! We are going! Paula! +Nag!" clutching at his legs, so as to hamper him in the baling out +the water. + +The hail passed, but there was a solid sheet of rain descending on +them, undistinguishable from the foam that rushed over them as they +went down, down, down. Vera was silenced; and Hubert, drenched and +nearly beaten out of life, almost welcomed every downward plunge as +the last, tried to commend his spirit, and was amazed to find his +little boat lifted up again, and the black darkness not so absolute. + + + +CHAPTER XII--"THE KITTIWAKE" + + + +"Good luck to your fishing! Whom watch ye to-night? +A man of mean, or a man of might?"--SCOTT. + + +Something black was before the tossed boat! Yes, and light, not +lightning. A human voice seemed to be on the blast. Hubert Delrio +essayed to shout, but his voice was gone, or was blown away. He +understood that a vessel must be above him. Would it finish all by +running him down? He perceived that he was bidden to catch +something. A rope! His benumbed hands and the heaving of the boat +made him fail once, twice, and he was being swept away as at last he +did grasp a rope, and was drawn, as it ground his hands, close to the +dark wall that rose above, with lights visible. + +"Cheer up! cheer up!" he cried to Vera. "Thank God, we are saved!" + +Response from her there was none; but he could hear the yell of +inquiry from ahead, and answered, "Here! Two! A woman!" + +A second rope was lowered. "Lash her to it." But as it was evident +that Delrio could do nothing but hold on, and that his companion was +helpless, a sailor descended from no great elevation, and, in another +moment, the senseless girl was hoisted up and received on deck; and, +with some assistance, Hubert was also on board, thinking of nothing +but the breathless question, "Is she safe?" + +"Oh, yes! She will soon come round! Here! They will see to her." +As she was carried away, and Hubert had a perception that she was +received by female hands, but he was utterly exhausted, and unable to +see or speak, till some stimulant had been poured down his throat, +and even then he could hardly ask, "Is she safe? + +"Yes, yes! All right! Reviving fast! Here! Take some more! Bed +is ready! Get rid of those clothes!" It was an elderly, grey-haired +man who spoke, and Hubert was in no condition to resist, as the yacht +was pitching considerably, though after the boat the motion was +almost rest. He instinctively shook his head at the glass, but +swallowed what was forced upon him, and managed to say, "Thanks-- +sitting in boat--drifted off--Rock Quay." + +"All right! Never mind. Take him down. My berth, Ivy--Jephson. +Tuck him in. Don't let him speak! Never mind, my lad! We will hear +all about it to-morrow!" + +Meantime, Vera, though reviving, was conscious of very little, save a +soft pillow, tender hands, and warm drink that choked her; and then +she fell asleep, though still she was aware of a strange tossing +going on all night, and by and by she found herself secured into a +sort of narrow shelf, and murmuring female voices were at hand. As +she moved, she heard, "There, you are better now. You can take this, +then you will be more comfortable." + +Her eyes had opened to a curious sort of twilight, and there was a +fair girlish head over her, with a sweet smiling face. An elderly +weather-beaten face in a hood next appeared, and a brown hand holding +a cup closed over the top, in invalid fashion, and a kind strong arm +slightly raised her with, "There, there, poor dear! The spirit, my +lady dear, the spirit! That's right, now then." + +"You MUST be a baby;" and a merry reassuring smile broke out as the +draught was administered. Vera tasted, thanked, swallowed, felt +giddy, and lay down, hearing a lively bit of self-gratulation. +"There, Mrs. Griggs, I'm getting my sea legs!" followed by an +ignominious stumble as Mrs. Griggs caught the cup in good time as the +vessel gave a lurch which completed Vera's awakening in the fear of +being shaken out on the floor. + +She looked round to find herself in a tiny room, cushioned +throughout, with strange dancing confused light coming in, and the +few articles of furniture carefully secured. Two young figures were +there, both dressed in stout blue serge, with white trimmings; one, +the darker, beside her bed, had a face full of kindness and +solicitude, yet of fun dimpling over continually; the other, even in +that dim light, striking Vera as something out of the loveliest +visions of romance, so fair and beautiful was the countenance. + +A man's voice was at the door. "Fly! Francie! How is she?" + +"Much better! Nearly well! Good morning, Papa dear. Is he all +right?" + +"As sound as a bell! Ha!" As the door escaped, the curtain over it +shook, and he nearly fell against it, saving himself with his hands. +"That was exercise!" As the young girls came tumbling up and +disappeared behind the curtain, where, however, the voices could be +plainly heard, "Had any sleep to-night or this morning?" + +"Between whiles! O yes! All our bones are still whole, as I hope +yours and Ivy's are." + +"Come and see. Griggs is getting breakfast under difficulties +insurmountable to any one but a sea-grasshopper! I came to call you +damsels, and present my inquiries to Miss Prescott." + +"She will soon be all right! Francie and I are so proud of having +had a real downright adventure." + +"I trust she will not be the worse, and will--excuse me, and regard +me as incognito." + +This was said as another lurch drove the grizzled head into the +cabin; and recovering in another upheaval they all disappeared, +leaving Vera in a dreaming state, whence she was only half roused +when Mrs. Griggs returned to administer breakfast, so far as she +could taste it, under exhortations, pettings, and scoldings; and she +very soon fell asleep again, and was thus left, sensible all the time +of tossings and buffetings, but so worn out by the five hours of the +boat, and so liable to be made ill by the motion of the vessel, that +it was thought best to leave her to sleep in her berth. + +She was only aware of voices above talking and laughing, or sailor +calls being shouted out, or now and then of some one coming to look +at her, and insisting on her taking food. + +It was not till late in the afternoon that she awoke from what seemed +like a strange long uneasy dream, and found one of the girls sitting +by her and telling her she was better now. + +"Yes," said Vera, trying to raise herself, finding something over her +head, and falling back on the pillow; "but what is it? Where is +this?" + +"THIS is somewhere out in the Channel, near off Guernsey, Griggs +says, but we cannot put in anywhere till the gale goes down." + +"What is it? Is it a ship, then?" + +"O yes," said the girl, laughing; "a yacht, the Kittiwake. Sir +Robert Audley has lent it to my brother, and we are all going to see +the Hebrides and Staffa and Iona." + +"Not to take me all up there?" groaned poor Vera, in horror. "Can't +you put me out somewhere, anywhere?" + +"Don't be afraid," was the much-amused reply. "As soon as ever we +can put in anywhere, we can telegraph to Rock Quay and put you ashore +to go home; but we can only run before the wind while the sea is so +high. I wish you could come on deck, it is so jolly!" + +"Oh! it was too dreadful!" + +"Beating about in the boat! It must have been, Mr. Delrio told us." + +"It was so stupid in him never to see that we had got loose, and were +drifting off," said Vera, who had never thought of inquiring after +him. + +"My father and Griggs think he behaved quite like a hero," was the +answer. "He must have managed very well to keep you afloat, and +saved you all this time." + +"I suppose so," said Vera. "We always did know him, or I should not +have let him get me into that boat, when he minded nothing but his +verses." + +"Those verses, they came all limp and wet out of his pocket, and +Francie made him let her dry them and copy them out; and she is so +delighted with them. It really is well it is too late to call the +baby Cyriac." + +"The baby?" + +"Oh, yes. We had to leave him behind, though Francie was ready to +break her heart over it; but they said that nothing would do for +Ivinghoe--after this second influenza--but a sea voyage, so she had +to make up her mind to leave him to my mother." + +Vera was in a state of bewilderment, caring a great deal more for +herself and her own sensations than for any of her surroundings; and +her next question was, "When do you think we shall be out of this?" + +"We shall put into harbour somewhere as soon as the wind lulls. We +cannot venture yet, though we do steam; and then we can telegraph. I +am longing to relieve Miss Prescott. We can take you home all the +way. We were on our way into Rock Quay to take up Mysie Merrifield +if she can go. It really was a wonderful and most merciful thing +that we made you out just as it was getting light before running you +down. My father saw you first, and old Griggs would hardly believe +it, but then we heard Mr. Delrio's hail! But it was a terrible +business getting you up the ship's side." + +"I did not know anything about it. It was so dreadful in the +lightning. And my new hat was blown away. And what is become of all +my clothes?" + +"Mrs. Griggs has them, and is drying them. We will lend you a hat to +land in." + +"Oh, when we do! I wish I had never got into that boat, but Hubert +Delrio did persuade me so." + +"And he is an old friend?" + +"Yes, he is come to paint the roof of St. Kenelm's Church, and we +want to be attentive to him because my eldest sister would be sure to +be cross and keep him at a distance, being only that sort of wall +painter, you know, and his father a drawing master." + +"My father is very much pleased with him, and thinks him a very +superior young man. They have been sitting on deck together, talking +as much as they could about architecture and Italy, with their breath +all blown away every moment. There! You are really getting better! +If you would eat something and come on deck you would be well! I +will call the sea gnat, and see what we have." + +It was all very wonderful to Vera; and she began to be interested and +to forget her troubles. A slice of very salt ham was brought to her +and a glass of something, she did not know what, and asked if she +could have some tea. + +"You could have tea if you like, but there's no milk. You see, we +ought to have been in at Rock Quay yesterday evening, and our stores +were not adapted to hold out any longer! We shall have another +curious experience, though Mrs. Griggs says it won't be so bad as +once when they were off the coast of Ireland, and when they put into +a bay with a queer name, all Kill and Bally, they could get nothing +but potatoes and goat's milk." + +"Who is Mrs. Griggs?" + +"She is wife to the sailing master; and, like the Norsemen, her home +is on the wave, at least in the yacht, for she always lives in it, +and her cabin is quite a sight; she is great fun, she cooks when +there is anything to cook, and is stewardess and everything. Francie +and I knew a maid would be a vain encumbrance, so we are taking care +of ourselves, and, if you will let me, I will try and set your hair +to rights." + +It was in a fearful tangle, after five hours at sea, and many more in +the berth in the cabin; but Vera was able to sit up in a dainty +dressing-gown, and submit to treatment not quite that of a +hairdresser, but made as lively as could be by little jokes and +kindly apologies at any extra hard pull at the knots, which really +seemed "as if a witch had twined them;" and the two began to feel +well acquainted with each other over the operation, though Vera was +somewhat impressed when she observed that the brush was ivory +handled. + +Her bicycling skirt was in tolerable condition, but her once delicate +blue blouse was past renovation, so she was invested with a borrowed +white one, and led in triumph to the saloon, just as the beautiful +"Francie" came to call "Phyllis," and give a helping hand. There +were two gentlemen besides Hubert Delrio, and there was a general +rejoicing welcome; but Vera did not think Hubert made half enough +inquiries or apologies, before she was seated at the table, where +everything was secured, and the fare was not very sumptuous or +various, being chiefly some concoction of rice and scraps of salt +beef, which Francie said was a shame, eating up the poor sailors' +fare; also there was potted meat, and cheese, but all the fresh bread +was gone, and they praised Mrs. Griggs' construction of ham and rice +with all the warmth and drollery each could contribute. Vera began +to be puzzled as to who every one was, for no names except Phyl, Fly, +Francie and Ivy were heard, and the merry grey-haired head of the +family was "Father" or "Papa" to every one, except of course Mr. +Delrio, who, however, seemed at his ease, and took a fair share in +the talk, and once or twice Vera thought he said, "my lord," but she +did not believe it. + +"I find you are a friend of a special pet of mine, Mysie Merrifield," +said the father. + +"I know her a little," stammered Vera, "but Primrose best." + +"Nearer your age, eh? But Mysie is our gem! It looks fit for going +on deck." + +After the apology for a dinner, the young married pair went their +way, he to endeavour to add a fish to their provisions, she to look +on; the father and Delrio went where the latter could best study the +wonderful tints of sunset over the purple retreating clouds, and the +still agitated foaming sea,--sights that seemed to be filling him +with enchantment, and revealing effects in colour, while his delight +was evidently a new pleasure to his companion. + +Vera was afraid to move, and sat on a deck chair, with her back to +the sunset, while Phyllis, who perhaps would have liked to share in +the admiration, sat by her, so that Vera began to accept her as a +special friend, and to pour out the explanation of how she came to be +tossing in an open boat with this one companion. + +"You see, poor fellow," she said, simpering, "he has been always so +devoted to me. Everybody observed it, and I could not help just +gratifying him a little." + +"He does seem to be very full of promise," said Phyllis. "I suppose +Miss Prescott is much pleased with him." + +"My sister Magdalen, do you mean? Well, we have not introduced him +to her yet. You see, he is ONLY painting the church, and she is so +devoted to swells, and makes such a fuss about our manners." + +"Indeed! But surely you could not go out with him without her +knowing it." + +"She was not at this St. Milburgha's Guild, you know, and Sisters +Beata and Mena knew all about it. Oh, yes, she lets us go to them at +St. Kenelm's, but they are not swells enough for her." + +"Mr. Flight's Sisterhood, are not they?" + +"And Primrose Merrifield says that Wilfred declares that they are not +ladies; but that's all jealousy, you know, because Will doesn't like +my friends, and Magdalen is altogether gone upon grandees." + +"Fancy!" was all that Phyllis managed to say. + +"She doesn't want us to be friends with anybody who don't belong to +some one with a handle to her name. So foolish and stuck up! So we +knew she would not be kind to Hubert." + +"I think you had better have tried. I thought her one of the kindest +people in the world." + +"Ah! but, you know, unfortunately she has been a governess, and that +teaches toadying." + +At that moment "Phyl" was called to see the first star over the sea, +and ran up to her father, so as to conceal how nearly she was +laughing. Hubert Delrio came towards Vera. + +"Can you forgive me, Vera?" he said. "I shall speak to your sister +as soon as I am at home, and ask her forgiveness, and--" + +"Oh, yes! yes! But do tell me who these people are." + +"Did you not know? That most kind of men, is Lord Rotherwood. Those +are Lord and Lady Ivinghoe, and--" + +"Lady Phyllis! Oh!" + + + +CHAPTER XIII--CHIMERAS DIRE + + + +"Qu'allait-il faire dans cette galere?" +FRENCH COMEDY. + + +Vera's first thorough awakening the next morning was to hear outside +the door, "Are you up, Fly?" + +"I shall be in a minute or two. Do you want me?" + +"You are a dab at parlez-vous. I want you to come ashore with me and +cater for the starving crew." + +"What fun! Anon, anon, Sir!" + +Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady Phyllis' +cabin, and that the proper owner was dressing herself in haste before +the little shelf of a toilette table. So great had been the +confusion of last night's discovery that the poor silly child had +only thought of hurrying out of sight and tumbling into bed without +speaking to any one, and she had not distinctly known, when Lady +Phyllis came down a good deal later and disposed of herself on the +sofa, that Mrs. Griggs had made ready for her. And now the only +thing she could think of was to say, "Oh! Lady Phyllis, I didn't +know." + +"Take care! Don't knock your head! We ought to have remembered that +Boreas, or whichever it was, was hardly a sufficient introduction. +Are you all right now? You had better go to sleep again till I bring +something to eat. We are lying to off some little Breton fishing +village, and I am going with my brother to get some provisions, and +telegraph if we can." + +It was long before they came back. Vera had another nap, dressed +herself, grew very hungry, and came out to find Lord Rotherwood +fishing, and his daughter-in-law watching for the boat to put out +from the white houses with grey roofs, which, clustered round their +church-tower, seemed descending to the water's edge. They were +equally famished, though Mrs. Griggs stewed up the poor remnants of +last night's banquet; but at last the little boat appeared, gaily +dancing over the waves, and Phyllis making signals of success. + +"Oh, yes, you may be thankful, you poor starving beings! Here, Mrs. +Griggs! Accept, and do all you can! Here are eggs, and some milk +and fresh water, four poulets, such as they are, and a huge monster +of a crab; but all the bread is leavened, and you little guess what +Ivy and I had to go through before we were allowed to buy anything. +We were had up to the Mayor, and had to constater all manner of +things about our ship, to prove that we were no smugglers." + +"I thought the fat old rogue would have come out to visit the yacht +before he would have allowed us a morsel," said Lord Ivinghoe. + +"In which case you might have been found a skeleton, father, like Sir +Hugh Willoughby! And as to our telegrams, they won't go till the +diligence gets to St. Malo, and what they will make of them there is +another question. I did not dare to send more than one, for fear +they should get mixed up. + +Vera heard the joyous chaff as it fluttered round her, not half +understanding it any more than if it had been a strange tongue, and +not always guessing the cause of the fits of laughter, chiefly at +Lord Ivinghoe's misadventures, over which his little sister and his +father were well pleased to tease his correctness, and his young wife +looked a little hurt at his being tormented. He could not remember +that braconnier was a poacher by land, not by sea, and very +unnecessarily disclaimed to the Maire being such a thing. His +father, he said, "was gentilhomme anglais en--what's a yacht?--yac. +(Nonsense! that's a long-haired ox. No!) Non point contrabandiste, +mais galerien dans galere." "And there I interposed," said Phyllis, +"for fear we should be boarded as escaped galeriens." + +"Why, galley was a pleasure-boat sometimes," said Ivinghoe, and his +wife supported him with "Cleopatra's galley." + +"Well done, Francie! To your oars for Ivy's defence," said Lord +Rotherwood. "How did you defend us, Fly, from being towed into +harbour at Brest as runaway convicts?" + +"She gabbled away most eloquently to the Maire, almost as fluently as +a born French-woman," said Ivinghoe, "and persuaded him at last that +it was not necessary to come on board to inspect us, nor even to +detain us till he had sent for instructions to St. Malo." + +"As Ivy managed matters, I thought we might be kept as hostages," +said Phyllis. + +"But, thanks to her blandishments, the solemn official vouchsafed to +send off a messenger for us with a telegram." + +"I do not think he sent directions to pursue our suspicious galere," +added Phyllis; "but I own I shall be glad to be under the lee of old +England again." + +"What was your telegram?" + +"Brevity was safest, nor had we money enough for two; so all I +attempted was, 'Delrio to Flight, Rock Quay. Both safe. Picked up +by Kittiwake.' I thought that would be the quickest means of +relieving anxiety, as we were not sure of other addresses; and as to +'home,' Mamma probably hardly was aware of the storm, or, if she +were, she knew the capabilities of yachts and of Griggs." + +"Right!" returned his father. "Poor Miss Prescott! she must have +given you up for lost. Have you been improving your mind with French +telegrams?" he added, turning to Delrio. + +"No, my lord, I found my way to the church, a wonderful piece of old +Norman!--if it may so be called." + +"I see you have been sketching." + +Griggs here interposed with tidings that eggs and coffee were ready +in the saloon, the worthy pair having had respect to the general +famine, and prepared what could be made ready in haste. Those who +had eaten ashore sat by, making an amusing account of their +reception, and difficulties with language and peasants, for, this not +being an ordinary place of call, nothing was ready for sale. + +Vera, finding herself for the first time in distinguished company, +which desired to set her at ease, began to be at ease, and to desire +to shine, so she giggled whenever she perceived the slightest excuse, +even when Lord Ivinghoe handed her the eggs, and, hoped she had not +too British an appetite for French eggs; and Lady Ivinghoe asked if +she had seen the fowls, and whether their feathers were ruffled up +like a hen's that had been given to Aunt Cherry. Her little sister +Joan, she added, had asked whether eating the eggs would make her +hair curl. + +"Or stand on end," said Phyllis. + +"As I am afraid Miss Prescott's is doing till your telegram reaches +her. Did you say it was to go from St. Malo?" + +"Yes. I thought that the safest place to have a comprehensible +message copied." + +"To whom did you say?" asked Lady Ivinghoe. + +"'Delrio to Flight.' Oh, they will know his name and address fast +enough when it gets to Rock Quay." + +"He is the clergyman at St. Kenelm's," put in Vera, in explanation; +"very very advanced Ritualist, you know." + +"Indeed!" was the answer. + +"Oh, yes, that he is. My sister Polly is perfectly devoted to him; +but we don't go to his church, except now and then, because my eldest +sister is just one of those very old-fashioned people, you know, who +want everything horrid and dull." + +"That is hardly what our cousins think of Miss Prescott," said +Phyllis. "I am so sorry for her anxiety! But I was not sure of the +name of her place." + +"The Goyle! Isn't it frightful?" said Vera. + +"You say she was unprepared for your adventure?" + +"Oh, yes, quite. Her notions are so dreadfully proper and old +fashioned. She hasn't got any sympathy, has she, Hubert?" + +"I don't know," he said gravely. "I have always had the greatest +respect for her." + +"Respect! So you ought. That's just the thing one has for a slow +dear old fogey," she said, laughing, "Oh, Hubert!" There was a +silence, and Lord Rotherwood made an observation upon the wind. + +Vera perceived an awkwardness, and, by way of repairing it, +afterwards thought it expedient to communicate to Lady Phyllis that +it might be a pity she had said "Hubert." It was so awkward, only he +was such an old acquaintance. + +"I should have thought the awkwardness was incurred long ago," said +Lady Phyllis. "Come, you will have no more concealments from Miss +Prescott, will you? You will be ever so much more comfortable, and +find out how kind she is." + +"Oh, but!--" Vera wanted to talk over all her grievances for the +pleasure of talking, saying very much what she had said before, and +Phyllis tried to endure and put in as much sense as she could, +without lecturing the girl, who struck her as the very silliest she +had ever encountered; but she was continually called off to admire +the receding French coast, or to look at the creatures brought up by +dredging. She always took care to call Vera, and not let her feel +herself left out; but Vera, if in solitude for a moment, reflected on +the neglect shown of little people by great ones; and when called up +to see uncanny slimy creatures, or even transparent balls like watery +umbrellas, only was disgusted and horrified. + +She began to guess, rather truly, that Lady Phyllis wanted to hinder +a tete-a-tete between her and Hubert Delrio. In fact, Lord +Rotherwood, who was much more of a sympathetic, confidence-inviting +personage than his stiffer, much older seeming son, had said to his +daughter, "Don't let that poor lad and the girl get together alone, +Fly; the boy thinks he is bound to make her an offer." + +"Oh, father! Surely not!" + +"No more than if they had been two babies in a walnut shell. So I +told him, but people don't see what infants they are themselves, and +I want to hinder him from putting his foot in it before he has seen +her aunt--cousin--sister, or whoever it is that has the charge of +her; and she has depicted to him a Gorgon, with Medusa's hair, claws +and all--a fancy sketch, isn't it?" + +"Of course, sentimental schoolgirl colours! Mysie thinks her +delightful." + +"At any rate, let him get a dose of common sense before committing +himself. He is a capital fellow, sure to rise; has the soul and head +and hands for it, but he ought not to weight himself with a drag." + +"Do you think he is really in love with her?" + +Lord Rotherwood waved his hands. "He thinks so, but nobody knows +with those boys! I had to tell him at last that I would not have any +philandering on board MY ship; and whatever he might think it his +duty to say, must be put off for aunt--sister--Gorgon--Medusa or what +not. And I don't think he's very bad, Fly, for he modestly asked +permission to sketch Francie's head for St. Mildred, or Milburg, or +somebody; and was ready to run crazy about the tints on that dogfish. +The young fellow is in the queerest state between the artist and the +lover! delight and shame! I should like to take him north with us; +the colours of the cliffs in the Isles would soon drive out Miss +Victoria--what's her name?" + +"You don't think him like Stephen in the Mill on the Floss, who ought +to have married Maggie Tulliver." + +"I believe that is his precedent--but it is sheer stuff--pure +accident--as a respectable old householder like me is ready to +testify to the Gorgons and Chimeras dire--Grundys and all. We must +encounter Rock Quay, Fly, if it is only to rescue this unlucky +youth." + +"What is he doing now? Oh, I see; drawing Francie, who sits as stiff +as a Saint of Burne-Jones! Well, I'll have an eye to them! Vera! +Have you finished Rudder Grange?" + +"Not quite. I can't make out who Lord Edward was." + +"Why, the big dog! Did you think he was Pomona's hero?" + +"I don't know. Wasn't Pomona very silly?" + +"If life was to be taken from story-books," said Phyllis, in a very +didactic mood; "but you see she imbibed the best side, what they +really taught her of good." + +"I thought, when you gave me the book, it was to be an adventure like +mine, not all standing still in an old river. What do you think +Hubert Delrio ought to do after persuading me into such an awful +predicament?" + +"Tell your sister he is very sorry that you two foolish children got +into such a scrape, and very thankful that you were saved." + +"We are very thankful to Lord Rotherwood." + +"I didn't mean to him. To some One else," said Phyllis, reverently. + +"Oh, of course," said Vera. "But what DO you think, Lady Phyllis?" +(Since her discovery of the title she made a liberal use of it.) +"What do you think people will say?" + +"That a little girl has had a dangerous adventure and a happy +escape." + +"I am seventeen, Lady Phyllis!" + +"One is nothing like grown up at seventeen! I declare there's a big +steamer coming into sight. I wonder if it belongs to the Channel +Fleet!" + +Nothing more sentimental could be extracted for the rest of the +voyage. + + + +CHAPTER XIV--PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED + + + +"I marry without more ado, +My dear Dick Red Cap, what say you?" +COWPER. + + +The telegram had been received about mid-day; and Mr. Flight rushed +up with it to the Goyle, just in time to prevent poor old Mr. Delrio +from starting hopelessly home. It had suffered a good deal in +spelling and precision, in spite of Lady Phyllis's precautions; but +"both safe" was understood, as it was known in Rock Quay that "Lord +Rotherwood and family," as the papers had it, were yachting in the +Kittiwake and might be expected in the bay. + +Agatha and Paula threw their arms round one another and cried; +Magdalen, with a choke in her voice, struggled to ask Mr. Flight to +lead them in a few words of thanksgiving; and as soon as these were +over, Thekla expressed her hopes that they had been cast on a desert +island and would bring home Man Friday. + +The Goyle ladies walked over to Clipstone with the good news, and the +whole party went down afterwards to Rockstone to look out for yachts, +and inquire about possibilities. The Kittiwake being a steamer, +light and swift, might be expected in harbour in the course of the +night, and Mr. Delrio meant to wait for her at his son's lodgings. +The ladies wished they could do the same; and Paula was allowed to +accept Sister Beata's humble entreaty to house her. But they did not +know how long before the telegraph from St. Malo the Kittiwake from +St. Cadoc had spread her wings and hoisted her feather, for, happily, +her coals had held out better than her provisions. So, as they were +looking their last look from the cliffs of Beechcroft Miss Mohun +exclaimed, "A steamer! a yacht! Kittiwake!" + +Glasses were rushed for, and unaccustomed eyes could trace the +graceful course through the gentle evening waves towards the quay. + +Every one was on the quay in time to receive the boat, which, rowed +by four smart sailors, was seen with the party of six, two sailor +hats, and one red cap being at once spied out among the female +figures. Then two hats were waved and answered by cheers of welcome; +and the figures were recognised, and unnecessarily numerous hands +stretched out to assist the landing from the plank extended to the +boat. + +Vera was put first by her kind rescuers, Lord Rotherwood's hand +guiding her to the rail, and, after an insecure step or so, she found +herself in the arms of Paulina, sobbing for joy; and the little +cluster of sisters seemed to know nothing else, except Thekla, who +presently, in the confusion of the greetings, was found by Lord +Rotherwood looking about vaguely, and saying, "But where's their man +Friday?" + +"You must accept me for him," said he. "'Tis Friday, unless we have +lost our reckoning! I hope you think me something promising in the +way of savages!" + +Young Delrio's first proceeding, even while his father was wringing +his hand in speechless welcome and thankfulness, was to turn to +Captain Henderson. "Sir, your boat is safe, it will be brought in +to-morrow. I am much concerned, and beg your forgiveness, but I had +no idea that it was yours till Griggs found your name. Only one oar +is lost, and a cushion, which I will replace." + +"Say no more, pray," said Captain Henderson. "The fault was my +servant's, who took it without leave, and left it out. He must +repair the very slight damage." + +Miss Mohun wanted the whole troop to come up to Beechcroft to drink +tea, and her relations consented; but the hearts of the Prescotts +were a great deal too full for them not to wish to be alone together; +and after Magdalen had given her hand to Lord Rotherwood with a +fervent, "You know what I would say, my lord--beyond all words," they +turned homewards; but Mr. Flight ran after them to say in a low +voice, "Can we meet to-morrow at eight for a service of +thanksgiving?" And this was gladly accepted. + +Hubert was dragged off by his father. + +"Nonsense! they don't want your apologies and explanations. It would +only be besetting them. Come home with me, and don't be a fool! But +write a few lines to your poor mother, after the intolerable fright +you have given her; meddling and presuming where you had no business. +A Providence it is that you are not half across the Atlantic, if not +at the bottom of it." + +Of course this was the reaction of great anxiety; but however meekly +Hubert submitted to the queer outpouring of affection, and however +thankful they both were, and glad and content over the particulars of +the youth's work and progress, still he was not to be withheld from +laying hand and heart at Vera Prescott's feet, as he insisted was due +to her and her family after the compromising situation in which he +had placed her. His father said it was talking novels and folly; but +he was a man of three and twenty, and could not well be stopped, as +he was earning his own livelihood, and had always been +irreproachable. So Mr. Delrio had to leave the matter, only +expressing discouragement, and insisting that it must be no more than +an engagement. + +The thanksgiving took place as arranged, and Lord Rotherwood, his +daughter, and Mysie were there. For indeed there had been danger +enough during the thunderstorm to make the safety of the Kittiwake a +matter of thankfulness, though the rescue of the boat had caused it +to be almost forgotten in the history of the night. + +Lady Flight had begged that all would come to breakfast with her, and +this was accepted by the Goyle party; but the Clipstone pony-carriage +was waiting for the others, and they could not accede to Lady +Flight's impromptu, and rather nervous, invitation. But before they +started Lord Rotherwood managed to say a few words aside to Miss +Prescott of the impression he had divined from his voyage with Hubert +Delrio, whom he thought a young man of great ability and promise, and +of excellent principles, but with a chivalry it was quite refreshing +to see in youth, perhaps ready to strain honourable scruples almost +too far for his own good or that of others. + +Magdalen thought she perceived what had been in the marquis's mind +when, immediately after her return home, Hubert and Vera came up, +hand in hand, and he informed her of their mutual attachment. + +"I am afraid, Miss Prescott," he said, "that we may not have acted +rightly or squarely by you; and this last adventure was a most +unhappy result of my careless awkwardness and preoccupation." + +"It was the merest accident. We all quite understand. It is not to +be thought of." + +"You are very good to say so, but--" + +Both he and Magdalen wished that Vera had not been present, blushing +and smiling, or rather simpering; and as Hubert hesitated over his +"but," Magdalen said: + +"Vera, my dear, Hubert and I can talk over this better without you. +You had better go and find Paula." + +"Only, sister, please do understand that I care for Hubert with all +my heart," said Vera, much less childishly than Magdalen had +expected. + +However, she went, while Magdalen succeeded in saying what she had +intended--that Hubert must not consider himself in the smallest +degree bound by what had been accident, entirely unintentional and +innocent. + +"You are generous, Miss Prescott. You understand! But the world! +It was public." + +"Never mind the world. You see what sensible people think." + +"But, indeed, Miss Prescott, I cannot leave you to suppose I am only +actuated by the fact of that awkward situation. Of course that would +never have been if I did not deeply, entirely love your sister. It +has only precipitated matters. I entreat of you to give her to me, +as one who is--who is devoted to her! If my station is inferior I +will work--" + +"That is not the point. Vera is too young for such things. What +does your father say?" + +"My father sees that I am right." + +"I see what that means," said Magdalen, smiling. "But where is he? +I should like to talk to him." + +Mr. Delrio, pretty well knowing what was going on, was found +endeavouring to distract his mind by sketching the Goyle. He and +Magdalen walked up and down the drive together, perfectly agreeing +that it would be senseless cruelty to permit an early marriage +between these two young people, and that it was a pity there should +be an engagement; but this could hardly be prevented, since Mr. +Delrio could only give advice, and leave a self-supporting worthy son +to judge for himself; but the elder sister and the trustee could +stipulate for delay till Vera should be of age. + +So Hubert was called, and acquiesced, cheerfully observing that he +trusted that four years would make him able to render Vera's life an +easy and pleasant one; and after heartily thanking both Miss Prescott +and his father, he went off to rejoice the heart of the maiden, who +was sitting under the pear-tree, watching with anxious eyes. + + + +CHAPTER XV--BROODS ASTRAY + + + +"But ill for him who, bettering not with time, +Corrupts the strength of Heaven-descended will, +And ever weaker grows through acted crime, +Or seeming genial venial fault." +- TENNYSON. + + +"Man Friday hope piccaniny live well--bring her buckra fish from +sea!" Such was the greeting from Lord Rotherwood to Thekla when the +whole party walked over in time for tea on the lawn, before church at +Clipstone, as he presented her with a facsimile oyster which he had +hunted up in a sweet shop, making an absurd bow and scrape. + +Poor Thekla coloured, and mumbled a shy, "Thank you, my--my--" having +had a lecture from Vera on treating a marquis with over familiarity +and it was left to Primrose to ask where Friday learnt nigger +language. "By nature, Missy buckra," he responded; "all same nigger +everywhere." And he repeated his bow so drolly that Primrose's laugh +carried Thekla's along with it, as Lady Phyllis walked up with, +"Come, father, you are wanted to congratulate." + +"Eh! Am I? So they have perpetrated it, have they? More's the pity +is what I should say in the Palace of Truth; but the maiden has +landed a better fish than she knows--that is, if she have landed +him." + +"There! take care, don't be tiresome, Papa!" admonished Lady Phyllis, +drawing him on, when he met Vera with a courtly manner, and, "I hope +I see you recovered, Miss Prescott, and able to rejoice in the +pleasant consequences of your adventure." + +Vera blushed, and looked very pretty and modest, making not much +answer as she retreated among her contemporaries to show them her +ring, a hoop of pearls, which Wilfred insisted were Roman pearls, +fishes' eyes, most appropriate; but Flapsy felt immeasurably older +than Wilfred to-day, and able to despise his teasing, though Hubert +Delrio was not present, and indeed Wilfred was not disposed to bestow +much of his attention upon her, having much more inclination to beset +his cousin, Lady Phyllis, who surely ought to perceive that he had +attained at least the same height as his brother Jasper, and could, +in his absence, pose as the young man of the household. + +Phyllis had not much to say to him, nor after the first to Vera, +though she duly admired the ring so exultantly shown, and accepted +the assurance that Hubert was the dearest fellow in the world. But +there was no getting any condolence out of her upon the misery of +having to wait four whole years. She said, "It was a very good +thing! There was her cousin Gillian, who had insisted on waiting +three years to finish her education." + +"Oh, but dear Hubert likes me as I am," simpered Vera. + +"You might wish that he should find more in you to like. Gillian," +said Phyllis, coming up to her and Agatha, "I want you to assure Vera +that four years is not such a great trial in waiting." + +"It is what I have been trying to persuade her," said Agatha; "she is +hardly seventeen." + +"And I would not have been married at seventeen for anything," said +Gillian to the pouting Vera. "I want to be more worth having." + +Vera did not like it, she had heard the like at home, and she fell +back upon Valetta, while the others walked on. "Poor little Flapsy!" +said Agatha, "I do hope this engagement may make more of a woman of +her." + +"My father was very much struck by Mr. Delrio," said Phyllis, "both +as artist and personally." + +"You must be glad of the time for putting her up to his level," said +Gillian. + +"Do you think such things are to be done?" asked Agatha. + +"Yes," said Phyllis stoutly. "You may not make her able to be a +Senior Wrangler--(Oh you are Oxford!)--or capable of it, like this +Gillyflower; but you can get the stuff into her that makes a sound +sensible wife." + +Gillian caught a little hopeless sigh of "CAN," and answered it with, +"When all this effervescence is blown off, then will be the time for +working at the substance, and she may be all the better wife-- +especially for the artist temperament, if she is of the homely sort." + +"How angry she would be if she heard you say so!" returned Agatha. +"Yet certainly I do feel relieved that wifehood is to be my poor +Flapsy's portion, for she is not of the sort that can stand alone and +make her own way." + +"There will always be plenty of such women in the world," said +Gillian. + +"So much the better for the world," retorted Phyllis, who had never +shown any symptoms of exclusive devotion to any one of the other sex, +except her father. + +One thing Agatha wanted to know, and dared not ask, namely, what +impression Vera had made in the Kittiwake and what Hubert had said +about her; for she and Paula had begun to remark that, lover as he +was, not a word about her heroism had escaped him. And it was as +well that she did not hear what the extra plain spoken Primrose did +not spare the boasting Thekla. "Cousin Rotherwood and Fly both say +they can't think how Mr. Delrio got on with such a silly little +hysterical goose upon his hands; and that it is a foolish romantic +unlucky notion that he ought to be engaged to her. I think Mamma +will tell Miss Prescott so." + +The Kittiwake, having arrived three days later than had been +expected, there had been an amount of revolution in the general +arrangements. The break up of the High School was to be on an early +day of the next week. It had become a much more extensive and public +matter than in the days of Valetta and Maura, though these were not +so very long ago, and there was a great day of exhibitions and +speeches to the parents and neighbourhood generally. Two ladies had +been secured for the purpose, Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret, +and the former arrived on the Saturday afternoon, but as the +Rotherwood party almost overflowed Clipstone, she was transferred to +Miss Mohun. + +After the death of their parents, about three years previously, Susan +and Elizabeth had gone to live at Coalham, and to be useful to their +brother David's parish; Susan betaking herself to the poor, and +Bessie finding herself specially available in the various forms of +improvement undertaken by ladies in modern days. To her own +surprise, and her sister's discomfiture, her talent as a public +speaker had become developed. With a little assistance from her +sister-in-law Agnes's unwilling stage experience, and entreaties, not +easily to be withstood, came from various quarters that she would +come and advocate the good cause. + +Of course she was ever welcome at Clipstone, and she walked up +thither with General Mohun, arriving just after the others from the +Goyle; and in the general confusion of greetings, and the Babel of +cousinly tongues, there were no introductions nor naming of names. +Bessie declared herself delighted with the chance of seeing Lady +Ivinghoe, whom she considered more to realise the beauty of women +than any one she had hitherto beheld, and the fair face had not lost +its simplicity, but rather gained in loveliness by the sweetness of +early motherhood, as she and Phyllis sat by Mysie, regaling her with +tales of what they regarded as the remarkable precocity of the infant +Claude, reluctantly left to his grandmother. + +"But where's Dolores?" asked Bessie. "I miss her among the swarm of +mice!" + +"Dolores is at Vale Leston," answered Gillian. "She has been a long +time making up her mind to go there, to Gerald's home; and now she is +there, they will not let her go till some birthday is over." + +"Uncle Felix's!" whispered Franceska to Mysie. "You know it was dear +Gerald's place. She had never seen it." + +Another voice was now raised, asking, "What had become of Miss +Arthuret?" + +"She only comes down on Monday," said Bessie. "Just in time for the +meeting. She is too valuable to come for more than one meeting." + +"But who is she?" + +"Arthurine Arthuret? She is a girl, or rather woman, who has some +property at Stokesley. In fact, she is one of those magnets that +seem to attract inheritance without effort--like the Hapsburgs, +though happily she makes a most beneficent, though, sometimes, +original use of them." + +"Is not that very dangerous?" said Aunt Lily. + +"The first came to her early, and coming into it very young, and +overflowing with new ideas, she began rather grotesquely; but she has +tamed down a good deal since, and really has done an immense deal of +good in finding employment for people, making improvements and the +like, though she is Sam's pet aversion, a tremendous Liberal, almost +a Socialist. They are so like cat and dog that Susan and I were +really glad to be away from Stokesley, especially at election times; +but altogether she is an admirable person." + +Lady Merrifield thought she detected a start of Miss Prescott at the +name Stokesley, and that her eyes looked anxiously at the speaker. +Bessie was not of the sandy part of the family. Was the unattractive +schoolboy, once seen, like his sisters? All that was observable was +startling similitudes to her own children, though in them the +elements of the handsome dark Mohun generally predominated. + +But by and by, in a quiet moment, Bessie suddenly asked, "Did you say +her name was Magdalen?" + +Lady Merrifield laughed. "Four years MAY do a good deal at that time +of life," she said. "I suppose no time ever so changes--changes-- +what shall I say?--eyes--views--characters. Only constancy in +absence is the dangerous thing. There are distinguished examples of- +-of the mischief of being constant without knowing what one is +constant to. Virulent constancy, as Mrs. Malaprop has it." + +Magdalen thanked and smiled. Perhaps there was a certain virulent +constancy in a remote corner of her heart which had been revived by a +certain indescribable look in the eyes and contour of Bessie +Merrifield. + +And Bessie herself, while sitting under the verandah with Lady +Merrifield, while all the others were walking down to embark Lord and +Lady Ivinghoe in the yacht, suddenly repeated, "Did you say that her +name was Magdalen?" + +"Yes; I saw it startled you, my dear." + +"It revived an old, old story. I do not know whether there was +anything in it. Who or what is she, Aunt Lily? I only know her as +the sister of the girl that the Ivinghoes picked up." + +"She is the owner of a little property at Arnscombe, and has taken +home her four young half-sisters to live with her, after having +slaved for them as a governess till she came into this inheritance. +She is an excellent person." + +"Ah! Was her house at Filsted?" + +"I am not sure. Yes, I think the young ones were at school there. +You think--" + +"I feel certain. May I tell you, Aunt Lily? Some of the others +cannot bear to mention my poor Hal; but to me the worst of the sting +is gone, since I know he repented." + +"My dear, I should be very glad to hear. Your father and mother +never mention your brother, and we were away at the time." + +"Poor Hal! I am afraid there was a weakness in him. He never had +that determination that carried all the others on. He never could +get through an examination, and my father put him into a bank at +Filsted. By and by, after some years, came a letter telling my +father he was gambling very seriously, getting into temptation, and +engaging himself to an attorney's daughter. It was while I was +living with grandmamma, and he used sometimes to look in on me, and +talk to me about this Magdalen. Once he showed me her photograph and +I thought I knew her face again. But my father went off, very angry. +I have always feared he found poor Hal on the verge of tampering with +the bank money, but he never would say a word. He broke everything +up, put an end to the engagement if there was one, and sent Hal off +to John and George, who had just got their farm in Manitoba, and were +getting on by dint of hard work." + +"They have done very well, have they not?" + +"Yes, by working and living harder than any day labourer at +Stokesley. Hal could not stand it, and--and I'm afraid the boys were +not very merciful to him, poor fellow, and he got something to do in +Winnipeg. There he fell in with a speculator called Golding, they +all did in fact; he was a plausible man, whom they all liked, and +used to put up at his house when they took waggons in with their +produce. He had a daughter, and Johnnie got engaged to her, or +thought he was. They all were persuaded to put money into a horrid +building speculation,--Henry, what he had brought out, the other two +what they had realised. Well, suddenly it all ended. They were all +gone, Golding, daughter, Hal and all--yes, all--the money the other +boys had put in the thing, off to the States, as we suppose! No +trace ever found." + +"Really no trace?" + +"None! The poor boys lost all they had, and were obliged to begin +over again." + +"And has really nothing been heard of this unfortunate Hal?" + +"There is one thing that does give me a hope. There did come to +Stokesley a letter from a Brisbane bank, addressed to J. and G. +Merrifield, to the care of Rear-Admiral Merrifield, and in it were +bank bills up to the value of what the boys had been robbed of, about +two hundred and fifty pounds. Poor Henry must have repented, and +wished to make restitution." + +"Was there no name, no clue?" + +"None at all. We know no more." + +"But was there no inquiry made at Brisbane?" + +"It was when my father was very ill. The parcel was not opened at +first. I have been always sorry he never heard of it; but after all +there was no asking of forgiveness, nor anything that could be +answered. The boys got it with the tidings of our dear father's +death. John came home to see about things, George stayed to look +after his Stokesley. They were well over their troubles by that +time, and they gave the restored money to David for his churches." + +"And no more was done, not even by David?" said Lady Merrifield, +thinking over what she had heard from Geraldine Grinstead, and how +the Underwoods would have accepted such a token from their lost +sheep. + +"David did write to Brisbane to the bank, but there never was any +answer. There is no knowing how it might have been, if any one had +gone out and done his best; but you see we were all much taken up +with home duties and cares, and I am afraid we have not dwelt enough +upon our poor boy, and he had much against him. The discipline from +my dear father, that all the elders responded to with a sort of loyal +exultation, only frightened him and made him shifty. They despised +him, and I do not think any of us were as kind to him as we ought to +have been; though on the whole he liked me the best, for he cared for +books and quiet pursuits, such as all laughed at, except David. I +wish he could have seen more of David." + +"Did your mother hear of this ray of hope?" + +"Susan thought it best not to tell her. We used to hear her +murmuring his name among all ours in her prayers, Susie, Sam, Hal, +Bessie, and so on; but she never was herself enough to understand, +and they thought it might only stir her up to expect to see him. Oh, +Aunt Lily, I don't think you--any of you--would have gone on so; but +you are all much more affectionate and demonstrative than our branch +of the family." + +"Ah, my dear, I am sure there was a pang in your mother's heart that +she never durst mention," said Lady Merrifield, her imagination +dwelling in terror on her Wilfred, the one child in whom she could +not help detecting the weakness of character of his unhappy cousin. +"Depend upon it, Bessie, her prayers were hovering round him all the +time, and bringing that act of restitution, though she was not +allowed to hear of it." + +"I had not thought of that," said Bessie, in a low tone, "though I +think David has. I have heard his voice choke over an intercession +for the absent." + +"Think of it now, my dear, and do not let habitual reserve hinder you +from speaking of it to Susan and David, though most likely they have +the habit already. Who knows what united prayer may do with Him who +deviseth means to bring home His banished?" + +Steps returning, Bessie wiped away her tears in haste, actually the +first she had shed for the lost Hal, though there was a heartache too +deep for tears. + + + +CHAPTER XVI--THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN + + + +"And happier than the merriest games +Is the joy of our new and nobler aims." +F. R. HAVERGAL. + + +Miss Mohun and Miss Merrifield encountered Miss Prescott and Agatha +among a perfect herd of cycles, making Bessie laugh over the +recollections of the horror caused at Stokesley by the arrival of +Arthurine Arthuret on a tricycle twelve years previously. + +The place was the Town Hall, the High School having proved too small +for the number of the intended audience, and Lord Rotherwood having +been captured, in spite of the Kittiwake being pronounced ready to +sail, and all the younger passengers being actually on board, +entertaining a party from Clipstone. There he sat enthroned on the +platform, with portraits of himself, his Elizabethan ancestor, and +the Prince of Wales overhead, and, in propria persona on either side, +the Mayor of Rockstone, Captain Henderson, and a sprinkling of the +committee, Jane, of course, being one; while in the space beneath was +a sea of hats, more or less beflowered and befeathered. + +Lord Rotherwood began by complaining of an act of piracy! After +being exposed to a tempest and forced to put in for supplies, here he +was captured, and called upon to distribute prizes! He perceived +that it was a new act of aggression on the part of the ladies, +proving to what lengths they were coming. Tyrants they had always +been, but to find them wreckers to boot was a novelty. However, +prizes were the natural sequence of a maritime exploit, and he was +happy to distribute them to the maidens about to start on the voyage +of life, hoping that these dainty logbooks would prove a stimulus and +a compass to steer by even into unexplored seas, such as he believed +the better-informed ladies were about to describe to them. + +Rockstone was used to its Marquis's speeches, and always enjoyed +them; and he handed the prize-books to the recipients with a shake of +the hand, and a word or two of congratulation appropriate to each, +especially when he knew their names; and then he declared that they +were about to hear what education was good for, much better than from +himself, from such noted examples as Miss Arthuret and Miss +Merrifield, better known to them as Mesa. Wherewith he waved forward +Miss Arthuret, a slight, youthful-looking lady, fashionably attired, +and made his escape with rapid foot and hasty nods, almost furtively, +while the audience were clapping her. + +She spoke with voice and utterance notably superior to his well-known +halting periods, scarcely saved by long training and use from being a +stutter. The female population eagerly listened, while she painted +in vivid colours the aim of education, in raising the status of +women, and extending their spheres not only of influence in the +occult manner which had hitherto been their way of working through +others, but in an open manner, which compelled attention; and she +dwelt on certain brilliant achievements of women, and of others which +stood before them, and towards which their education, passing out of +the old grooves, was preparing them to take their place among men, +and temper their harshness and indifference to suffering with the +laws of mercy and humanity, speaking with an authority and equality +such as should ensure attention, no longer in home and nursery +whispering alone, but with open face asserting and claiming justice +for the weakest. + +It was a powerful and effective speech; and Agatha's eye lighted with +enthusiasm, as did those of several others of the elder scholars and +younger teachers, as these high aims were unfolded to them. + +Then followed Elizabeth Merrifield, not contradictory, but +recognising what wide fields had been opened to womanhood, dwelling +on such being the work of Christianity, which had always tended to +repress the power of brute animal strength and jealousy, and to give +preponderance to the force of character and the just influence of +sweet homely affection. Exceptional flashes, even in heathen lands, +and still more under the Divine guidance of the Israelites, showed +what women were capable of; and ever since a woman had been the +chosen instrument of the mystery of the Incarnation, the Church, the +chosen emblem of the union of humanity with her Lord, had gradually +purified and exalted the sex by training them through the duties of +mercy, of wifehood and motherhood, to be capable of undertaking and +fulfilling higher and more extensive tasks, always by the appointment +and with the help of Him who had increased their outside powers, for +the sake of the weaker ones of His flock. What might, by His will, +in the government and politics of the country, be put into their +hands, no one could tell; but it was right to be prepared for it, by +extending their intellectual ability and knowledge of the past, as +well as of the laws of physical nature--all, in short, that modern +education aimed at opening young minds to pursue with growing +faculties. This was what made her rejoice in the studies here +followed with good success, as the prizes testified so pleasantly; +and she trusted that the cultivation, which here went on so +prosperously, was leading--if she might use old well-accustomed +words--to the advancement of God's glory, the good of His Church, +aye! and to the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her +dominions. + +The words brought tears of feeling into the eyes of some; but Jane +Mohun could not help observing, "Ah! I was afraid you were going to +hold up to us the example of the ants and bees, where the old maids +do all the working and fighting and governing! Don't make Gillian +regret that she is falling away from the spinsterhood." + +"Come, Aunt Jane, Bessie never did make it the praise of spinsters. +I am sure married women can do as much as spinsters, and have more +weight," said Gillian, facing round gallantly, and winning the +approval of her aunt and of Bessie. There was no doubt but that +since her engagement she had been much quieter and less opinionative. + +With what different sensations the same occasion may be attended! To +Bessie Merrifield, the primary object was, as ever, woman's work, +especially her own, for the Church; and the actual business absorbed +her. In spite of her evenings' talk to her Aunt Lilias, and the sad +and painful recollections it had aroused, still her only look at +Magdalen Prescott's face was one half of curiosity half of sorrow, as +of the object of the brief calf-love of one of many brothers, and who +had been now lost sight of, with the passing wonder whether, if the +affection had survived and been encouraged, it might have led him to +better things. + +While Magdalen felt the poignant renewal of the one romance of a +lifetime, as she caught tones, watched little gestures and recognised +those indescribable hereditary similarities which more and more bore +in upon her the fraternal connection of the bright earnest woman with +the lively pleasant young man who had brought the attraction of a +higher tone of manners and cultivation into the country town. No +more had been heard of him since his promise to write, a promise that +had been only once remembered, so that she had tried to take refuge +in the supposition, unlikely as it was, that her stepmother had +confiscated his letters. All was a blank since that last stolen +kiss; and the wonder whether she could by any means discover anything +further from Lady Merrifield or Gillian, so occupied her that she +hardly heard the tenor of the two speeches, and did not observe +Agatha's glowing cheeks and burning eyes, which might have told her +that this was one of the moments which direct the current of life. + +When Hubert Delrio came up in the evening he was curious to hear +about the meeting. His young landlady, who had been a High School +girl for a short time, thought Miss Arthuret's speech the most +beautiful discourse that ever was spoken; while other reports said +that Lady Flight and Miss Mohun were very much shocked, and thought +it unwholesome, not to say dangerous; and he wanted to know the +meaning of it. Magdalen was quite dismayed to find how entirely her +attention had been absent, and how little account she could give of +what had passed by her like the wind; but she need not have been at a +loss, for Agatha, with sparkling eyes and clasped hands, burst out +into a very able and spirited abstract of the speech, and the future +it portrayed, showing perhaps more enthusiasm than the practised +public speaker thought it prudent to manifest. + +"I see," said Hubert with something of a smile, "you ladies are +charmed with the great future opened to you." + +"I'm sure," said Vera, perhaps a little nettled by attention paid so +long to Agatha, "I can't see the sense of it all; I think a woman is +made just to love her husband, and be his pet, without all that fuss +about societies, and speeches and learning and fuss!" And she gave a +little caress to Hubert's hand, which was returned, as he said, "She +may well be loved, but, without publicly coming forward, she may +become the more valuable to her home." + +"Of course she may, at home or abroad. She ought --" began Agatha, +but Vera snapped her off. "Well, it only comes to being one of a lot +of horrid old maids; and you don't want me to be one of them, do you, +darling? Come and look at my doves!" + +"What do you think of it all, sister?" asked Paulina. + +"So far as I grasp the subject," said Magdalen, to whom, of course, +this was not new, "I think that if a larger scope is to be given to +women, it is for the sake and under the direction of the Church that +it can be rightly and safely used." + +She knew she was speaking by rote, and was not surprised that Agatha +said, "That is just what one has heard so often, and what Miss +Merrifield harped upon! I want to breathe in a fresh atmosphere +beyond the old traditions, and know which are Divine and which are +only the superstructure of those who have always had the dominion and +justified it in their own way!" + +"Who gave them that dominion?" said Magdalen. + +"Brute strength," began Agatha. + +"Nag, Nag!" cried Paula. "Surely you believe--" + +"I did not say--I did not mean--I only meant to think it out, and +understand what is Divine and what is in the eternal fitness of +things." + +Here came an interruption, leaving Magdalen conscious of the want of +preparation for guiding the thought of these young things, and of +self-reproach too, for having let herself be so absorbed in the +thought of "her broken reed of earth beneath," as not to have dwelt +on what might be the deep impressions of the young sisters under her +charge. + +A few days later, as Agatha sat reading in the garden, two figures +appeared on the drive, wheeling up their bicycles. One was Gillian, +the other had a general air of the family, but much darker, and not +one of the old acquaintances. Advancing to meet them, she said, "I +am the only one at home. My sisters are all at lessons or in the +village." + +"I'll leave a message," said Gillian. "My mother wants you all to +come up to picnic tea to see the foxgloves in the dell, on Monday, +and to bring Mr. Delrio--" + +"Oh! thank you." + +"I forgot, you had not seen my cousin Dolores Mohun before. Mysie +calls her a cousin-twin, if you know what that is." + +Agatha thought the newcomer's great pensive dark eyes and overhanging +brow under very black hair made her look older than Mysie, or indeed +than Gillian herself; and when the message had been disposed of, the +latter continued, "Dolores wanted to know about Miss Arthuret's +lecture, being rather in that line herself. She could not get home +in time for it, and I was seeing the Kittiwake party on board, and +only crept in at the other end of the hall in time for Bessie's faint +echoes." + +"I was in the very antipodes," said Dolores, "in a haunt of ancient +peace, whence they would not let me come away soon enough." + +"And, Agatha, Aunt Jane says she saw you devouring Miss Arthuret with +your eyes," said Gillian. + +"It gave one a sense of new life," said Agatha; and she related again +Miss Arthuret's speech, broken only by appreciative questions and +comments from Dolores' auditor, to whom, in the true fashion of +nineteen, Agatha straightway lost her heart. Dolores, who had seen +much more of the outer world than her cousins, and had had besides a +deeply felt inward experience which might well render her far more +responsive, and able to comprehend the questions working in the +girl's mind, and which found expression in, "I went to St. Robert's +only wanting to get my education carried on so that I might be a +better governess; but I see now there are much farther on, much +greater things to aim at, than I ever thought of." + +"Alps on Alps arise!" said Dolores. "Yes--till they lose themselves- +-and where?" + +"Miss Merrifield would say in Heaven, by way of the Church." + +"The all things in earth or under the earth rising up in circles of +praise to the Cherubim and the Great White Throne," said Dolores, her +dark eyes raised in a moment's contemplation. + +"Ah! One knows. But is that thought the one to be brought home to +every one, as if they could bear it always? Are not we to do +something--something--for the helping people here in this life, not +always going on to the other life--" + +"Temporal or spiritual?" said Dolores; "or spiritual through +temporal?" + +"And our part in helping," said Agatha. + +"There is an immense deal to be thought out," said Dolores. "I feel +only at the beginning of the questions, and there is study and +experience to go to them." + +"You mean what one gets at Oxford?" + +"Partly. Thorough--at least, as thorough as one can--of the physical +and material nature of things, then of the precedent which then +results, also of reasoning." + +"Metaphysical, do you mean, or logical?" + +"That comes in; but I was thinking of mathematical in the indirect +training of the mind. It all works into needful equipment, and so +does actual life." + +"It takes one's breath away." + +"Well, we have begun our training," said Dolores, with a sweet sad +smile. "At least, I hope so." + +"At St. Robert's, you mean?" + +"You have, I think. But I believe my aunt will be expecting us." + +"Oh! And then they talk about modesty and womanliness and retiring! +What do you think about all that?" + +"That we never shall do any good without it." + +They were interrupted by the hasty rushing up of Paula, who had +committed her bicycle to Vera, and came dashing up the steep slope, +crying, "O Nag, Nag, they are going away!" + +The announcement was interrupted as she perceived the presence of the +visitor, and they rose to meet her, but saw that there were tears in +her eyes, and she had rushed up so fast that she was panting and +could hardly speak, though she gave her hand, as Agatha, after naming +the two cousins, asked, "Who are going?" + +"The Sisters--Sister Mena--" with another overflow of tears which +made Dolores and Gillian think they had better retreat and leave her +to her sister's consolation; so they took leave hastily, Agatha +however, coming as far as their machines, and confiding to them, +"Poor Polly, it is a great blow to her, but I believe it is very good +for her." + +"There's stuff in that girl," said Dolores, as soon as they were out +of reach. "She has the faculty of hearkening as well as of hearing." + +"You would say so if you saw her at a lecture; and she is also +gaining power of expressing and reproducing," said Gillian. + +"She will be a power by and by, unless some blight comes across her." + +"Will me, will me, it seems as if we HAD to do it. Even Mamma, whose +ideal was chivalry, Church and home, has to be drawn out to take a +certain public part; Aunt Jane, who only wished to live to potter +about among neighbours, poor and rich, must needs come out of her +traditional conventions, and relate her experiences, and you--" + +"Oh, I am only trying to do the work Gerald aimed at!" + +"Any way we have our work before us, whether we call it for the +Church or mankind." + +"Charity or Altruism," said Dolores. + +"May not altruism lead to charity?" said Gillian. + +"Sometimes, but sometimes disappointment leads only to intolerance of +those whose methods differ. Altruism will not stand without a +foundation," said Dolores. + +"Mysie has been impressing on me, with what she heard from Phyllis +Devereux, of the work Sister Angela has been doing at Albertstown-- +the most utter self-abnegation, through bitter disappointment in her +most promising pupils--only the charity that is rooted could endure. +It is just the old difference Tennyson points out between Wisdom and +Knowledge." + +"And with wisdom come those feminine attributes that Agatha began +asking about." + +"Yes, softening, gentleness, tact. If people have not grown up to +them, they must be taught as parts of wisdom." + +Gillian sighed. "I wonder what Ernley Armitage will say when he +comes home?" + +"He won't want you to throw up everything." + +"I don't think he will! But if he did--No, I think he will be a +staff to guide a silly, priggish heart to the deeper wisdom." + + + +CHAPTER XVII--FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS + + + +"With her venturous climbings, and tumbles, and childish escapes." +TENNYSON. + + +Hubert Delrio, pleased and gratified, but very shy, joined the ladies +from the Goyle in their walk to Clipstone, expecting perhaps a good +deal of stiffness and constraint, since every one at St. Kenelm's +told him what a severe and formidable person Sir Jasper Merrifield +was, and that all Lady Merrifield's surroundings were "so very +clever." "They did want SUCH books ordered in the library." + +Magdalen laughed, and said her only chance of seeing a book she +wanted was that Lady Merrifield should have asked for it. At +Clipstone, they were directed to the dell where the foxgloves were +unusually fine that year, covering one of the banks of the ravine +with a perfect cloud of close-grown spikes, nodding with thick +clustered bells, spotted withinside, and without, of that +indescribable light crimson or purple, enchanting in reality but +impossible to reproduce. It was like a dream of fairy land to Hubert +to wander thither with his Vera, count the tiers of bells, admire the +rings of purple and the crooked stamens, measure the height of the +tall ones, some almost equal to himself in stature, and recall the +fairy lore and poetry connected with them, while Vera listened and +thought she enjoyed, but kept herself entertained by surreptitiously +popping the blossoms, and trying to wreath her hat with wild roses. + +Thekla meantime admired from the opposite bank, in a state of much +elevation at acquiring a dear delicious brother-in-law, and insisted +on Primrose sharing her sentiments till her boasting at last provoked +the exclamation, "I wouldn't be so cocky! I don't make such a fuss +if my sisters do go and fall in love. I have two brothers-in-law out +in India, and Gillian has a captain, an Egyptian hero, with a medal, +a post captain out at sea in the Nivelle. You shall see his +photograph coloured in his lovely uniform, with his sword and all! +Your Flapsy's man isn't even an officer!" + +"He is a poet, and that's better!" + +"Better! why, if you WILL have it, Wilfred and Fergus always call him +that 'painter cad,'" broke out Primrose, who had not outgrown her +childish power of rudeness, especially out of hearing of her elders. + +"Then it is very wicked of them," exclaimed Thekla, "when the Marquis +of Rotherwood himself said that Hubert Delrio is a very superior +young man" (each syllable triumphantly rounded off). + +Primrose was equal to the occasion. "Oh, they all laugh at Cousin +Rotherwood; and, besides, a superior young man does not mean a +gentleman." + +Thekla burst into angry tears and sobs, which brought Gillian, and a +grave, dark young lady from the other side of a rock to inquire what +was the matter--there was a confession on the two tongues of "she +did," and "I didn't" of "painter cad, superior young man and no +gentleman," but at last it cleared itself into Primrose allowing +that, to take down Thekla's conceit, she had declared that a very +superior young man did not mean a gentleman. + +"I could not have believed that you could have been so abominably +ill-mannered," said Gillian gravely; "you ought to apologise to +Thekla." + +"Oh, never mind," began Thekla ashamed; and at that moment a frantic +barking was heard in the depths, and Valetta, Wilfred, Fergus and a +dog or two darted headlong past, calling out, "Hedgehogs, hedgehogs! +Run! come!" And Primrose, giving a hand to Thekla, joined in the +general rush down the glade. + +"A situation relieved!" said the newcomer. + + +"For all ran to see, +For they took him to be + An Egyptian porcupig," + + +quoted Gillian. "They have wanted such a beast for some time for +their menagerie; but really Primrose is getting much too old to +indulge in such babyish incivility to a guest, true though the speech +was, 'a superior young man,' not necessarily a gentleman." + +"I am colonial enough to like him the better for the absence of a +hall mark." + +"Should you have missed it? He is very good looking, and has a +sensible refined countenance, poor man!" + +"He is a little too point device, too obviously got up for the +occasion!" + +"Too like the best electroplate! No; that is not fair, for it is not +pretence, at least, I should think there was sound material below, +and that never would brighten instead of dimming it." + +"According to Mysie and Fly, there is plenty of good taste; and his +principle is vouched for. Mysie is quite furious at any lady-love +having gone to sleep to the sound of original verses from a lover!" + +"Dear old Mysie! No, she would not. She has a practical vein in +her! Would you?" + +"I'm not likely to be tried!" said Gillian merrily. "Catch Ernley +either practising or not minding his boat! But come! Mamma will +want me, I feel only deputy daughter, with Mysie away." + +The two girls rose from the mossy bank, and proceeded across the +paddock to the opening of the glade. + +On the turf Lady Merrifield sat enthroned; making a nucleus to the +festivities and delicacies of all sorts, from sandwiches and cakes +down to strawberries, cherries and Devonshire cream, were displayed +before her; and the others drifted up gradually, Miss Mohun first. +"I am later than I meant to be," she said, "but I was delayed by a +talk with Sister Beata. I never saw a woman more knocked down than +she is by that adventure of Vera's." + +"I know," said Magdalen, rousing herself. "It has made her look ten +years older, and she could not talk it over or let a word be said to +comfort her. She says it was all her fault, and I should have +thought it was that silly little Sister Mena's, if that is her name. + +"She considers it her fault for objecting to strict discipline in +things of which she did not see the use," said Jane Mohun, "and so +getting absorbed in her own work, and having no fixed rule by which +to train Mena." + +"I see," said Lady Merrifield; "it reminds me of a story told in +Madame de Chantal's life, how, when, par mortification, a Sister +quietly ate up a rotten apple without complaint and another made +signs of amusement, a rule was made that no one should raise her eyes +at meals. It shows that some rules which seem unreasonable may have +a foundation." + +"It is an unnatural life altogether," said Dolores. "Why should the +rotten apple have been swallowed? or, if it was, I should think a +joke over it might have been wholesome." + +"Hindering priggishness in the mortified Sister," said Gillian. + +"The fact is," said Lady Merrifield, "that if you vow yourself to an +unnatural life, so to speak, you must submit to the rules that have +been found best to work for it." + +"And poor Sister Beata did neither the one nor the other, by her own +account," said Jane. "She called herself a Sister, but disliked each +rule, and chose to go her own way, like any other benevolent woman, +doing very admirable work herself, but letting little Mena have the +prestige of a Sister, while too busy to look after her, and without +rules to restrain her." + +"But surely there has been no harm!" exclaimed Lady Merrifield. + +"No harm, only a little incipient flirtation with the organist, +nothing in any one else, but not quite like a convent maid." + +"Ah! I rather suspected," said Agatha. + +"I should think the best thing for Sister Mena would be to go to a +good school, leave off her veil, in which she looks so pretty, and be +treated like an ordinary girl," said Lady Merrifield. + +"That is just what Sister Beata intends," said Miss Mohun. "She is +to sink down into Miss Marian Jenkins, to wear a straw hat and blue +frock, and go to school with the other girls, the pupils, while +Sister Beata begins life as a probationer at Dearport." + +"Poor Sister Beata!" + +"She says she has experienced that it is best to learn to obey before +one begins to rule. It is most touching to see how humble she is. +Such a real good woman too! I doubt whether she gets a night's rest +three days in a week, and she looks quite haggard with this +distress," said Jane. + +"She will be a great power by and by! But what will Mr. Flight and +St. Kenelm's do without her?" + +"He is promised relays of Sisters from Dearport, which has stood so +many years that they have a supply. You see, he, like Sister Beata, +tried a little too much to be original and stand aloof." + +"Ah!" said Lady Merrifield, "that is the benefit of institutions. +They hinder works from dying away with the original clergyman or the +wonderful woman." + +"But, Aunt Lily," put in Dolores, "institutions get slack?" + +"They have their DOWNS, but they also have their ups. There is +something to fall back upon with public schools." + +"Yes, like croquet," laughed Aunt Jane. "We saw it rise and saw it +fall; and here come all the players, the revival. Well, how went the +game?" + +So the party collected, and the two Generals came in from some vanity +of inspection to grumble a little merrily at the open air banquet, +but to take their places in all good humour, and the lively meal +began with all the home witticisms, yet not such as to exclude +strangers. Indeed, Hubert Delrio was treated with something like +distinction, and was evidently very happy, with Vera by his side. +Perhaps Magdalen perceived that there was not the perfect ease of +absolute equality and familiarity; but his poetical and chivalrous +nature was gratified by the notice of a Crimean hero, and he +infinitely admired the dignity and courtesy of Lady Merrifield, and +the grace and ease of her daughters, finding himself in a new world +of exquisite charm for him. + +And before they broke up, Magdalen had a quiet time with Lady +Merrifield, in which she was able, not without a tell-tale blush even +at her years, to ascertain that there were two Henry Merrifields, and +that, alas! there was nothing good known of the son of Stokesley, +except that anonymous attempt at restitution which gave hopes of +repentance. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--PALACES OR CHURCHES + + + +"And if I leave the thing that lieth next, +To go and do the thing that is afar, +I take the very strength out of my deed." +- MACDONALD. + + +Those were happy days that succeeded Vera's engagement. It had made +her more womanly, or at least less childish; and the intercourse with +Hubert Delrio became an increasing delight to her sisters, who had +never known anything so like a brother. + +He was at first shy and not at ease with Magdalen, who, on her side, +perceived the lack of public school and university training; but in +grain he was so completely a good man, a churchman, and a gentleman, +and had so much right sense as well as talent, that she liked him +thoroughly and began to rely on him, as a woman with unaccustomed +property is glad to do with a male relation. + +And to him, the society of the Goyle was a new charm. He had been +brought up to the technicalities and the business relations of art, +and had a cultivated taste; but to be with a thoughtful, highly +educated lady, able to enter into its higher and deeper associations, +was an unspeakable delight and improvement to him. Vera was fairly +satisfied as long as he sketched her in various attitudes, and held +her hand while he talked; though she did grudge having so much time +spent on "taste, Shakespeare and the musical glasses." Paula had +various ecclesiastical interests in common with him, and began to +expand and enter more into realities, while Thekla had in him a dear +delightful delicious brother, who petted her, bantered her, mended +her rabbit hutch, caught her hedgehog, taught her to guide her +bicycle, drew picture games for her, and taught her to sketch. + +Agatha had endless discussions with him on his various aspirations, +in some of which Magdalen took her share, sometimes thinking with a +pang of regret and self-reproach that that brief time of intercourse +with Hal Merrifield had been spent in youthful nonsense that could +have left no permanent influence for good. + +In fact, whether through Hubert or through Agatha, a certain +intellectual waft had breathed upon the Goyle. Hubert was eager for +assistance in learning German and Italian, and read and discussed +books of interest; and even when he had left Rockstone, and his work +at St. Kenelm's being finished, the stimulus was kept up by his +letters, comments and questions; and the younger girls had entirely +ceased to form an opposite camp, or to view "sister" as a +taskmistress, even when Agatha had returned to St. Robert's. + +Mysie had come home, very brown, fuller of Scott than ever for her +mother, and of Hugh Miller for Fergus, for whom she had brought so +many specimens that Cousin Rotherwood declared that she would sink +the Kittiwake. Over the sketches and photographs of Iona, she and +Paulina became great friends, and Paula was admitted to hear accounts +of the modern missions that had come from the other Harry Merrifield +among the Karens in Burmah, or again through Franciska Ivinghoe, of +her Aunt Angela Underwood, who was considered to have a peculiar +faculty for dealing with those very unpromising natives, the +Australian gins. Franciska remembered her tender nursing and bright +manner in the days of fever at Vale Leston, and had a longing hope +that she would take a holiday and come home; but at present she was +bound to the couch of her slowly declining old friend, Sister +Constance, the Mother of Dearport. It was another bond of interest +with Magdalen, to whom missions to the heathens had always been a +dream. + +Thus had passed a year uneventful and peaceable, with visits from +Hubert whenever he had a day or two to spare. They were looked +forward to with delight; but if there were a drawback it was in +Vera's viewing him partly as one who held her in a sort of chain, and +partly as one whom it was pleasant to tease by allowing little casual +civilities from Wilfred Merrifield. + +For Wilfred was an embarrassment to his family. He had never been +strong, his public school career had been shortened by failure in +health, and headaches in the summer, and coughs in the winter made it +needful to keep him at home, and trust to cramming at Rockstone, +enforced by his father's stern discipline and his mother's +authoritative influence. + +Thus he was always within reach of the mild social gaieties in which +each family indulged, and Vera was not quite so ready as were his +sisters to contrast unfavourably his hatred of all self-improvement +with Hubert Delrio's eagerness to pick up every crumb of information, +thus deservedly getting on well in his profession. + +One morning, at breakfast, Hubert opened a letter and made a sudden +exclamation; and in answer to Vera's vehement inquiry said, "It seems +that the great millionaire swell, Pettifer--is that his name?" + +"Oh, yes, he was at Rock Quay." + +"Well, he went to see St. Kenelm's, fell in love with the ceiling, +and offered Pratt and Pavis any sum they like to decorate a huge new +hall he is building in the same style. So they write to propose to +me to come and do it, with a promise of future work, at any terms I +like to ask." + +"Oh! but that's jolly," cried Vera. "Can't you?" + +"No," he said; "this is immediate, and I have two churches, reredos +and walls, on my hands, enough to last me all the year. Nor could I +throw over Eccles and Beamster." + +"Is there an agreement with them?" asked Magdalen. + +"Not regularly; but Mr. Eccles has been very kind to me, and promised +me employment for four years to come; in fact, he has made +engagements on that understanding." + +"I see," said Magdalen. "You could not break with them." + +"Certainly not. Nor do I entirely like the line of this other house. +It is a good deal more secular." + +"And you have dedicated your talents to the Church!" cried Paulina. + +"Not that exactly, Paula," he said, smiling; "but I had rather work +for the Church, so I am glad the matter is definitely settled for +me." + +To that he kept, though he had a very kind letter from Mr. Eccles, +who had evidently been applied to, wishing not to stand in his light, +especially as he was engaged to be married, and telling him how it +might be possible to fairly compensate for the loss to the firm. +Between the lines, however, it was plain that it would be a great +blow, only possible because the agreement had been neglected; and +Hubert was only the more determined, out of gratitude for the +generosity, not to break what he felt to be an implied pledge; and +all the sisters sympathised with his determination. + +He adhered to it even after his return to London, though his father +thought it a pity to lose the chance, if it could be accepted without +discourtesy to Mr. Eccles; and he had been interviewed by various +parties concerned, and there had been an attempt to dazzle him by the +prospects held out to him by an enthusiastic young member of the +firm. Perhaps he was too shrewd entirely to trust them, but at any +rate he felt his good faith to Eccles and Beamster a bond to hold him +fast from the temptation; and his heart was really set on the +consecration of the higher uses of his art; so that regard to the +simple rule of honour was an absolute relief to him. + +So he wrote to Vera, who, if there were a secret wish on her part, +did not dare to give it shape; while all her sisters, to whom she +showed the letters that she scarcely comprehended, were open-mouthed +in their admiration. Thekla, who had been seized with a fit of +hagiology, went the length of comparing him to St. Barbara; even +Paula pronounced it a far-fetched resemblance. + +It was some months later that Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood had +decided on building a magnificent cathedral-like church for the +population rising around him in the Rocky Mountains; and meeting Lord +Rotherwood in London heard of the work at St. Kenelm's, and resorted +to Eccles and Beamster as the employers of young Delrio. There would +be plenty of varieties of beautiful material to be found near at hand +in the mountains; but Hubert was sent first for a short journey in +Italy to study the effect of the old mosaics as well as the frescoes, +and then to go out to America to the work that would last a +considerable time. + +Vera was much excited by the notion of the Italian journey, and +thought she ought to have been married at once and have shared it, +including as it did a short visit to Rocca Marina. But she was +scarcely eighteen, and neither her trustee nor her elder sister +thought it advisable to dispense with the decision that her twenty- +first birthday must be waited for, at which she pouted. Hubert came +for two nights on his return, and was exceedingly full of his tour, +talking over Italian scenes and churches with Magdalen, who had never +seen them, but had the descriptions and the history at her fingers' +ends, and listened with delight to all the impressions of a mind full +of feeling and poetry. The time was only too short to discuss or +look out everything, and much was left to be copied and sent after +him, with many promises on Vera's part of writing everything for him, +and translating the books that Magdalen would refer to. He was +allowed to take Vera and Paulina to Filsted for a hurried visit to +his parents. When they came home again, it soon became plain that it +had not been a success. "I am glad to be at home again," said Paula, +as the pony carriage turned up the steep drive, and the girls jumped +out to walk. "I am quite glad to feel the stones under my feet +again!" + +Magdalen laughed. "A new sentiment!" she said. + +"I don't like the stones," said Vera, "but I did not know Filsted was +such a poky place." + +"A dead flat!" added Paula. "No sea, no torrs! one wanted something +to look at! and SUCH a church!" + +"Did you see Minnie Maitland?" put in Thekla. + +"I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry," said Vera. "I don't remember +which was which. They were all dressed alike in horrid colours. +Hubert said they set his teeth on edge!" + +"How was old Mrs. Delrio?" + +"Just the same as ever, lean and pinched." + +"But so kind!" added Paula. "She could not make enough of Flapsy." + +"I should think not!" ejaculated Vera. "Enough! aye, and too much! +just fancy, no dinner napkins! and Edith went away and made the +scones herself!" + +"Very praiseworthy," said Magdalen. "Don't you know how Hubert +always tells us what a dear devoted good girl she is?" + +"Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in that way," +said Vera. "His mother looks like a half-starved hare, and Edith is +giving lessons as a daily governess! + +"Edith is very nice," said Paula; "and I never understood before how +excellent old Mr. Delrio's pictures are! Do you remember his +'Country Lane'? What a pity it did not sell!" + +"Poor man!" said Magdalen. "He married too soon, and that has kept +him down." + +"It is beautiful to see how proud they are of Hubert," said Paula, +"and his pretty gentle attention and deference to them both. Mr. +Delrio is really a gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie," she said, +falling back with her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, "it was +very odd to see how different things looked to us from what they +seemed when we were at Mrs. Best's. Filsted High Street has grown so +small, and one could hardly breathe in Mrs. Delrio's stuffy drawing- +room. And as to Waring Grange, which we used to think just perfect, +it was all so pretentious and in such bad taste. Hubert saw it as +much as we did, but I could see he was on thorns to hinder Flapsy +from making observations." + +Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making the +girls appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the Goyle. + +And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale Leston, +asking questions requiring some research in books, either Magdalen's +or at the Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and sighed over them; and +when the more zealous Magdalen or Paula took all the trouble, and +left nothing for her to do but to copy their notes, and write the +letters, she grew cross. "It was for Hubert, and she did not want +any one else to meddle! So stupid! If he had only taken Pratt and +Pavis's offer, there would not have been all this bother!" + +That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and Thekla, +and it made them both so furious that she declared she was only in +joke, and did not mean it. + +She was indulging in reflections on the general dulness of her lot, +and the lack of sympathy in her sisters, as she lingered by the +confectioner's window, with her eyes fixed on a gorgeous combination +of coloured bonbons, when Wilfred Merrifield sauntered out. "Fresh +from Paris!" he said. "Going to choose some?" + +"Oh no, I haven't got any cash. M. A. keeps us horribly short." + +"As usual with governors! But look here! Pocket this. Sweets to +the sweet, from an old chum!" + +"Oh, Will, how jolly! Such a love of a box." + +"Make haste! Some of the girls are lurking about, and if there is +any mischief to be made, trust Gill for doing it." + +"Mischief!--" but before the words were out of her mouth, Gillian and +Mysie appeared from the next shop, a bootmaker's, and Mysie stood +aghast with, "What ARE you doing? Buying goodies! How very +ridiculous!" + +"The proper thing between chums, isn't it, Vera?" said Wilfred, with +an indifferent air. "We aren't unlucky Sunday scholars, Mysie, to be +jumped upon! Good-bye, Vera, au revoir!" + +He sauntered away with his hands in his pockets; while Gillian, from +her eldership of two years, and her engagement, gravely said, "Vera, +perhaps you do not fully know, but I should say this is not quite the +thing." + +"He told you we are just chums!" exclaimed Vera. "As if there were +any harm in it! You've not got a sweet tooth yourself, so you need +not grudge me just a few goodies." + +Gillian saw that it was of no use to prolong the dispute either for +the place or the time, and she hushed Mysie, who was about to +expostulate farther, and made her go away with a brief parting, such +as she hoped would impress on Vera that the sisters thought very +badly of her discretion and loyalty. They could not hear the +reflection, "They need not be so particular and so cross. Hubert +never thought of giving me anything nice like this. Why should not +my chum? Such a sweet little box too, with a dear girl's head on it! +Would Polly fuss about it, and set on Sister? I shall put it into my +own drawer, and then if they notice it, they may think somebody at +Filsted gave it! No one has any business to worry me about Hubert, +and Wilfred being civil to me. He IS a gentleman." + +The gentleman had been overtaken by his sisters. He was walking his +bicycle up the hill rather breathlessly and slowly. Mysie +indignantly began, "Of all the stupid things to do, to give goodies +to that girl, like a baby!" + +"I have been wishing to speak to you," said Gillian. "You are going +the way to get that foolish girl into a scrape." + +"Oh, yes, of course. Sisters uniformly object to a little civility +to a pretty girl," carelessly answered Wilfred. + +"Nonsense!" returned Mysie, hotly. "We don't care! only it is not +fair on Mr. Delrio." + +"The painter cad! A very good thing too! The sacrifice ought to be +prevented. Is not that the general sentiment?" + +"Wilfred!" cried the scandalised Mysie, "when it is all the other +way, and he is ever so much too good for her." + +"Consummate prig! The cheek of him pretending to a lady!" + +"But, Wilfred," went on downright Mysie, "is it only mischief, or do +you want to marry her yourself?" + +"Draw your own conclusions," responded Wilfred, mounting his machine, +and spinning down the hill faster than they could follow on foot. + +"What is to be done, Gill?" sighed Mysie. "Ought we to get mamma to +speak to him?" + +"Better not," said Gillian, with more experience. "It would only +make it worse to take it seriously. Half of it is play--and half to +tease you." + +"And," said Mysie, with due deference to the engaged sister, "how +about Mr. Delrio? Will it make him unhappy?" + +"If he finds out in time what a horrid little thing it is, I should +say it would be very well for him; but I don't want Will to be the +means." + +"Oh! when his examination is over, and he gets an appointment, he +will go away, and it will be safe." + +"I have not much hopes of his getting in!" + +"Oh, Gill, none of us ever failed before." + +On the side of the Goyle not much was known or cared about Wilfred's +little attentions, which were generally out of sight of Magdalen, and +did not amount to much; but Paula saw enough of them to consult +Agatha on, and to observe that Flapsy was going on just as she used +to at Filsted, and she thought Hubert would not like it. + +"I believe Flapsy can't live without it," sighed Agatha. + +"But would you speak to her? I don't think she ought to let him give +her boxes of bonbons--to keep up in her room, and never give a hint +to Maidie." + +Agatha did speak but the effect was to set Vera into crying out at +every one being so intolerably cross about such a trifle, Gillian +Merrifield and all! + +"Did Gillian speak to you?" + +"Yes, as if she had any business to do so!" + +"I am sure it is not the way she would treat Captain Armitage." + +"I don't believe she cares for Captain Armitage one bit! You said +yourself that all the girls at Oxford thought she cared much more for +her horrid examination! I wouldn't be a dry, cold-hearted, +insensible stick like her for the world." + +"Perhaps she is the more quietly in earnest," said Agatha, repenting +a little that she had told before Vera the college jokes over what +had leaked out of Gillian's reception of Ernley Armitage when he had +hastened up to Oxford as soon as his ship was paid off, and she had +been called down to him in the Lady Principal's room. Report said +that she had only prayed him to keep out of the way, and not to upset +her brain, and that he had meekly obeyed--as one who knew what it was +to have promotion depending on it. + +It was a half truth, exaggerated, but it had not a happy effect on +Vera. Nevertheless, the finishing push of preparation brought on +such a succession of violent headaches as quite to disable the really +delicate boy. Moreover, the tutor declared that there had been +little chance of his success, and Dr. Dagger said that he had much +better not try again. The best hope for his health, and even for his +life, was to keep him at home for a few years, and give him light +work. + +He had never been the pleasantest element in the household; and if +his parents were glad of the avoidance of the risk of a launch into +the world, and his mother's love rejoiced in the power of watching +over him, there were others who felt his temper a continual trial, +while his career was a perplexity. + +However, Captain Henderson offered a clerkship at the Marble Works, +subject to Mr. White's approval; and this was gratefully accepted. +Nor did Agatha come home again at the Long Vacation for more than two +days, in which there was no time for consultation with her sisters on +matters of uncertain import. + +Miss Arthuret and Elizabeth Merrifield had arranged together to take +the old roomy farmhouse on Penbeacon for three or four months, and +there receive parties of young women in need of rest, fresh air, and, +in some cases, of classes, or time for study. It was to be a sort of +Holiday House, though not altogether of idleness; and Dolores +undertook to be a kind of vice-president, with Agatha to pursue her +reading under her superintendence, and to assist in helping others, +governesses, students, schoolmistresses from Coalham, in whose behalf +indeed the scheme had been first started, and it was extremely +delightful to Agatha, among many others. + + + +CHAPTER XIX--TWO WEDDINGS + + + +"How happy by my mother's side +When some dear friend became a bride! +To shine beyond the rest I was + In gay embroidery drest. +Vain of my drapery's rich brocade, +I held my flowing locks to braid." +ANSTICE (from the Greek). + + +"Epidemics of marriage set in from time to time," said Jane Mohun. +"Gillian has set the fashion." + +For the Rock Quay neighbourhood was in a state of excitement over a +letter from Mrs. White, of Rocca Marina, announcing the approaching +marriage of Mr. White's niece, Maura, with Lord Roger Grey, a nephew +of dear Emily's husband, and heir to the Dukedom. The White family +were coming home for the wedding, and the interest entirely eclipsed +that of Gillian Merrifield's. In fact, though that young lady +somewhat justified the Oxford stories, she was in a state of much +inward agitation between real love for Ernley, and pain in leaving +home, so she put on an absolutely imperturbable demeanour. Her +reserve and dread of comments made her so undemonstrative and +repressive to her Captain that there were those who doubted whether +she cared for him at all, or only looked on her wedding as a +mediaeval maiden might have done, as coming naturally a few years +after she had grown up. Ernley Armytage knew better, and so did her +parents. The wedding was hurried on by Captain Armytage's +appointment to a frigate on the coast of Southern America, where he +had to join at once, in lieu of a captain invalided home; and Gillian +accepted the arrangements, which would take her to Rio, "as much a +matter of course," said her aunt, "as if she had been a wife for ten +years." Her uncle, Mr. Mohun, was anxious that the marriage of his +sister Lily's daughter should take place at the family home, +Beechcroft. If there had been scruples, chiefly founded on the +largeness of the party, and the trouble to Mrs. Mohun, these were +forgotten in the convenience of being out of the way of Rockstone +gossip, as well as for other reasons. + +"I should certainly have escaped," said General Mohun. "I have no +notion of meeting that unmitigated scamp." + +"Mr. White ought to be warned," said Jane. + +"You'll do so, I suppose; and much good it will be." + +"I do not imagine that it will. It will be too charming to surpass +Franciska and Ivinghoe; but if neither you nor Jasper will speak to +old Tom, I shall deliver my conscience to Ada." + +"And be advised to mind your own business." + +Nevertheless, Jane Mohun did deliver her conscience, when, on the day +after the arrival, there had been loud lamentations over the intended +absence of the Merrifield family. "It would have looked well to make +it a double wedding, all in the family," said Mr. White. + +To which Miss Mohun only answered by a silence which Mrs. White was +unwilling to break, but Maura exclaimed - + +"But I thought Valetta would be sure to be my bridesmaid. Such +friends as we were at the High School!" + +It did not strike Miss Mohun that the friendship had been very close +or very beneficial; but Adeline added, "We thought she would pair so +well with Vera Prescott, and then uncle will give all the dresses-- +white silk with cerise trimmings. We ordered them in Paris." + +"Uncle Tom is so generous!" said Maura. "There is no end to his +kindness. I'll go and unpack some of the patterns, that Miss Mohun +may see them." + +She tripped out of the room, and Jane exclaimed, "Poor child! Has +Emily written to you, Ada?" + +"Yes, rather stiffly. Mr. White thinks it aristocratic pride." + +"Ada, you know it is not that." + +"Well, I suppose the Greys are hardly gratified by the connection, +though Mr. White will make it worth their while. You see the Duke +leaves everything in his power to his daughters, so poor Roger will +be very badly off." + +"But--" There was so much expressed in that "but" that Adeline began +to answer one of the sentiments she supposed it to convey. "He can +do it easily--for all the rest are provided for by the Marble Works-- +except the two eldest brothers. Richard has gone away, and Alexis-- +oh, you know he has notions of his own that Mr. White does not like." + +"Does Mr. White know all about Lord Roger, or why the Duke should cut +him off as far as possible?" + +"My dear Jane, it is not charitable to bring things up against young +men's follies." + +"It is a pretty considerable folly to have done what compelled him to +retire. Reginald was called in at the inquiry, and knows all about +it." + +"But that was ages ago, and he has been quite distinguished in the +Turkish army." + +"Yes; and I also know that English gentlemen have associated with him +as little as possible. I should call it a fatal thing to let Maura +marry him. What does Captain Henderson say?" + +"Mr. White thinks that it is all jealousy. And really, Jenny, I do +not in the least believe that he will make her unhappy. He is old +enough to have quite outgrown all his wild ways, and he has quite +gentlemanly manners and ways. Besides, Maura likes him, and is quite +bent upon it." + +Still there was a dissatisfied look on Jane's face, and Adeline went +on answering it, with tears in her eyes. "My dear Jane, I know what +you would say, and what Reginald and all the rest feel, that it is +not what we should like! But, my dear, don't let the whole family +rise up in arms! It would be of no use, only make it painful for me. +Maura is quite bent upon it, and she has arrived at turning her uncle +round her finger so much that I am sometimes hardly mistress of the +house! Oh, I don't tell any one, not Lily nor any one, but it will +really be a relief to me when she is gone, with her Greek coaxing +ways. Her uncle is wrapped up in her, and so proud of her being a +Duchess that he would condone anything. Indeed, I am always afraid +of her putting it into his head to suppose that her disappointment +about Ivinghoe was in any way owing to my family pride." + +Jane was sorry for Adeline, and able to perceive how the wifely +feelings, which she had taken on herself, by choosing a man of +inferior breeding and nature clashed with her hereditary character +and principles. + +"You are absolutely relieved that the Beechcroft wedding takes all of +us out of the way naturally and without offence," she said so kindly +that Ada laid her head on her sisterly shoulder, and allowed herself +to shed a few tears. + +"Yes, yes," she said; "I am glad to have so good a reason to mention. +Only I do hope Jasper will not object to Valetta's coming back to be +bridesmaid. That would really be a blow and give offence, and it +would make difficulties with others--even James Henderson, who swears +by Jasper. I have often wished they would have done as I advised, +and have had this wedding at Rocca Marina, out of the way of +everybody! I sometimes think it will be the death of me. Do come +home to help me through it." + +She spoke so like the Ada of old that it went to Jane's heart. + +She promised that she would return in time to give the very +substantial assistance in which all believed, and the more +sentimental support in which nobody believed, though her distaste +arose tenfold after seeing the bridegroom, who looked like an old +satyr, all the more because Maura was like a Greek nymph. Mrs. +Henderson was much grieved, and had tried remonstrance with her +sister, but found her quite impervious. + +Glad were all the Merrifields to escape to the quiet atmosphere of +Beechcroft, where the relations were able to congregate between the +Court, the Vicarage, and the more-distant Rotherwood; and the wedding +was an ideal one in ecclesiastical beauty, and the festivities of +those who had known and loved Lady Merrifield as Miss Lily in early +youth, grandmothers who had been her schoolchildren, and were pleased +to hear that she was a grandmother herself, and hoped in a year or +two to welcome her grandchildren. + +Alethea and her little Somervilles she had seen en route to Canada, +and Phyllis was to come in due time when Bernard Underwood could be +spared from the bank in Colombo, and they would bring their little +pair. + +In the matter of bridesmaids Gillian certainly had the advantage, for +she was amply provided with sisters and cousins, Dolores coming for a +few days for the wedding; whereas the six whom Maura had provided for +beforehand in Paris were only, as Miss Jane said, "scraped up" with +difficulty from former schoolfellows. Lord Roger's nieces would not +hear of being present. Paulina was unwillingly pressed into the +service, as well as the more willing Vera; but Mysie Merrifield was +not to be persuaded to give up her visit to Lady Phyllis, and Aunt +Jane could only carry home Valetta, who held the whole as "capital +fun," and liked the acquisition of the white silk and lace and cerise +ribbons. Dolores had negotiated that No. 6 of the Vanderkist girls +should spend a year with Miss Mohun for a final polish at the High +School at Rock Quay, so as to be with her brother Adrian, who was +completing his term at the preparatory school before his launch at +Winchester. + +Wilfred also returned, father and uncle having decided that he did +not merit a game licence, nor to attack the partridges of Beechcroft, +and the prospect of the gaieties of Cliffe House consoled him. + +Adeline had to endure her husband's mortification at other +disappointments. The Ducal family was wholly unrepresented. Even +Emily, the connecting link, would not venture on the journey; and the +clerical nephew was not sufficiently gratified by Lord Roger's +intention to se ranger to undertake to officiate; and a Bishop, who +had enjoyed the hospitality of Rocca Marina, proved to have other +engagements. No clergyman could be imported except Maura's brother +Alexis, who had been two years at work at Coalham under Mr. Richard +Burnet, and had just been appointed by the newly-chosen Bishop of +Onomootka, and both were to go out with him as chaplains. In the +meantime, while the Bishop was preparing, by tours in England, Alexis +undertook the duties of Mr. Flight's curate, rejoicing in the +opportunity of seeing his elder sister, and the old friends with whom +he had never been since his unlucky troubles with Gillian Merrifield, +now no more. + +The delight of receiving him compensated to Kalliope Henderson for +much that was distressing to both in Maura's choice. The seven years +that had passed had made him into a noble-looking man, with a +handsome classical countenance, lighted up by earnestness and +devotion, a fine voice and much musical skill, together with a bright +attractive manner that, all unconsciously on his part, had turned the +heads of half the young womanhood of Coalham, and soon had the same +effect at Rock Quay. + +Vera and Paulina were in a state of much excitement over their white +silks, in which the three other sisters took great pleasure in +arraying them, and Thekla only wished that Hubert could see them. +She should send him out a photograph, buying it herself with her own +money. + +She was, of course, to see the wedding, in her Sunday white and broad +pink sash, of the appropriateness of which she was satisfied when, at +Beechcroft, they met Miss Mohun's young friend, Miss Vanderkist, in +the same garb. She and her brother had been put under Magdalen's +protection, as Miss Mohun was too much wanted at Cliffe House to look +after them; but Sir Adrian, a big boy of twelve, wanted to go his own +way, and only handed her over with "Hallo, Miss Prescott! you'll look +after this pussy-cat of ours while Aunt Jane is dosing Aunt Ada with +salts and sal volatile. She--I'll introduce you! Miss Prescott, +Miss Felicia Vanderkist! She wants to be looked after, she is a +little kitten that has never seen anything! I'm off to Martin's." + +The stranger did look very shy. She was a slight creature, not yet +seventeen, with an abundant mass of long golden silk hair tied +loosely, and a very lovely face and complexion, so small that she was +a miniature edition of Lady Ivinghoe. + +Her name was Wilmet Felicia, but the latter half had been always used +in the family, and there was something in the kitten grace that +suited the arbitrary contractions well. In fact, Jane Mohun had been +rather startled to find that she had the charge of such a little +beauty, when she saw how people turned around at the station to look, +certainly not at Valetta, who was a dark bright damsel of no special +mark. + +At church, however, every one was in much too anxious a state to gaze +at the coming procession to have any eyes to spare for a childish +girl in a quiet white frock. St. Andrew's had never seen such a +crowded congregation, for it was a wedding after Mr. White's own +heart, in which nobody dared to interfere, not even his wife, +whatever her good taste might think. So the church was filled, and +more than filled, by all who considered a wedding as legitimate gape +seed, and themselves as not bound to fit behaviour in church. On +such an occasion Magdalen, being a regular attendant, and connected +with the bridesmaids, was marshalled by a churchwarden into a +reserved seat; but there they were dismayed by the voices and the +scrambling behind them, which, in the long waiting, the Vicar from +the vestry vainly tried to subdue by severe looks; and Felicia, whose +notions of wedding behaviour were moulded on Vale Lecton and +Beechcroft, looked as if she thought she had got into the house of +Duessa, amid all Pride's procession, as in the prints in the large- +volumed "Faerie Queene." + +And when, on the sounds of an arrival, the bridegroom stood forth, +the resemblance to Sans Foy was only too striking, while the party +swept up the church, the bride in the glories of cobweb veil, white +satin, &c., becomingly drooping on her uncle's arm, while he beamed +forth, expansive in figure and countenance, with delight. Little +Jasper Henderson, anxious and patronising to his tiny brother Alexis, +both in white pages' dresses picked out with cerise, did his best to +support the endless glistening train. + +The bridesmaids' costumes taxed the descriptive powers of the +milliners in splendour and were scarcely eclipsed by the rich brocade +and lace of Mrs. White, as she sailed in on Captain Henderson's arm; +but her elaborate veil and feathery bonnet hardly concealed the weary +tedium of her face, though to the shame, well nigh horror, of her +sister, she was rouged. "I must, I must," she said; "he would be +vexed if I looked pale." + +It was true that "he" loved her heartily, and that he put all the +world at her service; but she had learnt where he must not be +offended, and was on her guard. Hers had been the last wedding that +Jane had attended in St. Andrew's. "Did she repent?" was Jane's +thought. No, probably not. She had the outward luxuries she had +craved for, and her husband was essentially a good man, though not of +the caste to which her instincts belonged--very superior in nature +and conscience to him to whom his blinded vanity was now giving his +beautiful niece, a willing sacrifice. + +It was over! More indecorous whispering and thronging; and the +procession came down the aisle, to be greeted outside by a hail of +confetti and rice; the schoolboys, profiting by the dinner interval, +and headed by Adrian, had jostled themselves into the foreground, and +they ran headlong to the portico of Cliffe House to renew the shower. + +And there, unluckily, Mr. White recognised the boy, and, pleased to +have anything with a title to show, turned him round to the +bridegroom, with, "Here, Lord Roger, let me introduce a guest, Sir +Adrian Vanderkist." + +"Ha, I didn't know poor Van had left a son. I knew your father, my +boy. Where was it I saw him last? Poor old chap!" + +"You must come in to taste the cake, my boy," began Mr. White. + +"Thank you, Mr. White, I must get back to Edgar's. Late already. +The others are off." + +"Not a holiday! For shame! He'll excuse you. I'll send a note down +to say you must stay to drink the health of your father's old +friend." + +Those words settled the matter with Adrian. The holiday was +enticing, and might have overpowered the chances of a scholarship, +for which he was working; but he had begun to know that there were +perplexities from which it was safer to retreat; and that he had +never transgressed his Uncle Clement's warning might be read in the +clear open face that showed already the benefits, not only of +discipline, but of self-control. So obedience answered the question; +though, as he again thanked and refused, he looked so dogged as he +turned and walked off, that Ethel Varney whispered to Vera that at +school he was called, "the Dutchman, if not the Boer." + +Nor did he ever mention the temptation or his own resistance. Only +Mr. White asked Miss Mohun to bring him to the dance which was to be +given in the evening, telling her of his refusal of the invitation to +wedding cake and champagne and she--mindful of her duty to her charge +as hinted by Clement Underwood--had not granted the honour of his +presence on the score of his school obligations. + +The afternoon was spent in desultory wanderings about the gardens, +Magdalen and her sisters being invited guests, and Vera in a +continual state of agitated expectation. Had not Wilfred Merrifield +always been a cavalier of her own? And here he was, paying no +attention to her, with all the embellishment of her bridesmaid's +adornments, and squiring instead that little insignificant Felicia, +in a simple hat, and hair still on her shoulders; whilst she had to +put up with nothing better than a young Varney, who was very shy, and +had never probably mastered croquet. + +She was an ill-used mortal; and why had she not Hubert to show how +superior she was to them all, in having a piece of property of her +own to show off? + +There was Paula, too, playing animated tennis with that clerical +brother of the bride, who had been talking to Magdalen about the +frescoes of St. Kenelm's (as if she, Vera, had not the greatest right +to know all about those frescoes!). Even little Thekla was better +off, for she was reigning over a merry party of the little ones, +which had been got up for the benefit of the small Hendersons, and of +which Theodore White had constituted himself the leader, being a +young man passionately devoted to little children. + +So when the guests dispersed to eat their dinner at their homes and +dress for the dance, Vera was extremely cross. Each of the other +three had some delightful experiences to talk over; but whether it +was Mr. Theodore's fun in acting ogre behind the great aloe, or Mr. +Alexis's achievements with the croquet ball, or his information about +the Red Indians and Onomootka, she was equally ungracious to all; she +scolded Thekla for crumpling her skirt, and was quite sure that Paula +had on the wrong fichu that was meant for her. Each bridesmaid had +been presented with a bracelet, like a snake with ruby eyes; but +Vera, fingering hers with fidgeting petulance, seemed to have managed +to loosen the clasp, and when arranging her dress for the evening +thought that her snake had escaped. + +Upstairs and downstairs she rushed in hopes of finding it. The cab +in which they had returned was gone home to come again, and there was +the chance that it might be there or in the Cliffe House gardens; and +then the others tried to console her, but they were not able to +hinder a violent burst of crying, which scandalised Thekla. + +"I am sure you couldn't cry more if you had lost Hubert's, and that +would be something worth crying about." + +Hubert's was an ingeniously worked circle of scales of Californian +gold, the first ornament that Vera had ever possessed, and that all +the sisters had set great store by. But with an outcry of joy Vera +exclaimed, "Here's the snake all safe! I pushed the other up my arm +because it looked so plain and dull, and it was that which came off." + +"That is a great deal worse than losing the snake," said Thekla. "He +has a nasty face, and I don't like him, with his red eyes." + +"Don't be silly," returned Vera; "this is a great deal more +valuable." + +"Surely the value is in the giver," said Paula; to which Vera +returned in the same vein, "Don't be silly and sentimental, Polly." + +She was so much cheered by the recovery of the snake that they +brought her off to the evening dance without a fresh fit of ill- +humour, and she sprang out under the portico of Cliffe House, with +her spirits raised to expectation pitch. + +But disappointment was in store for her. It was not disappointment +in other eyes. Paula had all the attention she expected or desired, +she danced almost every time and did not reckon greatly on who might +be her partner. What pleased and honoured her most was being asked +to dance by Captain Henderson himself. + +What was it to Vera, however, that partners came to her, young men of +Rock Quay whom she knew already and did not care about? And she +never once had the pleasure of saying that she was keeping the next +dance for Wilfred Merrifield! To her perceptions, he was always +figuring away with Felicia Vanderkist, her golden hair seemed always +gleaming with him; and though this was not always the case, as the +nephew of the house was one of those who had duties to guests and was +not allowed by his aunts to be remiss, yet whenever he was not +ordered about by them, he was sure to be found by Felicia's side. + +Vera's one consolation was that Alexis White took her to supper. To +be sure he was a clergyman, and had stood talking to Lady Flight half +the time, and his conversation turned at once to Hubert Delrio's +frescoes; but then he was very handsome, and graceful in manner, and +he sympathised with her on the loss of her bracelet, and promised to +have a search for it by daylight in the gardens. + + + +CHAPTER XX--FLEETING + + + +"And variable as the shade +By the light quivering aspen made." +- SCOTT. + + +The bracelet came to light in the gardens of Cliffe House the next +morning, and Alexis White walked over to the Goyle to return it +safely, little guessing, when he set forth to enjoy the sight of the +purple moors, and to renew old recollections, what a flutter of +gratified vanity would be excited in one silly little breast, though +he only stayed ten minutes, and casually asked whether the sisters +were coming to Lady Flight's garden party. Everybody was going +there. Miss Mohun even took Felicia, as it was on a Saturday's +holiday; and, unwittingly, she renewed all the agitation caused by +Wilfred's admiration, and that of others, to the all-unconscious +girl. Vera could no longer think herself the reigning belle of Rock +Quay, though she talked of Felicia as a schoolgirl or a baby, or a +horrid little forward chit! Her excitement was, however, divided +between Wilfred and Mr. Alexis White, who could not look in her +direction without putting her in a state of eagerness. + +In this, however, she was not alone. Half the ladies were interested +about him; his manners were charming, his voice in church beautiful, +and his destination as chaplain to a missionary bishop made him +doubly interesting; while he himself, even though his mind was set on +higher things, was really enjoying his brief holiday, and his sister, +Mrs. Henderson, was delighted to promote his pleasure, and garden +parties and the like flourished as long as weather permitted; and as +Vera was a champion player, she was sure to be asked to the +tournaments, and to have to practise for them. + +Inopportunely there arrived a letter from Hubert, requiring an answer +about the form of ornament in the moulding of the fourteenth century! +Paula dutifully went to the library, looked out and traced two or +three examples, French and English. Nothing remained but for Vera to +write the letter after the early dinner. However, she went to sleep +in a hammock, and only roused herself to recollect that there was to +be tea and lawn tennis at Carrara. + +"Won't you just write to Hubert first?" + +"Oh, bother, how can I now? Don't worry so!" + +"But, Flapsy, he really needs it without loss of time." + +"I'm sure he has no right to make me his clerk in that horrid +peremptory way, as if one had nothing else to do but wait on his +fads." + +"Flapsy, how can you?" broke out even Thekla. + +"Surely it is the greatest honour," said Paula. + +"Well, do it yourself then, I'm not going to be bothered for ever." + +Thekla went off, in great indignation, to beg "sister" to speak to +Flapsy, and beg her not to use dear Hubert so very very badly, which +of course Magdalen refused to do, and Thekla had her first lesson on +the futility of interfering with engaged folk; Paula meanwhile sent +off the despatch, with one line to say that Vera was too busy to +write that day. + +There had been two or three letters from Hubert, over which Vera had +looked cross, but had said nothing; and at last she came down from +her own room, and announced passionately, "There! I have done with +Mr. Hubert Delrio, and have written to tell him so!" + +"Vera, what have you done?" + +"Written to tell him I have no notion of a man being so tiresome and +dictatorial! I don't want a schoolmaster to lecture me, and expect +me to drudge over his work as if I was his clerk." + +"My dear," said Magdalen, "have you had a letter that vexed you? Had +you not better wait a little to think it over?" + +"No! Nonsense, Maidie! He has been provoking ever so long, and I +won't bear it any longer!" and she flounced into a chair. + +"Provoking! Hubert!" was all Paulina could utter, in her amazement +and horror. + +"Oh, I daresay you would like it well enough! Always at me to slave +for him with stupid architectural drawings and stuff, as if I was +only a sort of clerk or fag! And boring me to read great dull books, +and preaching to me about them, expecting to know what I think! Dear +me!" + +"Those nice letters!" sighed Paula. + +"Nice! As if any one that was one bit in love would write such as +that! No, I don't want to marry a schoolmaster or a tyrant!" + +"How can you, Flapsy?" went on Paula, so vehemently that Magdalen +left the defence thus far to her; "when he only wishes for your +sympathy and improvement." + +The worst plea she could have used, thought the elder sister, as Vera +broke out with, "Improvement, indeed! If he cared for me, he would +not think I wanted any IMPROVING! But he never did! Or he would +have taken Pratt and Povis' offer, and I should have been living in +London and keeping my carriage! Or he would have taken me to Italy! +But that horrid home of his, and his mother just like a half-starved +hare! I might have seen then it was not fit for me; but I was a +child, and over-persuaded among you all! But I know better now, and +I know my own mind, as I didn't then. So you need not talk! I have +done with him." + +"Oh, Flapsy, Flapsy, how can you grieve him so? You don't know what +you are throwing away!" incoherently cried Paula, collapsing in a +burst of tears. "Maidie, Maidie, why don't you speak to her, and +tell her how wicked it is--and--and--and--" + +The rest was cut short by sobs. + +"No, Paula, authority or reasoning of mine would not touch such a +mood as this. We must leave it to Hubert himself. If she really +cares for him, she will have recovered from her fit of temper by the +time his letter can come, and it may have an effect upon her, if our +tongues have not increased her spirit of opposition. I strongly +advise you to say nothing." + +Paula tried to take her sister's advice, and would have adhered to +it, but that Vera would talk and try to make her declare the rupture +to have been justified; and this produced an amount of wrangling +which did good to no one. Magdalen really rejoiced when the frequent +golf and tennis parties carried Vera on her bicycle out of reach of +arguing, even if it took her into the alternative of flirtation. + +Thekla cried bitterly, and declared that she should never speak to +Flapsy again; but in half an hour's time was heard chattering about +the hedgehog's meal of cockroaches. In another week the excitement +was over. The Bishop of Onomootka had come and gone, after holding +meetings and preaching sermons at Rock Quay and all the villages +round, and had carried off Alexis White with him. + +Nothing had come of the intercourse of the latter with his rich +uncle, nor of the varieties of encounters with the damsels of Rock +Quay, except that society was declared by more than one to have +become horridly flat and slow. + +Vera was one of these, and the letters received from Hubert Delrio +did not stir up a fresh excitement. There were no persuasions to +revoke her decision, no urgent entreaties, no declaration of being +heart-broken. He acquiesced in her assurance that the engagement had +been a mistake; and he wrote at more length to Magdalen, avowing that +he had for some time past traced discontent in Vera's letters, and +fearing that he had been too didactic and peremptory in writing to +her. He relinquished the engagement with much regret, and should +always regard it as having been a fair summer dream--but, though +undeserving, he hoped still to retain Miss Prescott's kindness and +friendship, which had been of untold value to him. + +A little more zeal and distress would have been much more pleasing to +Vera; and she began to be what Agatha and Thekla called cross, and +Paula called drooping, and even excited alarm in her, lest Flapsy +should be going into a decline. But a note came to the Goyle which +Magdalen read alone, and likewise she cycled alone to Rockstone. + +"Miss Mohun, can you give me a few minutes?" said she, as the trim +little figure emerged from beneath the copper beeches, basket in +hand. + +"By all means; I shall not be due at the cutting-out meeting till +three o'clock." + +"I wanted to consult you about an invitation that Mrs. White has been +so very kind as to give my little sister, Vera." + +"Oh!" quoth Jane Mohun, in a dry sort of tone. + +"I know that she had wished to take out one of her own nieces to +Rocca Marina, but that Sir Jasper did not wish it, and I thought +perhaps it would be easier for you than for Lady Merrifield to tell +me whether there is any objection that would apply to Vera." + +"I suppose Vera wishes to go?" + +"She is so wild with delight that it would be a serious thing to +disappoint her. Mrs. White is very kind and good, and has thought +that she has flagged of late, and has supposed it might be due to +poor Hubert Delrio, but, indeed, it was no fault of his." + +"None at all, except for out-growing her." + +"The offer was hinted at to go with Valetta even before we knew it +was declined at Clipstone, and that made me anxious to know whether +it would be well for me to send Vera. I suppose she would pick up +pronunciation of languages, which would be a great advantage, as she +will have to earn her own living, and Mrs. White is so good as to +promise lessons in arts and music. I hear, too, it is quite an +English colony, with a church and schools." + +"Oh, yes, Mr. White is a very good and careful man about his workmen. +I have been there at the Henderson's wedding, and it is a charming +place, a castle fit for Mrs. Radclyffe, with English comforts, and an +Italian garden and an English village on the mountain side. My +sister would do all that she promises, and would look after any young +girl very well; you may quite trust her." + +"Then is there any fear of Italian society?--not that poor Vera has +any attraction OF THAT KIND," hesitated Magdalen. + +"None at all. All the society they have is of English travellers +coming with introductions. I fancy it is very dull at times, and +that Adeline wants a young person about her. You need have no fears. +Ah! I see you still want to know why the Merrifields don't consent. +It is not their way. They would not let the Rotherwoods have Mysie +to bring up with Phyllis, and--and Val is just the being that needs a +mother's eye over her. But I really and honestly think that your +Vera may quite safely be put under Adeline's care, and that she is +likely to be all the better for it." + +"One thing more, added Magdalen, with a little hesitation; "is your +nephew, Wilfred, likely to be one of the party?" + +"None at all. His father wants to keep him under his own eye, and +his mother is anxious about his health; nor do I think Mr. White +wants him, having his own two nephews, who are useful, so he will +remain under Captain Henderson here." + +"Thank you! That settles it in my mind. I am sure the change to a +fresh home will be an excellent thing for my poor Vera, and that the +training of imitation of one to whom she looks up is what she most +needs." + +"Very true," said Miss Mohun. + +And as she afterwards said to Lady Merrifield, "It was in all +sincerity and honesty that I gave the advice to Magdalen, who is very +sensible in the matter. In plain English, Ada can't do without a +lady in waiting, and Vera probably fancies that Lords, young or old, +start from every wave like the spirits of our fathers, at Rocca +Marina, in which she will probably be disappointed; but Ada will be a +very dragon as to her manners and discretion, and not being his own +niece, old Tom White will not be deluded by his ambition and any +blandishments of hers. As people go, they are very safe guardians, +and Vera--Flapsy as they call her--is just of the composition to be +improved, and not disimproved, by living with Ada." + +"Probably, though I do not like the foolish little puss to be +rewarded for throwing over young Delrio." + +"He was so much too good for her that I am more inclined to reward +her for doing so!" + +Agatha, however, came home somewhat annoyed by the whole arrangement. +She supposed the rupture with Hubert might have been inevitable; but +she was very sorry for it, thinking that Vera might have grown up to +him, and regretting the losing him as a brother. Nor did she like +the atmosphere of the Whites and Rocca Marina for her feather-brained +young sister. "Dolores had no great opinion of her Aunt Adeline," +she said. + +"My dear," said Magdalen, as they sat over their early fire, "I have +talked it over with Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, and they both +tell me that Mrs. White is very sensible, and sure to be discreet for +any girl in her charge--probably better for Flapsy than a more +intellectual woman." + +"But--! Such a marriage as this one!" said Agatha. + +"It was Mr. White's own niece, and taken out of Mrs. White's hands," +said Magdalen. "Besides," as Agatha still looked unconvinced, "one +thing that made me think the invitation desirable was that it would +break off any foolishness with Wilfred Merrifield--I think it was in +their minds too." + +"Wilfred! Oh, there was a little nonsense." + +"Less on his side, since Felicia Vanderkist has been here; but I +think Vera has been all the more disposed to--to--" + +"Run after him," said Agatha. "I could fancy it in Flapsy; but he is +such a boy, and not half so nice-looking as the rest of them either." + +"My dear Agatha, I must tell you he reminds me strangely of a young +Mr. Merrifield whom I knew at Filsted when I was younger than you." + +"A brother of Bessie?" + +"Even so. He got into some kind of trouble at Filsted, his father +came and broke it off, and sent him out to Canada, where I fear he +did not do well, and nothing has been heard of him since, except - + +She spoke with a catch in her voice which made Agatha look up at her, +and detect a rising colour. + +"Nothing!" she repeated. + +"Except an anonymous parcel, returning to the brothers in Canada the +sum he had taken with him. Strangely, the clue was not followed up, +and he is lost sight of! But Wilfred's air, and still more his +manner, is always recalling his cousin to me, and, Nag, dear, I could +not bear to see Vera go through the same trial by my exposing her to +the intercourse. Not that I know any harm of Wilfred, but his +parents could not like anything of the kind." + +"Certainly not! Yes, I suppose you are right, dear old Maidie." But +Agatha pondered over those words that had slipped out, "the same +trial." + + + +CHAPTER XXI--THE ELECTRICIANS + + + + "Thou shalt have the air +Of freedom. Follow and do me service." +- "THE TEMPEST." + +"Is Agatha in?" asked Dolores Mohun, jumping off her bicycle as she +saw Magdalen, on a frosty day the next Christmas vacation, in her +garden. + +"She is doing scientific arithmetic with Thekla; giving me a holiday, +in fact! You University maidens quite take the shine out of us poor +old teachers." + +"Ah! if we can give shine we can't give substance. But I want to +borrow Nag, if you have no objection." + +"Borrow her! I am sure it is something she will like." + +"It is in the way of business, but she will like it all the same. +They want me to give a course of lectures on electricity at Bexley to +the Institute and the two High Schools, and I particularly want a +skilled assistant, whom I can depend upon; not masters, nor boys! +Now Nag is just what I should like. We should stay at Lancelot +Underwood's, a very charming place to be at." + +"Isn't he some connection?" + +"Connection all round. Phyllis Merrifield married his brother, +banking in Ceylon, and may come home any day on a visit; and +Ivinghoe's pretty wife is Lancelot's niece. He edits what is really +the crack newspaper of the county, in spite of its being true blue +Conservative, Church and all." + +"The Pursuivant? It has such good literary articles." + +"Oh, yes! Mrs. Grinstead and Canon Harewood write them. His wife is +a daughter of old Dr. May--rather a peculiar person, but very jolly +in her way." + +"But would they like to have Agatha imposed upon them?" + +"Certainly; they are just the people to like nothing better, and it +will only be for a fortnight. I have settled it all with them." + +At which Magdalen looked a little doubtful, but Dolores reiterated +that there need be no scruple, she might ask Aunt Lily if she liked; +but Lance Underwood was Mayor, and member of all the committees, and +the most open-hearted man in the world besides, and it was all right. + +To the further demur as to safety, Dolores answered that to light a +candle or sit by the fire might be dangerous, but as long as people +were careful, it was all right, and Agatha had already assisted in +some experiments at Rock Quay, which had shown her to be thoroughly +understanding and trustworthy, and capable of keeping off the +amateur--the great bugbear. + +So Magdalen consented, after rapturous desires on the part of Agatha, +and assurances from General Mohun that Dolores had it in her by +inheritance and by training to meddle with the lightning as safely as +human being might; and Lady Merrifield owned with a sigh that she +must accept as a fact that what even the heathens owned as a Divine +mystery and awful attribute, had come to be treated as a commonplace +business messenger and scientific toy, though (as Mrs. Gatty puts it) +the mystery had only gone deeper. So much for the peril; and for the +other scruple, it was set at rest by a hospitable letter from Mrs. +Underwood, heartily inviting Miss Agatha Prescott, as an Oxford +friend of Gillian. + +So off the two electricians set, and after two days of business and +sight-seeing in London, went down to Bexley. In the third-class +carriage in which they travelled they were struck by the sight of a +tall lady in mourning--a sort of compromise between a conventual and +a secular bonnet over short fair hair, and holding on her lap a tiny +little girl of about six years old, with a small, pinched, delicate +face and slightly red hair, to whom she pointed out by name each spot +they passed, herself wearing an earnest absorbed look of recognition +as she pointed out familiar landmark after landmark till the darkness +came down. Also there were two cages--one with a small pink +cockatoo, and another with two budgerigars. + +As the train began slackening Dolores exclaimed: + +"There he is! Lance--!" + +"Lance! Oh, Lance!" was echoed; and setting the child down, her +companion almost fell across Agatha, and was at the window as the +train stopped. + +What happened in the next moment no one could quite tell; but as the +door was torn open there was a mingled cry of "Angel!" and of +"Lance!" and the traveller was in his arms, turning the next moment +to lift out the frightened little girl, who clung tight round her +neck; while Lance held out his hand with, "Dolores! Yes. This is +Dolores, Angel, whom you have never seen." + +Each knew who the other was in a moment, and clasped hands in +greeting, as well as they could with the one, and the other receiving +bird-cages, handbags, umbrellas, and rugs from Agatha, whom, however, +Lance relieved of them with a courteous, "Miss Prescott! You have +come in for the arrival of my Australian sister! What luggage have +you?" Wherewith all was absorbed in the recognition of boxes, and +therewith a word or two to an old railway official, "My sister +Angela." + +"Miss Angela! this is an unexpected pleasure!" + +"Tom Lightfoot! is it you? You are not much altered. Mr. Dane, I +should have known you anywhere!" with corresponding shakes of the +hand. + +"Yes, that's ours. Oh, the birds! There they are! All right! Oh! +not the omnibus, Lance! Let the traps go in that! Then Lena will +like to stretch her legs, and I must revel in the old street." + +Dolores and Agatha felt it advisable to squeeze themselves with the +bird-cages into the omnibus, and leave the brother and sister to walk +down together, though the little girl still adhered closely to her +protector's hand. + +"Poor Field's little one? Yes, of course." + +"But tell me! tell me of them all!" + +"All well! all right! But how--" + +"The Mozambique was out of coal and had to put in at Falmouth. You +know, I came by her because they said the long sea voyage would be +best for this child, and it was so long since I had heard of any one +that I durst not send anywhere till I knew--and I knew Froggatt's +would be in its own place. Oh! there's the new hotel! the gas looks +just the same! There's the tower of St. Oswald's, all shadowy +against the sky. Look, Lena! Oh! this is home! I know the lamps. +I've dreamt of them! Tired, Lena, dear? cold? Shall I carry you?" + +"No, no; let me!" and he lifted her up, not unwillingly on her part, +though she did not speak. "You are a light weight," he said. + +"I am afraid so," answered Angel. "Oh! there's the bus stopping at +Mr. Pratt's door." + +"Mine, now. We have annexed it." + +"But let me go in by the dear old shop. The window is as of old, I +see. Ernest Lamb! don't you know me?" as a respectable tradesman +came forward. "And Achille, is it? You are as much changed as this +old shop is transmogrified! And they are all well? Do you mean +Bernard?" + +"Bernard and Phyllis may come home any day to deposit a child. They +lost their boy, and hope to save the elder one. But come, Angel! if +you have taken in enough we must go up to those electrical girls. +Dolores is come to give a lecture, with the other girl to assist, +Miss Prescott." + +"Dolores! Yes, poor Gerald's love! They are almost myths to me. +Ah!" as Lancelot opened his office-door, "now I know where I am! And +there's the old staircase! This is the real thing, and no mistake." + +"Angel, Angel, come to tea!" And Gertrude, comfortable and +substantial, in loving greeting threw arms round the new comers, +Lance still carrying the child, who clung round his neck as he +brought her into the room, full of his late fellow travellers, and +also of a group of children. + +"It is as if we had gone back thirty years or more," was Angela's +cry, as she looked forth on what had been as little altered as +possible from the old family centre; and Lance, setting down the +child, spoke as the pretty little blue-eyed girls advanced to +exchange kisses with their new aunt. + +"Margaret, or Pearl, whom you knew as a baby; Etheldred, or Awdrey, +and Dickie! Fely is at Marlborough. There, take little Lena--is +that her name--to your table, and give her some tea." + +"Her name is Magdalen," said Angela, removing the little black hat +and smoothing the hair; but Lena backed against her, and let her hand +hang limp in Pearl's patronising clasp. Nor would she amalgamate +with the children, nor even eat or drink except still beside +"Sister," as she called Angela. In fact, she was so thoroughly worn +out and tired, as well as shy and frightened, that Angela's attention +was wholly given to her and she could only be put to bed, but not in +the nursery, which, as Angel said, seemed to her like a den of little +wild beasts. So she was deposited in the chamber and bed hastily +prepared for the unexpected guest; and even there, being wakeful and +feverish from over-fatigue, there was no leaving her alone, and +Gertrude, after seeing her safely installed, could only go down with +the hope that she would be able to spare her slave or nurse, which +was it? by dinner-time. + +"Who is that child so like?" said Dolores, in their own room. + +"Very like somebody, but I can't tell whom," said Agatha. "Who did +you say she is?" + +"I cannot say I exactly know," said Dolores. "I believe she is the +daughter of Fulbert Underwood's mate, on a sheep-farm in Queensland, +and that as her mother died when she was born, she has been always +under the care of this Angela, living in the Sisterhood there." + +"Not a Sister?" + +"Not under vows, certainly. I never saw her before, but I believe +she is rather a funny flighty person, and that Fulbert was afraid at +one time that she would marry this child's father." + +"Is he alive?" + +"Which? Fulbert died four or five years ago, and I think the little +girl's father must be dead, for she is in mourning." + +"There's something very charming about her--Miss Underwood." + +"Yes there is. They all seem to be very fond of her, and yet to +laugh about her, and never to be quite sure what she will do next." + +"Did I not hear of her being so useful among the Australian black +women?" + +"No one has ever managed those very queer gins so well; and she is an +admirable nurse too, they say. I am very glad to have come in her +way." + +They did not, however, see much of her that evening. The head master +of the Grammar School and his wife, the head mistress of the High +School, and a few others had been invited to meet them; and Angela +could only just appear at dinner, trusting to a slumber of her +charge, but, on coming out of the dining-room, a wail summoned her +upstairs at once, and she was seen no more that night. + +However, with morning freshness, Lena showed herself much less +farouche, and willing to accept the attentions of Mr. Underwood +first, and, later, of his little daughter Pearl--a gentle, elder +sisterly person, who knew how to avert the too rough advances of +Dick--and made warm friends over the pink cockatoo; while Awdrey was +entranced by the beauties of the budgerigars. + +Robina had been informed by telegram, and came up from Minsterham +with her husband, looking just like his own father, and grown very +broad. He was greatly interested in the lecture, and went off to it, +to consider whether it would be desirable for the Choristers' School. +Lancelot had, of course, to go, and Angela declared that she must be +brought up to date, and rejoiced that Lena was able to submit to be +left with the other children under the protection of Mrs. Underwood, +who averred that she abhorred electricity in all its forms, and that +if Lance were induced to light the town, or even the shop by that +means, he must begin by disposing of her by a shock. + +It was an excellent lecture, only the two sisters hardly heard it. +They could think of nothing but that they were once more sitting side +by side in the old hall, where they had heard and shared in so many +concerts, on the gala days of their home life. + +The two lecturers, as well as the rest of the party, were urgently +entreated to stay to tea at the High School; but when the interest of +the new arrival was explained, the sisters and brother were released +to go home, Canon Harewood remaining to content their hostesses. + + + +CHAPTER XXII--ANGEL AND BEAR + + + +"Enough of science and of art! + Close up those barren leaves, +Come forth, and bring with you a heart + That watches and receives." +- WORDSWORTH. + +A telegram had been handed to Mr. Mayor, which he kept to himself, +smiling over it, and he--at least--was not taken utterly by surprise +at the sight of a tall handsome man, who stepped forward with +something like a shout. + +"Angel! Lance! Why, is it Robin, too?" + +"Bear, Bear, old Bear, how did you come?" + +"I couldn't stop when I heard at Clipstone that Angel was here, so I +left Phyllis and the kid with her mother. Oh, Angel, Angel, to meet +at Bexley after all!" + +They clung together almost as they had done when they were the +riotous elements of the household, while Lance opened the front door, +and Robina, mindful of appearances, impelled them into the hall, +Bernard exclaiming, "Pratt's room! Whose teeth is it?" + +"Don't you want Wilmet to hold your hands and make you open your +mouth?" said Lance, laughing. + +Gertrude, who had already received the Indian arrival, met Angela, +who was bounding up to see to her charge, with, "Not come in yet! +She is gone out with the children quite happily, with Awdrey's doll +in her arms. Come and enjoy each other in peace." + +"In the office, please," said Angela. "That is home. We shall be +our four old selves." + +Lance opened the office door, and gave a hint to Mr. Lamb, while they +looked at each other by the fire. + +Bernard was by far the most altered. The others were slightly +changed, but still their "old selves," while he was a grave +responsible man, looking older than Lancelot, partly from the effects +of climate; but Angela saw enough to make her exclaim, "Here we are! +Don't you feel as if we were had down to Felix to be blown up?" + +"Not a bit altered," said Bernard, looking at the desks and shelves +of ledgers, with the photographs over the mantelpiece--Felix, Mr. +Froggatt, the old foreman, and a print of Garofalo's Vision of St. +Augustine, hung up long ago by Felix, as Lance explained, as a token +of the faith to which all human science and learning should be +subordinated. + +"A declaration of the Pursuivant," said Angela. "How Fulbert did +look out for Pur! I believe it was his only literature." + +"Phyllis declares," said Bernard, "that nothing so upsets me as a +failure in Pur's arrival." + +"And this is Pur's heart and centre!" said Robina. + +"Only," added Angela, "I miss the smell of burnt clay that used to +pervade the place, and that Alda so hated." + +"Happily the clay is used up," said Lance. "I could not have brought +Gertrude and the children here if the ceramic art, as they call it, +had not departed. Cherry was so delighted at our coming to live +here. She loved the old struggling days." + +"Fulbert said he never felt as if he had been at home till he came +here. He never TOOK to Vale Leston." + +"Clement and Cherry have settled in very happily," said Robina, "with +convalescent clergy in the Vicarage." + +"I say, Angel, let us have a run over there," cried Bernard, "you and +I together, for a bit of mischief." + +"Do, DO let us! Though this is real home, our first waking to +perception and naughtiness, it is more than Vale Leston. We seem to +have been up in a balloon all those five happy years." + +"A balloon?" said Bernard. "Nay, it seems to me that till they were +over, I never thought at all except how to get the most rollicking +and the finest rowing out of life. It seems to me that I had about +as much sense as a green monkey." + +"Something sank in, though," said Lance; "you did not drift off like +poor Edgar." + +"Some one must have done so," said Angela. "I wanted to ask you, +Lancey, about advertising for my little Lena's people; the Bishop +said I ought." + +"I say," exclaimed Bernard, "was it her father that was Fulbert's +mate? I thought he was afraid of your taking up with him. You +didn't?" + +"No, no. Let me tell you, I want you to know. Field and a little +wife came over from Melbourne prospecting for a place to sit down in. +They had capital, but the poor wife was worn out and ill, and after +taking them in for a night, Fulbert liked them. Field was an +educated man and a gentleman, and Ful offered them to stay there in +partnership. So they stayed, and by and by this child was born, and +the poor mother died. The two great bearded men came galloping over +to Albertstown from Carrigaboola, with this new born baby, smaller +than even Theodore was, and I had the care of her from the very +first, and Field used to ride over and see the little thing." + +"And--?" said Bernard, in a rather teasing voice, as his eyes +actually looked at Angela's left hand. + +"I'll own it DID tempt me. I had had some great disappointments with +my native women, running wild again, and I could not bear my child +having a horrid stepmother; and there was the glorious free bush +life, and the horses and the sheep! But then I thought of you all +saying Angel had broken out again; and by and by Fulbert came and +told me that he was sure there was some ugly mystery, and spoke to +Mother Constance, and they made me promise not to take him unless it +was cleared up. Then, as you know, dear Ful's horse fell with him; +Field came and fetched me to their hut, and I was there to the last. +Ful told each of us again that all must be plain and explained before +we thought of anything in the future. He, Henry Field, said he had +great hopes that he should be able to set it right. Then, as you +know, there was no saving dear Fulbert, and after that Mother +Constance's illness began. Oh! Bear, do you recollect her coming in +and mothering us in the little sitting-room? I could not stir from +her, of course, while she was with us. And after that, Harry Field +came and said he had written a letter to England, and when the answer +came, he would tell me all, and I should judge! But I don't think +the answer ever did come, and he went to Brisbane to see if it was at +the bank; and there he caught a delirious fever, and there was an end +of it + +At that moment something between a whine or a call of "sister" was +heard. Up leapt Angela and hurried away, while Lance observed, +"Well! That's averted, but I am sorry for her." + +"It was not love," said Robina. + +"Or only for the child," said Bernard; "and that would have been a +dangerous speculation." + +"The child or something else has been very good for her," said Lance; +"I never saw her so gentle and quiet." + +"And with the same charm about her as ever," said Bernard. "I don't +wonder that all the fellows fall in love with her. I hope she won't +make havoc among Clement's sick clergy." + +"I suppose we ought to go up and fulfil the duties of society," said +Robina, rising. "But first, Bear, tell me how is Phyllis?" + +"Pretty fair," he answered. "Resting with her mother, but she has +never been quite the thing of late. I almost hope Sir Ferdinand will +see his way to keeping us at home, or we shall have to leave our +little Lily." + +Interruption occurred as a necessary summons to "Mr. Mayor," and the +paternal conclave was broken up, and had to adjourn to Gertrude's tea +in the old sitting-room. + +"I see!" exclaimed Agatha, as she looked at the party of children at +their supplementary table. "I see what the likeness is in that +child. Don't you, Dolores? Is it not to Wilfred Merrifield?" + +"There is very apt to be a likeness between sandy people, begging +your pardon, Angel," said Gertrude. + +"Yes, the carroty strain is apt to crop up in families," said Lance, +"like golden tabbies, as you ladies call your stable cats." + +"All the Mohuns are dark," said Dolores, "and all Aunt Lily's +children, except Wilfred; and is not your Phyllis of that colour?" + +"Phyllis's hair is not red, but dark auburn," said Bernard, in a tone +like offence. + +"I never saw Phyllis," said dark-browed Dolores, "but I have heard +the aunts talk over the source of the--the fair variety, and trace it +to the Merrifields. Uncle Jasper is brown, and so is Bessie; but +Susan is, to put it politely, just a golden tabby, and David's baby +promises to be, to her great delight, as she says he will be a real +Merrifield. So much for family feeling!" + +"Sister, Sister!" came in a bright tone, "may I go with Pearl and get +a stick for Ben? He wants something to play with! He is eating his +perch." + +Ben, it appeared, was the pink cockatoo, who was biting his perch +with his hooked beak. The children had finished their meal, and +consent was given. "Only, Lena, come here," said Angela, fastening a +silk handkerchief round her neck, and adding, "Don't let Lena go on +the dew, Pearl; she is not used to early English autumn, I must get +her a pair of thicker boots." + +"What is her name?" asked Agatha, catching the sound. + +"Magdalen Susanna. Her father made a point of it, instead of his +wife's name, which, I think, was Caroline." + +"I don't think I ever knew a Magdalen except my own elder sister," +said Agatha, "and Susanna! Did you say Miss Merrifield had a sister +Susan?" + +"An excellent, sober-sided, dear old Susan! Yes, Susanna was their +mother's name," said Dolores "and now that you have put it into my +head, little Lena, when she is animated, puts me more in mind of +Bessie than even of Wilfred, though the colouring is different. +Why?" + +"Did you never hear," said Agatha, "that there was one of the +brothers who was a bad lot, and ran away. My sister says Wilfred is +like him. I believe," she added, "that he was her romance!" + +"Ha!" exclaimed Bernard, "that's queer! We had a clerk in the bank +who gave his name as Meriton, and who cut and ran the very day he +heard that Sir Jasper Merrifield was coming out as Commandant. Yes, +he was carroty. I rarely saw Wilfred at Clipstone, but this might +very well have been the fellow, afraid to face his uncle." + +Angela did not look delighted. "She is not destitute, you know," she +said, "I am her guardian, and she will have about two hundred a +year." + +"Is there a will?" asked Lance. + +"Oh, yes, I have it upstairs! It is all right. It was at the bank +at Brisbane, and they kept a copy. I brought her because the Bishop +said it was my duty to find out whether there were any relations." + +"Certainly," said Bernard. "In our own case, remember what joy +Travis's letter was!" + +Angela was silent, and presently said, "You shall see the will when I +have unpacked it, but there is no doubt about my being guardian." + +"Probably not," said Bernard, rather drily. + +"If it be a valid will, signed by his proper name," said Lance. + +Whereupon the two brothers fell into a discussion on points of law, +not unlike the editor of the Pursuivant, as he had become known to +his family, but most unlike the Bernard they had known before his +departure for the East. At any rate it dissipated the emotional tone +of the party; and by and by, when Bernard and Angela had agreed to +make a bicycle rush to Minsterham the next day, "that is," said +Angela "if Lena is happy enough to spare me," the Harewoods took +leave. + +When the children had gone to bed, and Angela had stayed upstairs so +long that Gertrude augured that she was waiting till her charge had +gone to sleep, and that they should have no more of her henceforth +but "Lena's baulked stepmother," she came down, bringing a document +with her, which she displayed before her brothers. + +There was no question but that it was a will drawn up in due form, +and very short, bequeathing his property at Carrigaboola, Queensland, +to his daughter, Magdalen Susanna, and appointing Fulbert Underwood +and Angela Margaret Underwood and "my brother Samuel" her guardian. +It was dated the year after his daughter's birth, and was signed +Henry Field, with a word interposed, which, as Lance said, might be +anything, but was certainly the right length for the first syllables +of Merrifield. Bernard looked at it, and declared it was, to the +best of his belief, the same signature as his former clerk used to +write. + +"And this," he said, looking at the seal, "is the crest of the +Merrifield's--the demi lion. I know it well on Sir Jasper's seal +ring." + +"Have you nothing else, Angel?" asked Lance. + +"Here is the certificate of her baptism, but that will tell you +nothing." + +No more it did, it only called the child the daughter of Henry and +Caroline Field, and the surname was omitted in the bequest. + +"Who was the mother?" asked Lance. + +"I never exactly knew. Fulbert thought she had been a person whom +Field had met in America or somewhere, and married in a hurry. +Fulbert said she was rather pretty, but she was a poor helpless, +bewildered thing, and very poorly. He wanted to bring her to +Albertstown for fit help and nursing; but she cried so much at the +idea of either horse or wagon over the-no-roads, that it was put off +and off and she had only his shepherd's housekeeper, so it was no +wonder she did not live! Field was dreadfully cut up, and blamed +himself extremely for having given way to her; but it is as likely as +not the journey would have been just as fatal." + +"Poor thing!" + +"You never heard her surname?" + +"No, it did not signify." + +"He did not name his child after her?" + +"No. I remember Fulbert saying he supposed she should be called +Caroline; and he exclaimed, 'No, no, I always said it should be +Magdalen and Susanna.'" + +"My sister's name," repeated Agatha. + +"And Susan Merrifield," added Dolores. + +"But she is mine, mine!" cried Angela, with a tone like herself, of a +sort of triumphant jealousy. "They can't take her away from me!" + +"Gently, Angela, my dear," said Lance, in a tone so like Felix of +old, that it almost startled her. "Tell me what arrangement is this +about the property. Your share of Fulbert's has never been taken +out, I think?" + +"No, Macpherson, the purchaser, you know, of Fulbert's share, pays me +my amount out of it, and agreed to do the same by Lena. I don't +think the value is quite what it used to be. It rather went down +under Field; but Macpherson is all there, and it has been a better +season. I could sell it all to him, hers and mine both; but I have +thought how it would be, as it is her native country, and I have not +parted with my own to go out again to Carrigaboola, and bring her up +there. I assure you I am up to it," she added, meeting an amused +look. "I know a good deal more about sheep farming than either of +you gentlemen. I can ride anything but a buckjumper, and boss the +shepherds, and I do love the life, no stifling in fields and copses! +I only wish you would come too, Bear; it would do you ever so much +good to get a little red paint on those white banker's hands of +yours." + +"Well done, sister Angel!" And the brothers both burst out laughing. + +"But really," proceeded Angela, "it is by far the best hope of +keeping up Christianity among those hands. Fulbert had a sort of +little hut for a chapel, and once a month one of the clergy from +Albertstown came over there; I used to ride with him when I could, +and if I were there, I could keep a good deal going till the place is +more peopled, and we can get a cleric. It is a great opportunity, +not to be thrown away. I can catch those cockatoos better than a +parson. And there are the blacks." + +The brothers had not the least doubt of it. Angela was Angela still, +for better or for worse. Or was it for worse? Yet she went up to +bed chanting - + + +"His sister she went beyond the seas, +And died an old maid among black savagees." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--WILLOW WIDOWS + + + + "Set your heart at rest. +The fairyland buys not that child of me. +- "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM." + +An expedition to Minsterham finished the visit of Dolores and her +faithful "Nag," whose abilities as an assistant were highly +appreciated, and who came home brilliantly happy to keep her +remaining holiday with Magdalen; while Dolores repaired to Clipstone. +Bernard had been obliged to go to London, to report himself to Sir +Ferdinand Travis Underwood, but his wife and little girl were the +reigning joy at Clipstone. Phyllis looked very white, much changed +from the buxom girl who had gone out with her father two years ago. +She had never recovered the loss of the little boy, and suffered the +more from her husband's inability to bear expression, and it was an +immense comfort to her to speak freely of her little one to her +mother. + +The little Lilias looked frail, but was healthy, happy, and as +advanced as a well-trained companion child of six could well be, and +the darling of the young aunts, who expected Dolores to echo their +raptures, and declare the infinite superiority of the Ceylonese to +"that little cornstalk," as Valetta said. + +"There's no difficulty as to that," said Dolores, laughing. "The +poor little cornstalk looks as if she had grown up under a blight." + +"It is a grand romance though," said Mysie; "only I wish that Cousin +Harry had had any constancy in him." + +"I wonder if Magdalen will adopt her!" was Valetta's bold suggestion. + +"Poor Magdalen has had quite adopting enough to do," said Mysie. + +"Besides," said Dolores, "Sister Angela will never let her go. And +certainly I never saw any one more TAKING than Sister Angela. She is +so full of life, and of a certain unexpectedness, and one knows she +has done such noble work. I want to see more of her." + +"You will," said Mysie. "Mamma is going to ask her to come, for +Phyllis says there is no one that Bernard cares for so much. She was +his own companion sister." + +"Magdalen might have the little cornstalk," said Valetta. + +"Well," said Mysie, "it is rather funny to have two--what shall I +say?--willow widows, and a child that is neither of theirs! How will +they settle it?" + +Magdalen had heard from Agatha on the first evening of the arrival of +the sister, and the probability of the identification of little +Lena's father with the Henry Merrifield of her former years, and she +was deeply touched by the bestowal of her name--so much that Nag +avoided saying more, but only kissed her and went to bed. + +The Merrifields discussed the subject dispassionately. + +Sir Jasper recollected what his brother had written to him of his +anxieties and disappointment in his son Henry, and of his absconding +from Manitoba, since which time all trace of him had been lost, +except in the restoration to the two brothers in Canada. To the +surprise and indignation of Sir Jasper, there had been no attempt to +follow it up. + +"If my poor brother Edgar had done anything of the kind," said +Bernard, "none of us would have rested." + +So far as they could put recollections together this act of +restitution must have been made soon after the connection with +Fulbert Underwood began, perhaps at the time of the wife's death. If +there had been another letter, as Sister Angela thought, it was more +recent, certainly within the last two years. + +Captain Samuel Merrifield, of Stokesley, had been on a voyage for +four years, and had not long been at home. His wife had been charged +with the forwarding of the letters that she thought of immediate +interest, and there was an accumulation of those that had been left +for his return, as yet not looked over. + +Of course, Sir Jasper impelled him to plunge into these, and by and +by one came to light, which Mrs. Merrifield had taken "for only some +Australian gold mines," and left to wait, especially as it was +directed to his father instead of himself. + +It was a letter full of repentance, and entreaties for forgiveness, +describing in part poor Henry's past life, and adding that the best +thing that had ever befallen him was his association with "such a +fellow as Underwood." + +It was to be gathered that Fulbert's uprightness of mind had led him +to the first impulse of restitution, and he went on to mention his +first hasty marriage and the loss of his wife, with the kindness of +the Carrigaboola Sisterhood; above all, of Sister Angela, and +declaring his love and admiration for her, and his sense that she was +the one person who could keep him straight now that her brother was +gone. + +He had more than once offered to her, but he found that her brother +had solemnly charged her not to accept him till he had made all his +past clear before her, and could show her that he was acknowledged by +his family, and had his father's forgiveness, and for this he humbly +craved, as one deeply sensible of his own demerits. + +It was piteous to think of the poor fellow waiting and hoping for an +answer to such a letter as this, and dying without one, while all the +time it was lying unread in the Captain's desk, and no one even knew +of the changed life and fresh hopes. Sir Jasper was much moved by +it; but Sam said, "Ay, ay! poor Harry always was a plausible fellow!" +and his wife was chiefly concerned to show that the suppression was +not by her fault. Sir Jasper had brought the will with him, and the +certificate of the child's baptism. + +Both were met with a little hesitation. So little had been said in +the letter about the marriage that the Captain wanted to know more, +and also whether the will had been properly proved in Australia, and +whether it had force in England. In that case he was surely the +right person to have the custody of his brother's child. His wife, +who had been bred up in a different school, was not by any means +satisfied that she should be consigned to a member of a Sisterhood. + +David came to Stokesley, saw the letter, and agreed with his brother +on the expediency of obtaining full proof of the validity of the will +in both Queensland and England, and put in hand the writing of +inquiries for the purpose, from the legal authorities at Brisbane, +for which purpose Angela had to be consulted. + +She had been (having left the budgerigars to the delight of Pearl and +Awdrey), in the meantime, at Vale Leston, enjoying the atmosphere of +peace that prevailed wherever were Clement and Geraldine, and hailed +with delight by all her old village friends, as well as Lady +Vanderkist and her somewhat thinned flock. + +She won Adrian's heart by skating or golfing with him, and even, on +one or two hunting days, joining in his pursuit of the chase, being +altogether, as he said, ever so much better a fellow than even his +youngest sister Joan, and entrancing them all with tales of +kangaroos. Lena had really a tame kangaroo at Carrigaboola. Oh, why +did they not bring it home as well as Ben, the polly? She quite +pined for it, and had tears in her eyes when it was spoken of. + +Indeed the joyous young Vanderkists were too much for the delicate +little girl, and sorry as Angela was to leave Vale Leston, she was +not ungrateful for an invitation to the Goyle, where there was more +room for them than at Clipstone in the holidays, and with the Bernard +Underwoods making it their headquarters. + +Lena and she were much better and happier with "Sister" always at her +service, and Paula and Thekla were delighted to amuse her. Paula was +in a state of delight with Sister Angela, only a little puzzled by +the irregularity of her course, though it was carefully explained +that she had never been under any vows. To hear of her doings among +the Australian women was a romance, often as there had been +disappointment. "Paula is a born Sister," said Angela, "a much truer +one than I have ever been, for there does not seem to be any demon of +waywardness to drive her wild." + +These talks with Magdalen, often prolonged hours after the young +people had gone to bed, were a great solace to both the elders. +Girls like Mysie Merrifield and Phyllis Devereux thought sitting up +to converse a propensity peculiar to themselves, and to their own +age, of new experiences and speculations; but the two "old girls," +whose experiences were not new, and whose speculations had a certain +material foundation, they were equally fascinating. + +There were no small jealousies in either of them--"willow widows"-- +though Mysie's name stuck. There was nothing but comfort to Magdalen +in the certainty of the ultimate "coming home" of one who had +finished a delusive dream of her younger days, and been yearned after +with a heartache now quenched; and Angela, who had never been the +least in love with Henry Merrifield, could quite afford her interest +in the scanty records of his younger days, and fill up all she knew +of the measure of the latter and better days. There was another +bond, for Mrs. Best's daughter was, "as distances go," a neighbour to +Carrigaboola, and resorted thither on great occasions. + +Angela's vision began to be, to take Magdalen and her sisters out to +Carrigaboola, where a superior school for colonists' daughters was +much needed, and where Paula might enter the Sisterhood. She longed +all the more when she saw how much better Magdalen could deal with +Lena as to teaching and restraint than she could. The child was very +backward, and could hardly read words of one syllable, though she +knew any amount of Scripture history and legends of Saints, and was +very fairly intelligent; but though she was devoted to "Sister," +always hanging on her, and never quite happy when out of sight of +her, she had hardly any notion of prompt obedience or of giving up +her own way. + +Angela's visit to Vale Leston had been partly spoilt by the little +girl's fretful worry at the elder children, and by the somewhat +uncalled for fears that all the Vanderkists were hard on the poor +little colonial damsel; but whether it was the air of Rock Quay, or +the quiet influence of Miss Prescott, Lena certainly improved in +health at the Goyle, and was much more amenable, and less rudely shy. +But her guardian trembled at hearing that, pending Captain +Merrifield's correspondence with Brisbane, the sisters, Susan and +Elizabeth, were coming to Miss Mohun's to see their niece, there +being no room for them at Clipstone. + +They came--Susan, plump, comfortable and good-natured looking, as +like an apricot as ever, with an air many years more than three above +her sister Bessie, who as ever was brisk and bright, scarcely middle +aged in face, dress or demeanour. They arrived too late for +visiting, and only dined at Clipstone to be introduced to Bernard +Underwood, and see their cousin Phyllis, whom they had once met when +all were small children. Dolores was much amused, as she told her +Aunt Jane, to see how gratified they were at the "sanguine" colouring +of Phyllis and Wilfred, quite Merrifields, they said, though Phyllis +with auburn eyes and hair was far handsomer than any other of the +clan had ever been; and Wilfred had simply commonplace carrots and +freckles. + +"The fun is," said Jane, "to remember how some of us Mohuns have +sighed at Lily's having any yellow children, and, till we saw +Stokesley specimens, wondering where the strain came from! As if it +signified!" + +"It does in some degree," said Dolores; "something hereditary goes +with the complexion." + +"I don't know," said Jane. "I believe too much is made in these days +of heredity, and by those who believe least in the Bible indications +on the effect, forgetting the counteracting grace." + +"Well," said Dolores, "Wilfred was always a bete noire to me--no, not +noire--in my younger days, and I can't help being glad he is not of +our strain! Though you know the likeness was the first step to +identifying that poor little girl." + +"Poor child! I am afraid she will be a bone of contention." + +The two aunts were at Clipstone early; and might be satisfied with +the true Merrifield tints of Magdalen Susanna, but perhaps she had +been over much warned to be gracious, for the very contrary was the +effect. She had been very civil to her great-aunt Lilias, and had +allowed both her uncles to take her up in their arms; but she +retreated upon Angela, planted an elbow on the well-known lap, turned +her back, and put a skinny little finger in her mouth by way of +answer to Susan's advances, advances which had hardly ever before +been repelled even by the most untamable of infants. + +Angela tried to coax, lift her up and turn her round; but this only +led to the shoulder being the hiding-place, and it might be suspected +that there was a lurking perception that these strangers asserted a +closer claim than the beloved "Sister." She would not even respond +to Susan's doll or Bessie's picture book; and Bessie advised leaving +her alone, and turned to the window with Agatha, who was nothing loth +to tell of her Bexley and Minsterham experiences. + +Angela tried to talk about the voyage, or any thing that might save +the child from being discussed or courted; but Susan's heart was in +the subject, and she had not enough tact or knowledge of the world to +turn away from it. Regret for the past was strong within her, and +she could not keep from asking how much "little Magdalen" (at full +length) remembered of her father, how much she had been with him, +whether he had much altered, whether there were a photograph of him, +and a great deal more, with tears in her eyes and a trembling in her +voice which made Angela feel much for her, even while vexed at her +pertinacity, for the child was by no means the baby she looked like, +but perfectly well able to listen and understand, and this +consciousness made her own communications much briefer and more +reserved than otherwise they would have been. + +Bessie, with more perception, saw the embarrassment, turned round +from Agatha, went up to the cockatoo in his cage, and asked in a +pleasant voice if Magdalen would show him to her, and tell her his +name. Angela was glad enough to break off poor Susan's questioning, +and come forward, with the child still clinging, to incite the bird +to display the rose colour under his crest, put up a grey claw to +shake hands, and show off his vocabulary, laughing herself and acting +merriment as she did so, in hopes to inspire Lena. + +"Come, Ben, tell how you were picked up under a gum tree, quite a +baby, a little grey ball, and brought over in the shepherd's pocket +for a present to the little Boss, and how we fed you and nursed you +till you turned all rose-colour and lovely! There! put up your crest +and make red revelations. Can't you speak? Fetch him a banana, +Lena. That will open his mouth." + +At sight of the banana, the bird put his head on one side and croaked +in a hoarse whisper, "Yo ho!" + +"No, you need not be afraid of any more sailors' language," said +Angela. "They were as careful as possible on board. I overheard +once, 'Hold hard, Tom, Polly Pink is up there, and she's a regular +lady born! + +Whereupon Polly indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the banana +cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered more and +more nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the visitors by what +Susan at least took for unbecoming flippancy. + +"THAT Sister," said Susan, as they drove away, "does not seem to me +at all the person to have the charge of Henry's poor little girl!" + +"I wish she had not thrust herself in," said Bessie, "to prevent me +from getting on with the child over the cockatoo." + +"She calls herself a Sister! I don't understand it, for she seems to +have been bent on marrying poor Henry." + +"She never took any vows." + +"Then why does she wear a ridiculous cap over all that hair?" + +By and by they were met by Bernard Underwood striding along. +"Holloa! have you seen Angel and her darling? She is a perfect slave +to the little thing, and one only gets fragments of her." + +"She seems very fond of her," said Bessie. + +"Just kept her alive, you see. Poor old Angel! She is all for one +thing at a time! Are you going up to Clipstone?" + +"I think we shall find Phyllis at Beechcroft." + +"Yes, she is driving there to lunch, and Angel is to bring the little +cornstalk over to make friends with our Lily! I trust the creature +goes to sleep now, and I may get a word out of Angel!" Wherewith he +dashed on, and the two ladies agreed that "those Underwoods seemed to +be curiously impulsive." + +They were, however, much better satisfied with the Ceylonese Lily, +who was a very well trained civilised specimen, conversing very +prettily over one of Aunt Jane's picture books, which Bessie looked +at with her, and showing herself fully able to read the titles +beneath, a feat of which Lena was quite incapable, though she was +less on the defensive than she had shown herself at the Goyle, and +Angela was far more at her ease than when she was conscious that +"Field's" original love was watching the introduction to his sisters. +Besides, Bernard's presence was sunshine to her, and the two expanded +into bright reminiscences and merry comparisons of their two lives, +absolutely delightful to themselves, and to Phyllis and her Aunt +Jane, and which would have been the same to Elizabeth, if she had not +been worried at Susan's evident misunderstanding of--and displeasure +at--the quips and cranks of the happy brother and sister; also she +was bent on promoting an intercourse between Lily and Lena, over the +doll she had brought for the former. She was a little hurt that Lena +had not been accompanied by the blue-eyed article with preposterously +long eyelashes that had been bestowed on her at the Goyle; but the +little Australian had no opinion of dolls, and had let the one bought +for her at Sydney be thrown overboard by the ship's monkey. + +"That was cruel!" said Lily, fondling her black-eyed specimen. + +"She could not feel," reasoned Lena, with contempt. + +"I don't know," said Lily, knitting her brows. "It's not ALL make +believe! I do love my Rosamunda Rowena, and she loves me, and I +shall tell her not to be jealous of this dear Betsinda. For, do you +know, when Rosamunda was ill in the Red Sea, father carried her up +and down on deck, and made her a dear little deck chair." + +"But she is not alive. She COULDN'T be," sighed Lena. "I like my +Ben and my kangaroo! Oh, I do want to go back to my kangaroo!" + +"And does Lily want to go back to her riki-tiki?" asked Lily's +father, lifting a little girl on each knee, so that they might be +vis-a-vis, when certainly his own had the advantage in beauty, as she +answered, leaning against him, "Granny's better than riki-tiki!" + +For which pretty speech some of the ladies gave her much credit; but +her father, with a tender arm round her, said, "Ah! you are a +sentimental little pussy-cat! Is anything here as good as +Carrigaboola? Eh, Lena?" + +But Lena resolutely shook her carrots; but kept silence, while +Bernard turned over the leaves of a great book of natural history, +till as a page was displayed with a large kangaroo under a blue-gum +tree, with a yellow wattle tree beside him, her lips quivered, her +face puckered, and she burst into an uncontrollable fit of crying; +"Oh! I want to go home, home! Sister, Sister, take me home!" + +Angela was in a minute beside her, took her within loving arms, and +carried her off. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--CRUEL LAWYERS + + + +"Tender companions of our serious days, + Who colour with your kisses, smiles and tears, +Life's worn web woven over wasted ways." +- LOWELL. + +There was a good deal of worry and anxiety for some little time, +while correspondence was going on about Henry Merrifield's will, and +in the meantime Angela decided to board with Miss Prescott, since her +charge was certainly much better in health there; and besides, as +Mrs. Bernard Merrifield was naturally at Clipstone, it became the +head quarters of her husband, though he made many excursions to his +own people, and on business affairs to Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood +in London. + +And Clipstone suited him well for his holiday. Sir Jasper had, of +course, a certain amount of intercourse with the garrison at +Avoncester, and the officers stationed there at present had already +some acquaintance with Bernard Underwood, who was known to be a +champion in Ceylon in all athletic sports, especially polo and +cricket. Tall and well made, he had been devoted to all such games +in his youth, and they had kept up his health in his sedentary +occupation. Now, in his leisure time, his prowess did much to efface +the fame of the much younger and slighter Alexis White, and, so far +as might be, Angela enjoyed the games with him, keeping well within +bounds, but always feeling activity a wholesome outlet for her +superfluous strength, and, above all, delighting in an interval of +being a child again with her Bear of old times; and her superabundant +life, energy, and fun amazed all, especially by the contrast with her +poor little languid charge, who seemed, as Jane Mohun said, centuries +older. + +The Merrifield lads were also devoted to him. Even Fergus was +somewhat distracted from his allegiance to Dolores and her +experiments, and in the very few days that Christmas afforded for +skating, could think of nothing else. + +And as to Wilfred, his whole mind seemed to be set on sports, and +marble works to be only an incident thrown in. Bernard, whom he +followed assiduously, and who took him to Avoncester, and introduced +him to young officers, began to have doubts whether he had done +wisely. Bernard had, in his time, vexed Felix's soul by idleness and +amusement, but he had been one betted upon, not himself given to +betting. He loved football and cricket for their bodily excitement, +not the fictitious one of a looker on, or reader of papers, and it +struck him that Wilfred knew a good deal too much about this more +dangerous side of races and athletics. + +He said so to Angela, and she answered, "Oh, nonsense! Young men are +out of it if they don't know the winning horse. Even Pur had to be +up to the Derby." + +And Angela had her own bitter trial in the decision of the lawyers. +Not only was the signature of the will unsatisfactory, from the +confusion between Field and Merrifield, but the two witnesses failed +to be traced, John Shepherd and George Jones were not to be +identified, and though Brisbane might accept wills easily, an English +court of law required more certainty. The little daughter being the +only child and natural heiress, this was not felt to be doing her any +injury; but the decision deprived her of the guardian her father had +chosen, and Angela was in despair. She was ready to write to the +Pursuivant, to the Bishop of Albertstown, to the Lord Chancellor, +with an exposition of the wicked injustice and hardness of heart of +lawyers, and the inexpedience of taking the poor child from her +earliest motherly friend, expressly chosen by her father. All +Bernard's common sense and Magdalen's soothing were needed to make +her hold her peace, when correspondence made it plain that the +guardianship being assumed by the uncles, Captain Merrifield would +not hear for a moment of the scheme of taking the child out to +Carrigaboola. In his opinion, and his sister Susan's, the only fit +thing to be done with her was to place her with the two aunts at +Coalham to be educated. He came down to Rock Quay to inspect her. +It was a cold, raw day, with the moors wrapped in mist, and the poor +little maid looked small, peaky and pinched. He was sure that the +dry winds of the north were what she needed, wanted to carry her off +immediately, and looked regardless of Angela's opinion, though backed +by Miss Prescott, that it would be highly dangerous to take the +delicate child of a semi-tropical climate off in the depth of winter +to a northerly town. Angela walked off to ask Dr. Dagger to inspect +the child and give his opinion, while Captain Sam repaired to +Clipstone to visit his relations and lunch with them. + +He did not meet with all the sympathy he expected. Lady Merrifield +said that Coalham had not agreed with her own son Harry, and that +little Lena ought not to be taken there till after the cold winds of +spring were over; and her daughters all chimed in with a declaration +that Angela Underwood was perfectly devoted to the little one, and +that no one else could make her happy. + +"Petting her! spoiling her!" scoffed the Captain. "Why, Susan and +Bessie were full of the contrast with your little girl." + +"Health," began Phyllis. + +"An Indian child too!" he went on. "Just showing what a little good +sense in the training can do! No, indeed! Since I am to be her +guardian, I have no notion of swerving from my duty, and letting poor +Hal's child be bred up to Sisterhoods and all that flummery." + +"It will just break Angela's heart," cried Valetta, with tears in her +eyes, at which the Captain looked contemptuous. + +"I must say," added Bernard, "that I should think it little short of +murderous to take that unlucky child from the one woman who +understands her up into the bleak north at this time of year." + +"Decidedly!" added Sir Jasper. "Miss Underwood deserves every +consideration in dealing with the child who has been always her sole +charge." + +Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about Stokesley; +but he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, and as he was +the only person for whose opinion Captain Sam had any respect, it had +its effect, though there was a sense that he might be biassed by his +son-in-law and his herd of womanfolk, and that he did not partake +Mrs. Samuel Merrifield's dislike to the very name of Sister or of +anything not commonplace. + +Angela obtained Dr. Dagger's opinion to reinforce her own and Lady +Merrifield's, and the Captain was obliged to give way so far as to +consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on calling her, being allowed to +remain at Arnscombe till after Easter, when her aunts were to fetch +her to Coalham, there to send her to the kindergarten. + +After Angela's period of raging against law and lawyers and all the +Stokesley family, and being on the verge of impertinence to Captain +Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect more quietly than her +friends had dared to hope. Lance had almost expected her to deport +her charge, parrot and all, suddenly and secretly by an Australian +liner, and had advised Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to +be on his guard if she hinted at anything so preposterous; but +Bernard shook his head, and said Angel was more to be trusted than +her elders thought. "Waves and storms don't go over us for nothing, +I hope," he said. + +And he found himself right on his return. Angela had bowed her head +to the inevitable, and was quietly trying to prepare her little +charge for the change, accustoming her to more discipline and less +petting. When Angela proposed to walk over to Clipstone with her +brother on his return, and the whine was set up, "Let me go, Sister," +it was answered, "No, my dear, it is too far for you. You must stay +and walk with Paula." + +"I want to go with Sister." + +"You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells you. No, I can't +have any fretting. Paula will show you how to drive your hoop. Keep +her moving fast, Paula, don't let her fret and get cold." + +And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it into +Paulina's, and, holding up her finger, silenced the burst of weeping, +though tears sprang to her own eyes as she resolutely turned away, +and, after running out and shutting the back gate after her, put her +arm with a clinging gesture into Bernard's. + +"That's right!" he said, pressing her hand. + +"Cruel," she said, "but better by and by for her. Oh, Bear, if one +could but learn to lie still and say, 'Thou didst it,' when it is +human agency that takes away the desire of one's eyes with a stroke." + +"The desire of thine eyes!" repeated Bernard. "How often I thought +of that last February." + +It was the only time he had referred to the loss of his little boy. +His wife had told her mother that he could not bear to mention it, +and had poured out all her own feelings of sorrow and her struggle +for cheerfulness and resignation alone with her or with Mysie; but he +had shrunk from the least allusion to the little two year old Felix, +who slept beneath a palm tree at Colombo. + +Now, however, still holding his sister's hand, he drifted into all +the particulars of the little ways, the baby language, the dawning +understanding, and the very sudden sharp illness carrying the +beautiful boy away almost before they were aware of danger; and he +took out the photograph from his breast, and showed her the little +face, so recalling old fond remembrances. "Forbear to cry, make no +mourning for the dead," he repeated. "Yes, the boy is saved the wear +and tear and heat and burthen of the day, but it is very hard to be +thankful." + +"Ah, and it is all the harder if you have to leave your Lily." + +"If--yes; but Travis MAY so arrange that we can stay, or I make only +one voyage out to settle matters and then come home for good. If you +are still bent on Carrigaboola you might come as far as Frisco with +me. I may have to go there about the Californian affairs." + +"That would be jolly. Yes, I think it will clench the matter, for I +believe I am of more good at Carriga than anywhere else, though the +heart of it is taken out of it for me; but one lives on and gets on +somehow without a heart, or a heart set where I suppose it ought not +to be entirely at least! And, indeed, I think that little one taught +me better than ever before how to love." + +"That's what the creatures are sent us for," said Bernard, in a low +voice. "And here are, looming in the distance, all the posse of +girls to meet us." + +"Ah-h!" breathed Angela, withdrawing her arm. "Well, Bear, you have +given me something to look forward to, whether it comes to anything +or not. It will help me to be thankful. I know they are good +people, and the child will do well when once the pining and bracing +are over. They are her own people, and it is right." + +"Right you are, Angel!" said Bernard, with a fresh squeeze of the +hand, as he resumed his own cheerful, resolute voice ere joining his +sisters-in-law. + +"What! Angela without her satellite!" cried Primrose. + +"Too far," murmured Angela; but Mysie tried to hush her sister, +perceiving the weaning process, and respecting Angela for it. + +And the next moment Angela was challenging Bernard to a game at golf. + + + +CHAPTER XXV--BEAR AS ADVISER + + + +"Weary soul and burthened sore +Labouring with thy secret load." +- KEBLE. + +The early spring brought a new development. Thekla, who attended +classes at the High School, came home with unmistakable tokens of +measles, and Primrose did the same, in common with most of their +contemporaries at Rockstone. Nor was there any chance that either +Lily Underwood at Clipstone or Lena Merrifield at the Goyle would +escape; indeed, they both showed an amount of discomfort that made it +safer to keep them where they were, than to try to escape in the +sharp east wind and frost. + +No one was much dismayed at what all regarded as a trifling ailment, +even if dignified as German. Angela owned that she regarded it as a +relief, since infection might last till the summer, and the only +person who was--as he owned--trying to laugh at himself with Angela, +was Bernard, who could not keep out of his mind's eye a little grave +at Colombo. As he walked home, at the turning he saw a figure +wearily toiling upwards, which proved to be Wilfred. "Holloa! you +are at home early!" + +"I had an intolerable headache!" + +"Measles, eh?" + +"No such thing! Once when I was a kid in Malta. But I say, Bear," +he added, coming up with quickened pace, "you could do me no end of a +favour if you would advance me twenty pounds." + +"Whew!" Bernard whistled. + +"There is Lady Day coming, and I can pay you then--most assuredly." +And an asseveration or two was beginning. + +"Twenty pounds don't fly promiscuously about the country," muttered +Bernard, chiefly for the sake of giving himself time. + +"But I tell you I shall have a quarter from the works, and a quarter +from my father (with his hand to his head). That's--that's--. Awful +skinflints both of them! How is a man to do, so cramped up as that?" + +"Oh! and how is a man to do if he spends it all beforehand?" + +"I tell you, Bernard, I must have it, or--or it will break my +mother's heart! And as to my father, I'd--I'd cut my throat--I'd go +to sea before he knew! Advance it to me, Bear! You know what it is +to be in an awful scrape. Get me through this once and I'll never--" + +Bernard did not observe that the scrape of his boyhood over the +drowned Stingo had hardly been of the magnitude that besought for +twenty pounds. He waived the personal appeal, and asked, "What is +the scrape?" + +"Why, that intolerable swindler and ruffian, Hart, deceived me about +Racket, and--" + +"A horse at Avoncester?" said Bernard, light beginning to dawn on +him. + +"I made sure it was the only way out of it all, and they said Racket +was as sure as death, and now the brute has come in third. Hart +swears there was foul play, but what's that to me? I'm done for +unless you will help me over." + +"If it is a betting debt, the only safe way is to have it out with +your father, and have done with it." + +"You don't know what my father is! Just made of iron. You might as +well put your hand under a Nasmyth's hammer." And as he saw that his +hearer was unconvinced, "Besides, it is ever so much more than what I +put upon Racket! That was only the way out of it! It is all up with +me if he hears of it. You might as well pitch me over the cliff at +once!" + +"Well, what is it then?" + +Incoherently, Wilfred stammered out what Bernard understood at last +to mean that he had got into the habit of betting at the billiard +table, surreptitiously kept up in Ivinghoe Terrace in a house of +Richard White's, not for any excessive sums, and with luck at first +on his side than otherwise; but at last he had become involved for a +sum not in itself very terrible to elder years, and his creditor was +in great dread of pressure from his employers, and insisted on +payment. Wilfred, who seemed to have a mortal terror of his father, +beyond what Bernard could understand, had been unable to believe that +the offence for so slight a sum might be forgiven if voluntarily +confessed, had done the worst thing he could, he had paid the debt +with a cheque which had, unfortunately, passed through his hands at +the office, trusting in a few days to recover the amount by a bet +upon the horse, in full security of success! And now! + +Before the predicament was made clear, Wilfred reeled, and would have +fallen if Bernard had not supported him, and he mumbled something +about giddiness and dazzling, insisting at the same time that it was +nothing but the miserable pickle, and that if Bernard would not see +him out of it, he might as well let him lie there and have done with +it. + +Happily they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the house, and it +was possible to get him into the hall before he entirely collapsed +upon a chair; but seeming to recover fresh vigour from alarm at the +sound of voices, he rushed at the stairs and dashed up rapidly the +two flights to his own room, only throwing back the words, "Dead +secret, mind!" + +Bernard was glad to have made no promise, and, indeed, Wilfred's +physical condition chiefly occupied him at the moment, for one or two +of the girls were hurrying in, asking what was the matter, and at the +answer, "He is gone up to his room with a bad headache," Valetta +declared with satisfaction, "Then he has got it! We told him so! +But he would go to the office! and, Bernard, so has Lily." + +"Pleasing information!" said Bernard, nettled and amused at the tone +of triumph, while Mysie, throwing behind her the words, "It may be +nothing," went off to call Mrs. Halfpenny, who was in a state of +importance and something very like pleasure. Bernard strode up to +his wife's room, leaving Valetta half-way in her exposition that when +all the family had been laid low by measles at Malta, Wilfred had +been a very young infant, and it had always been doubtful whether he +had been franked or not; and how he had been reproached with looking +ill in the morning, but had fiercely insisted on going down to the +office, which he was usually glad to avoid on any excuse. + +By the time the household met at dinner, it was plain that they had +to resign themselves to being an infected family, though there were +not many probable victims, and they were likely only to have the +disorder favourably, with the exception of Wilfred, who had evidently +got a severe chill, and could only be reported as very ill, though +still he vehemently resented any suspicion of being subject to such a +babyish complaint. But when the break up for the night was just +over, Lady Merrifield came in search of Bernard, entreating him to +come to speak to Wilfred, who was more and more feverish, almost +light-headed, and insisting that he must speak to Bear, "Bear had not +promised," reiterating the summons, so that there was no choice but +to comply with it. + +He found Wilfred flushed with fever, and violently restless, starting +up in bed as he entered, and crying out, "Bear, Bear, will you? will +you? You did not promise!" + +"I will see about it! Lie down now! There's nothing to be done to- +night." + +"But promise! promise! And not a word!" + +All this was reiterated till Wilfred at last was exhausted for the +time, and to a certain degree pacified by the reassuring voice in +which Bernard soothed him and undertook to take the matter in hand, +hardly knowing what he undertook, and only feeling the necessity of +quieting the perilous excitement, and of helping the mother to bring +a certain amount of tranquillity. + +His own little girl was going on well, and quite capable of being +amused in the morning by being compared to a lobster or a tiger lily; +and Primrose was reported in an equally satisfactory state, ready +either for sleep or continuous reading by her sisters. Only Wilfred +was in the same, or a more anxious, state of fever; and as soon as +Bernard had satisfied himself that there was no special use in his +remaining in the house, he set out for the marble works office, +having made up his mind as to one part of what he had expressed as +"seeing about it." + +He had hardly turned into the Cliffe road before he met Captain +Henderson walking up, and they exchanged distant inquiries and +answers as to whether each might be thought dangerous to the other's +home; after which they forgathered, and compared notes as to +invalids. The Captain had heard of Wilfred's going home ill, and was +coming, he said, to inquire. + +"He seems very seriously ill," was the answer. "I imagine there has +been a chill, and a check. I was coming to speak to you about him." + +"He has spoken to you?" + +Both could now consult freely. "It is a very anxious matter--not so +much for the actual amount as for the habits that it shows." + +"The amount? Oh, I have made up that as regards the firm. I could +not let it come before Sir Jasper, especially in the present state of +things! I meant to give the young chap a desperate fright and +rowing, but that will have to be deferred." + +"You must let me take it!" + +"No, no. Remember, Sir Jasper was my commanding officer, and I and +my wife owe everything to him. I could supply the amount, so that no +one would guess from the accounts that anything had been amiss." + +Bernard could hardly allow himself to be thus relieved, but there was +the comfort of knowing that Wilfred's name was safe, and that the +unstained family honour would not have to suffer shame. Still the +other debts remained, of which Captain Henderson had been only +vaguely suspicious, till the two took counsel on them. Wilfred had +not given up the name of the person for whom he had meant to borrow +from the office; but Captain Henderson had very little doubt who it +was, and it was agreed that he should receive the amount through a +cheque of Bernard on Brown and Travis Underwood, from Captain +Henderson's hands, with a scathing rebuke and peremptory assurance of +exposure to Mr. White, and consequent dismissal, if anything more of +the same kind among the younger men were detected. The man was a +clever artist in his first youth, and had always been something of a +favourite with the authorities, and had a highly respectable father; +so Captain Henderson meant to spare him as much as possible, and +endeavour to ascertain how far the mischief had gone among the young +men connected with the marble works, also to consult Mr. White on the +amount of stringency in the measures used to put a stop to it. All +this, of course, passed out of Bernard Underwood's hands and +knowledge, but a sad and anxious day was before him. All the young +girls were going on well, but Wilfred was increasingly ill all day, +and continually calling for Bernard. Being told, "I have settled the +matter" did not satisfy him. He looked eagerly about the room to +find whether his mother were present, and fancying she was absent +demanded, "Does he know? Do they know?" reiterating again and again. +It was necessary to tell Lady Merrifield that there was an +entanglement about money matters on his mind, which had been settled; +but towards evening he grew worse and more light-headed, apparently +under the impression that only Bernard could guard him from something +unknown, or conceal, whenever he was conscious of the presence of his +mother; and on his father's entrance he hid his face in the pillows +and trembled, of course to their exceeding distress and perplexity; +and when he believed no one present but Bernard and Mrs. Halfpenny, +he became more and more rambling, sometimes insisting that his father +must not know, sometimes abusing all connected with the racing bet, +and more often fancying that he was going to be arrested for robbing +the firm, the enormity of the sum and of the danger increasing with +the fever, and therewith his horror of his father's knowing. It was +of no use for his mother to hang over him, hold his hands, and assure +him that she knew (as, in fact, she did, for Bernard had been obliged +to make a cursory explanation), and that nothing could hinder her +loving him still; he forgot it in the next interruption, and turned +from her with terror and dismay, and once he nearly flung himself out +of bed, fancying that the policeman was coming. + +Bernard held him on this occasion, and told him, "Nothing will do you +good, Willie, but to tell your father, and he will keep all from you. +Let him know, and it will be all right." + +It only seemed to add to his misery and terror. Something that +passed in his hearing, gave him the impression that he was in great +danger, if not actually dying; but his cry was still for Bernard, who +had not ventured to go to bed; but it was still, "Oh, Bear, save me! +Don't let me die with this upon my name! I can't go to God!" + +"There's nothing for it, Wilfred, but to tell your father. He will +pardon you. Your mother has, you see. Tell him, and when he +forgives, you will know that God does. It will come right. Let me +call him!" + +"Let me bring him, my boy, my dear boy!" entreated his mother. "You +know he will." + +Wilfred seemed as if he did not know, but still held fast by +Bernard's strong hands, as though there were support in them; and +when in a few moments Sir Jasper entered the room, there was the same +clinging gesture and endeavour to hide, in spite of the gentle +sweetness of the tone of, "Well, my poor boy." + +It was Bernard who was obliged to say, turning the poor flushed face +towards him, "Wilfred wishes to say--" + +"Father," it came with a gasp at last, "I've done it. I've disgraced +us all. Forgive!" + +He was repeating his own exaggerated ideas of what his crime had +been, and what Sir Jasper would have said to him if all had been +discovered in any other way. + +"Do not think of it now, my boy. I forgive you, whatever it is." + +Thereupon Dr. Dagger entered. He turned every one out except Mrs. +Halfpenny, and gave a draught, which silenced the patient and put him +to sleep in a few minutes. While Bernard hastily satisfied the +parents that a good deal was exaggerated feeling, and that an old +soldier must have known of a good many worse things in his time, +though not so near home. + +There was a general sense of relief in the morning, for Wilfred's +attack had become an ordinary, though severe one, and the other cases +were going on well. But Sir Jasper, who had not been able to grasp +the extent of Wilfred's delinquency, and had been persuaded by his +despair that it was much more serious than it really was, called his +son-in-law into council, and demanded whether the whole could have +been told. + +Bernard was certain that it was so, and related his transactions with +Captain Henderson, much of course to the father's relief, so far as +the outer world was concerned; but what principally grieved him, +besides the habits thus discovered, was his son's abject terror of +him, not only in the exaggeration of illness, but in his mode of +speaking of him. + +It had never been thus with any of his sons before. + +Claude, the soldier, had always been satisfactory, so had Harry the +clergyman, though often widely separated from the parents in their +wandering life; but the bond of confidence had never been broken. +Jasper had never teased any one but his sisters. Fergus, too, the +youngest of all the sons, and of an individual, rather peculiar +nature, was growing up in straight grooves of his own; but Wilfred, +who from delicate health, had been the most at home, had never seemed +to open to his father. The family discipline of the General seemed +only to oppress and terrify him, and the irregularities and +subterfuges that had from time to time been detected had been met +with just anger, never received in such a manner as to call forth the +tenderness of forgiveness. Each discovery of a misdemeanour had only +been the prelude to fresh and worse concealments and hardening. + +And experience of mankind did not give any decided hope that even the +last day's agony of repentance would be the turning over of a new +leaf, when convalescence should bring the same surroundings and +temptations, and perhaps the like disproportionate indignation and +impatience in dealing with errors and constitutional weakness. "And +the example of my brother's poor son is not encouraging," he added. +"He who seems to have owed everything to your brother and sister." + +"Yet poor Fulbert and I were to our homes, perhaps not the black +sheep, but at any rate the vagrant ones." + +"And what made a difference to you, may I ask?" + +"Strong infusion by character and example of principle," said Bernard +thoughtfully; "then, real life, and having to be one's own safeguard, +with nothing to fall back on. As my brother told me at his last, I +should swim when my plank was gone." + +"Yes, but, plainly, you were never weak," and as Bernard did not +answer at once, "Old-fashioned severity used to be the rule with +lads, but it seems only to alienate them now and make them think +themselves unjustly treated. What is one to do with these boys?" + +A question which Bernard could not answer, though it carried him back +with a strange yearning, yet resignation, to the little figure that +had curled round on his knee, and the hopes connected with the hands +that had caressed his cheek. + +He thought over it the more the next week, when he was called to sit +by Wilfred, who was getting better and anxious to talk. + +"My father is very kind," he said. "Oh, yes, very kind now; but it +will be all the same when I get well. You see, Bear, how can a man +be always dawdling about with a lot of girls? There's Dolores +bothering with her science, and Fergus every bit as bad; and Mysie +after her disgusting schoolchildren; and Val and Prim horrid little +empty chatterboxes; and if one does turn to a jolly girl for a bit of +fun, their tongues all go to work, so that you would think the skies +were going to fall; and if one goes in for a bit of a spree, down +comes the General like a sledge-hammer! I wish you would take me out +with you, Bear." + +The same idea had already been undeveloped in Bernard's mind, and +ever on his tongue when alone with his wife; but he kept it to +himself, and only committed himself to, "You would not find an office +in Colombo much more enlivening." + +"There would be something to see--something to do. It would not be +all as dull as ditch-water--just driving one to do something to get +away from the girls and their fads." + +This was nearly a fortnight from the night of crisis, when Wilfred, +very weak, was still in bed; when Primrose and Lily were up and +about, but threatened with whooping cough. Thekla much in the same +case, and very cross; and little Lena weak, caressing and dependant, +but angelically good and patient, so much so that Magdalen and Angela +were quite anxious about her. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--NEW PATHS + + + +"I'll put a girdle round the earth +In forty minutes." +- SHAKESPEARE. + +The visitation had not been confined to the High School. The little +cheaply-built rows for workmen and fishermen had suffered much more +severely, owing chiefly to the parents' callous indifference to +infection. "Kismet," as they think it, said Jane Mohun, and still +more to their want of care. Chills were caught, fevers and +diphtheria ensued, and there was an actual mortality among the +children at the works and at Arnscombe. Mr. Flight begged for help +from the Nursing Sisterhood at Dearport, and, to her great joy, +Sister Beata was sent down to him, with another who was of the same +standing as Angela, and delighted to have a glimpse of her; though +Angela thought it due to her delicate charge, and the Merrifields, +not to plunge into actual nursing while Lena needed her hourly +attention, and was not yet in a state for the training to do without +it to continue. Paulina, however, being regarded as infection proof, +was permitted to be an attendant and messenger of her dear Sister +Beata, to her own great joy. She was now nineteen, and her desire to +devote herself to a Sisterhood had never wavered, and intercourse +with Sister Angela had only strengthened it. + +"Oh, Maidie!" she said, "I do not think there can be any life so good +or so happy as being really given up to our Lord and His work among +the sick and poor." + +"My dear, He can be served if you are in the world, provided you are +not OF the world, and if you keep yourself from the evil." + +"Yes; but why should I run into the world? It is not evil, I know, +so far as you and all your friends can manage; but it stirs up the +evil in one's self." + +"And so would a Sisterhood. That is a world, too." + +"I suppose it is, and that there would be temptation; but there is a +great deal to help one to keep right. And, oh! to have one's work in +real good to Christ's poor, or in missions, instead of in all these +outside silly nonsensical diversions that one doubts about all the +time. If you would only let me go back with dear Sister Beata and +Sister Elfleda as a probationer!" + +"You could not be any more yet," said Magdalen; "but I will think +about it, and talk it over with Sister Angela. You know your friend +Sister Mena, as she called herself, does not mean to be a Sister, but +a governess." + +"Yes; she wrote to me. She has never seen or known anything outside +the Convent, and it is all new and turns her head," said Paulina, +wisely. "I know she helped me to be all the more silly about Vera +and poor Hubert Delrio." + +Magdalen promised to talk the matter over with Sister Angela. + +"I should call it a vocation," said Angela. "I have watched her ever +since I have been here, and I am sure her soul is set on these best +things, in a steady, earnest way." + +"She has always been an exceedingly good girl ever since I have had +to do with her," said Magdalen. "I have hardly had a fault to find +with her, except a little exaggeration in the direction of St. +Kenelm's." + +"A steady, not a fitful flame," said Angela. + +"But she is so young." + +"If you will believe me, Magdalen, such a home as that Dearport +Sisterhood is a precious thing--I have not been worthy of it. I have +been a wild colt, carried about by all manner of passing excitements. +Oh, dear! love of sheer fun and daring enterprise, and amusement, in +shocking every one, even my very dearest, whom I loved best. I have +done things too dreadful to think of, and been utterly unreasonable +and unmanageable, and proud of it; but always that Sisterhood has +been like a cord drawing me! I never quite got free of it, even when +I sent back my medal, and fancied it had been playing at +superstition. I was there for a month as almost a baby, and the +atmosphere has brought peace ever since. That, and my brother, and +Sister Constance, and Bishop Fulmort, have been the saving of me, if +anything has. I mean, if they will have me, to spend a little time +at Dearport after all this perplexity is over, and I know how it is +with Lena, and I could see how it is with Paula if you liked." + +Magdalen accepted the suggestion, perhaps the more readily because of +a fleeting visit from Hubert Delrio, who had finished his frescoes at +the American Vale Leston, and came for a day or two to Mr. Flight's. +She had sometimes doubted whether the supposed love of Vera had not +been a good deal diffused among the young ladies, and might not so +far awaken in Paulina as to render her vocation doubtful; but there +were no such symptoms. Paula was quiet and cheerful, with a friendly +welcome, but no excitement; but it was Thekla, now fifteen, who was +all blushes whenever Hubert looked or spoke to her, all her +forwardness gone; and shyness, or decidedly awkwardness, set in, +resulting chiefly in giggle. + +Hubert looked more manly and substantial, and he had just had an +order for an important London church, which pleased him much, and +involved another journey to Italy to study some of the designs in the +Lombardic churches. + +Not that there was any chance of meeting Vera. Mr. and Mrs. White +had spent the last summer at Baden; and Vera, who had many pretty +little drawing-room talents, and was always obliging, had been very +acceptable there. This winter an attack of rheumatism had made them +decide on trying Algiers, with a view to the Atlas marbles, and then +German baths again might claim them for the summer. + +In fact, the fear of infection had rendered Rock Quay a deserted +place during the Easter vacation. Fergus Merrifield might not come +near Primrose and Lily, and was charmed to accept an invitation from +his friend and admirer, Adrian Vanderkist, to Vale Leston, where he +would be able to explore the geology of Penbeacon, to say nothing of +the coast; while his sister Felicia, who had been one of the victims, +remained to be disinfected with Miss Mohun. Dolores was at Vale +Leston Priory, and Agatha Prescott with her, so as to have a clean +bill of health for her return to Oxford for her last term. + +The Holy Week was calm and grave; and the two girls, with Anna +Vanderkist and her little sisters, were very happy over their +primroses and anemones on Easter Eve, with the beautiful Altar Cross +that no one could manage like Aunt Cherry, whose work was confined to +that, and to the two crosses on the graves. + +Another notion soon occupied them. There was a vague idea that a +sort of convalescent or children's hospital might be established for +the training of women intending to study medicine or nursing, chiefly +at Miss Arthuret's expense, and Dolores was anxious to consider the +possibility of placing it in the sweet mountain air, tempered by the +sea breezes of Penbeacon. + +It was an idea to make Mrs. Grinstead shudder; but neither she nor +her niece, Anna Vanderkist, could forget Gerald's view that Penbeacon +was not only to be the playground of Vale Leston, and they always +felt as if Dolores had a certain widow's right to influence any +decision. So she cheerfully acquiesced in what, in her secret heart, +seemed only a feeble echo of the past, though, to the young +generations it was a very happy hopeful present when all the youthful +party, under the steerage of Mary and Anna, and the escort of Sir +Adrian and Fergus, started off with ponies, donkeys, cycles and +sturdy feet to picnic on Penbeacon, if possible in the March winds-- +well out of the way of the clay works. + +How Fergus divided his cares between the strata and Dolores' kodak, +how even his photography could not spoil Aunt Alda; how charming a +group of sisters Dolores contrived to produce; how Adrian was the +proud pioneer into a coach adorned with stalactites and antediluvian +bones; how Anna collected milkwort and violets for Aunt Cherry; how a +sly push sent little Joan in a headlong career down a slope that +might have resulted in a terrible fall, but did only cause a tumble +and great fright, and a severe reprimand from the elder sisters; how +Agatha was entranced by the glorious view in the clearness of spring, +how they ate their sandwiches and tried to think it was not cold; how +grey east wind mist came over the distance and warned them it was +time to trot down,--all this must belong to the annals of later Vale +Leston; and of those years of youth which in each generation leave +impressions as of sunbeams for life. And on their return, Dolores +found a letter which filled her with a fresh idea. It was from her +father in New Zealand, telling her that there was an opening for her +to come and give a course of lectures on electricity at Canterbury, +Auckland and the other towns, and proposing to her to come out with +her lady assistant, when she might very probably extend her tour to +Australia. + +"Would you come, Naggie?" asked Dolores. + +"Oh! I should like nothing half so well. If you could only wait +till my turn is over, and the exam!" + +"Of course! Why, we shall not have finished the correspondence till +after the examination! How capital it will be! My father will like +your bright face, and you will think him like Fergus grown older. +Will your sister consent?" + +"Oh! Magdalen will be glad enough to have me off on a career. We +will write and prepare her mind. I believe I am not to go home, so +as to bring a clean bill of health to St. Robert's." + +"I really think," added Dolores, "that Magdalen would make an +admirable head matron, or whatever you call it!" + +"Dear old thing! She is very fond of her Goyle." + +"True, but Sophy's engineer husband tells us that a new line is +projected to Rock Quay, through the very heart of the Goyle, Act of +Parliament, compulsory sale and all." + +"Well! work might console her for being uprooted, and she is quite +youthful enough to take to it with spirit." + +"Besides that she would greatly console Clement and Cherry for the +profanation of their Penbeacon. I declare I will suggest it to +Arthurine!" + +So the two young people resolved, not without a consciousness that +what was to them a fresh and inspiring gale, to the elder generation +was "winds have rent thy sheltering bowers." + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--A SENTENCE + + + +"What should we give for our beloved?" +- E. B. BROWNING. + +No sooner had the visitors departed than the others now out of +quarantine appeared at Vale Leston. Angela was anxious to spend a +little time there, and likewise to have Lena overhauled by Tom May. +The child had never really recovered, and was always weakly; and +whereas on the journey, Lily, now in high health, was delighted with +all she saw, though she could not compare Penbeacon to Adam's Peak, +Lena lay back in Sister Angela's arms, almost a dead weight, hardly +enduring the bustle of the train, though she tried not to whine, as +long as she saw her pink Ben looking happy in his cage. + +Angela was an experienced nurse, and was alarmed at some of the +symptoms that others made light of. Mrs. Grinstead had thought +things might be made easier to her if the Miss Merrifields came to +meet her and hear the doctor's opinion; and Elizabeth accepted her +invitation, arriving to see the lovely peaceful world in the sweet +blossoming of an early May, the hedges spangled with primroses, and +the hawthorns showing sheets of snow; while the pear trees lifted +their snowy pyramids, and Lily in her white frock darted about the +lawn in joyous play with her father under the tree, and the grey +cloister was gay with wisteria. + +Angela was sitting in the boat, safely moored, with a book in her +hand, the pink cockatoo on the gunwale, nibbling at a stick, and the +girl lying on a rug, partly on her lap. Phyllis and Anna, who had +come out on the lawn, made Elizabeth pause. + +"That's the way they go on!" said Phyllis. "All day long Angela is +reading to the child either the 'Water Babies' or the history of +Joseph." + +"Or crooning to her the story of the Cross," said Anna; "and as soon +as one is ended she begins it again, and Lena will not let her miss +or alter a single word." + +"They go on more than half the night," added Phyllis. "Bear sat up +long over his letters and accounts, and as he went up he heard the +crooning, and looked in; and the very moment Angela paused, there +came the little plaintive voice, 'Go on, please.' 'Women are +following'--" + +"But is not that spoiling her?" asked Bessie. + +A look of sad meaning passed between her two companions. Phyllis +shook her head slightly, and, instead of answering, conducted Bessie +on to the bank, when Angela looked up and made a sign that she could +not move or speak, for the child was asleep. The yellow head was +shaded by Angela's parasol, the thin hair lying ruffled on the black +dress, and the small face looked more pinched than when the aunt had +last seen it, nearly a year previously. She had watched the decay of +aged folks, but she was unused to the illnesses of children; and she +recoiled with a little shock, as she looked down at the little wasted +face, with a slight flush of sleep. "Recovery from measles," she +said. + +Phyllis smiled a little pitifully as her own little girl, all radiant +with health and joy, came skipping up, performing antics over her +father's hand. "Take care, Lily, don't wake poor little Lena," was +murmured quietly. + +"Northern breezes--" began Bessie, but the voices had broken the +light slumber; and as Angela began, "See, Lena, here is Aunt Bessie," +the effect was to make her throw herself over Angela's shoulder and +hide her face; and when her protector tried to turn her round and +reason her into courtesy, she began to cry in a feeble manner. + +"She has had a bad night," said motherly Phyllis; "let her alone." + +"May not I get down into the boat?" asked Lily. "I'll be very good." + +There would have been a little hesitation, but at the voice Lena +looked up and called "Lily, Lily!" Bernard lifted his small daughter +down, Elizabeth was not sorry to be led away for the present, and +when, after a turn in the rose garden, she came back, the two +children were sitting with arms round one another, holding a +conversation with Ben, the cockatoo, and making him dance on one of +the benches of the boat, under Angela's supervision, lest he should +end by dancing overboard. The rich fair hair, shining dark blue +eyes, and plump glowing cheeks of Lily were a contrast to the wan +wasted colouring of her little cousin; but Lena was more herself now +than when just awake, and let Lily lead her up and introduce her, as +it might be called, to Cousin Bessie as Lily called her, a less +formidable sound than "Aunt Elizabeth." They were both kissed, and +she endured it. Angela was, as her brothers and sisters said, "very +good," and scrupulously abstained from absorbing the child all the +evening, letting Elizabeth show her pictures and tell her stories, to +which, by Lily's example, she listened quietly enough and with +interest. + +When the two children went off, hand in hand, to their beds, +Elizabeth said, "Really, Magdalen is improved. If you leave Lily +with her, Phyllis, I think we should get on beautifully. The bracing +air will do wonders for them both." + +"Thank you," said poor Phyllis forbearingly; "we have not made our +plans about Lily yet." + +But Elizabeth thought out a beautiful scheme of discipline and study +in the long light hours of the morning, and began to feel herself +drawn towards her delicate little niece, feeling sure that the little +thing would soon be Susan's darling, if Susan could be brought to +endure the cockatoo walking loose about the house. + +Early in the day Professor May appeared, and was hailed as an old +friend by all the Underwoods. He rejoiced to see Clement looking +well and active; and "as to this fellow," he said, looking at +Bernard, "it shows what development will do." + +"Not quite the young Bear of Stoneborough," said Clement, leaning +affectionately on his broad shoulder; "our skittish pair are grown +very sober-minded. But you have not told us of your father." + +"My father is very well. He walks down every day to sit with my +wife, and visits a selection of his old patients, who are getting few +enough now. This is not my patient, I suppose?" + +"Unless you are ready to prescribe only laughing and good Jersey +cows' milk," said Bernard, pulling the long silky brown hair. +"Where's mother, little one?" + +"Mother sent me to say Aunt Angel is ready, if Dr. May will come up +to Aunt Cherry's room. Lena is frightened, and they did not like to +leave her." + +It was a long visit, after Phyllis had come down; and, walking up and +down the cloister with Bessie Merrifield, listened to her schemes of +education for the little maidens. Lily she liked and admired, and +she was convinced that Magdalen's weak health and spirits were the +result of the spoiling system. Phyllis trembled a little as she +heard of the knocking about, out-of-doors ways that had certainly +produced fine strong healthy frames and upright characters, but she +forbore to say that if her little girl had to be left, it would be to +her mother and Mysie. + +By and by Tom came down, and finding Geraldine alone in the drawing- +room, he answered her inquiry with a very grave look. "Poor little +thing! You do not think well of her! Is it as Angel feared?" + +"Confirmed disease, from original want of development of heart. +Measles accelerated it. I doubt her lasting six months, though it +may be longer or less." + +"Have you told Angel?" + +"She knew it, more or less. She is ready to bear it, though one can +see how her soul is wrapped up in the child, and the child in her." + +"One thing, Tom, will you tell Miss Merrifield yourself, and alone, +and make her feel that it is an independent opinion? It may save +both the poor child and Angel a great deal." + +"Are you prepared to keep her here?" + +"Of course we are. It is Angel's natural home. Clement and I could +think of nothing else" + +"I knew you would say so. If I understand rightly there is something +like a jealousy of her case in the Merrifields, prompted greatly by +their wish to expiate any neglect of her father." + +"That is what I gather from what Phyllis tells me." + +"What a lovely countenance hers is in expression! No wonder Bernard +has softened down. There is strength and solidity as well as +sweetness in her face. Ah, there they are!" + +"I will call Phyllis in. Bessie Merrifield has almost walked her to +death by this time." + +So Phyllis was called and told. What she said was, "I only hope he +will make her understand that it could not be helped, and it was not +Angela's fault." + +Tom May had wisdom enough to make this clear in what was a greater +shock to Elizabeth than it was to Angela, who had suspected enough to +be prepared for the sentence, and had besides a good deal of hospital +experience, which enabled her thoroughly to understand the +Professor's explanations. So, indeed, did it seem to Elizabeth at +the time he was speaking; but she had lived a good deal in London, +and had a great idea that a London physician must be superior to a +man who had lived in the country, and, moreover, whom all the +household called Tom, and she asked Mrs. Grinstead if he were really +so clever. + +"Indeed, I think he is; and I have seen a great deal of his +treatment. You may quite trust him. He lives down here at +Stoneborough for his father's sake, or he would be quite at the head +of his profession." + +"Superior to the two Doctors Brownlow?" + +"I should not say superior, but quite equal." + +"The Brownlows," said Clement, looking up from his paper, "helped me +through an ordinary malarial fever. John Lucas is a brilliant +specialist in such cases, but certifying an affection of the heart. +Tom May latterly has treated me better. As far as I understand the +case of your little niece, I should say both that it was more in the +line of Tom May, and likewise that it would be very hurtful to her to +take her about and subject her to more examinations." + +"Poor little thing! no doubt it would be a terrible distress," +acquiesced Bessie; "but still, if it is bracing that she needs-- +northern air might make all the difference." + +Clement sighed a little hopelessly over making a woman understand or +give way, and returned to his newspaper; while Geraldine tried to +argue that air could not make much difference, speaking in the +interest of the child herself and of her sister. Elizabeth listened +and agreed; but there was in the Merrifield family a fervour of +almost jealous expiation of their neglect of Henry, inattention to +his daughter, and desire to appropriate her, and to restore her to +health, strength, and wisdom, in spite of her would-be stepmother. + +"They hate me as much as if I were her stepmother!" cried Angela. "I +wish I was, to have a right to protect her! No, Clem; I'll not break +out, if I can help it, as long as they don't worry her; and I think +Bessie does see the rights of it." + +Yes; the peaceful, thoughtful atmosphere of Vale Leston, unlike the +active bustle of Coalham, had an insensible influence on Elizabeth's +mind; and she saw that Angela's treatment of the child, always +cheerful though tender, was right, and that it would be sheer cruelty +to separate them. She promised to use all her power to prevent any +such step, and finally left Vale Leston, perfectly satisfied that it +was impossible to take Lena with her. + +But her family did not see it thus, especially Mrs. Samuel +Merrifield, the child's guardian. She insisted that it was her +husband's duty to bring the little one to London for advice, and to +remove her from all the weakening, morbid influences of Vale Leston. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--SUMMONED + + + +"What would we give to our beloved?" +- E. B. BROWNING. + +"I wish they all would not go so very fast," said little Lena, hiding +her face against him from the whirl of cabs and omnibuses. + +"They bewilder us savages," said Angela, smiling. "Remember we are +from the wilds." + +"She shall have her tea, and a good rest," said Marilda; "and then I +have asked her uncle and aunts to meet you at dinner, and Fernan +hopes to bring home another old friend. Whom do you think, Angel?" + +"Oh! Not our Bishop?" + +"Yes, the Bishop of Albertstown! He is actually in town; Fernan saw +him yesterday at the Church House." + +"Oh! that is joy!" cried Angela; and Lena raised her head, with, "Is +it mine--mine own Bishop?" + +"Mine own, mine own Bishop and godfather, my sweet!" said Angela; +"more to us in our own way than any one else. Oh! it is joy! How +happy Clement will be!" + +It was with much feeling, almost akin to shame, that Bessie wrote to +Angela this decision of her brother, that a London authority must be +consulted--not Dr. Brownlow, but one whom Mrs. Sam had heard highly +spoken of. + +"That man!" cried Angela. "I have heard of him! He is a regular +mealy-mouthed old woman of a doctor! And she is so well just now! +How horrid to shake her up again! Oh, Bear! if I could only sail +away with her to Queensland!" + +"You would if it was ten years ago," said Bernard. + +"Yes! Is it the way of the world, or learning resignation, that +makes one know one must submit? Giving up an idol is a worse thing +when the idol is made of flesh and blood." + +Bernard wanted to see Sir Ferdinand, so made it an excuse for helping +his sister on the way; and he did so effectively, for his knee and +broad breast were Lena's great resting-place; and his stories of +monkeys and elephants were almost as good as kangaroos. Was there +not a kangaroo to be seen in London, which she apparently thought +would be a place of about the size of Albertstown? + +Lady Underwood had insisted on receiving the travellers from Vale +Leston in her house in Kensington; and there was her broad, kindly +face looking out for them at the station, and her likewise broad and +kindly carriage ready to carry them from it. How natural all looked +to Angela, with all her associations of being a naughty, wild, +mischievous schoolgirl, the general plague and problem! + +"But always a dear," said Marilda, with her habit of forgetting +everybody's faults. "Why didn't you bring your wife, Bernard, and +your little girl for this darling's playfellow?" + +"She is her best playfellow," said Angela; "Adela's Joan is too +rough, and fitter for Adrian's companion." + +"She is my playfellow," said Bernard, holding her up. "Look out, +Lena. Here's Father Thames to go over." + +"And Fernan is so glad," added Marilda. + +For Bishop Robert Fulmort had, when Vicar of St. Wulstan's, been the +guide and helper of Ferdinand Travis's time of trial and +disappointment, as well as the spiritual father of Clement Underwood; +he had known and dealt with Angela in her wayward girlhood, and aided +her bitter repentance; and in these later days in Australia had been +her true fatherly friend, counsellor and comforter in the trials and +perplexities that had befallen her. Bernard read, in her lifted head +and brightened eye, that she felt the meeting him almost a +compensation for the distress and perplexity of this journey to +London. + +Bernard carried the little girl up to the room and laid her down to +sleep off her fatigue, while Marilda waited on her and Angela with +her wonted bustling affection, extremely happy to have two of her +best beloved cousins under her roof. + +Bernard went off to find Sir Ferdinand at his office, and quiet +prevailed till nearly dinner time, when Lena awoke and would not be +denied one sight of her godfather. So Angela dressed her in her +white frock, and smoothed her thin yellow hair, and took her down to +the great stiff handsome room that all Emilia's efforts had never +made to look liveable. Emilia Brown was there, very fashionably +attired, but eager for news of Vale Leston, and the Merrifields soon +arrived with, "Oh! here she is!" from the Captain, "Well! she looks +better than I expected!" + +"Poor little dear!" observed his wife, dressed in a low dress and +thin fringe on her forehead in honour of what, to the country mind, +was a grand dinner party, at which Angela's plain black dress and +tight white cap were an unbecoming sight. Elizabeth was there, +kissing Angela with real sympathy; and Lena, who had grown a good +deal more accustomed to strange relations, endured the various +embraces without discourtesy. + +But when the door opened and the grey-headed Bishop came in there was +a low half scream of "Oh! oh!" and with one leap she was in his arms, +as he knelt on one knee, and clasped her, holding out a hand to +Angela, whose eyes were full of tears of relief and trust. Marilda +gave a glad welcome, but they were startled by perceiving that the +joy of meeting had brought on a spasm of choking on Lena, who was +gasping in a strange sort of agony. Angela took her in her arms and +carried her out of the room. Marilda presently following, came back +reporting that the little girl had been relieved by a shower of +tears, but was still faint and agitated, and that Angela could not +leave her, but begged that they would not wait dinner. + +"Such sensitiveness needs anxious care," said Elizabeth. + +"If it be not the effect of spoiling. Just affectation!" replied the +sister-in-law in a decided voice, which made Bessie glad that the +poor child's home was not to be among the rough boys at Stokesley, +who were not credited with any particular feelings. + +Angela's absence gave the Bishop the opportunity of telling what she +had been during her years at Albertstown, what a wonderful power +among the natives, though not without disappointment, and she had +been still more effective among the settlers and their daughters. +Carrigaboola, Fulbert's farm, had been an oasis of hope and rest to +the few clergy of his scanty staff, and Fulbert himself had been a +tower of strength for influence over the settlers who had fallen in +his way, by his unswerving uprightness and honour, with the deeper +principles of religion, little talked of but never belied. Even +after his death, the power he had been told over all with whom he had +come in contact. + +Bernard heard it with immense pleasure, as did the faithful Ferdinand +and Marilda; while Elizabeth felt more and more that Sister Angela +was not to be treated, as she feared Sam and his wife were inclined +to do, as a mere interloper in their family affairs, but as one to be +not merely considered with gratitude, but even reverenced. + +Indeed, Sam began to feel it, as he saw how the other men, both +practical business men, listened, and were impressed; but it was not +quite the case with his wife, who did not particularly esteem +colonial Bishops, and still less Sisterhoods or devotion to +missionary efforts, especially among the Australian blacks, whom her +old geography book had told her were the most degraded and hopeless +of natives, scarcely removed from mere animals. + +When Angela appeared half through dinner time and said that Lena was +safely asleep, and Marilda sat her down to be happy in exchange of +Carrigaboola tidings with her Bishop, Fernando greeted her with a +reverence not undeserved, though perhaps all the more from the +contrast to the mischievous little sprite who used to disturb the +days of his philandering with Alda. + +How much shocked Mrs. Samuel was, when the magnificent Sir Ferdinand, +whom she regarded with awe as a millionaire, was flippantly answered +by this extraordinary Sister, "Thank you, Fernan, I should like to +have a sight of the old office. I hope you have a descendant of the +old cat, Betty. Didn't she come from your grandmother, Marilda? Do +you remember her being found playing tricks with the nugget, just +come from Victoria?" + +"That was in her kitten days," said Ferdinand. + +"Is that personal, Fernan?" + +"A compliment, Angel," said the Bishop. "Kittens alter a good deal." + +"Not much for the better," said Angela. "If you only could see Mrs. +Lamb, who used to be the very moral of a kitten, scratchiness and +all!" + +"I thought her very much improved," said Lady Underwood gravely. + +"Oh, yes; grown into a sleek and personable tabby, able to wave her +tail at the tip and tuck her paws--her velvet paws--well under her; +and lick her lips over the--oh, dear!--what do you call it?--your +menu is quite too much for us poor savages, Marilda. A bit of damper +is quite enough for us, isn't it, Bishop?" + +"Varied with opossum and fern root," he said smiling; "but that's +only when we have lost our way." + +The talk drifted off to the history of a shepherd's child, who had +strayed into the bush, and after much searching, in which the Bishop +and Fulbert had been half starved, had finally been found and carried +home by Angela's "crack gin," as she told it to Bernard; and as +Marilda thought the poor child was in a trap, it had to be translated +into "favourite pupil," though Bernard carried on the joke by asking +Marilda if she thought the natives cannibals given to the snaring of +mankind. + +Altogether it was a thoroughly merry evening, such as comes to pass +in the meeting of old friends and comrades in too large numbers for +grave discourse, but with habits of close intercourse and +associations of all kinds. Emilia and her husband tried in all +courtesy not to let the Merrifields feel themselves neglected; and +indeed Bessie was only too glad to listen and join at times in the +talk; but it all went outside Mrs. Sam, who was on the whole +scandalised at the laughter of a Bishop, and a Sister. Indeed, it +was true that Bishop Fulmort, naturally a grave man, very much so in +his early days, comported himself on this occasion as if he realised +Southey's wish - + + +"That in mine age as cheerful I might be, +Like the green winter of the holly tree." + + +At any rate, that evening was long a bright remembrance. Lena slept +all night, and was so fresh and well in the morning that Angela +foreboded that the examination might not detect her delicacy. They +met Mrs. Merrifield, and took her with them to the doctor's, Lady +Underwood Travis having placed her carriages at their disposal. + +It was very much as Angela had expected, knowing by hospital +reputation what the doctor was supposed to be to old ladies and +fanciful mothers, while perhaps he had also heard of her fracas long +ago at the hospital. For he was not more courteous to her than could +be helped, treating her much as if she were only the nursery maid, +and hardly looking at the opinion which she had made Professor May +write out for him. + +To her mind, it was a very cursory examination that he made; and the +upshot of his opinion, triumphantly accepted by Mrs. Merrifield, was +that there was nothing seriously amiss with the child, that she only +needed care, regularity and bracing, and that the stifling, gasping +spasms were simply the effect of hysteria. + +Hysteria! Angela felt as if she should run wild as she heard Mrs. +Merrifield's complacent remarks on having always thought so, and +being sure that a few weeks of good air and good management would +make an immense difference. The need of not alarming or prejudicing +the poor little victim was all that kept Angela in any restraint; and +Mrs. Merrifield went on to say that she had promised her youngest +boy, who was with her in London, to take him to the Zoological +Gardens, and it would be a good opportunity for Magdalen to see them. + +"Is that where there is a kangaroo?" asked Lena, so eagerly that +Angela, though thinking that morning's work enough for the feeble +strength, could not withstand her. Besides, if the Merrifields were +to have her wholly in another day, what was the use of standing out +for one afternoon? One comfort was that Elizabeth, who would really +have the charge of the child, had much more good sense and knowledge +of the world than her sister-in-law. + +Still Angela felt the only way of bearing it was that after setting +Mrs. Merrifield down, she stopped the carriage at a church she knew +to have a noon-tide Litany, knelt there, with the little girl beside +her, and tried to say, "Thy will be done! To Thy keeping I commit +her." Her "hours" came to help her. + + +"Quench Thou the fires of hate and strife, + The wasting fever of the heart, +From perils guard her feeble life, + And to our souls Thy help impart." + + +She was able to be calm, and to utter none of her rage when they came +back to luncheon; and Marilda, declaring she liked nothing so well as +seeing children at the Zoo, wished to go with the party. All, save +Mrs. Merrifield and her boy, had gone different ways in London, so +there was plenty of room in the barouche. + +The boy's mind was set on riding on the elephant, and they walked on +that way, turning aside, however, to the yard where towered the +kangaroo, tall, gentle, graceful and gracious. Lena sprang forward +with a cry of joy, and clasped her hands; but in one moment the same +spasm, at first of ecstasy then of overpowering feeling, becoming +agony, came over her, and gasping and choking, Angela held her in her +arms and carried her to a seat, holding her up, loosening her +clothes; but still she did not come round. Her aunt tried to say, +"hysteric." Some one brought water, but it was of no use--there were +still the labouring gasps, and the convulsive motion. "Let us take +her home," Marilda said. + +"Nothing but hysterics!" repeated the aunt. "I will stay with +Jackie." + +Marilda found her servant and the carriage, and in the long drive, a +few drops of strong stimulant at a chemist's brought a little relief +though scarcely consciousness; and when Angela had carried her up to +her room, there was a blueness about the lips, a coldness about the +fingers, that told much. Marilda had at once sent for Dr. Brownlow +as the nearest, and he was at home; but he could only look and do +nothing, but attempt to revive circulation, all in vain; and with +Marilda standing by, with one convulsive clutch of Angela's hand, the +true mother of her orphaned life, little Lena sank to a peaceful rest +from the tribulations that awaited her here. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--SAFE + + + +"Rest beyond all grief and pain, +Death to thee is truest gain." +KEBLE. + +Angela's nearest and best friends had anticipated that the peaceful +climax of all her cares would be a relief to her; and so indeed in +the long run it would be to her higher sense, and she would be +thankful. But even those who knew her most thoroughly had not +estimated the pangs of personal affection and deprivation of the +child she had fostered with a mother's tenderness for seven years, +and the absolute suffering of the sudden parting, even though it was +to security of bliss, instead of doubt and uneasiness. + +She was quite broken and really ill with neuralgia and exhaustion, +unable to attend the funeral, which the Merrifields wished to have at +Stokesley, and unfit for anything but lying still with the pink +parrot on the rail below, kindly watched over by good Marilda. The +strain of many disturbed nights, the perplexities, the struggle for +resignation, all coming after a succession of trying events in +Australia, had told heavily upon her. Indeed, no one guessed how +much she had undergone, physically as well as spiritually, till +Marilda would not be denied the consulting Dr. Brownlow, who +questioned her closely, and extorted confessions of the long +continued strain of exertion. Rest was all she needed; and Marilda +took care that she had it, bringing Robina up from Minsterham to make +it more effectual, and letting her have visits from her Bishop and +from Bernard as they could afford the time, both being very and +variously busy. + +Angela had made up her mind to go out to Australia again, and to make +Carrigaboola an endowment for the Sisterhood; but the means of doing +this could best be arranged there, and she intended to go out when +her Bishop should return in the autumn, feeling that her vocation was +there, though there was a blank in all she had most cared for on +earth in that home. + +As soon as she had recovered, she wished to spend a fortnight at +Dearport, beginning with a retreat that was held there. Remembering +her old career there, and the abrupt close of her novitiate, she felt +and spoke as if she was to be received as in penitence, but to the +Sisters who surrounded her it was more as if they were receiving a +saint. + +When she came back to Vale Leston, she had recovered cheerfulness, +more equable than it had ever been, and Cherry and Alda found her a +charming companion. There was much going on at Vale Leston just +then. Miss Arthuret and Dolores were at Penbeacon, seriously +considering of the scheme of converting the old farm house into a +kind of place of study for girls who wanted to work at various +technicalities, and to fit themselves for usefulness or for self- +maintenance. There was to be more or less of the Convalescent Home +or House of Rest in combination, and it had occurred to Dolores that +there could hardly be a better head of such an establishment than +Magdalen Prescott. + +Magdalen had been asked to the Priory to meet Angela, to whom it was +now a comfort and pleasure to talk of her treasure, so much less lost +to her than in the uncongenial surroundings threatened at Coalham. +And the invitation, followed by the proposal, came at a not +unpropitious moment. A railway company, after much surveying, much +disputing, and many heartburnings, were actually obtaining an Act of +Parliament, empowering it to lay its cruel hands upon the Goyle, +running its viaducts down the ravine of Arnscombe, and destroy all +the peace and privacy! It did much, as Agatha had said, to make the +new scheme of Penbeacon acceptable though. + +"That comes of making one's nest," she sighed, "and thinking one's +self secure in it for life! Oh! it is worse and more changeable in +this latter century than in any other! Does the world go round +faster?" + +"Of course it does," said Geraldine. "Think how many fashions, how +many styles, how many ways of thinking, have passed away, even in our +own time." + +"And what have they left behind them?" + +"Something good, I trust. Coral cells, stones for the next +generation of zoophytes to stand upon to reach up higher." + +"Is it higher?" + +"In one sense, I hope. The same foundation, remember, and each cell +forms a rock for the future--a white and beautiful cell, remember, as +it grows unconsciously, beneath this creature." + +Magdalen smiled, delighted with the illustration. + +"It forms into the rocks, the strong foundations of the earth," she +said. + +"When it has undergone its baptism beneath the sea," added Geraldine. +"But practically and unpoetically, perhaps--how the young folk mount +upon all our little achievements in Church matters, and think them +nearly as old-fashioned and despicable as we did pews and black +gowns! Or how attempts like the schools that brought up Robina and +Angela have shot out into High Schools, colleges, professions, and I +know not what besides." + +"Ah! we come to my old notions for my sisters. I thought they would +have been governesses like myself, but they married; and now tell me, +what do you think of this scheme of Miss Mohun and Agatha?" + +"You know Dolores is going to her father first. I never saw him, but +Lady Merrifield and Jane tell me he is a very wise, highly-principled +person, perfectly to be trusted; and they like all that they have +heard of his young wife. I should think if Agatha is to become a +scientific lecturer, she could not begin her career under better +training." + +"Career, exactly! People used not to talk of careers." + +"Life and career! Tortoise and hare, eh? But the hare may and ought +still to reach the goal, and have her cell built, even if she does +have her wander yahr, like the young barnacles, before becoming +attached! No! she need not become the barnacle goose. That is +fabulous," said Mrs. Grinstead, laughing off a little of her +seriousness, and adding, "Tell me of the other girls. I think Vera +did not come home last year." + +"No; nor the year before. She has a good many pretty little talents, +and is very obliging. Mrs. White seems to be very fond of her, and +did not want to spare her when they went to Gastein for the summer. +And this year, when there was so much infection about, I could not +press it." + +"Is it true that there is anything between her and Petros White?" + +"I know Miss Mohun--Jane--infers it, but I don't like to build upon +it." + +"I should build on most inferences that Jane Mohun ventured to make +known," said Geraldine, smiling; "and Paulina's fate is pretty well +fixed, I suppose!" + +"Dear child, she has never had any other purpose since I first knew +her thoroughly, and I do not think her present stay at Dearport will +disenchant her. I think she is really devoted, not to the +theoretical romance of a Sisterhood, but to the deeper full purpose +of self-devotion." + +"I can fully believe it of her. Hers have not been the ups and downs +of my Angela, though indeed, after all she has gone through, there is +something in her face that brings to my mind, 'After that ye have +suffered awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.'" + +"It is a lovely countenance--so patient, and yet so bright." + +"I do not think anything in all her life has tried her so much as the +distress about little Lena; and after knowing her wildness--to use a +weak word for it--under other troubles, I see what grace and self- +control have done for her. You still keep your Thekla!" she added, +as the girl flashed by, in company with a coeval Vanderkist. + +"For a few years to come, though I am beginning to feel like the old +hens who do but bring their children up to launch them on the +waters." + +"Well, it is happy if the launch can be made with hope present as +well as faith; and to see what Angel has become after many +vicissitudes, not confined to her first years of youth, is an immense +encouragement." + +To Angela's great delight, the affairs of Brown and Underwood were +found to require inspection at San Francisco, as well as at Colombo, +where Bernard was to put the firm into the hands of one of the +Browns, who was to meet him there, and he would then be able to come +home to the central office in England. + +It was not expedient for Phyllis to make the voyage for so brief a +stay, so it was decided that she should remain with her mother, and +she declared that she should be happy about Bernard being taken care +of if Angela, before settling in at Carrigaboola, would go and stay +with him at Ceylon. "No one can tell the pleasure it is," she said +to Magdalen, "to borrow one's own especial brother from his wife for +a little while. Oh, yes, I know it goes against the grain with him, +and it is right it should; but the poor old sister enjoys her treat +nevertheless and notwithstanding." + +There was a great family gathering at Vale Leston, including both the +Harewoods; and the Bishop of Albertstown came to spend that last +fortnight in England with Clement, the boy who had been committed to +him as a chorister, then trained as a young deacon, and almost driven +out in his inexperience to the critical charge of the neglected +parish and the old squire, only to be recalled after seven years to +the more important charge in London on the Bishop's appointment, +there to serve till strength gave way, and he must perforce return to +his former home. There was a farewell picnic of the elders at +Penbeacon, merry and yet wistful in its hopeful auguries that the +loved play place would be a glad and beneficial home. + +It was a strange retrospect, talked over by the two old friends in +deep thankfulness, yet humility over their own shortcomings and +failures, and no less strange were the recollections of the wild +noisy insubordinate schoolgirl whom the Bishop's sister had failed to +tame, and who had to both seemed to live only on sensation, whether +religious or secular, and who had been one continual care and +perplexity to each. By turns they had thought that the full Church +system acted as a hotbed on her peculiar temperament, and at others +they had thought it only an alternative to the amusements of vanity +and flirtation. Each had felt himself a failure with regard to her, +and had hoped for a fresh start from each crisis of repentance, +notably, from the death of Felix, only to be disappointed by some +fresh aberration. + +However, in Queensland, her work had been noble, and thoroughly +effective in many cases; it had involved much self-denial and even +danger, and though these might agree with her native spirit of +adventure, there had likewise been not fitful, but steadily earnest +devotion in her convent life, as well as the tenderest reverent care +of Mother Constance in a long and painful decline, and therewith a +steady cheerful influence which had immensely assisted the growth of +Fulbert's character. For some years past, Sister Angela had been not +a care, but a trusty helper to the Bishop; and the later trials and +difficulties, especially the sore rending of the tie with the being +she had come to love with all the force of her strong nature, had +been borne in a manner that bore witness to the subduing of that +over-rebellious and vehement spirit. + +And, as she said to Geraldine on the last evening as they bade good- +night, "This has been the very happiest time I ever spent here--yes, +happier than in those exultant days of new possession and liberty. +Oh, yes, all experiments, as it were, bold ventures, self-reproach +and failure, defiance and fun, and then--oh, the ache I would not +confess, the glory of being provoking, and, oh, the final anguish I +brought on myself and on you all; and I went on, when it began to +wear away, still stifling the sting which revived whenever I came +home, and all was renewed! Really, whenever I shammed it was only +remorse. I don't think that real repentance, and the peace after it, +began till those quiet days with dear Mother Constance." + +"And is it peace now?" + +"Yes, I think so. Even the parting with my child has not torn me up. +I can say it is well--far better than leaving her, far better, +indeed! And Felix is what he meant to be, my treasure, not my +accuser. Oh, I am glad to have been at home, and made it all up, to +bear away--and leave with you the sense of Peace." + +All who had loved and feared for her were very happy over her when +all joined in that farewell service on her own birthday, St. Michael +and All Angels' Day. + +The party were joined by Dolores and Wilfred at Liverpool; Bernard +having undertaken to establish the latter at Colombo in hands as safe +as might be. + + + +CHAPTER XXX--THE MAIDEN ROCKS + + + +"What need we more if hearts be true, +Our voyage safe, our port in view." +- KEBLE. + +A telegram that a steamer had been wrecked on the Maiden Rocks filled +three homes with dismay. The rocks were sought out in maps, and +found to be specks lying between County Antrim and Scotland--no doubt +terrible in their reality. + +Another day brought something more definite. It WAS the Afra,-- +"wrecked in the fog of October 11th. Boats got off." + +That was all; but a day's post brought letters, of which the fullest +was from Dolores: + + +"CORNCASTLE, LARNE, CO. ANTRIM, IRELAND, +October 12. + +"DEAREST AUNT LILY, - + +"I trust Phyllis has by this time heard from Bernard, as I heard him +called on, as a good oarsman, to go in the first boat, and we saw +Angela's bonnet. We--that is Wilfred, Nag, and the Bishop--are all +safe here, with eight or nine others. Will will do well, I trust. +He quite owes his life to Nag. This is how it was: We had not long +been out of the Mersey before an impenetrable fog came down upon us, +and we could not see across the deck; but on we went, on what proved +to be our blind way, till, after a night and day, just as we were +getting up from dinner, there came a hideous shock and concussion, +throwing us all about the room; and in less than a minute it was +repeated, with horrible crackings, tearings, yells and shouts. No +one needed to tell us what it meant, and down came the call, 'Don't +wait to save your things, only wraps, ladies! Up on deck! Life- +belts if you can!' I remember Bernard standing at the top of the +ladder, helping us up, and somehow, I understand from him, that we +were on a reef, and might either remain there, and sink, or be washed +off. The fog was clearing, and there was a dim light up high, +somewhere, one of the lighthouses, I believe. I don't quite know how +it all went; I think we kept in the background, round the Bishop, and +that a boat full of emigrant women was put off. I know there were +only about half a dozen women left, who had been crying and refusing +to leave their husbands; and about thirty altogether, men and women, +were somehow got into our boat with the chief mate; the Bishop all +consolation and prayer; poor Wilfred limp, cold and trembling, for he +had been very seasick till the last moment, when Bernard pulled him +out of his berth, and put him into a lifebelt. The sea was not very +rough, with an east wind; but the mate said the current was so strong +he could make no way against it. It would bring us on to the Irish +cliffs, and then, God help us! Knowing what that coast is, I thought +there was no hope; and as it was beginning to grow light there rose +an awful wall, all black and white, ready to close upon us; but just +as I set my teeth and tried to recollect prayers, or follow the +Bishop's, but I could only squeeze Agatha harder and harder, there +was a fresh shouting among the men, and the boat was heaved up in a +fearful way, then down. It was tide, and we were near upon breakers; +but there were answering shouts, or so they said--I believe a line +was thrown, and a light shown. But as the boat rose again, Nag and I +expected to be hurled on the rocks the next moment, and clung +together. But instead--though the waves had almost torn us asunder-- +we were lying on a stony beach, and human hands were dragging at us-- +voices calling and shouting about our not being dead. God had helped +us! We had been carried into a clift where there is a coastguard +station; and the good men had come down and were helping us on shore. +But before I well knew anything, Agatha was on her feet; I heard her +cry 'Wilfred, Wilfred!' and then I saw her dragging him, quite like a +dead thing, out of the surf, just in time before another great wave +rushed in which would have washed them both back, if a man had not +grappled her at the very moment, calling out, 'Let go, let go, he's a +dead man!' She did not let go; when the wave broke, happily, just +short of them, and another came to help, and saved them from being +sucked back. Then the Bishop came and assured us that he was alive, +and got the men to carry him up to the coastguard cottages; indeed, +it was an awful escape; for of our boatload most were lost +altogether, three lie dead, dashed against the rock, and two more, +the mate one of them, have broken limbs. Wilfred was unconscious for +a long time, at least an hour; but by the help of spoonfuls of +whiskey he came round to a dreamy kind of state, and he does not seem +to suffer much; and the Bishop, the Preventive man and Nag all are +sure no limbs are broken, but he seems incapable of movement except +his hands. It may be only jar upon the spine, and go off in another +day or two; but we do not dare to send for a doctor, or anything +else, indeed, till we have some money; for we all of us have lost +everything except five shillings in my pocket and two in Nag's. Even +our wraps were washed off--I believe Agatha gave hers to a shivering +woman in the boat. The Bishop, too, gave away his coat, forgetting +to secure his purse. But the people are very kind to us--North, or +Scotch Irish Presbyterians, I think--for they don't seem to know what +to make of his being a Bishop when they found he was not R.C., though +they call him His Reverence. Please send us an order to get cashed, +at Larne, six miles off, where this is posted. Wilfred lies on the +good Preventive woman's bed, clean and fairly comfortable, and they +have made a shake-down in their parlour for Nag and me. The Bishop +SAYS he is well off, but I believe he is always looking after the +mate and the other man in the other house, and sleeps, if at all, in +a chair. Nag is THE nurse. She had ambulance lessons, you know, +when at the High School, and profited by them more than I ever did, +and Wilfred likes to have her about him, and when he is dazed, as he +always is at first waking, he calls her Vera. But don't be uneasy +about him, dear Aunt Lily. Deadly sea-sickness, a night of tossing +and cold, and then this terrible landing may well upset him, and +probably he will be on his legs by the time you get this letter. + +"I find our disaster was on the Maiden Rocks, a horrible group, I +only wonder that any one gets past them. There are five of them, the +wicked Sirens, and three have lighthouses, but not very efficient +ones, and apt to disappear in the fog, and there are reefs beneath on +one of which we came to grief. The folk here think a wreck on these +Maidens absolutely fatal, so we cannot be but most thankful for being +alive, though it is a worse experience than the Rotuma earthquake. + +"Fergus would think the place worth all we have undergone. The crags +are wonderful, chalk at the bottom, basalt above, and of course all +round to the Giant's Causeway it is finer still. Well may we, as the +Bishop is always doing, give thanks that we were taken, by the Divine +Hand guiding tide and current, to this milder and less inhospitable +opening. + +"We can afford to dispense with less majesty, for one of those finer +cliffs would have been our destruction. + +"This is going to Larne, where there is a railway station and +something of a town, and the Bishop has written to the doctor of the +place. I will write again when he has been here. I hope to send you +another and more cheery account to-morrow, or whenever post goes. + +"Nag is writing to her sister. I trust you will have heard of +Bernard and Angela. Their boat was a better one than ours, and +certainly got off safely. Let us know as soon you can. + +"Your most loving niece, + +"D. M. MOHUN." + + +Agatha had also written to Magdalen, very briefly, to assure her of +her safety and thankfulness, and to say she could not leave Wilfred +till more efficient care arrived, or till she had means to come back +with. She was evidently too busy over her patient to have much +possibility of writing, even if she had paper, which seemed to be +scarce at Corncastle. + +The Bishop also wrote to Clement, and to Sir Jasper and others; but +he also could say little, only that he trusted that Angela and +Bernard were safe elsewhere, having heard them called, and, as he +believed, seen them off in the first boat, so that probably they had +been already heard of before these letters arrived. Their own party +had been spared from being dashed against the rocks almost by a +miracle; and Agatha Prescott's courage and readiness, as now her +nursing faculties, were beyond all praise, as indeed was the brave +patience of Miss Mohun. He could only look on and be thankful, and +hope for tidings of those who were as his own children. The next +day's letters spoke of the doctor as so much perplexed about Wilfred, +and nothing had been heard at Larne of the other boats. + +But no tidings came; there was too much cause to fear that the first +boat had been borne away by the currents and swamped. Lady +Merrifield could not leave Phyllis in such a crisis of suspense, and +Sir Jasper was hardly fit for such a journey, so that his wife was +much relieved when her brother, General Mohun, came to Clipstone, and +undertook to hasten out to Corncastle, with money and appliances, +including a nurse. + +"Oh, Reggie, always good at need! I hardly dare to send my good old +Halfpenny--!" + +"No, Mamma, send me. You know I had the ambulance lessons with Nag," +said Mysie, "and we could get a real nurse from Belfast or Dublin, if +it was wanted." + +So it was arranged, and uncle and niece started, but hope faded more +and more! Were those two precious young lives so early quenched? + + + +CHAPTER XXXI--THE WRECK + + + +"How purer were earth, if all its martyrdoms, +If all its struggling sighs of sacrifice +Were swept away!" +E. HAMILTON KING. + +No tidings of Bernard and Angela. The suspense began to diminish +into "wanhope" or despair; and the brothers and sisters continued to +say that they were sorry above all for Phyllis, whose gentle +sweetness had made her one with them. + +But at last, one forenoon, a telegram was put into Clement's hand, +dated from Ewmouth: + + +Muriel Ellen, Ewmouth Harbour, October 14th. Blaine to Rev. +Underwood. Brother here. Come to infirmary. + + +Clement and Geraldine lost no time in driving to the infirmary, too +anxious to speak to one another. Blaine's name was known to them as +a Gwenworth lad, who had gone to sea, and risen to be sailing master +of the Muriel Ellen, a trader plying between Londonderry and Bristol. +He, with another, who proved to be the American captain of the Afra, +were at the gate of the hospital, where an ambulance had just +entered. + +"Oh! Sir," as Clement held out his hand, "I could not save her. I'd +have given my life!" + +"My brother?" as Clement returned his grasp fervently. + +"We've just got him in here, Sir. I hope! I hope! And here's the +doctor." + +The house surgeon, who, of course, knew the Rector of Vale Leston, +met him with, "Best see him before we touch him, it will set his mind +at rest--You must be prepared, Sir--No, better not you, Mrs. +Grinstead." + +Clement followed in silence, leaving Geraldine to the care of the +matron. All he was allowed to see was a ghastly, death-like face and +form, covered with rugs, lying prostrate on a mattress; but as he +came in, at the sound of his step, there was a quiver of recognition, +the eyes opened and looked up, the lips moved, and as Clement bent +down with a kiss, there was a faint sound gasped out, "Telegraph to +Clipstone." + +"I will, I will at once." + +"It was noble!" Then was added, "She gave herself for the Bishop, +for me." Then the eyes closed, and unconsciousness seemed to +prevail. Some one came and put Clement aside, saying - + +"Go now, Sir; you shall hear!" + +Clement, who thought it might be death, would have stayed at hand; +but he was turned away, and could only murmur an inarticulate +blessing and prayer, as he meant to fulfil the earnest desire that +was thought to have been conned over and over again by Bernard, as +these half sentences recurred again and again in semi-consciousness. +His telegram despatched, Clement returned to his sister, to hear from +the two masters all they had to tell. Captain Miller, of the Afra, +had slight hurts, which had been looked to before he should take the +train for London; and Blaine had waited to tell his story before +pursuing his voyage to Bristol, both, indeed, to hear the report of +the patient, and likewise to collect the news of the few who had been +landed at Corncastle, to the great relief of Captain Miller; but of +the first boat there were no tidings, and Blaine thought there was +little probability that it had not sunk or been dashed against the +crags of the savage coast. + +Captain Miller's account was, that not long after leaving the Mersey, +there had set in an impenetrable fog, lasting for a night and a day. +There was perhaps some confusion as to charts, and the scarcely +visible lights upon the Maidens. At any rate, the Afra had suddenly +struck on a reef, and, shifting at once, had been hopelessly rent, so +as to leave no hope save in the boats. Every one seemed to have +behaved with the resolute fortitude and unselfishness generally shown +by English and Americans in the like circumstances. The sea was not +in a dangerous state, and there was a steady east wind, so that the +boats were lowered without much difficulty, and most of the women +disposed of in the first. + +Before the second could be put off however, the water had reached the +fires; there was a violent lurch, the ship had heeled completely +over, washing many overboard, and of course causing a great confusion +among those who had been steady before, and making the deck almost +perpendicular. The captain, however, succeeded in lowering another +boat, and putting into it, as he trusted, the few remaining women, +the Bishop, and most of the men. This was, of course, that which had +safely reached Corncastle, and of which he only now heard. The last +boat was so overcrowded that he, with three of his crew, had thought +it best to remain for the almost desperate chance of being picked up +before they sank. + +He had supposed Mr. Underwood had been washed overboard in the +heeling over of the ship, and that his sister had been put into the +first boat; but presently he heard a call. + +"Oh, help me, please!" And he became aware that Sister Angela was +hanging over her brother, who lay crushed by a heavy chest which had +fallen on him, and thrown him against the gunwale, though a moan or +two showed him to be still alive. The remaining sailors removed the +weight, lifted him, and laid him in the best place and position they +could, while his sister hung over him and supported his head. To +Miller's dismayed exclamation at finding a woman still on board, she +replied - + +"It was no fault of yours. I hid below. Other lives--the Bishop's-- +were what mattered! I am glad to be here!" + +He believed that Mr. Underwood had revived enough to know his sister, +for he had heard her voice talking to him. Yes, and singing; but it +was not for very long. The wreck was in motion, being carried by +current and tide along the Channel, and if it did not sink, might be +perceived now that daylight had come, and a signal of distress might +be seen by some passing vessel. + +Seen it was, in fact, and that there were persons to be rescued; and +Blaine, who was on his way from Londonderry to Bristol, in the Muriel +Ellen, a cattle-boat, possessed a boat in which to attempt a rescue. + +All that experienced sailors could do in transferring the helpless +and unconscious form to the boat first, and then to the sloop had +been done; but it was no wonder that in the transit Angela, more +heedful of her brother's safety than her own, had fallen between, and +been lost in the waves, to the extreme grief of Tom Blaine, who had +been one of her scholars, and devoted to her, as all the boys of Vale +Leston were. + +The cattle-boat had few facilities for comfort, and all he could do +was to let Mr. Bernard Underwood lie, as softly as could be +contrived, on deck, and make sail for Ewmouth, so as to land him as +near home as possible. How far he had been conscious it was +impossible to say, though once he had asked for Angela, but had +seemed to understand from an evasion, that she was missing, and had +said no more, but muttered parts of these requests, as if afraid of +not being capable of them. + +All this had been told or implied, while messages came down that the +surgeons did not think the injuries need be mortal, provided the +exhaustion and exposure had not fatal consequences. The left arm, +two ribs, and the leg had been broken, and were reduced before the +doctors ventured on a hopeful report with which to send home the +brother and sister. One sight, Clement was allowed of a more +unconscious, but much less distressed face, and one murmur, "Noble! +Phyllis!" and he was promised a telegram later in the day. The two +hardly knew which to feel most; grief or thankfulness, the loss or +the mercy, and yet--and yet--after the fitful, wayward, yet always +devout life, with all its strains, there was a sense of wistful +acceptance of such a close. + +They felt it all the more deeply when, a day or two later, Bernard +was able to say, at intervals, for the injury rendered speech +difficult and almost dangerous, as Clement leant over him - + +"Yes! I woke to see her face over me, all bright in wavy hair just +as when we were children, and she said, 'Bear! Bear! we are going +together!' Then somehow she tried to help me to trust for Phyllis +and Lily." + +Then his voice sank, but presently he added, "There was more, but it +is like a dream. She was singing in her own, own voice. There was +'Lead, kindly Light!' and when it came to 'Angel faces smile' there +was a cry--quite glad--'There! there on the water! Felix! Coming +for us! Oh! and another One! Lord, into Thy hands.' That is all I +know--a kiss here, and 'Yes! thanks! For me!' But the lifting hurt +so much that I lost all sense, when she must have fallen between the +wreck and the boat. You are glad for her! Mine own! mine Angel!" + +"Safe home!" said Clement. "Oh, thankworthy!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXII--ANCHORED + + + +"Safe home, safe home in port, + Rent cordage, shattered deck; +Torn sails, provision short, + And only not a wreck; +But all the joy upon the shore, +To tell our voyage the perils o'er!" + +Safe home! It might be said in another sense for Bernard, for he was +naturally so strong and healthy that the effects of exposure and +exhaustion were not long in passing off, the injury to the chest +proved to be only temporary; and having cased him like a statue in +plaster of Paris, the surgeons decided, to the joy of his family, +that the more serious injuries would be better recovered from in the +fresh air of Vale Leston, than in the fishy, muddy atmosphere of +Ewmouth. + +So he was transported thither, and installed in Felix's study, among +the familiar sights and sounds, and where another joy awaited him, +and where he lay in happy stillness. + +Phyllis had borne up bravely through the suspense, never +relinquishing a strong assurance of hope; but when that hope was +actually crowned by the first telegram, the reaction set in, and she +had broken down so entirely that her mother durst not let her move at +first, and indeed accompanied her and her little girl as far as the +junction, being herself on the way to Larne. + +And Geraldine's heart was at peace when she saw Phyllis sitting by +the bed, her hand in his, content to see and not to speak. Another +visitor appeared the following day, namely, the Bishop of +Albertstown, who had remained at Larne till he could see his fellow +passengers in safe hands. Then he had crossed to Bristol, and before +his hurried visit to his sisters he could not but come to see his +beloved old pupil, Clement, and share with him those reminiscences of +her, who, as he had only now learnt, had given her young +superabundant life for him, a man growing into age, whose work might +be nearly done. + +He only saw Bernard in silence, but heard from Clement the account of +those last moments, which showed how entirely Angela had been +conscious of what she was doing, and how willingly she had devoted +herself to save those whom she loved and valued. + +While yet they talked, there was a fresh arrival. Sir Ferdinand +Travis Underwood, who could not forbear the running down to hear +perfectly all that was to be heard, and to make arrangements that +might relieve Bernard's mind, if he were indeed on the way of +recovery. + +In fact, almost the first thought after that of the wife and child +had been the security of the drenched, stained, and soiled pocket- +book; nor would the patient be satisfied till he had been allowed +himself to hand it over to the head of his firm, with, "There, +Fernan, safe, though smashed with me. Tell Brown." + +"Never mind Brown or anything else but getting well, Bernard. I have +taken our passage for next week. I shall get things arranged so that +you need not think of being wanted again out there. We will find a +berth for you in the office in town, as soon as you are about again." + +Bernard's eye lightened. "I hope--" + +But Ferdinand would not let him either thank or hope, scarcely even +allow any words from Phyllis, who could not be grateful enough for +the relief. To Alda, who had received her old companion, since +Marilda seemed unable to let her husband out of her sight; it was +explained that she was going too, happen what would. Oh, yes, it was +true she was a shocking bad sailor, but she was not going to have +Fernan's ships running upon rocks or getting on fire, or anything of +that sort, without her. She wanted to see about Ludmilla +Schmetterling, who was reported to have found a lover while studying +at a class in the States, and she also meant to settle her own +especial niece Emilia, whose husband was to take Bernard's place in +Ceylon and who had become heartily tired of London's second-rate +gaieties. + +Those thus concerned met at the memorial service in the morning +before the Bishop quitted them, where many parishioners gathered who +had been spellbound in Angela's freakish days of early girlhood, and +who were greatly touched when the committal to the deep was inserted +from the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea. + +It brought a deep sense of awe and thankfulness to those who had +feared and wondered through the stormy uncertain life, and now could +exult in what was almost a martyrdom, and had brought their beloved +one to the great pure grave, as her Baptism for eternity. + +Some months later, while Bernard still lay on his couch, but could +speak and be glad, he rejoiced indeed, for a sore in his heart was +healed, when two fair babes were brought to him,--a boy who would be +as another firstborn son, and a little maiden who would bear that +name which had become dear and saintly in the peculiar calendar of +Vale Leston. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII--FAREWELL + + + +"Nay, your pardon! Cry you, 'Forward.' Yours are youth, we hope-- +but I?" +- BROWNING. + +The visit of the Bishop of Albertstown had, in fact, been deferred +till he could quit his fellow-sufferers, especially Wilfred, who +could not well be left to the charge of the two girls, with the Larne +doctor evidently in difficulty about his case. + +It was with great joy that a telegram was received with tidings that +General Mohun and Mysie were on the way, and also Magdalen Prescott, +who met them at Liverpool, being unable to stay away from Agatha +under such circumstances. At Belfast they obtained a trained nurse, +and a doctor was to follow them. + +The joy of the meeting between Magdalen and Agatha was almost that of +mother and daughter, and nothing could be more entirely convincing +that they were one. + +Indeed, Agatha was thoroughly worn out; for the main strain of +attendance had fallen upon her, since the Bishop was fully occupied +with some of the seriously hurt in other cottages; and though Dolores +tried to be helpful, it was chiefly in outside work, and attempts at +sick cookery, in which she was rather too scientific, and found the +lack of appliances very inconvenient. Besides, cousin though she +was, or perhaps for that very reason, Wilfred was far less amenable +to her voice than Agatha's; and if she attempted authority it was +sure to rouse all the resistance left in him. Agatha had been +constantly on the alert, liable to be called on every half-hour, to +soothe fretful distress over impossible impatience at delay, anger at +want of comforts, and dolefulness over the chances of improvements, +and abuse, whether just or not, of the only accessible doctor. + +In fact, Magdalen, on seeing how utterly worn out she was, and how +little space the cottages afforded, thought it best, now that the +patient was in the hands of sister, uncle, and nurse, to carry her +off at once by the return car to Larne; and Dolores thought it best +to accompany them, after Mysie had hung on her as one restored from +death. But Mysie was absorbed in her brother, and Dolores had a +strong yearning to be with her father, so strong that she decided not +to return to England, but to procure a second outfit at Belfast, and +to set forth again from thence, nothing daunted, for, as she said +(not carelessly), such things did not happen immediately after, in a +second voyage. In fact, though thankful and impressed by the loss of +the others, she had gone through the crisis of the life of her heart +and affections, and she had likewise been once in imminent peril +through a convulsion of nature. Thus she was inclined to look on the +wreck and the Irish cliffs as an experience in the way of business, +so she was resolved to see the Giant's Causeway, and to make notes +upon it for her lectures. + +But it was a different thing with Agatha. She had been brought face +to face with death; and though the actual time had been spent in +hurry and bustle, and even the subsequent tossing in the boat had +been not so much waiting and thinking as attending to others more +terrified and injured than herself, and there followed the incessant +waiting on Wilfred; still the experiences had worked in. She rested +very silently, dwelling little to Magdalen on her thoughts; but each +word she said, and her very countenance, showed that she had made a +great step in life and realised the spiritual world, which hitherto +had been outside her life--not disbelieved, but almost matter of +speculation and study. + +She was not at all desirous of falling back from Dolores, whose grave +steadiness and fortitude, the result of a truly brave and deep trust, +had given her a sense of confidence and protection. So they wrote, +and arranged for their passage, and, with Magdalen, spent the +intermediate time in needful preparations at Belfast, and in an +expedition to the Causeway, where they laid in a stock of notes and +observations, all in a spirit that made Magdalen feel that she knew +both in a manner she had never done before, and loved them with a +deep value and confidence. + +Wilfred meanwhile made very slow, if any, progress. + +They took him to Belfast as soon as it was possible, and his mother +came to him. He was gentle and quiet, with little power of movement, +and scarcely any of thought; and in a consultation of doctors, the +verdict was given that he must be carefully tended for months, if not +for years to come; and though there might finally be full recovery, +yet it would depend on the most tender and careful treatment of body +and mind. London doctors, when he could be moved thither, confirmed +the decision, and he began a helpless invalid life, in which a +certain indifference and dulness made him a much less peevish and +trying patient than would have been anticipated. Mysie was his +willing, but intelligent slave; and his mother was not only thankful +to have him brought back to her at any price, but really--though she +would not have confessed it even to herself--was less troubled and +anxious about him than she had been since he had begun to "roam in +youth's uncertain wilds." Indeed, there were hopes that slow +recovery might find him a much changed person in character. + +He had become so uninterested in his former predilections that he +heard with little emotion that Vera was to marry Petros White. + +"I thought she would take up with some cad," he said. But his family +were really glad that this wedding was to take place at Rocca Marina, +whither the two sisters and Magdalen were invited. + +Paulina would not go. She still resented the treatment of Hubert +Delrio, and she was devoted to her study of nursing at the Dearport +Sisterhood; but Magdalen thought it right to take Thekla, and give +her the advantages of improvement in languages, and the sight of fine +scenery. + +And certainly Rocca Marina was a wonderful place for marriages. +Vera, handsome and happy and likely to turn into a fairly good +commonplace wife, had no sooner been sent off on a honeymoon tour to +Greece and Egypt, and Mrs. White had begged the other two to prolong +their visit, considering, perhaps, if one or the other aunt or niece +could not be promoted to the vacant post of lady-in-waiting, than +Hubert Delrio came to secure specimens of marble for some mosaic work +on which he was engaged. He was fast becoming a man of mark, whom +the Whites were delighted to receive and entertain, and who was +delighted to be with the old friends who had had so great an +influence on his life. And was it Magdalen alone to whom he chiefly +looked up as his helper and guide? So he thought; but before the +time of separation had come, he had found out that Thekla was far +prettier than ever Vera had been, and with a mind and principle--no +Flapsy, but a real sympathetic and poetic nature, which had grown up +in these years. Young as she was, their destinies were fixed. + +And Magdalen? The railroad had obtained authority to pass through +the Goyle, and thus break up her home and shelter. Still she was not +tempted by Adeline White's desire to make her a companion; but rather +she accepted the plan on which Dolores had first started, and on +which Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret were set, of making her +the head of their home at Penbeacon, partly a convalescent home, and +partly a training college for young women in need of technical +instruction in nursing or other possible feminine avocations. Tom +May was delighted with all it might set on foot, and Clement saw in +her leading the hopes that a high and pure spirit might inspire it. + + + +Footnotes: + +{100} It is Russian, and means Faith. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MODERN BROODS *** + +This file should be named mdbr10.txt or mdbr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, mdbr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mdbr10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/mdbr10.zip b/old/mdbr10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..956e6d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mdbr10.zip diff --git a/old/mdbr10h.htm b/old/mdbr10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7394248 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mdbr10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7800 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Modern Broods</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Modern Broods, by Charlotte Mary Yonge</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Broods, by Charlotte Mary Yonge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Modern Broods + +Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7191] +[This file was first posted on March 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1900 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h1>MODERN BROODS, or DEVELOPMENTS UNLOOKED FOR</h1> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER I - TORTOISES AND HARES</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Whate’er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven,<br />Though +it be what thou canst not hope to see.”<br />- HARTLEY COLERIDGE.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The scene was a drawing-room, with old-fashioned heavy sash windows +opening on a narrow brick-walled town-garden sloping down to a river, +and neatly kept. The same might be said of the room, where heavy +old-fashioned furniture, handsome but not new, was concealed by various +flimsy modernisms, knicknacks, fans, brackets, china photographs and +water-colours, a canary singing loud in the window in the winter sunshine.</p> +<p>“Miss Prescott,” announced the maid; but, finding no +auditor save the canary, she retreated, and Miss Prescott looked round +her with a half sigh of recognition of the surroundings. She was +herself a quiet-looking, gentle lady, rather small, with a sweet mouth +and eyes of hazel, in a rather worn face, dressed in a soft woollen +and grey fur, with headgear to suit, and there was an air of glad expectation, +a little flush, that did not look permanent, on her thin cheeks.</p> +<p>“Is it you, my dear Miss Prescott?” was the greeting +of the older hostess as she entered, her grey hair rough and uncovered, +and her dress of well-used black silk, her complexion of the red that +shows wear and care. “Then it is true?” she asked, +as the kiss and double shake of the hand was exchanged.</p> +<p>“May I ask? Is it true? May I congratulate you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, it is true!” said Miss Prescott, breathlessly. +“I suppose the girls are at the High School?”</p> +<p>“Yes, they will be at home at one. Or shall I send for +them?”</p> +<p>“No, thank you, Mrs. Best. I shall like to have a little +time with you first. I can stay till a quarter-past three.”</p> +<p>“Then come and take off your things. I do not know when +I have been so glad!”</p> +<p>“Do the girls know?” asked Miss Prescott, following upstairs +to a comfortable bedroom, evidently serving also the purposes of a private +room, for writing table and account books stood near the fire.</p> +<p>“They know something; Kate Bell heard a report from her cousins, +and they have been watching anxiously for news from you.”</p> +<p>“I would not write till I knew more. I hope they have +not raised their expectations too high; for though it is enough to be +an immense relief, it is not exactly affluence. I have been with +Mr. Bell going into the matter and seeing the place,” said Miss +Prescott, sitting comfortably down in the arm-chair Mrs. Best placed +for her, while she herself sat down in another, disposing themselves +for a talk over the fire.</p> +<p>“Mr. Bell reckons it at about £600 a year.”</p> +<p>“And an estate?”</p> +<p>“A very pretty cottage in a Devonshire valley, with the furniture +and three acres of land.”</p> +<p>“Oh! I believe the girls fancy that it is at least as +large as Lord Coldhurst’s.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I was in hopes that they would have heard nothing about +it.”</p> +<p>“It came through some of their schoolfellows; one cannot help +things getting into the air.”</p> +<p>“And there getting inflated like bubbles,” said Miss +Prescott, smiling. “Well, their expectations will have a +fall, poor dears!”</p> +<p>“And it does not come from their side of the family,” +said Mrs. Best. “Of course not! And it was wholly +unexpected, was it not?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I had my name of Magdalen from my great aunt Tremlett; +but she had never really forgiven my mother’s marriage, though +she consented to be my godmother. She offered to adopt me on my +mother’s death, and once when my father married again, and when +we lost him, she wrote to propose my coming to live with her; but there +would have been no payment, and so - ”</p> +<p>“Yes, you dear good thing, you thought it your duty to go and +work for your poor little stepmother and her children!”</p> +<p>“What else was my education good for, which has been a costly +thing to poor father? And then the old lady was affronted for +good, and never took any more notice of me, nor answered my letters. +I did not even know she was dead, till I heard from Mr. Bell, who had +learnt it from his lawyers!”</p> +<p>“It was quite right of her. Dear Magdalen, I am so glad,” +said Mrs. Best, crossing over to kiss her; for the first stiffness had +worn off, and they were together again, as had been the solicitor’s +daughter and the chemist’s daughter, who went to the same school +till Magdalen had been sent away to be finished in Germany.</p> +<p>“Dear Sophy, I wish you had the good fortune, too!”</p> +<p>“Oh! my galleons are coming when George has prospered a little +more in Queensland, and comes to fetch me. Sophia and he say they +shall fight for me,” said Mrs. Best, who had been bravely presiding +over a high-school boarding-house ever since her husband, a railway +engineer, had been killed by an accident, and left her with two children +to bring up. “Dear children, they are very good to me.”</p> +<p>“I am sure you have been goodness itself to us,” said +Magdalen, “in taking the care of these poor little ones when their +mother died. I don’t know how to be thankful enough to you +and for all the blessings we have had! And that this should have +come just now, especially when my life with Lady Milsom is coming to +an end.”</p> +<p>“Indeed!”</p> +<p>“Yes, the little boys are old enough for school, and the Colonel +is going to take a house at Shrewsbury, where his mother will live with +them, and want me no longer.”</p> +<p>“You have been there seven years.”</p> +<p>“Yes, and very happy. When Fanny married, Lady Milsom +was left alone, and would not part with me, and then came the two little +boys from India, so that she had an excuse for retaining me; but that +is over now, or will be in a few weeks time. I had been trying +for an engagement, and finding that beside your high-school diploma +young ladies I am considered quite passée - ”</p> +<p>“My dear! With your art, and music, and all!”</p> +<p>“Too true! And while I was digesting a polite hint that +my terms were too high, and therewith Agatha’s earnest appeal +to be sent to Girton, there comes this inheritance! Taking my +burthen off my back, and making me ready to throw up my heels like a +young colt.”</p> +<p>“Ah! you will be taking another burthen, perhaps.”</p> +<p>“No doubt, I suppose so, but let me find it out by degrees. +I can only think as yet of having my dear girls to myself, <i>moi</i>, +as the French would say, after having seen so little of them.”</p> +<p>“It has been very unfortunate. Epidemics have been strangely +inconvenient.”</p> +<p>“Yes. First there was whooping cough here to destroy +the summer holidays; then came the Milsoms’ measles, and I could +not go and carry infection. Oh! and then Freddy broke his leg, +and his grandmother was too nervous to be left with him. And by +and by some one told her the scarlatina was in the town.”</p> +<p>“It really was, you know.”</p> +<p>“Any way, it would have been sheer selfish inhumanity to leave +her, and then she had a real illness, which frightened us all very much. +Next came influenza to every one. And these last holidays! +What should the newly-come little one from India do, but catch a fever +in the Red Sea, and I had to keep guard over the brothers at Weymouth +till she was reported safe, and I don’t believe it was infectious +after all! Still, I am tired of ‘other people’s stairs.’”</p> +<p>“It is nearly five years since you have been with them, except +for that one peep you took at Weston.”</p> +<p>“And that is a great deal at their age. Agatha was a +vehement reader; she would hardly look at me, so absorbed was she in +‘The York and Lancaster Rose’ which I had brought her.”</p> +<p>“She is rather like that now. I conclude that you will +wish to take them away?”</p> +<p>“Not this time, at any rate till the house is fit to put over +their heads. Besides, you have so mothered them, dear Sophy, that +I could not bear to make a sudden parting.”</p> +<p>“There will be pain, especially over little Thekla and Polly. +But if George comes home this spring, and I go out to Queensland with +him, perhaps I should have asked you to take this house off my hands. +May be it would be prudent in you to do so even now, considering all +things; only I believe that transplanting would be good for them all.”</p> +<p>“I am glad you think so, for I have a perfect longing for that +little house of my own.”</p> +<p>“You will be able to give them a superior kind of society to +what they have had access to here. There is a good deal that I +should like to talk over with you before they come in.”</p> +<p>“Agatha seems to be in despair at her failure.”</p> +<p>“So is all the house, for we were very proud of her, and, of +course, we all thought it a fad of the examiners, but perhaps our headmistress +might not say the same. She is a good, hardworking girl though, +and ambitious, and quite worth further training.”</p> +<p>“I am glad of being able to secure it to her at least, and +by the time her course is finished I shall be able to judge about the +others.”</p> +<p>“You thought of taking them in hand yourself?”</p> +<p>“Certainly; how nice it will be to teach my own kin, and not +endless strangers, lovable as they have been!”</p> +<p>“It will be very good for them all to see something of life +and manners superior to what I can give them here. You will take +them into a fresh sphere, and - as things were - besides that, I could +not - I did not know whether their lives would not lie among our people +here.”</p> +<p>“Dear Sophy, don’t concern yourself. I am quite +certain you would never let them fall in with anything hurtful.”</p> +<p>“Why, no! I hope not; but if I had known what was coming, +I don’t think I should have asked you to consent to Vera and Thekla’s +spending their holidays at Mr. Waring’s country house.”</p> +<p>“Very worthy people, you said. I remember Tom Waring, +a very nice boy; and Jessie Dale went to school with us - I liked her. +Fancy them having a country house.”</p> +<p>“Waring Grange they call it. He has got on wonderfully +as upholsterer, decorator, and auctioneer. It is a very handsome +one, with a garden that gets the prizes at the horticultural shows. +They are thoroughly good people, but I was afraid afterwards that there +had been a good deal of noisiness among the young folks at Christmas. +Hubert Delrio was there, and I fancy there was some nonsense going on.”</p> +<p>“Ah, the Delrios! Are they here?”</p> +<p>“Yes, poor Fred did not make his art succeed when he had a +family to provide for, and he is the head of the Art School here. +His son has a good deal of talent, and very prudently has got taken +on by the firm of Eccles and Co., who do a great deal of architectural +decoration. The boy is doing very well, but there have been giggles +and whispers that make me rejoice that Vera should be out of the neighbourhood.”</p> +<p>“Is she not very pretty?”</p> +<p>“You will be very much struck with her, I think; and Paulina +is pretty too, and more thoughtful. She would not go with Thekla, +because Waring Grange is far from church, and she would not disturb +her Christmas and Epiphany. She is the most religious of them +all, and puts me in mind of our old missionary castles in the air.”</p> +<p>“Ah, what castles they were! And they seem further off +than ever! Or perhaps you will fulfil them, and go and teach the +Australian blacks!”</p> +<p>“A very unpromising field,” said Mrs. Best, “though +I hear there is a Sister Angela at the station who does wonders with +them. I hear the quarter striking - they will be back directly.”</p> +<p>“Ah! before they come, we ought to talk over means! Something +is owing for these last holidays. Oh! Sophy, I cannot find words +to say how thankful I am to you for having helped me through this time, +even to your own loss! It has made our life possible.”</p> +<p>“Indeed, I was most thankful to do all I could for poor Agnes’ +children; and though I did not gain by them like my other boarders, +I never <i>lost</i>, and they have been a great joy to me, yes, and +a help, by giving my house a character.”</p> +<p>“When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven years +ago, when their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused help, and how +despairingly I prayed, I feel all the more that there is an answer to +even feeble almost worldly prayer.”</p> +<p>“That it could not be when it was that you might be enabled +to do the duty that was laid on you, my dear.”</p> +<p>And with the exchange of a kiss, the two good women set themselves +to practical pounds, shillings, and pence, which was just concluded +when the patter of feet up the stone steps and voices in the hall announced +the return of Mrs. Best’s boarders.</p> +<p>Just as Magdalen was opening the door, there darted up, with the +air of a privileged favourite, a little person of ten years old, with +flying brown hair and round rosy cheeks, exclaiming breathlessly, “Is +she come?”</p> +<p>The answer was to take her up with a motherly hug, and “My +dear little Thekla!” There was not time for more than a +hurried glance and embrace of the three on the steps of the stair, in +their sailor hats and blue serge; but when in ten minutes more, the +whole party, twenty in number, were seated round the dining table, observation +was possible. Agatha, as senior scholar, sat at the foot of the +table, fully occupied in dispensing Irish stew. She had a sensible +face, to which projecting teeth gave a character, and a brow that would +have shown itself finer but for the overhanging mass of hair. +Vera and Paulina were so much alike and so nearly of the same age that +they were often taken for twins, but on closer inspection Vera proved +to be the prettiest, with a more delicately cut nose, clearer complexion, +and bluer eyes; but Paulina, with paler cheeks, had softer eyes, and +more pencilled brows, as well as a prettier lip and chin, though she +would not strike the eye so much as her sister. Little Thekla +was a round-faced, rosy little thing, childish for her nearly eleven +years, smiling broadly and displaying enough white teeth to make Magdalen +forebode that they would need much attention if they were not to be +a desight like Agatha’s.</p> +<p>She sat between Mrs. Best and Magdalen; and in the first pause, when +the first course had just been distributed, she looked up with a great +pair of grey eyes, and asked, in a shrill, clear little voice, “Sister, +may I have a bicycle?”</p> +<p>“We will see about it, my dear,” returned Magdalen, unwilling +to pledge herself.</p> +<p>“But haven’t you got a fortune?” undauntedly demanded +Thekla.</p> +<p>“Something like it, Thekla. You shall hear about it after +dinner.” And Magdalen felt her colour flushing up under +all those young eyes.</p> +<p>“Kitty Best said - ”</p> +<p>But here Mrs. Best interposed. “We don’t talk over +such things at table, Thekla. Take care with the gravy. +Did Mr. Jones give a lesson, this morning?”</p> +<p>“Yes, a very long one,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“It was about the exact force of the words in the Revised Version,” +added Agatha, “compared with the Greek.”</p> +<p>“That must have been very interesting!” said Magdalen.</p> +<p>Vera and her neighbour looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders; +while some one else broke in with the news that another girl had not +come back because she was down with influenza; and Magdalen, suspecting +that “shop” was not talked at table, and also that the Scripture +passage could not well be discussed there, saw that it was wise to let +the conversation drift off, by Mrs. Best’s leading, into anecdotes +of the influenza.</p> +<p>All were glad when grace was chanted, and the five sisters could +retreat into the drawing-room, which Mrs. Best let them have to themselves +for the half hour before Magdalen’s train, and the young ones’ +return to the High School. She was at once established with Thekla +on her lap, and the others perched round on chairs and footstools. +Of course the first question was, “And is it really true?”</p> +<p>“It is true, my dears, that my old great aunt has left me a +house and some money; but you must not flatter yourselves that it is +a great estate.”</p> +<p>“Only mayn’t I have a bicycle?” began Thekla again.</p> +<p>“Child, I believe you have bicycles on the brain,” said +Agatha. “But, sister, you do mean that we shall be better +off, and I shall be able to go on with my education?”</p> +<p>“Yes, my dear, I think I can promise you so much,” said +Magdalen, caressing the serge shoulder.</p> +<p>“O thanks! Girton?” cried Agatha.</p> +<p>“There is much that I must inquire about before I decide - +”</p> +<p>Again came, “Elsie Warner has a bicycle, and she is no older +than me! Please, sister!”</p> +<p>“Hush now, my little Thekla,” said the sister kindly; +“I will talk to Mrs. Best, and see whether she thinks it will +be good for you.”</p> +<p>Thekla subsided with a pout, and Magdalen was able to explain her +circumstances and plans a little more in detail; seeing however that +the girls had no idea of the value of money, Paulina asked whether it +meant being as well off as the Colonel and Lady Mary -</p> +<p>“Who keep a carriage and pair, and a butler,” interposed +Vera.</p> +<p>“Oh no, my dear. If I keep any kind of carriage it will +be only a basket or governess cart, and a pony or donkey.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” said Agatha. “I +would not be rich and stupid for the world.”</p> +<p>“Small fear of that!” said Magdalen, laughing. +“Our home, the Goyle, is not more than a cottage, in a beautiful +Devonshire valley - ”</p> +<p>“What’s the name of it?”</p> +<p>“The Goyle. I believe it is a diminutive of Gully, a +narrow ravine. It is lovely even now, and will be delightful when +you come to me in April - ”</p> +<p>“Shall I leave school?” asked Vera. “I shall +be seventeen in May.”</p> +<p>“You will all leave school. Mrs. Best has made it easy +to me by her wonderful goodness in keeping you on cheaper terms; but +if Agatha goes to the University you must be content to work for a time +with me.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried Thekla. “Shall I have always +holidays? My bicycle!”</p> +<p>Everybody burst out laughing at this - not a very trained cachinnation, +but more of the giggle, even in Agatha; and Magdalen answered:</p> +<p>“You will have plenty of time for bicycling if the hills are +not too steep, but I hope to make your lessons pleasant to you.” +She did not know whether to mention Mrs. Best’s intention of soon +giving up her house, which would have much increased her difficulties +but for her legacy; and Agatha said, “You know, I think, that +Vera and Polly both ought to make a real study of music. They +both have talent, and cultivation would do a great deal for it.”</p> +<p>Agatha spoke in a dogmatic way that amused Magdalen, and she said, +“Well, I shall be able to judge when we are at the Goyle. +Vera, I think you sing - ”</p> +<p>Vera looked shy, and Agatha said, “She has a good voice, and +Madame Lardner thinks it would answer to send her to some superior Conservatoire +in process of time.”</p> +<p>Vera did not commit herself as to her wishes, and Mrs. Best returned +to say that if Miss Prescott wished to see the headmistress it was time +to set out for the school; and accordingly the whole party walked up +together to the school, Magdalen with Agatha, who was chiefly occupied +in explaining how entirely it was owing to the one-sidedness of the +examiners that she had not gained the scholarship. Magdalen had +heard of such examiners before from the mothers of her pupils.</p> +<p>She had to wish her sisters good-bye for the next three months, not +having gathered very much about them, except their personal appearance. +She administered a sovereign to each of them as they parted. Agatha +thanked her in a tone as if afraid to betray what a boon it was; Vera, +with an eager kiss, asking if she could spend it as she liked; Paulina, +with a certain grave propriety; and Thekla, of course, wanted to know +whether it would buy a bicycle, or, if not, how many rides could be +purchased from it.</p> +<p>When they were absorbed in the routine of the day, the interview +with the head mistress disclosed, what Magdalen had expected, that Agatha, +was an industrious, ambitious girl, with very good abilities quite worth +cultivating, though not extraordinary; that Vera had a certain sort +of cleverness, but no application and not much taste for anything but +music; and that Paulina was a good, dutiful, plodding girl, who surpassed +brighter powers by dint of diligence. The little one was a mere +child, who had not yet come much under notice from the higher authorities.</p> +<p>On the whole, Magdalen went away with pleasant hopes, and the affectionate +impulses of kindred blood rising within her, to complete her term with +Lady Milsom, by whom she could not well be spared till towards Easter; +while, in the meantime, her house was being repaired.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER II - THE GOYLE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“A poor thing, but mine own.” - SHAKESPEARE.</p> +<p>“Thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns.”<br /> - +T. HUGHES, <i>Scouring of the White Horse.</i></p> +<p>Magdalen Prescott stood on her own little terrace. Her house +was, like many Devonian ones, built high on the slope of a steep hill, +running down into a narrow valley, and her abode was almost at the narrowest +part, where a little lively brawling stream descended from the moor +amid rocks and brushwood. If the history of the place were told, +it had been built for a shooting box, then inherited by a lawyer who +had embellished and spent his holidays there, and afterwards, his youngest +daughter, a lonely and retiring woman, had spent her latter years there.</p> +<p>The house was low, stone built, and roofed with rough slate, with +a narrow verandah in front, and creepers in bud covering it. Then +came a terrace just wide enough for a carriage to drive up; and below, +flower-beds bordered with stones found what vantage ground they could +between the steep slopes of grass that led almost precipitously down +to the stream, where the ground rose equally rapidly on the other side. +Moss, ivy, rhododendrons, primroses, anemones, and the promise of ferns +were there, and the adjacent beds had their full share of hepaticas +and all the early daffodil kinds. Behind and on the southern side, +lay the kitchen garden, also a succession of steps, and beyond as the +ravine widened were small meadows, each with a big stone in the midst. +The gulley, (or goyle) narrowed as it rose, and there was a disused +limestone quarry, all wreathed over with creeping plants, a birch tree +growing up all white and silvery in the middle, and above the house +and garden was wood, not of fine trees, and interspersed with rocks, +but giving shade and shelter. The opposite side had likewise fields +below, with one grey farm house peeping in sight, and red cattle feeding +in one, and above the same rocky woodland, meeting the other at the +quarry; and then after a little cascade had tumbled down from the steeper +ground, giving place to the heathery peaty moor, which ended, more than +two miles off in a torr like a small sphinx. This could not be +seen from Magdalen’s territory, but from the highest walk in her +kitchen garden, she could see the square tower of Arnscombe, her parish +church; and on a clear day, the glittering water of Rockstone bay.</p> +<p>To Magdalen it was a delightful view, and delightful too had been +the arranging of her house, and preparing for her sisters. All +the furniture and contents of the abode had been left to her. +It was solid and handsome of its kind, belonging to the days of the +retired Q.C., and some of it would have been displaced for what was +more fresh and tasteful if Magdalen had not consulted economy. +So she depended on basket-chairs, screens, brackets and drapery to enliven +the ancient mahagony and rosewood, and she had accumulated a good many +water colours, vases and knick-knacks. The old grand piano was +found to be past its work, so that she went the length of purchasing +a cottage one for the drawing-room, and another for the sitting-room +that was to be the girls’ own property, and on which she expended +much care and contrivance. It opened into the drawing-room, and +like it, had glass doors into the verandah, as well as another door +into the little hall. The drawing-room had a bow window looking +over the fields towards the South, and this way too looked the dining-room, +in which Magdalen bestowed whatever was least interesting, such as the +“Hume and Smollett” and “Gibbon” of her grandfather’s +library and her own school books, from which she hoped to teach Thekla.</p> +<p>Her upstairs arrangements had for the moment been rather disturbed +by Mrs. Best’s wishing to come with her pupils; but she decided +that Agatha should at once take possession of her own pretty room, and +the two next sisters of theirs, while she herself would sleep in the +dressing room which she destined to Thekla, giving up her own chamber +to Mrs. Best for these few days, and sending Thekla’s little bed +to Agatha’s room.</p> +<p>And there she stood, on the little terrace, thinking how lovely the +purple light on the moor was, and how all the newcomers would enjoy +such a treat.</p> +<p>She had abstained from meeting them at the station, having respect +to the capacities of the horse, even upon his native hills, and she +had hired a farmer’s cart to meet them and bring their luggage. +Already she had a glimpse of the carriage, toiling up one hill, then +disappearing between the hedges, and it was long before her gate, already +open, was reached, and at her own <i>own</i> door, she received her +little sister, followed by the others. And the first word she +heard even before she had time to pay the driver was, “My dear +Magdalen, what a road!”</p> +<p>Poor Mrs. Best! as the payment was put into the man’s hand, +Magdalen looked round and saw she looked quite worn out.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Paulina, “bumped to pieces and tired +to death.”</p> +<p>“I was afraid they had been mending the roads,” said +Magdalen.</p> +<p>“Mending! Strewing them with rocks, if you please,” +said Agatha.</p> +<p>“And such a distance!” added Paulina.</p> +<p>“Not quite three miles,” replied Magdalen. “Here +is some tea to repair you.”</p> +<p>“My dear Magdalen” - in a chorus - “that really +is quite impossible. It must be five, at least.”</p> +<p>“Your nearest town ten miles off!” sighed Vera.</p> +<p>“Your nearest church,” cried Paulina.</p> +<p>“Up in the wilds,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>Magdalen felt as if these speeches were so many drops of water in +her face and that of her beautiful Goyle, but she rose in its defence.</p> +<p>“It actually is less than three miles,” she said. +“I have walked it several times, and the cabs only charge three.”</p> +<p>“That is testimony,” said Mrs. Best, smiling; “but +hills, perhaps, reckon for miles in one’s feelings!”</p> +<p>“Particularly before you are rested,” said Magdalen, +setting her down in a comfortable wicker chair. “You will +think little of it on your own feet, Vera, and the church is much nearer, +Paulina, only on the other side of the hill.”</p> +<p>“May I have a bicycle of my own?” burst in Thekla, again; +while every one began laughing, and Agatha told her that Sister would +think her brains were cycling.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“With centric and concentric scribbled o’er<br />Cycle +and epicycle orb in orb.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Epicycle?” cried Vera. “I saw it advertised +in the <i>Queen</i>. A splendid one.”</p> +<p>“Ah! Magdalen, you will think I have not taught them +their Milton,” said Mrs. Best, as both elders burst out laughing; +and Agatha said, in an undertone, “Don’t make yourself such +a goose, Vera.”</p> +<p>“I should think it rather rough sailing for bikes,” said +Paulina.</p> +<p>“I should have thought so, myself,” returned Magdalen; +“but the Clipstone girls do not seem to think so. I see +them sailing merrily into Rockstone.”</p> +<p>“You have neighbours, then?” said Vera.</p> +<p>“Certainly. Rockstone supplies a good deal. Here +are various cards of people whose visits are yet to be returned. +Clipstone is further off; but the daughters will be nice friends for +you. I met one of them before, when she was staying at Lord Rotherwood’s. +But I am afraid your boxes are hardly come yet. Still, you will +like to take off your things before dinner, even if you cannot unpack.”</p> +<p>She led the way, and disposed of each girl in her new quarters, explaining +to Agatha that her’s and her little lodger were only temporary; +but it struck upon her rather painfully that the only word of approbation +or comfort came from Mrs. Best, and there were no notes at all of admiration +of the scenery.</p> +<p>“Well,” she said to herself, “much is not to be +expected from people who have been tired and shaken up in a station +cab over newly-mended roads! Were they as bad when I came? +But then I could look out, and did not hear poor Sophy’s groans +all the way. I rather wish she had not come with them, though +I am glad to see her again for this last time.”</p> +<p>Meantime the four girls had congregated in the room appropriated +to Vera and Paulina. “Here are the necessaries of life,” +said Agatha, handing out a brush and comb. “That slow wain +may roll its course in utter darkness before it comes here.”</p> +<p>“To the other end of nowhere,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“And I am so tired,” whined Thekla. “These +tight boots do hurt me so! I want to go to bed.”</p> +<p>Paulina was already on her knees, removing the boots and accommodating +a pair of slippers to the little feet.</p> +<p>“We might as well be in a desert island,” continued Vera, +“shut up from everything with an old frump.”</p> +<p>“Take care,” said Agatha, in warning, signing towards +Thekla.</p> +<p>“I am sure she looks jolly and good-natured,” said Paulina.</p> +<p>“But did you hear what Elsie Lee always calls her, ‘our +maiden aunt’?”</p> +<p>All three laughed, and Vera added, “All the girls say she can’t +be less than fifty.”</p> +<p>“Topsy! You know she is only sixteen years older than +I am.”</p> +<p>“Well, that’s half a hundred!”</p> +<p>“Sixteen and nineteen, what do they make?”</p> +<p>“Oh, never mind your sums. She has got the face and look +of half a hundred!”</p> +<p>“Now, I thought her face and her dress like a girl’s,” +said Paulina.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Vera, “that’s just the way with +old maids. They dress themselves up youthfully and affect girlish +airs, and are all the more horrid.”</p> +<p>“That’s your experience!” said Agatha. “But +there’s the waggon creeping up at a snail’s pace. +“Let us run down and see after our things.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER III - THE FIRST SUNDAY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Speed on, speed on, the footpath way,<br /> And +merrily hunt the stile-a;<br />A merry heart goes all the way,<br /> A +sad tires in a mile-a.”<br />- SHAKESPEARE.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Sunday morning rose with new and bright hopes. The girls looked +out at their window, and saw that it was a beautiful morning, and that +the spring sunshine glowed upon the purple summits of the hills. +Agatha supposed there would be a pleasant walk to church; Paulina said +she had heard good accounts of the services in that part of the country; +Vera hoped that they would see what their neighbours were like, and +Thekla was delighted with the jolly garden and places to scramble in.</p> +<p>On this first Sunday they were let alone to explore the garden before +the walk to church, which Magdalen foresaw would be a long affair with +Mrs. Best. After their decorous stillness at breakfast, it was +a contrast to hear the merry voices and laughter outside, but it subsided +as soon as she approached, though she did not hear the murmured ripple, +“Here comes maiden aunt! Behold - Quite a spicy hat!”</p> +<p>In truth, Magdalen’s hat was a pretty new one, not by any means +unsuitable to her age and appearance, and altogether her air was more +stylish than the country town breeding was accustomed to; her dress +perfectly plain, but well made.</p> +<p>Vera was perhaps the most sensible of the perfection of the turn-out; +Agatha chiefly felt that her more decorated skirt and mantle had their +inconveniences in walking through the red mud of the lanes, impeded +by books and umbrella, which left no leisure to admire the primroses +that studded the deep banks and which delighted Thekla in the freedom +of short skirts.</p> +<p>Magdalen herself had enough to do in steering along such a substantial +craft as poor Mrs. Best, used to church-going along a street, and shrouded +under a squirrel mantle of many pounds weight.</p> +<p>Barely in time was the convoy when at last the exhausted lady was +helped over the stone stile that led to the churchyard. Highly +picturesque was the grey structure outside, but within modernism had +not done much; the chancel was feebly fitted after the ideas of the +“fifties,” but the faded woodwork of the nave was intact, +and Magdalen still had to sit in the grim pew of her predecessors.</p> +<p>The girls’ looks at each other might have suited the entrance +to a condemned cell, and the pulpit towered above them with a faded +green cushion, that seemed in danger of tumbling down over their heads.</p> +<p>The service was a plain one, but reverent and careful; the music +had a considerable element of harmonium mixed with schoolchild voices, +and the sermon from an elderly man was a good one; but when the move +to go out was made, and the young ones were beyond ear-shot of their +elders, the exclamations were, “Well, I never thought to have +gone back to Georgian era.”</p> +<p>“Exactly the element of our maiden aunt.”</p> +<p>“And nobody to be seen.”</p> +<p>“Naggie, why do they shut one up in boxes?”</p> +<p>“Just to daunt Flapsy’s roving eye, Tickle, my dear.”</p> +<p>“Don’t, Polly. There was nobody to be seen if we +hadn’t been in a box. Of course no one comes there but stately +old farmers and their smart daughters. I saw one with a Gainsborough +hat, and a bunch of cock’s feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking +it up behind.”</p> +<p>“Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see. Being +‘emparocked in a pew’ cannot daunt her spirit of research.”</p> +<p>“Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible people +they are.”</p> +<p>“Natives who will repay the study perhaps,” continued +Agatha, reading as though from a book of travels. “We were +able to observe a group of the aborigines at their devotions. +Conspicuous was a not ungraceful young female, whose head, ornamented +with a plume of feathers, towered above the enclosure in which she was +secluded, while an aged fakir, hakem or medicine man pronounced from +a loftier structure resembling a sentry box.”</p> +<p>“Children, children, that’s the wrong way,” came +Magdalen’s voice from behind. “You must turn into +that lane. Wait a moment.”</p> +<p>They waited till Mrs. Best’s lagging steps allowed Magdalen +to come up with them, but dead silence fell on them when Mrs. Best observed, +“You were very merry.” They could not speak of the +cause. Perhaps Magdalen divined something, for she said, “We +hope to make some improvements, and so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he +is very poor. Besides, newcomers must work slowly.”</p> +<p>The doubt whether she had heard Agatha’s speech made the girls +conscious enough to keep from responding, as she meant them to do, by +cheerful criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering and dragging on +Mrs. Best was quite enough to occupy her. There was only three +years difference in their ages, but this seemed to have made a great +interval between one whose <i>métier</i> had been to be youthful +and active, and her who had to be staid and dignified.</p> +<p>The early dinner passed in all demureness and formality, and the +poor visitor was too much tired for any more services to be thought +of for her. Magdalen explained that when the days would be longer, +she thought of walking to Rockstone for evensong, but now the best way +was to go to the chapel at Clipstone, which was nearer than either of +the others.</p> +<p>“There is a lovely little chapel there, beautifully fitted +up by Lord Rotherwood and Sir Jasper Merrifield, for the hamlet,” +she said.</p> +<p>“How far?” asked Mrs. Best.</p> +<p>“About a mile and a half across the fields; further by the +road. You will find your bicycles available when you know the +way.”</p> +<p>“Don’t we go to Rockstone?” asked Paulina. +“I am sure there is a really satisfactory church there.”</p> +<p>“St. Kenelm’s, do you mean? That is not so near +as St. Andrew’s Church, but that is very satisfactory, and I go +to one or other of them on week-days. It is too late to come back +on these spring Sundays.”</p> +<p>“I should not like to live among so many churches,” said +Mrs. Best, “and so far from them all!”</p> +<p>“You love your old parish church, like a faithful old churchwoman,” +said Magdalen. “Well, you see, I am faithful enough to go +to my parish in the morning, but I think we may be discursive afterwards. +There is a Sunday school in which I was waiting to offer help till our +party was made up.”</p> +<p>Magdalen had looked twice for a responding smile, first from Agatha, +and then from Paulina, but none was awakened. The girls clustered +together in the bedroom, and the word “Goody” passed between +them.</p> +<p>“Tempered by respect for my Lord and Sir Jasper,” added +Agatha.</p> +<p>“And avoiding St. Kenelm’s because it is the real correct +church,” said Paulina.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Vera. “Mr. Hubert Delrio +went to see it in case Eccles and Beamster should have an order. +We must go there.”</p> +<p>“Of course,” said Paulina, with a sympathetic nod.</p> +<p>“But,” said Agatha, “there will be an embargo on +all acquaintance except the grandees at Clipstone.”</p> +<p>“I shall never drop old friends,” cried Vera. “I +am a rock of crystal as regards them, whatever swells may require, if +they burst themselves like the frog and the ox.”</p> +<p>“Well done, crystal rock; but suppose the old friends slide +off and drop you?” laughed Agatha.</p> +<p>Vera tossed her head; and Thekla ran in to say that Sister was ready.</p> +<p>The walk was shorter and pleasanter than that in the morning, over +moorland, but with a good road; but all Magdalen discovered on the walk +was that though the girls had attended botanical classes, they did not +recognise spear-wort when they saw it, and Agatha thought the old catalogue +fashions of botany were quite exploded. This was a sentiment, +and it gave hopes of something like an argument and a conversation, +but they were at that moment overtaken by the neighbouring farmer’s +wife, who wanted to give Miss Prescott some information about a setting +of eggs, which she did at some length, and with a rapid utterance of +dialect that amused, while it puzzled, Magdalen, and her inquiries and +comments were decided to be “thoroughly good-wife” by all +save Thekla, who hailed the possible ownership of a hen and chicken +as almost equal to that of a bicycle.</p> +<p>Magdalen further discovered that Thekla’s name in common use +was “Tickle,” or else “Tick-tick”; Paulina was, +of course, Paula or Polly; Vera had her old baby title of Flapsy, which +somehow suited her restless nervous motions, and Agatha had become Nag. +Well, it was the fashion of the day, though not a pretty one; but Magdalen +recollected, with some pain, her father’s pleasure in the selection +of saintly names for his little daughters, and she wondered how he would +have liked to hear them thus transmuted. There had been something +bordering on sentiment in her father’s character, and something +in Paulina’s expression made her hope to see it repeated by inheritance. +She saw the countenance brighten out of the morning’s antagonistic +air when they entered the little chapel at Clipstone, and saw the altar +adorned and carefully decked with white narcissus and golden daffodils.</p> +<p>The little chapel was old and plain, very small, but reverently cared +for. There was no choir, but the chairs of those who could sing +were placed near the harmonium, which was played by one of the young +ladies from the large gabled house to which the chapel was attached, +and the singing had the refined tones that belong to the music of cultivated +people. The congregation was evidently of poor folks from the +hamlet, dependants of the great house, and the family itself, a grey-haired, +fine-looking general, a tall dark-eyed lady, a tall youth, a schoolboy, +and four girls - one of whom was musician, and the other presided over +the school children. The service was reverent, the catechising +good and effective, the sermon brief, and summing up in a spiritual +and devotional manner; Magdalen was happy, and trusted that Paulina +was so likewise.</p> +<p>She expected to hear some commendation as they walked home, but Vera +alone kept with her, to examine her on the names and standing of the +persons she had seen, on which there was as yet little to tell, for +the first move towards acquaintance had not yet been made. All +that was known was that there were Sir Jasper and Lady Merrifield, connections +of Lord Rotherwood, who owned most of the Rockstone property, and who +with his family had once been staying in the country house where Magdalen +had been governess; but it was a long time ago, and she only recollected +that there were some nice little girls. At least she said no more, +but her friend thought the more.</p> +<p>“I suppose they will call?” said Vera.</p> +<p>“Most likely they will.”</p> +<p>“Has nobody called?”</p> +<p>“Mr. Earl, the Vicar of Arnscombe. He has promised to +tell me how we can be of use here. I believe there is great want +of a lady at the Sunday school.”</p> +<p>This did not interest Vera - and she went on asking questions about +the neighbourhood, and whether any of the Rockstone people had left +cards, and whether there were any parties, garden or evening, at Rockstone +- more than Magdalen could yet answer, though she was glad to promote +any sort of conversation with either of the girls who did not stand +aloof from her.</p> +<p>“I say, the M.A. (maiden aunt) knows nobody but that old clergyman, +who wants her to teach his Sunday school.”</p> +<p>“I’m out of that, thank goodness,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“And Sunday schools are a delusion, only hindering the children +from going to church with their parents,” said Paulina.</p> +<p>“And if nobody calls, and they all think her no better than +an old governess, how awfully slow it will be,” continued Vera.</p> +<p>“I do not suppose that will last,” said Agatha. +“There is Rockstone, remember.”</p> +<p>“Ten miles off,” said Vera disconsolately. “Oh, +Nag, Nag, isn’t it horrid! We shall be just smart enough +to be taken for swells, and know nobody; and the swells won’t +have us because she is a governess. We might as well be upon a +desert island at once.”</p> +<p>Agatha could not help laughing and repeating -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“I am out of humanity’s reach,<br /> I +must finish my journey alone -<br />Never hear the sweet music of speech,<br /> I +start at the sound of my own.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“But really, Nag,” broke in Paulina, “it is horrid. +Here we are equidistant from three or four churches, and condemned to +the most behind the world of them all, and then to the one where there +is this distant fragrance of swells, instead of the only Catholic one.”</p> +<p>Agatha had a little more common sense than the other two, and she +responded -</p> +<p>“After all, you know, you are better off than if you were still +at school; and the M.A. is a good old soul at the bottom, and you may +manage her, depend on it. Though I wish she had let me go to Girton.”</p> +<p>Magdalen and Mrs. Best meantime were going over future prospects +and old times. Mrs. Best’s destination was Albertstown, +in Queensland, where her son George had a good practice as a doctor, +and where he assured her she would find church privileges - even a cathedral, +so-called, and a bishop - though Bishop Fulmort was always out on some +expedition among the colonists or the natives, but among his clergy +there was always Sunday service. In fact, Magdalen thought the +good old lady expected to find a town more like Filsted than the Goyle. +There was a sisterhood located there too, which tried, mostly in vain, +to train the wild native women - an attempt at which George Best laughed, +though he allowed that the sisters were splendid nurses, especially +Sister Angela, who had a wonderful way of bringing cases round.</p> +<p>Magdalen could feel secure that her old friend would be near kind +people; and presently Mrs. Best, returning to the actual neighbourhood, +observed -</p> +<p>“Merrifield! It is not a common name.”</p> +<p>“No; but I do not think this is the same family. This +is a retired general, living in a house of Lord Rotherwood’s. +I once met one of his little girls, who came to Castle Towers with the +Rotherwood party, and though she had a brother of the name, he was evidently +not the same person.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Best asked no more, for tell-tale colour had arisen in Magdalen’s +cheeks; and she had been the confidante of an engagement with a certain +Henry Merrifield, who had been employed in the bank at Filsted when +Magdalen was a very young girl. His father had come down suddenly, +had found debt and dissipation, had broken all off decidedly, and no +more had been heard of the young man. It was many years previously; +but those cheeks and the tone of the reply made her suspect that there +was still poignancy in the remembrance.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER IV - CYCLES</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“What flowers grow in my field wherewith to dress thee.”<br />- +E. BARRETT BROWNING.</p> +<p>Mrs. Best departed early the next morning. It was probably +a parting for life between the two old friends; and Magdalen keenly +felt the severance from the one person whom she had always known, and +on whose sympathy she could rely. Their conversations had been +very precious to her, and she felt desolate without the entire companionship. +Yet, on the other hand, she felt as if she could have begun better with +her sisters if Sophy Best had not come with them, to hand them over, +as it were, when she wanted to start on the same level with them, and +be more like their contemporary than their authority.</p> +<p>They all stood on the terrace, watching the fly go down the hill, +and she turned to them and said -</p> +<p>“We will all settle ourselves this morning, and you will see +how the land lies, so that to-morrow we can arrange our day and see +what work to do. Thekla, when you have had a run round the garden, +you might bring your books to the dining-room and let me see how far +you have gone.”</p> +<p>“Oh, sister, it is holidays!”</p> +<p>“Well, my dear, you have had a week, and your holiday time +cannot last for ever. Looking at your books cannot spoil it.”</p> +<p>“Yes, it will; they are so nasty.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps you will not always think so; but now you had better +put on your hat and your thick boots, for the grass is still very wet, +and explore the country. The same advice to you,” she added, +turning to the others; “it is warm here, but the dew lies long +on the slopes.”</p> +<p>“We have got a great deal too much to do,” said Agatha, +“for dawdling about just now.”</p> +<p>Really, she was chiefly prompted by the satisfaction of not being +ordered about; and the other two followed suit, while Magdalen turned +away to her household business.</p> +<p>They found the housemaid in possession of the bedrooms, so that the +unpacking plans could not conveniently be begun; and while Agatha was +struggling with the straps of a book box, Thekla burst in upon them.</p> +<p>“Oh, Nag, Nag, there is the loveliest angel of a bicycle in +the stable, and a dear little pony besides! ‘New tyre wheels,’ +he says.”</p> +<p>“A bicycle! Well, if she has got it for us, she is an +angel indeed,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“It is a big one,” said Thekla, “but the pony is +a dear little thing; Pixy is his name, and I can ride him! Do +come, Flapsy, and see! Earwaker will show you. It is he +that does the oiling of Pixy and harnessing the bicycle. I mean +- ”</p> +<p>“Tick, Tick, which does he oil and which does he harness?” +said Paula.</p> +<p>“That little tongue wants both,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“But do, do come and see,” said Thekla, not at all disconcerted +by being laughed at; and Vera came, only asserting her independence +by not putting on either hat or boots.</p> +<p>Thekla led the way to the stable, tucked under the hill at the back, +and presiding over a linhay, as she had already learnt to call the tiny +farm-court, containing accommodation for two cows, a pig, and sundry +fowls. There was a shed attached with a wicker pony carriage and +the bicycle, a handsome modern one, with all the newest appendages, +including the “Nevertires,” as Thekla had translated them.</p> +<p>But disappointment was in store for Vera. Magdalen came out +during the inspection, and was received with -</p> +<p>“Sister, you never told us of this beauty.”</p> +<p>“It was a parting present from General Mansell,” she +said, “and he took great pains to get me a very good one.”</p> +<p>“And you bike!”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; I learnt to go out with the Colvins. But I +do not venture to use it much here, unless the road is good. Those +rocks, freshly laid towards Rockstone, would make regular havoc of the +pneumatic tyres.”</p> +<p>Vera saw that this was prohibitive, and felt too much vexed to mention +Thekla’s version of the same; but Magdalen asked, “Have +you learnt?”</p> +<p>“They were always going to teach me at Warner Grange, but it +always snowed, or rained, or skated, I mean we skated, or something, +whenever Hubert had time; but I am perfectly dying to learn.”</p> +<p>“Well, before you expire, we may teach you a little on these +smoother paths; and hire one perhaps, by the time the stones are passable. +Just at present, I think our own legs and Pixy’s are safer for +that descent.”</p> +<p>Vera was pacified enough to look on with a certain degree of complacency, +while Thekla was enraptured at being set to take out the eggs from the +hens’ nests.</p> +<p>But the conclave in the sitting-room on Vera’s report decided, +“Selfish old thing, it is only an excuse! Of course we should +take care not to spoil it. It shows what will be the way with +everything.”</p> +<p>No one knew of a still more secret conclave within Magdalen’s +own breast, one of those held at times by many an elder, between the +claims of loyalty to the keepsakes of affection and old association +and the gratification of present desires. Magdalen thought of +the rules of convents forbidding the appropriation of personal trifles, +and wondered if it were wise, if stern; but for the present she decided +that it could not be her duty to risk what had been carefully and kindly +selected for her in unpractised and careless hands; and she further +compromised the matter by reckoning whether her funds, which were not +excessive, would admit of the hire or purchase of machines that might +allay the burning aspirations of her young people.</p> +<p>The upshot of her reckoning was that when they all met at the early +dinner, she announced, “I think we might go to Rock Quay this +afternoon, between the pony carriage and Shanks’s mare. +I want to ask about some lessons, and we could see about the hire of +a bicycle for you to learn upon.”</p> +<p>It was only Agatha who answered, “Thank you, but it is not +worth while for me, I shall be away so soon.”</p> +<p>Thekla cried out, “Me too!” - and Paulina mumbled something. +In truth, besides the thought of the bicycle in the stable, the other +two had lived enough in the country-town atmosphere to be foolishly +disgusted at being obliged to dine early. That they had always +been used to it made them only think it beneath their age as well as +their dignity, and, “What a horrid nuisance!” had been on +their tongues when the bell was ringing.</p> +<p>Moreover, they had enough of silly prejudice about them to feel aggrieved +at the sight of hash, nice as it was with fresh vegetables, and they +were not disposed to good temper when they sat down to their meal. +“They” perhaps properly means the middle pair, for Agatha +had more notion of manners and of respect, and Thekla had an endless +store of chatter about her discoveries.</p> +<p>The pony-carriage was brought round in due time, but just then another +vehicle of the same kind, only prettier and with two ponies, was seen +at the gate, too late for the barbarian instinct of rushing away to +hide from morning visitors to be carried out, before Lady Merrifield +and a daughter, were up the slope and on the levelled road before the +verandah.</p> +<p>“I think this is an old acquaintance,” said Lady Merrifield +as she shook hands, “though perhaps Mysie is grown out of remembrance.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes,” said an honest open-faced maiden, eagerly +putting out her hand. “Don’t you remember, Miss Prescott, +our all staying at Castle Towers? I came with Phyllis Devereux, +and she and I took poor Betty Bernard out after blackberries, and she +thought it was a mad bull when it was a railway whistle, and ran into +a cow-pond, and Cousin Rotherwood came and Captain Grantley and got +her out.”</p> +<p>Magdalen was smiling and nodding recollection, and added, “It +was really one of the boys.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“I thought it was a crazy bull<br /> Firing +a blunderbuss - ”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>She paused for recollection, and Magdalen went on -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“I thought it was a crazy bull<br /> Firing +a blunderbuss;<br />I looked again, and, lo, it was<br /> A +water polypus.<br />‘Oh, guard my life,’ I said, ‘for +she<br /> Will make an awful fuss.’”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Ah! do you remember that?” cried Mysie. “I +have so often tried to recollect what it really was when she looked +again. Captain Grantley made it, you know, when we were trying +to comfort Betty.”</p> +<p>“I remember you and Lady Phyllis said you would go and confess +to Mrs. Bernard and take all the blame, and Lord Rotherwood said he +would escort you!”</p> +<p>“Yes, and Betty said it was no good, for if her mother forgave +her ten times over, still that spiteful French maid would put her to +bed and say she had no <i>robe convenable</i>,” went on Mysie. +“But then you took her to your own room, and washed her and mended +her, so that she came out all right at luncheon, and nobody knew anything, +but she thought that horrid woman guessed and tweaked her hair all the +harder for it.”</p> +<p>“Poor child, she looked as if she were under a tyranny.”</p> +<p>“Have you seen her since?”</p> +<p>“No; but Phyllis tells me she has burst forth into liberty, +bicycles, and wild doings that would drive her parents to distraction +if she dreamt of them.”</p> +<p>“How is Lady Phyllis? Did I not hear that the family +had gone abroad for her health?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, and I went with them. They all had influenza, +and were frightened, but it ended in our meeting with Franceska Vanderkist, +the very most charming looking being I ever did see; and Ivinghoe had +fallen in love with her when she was Miranda, and he married her like +a real old hero. Do you remember Ivinghoe?”</p> +<p>“No; I suppose he was one of an indistinguishable troop of +schoolboys.”</p> +<p>“I remember Lord Rotherwood’s good nature and fun when +he met the bedraggled party,” said Magdalen, smiling.</p> +<p>“That is what every one remembers about him,” said Lady +Merrifield, smiling. “You have imported a large party of +youth, Miss Prescott.”</p> +<p>“My young sisters,” responded Magdalen; “but I +shall soon part with Agatha; she is going to Oxford.”</p> +<p>“Indeed! To which College? I have a daughter at +Oxford, and a niece just leaving Cambridge. Such is our lot in +these days. No, not this one, but her elder sister Gillian is +at Lady Catharine’s.”</p> +<p>“I am going to St. Robert’s,” said Agatha, abruptly.</p> +<p>“Close to Lady Catharine’s! Gillian will be glad +to tell her anything she would like to ask about it. You had better +come over to tea some afternoon.”</p> +<p>The time was fixed, and then Magdalen showed some of the advertisements +of tuition in art, music, languages, and everything imaginable, which +had begun to pour in upon her, and was very glad of a little counsel +on the reputation of each professor. Lady Merrifield saying, however, +that her experience was small, as her young people in general were not +musical, with the single exception of her son Wilfred, who was at home, +reading to go up for the Civil Service, and recreating himself with +the Choral Society and lessons on the violin. “My youngest +is fifteen,” she said, “and we provide for her lessons amongst +us, except for the School of Art, and calisthenics at the High School, +which is under superior management now, and very much improved.”</p> +<p>Mysie echoed, “Oh, calisthenics are such fun!” and took +the reins to drive away.</p> +<p>“Oh! she is very nice,” exclaimed Mysie, as they drove +down the hill.</p> +<p>“Yes, there is something very charming about her. I wonder +whether Sam made a great mistake.”</p> +<p>“Mamma, what do you mean?”</p> +<p>“Have I been meditating aloud? You said when you met +her at Castle Towers, she asked you whether you had a brother Harry.”</p> +<p>“Yes, she did. I only said yes, but he was going to be +a clergyman, and when she heard his age, she said he was not the one +she had known; I did not speak of cousin Henry because you said we were +not to mention him. What was it, if I may know, mamma?”</p> +<p>“There is no reason that you should not, except that it is +a painful matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley cousins. +Harry was never like the rest, I believe, but I had never seen him since +he was almost a baby. He never would work, and was not fit for +any examination.”</p> +<p>“Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried off +all the brains of the family.”</p> +<p>“The others have sense and principle, though. Well, they +put their Hal into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by they found he was +in a great scrape, with gambling debts; and I believe that but for the +forbearance of the partners, he might have been prosecuted for embezzling +a sum - or at least he was very near it; besides which he had engaged +himself to an attorney’s daughter, very young, and with a very +disagreeable mother or stepmother. The Admiral came down in great +indignation, thought these Prescotts had inveigled poor Henry, broke +everything hastily off, and shipped him off to Canada to his brothers, +George and John. They found some employment for him, but Susan +and Bessie doubt whether they were very kind to him, and in a few years +more he was in fresh scrapes, and with worse stains and questions of +his integrity. It ended in his running away to the States, and +no trace has been found of him since. I am afraid he took away +money of his brothers.”</p> +<p>“How long ago was it, mamma?”</p> +<p>“At least twenty years. It was while we were in Malta.”</p> +<p>“Who would have thought of those dear Stokesley cousins having +such a skeleton in their cupboard?”</p> +<p>“Ah! my dear, no one knows the secrets of others’ hearts.”</p> +<p>“And you really think that this Miss Prescott was his love?”</p> +<p>“I know it was the same name, and Bessie told me that he used +to talk to her of his Magdalen, or Maidie; and when I heard of your +meeting her at Castle Towers I wondered if it were the same. And +now I see what she is, and what she is undertaking for these young sisters; +I have wondered whether your uncle was wise to insist on the utter break, +and whether she might not have been an anchor to hold him fast to his +moorings.”</p> +<p>“Only,” said Mysie, “if he had really cared, would +he have let his father break it off so entirely?”</p> +<p>“I think your uncle expected implicit obedience.”</p> +<p>“But - ,” said Mysie, and left the rest unsaid, while +both she and her mother went off into meditations on different lines +on the exigencies of parental discipline and of the requirements of +full-grown hearts.</p> +<p>And, on the whole, the younger one was the most for strict obedience, +the experienced parent in favour of liberty. But then Mysie was +old-fashioned and dutiful.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER V - CLIPSTONE FRIENDS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“What idle progeny succeed<br />To chase the rolling circle’s +speed,<br />Or urge the flying ball.” - GRAY.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The afternoon at Clipstone was a success. Gillian was at home, +and every one found congeners. Lady Merrifield’s sister, +Miss Mohun, pounced upon Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in the alphabet +of good works needed in the neglected district of Arnscombe, where Mr. +Earl was wifeless, and the farm ladies heedless; but they were interrupted +by Mysie running up to claim Miss Prescott for a game at croquet. +“Uncle Redgie was so glad to see the hoops come into fashion again,” +and Vera and Paula hardly knew the game, they had always played at lawn +tennis; but they were delighted to learn, for Uncle Redgie proved to +be a very fine-looking retired General, and there was a lad besides, +grown to manly height; and one boy, at home for Easter, who, caring +not for croquet, went with Primrose to exhibit to Thekla the tame menagerie, +where a mungoose, called of course Raki raki, was the last acquisition. +She was also shown the kittens of the beloved Begum, and presented with +Phœbus, a tabby with a wise face and a head marked like a Greek +lyre, to be transplanted to the Goyle in due time.</p> +<p>“If Sister will let me have it,” said Thekla.</p> +<p>“Of course she will,” said Primrose. “Mysie +says she is so jolly.”</p> +<p>“Dear me! all the girls at our school said she was a regular +Old Maid.”</p> +<p>“What shocking bad form!” exclaimed Primrose. “Just +like cads of girls,” muttered Fergus, unheard; for Thekla continued +- “Why, they said she must be our maiden aunt, instead of our +sister.”</p> +<p>“The best thing going!” said Fergus.</p> +<p>“Maiden aunts in books are always horrid,” said Thekla.</p> +<p>“Then the books ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, and +spifflicated besides,” said Fergus.</p> +<p>“Fergus doesn’t like anybody so well as Aunt Jane,” +said Primrose, “because nobody else understands his machines.”</p> +<p>Thekla made a grimace.</p> +<p>“Ah!” said Primrose. “I see it is just as +mamma and Mysie said when they came home, that Miss Prescott was very +nice indeed, and it was famous that she should make a home for you all, +only they were afraid you seemed as if - you might be - tiresome,” +ended Primrose, looking for a word.</p> +<p>“Well, you know she wants to be our governess,” said +Thekla.</p> +<p>“Well?” repeated Primrose.</p> +<p>“And of course no one ever likes their governess.”</p> +<p>This aphorism, so uttered by Thekla, provoked a yell from Primrose, +echoed by Fergus; and Primrose, getting her breath, declared that dear +Miss Winter was a great darling, and since she had gone away, more’s +the pity, mamma was real governess to herself, Valetta, and Mysie, and +she always looked at their translations and heard their reading if Gillian +was not at home.</p> +<p>“And they are quite grown-up young ladies!”</p> +<p>“Mysie is; but I don’t know about Val. Only I don’t +see why any one should be silly and do nothing if one is grown up ever +so much,” said Primrose.</p> +<p>“As the Eiffel Tower,” put in Fergus.</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” said Primrose, bent on being improving. +“Don’t you know what that old book of mamma’s says, +‘When will Miss Rosamond’s education be finished?’ +She answered ‘Never.’”</p> +<p>Thekla gave a groan, whether of pity for Rosamond or for herself +might be doubted; and a lop-eared rabbit was a favourable diversion.</p> +<p>There was a triad who seemed to be of Rosamond’s opinion regarding +education, for Agatha was eagerly availing herself of the counsel of +Gillian, and the books shown to her; with the further assistance of +the cousin, Dolores Mohun, now an accredited lecturer in technical classes, +though making her home and headquarters at Clipstone.</p> +<p>Thekla’s views of young ladyhood were a good deal more fulfilled +by the lessons on cycling which were going on among the other young +people after the game of croquet had ended. Every size and variety +seemed to exist among the Clipstone population, under certain regulations +of not coasting down the hills, the girls not going out alone, and never +into the town, but always “putting up” at Aunt Jane’s.</p> +<p>Vera and Paulina were in ecstasy, and there was a continual mounting, +attempting and nearly falling, or turning anywhere but the right, little +screams, and much laughter, Jasper attending upon Vera, who, in spite +of her failures, looked remarkably pretty and graceful upon Valetta’s +machine; while Paula, whom Mysie and Valetta were both assisting, learnt +more easily and steadily, but looked on with a few qualms as to the +entire crystal rock constancy that Vera had professed, more especially +when Jasper volunteered to come over to the Goyle and give another lesson.</p> +<p>Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant time +with Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they were imperiously +summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to the transfer of Phœbus, +or to choose between him and the Mufti, to whom Thekla had begun to +incline.</p> +<p>The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where Magdalen +was edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired the Begum and +her progeny with a heartiness that would have won Thekla’s heart, +save that she remembered hearing Vera say, over the domestic cat in +the morning, that M.A.’s were always devoted to cats. But, +on the whole, the visit had done much to reconcile the young sisters +to their new surroundings; books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled +them even to the intimacy with “swells.”</p> +<p>The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, and +the moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three younger ones +all rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes past the appointed +hour for the early reading and study, Agatha felt obliged to go out +and tell them that the M.A. was sitting like Patience on a monument, +waiting for them; on which three tongues said “Bother,” +and “She ought to let us off till the proper end of the holidays.”</p> +<p>“Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave after +the Scripture was done,” said Agatha; “you might have known +she would not let you off that.”</p> +<p>“Bother,” said Vera again; “just like an M.A.”</p> +<p>“I did forget,” said Paula; “and you know it was +only just going through a lesson for form’s sake, like the old +superlative.”</p> +<p>They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made such +frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by one or +two observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of Samuel’s +history and of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she had resolved to endeavour +at a thorough teaching of the Old and New Testaments for the first hour +on alternate days, giving one day in the week to Catechism and Prayer +Book.</p> +<p>She asked what they had done before.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Best always read something at prayers.”</p> +<p>“Something?”</p> +<p>“Something out of the Bible.”</p> +<p>“No, the Testament.”</p> +<p>“I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat.”</p> +<p>“And Saul was in it, and we had him yesterday.”</p> +<p>“That was St. Paul before he was converted,” said Paula.</p> +<p>There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared that +Mrs. Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from the unconfirmed, +and had tried to get the Gospel repeated by heart, but had not succeeded.</p> +<p>“We did not think it fair,” said Vera. “None +of the other houses did.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Agatha, “Miss Ferris’s did.”</p> +<p>“Oh, she is a regular old Prot,” said Paula, “almost +a Dissenter, and it is not the Gospel either, only texts out of her +own head.”</p> +<p>“Polly!” said Agatha. “Texts out of her own +head!”</p> +<p>“It is Bible, of course, only what she fancies; and they have +to work out the sermon, and if they can’t do the sermon, a text. +They might as well be Dissenters at once!” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Janet M’Leod is,” said Vera. “It was +really Dissentish.”</p> +<p>Magdalen could not help saying, “So you would not learn the +Gospel because Dissenters learnt pieces of Scripture! You seem +to me like the Roman Catholic child, who said there were five sacraments, +there ought to be seven, but the Protestants had got two of them.”</p> +<p>She was sorry she had said it, for though Agatha laughed, the other +two drew into themselves, as if their feelings were hurt. “These +are the boarding-house habits,” she said. “What is +done at the High School itself?”</p> +<p>“The Vicar comes when he has time, and gives a lecture on an +Epistle,” said Agatha, “or a curate, if he doesn’t; +but I was working for the exam., and didn’t go this last term. +What was it, Polly?”</p> +<p>“On the - on the Apollonians,” answered Paulina, hesitating.</p> +<p>“My dear, where did he find it?”</p> +<p>“I know it was something about Apollo,” said Vera.</p> +<p>“It was Corinthians,” said Paula. “I ought +to have recollected, but the lectures are very dull and disjointed; +you said so yourself, Nag, and the Rector is very low church.”</p> +<p>“So you could not learn from him!”</p> +<p>“Really, sister,” said Agatha, “the lectures are +not well managed, they are in too many hands, and too uncertain, and +it is not easy to learn much from them.”</p> +<p>“Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin at +the beginning. Suppose I ask you to say the first answer in the +Catechism.”</p> +<p>On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, and +passed it on to her.</p> +<p>However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be recounted, +and the moment half-past ten chimed out the young ladies jumped up, +and would have been off to the bicycles, if Magdalen had not felt that +the time was come for asserting authority, and said, “Not yet, +if you please. We cannot waste whole days. You know Herr +Gnadiger is coming to-morrow, and it would be well to practise that +sonata beforehand; you ought each to practise it; Paula, you had better +begin, and Vera, you prepare this first scene of Marie Stuart to read +with me when Thekla’s lessons are over. Change over when +Paula has done.”</p> +<p>“It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is playing,” +said Vera.</p> +<p>“Nonsense,” Agatha muttered; but Magdalen said, “You +can sit in the drawing-room or your own room. Come, Tick-tick, +where’s your slate? Come along.”</p> +<p>“Don’t sulk, Flapsy,” said the elder sister, “it +is of no use. The M.A. means to be minded, and will be, and you +know it is all for your good.”</p> +<p>“I hate my good,” said naughty Vera.</p> +<p>“So does every one when it is against the grain,” said +Agatha; “but remember it is a preparation for a free life of our +own.”</p> +<p>“It is our cross,” said Paula, as she placed herself +on the music stool with a look of resignation almost comical.</p> +<p>Nor did her performance interfere with the equations which Agatha +was diligently working out; but Vera, though refusing to take refuge +from the piano, to which, in fact, she was perfectly inured, worried +her elder as much as she durst, by inquiries after the meaning of words, +or what horrid verb to look out in the dictionary; and it was a pleasing +change when Paula proceeded to work the same scene out for herself without +having recourse to explanations, so that Agatha was undisturbed except +by the careless notes, which almost equally worried Magdalen in the +more distant dining-room.</p> +<p>This was really the crisis of the battle of study. As the girls +were accustomed to it, and knew that they were of an age to be ground +down, they followed Agatha’s advice, and submitted without further +open struggle, though there was a good deal of low murmur, and the foreman’s +work was not essentially disagreeable, even while Vera maintained, what +she believed to be an axiom, that governesses were detestable, and that +the M.A. must incur the penalty of acting as such.</p> +<p>Very soon after luncheon appeared three figures on bicycles. +Wilfred Merrifield, with Mysie and Valetta, come to give another lesson +on the “flying circle’s speed.”</p> +<p>Magdalen came out with her young people to enjoy their amusement, +as well as to watch over her own precious machine, as Vera said. +It was admired, as became connoisseurs in the article; and she soon +saw that Wilfred was to be trusted with the care of it, so she consented +to its being ridden in the practice, provided it was not taken out into +the lanes.</p> +<p>Mysie turned off from the practising, where she was not wanted, and +joined Miss Prescott in walking through the garden terraces, and planning +what would best adorn them, talking over favourite books, and enjoying +themselves very much; then going on to the quarry, where Mysie looked +about with a critical eye to see if it displayed any fresh geological +treasures to send Fergus in quest of. She began eagerly to pour +forth the sister’s never-ending tale of her brother’s cleverness, +and thus they came down the outside lane to the lower gate, seeing beforehand +the sparkle of bicycles in its immediate proximity.</p> +<p>It was not open, but Vera might be seen standing with one hand on +the latch, the other on Magdalen’s bicycle, her face lifted with +imploring, enticing smiles to Wilfred, who had fallen a little back, +while Paula had decidedly drawn away.</p> +<p>None of them had seen Magdalen and Mysie till they were round the +low stone wall and close upon them. There was a general start, +and Vera exclaimed, “We haven’t been outside! No, +we haven’t! And it is not the Rockquay Road either, sister! +I only wanted a run down that lane up above.”</p> +<p>Wilfred laughed a little oddly. It was quite plain that he +had been withstanding the temptress, only how long would the resistance +have lasted?</p> +<p>Downright Mysie exclaimed, “It would have been a great shame +if you had, and I am glad Wilfred hindered you.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Magdalen, smiling to him. “You +know better than my sisters what Devon lanes and pneumatic tyres are!”</p> +<p>Perhaps Wilfred was a little vexed, though he had resisted, for he +was ready to agree with Mysie that they could not stay and drink tea.</p> +<p>But he did not escape his sister’s displeasure, for Mysie began +at once, “How lucky it was that we came in time. I do believe +that naughty little thing was just going to talk you over into doing +what her sister had forbidden.”</p> +<p>“A savage, old, selfish bear. It was only the lane.”</p> +<p>“Full of crystals as sharp as needles, enough to cut any tyre +in two,” said Mysie.</p> +<p>“Like your tongue, eh, Mysie?”</p> +<p>“Well, you did not do it! That is a comfort. You +would not let her transgress, and ruin her sister’s good bicycle.”</p> +<p>“She is an uncommonly pretty little sprite, and the selfish +hag of a sister only left orders that I was to take care of the bike! +I could see where there was a stone as well as anybody else.”</p> +<p>“Hag!” angrily cried Mysie, “she is the only nice +one of the whole lot. Vera is a nasty little thing, or she would +never think of meddling with what does not belong to her, or trying +to persuade you to allow it.”</p> +<p>“I call it abominable selfishness, dog in the mangerish, to +shut up such a machine as that, and condemn her sisters to one great +lumbering one.”</p> +<p>“That’s one account,” said Valetta. “Paula +said it was only till they had learnt to ride properly, and till the +stones have a little worn in.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Mysie, “I could see Vera is an exaggerating +monkey, just talking over and deluding Will, just as men like when they +get a silly fit.”</p> +<p>By this time Wilfred had thought it expedient to put his bicycle +to greater speed, and indulge in a long whistle to show how contemptible +he thought his sisters as he went out of hearing.</p> +<p>“Paulina is nice and good,” said Valetta, “she +has heard all about St. Kenelm’s, and wants to go there. +Yes, and she means to be a Sister of Charity, only she is afraid her +sister is narrow and low church.”</p> +<p>“That is stuff and nonsense,” said Mysie. “I +have had a great deal of talk with Miss Prescott. She loves all +the same books that we do. She is going to have G. F. S. and Mothers’ +Union, and all at poor Arnscombe, and she told me to call her Magdalen.”</p> +<p>With which proofs of congeniality Valetta could not choose but be +impressed.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER VI - THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM’S</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed<br />Raw Haste, half-sister +to Delay. - TENNYSON.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The deferred expedition to Rockquay also began, Magdalen driving +Vera and Thekla. She was pleased with her visitors, and hoped +that the girls would feel the same, but Vera began by declaring that +<i>that</i> Miss Merrifield was not pretty.</p> +<p>“Not exactly, but it is an honest, winning face.”</p> +<p>“So broad, and such a wide mouth, and no style at all, as I +should have expected after all that about lords and ladies! An +old blue serge and sailor hat!”</p> +<p>“You don’t expect people to drive about the country in +silk attire?”</p> +<p>“Well, perhaps she is not out! Sister, do you know I +am seventeen?”</p> +<p>“Yes, my dear, certainly.”</p> +<p>“Oh, look, look, there’s a dear little calf!” broke +in Thekla, “and, oh! what horns the cows have. I shall be +afraid to go near them! Was it only a sham mad bull when the little +girl ran into the pond?”</p> +<p>“It was the railway whistle, and she had never heard it in +the fields. She rushed away in a great fright and ran into the +pond, full of horrible black mud. The gentlemen heard the scream +and dragged her out, and it would have all been fun and a good story +if she had not been so much afraid of the French lady’s maid. +It is curious how the sight of those brown eyes brought the whole scene +back to me. We all grew so fond of Mysie Merrifield in the few +days we spent together, and she is very little altered.”</p> +<p>“Is she out?” asked Vera once more.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, she cannot be less than twenty.”</p> +<p>“And I am seventeen,” said Vera, returning to the charge. +“I ought to be out.”</p> +<p>“If there are nice invitations, I shall be quite ready to accept +them for you.”</p> +<p>“But I am too old for the schoolroom and lessons and masters.”</p> +<p>“Too old or too wise?” said Magdalen laughing.</p> +<p>“I have got into the highest form in everything. Every +one at Filston of my age is leaving off all the bother.”</p> +<p>“Not Agatha.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but Agatha is - !”</p> +<p>“Is what?</p> +<p>“Agatha is awfully clever, and wants to be something!”</p> +<p>“Something? But do you want to evaporate? To be +nothing at all, I mean,” said Magdalen, seeing her first word +was bewildering, and Thekla put in -</p> +<p>“Flapsy couldn’t go off in steam, could she? Isn’t +that evaporating?”</p> +<p>“I think what she wants is to be a young lady at large! +Eh, Vera? Only I don’t quite see how that is to be managed, +even if it is quite a worthy ambition. But we will talk that over +another time. Do you see how pretty those sails are crossing the +bay?”</p> +<p>Neither girl seemed to have eyes for the lovely blue of the sea in +the spring sunshine, nor the striking forms of ruddy peaks of rock that +enclosed it. Uneducated eyes, she thought, as she slowly manœuvred +the pony down the steep hill before coming to the Rockstone Cliff Road. +The other two girls were following her direction across field and road, +and making their observations.</p> +<p>“A dose of lords and ladies,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I thought they were rather nice,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“I see how it will be,” said Agatha. “They +will patronise the M.A. as Lady Somebody’s old governess, and +she will fawn upon them and run after them, and we shall be on those +terms.”</p> +<p>“But I thought you meant to be a governess?”</p> +<p>“I shall make my own line. I know how swells look on +a governess of the <i>ancien régime</i>, and how they will introduce +her as the kindly old goody who mends my little lady’s frock!”</p> +<p>“The girl had not any airs,” said Paula. “She +told me about the churches down there in the town - not the ones we +went to on Sunday; but there’s one that is very low indeed, and +St. Andrew’s, which is their parish church, was suiting the moderate +high church folk; and there is St. Kenelm’s, very high indeed, +Mr. Flight’s, I think I have heard of him, and it is just the +right thing, I am sure.”</p> +<p>“Don’t flatter yourself that the M.A. will let you have +much pleasure in it. It is just what people of her sort think +dangerous.”</p> +<p>“But do you know, Nag, I do believe that it is the church that +Hubert Delrio was sent down to study and make a design for.”</p> +<p>“Whew! There will be a pretty kettle of fish if he comes +down about it! That is, if he and Flapsy have not forgotten all +about the ice and the forfeits at Warner’s Grange, as is devoutly +to be hoped.”</p> +<p>“Do you hope it really, Nag, for Flapsy really was very much +- did care very much.”</p> +<p>“I have no great faith in Flapsy’s affections surviving +the contact with greater swells.”</p> +<p>“Poor Hubert!”</p> +<p>“Perhaps his will not survive common sense. I am sure +I hope not for both their sakes.”</p> +<p>“But, Nag, it would be very horrid of them if they had no constancy,” +declared the more romantic Paula.</p> +<p>“It will be a regular mess if they do have it, and bring on +horrid scrapes with the M.A. Just think. It is all very +well to say she has known Hubert all his life; but she can’t treat +him as a gentleman, or she won’t. She has a position to +keep up with all these swells, and he will be only the man who paints +the church! I only hope he will not come. There will be +nothing but bother if he does, unless they both have more sense and +less constancy than you expect. Well, this really is a splendid +view. Old Mr. Delrio would be wild about it.”</p> +<p>Here the steep and stony hill brought them into contact with the +pony carriage, nor were there any more confidential conversations. +The pony was put up at the top of the hill leading from Rockstone to +Rockquay, and thence the party walked down for Miss Prescott to make +a few purchases, and, moreover, to begin by gratifying Thekla’s +reiterated entreaty for a bicycle, though, as she was unpractised and +growing so fast, it was decided to be better to hire a tricycle for +practice, and one bicycle on which Vera and Paula might learn the art.</p> +<p>The choice was a long one, and left only just time for a peep into +the two churches and a study of the hours of their services. St. +Kenelm’s was decided to be a “perfect gem,” ornaments, +beauty, and all, a little overdone, perhaps, in Magdalen’s opinion, +but perfectly “the thing” in her sisters’.</p> +<p>This St. Andrew’s fulfilled to her mind, being handsome, reverent, +and decorous in all the arrangements, while to the younger folk it was +“all very well,” but quite of the old times. Little +did they know of “old times” beyond the quarter century +of their birth! Poor old Arnscombe might feebly represent them, +but even that had struggled out of the modern “dark ages.” +Magdalen had decided on talking to Agatha and seeing how far she understood +the situation, and she came to her room to put her in possession now +that Mrs. Best had left the guest chamber free.</p> +<p>“This is your home when you are here. You must put up +any belongings that you do not want to take to St. Robert’s.”</p> +<p>“Thank you; it is a nice pleasant room.”</p> +<p>“And, my dear, may I stay a few minutes? I think we had +better have a talk, and quite understand one another.”</p> +<p>“Very well.”</p> +<p>It was not quite encouraging, but Agatha really wished to hear, and +she advanced a wicker chair for her elder sister, and sat down on the +window seat.</p> +<p>“Thank you, my dear; I do not know how much Mrs. Best has told +you.”</p> +<p>“She told us that you had always been very good to us, and +that you had been our guardian ever since we lost our mother.”</p> +<p>“Did she tell you what we have of our own that our father could +leave us?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>“What amounts to about £40 a year apiece. Mrs. +Best in her very great goodness has taken you four for that amount, +though her proper charge is eighty.”</p> +<p>“And she never let any one guess it,” said Agatha, more +warmly, “for fear we might feel the difference. How very +good of her.”</p> +<p>She seemed more impressed by Mrs. Best’s bounty than by Magdalen’s, +but probably she took the latter as a matter of course and obligation; +besides, the sense of it involved a sum in subtraction. However, +this was not observed by her sister, who did not want to feel obliged.</p> +<p>“Now that this property has come in,” continued Magdalen, +“we can live comfortably together upon it for the present, and +your expenses at Oxford can be paid, as well as masters in what may +be needful for the others, and an allowance for dress. I suppose +you will want the £40 while you are at St. Robert’s, besides +the regular expenses?”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” warmly said.</p> +<p>“But I want you to understand, as I think you do, about the +future, for you must be prepared to be independent.”</p> +<p>“I should have wished for a career if I had been a millionaire,” +said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I believe you would, and it is well that you should have every +advantage. But the others. If I left you all this property, +it would not be a comfortable maintenance divided among four; and you +would not like to be dependent, or to leave the last who might not marry +to a pittance alone.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not,” said Agatha, with flashing eyes.</p> +<p>“Then you see that it is needful that you should be able to +do something for yourselves. I can give one of you at a time the +power of going to the University.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think Vera or Polly would wish for that,” +said Agatha.</p> +<p>“Well, what would they wish for? I can do something towards +preparing them, and I can teach Thekla, but I should like to know what +you think would be best for them.”</p> +<p>“Vera’s strong point is music,” said Agatha. +“She cares for that more than anything else, and Mr. Selby thought +she had talent and might sing, only she must not strain her voice. +I don’t believe she will do much in any other line. And +Polly - she is very good, and always does her best because it is right, +but I don’t think anything is any particular pleasure to her, +except needlework. She is always wanting to make things for the +church. She really has a better voice than Flapsy, and can play +better, but that is because she is so much steadier.”</p> +<p>“Seventeen and sixteen, are they not?”</p> +<p>“Yes; but Polly seems ever so much older than Flapsy.”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Best showed me that she had higher marks. She must +be a thoroughly good girl.”</p> +<p>“That she is,” cried Agatha, warmly. “She +never had any task for getting into mischief.”</p> +<p>“Well, they are both so young that a little study with me will +be good for them, and there will be time to judge what they are fit +for. In art I think they are not much interested.”</p> +<p>“Paula draws pretty well, but Vera hates it. Old Mr. +Delrio is always cross to her now; but - ” Agatha stopped short, +remembering that there might be a reason why the drawing master no longer +made her a favourite pupil.</p> +<p>“Do you think him a good judge?”</p> +<p>“Yes; Mrs. Best thinks much of him. He had an artist’s +education, and sometimes has a picture in the Water Colour Exhibition; +but I believe he did not find it answer, and so he took our school of +art.”</p> +<p>Agatha had talked sensibly throughout the conference, but not confidentially; +much, in fact, as she would have discussed her sisters with Mrs. Best. +She was glad that at the moment the sound of the piano set them listening. +She did not feel bound to mention to “sister” any more than +she would to the head mistress, that when staying at Mr. Waring’s +country house a sort of semi-flirtation had begun with Hubert Delrio, +a young man to whose education his father had sacrificed a great deal, +and who was a well-informed and intelligent gentleman in all his ways. +He had engaged himself to the great firm of Eccles and Beamster, ecclesiastical +decorators, and might be employed upon the intended frescoes of St. +Kenelm’s Church.</p> +<p>Ought “Sister” to be told?</p> +<p>But Agatha thought it would be betraying confidence to “set +on the dragon”; and besides nobody ever could tell how much Vera’s +descriptions meant. She knew already that the sweetest countenance +in the world and the loveliest dark eyes belonged to a fairly good-looking +young man, and she could also suspect that the “squeeze of my +hand” might be an ordinary shake, and the kneeling before the +one he loved best might have been only the customary forfeit. +On the whole, it would be better to let things take their course; it +was not likely that either was seriously smitten, and it was more than +probable that Hubert Delrio would be too busy to look after a young +lady now in a different stratum, and that Vera would have found another +sweetest countenance in the world.</p> +<p>All this passed through her mind while Magdalen listened, and pronounced +-</p> +<p>“That is brilliant - a clever touch - only - ”</p> +<p>“Yes, that is Vera - I know what you are noticing, but this +is only amusement; she is not taking pains.”</p> +<p>“It is very clever - especially as probably she has no music. +But there - ”</p> +<p>“Polly’s? Oh, yes; she is really steady-going. +That is just what you will find her. This is a charming room, +sister; thank you very much.”</p> +<p>“Make it your home, my dear.”</p> +<p>But in reality they were not much nearer together than before the +conference.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER VII - SISTER AND SISTERS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Have we not all, amid earth’s petty strife,<br />Some +pure ideal of a nobler life?<br />We lost it in the daily jar and fact,<br />And +now live idly in a vain regret.”<br />ADELAIDE PROCTER.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Agatha was so much absorbed in her preparation for St. Robert’s +that she did not pay very much heed to her younger sisters or their +relations with Magdalen. She had induced them to submit to the +regulation of their studies with her pretty much as if she had been +Mrs. Best, looking upon her, however, as something out of date, and +hardly up to recent opinions, not realising that, of late, Magdalen’s +world had been a wide one.</p> +<p>Perhaps, in Agatha’s feelings, there was an undercurrent inherited +from her mother, who had always felt the better connected, better educated +step-daughter, a sort of alien element, exciting jealousy by her companionship +to her father, and after his death, apt to be regarded as a scarcely +willing, and perhaps censorious pay-master.</p> +<p>“Your sister might call it too expensive.” “I +must ask your sister.” “No, your sister does not think +she can afford it. I am sure she might. Her expenses must +be nothing.” All this had been no preparation for full sisterly +confidence with “Sister,” even when a sort of grudging gratitude +was extracted, and Agatha had been quite old enough to imbibe an undefined +antagonism, though, being a sensible girl, she repressed the manifestations, +kept her sisters in order and taught them not to love but to submit, +and herself remained in a state of civil coolness, without an approach +beyond formal signs of affection, and such confidence.</p> +<p>It was the more disappointing to Magdalen, because Agatha and Paulina +both showed so much unconscious likeness to their father, not only in +features, but in little touches of gesture and manner. She longed +to pet them, and say, “Oh, my dears, how like papa!” but +the only time she attempted it, she was met by a severe, uncomprehending +look and manner.</p> +<p>And Agatha went away to Oxford without any thawing on her part.</p> +<p>The only real ground that had been gained was with little Thekla, +who was soon very fond of “Sister,” and depended on her +more and more for sympathy and amusement. Girls of seventeen and +sixteen do not delight in the sports of nine-year-olds, except in the +case of special pets and <i>protégées</i>, and Thekla +was snubbed when a partner was required to assist in doll’s dramas, +or in evening games. Only “Sister” would play unreservedly +with her, unaware or unheeding that this was looked on as keeping up +the <i>métier</i> of governess. Indeed, Thekla’s +reports of schoolroom murmurs and sneers about the M.A. had to be silenced. +Peace and good will could best be guarded by closed ears. Yet, +even then, Thekla missed child companionship, and, even more, competition, +the lack of which rendered her dull and listless over her lessons, and +when reproved, she would beg to be sent to school, or, at least, to +attend the High School on her bicycle. Not admiring the manners +or the attainments of the specimens before her, Magdalen felt bound +to refuse, and the sisters’ pity kept alive the grievance.</p> +<p>She had, however, decided on granting the bicycles. She had +found plenty of use for her own, for it was possible with prudent use +of it, avoiding the worst parts of the road, to be at early celebration +at St. Andrew’s, and get to the Sunday school at Arnscombe afterwards; +and Paulina, with a little demur, decided on giving her assistance there.</p> +<p>At a Propagation of the Gospel meeting at the town hall, the Misses +Prescott were introduced to the Reverend Augustine Flight, of St. Kenelm’s, +and his mother, Lady Flight, who sat next to Magdalen, and began to +talk eagerly of the designs for the ceiling of their church, and the +very promising young artist who was coming down from Eccles and Beamster +to undertake the work.</p> +<p>The church had not yet been seen, and the conversation ended in the +sisters coming back to tea, at which Paula was very happy, for the talk +had something of the rather exclusive High Church tone that was her +ideal. She had seen it in books, but had never heard it before +in real life, and Vera was in a restless state, longing to hear whether +the promising young artist was really Hubert Delrio, and hoping, while +she believed that she feared, that she should blush when she heard his +name. However, she did not, though Mr. Flight unfolded his rough +plans for the frescoes, which were to be of virgin and child martyrs, +Magdalen hesitating a little over those that seemed too legendary; while +old Lady Flight, portly and sentimental, declared them so sweet and +touching. After tea, they went on to the church. Just at +the entrance of the porch, Vera clutched at Paula, with the whisper, +“Wasn’t that Wilfred Merrifield? There, crossing?”</p> +<p>“Nonsense,” was Paula’s reply, as she lingered +over the illuminated list of the hours of services displayed at the +door, and feeling as if she had attained dreamland, as she saw two fully +habited Sisters enter, and bend low as they did so.</p> +<p>The church was very elaborately ornamented, small, but showing that +no expense had been spared, though there was something that did not +quite accord with Magdalen’s ideas of the best taste; so that +when they went out she answered Paula’s raptures of admiration +somewhat coldly, or what so appeared to the enthusiastic girl.</p> +<p>The next day, meeting Miss Mohun over cutting out for a working party, +Magdalen asked her about the Flights and St. Kenelm’s.</p> +<p>“He is an excellent good man,” said Jane Mohun, “and +has laid out immense sums on the church and parish.”</p> +<p>“All his own? Not subscription?”</p> +<p>“No. He is the only son of a very rich City man, a brewer, +and came here with his mother as a curate, as a good place for health. +They found a miserable little corrugated-iron place, called the Kennel +Chapel, and worked it up, raising the people, and doing no end of good +till it came to be a district, as St. Kenelm’s.”</p> +<p>“Very ornamental?”</p> +<p>“Oh, very,” said Jane, warming out of caution, as she +felt she might venture showing city gorgeousness all over. “But +it is infinitely to his credit. He had a Fortunatus’ purse, +and was a spoilt child - not in the bad sense - but with an utterly +idolising mother, and he tried a good many experiments that made our +hair stand on end; but he has sobered down, and is a much wiser man +now - though I would not be bound to admire all he does.”</p> +<p>“I see there are Sisters? Do they belong to his arrangements?”</p> +<p>“Yes. They are what my brother calls Cousins of Mercy. +The elder one has tried two or three Sisterhoods, and being dissatisfied +with all the rules, I fancy she has some notion of trying to set up +one on her own account at Mr. Flight’s. They are both relations +of his mother, and are really one of his experiments - fancy names and +fancy rules, of course. I believe the young one wanted to call +herself Sister Philomena, but that he could not stand. So they +act as parish women here, and they do it very well. I liked Sister +Beata when I have come in contact with her, and I am sure she is an +excellent nurse. They will do your nieces no harm, though I don’t +like the irregular.”</p> +<p>Of this assurance Magdalen felt very glad, when at the door of the +parish room, where the ladies were to hold a working party for the missions, +Carrigaboola Missions at Albertstown, she and her nieces were introduced +to the two ladies in hoods and veils; and Paula’s eyes sparkled +with delight as she settled into a chair next to Sister Mena. +She looked as happy as Vera looked bored! Conversation was not +possible while a missionary memoir was being read aloud, but the history +of Mother Constance, once Lady Herbert Somerville, but then head at +Dearport, and founder of the Daughter Sisterhood at Carrigaboola. +To the Merrifields it was intensely interesting, and also to Magdalen; +but all the time she could see demonstrations passing between Paula +and Sister Mena, a nice-looking girl, much embellished by the setting +of the hood and veil, as if the lending of a pair of scissors or the +turning of a hem were an act of tender admiration. So sweet a +look came out on Paula’s face that she longed to awaken the like. +Vera meantime looked as if her only consolation lay in the neighbourhood +of a window, whence she could see up the street, as soon as she had +found whispers to Mysie Merrifield treated as impossible.</p> +<p>The party at the Goyle had begun to fall into regular habits, and +struggles were infrequent. There was study in the forenoon, walks +or cycle expeditions in the afternoon, varied by the lessons in music +and in art, which Vera and Paula attended on Wednesdays and Fridays, +the one in the morning, the other after dinner. It was possible +to go to St. Andrew’s matins at ten o’clock before the drawing +class, and to St. Kenelm’s at five, after the music was over. +Magdalen, whenever it was possible, went with her sisters on their bicycles +to St. Andrew’s, and sometimes devised errands that she might +join them at St. Kenelm’s, but neither could always be done by +the head of the household. And she could perceive that her company +was not specially welcome.</p> +<p>Valetta, the only one of the Clipstone family whose drawing was worth +cultivating, used to ride into Rockstone, escorted by her brother Wilfred, +who was in course of “cramming” with a curate on his way +to his tutor, and Vera found in casual but well-cultivated meetings +and partings, abundant excitement in “nods and becks and wreathed +smiles,” and now and then in the gift of a flower.</p> +<p>Paula on the other hand found equal interest and delight in meetings +with Sister Mena, especially after a thunderstorm had driven the two +to take refuge at what the Sisters called “the cell of St. Kenelm,” +and tea had unfolded their young simple hearts to one another! +Magdalen had called on the Sisters and asked them to tea at the Goyle, +and there had come to the conclusion that Sister Beata was an admirable, +religious, hardworking woman, of strong opinions, and not much cultivated, +with a certain provincial twang in her voice. She had a vehement +desire for self-devotion and consecration, but perhaps not the same +for obedience. She sharply criticised all the regulations of the +Sisterhoods with which she was acquainted, wore a dress of her own device, +and with Sister Mena, a young cousin of her own, meant to make St. Kenelm’s +a nucleus for a Sisterhood of her own invention.</p> +<p>Sister Mena had been bred up in a Sisterhood’s school, from +five years old and upwards, and had no near relatives. Mr. Flight +was Saint, Pope and hero to both, and Mena knew little beyond the horizon +of St. Kenelm’s, but she and Paula were fascinated with one another; +and Magdalen saw more danger in interfering than in acquiescing, though +she gave no consent to Paulina’s aspirations after admission into +the perfect Sisterhood that was to be.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII - SNOBBISHNESS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Why then should vain repinings rise,<br />That to thy lover +fate denies<br />A nobler name, a wide domain?” - SCOTT.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The friendship with the Sisters was about three weeks old when, one +morning, scaffold poles were being erected in the new side aisle of +St. Kenelm’s Church, and superintending them was a tall dark-haired +young man. There was a start of mutual recognition; and by and +by he met Paula and Vera in the porch, and there were eager hand-clasps +and greetings, as befitted old friends meeting in a strange place.</p> +<p>“Mr. Hubert! I heard you were coming!”</p> +<p>“Miss Vera! Miss Paula! This is a pleasure.”</p> +<p>Then followed an introduction of Sister Mena, whose elder companion +was away, attending a sick person.</p> +<p>“May I ask whether you are living here?”</p> +<p>“Two miles off at the Goyle, at Arnscombe, with our sister.”</p> +<p>“So I heard! I shall see you again.” And +he turned aside to give an order, bowing as he did so.</p> +<p>“Is he the artist of those sweet designs?” asked Sister +Mena.</p> +<p>“Did we not tell you?”</p> +<p>“And now he is going to execute them? How delicious!”</p> +<p>“I trust so! We must see him again. We have not +heard of Edie and Nellie, nor any one.”</p> +<p>“He will call on you?” said Sister Mena.</p> +<p>“I do not think so,” said Paula. “At least +his father is really an artist, but he is drawing-master at the High +School, and Hubert works for this firm. They are not what you +call in society, and our sister is all for getting in with Lady Merrifield +and General Mohun and all the swells, so it would never do for him to +call.”</p> +<p>“She would first be stiff and stuck up,” said Vera, “and +I could not stand that.”</p> +<p>“I thought she was so kind,” said Mena.</p> +<p>“You don’t understand,” said Vera. “She +would be kind to a workman in a fever; but this sort - oh, no.”</p> +<p>“To be on an equality with the man painting the church?” +said Paula. “No, indeed! not if he were Fra Angelico and +Ary Scheffer and Michelangelo rolled into one.”</p> +<p>At that moment the subject referred to in that mighty conglomeration +reappeared. He was a handsome young man, his touch of Italian +blood showing just enough to give him a romantic air; and Sister Philomena +listened, much impressed by the interchange of question and answer about +“Edie and Nellie,” and the dear Warings, and the happy Christmas +at the Grange; and Vera blushed again, and Paula coloured in sympathy, +as it appeared that Mr. Delrio had never had such a splendid time.</p> +<p>The colloquy was ended by Mr. Flight being descried, approaching +with his mother, whereupon the two girls fled away like guilty creatures.</p> +<p>Presently Vera exclaimed, “Oh, Polly dear, what a complication! +Poor dear fellow! he cares for me as much as ever.”</p> +<p>“And you will be staunch to him in spite of all the worldly +allurements,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Well, I mean Mr. Wilfred Merrifield is not half so handsome,” +returned Vera.</p> +<p>“Nor is he engaged in sacred work; only bent on frivolity,” +said Paula; “yet see how the M.A. encourages him with tennis and +games and nonsense.”</p> +<p>Poor M.A., when the encouragement had only been some general merriment, +and a few games on the lawn Paulina, who had heard many confidences +when Vera returned from Waring Grange, believed altogether in the true +love of the damsel and Hubert Delrio, who had been wont to single out +the prettiest of the girls at Filstead, and she was resolved to do all +she could in their cause, being schoolgirl enough to have no scruple +as to secrecy towards Magdalen, though on the next opportunity she poured +out all to Sister Philomena’s by no means unwilling ears.</p> +<p>Lovers had never fallen within the young Sister’s experience, +either personally or through friends; and they had only been revealed +to her in a few very carefully-selected tales, where they were more +the necessary machinery than the main interest, for she had been bred +up in an orphanage by Sister Beata, and had never seen beyond it. +So to her Paula’s story, little as there was of it, was a perfect +romance, and it gained in colour when she related it to her senior.</p> +<p>Sister Beata hesitated a little, having rather more knowledge of +the world, remembering that Vera Prescott was not eighteen years old, +and doubting whether an underhand intimacy ought to be encouraged; but +then Mr. Flight had spoken of Mr. Delrio as a highly praiseworthy young +man, of decided Catholic principles; he was regular at Church services, +and had dined or supped at the Vicarage. The intercourse, as the +girls had explained, had been sanctioned by Mrs. Best in their native +town, where all parties were well known, and thus there could be no +harm in letting it continue. While as to the elder Miss Prescott, +she was understood to be unduly bent on county and titled society, and +to be exclusive towards inferiors. Moreover, she was an attendant +at St. Andrew’s Church, and thus regarded as out of the pale of +sympathy of the St. Kenelm’s flock.</p> +<p>So no obstacle was put in the way of the gossips, for they were really +nothing more, except that there was admiration of the designs for the +side chapel, which were of the Scripture children on one side, and on +the other of child martyrs. Now and then there was a reference +to the chilliness and hardship of living with an unsympathising sister, +and being obliged to go to churches of which they did not approve. +Sometimes too there were airy castles of a distant future to be shared +by the magnificent architect, together with Vera, while Paula nursed +in the convent with Mother Beata and Sister Philomena.</p> +<p>But all this did not prevent an excitement and eager laughter and +chatter whenever Wilfred Merrifield came in the way, and he certainly +was enough attracted by Vera’s pretty face and lively graces to +make his sisters think him very absurd; but his mother had seen so many +passing fancies among her elder sons as to hold that blindness was better +than serious treatment.</p> +<p>There was the further effect that Magdalen had no suspicion that +the vehement attraction to St. Kenelm’s went beyond the harmless +quarter of the two nursing Sisters and some hero worship of Mr. Flight. +Miss Mohun, who knew everything, had indeed hinted that something foolish +might be going on there; but Magdalen had not decided on the mutual +fairness of the two congregations, and deferred investigation till Agatha +should come home, when she would have a reasonable, if cold, person +to deal with. Nor did Thekla’s chatter excite any suspicion; +for the only time when she had been present at a meeting with Mr. Delrio, +she had been half bribed, half threatened into silence, and she was +quite schoolgirl enough to feel that such was the natural treatment +of authority, though she had become really fond of “sister.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER IX - GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Can I teach thee, my beloved? can I teach thee?”<br />E. +B. BROWNING.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Agatha came home in due time, and Magdalen sent her sister to meet +her at the station, where they found a merry Clipstone party in the +waggonette waiting for Gillian, who was to come home at the same time. +There was so much discussion of the new golf ground, that Vera had hardly +a hand or a glance to bestow on Mr. Delrio, who jumped out of the same +train, shook hands with Agatha, and bestirred himself in finding her +luggage and calling a cab.</p> +<p>“How he is improved! What a pleasing, gentlemanly fellow +he looks!” she exclaimed, as she waved her thanks, while driving +off in the cab.</p> +<p>“Is he not?” said Paula, while Vera bridled and blushed. +“You will be delighted with his work. I never saw anything +more lovely than little St. Cyriac the martyr.”</p> +<p>“He is taken from Mrs. Henderson’s little boy,” +added Vera; “such a dear little darling.”</p> +<p>“And his mother is to be done; indeed, he has sketched her +for St. Juliet.”</p> +<p>“Flapsy! St. Romeo, too, I suppose?”</p> +<p>“Nonsense, Nag! There really was a St. Juliet or Julitta, +and she was his mother, and they both were martyrs. I will tell +you all the history,” began Paula; but Agatha interposed.</p> +<p>“You must like having him down here. Sister must be much +pleased with him. She used to like old Mr. Delrio.”</p> +<p>“Well, we have not said much about him,” owned Paula. +“He does not seem to wish it, or expect to be in with swells.”</p> +<p>“We could not stand his being treated like a common house-painter +and upholsterer,” added Vera.</p> +<p>“Surely no one does so,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“Not exactly,” said Paula; “at least, he has had +supper at St. Kenelm’s Vicarage with Lady Flight, and luncheon +at Carrara with Captain and Mrs. Henderson.”</p> +<p>“Because he was <i>doing</i> the child,” interposed Vera; +“and Thekla says that Primrose Merrifield says that her Aunt Jane +- that is, old Miss Mohun - says that Lady Flight is not a gentlewoman.”</p> +<p>“What has that to do with Magdalen?”</p> +<p>“Why, she is so taken up with those swells of hers, especially +now that there is a talk of Lord Somebody’s yacht coming in, that +she would never treat him as on equal terms, but just keep him at a +distance, like a mere decorator.”</p> +<p>“That seemed to me just what you were doing,” said Agatha, +“when he was so kind and helpful about my box.”</p> +<p>“Oh, <i>they</i> were all there, and we did not want to be +talked of,” said Vera, blushing. “He understands.”</p> +<p>“He understands,” repeated Paula. “We do +see him at the church and at the Sisters’. Those dear Sisters! +There is no nonsense about them. You will love them, Nag.”</p> +<p>“Well, it does not seem to me to be treating our own sister +Magdalen fairly.”</p> +<p>“The M.A.!” said Vera, in a tone of wonder.</p> +<p>“No; not to be intimate with a person you do not introduce +to her, because you do not think she would consider him as on equal +terms.”</p> +<p>“Sister Beata quite approves,” added Paula, sincerely, +not guessing how little Sister Beata knew of the situation, of which +she only heard through the medium of her own representations to Sister +Mena.</p> +<p>The two girls rushed into the charms of these two Sisters, and the +plan for an entertainment for the maidens of the Guild of St. Milburgha, +at which they were to assist. It lasted up to the gate of the +Goyle, where Magdalen and Thekla were ready to meet them; and they trooped +merrily up the hill, Agatha keeping to Magdalen’s side in a way +that struck her as friendly and affectionate. It seemed to be +more truly coming <i>home</i> than the elder sister had dared to anticipate; +nor, indeed, did she feel the veiled antagonism to herself that had +previously disappointed her.</p> +<p>The talk was about St. Robert’s, about Oxford in general, the +new friends, the principal, the games, the debates, the lectures, the +sermons, the celebrities, the undergraduates, the concerts, the chapels, +the boats, the architecture; all were touched on for further discussion +by and by as they sat at the evening meal, and then on the chairs and +cushions in the verandah; and through all there was no exclusion of +the elder sister, but rather she was the one who could appreciate the +interest of what Agatha had seen and heard; and even she was allowed +to enter into the amusement of an Oxford <i>bon mot</i>, sometimes, +indeed, when it was far beyond Paula and Vera.</p> +<p>There was no doubt that the term had much improved Agatha even in +appearance and manner. She held herself better, pronounced better, +uttered no slangish expressions, and twice she repressed little discourtesies +on the part of her sisters, and neglects such as were not the offspring +of tender familiarity, but of an indifference akin to rudeness. +Magdalen had endured, knowing how bad it was for their manners, but +unwilling to become more of an annoyance than could be helped. +The indescribable difference in Agatha’s whole manner sent Magdalen +to bed happier than she had been since the arrival of her sisters, and +feeling as if Agatha had come to her own side of a barrier.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was quite true; for the last two months had been a time +of growth with the maiden, changing her from a schoolgirl to a student, +from the “brook to the river.” She had, indeed, studied +hard, but that she had always done, as being clever, intellectual and +ambitious. The difference had been from her intercourse with persons +slightly her elders, but who did not look on authorities as natural +enemies, to be tolerated for one’s own good. There had been +a development of the conscience and soul even in this first term that +made her regard her elder sister not merely with a sense of compulsory +gratitude and duty, but with sympathy and fellow feeling, which were +the more excited when she saw her own chilliness of last spring carried +further by the two young girls.</p> +<p>So breakfast went off merrily; and after the round of the garden +and the pets, Agatha promised to come, when summoned, to hear how well +Thekla could read French. In the meantime she waited in the morning-room, +looking at her sisters’ books; Vera pushed aside the Venetian +blind.</p> +<p>“Don’t come in that way, Flapsy!” called Paula. +“You’ll be heard in the dining-room, and the M.A. will tremble +at your dusty feet.”</p> +<p>“They aren’t dusty,” said Vera, pulling up the +blind with a clatter.</p> +<p>“Aren’t they?” laughed Paula, pointing.</p> +<p>“You had better go and wipe them,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I don’t believe in M.A.’s fidgets,” returned +Vera.</p> +<p>“But I do, in proper deference to the head of the house,” +said Agatha, gravely.</p> +<p>“Murder in Irish!” cried Vera, bouncing away, while Paula +argued, “Really, Nag, life is not long enough to attend to all +the M.A.’s little worries.”</p> +<p>“Polly, dear, I am afraid we have been on a wrong tack with +our sister. I don’t like calling her by that name.”</p> +<p>“You began it!” exclaimed Vera, dashing in by the door +as she spoke.</p> +<p>“I could not have meant it as a nickname to be always in use.”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, you did, I remember” - and an argument was beginning, +which Agatha cut short by saying, “Any way, it is bad taste.”</p> +<p>“Nag has been so much among the real M.A. that she is tender +about their title.”</p> +<p>“She wants to be one herself,” said Vera; “and +so she will if she goes on getting learned and faddy.”</p> +<p>“In both senses?” said Paula.</p> +<p>Agatha laughed a little, but added, “No, Polly, the thing is +that it is hardly kind or right to put that sort of label upon a person +like Magdalen - who has done so much for us - and - ”</p> +<p>The perverse young hearts could not bear a touch on the chord of +gratitude; and Paula burst in, “Label or libel, do you mean?”</p> +<p>“It becomes a libel as you use it.”</p> +<p>“Do you want us to call her sister or Magdalen, the whole scriptural +mouthful at once?”</p> +<p>“I believe that to call her Magdalen or Maidie, as my father +did, would make her feel nearer to us than the formal way of saying +‘Sister.’”</p> +<p>“I don’t mind about changing,” said Paula. +“She can never be the same to us as dear Sister Mena.”</p> +<p>“She is so tiresome,” added Vera. “She bothers +so over my music; calling out if I make ever so small a slip, and making +me go over all again.”</p> +<p>“Well she may,” said Paula. “She is making +little Tick play so nicely. Just listen! But I can’t +bear her dragging us off to that horrid old Arnscombe Church and the +nasty stuffy Sunday school.”</p> +<p>“That reminds me,” said Agatha; “Gillian Merrifield +met a relation of Mr. Earl’s, who said that Miss Prescott had +brought quite new life and spirit to the poor old man, who had been +getting quite out of heart for want of any one to help and sympathise +with him.”</p> +<p>“Then he ought to make his services more Catholic,” said +Paula. “But nothing will wean her from the old parochial +idea. Why, she would not let me give my winter stockings to Sister +Beata’s poor girls, but made me darn them and put them by.”</p> +<p>“Yes, and mine, which were bad enough to give away, she made +me darn first,” cried Vera. “She is ever so much worse +than the superlative about mending one’s clothes.”</p> +<p>“There ought to be another degree of comparison,” said +Paula, - “Botheratissima!”</p> +<p>“For, only think!” said Vera. “She won’t +let us have new hats, but only did up the old ones, and not with feathers, +though there is such a love at Tebbitts’s at Rockstone.”</p> +<p>“She says it is cruel,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Cruel to me, I am sure; and what difference does it make when +the birds are once killed?”</p> +<p>“Well, she did give us those lovely wreaths of lilies,” +said Paula.</p> +<p>“Of course, but nothing to make them stylish! What’s +the good of being out if one is to have nothing <i>chic</i>? And +she won’t let me have a hockey outfit. She says she must +see more of it to be able to judge whether to let us play!”</p> +<p>“That just means seeing whether her dear Merrifields do,” +said Paula.</p> +<p>“Gillian did at St. Catherine’s. But you will know +soon. Did I not hear something about a garden party?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; she is talking of one, but it will be all swells +and croquet, and deadly dull.”</p> +<p>“I thought you seemed to be getting on well with the swells, +if you mean the Merrifields, especially Wilfred, if that is his name.”</p> +<p>“Bil - Bil! Oh, he is all very well,” said Vera, +“if he would not be always so silly and come after me! As +if I cared!”</p> +<p>“And only think,” said Paula, “that she was going +to have it on the very day that St. Milburga’s Guild has their +festival! Just as if it was on purpose!”</p> +<p>“Did you ask her to keep clear of your engagements?”</p> +<p>“I told her, but I don’t think she listened.” +And as another grievance suggested itself to Vera, she declared, “And +she won’t let us join the Girls’ Magazine Club, because +she saw one she didn’t like on somebody’s table. As +if we were little babies!”</p> +<p>“She won’t let us order books at the library, but gets +such awfully slow ones,” chimed in Paula, “or only baby +stories fit for Thekla. She made me return that book dear Sister +Mena lent me, because she said it was Roman Catholic.”</p> +<p>“And hasn’t she got Thomas à Kempis on her table? +and I’m sure he was Roman Catholic. There’s consistency!”</p> +<p>“You don’t understand,” began Agatha. “He +was a great Saint before the Catholics became so Roman.”</p> +<p>“Oh, never mind! It is anything to thwart us,” +cried Vera. “It is ever so much worse than school.”</p> +<p>“But,” began Agatha, and the tone of consideration to +that one conjunction caused an outburst. “Oh, Nag, Nag, +if you are gone over to the enemy, what will life be worth?”</p> +<p>As that terrible question was propounded, in burst Thekla with, “Oh, +Nag, Nag, they are cutting the hay in the high torr field, and sister +says we may go and see them before I read my French.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried Vera, with a prolongation into a groan, “is +she going to be tiresome?”</p> +<p>“She has come to be quite a don,” said Paula; “but +never mind, we will soon make her all right again.”</p> +<p>The two sisters had to go to their different classes in the afternoon, +and wanted Agatha to go with them; but it was a very warm day, and she +preferred resting in the garden, and, to Magdalen’s surprise and +pleasure, conversation with her. At first it was about Oxford +matters, very interesting, but public and external to the home, and +it did not draw the cords materially closer; but when Thekla had privately +decided that even hanging upon the newly recovered Nag was not worth +the endurance of anything so tedious, and had gone off to assist her +beloved old gardener in gathering green gooseberries, Magdalen observed +that she was a very pleasant little pupil, and was getting on very well, +especially with arithmetic.</p> +<p>“That was the strong point in the junior classes,” said +Agatha; “better taught than it was in my time.”</p> +<p>“I wish she could have more playfellows,” said Magdalen. +“She would like to go to the High School at Rockquay, but there +are foundations I should wish to lay before having her out of my own +hands.”</p> +<p>“I should think you were her best playfellow. She seems +very fond of you, and very happy.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Magdalen, rather wistfully. “I +think she generally is so.”</p> +<p>“Maidie! may I call you by the old home name?” +And as Magdalen answered with a kiss and tearful smile, “Do tell +me, please, if Polly and Flapsy are nice to you?”</p> +<p>Magdalen was taken by surprise at the pressure of the hand and the +eyes that gazed into her face full of expression.</p> +<p>She could not keep the drops from rushing to her own eyes, though +she smiled through them and said, “As nice as they know how.”</p> +<p>“I am afraid I know what that means,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“If I only knew how to prevent their looking on me as their +governess,” continued Magdalen; “but I must have got into +the groove, and I suppose I do not always remember how much must be +tolerated if love has to be won; and Paula is a thoroughly good girl.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I am sure she wishes to be,” said Agatha. +“Are those Sisters nice that she talks of so eagerly?”</p> +<p>“They are very excellent women, but somehow I should have had +more confidence in them if they were not unattached, or belonged to +some regular Sisterhood. I wish she had taken instead to Mysie +Merrifield, who is more of my sort; but no one can control those likings.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think Gillian very attractive; she is so wrapped +up in her work,” confessed Agatha.</p> +<p>“You will see them all, I hope, for I am giving a garden party +next week, perhaps. Have not they told you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; but Polly seemed bent on its not clashing with some +festival at St. Kenelm’s.”</p> +<p>“Therefore I had not fixed the day till I had heard what is +settled. I have invited people for Thursday, which will hardly +interfere.”</p> +<p>“Did you know that the young man who is painting the ceiling +at St. Kenelm’s Church is old Mr. Delrio’s son Hubert?”</p> +<p>“Indeed! Is he staying here? We must ask him to +come up to luncheon or to tea. I am glad he is doing so well. +I heard Eccles and Beamster were to do the decorations; I suppose they +employ him. I should think it was a very good line to get into.”</p> +<p>This was on a Friday; and the next day Magdalen proposed driving +down in the cool of the evening to see the decorations at St. Kenelm’s +and their artist; but it turned out that he was gone to spend Sunday +at the Cathedral city, and all that could be done was to admire the +designs, and listen to Paula’s enthusiastic explanation.</p> +<p>Magdalen consulted Agatha whether to send young Delrio a card for +the garden party; but they decided that it was too late for an invitation +to be sent, though a spoken one might have been possible. Besides, +it was not likely to be pleasant to a stranger who knew no one but the +Flights and Hendersons, and those professionally. Agatha told +her sisters, and with one voice they declared that they would not see +him patronised; while Agatha’s acute senses doubted whether Vera’s +objection was not secretly based on the embarrassment of a double flirtation +with him and with Wilfred Merrifield.</p> +<p>Indeed, Vera told her gaily: “Only think, Nag, I did have a +jolly ride on the M.A.’s bike after all.”</p> +<p>“Indeed! Then she lent it to you.”</p> +<p>“Not she! But she and the little kid were safe gone to +Avoncester, and Paula was with her dear Sisters, so Will and I took +a jolly spin along the cliff road; and it was such screaming fun. +Only once we thought we saw old Sir Jasper coming, and we got behind +a barn, but it turned out to be only a tripper, and we had such a laugh.”</p> +<p>“Paula does not know?”</p> +<p>“What would be the good of telling her, with her little nun’s +schoolgirl mind? She would only make no end of a fuss about a +mere bit of fun and nonsense.”</p> +<p>“I think if Wilfred Merrifield was afraid to meet his father, +it showed a sense of wrong.”</p> +<p>“Sir Jasper is a horrid old martineau, who never gives them +any peace at home, but is always after them.”</p> +<p>“A martinet, I suppose you mean. I don’t think +that makes it any better. I should not be happy till Magdalen +knew.”</p> +<p>“Why, no harm was done! There’s her precious machine +all safe! It was just for the fun of the thing, and to try how +it goes. One can’t be kept in like a blessed baby! +She never has guessed it. That’s the fun of it.”</p> +<p>“I would not return her kindness in such an unladylike way +when she is trusting you, Vera.”</p> +<p>Did Magdalen know what had been done? She did guess, for there +was a mark on the wheel that she did not remember to have known before, +and it cost her a bitter pang of mistrust; but she abstained from inquiries, +thinking that they might only do harm. But she bought a chain +for her bicycle; and Agatha felt more shame than did Vera, who tried +to believe herself amused by her tacit sense of emancipation.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER X - FLOWN</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Till now thy soul hath been all glad and gay,<br />Bid it +arise and look on grief to-day.”<br />ADELAIDE PROCTOR.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>There was a Guild at St. Kenelm’s which was considered by the +promoters to be superior to the Girls’ Friendly Society, and which +comprised about a dozen young women, who attended classes held by Sister +Beata, and occasional modest entertainments given by Lady Flight.</p> +<p>One of these was to take place the day before Miss Prescott’s +garden party. It was to be given at Carrara, the very pretty grounds +on the top of the cliff, belonging to Captain Henderson, the managing +partner in the extensive marble works of Mr. White, who lived at Rocca +Marina, in the Riviera. Mrs. Henderson had resided in Mr. Flight’s +parish, and been a member of his congregation, and while he was absent +for a day or two she had put her garden at the service of the Guild +of St. Milburga’s for the day.</p> +<p>Of course Vera and Paula were delighted to assist; but Thekla was +too young for the amusements of grown-up maidens, and was much better +pleased to help her two elder sisters in preparations for the next day, +placing tennis nets, arranging croquet hoops, mustering chairs by the +verandah, and adorning tables with flowers. Agatha’s assistance +was heartily given, as making it her own concern, and, for that reason +above all others, it was a happy day, though a very tiring one, to Magdalen, +in spite of the sultry atmosphere and the sight of lurid-looking clouds +over the moors, which did not augur well for the next day’s weather, +and caused all the arrangement of chairs and rugs to be prudently broken +up and deposited under the verandah.</p> +<p>This was done, and the evening meal had been taken, and Thekla had +gone to bed before some flashes of lightning made the two sisters wish +to see the other pair at home, especially as Vera was much afraid of +lightning, and Paula apt to be made quite ill by it.</p> +<p>The storm rolled on, bringing violent gusts of wind and hail, though +not at the very nearest, and such a hurricane of wind and rain ensued +that the two watchers concluded that the two girls must have been housed +for the night by some of the friends at Rock Quay, and it was near midnight, +when just as they had gone to their rooms, a carriage was heard ascending +the hill, and they had reached the door before Paulina sprang out with +the cry, “Is she come home?” Then at sight of the +blank faces of dismay, she seized hold of Agatha’s hands and began +to sob. Mr. Flight had stepped out of the car at the same moment, +and answered the incoherent questions and exclamations.</p> +<p>“Young Delrio offered to take photographs of the party, and +that was the last time she was seen.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” sobbed Paula, “Sister Mena saw her there. +We were trying to get up croquet, and then I missed her. I tried +to find her when the lightning began, but I could not find her anywhere, +though I looked in all the summer-houses!”</p> +<p>“At Mrs. Henderson’s? or Miss Mohun’s? or the Sisters’?” +asked Magdalen, catching alarm from each denial. “She might +have gone home with one of the girls.”</p> +<p>“She would be wild in such a storm,” said Agatha, “and +not know what she was about.”</p> +<p>“Sister Beata and I have gone to each house,” said Mr. +Flight.</p> +<p>“When did you say you saw her last?”</p> +<p>“I saw her when we were grouped,” said Paula; “Sister +Mena, when she was helping him to put up his photos.”</p> +<p>“The strange thing is,” said Mr. Flight, “though +no doubt it will be explained, that Delrio is missing too.”</p> +<p>“Hubert Delrio!” exclaimed Agatha. “Impossible! +He must have taken her into the church to be out of the storm.”</p> +<p>“We have tried,” said the clergyman. And as the +round of suggestions began to be despairingly reiterated, he said, hesitating, +“Miss Mohun told me that she thought she had seen a boat, Captain +Henderson’s, she believed, in the cave with some one rocking in +it; and certainly that little boat was there, when on the hope, if it +can be called a hope, I ran down the steps to look.”</p> +<p>“Would it not have been put into the boathouse out of the rain?” +said Agatha.</p> +<p>“The gardener was gone home, out of reach round the point, +but we shall know to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“He thinks they may have rowed out and been caught in the storm,” +cried Paula, bursting into fresh weeping; and Magdalen saw the conjecture +confirmed by Mr. Flight’s countenance.</p> +<p>“I am afraid it is the least distressing - the least unsatisfactory +idea,” said he, in much agitation. “I thought Mr. +Delrio an excellent young man; and she,” indicating his companion, +“tells me you know him and his family well.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes,” said Agatha and Magdalen in one breath. +“We have known his father all our lives. Nothing can be +more respectable.”</p> +<p>“And Hubert is as steady and good as possible,” continued +Agatha. “His mother used to come to Mrs. Best and praise +him, till we were quite tired of his name; I am sure he is all right.”</p> +<p>“Or I should be much deceived in him,” said the clergyman.</p> +<p>Yet there was an idea in Paulina’s mind. Could Vera have +poured out such an exaggerated tale of oppression and unhappiness as +to have induced her old playfellow to carry her off to his mother at +Filsted? She had given some such hint to Mr. Flight on the way; +but he had not seemed to hear or attend, and he was now promising to +let the sisters know as soon as possible in the morning whether anything +had been discovered, and to telegraph to Filsted and to the office in +London if he should see occasion.</p> +<p>Then he drove off, in what would have been almost daylight but for +the pelting of the storm; and after a vain attempt to make Paula swallow +some nourishment, Magdalen thought it kinder to let Agatha carry her +off to bed, and then she confessed, what really gave a certain hope, +that the pair had been in the habit of murmuring against “sister” +so much that, considering poor Vera’s propensity to strong language, +it was quite possible that Hubert might think her cruelly oppressed, +and for a freak carry her off to his mother to be consoled.</p> +<p>Agatha tried to believe it, for the sake of hushing the exhausted +Paula, who almost went into hysterics, as she laughed at the notion +of to-morrow’s telegram that Vera was safe at Filsted; and then +allowed herself to be calmed enough to sleep, while Agatha revolved +the notion, but found herself unable seriously to believe, that sufficient +grievance could be brought against sister to induce any man in his senses +to take such a step. But then Paula had inferred that he was a +lover, and Agatha did not know of what lovers might be capable, and +she could not but blame herself for not having given more importance +to the semi-confidences of her sisters on the first day of her arrival. +It was all misery; and the two poor girls could find no solace in the +morning, save in talking to Magdalen, though that involved the confession +of all the murmurs against her, the distrust of her kindness, and the +explanation of the interviews, which, as far as Paula had ever witnessed +them, were absolutely harmless, the only pity being in their concealment.</p> +<p>Magdalen was manifestly as wretched as they, or even more so, being +convinced of her own shortcoming in not having won the affection or +confidence that would have made all open between them. She could +not understand why Hubert Delrio should not have been made known to +her.</p> +<p>“We thought,” said Paula, “we thought you might +not think him enough - enough - of a gentleman for your sort of society.”</p> +<p>“I think you might have trusted me to know what was due to +an old friend,” said Magdalen “but, oh, I ought to have +made you feel that we could think together.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps,” said Agatha, “there was a little consciousness +on poor dear Vera’s part that she did not want you to know the +terms she was on.”</p> +<p>They had tried only to let Thekla know that they were much alarmed +because Vera had gone out in a boat and not returned. It was observable +that, on the principle that where there is life there is hope, Paula +clung to the notion that Vera’s having fled to Filsted; while +the two elder sisters, perhaps because they better knew what such a +flight might seem to others, would almost have preferred to suppose +there had been a fatal accident in the midst of youthful, innocent sport.</p> +<p>The two were lingering sadly over their uneaten breakfast, talking +more freely when they had sent Thekla to feed her pets, when Mr. Flight +came up on his bicycle; but it was plain at the first moment that he +had no good news.</p> +<p>Nothing had been heard. It only appeared that one of the young +gardeners at Carrara had taken Captain Henderson’s boat without +leave, to fetch one of the girls, but on entering the cove had found +the boathouse locked. He had moored the boat to a stake for want +of the ring that secured it within. When the storm threatened +he ran down to recover it, but it was gone, and he had concluded that +the gardeners had put it into the boathouse. It now appeared that +they had not seen it, and were very angry at its having been meddled +with. An oar had drifted up with the morning tide, and had been +recognised as belonging to the boat; but such a gale was blowing that +it was impossible to put out to sea or make any search round the coast. +Words could hardly describe the distress of Mr. Flight or of his ladies +at not having better looked after the young girl; Sister Beata for never +having thoroughly attended to the matter; and Sister Mena for having +accepted confidences which, if she had only guessed it, told her more +than there really was to be known. Both these two were inclined +to the elopement idea, partly because it was the least shocking, and +partly because they had looked at Vera’s grievances through her +own spectacles, and partly from their unlimited notions of young men’s +wickedness. Their vicar was not of the same opinion, knowing Hubert +better, and besides having found his work, his orders to his subordinates, +and the belongings at the lodgings in a state that showed that whatever +he had done had been unpremeditated. Sending off notes to stop +the garden party was a sort of occupation, broken by many signs, much +listening, and much sorrowful discussion, not quite vain, since it made +Paulina more one with Magdalen than ever before. Poor old Mr. +Delrio arrived in the afternoon, a thin, grey-haired and bearded old +man, who could only make it too certain that Paula’s theory of +the innocent flight to Filsted was impossible. Moreover, he was +as certain as a father could be, intimate with, and therefore confident +of, his eldest son, that though Hubert might indulge in a little lively +flirtation, it could never be otherwise than perfectly harmless. +In the terrible suspense and restlessness, he went vibrating about in +the torrents of moorland rain between Rock Quay and the Goyle, on the +watch for telegrams from the office in London or his wife at home, or +for the discovery of anything from the sea, or searching in his son’s +lodgings, where nothing was found that did not show him to have been +a pure-hearted young man, devoted to his art, and fond of poetry. +Sundry compositions were in the blotting-book, one, indeed, to Vera’s +name, under the supposition (a wrong one) <a name="citation100"></a><a href="#footnote100">{100}</a> +that it meant “true,” but mostly rough copies of a poem +about the Saints Julitta and her child Cyriac. Hope sank as another +stormy day rose; and still the poor old artist lingered in hopes of +news by some returning craft which might have picked up the derelict. +His chief comfort was in walking about between the showers with Magdalen, +as an old friend, and trying to think of the two as innocent creatures, +engulfed like mayflies in the stream.</p> +<p>Sister Mena came over, wanting to join Paula in bewailing entreaties; +but Paula, in youthful hard-hearted wilfulness, declared that it was +impossible to see her; and it fell to Magdalen to try to discuss the +grief with her.</p> +<p>It turned out that Mr. Flight had spoken severely to her and to the +far less implicated Sister Beata, declaring his confidence in them destroyed, +so that they had begun to consider of throwing up their work in his +parish. “And it was all my fault,” said Mena; “Sister +Beata really knew nothing, or hardly anything of what Vera told me.”</p> +<p>“Indeed, I can quite understand that you had hardly experience +enough to know that it might be wiser not to encourage what was not +quite open.”</p> +<p>“But I thought, - I thought you - ”</p> +<p>“That I was unkind and unsympathising.”</p> +<p>“Oh, you never could have been - ”</p> +<p>“Indeed I never meant to be, but I am afraid it seemed so to +my young sisters. I can quite see how you thought you were acting +kindly.”</p> +<p>“Oh, that is so good of you.”</p> +<p>“And perhaps I, being only an elder sister, you would not feel +that I was the only authority the poor girls have to look to; and that +it would have been kinder to help them to be content with me.”</p> +<p>“I did not know what you could be,” said Mena, greatly +soothed and surprised by her caresses.</p> +<p>“We often do go on in ignorance, and get on a wrong tack; but +you know God pardons our mistakes, and I do believe that you will be +wiser for all this sorrow, and better able to rise to your work. +I am sure, however it ends, that is the reason that such blows are sent +to us.”</p> +<p>Mena went back sorrowful and chastened, but tenderly hopeful. +If Miss Prescott could forgive, surely Mr. Flight could, and One still +greater.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XI - ADRIFT</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“She splashed, and she dashed, and she turned herself round,<br />And +heartily wished herself safe on the ground.”<br />JANE TAYLOR.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>And where were the missing pair?</p> +<p>Vera had lingered about, fancying she was helping to pack the photographic +apparatus, while the others dispersed. Presently, seeing no one +near, Hubert Delrio said, in a gentle diffident voice, “It would +be a great pleasure to me if I might ask you to listen to the verses +on St. Cyriac and his mother that the design brought with it.”</p> +<p>“I should love it better than anything,” said Vera, highly +flattered.</p> +<p>“If you would come down this way, there is a charming secluded +cove, where we should be free from interruption.”</p> +<p>“How deliciously romantic! Quite stunning!” cried +Vera, as her cavalier conducted her down a steep path along the side +of the cliff to the stony beach, where a few red rocks had been manipulated +into a tiny harbour, with a boathouse for the little skiff in which +Captain Henderson was wont to go round to the marble works on the other +side of the headland. The boat looked very inviting as it lay +swinging gently in the sluggish waves in the advancing shade of the +tall cliff; and Vera exclaimed with delight as she was assisted into +it, and placed herself comfortably on the cushion, with one hand dabbling +in the cool translucent wave. Hubert Delrio opened his manuscript +and began to read his ballad, if so it was to be called, being the history +of the little boy of four years old, who, being taken with his mother +before the tribunal at Tarsus, was lifted on the proprætor’s +knee, but struggled, crying out, “I am a Christian!” till +the proprætor, in a rage, hurled him down. His skull was +fractured on the marble pavement, and his mother gave thanks for his +soul’s safety, when she too was sentenced to be beheaded. +Great pains had been taken with the noble-minded tale; and the verses +had considerable merit, more, perhaps, than Vera could appreciate. +But to read such a production of his own, in such surroundings, to the +auditor whom youthful fancy most preferred, was such luxury to both +that it was no wonder that under the broad shady hat with the lily wreath +she was nodding in the gentle breeze, the lapping of the waves, and +the soft cadence of the poetry, till at an effective passage on the +mother’s death, the poet looked up, expecting to receive a responsive +glance from those blue eyes.</p> +<p>Not only were they hidden, but the cliff was farther off. The +mooring rope and the stake were dragging behind in the water. +The tide had turned, and the boat was already out of reach of the rock +where it had been drawn up. His exclamation of dismay awoke Vera, +who would have started up with a little shriek, but for his, “Don’t! +Don’t! I’ll row back.”</p> +<p>But he was a landsman, whose only knowledge of the water was in an +occasional bathe, or in a river steamer; and his first attempt at placing +the oars in the rowlocks resulted in one falling overboard, while he +helplessly grasped the other; and Vera screamed again.</p> +<p>“Don’t be frightened, my dear! Dearest, don’t! +We must be seen. Some one will come out and help us.”</p> +<p>“Can’t you get on with one oar? They do in pictures.”</p> +<p>“Punting? Yes, but there must be a bottom. No, +don’t move, whatever you do. There can’t be any danger. +Fishermen must be about. Or we shall be seen from the cliffs.”</p> +<p>“They are getting farther off! Can’t you shout?”</p> +<p>Hubert shouted, and Vera added her shriller cries; but all in vain, +and the outgoing tide was carrying them, not towards the quay and marble +rocks, but farther to sea. The waves grew rougher and had crests +of foam, and discomfort began. Once the feather of a steamer was +seen on the horizon. They waved handkerchiefs and redoubled their +shouts, and Hubert had to hold his companion to prevent her from leaping +up; but they never were within the vessel’s ken, and she went +on her way, while the sea bore them farther and farther.</p> +<p>The shore was growing dim and indistinct, the sun was sinking, and +the cloud, that had at first shown only a golden border, was lifting +tall perpendicular masses, while the tossing of the little boat became +more and more distressing. Anxiety and sense of responsibility +kept Hubert from feeling physical discomfort; but Vera began to cry, +and to declare that it would be the death of her if she were not landed +immediately.</p> +<p>“If it were only possible!” sighed Delrio.</p> +<p>“There must be some way! You are so stupid! Oh! +There was a flash of lightning.”</p> +<p>“Summer lightning.”</p> +<p>“No such thing! There will be a storm, and we shall be +drowned. Oh, I wish I had never listened to your nonsense, and +got into this horrible boat.” She was in a state for scolding, +and scold she did, as the clouds rose higher, and sheets of lightning +more decided. “How could you? You, who know nothing +about boats, and going on, on, with those horrid tiresome verses - not +minding anything - I wish I had never come near you!”</p> +<p>Vainly the poor young fellow tried to get in a word of consolation; +it only made her scold the more, till there was no question that the +storm was raging overhead; the hail rattled and splashed, the waves +raised them to a height, then subsided into endless depths; the thunder +pealed, and she clung to Hubert, too frightened for screaming. +His fear was that the cockleshell of a boat should fill and founder; +he tried to bale out the water with his hat, and to make her assist, +but she seemed incapable, and he could only devise laying her down in +the bottom of the boat with his coat over her, hiding her face in terror. +Her hat had long ago been blown away, and her hair was flapping about. +Ejaculations were in his heart, if not on his lips, and once or twice +she cried out something like, “Save me!” but in general +it was, “We are sinking! Hold me! We are going! +Paula! Nag!” clutching at his legs, so as to hamper him +in the baling out the water.</p> +<p>The hail passed, but there was a solid sheet of rain descending on +them, undistinguishable from the foam that rushed over them as they +went down, down, down. Vera was silenced; and Hubert, drenched +and nearly beaten out of life, almost welcomed every downward plunge +as the last, tried to commend his spirit, and was amazed to find his +little boat lifted up again, and the black darkness not so absolute.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XII - “THE KITTIWAKE”</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Good luck to your fishing! Whom watch ye to-night?<br />A +man of mean, or a man of might?” - SCOTT.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Something black was before the tossed boat! Yes, and light, +not lightning. A human voice seemed to be on the blast. +Hubert Delrio essayed to shout, but his voice was gone, or was blown +away. He understood that a vessel must be above him. Would +it finish all by running him down? He perceived that he was bidden +to catch something. A rope! His benumbed hands and the heaving +of the boat made him fail once, twice, and he was being swept away as +at last he did grasp a rope, and was drawn, as it ground his hands, +close to the dark wall that rose above, with lights visible.</p> +<p>“Cheer up! cheer up!” he cried to Vera. “Thank +God, we are saved!”</p> +<p>Response from her there was none; but he could hear the yell of inquiry +from ahead, and answered, “Here! Two! A woman!”</p> +<p>A second rope was lowered. “Lash her to it.” +But as it was evident that Delrio could do nothing but hold on, and +that his companion was helpless, a sailor descended from no great elevation, +and, in another moment, the senseless girl was hoisted up and received +on deck; and, with some assistance, Hubert was also on board, thinking +of nothing but the breathless question, “Is she safe?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! She will soon come round! Here! +They will see to her.” As she was carried away, and Hubert +had a perception that she was received by female hands, but he was utterly +exhausted, and unable to see or speak, till some stimulant had been +poured down his throat, and even then he could hardly ask, “Is +she safe?</p> +<p>“Yes, yes! All right! Reviving fast! Here! +Take some more! Bed is ready! Get rid of those clothes!” +It was an elderly, grey-haired man who spoke, and Hubert was in no condition +to resist, as the yacht was pitching considerably, though after the +boat the motion was almost rest. He instinctively shook his head +at the glass, but swallowed what was forced upon him, and managed to +say, “Thanks - sitting in boat - drifted off - Rock Quay.”</p> +<p>“All right! Never mind. Take him down. My +berth, Ivy - Jephson. Tuck him in. Don’t let him speak! +Never mind, my lad! We will hear all about it to-morrow!”</p> +<p>Meantime, Vera, though reviving, was conscious of very little, save +a soft pillow, tender hands, and warm drink that choked her; and then +she fell asleep, though still she was aware of a strange tossing going +on all night, and by and by she found herself secured into a sort of +narrow shelf, and murmuring female voices were at hand. As she +moved, she heard, “There, you are better now. You can take +this, then you will be more comfortable.”</p> +<p>Her eyes had opened to a curious sort of twilight, and there was +a fair girlish head over her, with a sweet smiling face. An elderly +weather-beaten face in a hood next appeared, and a brown hand holding +a cup closed over the top, in invalid fashion, and a kind strong arm +slightly raised her with, “There, there, poor dear! The +spirit, my lady dear, the spirit! That’s right, now then.”</p> +<p>“You <i>must</i> be a baby;” and a merry reassuring smile +broke out as the draught was administered. Vera tasted, thanked, +swallowed, felt giddy, and lay down, hearing a lively bit of self-gratulation. +“There, Mrs. Griggs, I’m getting my sea legs!” followed +by an ignominious stumble as Mrs. Griggs caught the cup in good time +as the vessel gave a lurch which completed Vera’s awakening in +the fear of being shaken out on the floor.</p> +<p>She looked round to find herself in a tiny room, cushioned throughout, +with strange dancing confused light coming in, and the few articles +of furniture carefully secured. Two young figures were there, +both dressed in stout blue serge, with white trimmings; one, the darker, +beside her bed, had a face full of kindness and solicitude, yet of fun +dimpling over continually; the other, even in that dim light, striking +Vera as something out of the loveliest visions of romance, so fair and +beautiful was the countenance.</p> +<p>A man’s voice was at the door. “Fly! Francie! +How is she?”</p> +<p>“Much better! Nearly well! Good morning, Papa dear. +Is he all right?”</p> +<p>“As sound as a bell! Ha!” As the door escaped, +the curtain over it shook, and he nearly fell against it, saving himself +with his hands. “That was exercise!” As the +young girls came tumbling up and disappeared behind the curtain, where, +however, the voices could be plainly heard, “Had any sleep to-night +or this morning?”</p> +<p>“Between whiles! O yes! All our bones are still +whole, as I hope yours and Ivy’s are.”</p> +<p>“Come and see. Griggs is getting breakfast under difficulties +insurmountable to any one but a sea-grasshopper! I came to call +you damsels, and present my inquiries to Miss Prescott.”</p> +<p>“She will soon be all right! Francie and I are so proud +of having had a real downright adventure.”</p> +<p>“I trust she will not be the worse, and will - excuse me, and +regard me as incognito.”</p> +<p>This was said as another lurch drove the grizzled head into the cabin; +and recovering in another upheaval they all disappeared, leaving Vera +in a dreaming state, whence she was only half roused when Mrs. Griggs +returned to administer breakfast, so far as she could taste it, under +exhortations, pettings, and scoldings; and she very soon fell asleep +again, and was thus left, sensible all the time of tossings and buffetings, +but so worn out by the five hours of the boat, and so liable to be made +ill by the motion of the vessel, that it was thought best to leave her +to sleep in her berth.</p> +<p>She was only aware of voices above talking and laughing, or sailor +calls being shouted out, or now and then of some one coming to look +at her, and insisting on her taking food.</p> +<p>It was not till late in the afternoon that she awoke from what seemed +like a strange long uneasy dream, and found one of the girls sitting +by her and telling her she was better now.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Vera, trying to raise herself, finding something +over her head, and falling back on the pillow; “but what is it? +Where is this?”</p> +<p>“<i>This</i> is somewhere out in the Channel, near off Guernsey, +Griggs says, but we cannot put in anywhere till the gale goes down.”</p> +<p>“What is it? Is it a ship, then?”</p> +<p>“O yes,” said the girl, laughing; “a yacht, the +<i>Kittiwake</i>. Sir Robert Audley has lent it to my brother, +and we are all going to see the Hebrides and Staffa and Iona.”</p> +<p>“Not to take me all up there?” groaned poor Vera, in +horror. “Can’t you put me out somewhere, anywhere?”</p> +<p>“Don’t be afraid,” was the much-amused reply. +“As soon as ever we can put in anywhere, we can telegraph to Rock +Quay and put you ashore to go home; but we can only run before the wind +while the sea is so high. I wish you could come on deck, it is +so jolly!”</p> +<p>“Oh! it was too dreadful!”</p> +<p>“Beating about in the boat! It must have been, Mr. Delrio +told us.”</p> +<p>“It was so stupid in him never to see that we had got loose, +and were drifting off,” said Vera, who had never thought of inquiring +after him.</p> +<p>“My father and Griggs think he behaved quite like a hero,” +was the answer. “He must have managed very well to keep +you afloat, and saved you all this time.”</p> +<p>“I suppose so,” said Vera. “We always did +know him, or I should not have let him get me into that boat, when he +minded nothing but his verses.”</p> +<p>“Those verses, they came all limp and wet out of his pocket, +and Francie made him let her dry them and copy them out; and she is +so delighted with them. It really is well it is too late to call +the baby Cyriac.”</p> +<p>“The baby?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes. We had to leave him behind, though Francie +was ready to break her heart over it; but they said that nothing would +do for Ivinghoe - after this second influenza - but a sea voyage, so +she had to make up her mind to leave him to my mother.”</p> +<p>Vera was in a state of bewilderment, caring a great deal more for +herself and her own sensations than for any of her surroundings; and +her next question was, “When do you think we shall be out of this?”</p> +<p>“We shall put into harbour somewhere as soon as the wind lulls. +We cannot venture yet, though we do steam; and then we can telegraph. +I am longing to relieve Miss Prescott. We can take you home all +the way. We were on our way into Rock Quay to take up Mysie Merrifield +if she can go. It really was a wonderful and most merciful thing +that we made you out just as it was getting light before running you +down. My father saw you first, and old Griggs would hardly believe +it, but then we heard Mr. Delrio’s hail! But it was a terrible +business getting you up the ship’s side.”</p> +<p>“I did not know anything about it. It was so dreadful +in the lightning. And my new hat was blown away. And what +is become of all my clothes?”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Griggs has them, and is drying them. We will lend +you a hat to land in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, when we do! I wish I had never got into that boat, +but Hubert Delrio did persuade me so.”</p> +<p>“And he is an old friend?”</p> +<p>“Yes, he is come to paint the roof of St. Kenelm’s Church, +and we want to be attentive to him because my eldest sister would be +sure to be cross and keep him at a distance, being only that sort of +wall painter, you know, and his father a drawing master.”</p> +<p>“My father is very much pleased with him, and thinks him a +very superior young man. They have been sitting on deck together, +talking as much as they could about architecture and Italy, with their +breath all blown away every moment. There! You are really +getting better! If you would eat something and come on deck you +would be well! I will call the sea gnat, and see what we have.”</p> +<p>It was all very wonderful to Vera; and she began to be interested +and to forget her troubles. A slice of very salt ham was brought +to her and a glass of something, she did not know what, and asked if +she could have some tea.</p> +<p>“You could have tea if you like, but there’s no milk. +You see, we ought to have been in at Rock Quay yesterday evening, and +our stores were not adapted to hold out any longer! We shall have +another curious experience, though Mrs. Griggs says it won’t be +so bad as once when they were off the coast of Ireland, and when they +put into a bay with a queer name, all Kill and Bally, they could get +nothing but potatoes and goat’s milk.”</p> +<p>“Who is Mrs. Griggs?”</p> +<p>“She is wife to the sailing master; and, like the Norsemen, +her home is on the wave, at least in the yacht, for she always lives +in it, and her cabin is quite a sight; she is great fun, she cooks when +there is anything to cook, and is stewardess and everything. Francie +and I knew a maid would be a vain encumbrance, so we are taking care +of ourselves, and, if you will let me, I will try and set your hair +to rights.”</p> +<p>It was in a fearful tangle, after five hours at sea, and many more +in the berth in the cabin; but Vera was able to sit up in a dainty dressing-gown, +and submit to treatment not quite that of a hairdresser, but made as +lively as could be by little jokes and kindly apologies at any extra +hard pull at the knots, which really seemed “as if a witch had +twined them;” and the two began to feel well acquainted with each +other over the operation, though Vera was somewhat impressed when she +observed that the brush was ivory handled.</p> +<p>Her bicycling skirt was in tolerable condition, but her once delicate +blue blouse was past renovation, so she was invested with a borrowed +white one, and led in triumph to the saloon, just as the beautiful “Francie” +came to call “Phyllis,” and give a helping hand. There +were two gentlemen besides Hubert Delrio, and there was a general rejoicing +welcome; but Vera did not think Hubert made half enough inquiries or +apologies, before she was seated at the table, where everything was +secured, and the fare was not very sumptuous or various, being chiefly +some concoction of rice and scraps of salt beef, which Francie said +was a shame, eating up the poor sailors’ fare; also there was +potted meat, and cheese, but all the fresh bread was gone, and they +praised Mrs. Griggs’ construction of ham and rice with all the +warmth and drollery each could contribute. Vera began to be puzzled +as to who every one was, for no names except Phyl, Fly, Francie and +Ivy were heard, and the merry grey-haired head of the family was “Father” +or “Papa” to every one, except of course Mr. Delrio, who, +however, seemed at his ease, and took a fair share in the talk, and +once or twice Vera thought he said, “my lord,” but she did +not believe it.</p> +<p>“I find you are a friend of a special pet of mine, Mysie Merrifield,” +said the father.</p> +<p>“I know her a little,” stammered Vera, “but Primrose +best.”</p> +<p>“Nearer your age, eh? But Mysie is our gem! It +looks fit for going on deck.”</p> +<p>After the apology for a dinner, the young married pair went their +way, he to endeavour to add a fish to their provisions, she to look +on; the father and Delrio went where the latter could best study the +wonderful tints of sunset over the purple retreating clouds, and the +still agitated foaming sea, - sights that seemed to be filling him with +enchantment, and revealing effects in colour, while his delight was +evidently a new pleasure to his companion.</p> +<p>Vera was afraid to move, and sat on a deck chair, with her back to +the sunset, while Phyllis, who perhaps would have liked to share in +the admiration, sat by her, so that Vera began to accept her as a special +friend, and to pour out the explanation of how she came to be tossing +in an open boat with this one companion.</p> +<p>“You see, poor fellow,” she said, simpering, “he +has been always so devoted to me. Everybody observed it, and I +could not help just gratifying him a little.”</p> +<p>“He does seem to be very full of promise,” said Phyllis. +“I suppose Miss Prescott is much pleased with him.”</p> +<p>“My sister Magdalen, do you mean? Well, we have not introduced +him to her yet. You see, he is <i>only</i> painting the church, +and she is so devoted to swells, and makes such a fuss about our manners.”</p> +<p>“Indeed! But surely you could not go out with him without +her knowing it.”</p> +<p>“She was not at this St. Milburgha’s Guild, you know, +and Sisters Beata and Mena knew all about it. Oh, yes, she lets +us go to them at St. Kenelm’s, but they are not swells enough +for her.”</p> +<p>“Mr. Flight’s Sisterhood, are not they?”</p> +<p>“And Primrose Merrifield says that Wilfred declares that they +are not ladies; but that’s all jealousy, you know, because Will +doesn’t like my friends, and Magdalen is altogether gone upon +grandees.”</p> +<p>“Fancy!” was all that Phyllis managed to say.</p> +<p>“She doesn’t want us to be friends with anybody who don’t +belong to some one with a handle to her name. So foolish and stuck +up! So we knew she would not be kind to Hubert.”</p> +<p>“I think you had better have tried. I thought her one +of the kindest people in the world.”</p> +<p>“Ah! but, you know, unfortunately she has been a governess, +and that teaches toadying.”</p> +<p>At that moment “Phyl” was called to see the first star +over the sea, and ran up to her father, so as to conceal how nearly +she was laughing. Hubert Delrio came towards Vera.</p> +<p>“Can you forgive me, Vera?” he said. “I shall +speak to your sister as soon as I am at home, and ask her forgiveness, +and - ”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! yes! But do tell me who these people are.”</p> +<p>“Did you not know? That most kind of men, is Lord Rotherwood. +Those are Lord and Lady Ivinghoe, and - ”</p> +<p>“Lady Phyllis! Oh!”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII - CHIMERAS DIRE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Qu’allait-il faire dans cette galère?”<br />FRENCH +COMEDY.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Vera’s first thorough awakening the next morning was to hear +outside the door, “Are you up, Fly?”</p> +<p>“I shall be in a minute or two. Do you want me?”</p> +<p>“You are a dab at <i>parlez-vous</i>. I want you to come +ashore with me and cater for the starving crew.”</p> +<p>“What fun! Anon, anon, Sir!”</p> +<p>Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady Phyllis’ +cabin, and that the proper owner was dressing herself in haste before +the little shelf of a toilette table. So great had been the confusion +of last night’s discovery that the poor silly child had only thought +of hurrying out of sight and tumbling into bed without speaking to any +one, and she had not distinctly known, when Lady Phyllis came down a +good deal later and disposed of herself on the sofa, that Mrs. Griggs +had made ready for her. And now the only thing she could think +of was to say, “Oh! Lady Phyllis, I didn’t know.”</p> +<p>“Take care! Don’t knock your head! We ought +to have remembered that Boreas, or whichever it was, was hardly a sufficient +introduction. Are you all right now? You had better go to +sleep again till I bring something to eat. We are lying to off +some little Breton fishing village, and I am going with my brother to +get some provisions, and telegraph if we can.”</p> +<p>It was long before they came back. Vera had another nap, dressed +herself, grew very hungry, and came out to find Lord Rotherwood fishing, +and his daughter-in-law watching for the boat to put out from the white +houses with grey roofs, which, clustered round their church-tower, seemed +descending to the water’s edge. They were equally famished, +though Mrs. Griggs stewed up the poor remnants of last night’s +banquet; but at last the little boat appeared, gaily dancing over the +waves, and Phyllis making signals of success.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, you may be thankful, you poor starving beings! +Here, Mrs. Griggs! Accept, and do all you can! Here are +eggs, and some milk and fresh water, four <i>poulets</i>, such as they +are, and a huge monster of a crab; but all the bread is leavened, and +you little guess what Ivy and I had to go through before we were allowed +to buy anything. We were had up to the Mayor, and had to <i>constater</i> +all manner of things about our ship, to prove that we were no smugglers.”</p> +<p>“I thought the fat old rogue would have come out to visit the +yacht before he would have allowed us a morsel,” said Lord Ivinghoe.</p> +<p>“In which case you might have been found a skeleton, father, +like Sir Hugh Willoughby! And as to our telegrams, they won’t +go till the diligence gets to St. Malo, and what they will make of them +there is another question. I did not dare to send more than one, +for fear they should get mixed up.</p> +<p>Vera heard the joyous chaff as it fluttered round her, not half understanding +it any more than if it had been a strange tongue, and not always guessing +the cause of the fits of laughter, chiefly at Lord Ivinghoe’s +misadventures, over which his little sister and his father were well +pleased to tease his correctness, and his young wife looked a little +hurt at his being tormented. He could not remember that <i>braconnier</i> +was a poacher by land, not by sea, and very unnecessarily disclaimed +to the Maire being such a thing. His father, he said, “was +<i>gentilhomme anglais en</i> - what’s a yacht? - <i>yac</i>. +(Nonsense! that’s a long-haired ox. No!) <i>Non point +contrabandiste</i>, <i>mais galérien dans galère</i>.” +“And there I interposed,” said Phyllis, “for fear +we should be boarded as escaped <i>galériens</i>.”</p> +<p>“Why, galley was a pleasure-boat sometimes,” said Ivinghoe, +and his wife supported him with “Cleopatra’s galley.”</p> +<p>“Well done, Francie! To your oars for Ivy’s defence,” +said Lord Rotherwood. “How did you defend us, Fly, from +being towed into harbour at Brest as runaway convicts?”</p> +<p>“She gabbled away most eloquently to the Maire, almost as fluently +as a born French-woman,” said Ivinghoe, “and persuaded him +at last that it was not necessary to come on board to inspect us, nor +even to detain us till he had sent for instructions to St. Malo.”</p> +<p>“As Ivy managed matters, I thought we might be kept as hostages,” +said Phyllis.</p> +<p>“But, thanks to her blandishments, the solemn official vouchsafed +to send off a messenger for us with a telegram.”</p> +<p>“I do not think he sent directions to pursue our suspicious +<i>galère</i>,” added Phyllis; “but I own I shall +be glad to be under the lee of old England again.”</p> +<p>“What was your telegram?”</p> +<p>“Brevity was safest, nor had we money enough for two; so all +I attempted was, ‘Delrio to Flight, Rock Quay. Both safe. +Picked up by <i>Kittiwake</i>.’ I thought that would be +the quickest means of relieving anxiety, as we were not sure of other +addresses; and as to ‘home,’ Mamma probably hardly was aware +of the storm, or, if she were, she knew the capabilities of yachts and +of Griggs.”</p> +<p>“Right!” returned his father. “Poor Miss +Prescott! she must have given you up for lost. Have you been improving +your mind with French telegrams?” he added, turning to Delrio.</p> +<p>“No, my lord, I found my way to the church, a wonderful piece +of old Norman! - if it may so be called.”</p> +<p>“I see you have been sketching.”</p> +<p>Griggs here interposed with tidings that eggs and coffee were ready +in the saloon, the worthy pair having had respect to the general famine, +and prepared what could be made ready in haste. Those who had +eaten ashore sat by, making an amusing account of their reception, and +difficulties with language and peasants, for, this not being an ordinary +place of call, nothing was ready for sale.</p> +<p>Vera, finding herself for the first time in distinguished company, +which desired to set her at ease, began to be at ease, and to desire +to shine, so she giggled whenever she perceived the slightest excuse, +even when Lord Ivinghoe handed her the eggs, and, hoped she had not +too British an appetite for French eggs; and Lady Ivinghoe asked if +she had seen the fowls, and whether their feathers were ruffled up like +a hen’s that had been given to Aunt Cherry. Her little sister +Joan, she added, had asked whether eating the eggs would make her hair +curl.</p> +<p>“Or stand on end,” said Phyllis.</p> +<p>“As I am afraid Miss Prescott’s is doing till your telegram +reaches her. Did you say it was to go from St. Malo?”</p> +<p>“Yes. I thought that the safest place to have a comprehensible +message copied.”</p> +<p>“To whom did you say?” asked Lady Ivinghoe.</p> +<p>“‘Delrio to Flight.’ Oh, they will know his +name and address fast enough when it gets to Rock Quay.”</p> +<p>“He is the clergyman at St. Kenelm’s,” put in Vera, +in explanation; “very very advanced Ritualist, you know.”</p> +<p>“Indeed!” was the answer.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, that he is. My sister Polly is perfectly devoted +to him; but we don’t go to his church, except now and then, because +my eldest sister is just one of those very old-fashioned people, you +know, who want everything horrid and dull.”</p> +<p>“That is hardly what our cousins think of Miss Prescott,” +said Phyllis. “I am so sorry for her anxiety! But +I was not sure of the name of her place.”</p> +<p>“The Goyle! Isn’t it frightful?” said Vera.</p> +<p>“You say she was unprepared for your adventure?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, quite. Her notions are so dreadfully proper +and old fashioned. She hasn’t got any sympathy, has she, +Hubert?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” he said gravely. “I +have always had the greatest respect for her.”</p> +<p>“Respect! So you ought. That’s just the thing +one has for a slow dear old fogey,” she said, laughing, “Oh, +Hubert!” There was a silence, and Lord Rotherwood made an +observation upon the wind.</p> +<p>Vera perceived an awkwardness, and, by way of repairing it, afterwards +thought it expedient to communicate to Lady Phyllis that it might be +a pity she had said “Hubert.” It was so awkward, only +he was such an old acquaintance.</p> +<p>“I should have thought the awkwardness was incurred long ago,” +said Lady Phyllis. “Come, you will have no more concealments +from Miss Prescott, will you? You will be ever so much more comfortable, +and find out how kind she is.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but! - ” Vera wanted to talk over all her grievances +for the pleasure of talking, saying very much what she had said before, +and Phyllis tried to endure and put in as much sense as she could, without +lecturing the girl, who struck her as the very silliest she had ever +encountered; but she was continually called off to admire the receding +French coast, or to look at the creatures brought up by dredging. +She always took care to call Vera, and not let her feel herself left +out; but Vera, if in solitude for a moment, reflected on the neglect +shown of little people by great ones; and when called up to see uncanny +slimy creatures, or even transparent balls like watery umbrellas, only +was disgusted and horrified.</p> +<p>She began to guess, rather truly, that Lady Phyllis wanted to hinder +a <i>tête-à-tête</i> between her and Hubert Delrio. +In fact, Lord Rotherwood, who was much more of a sympathetic, confidence-inviting +personage than his stiffer, much older seeming son, had said to his +daughter, “Don’t let that poor lad and the girl get together +alone, Fly; the boy thinks he is bound to make her an offer.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father! Surely not!”</p> +<p>“No more than if they had been two babies in a walnut shell. +So I told him, but people don’t see what infants they are themselves, +and I want to hinder him from putting his foot in it before he has seen +her aunt - cousin - sister, or whoever it is that has the charge of +her; and she has depicted to him a Gorgon, with Medusa’s hair, +claws and all - a fancy sketch, isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Of course, sentimental schoolgirl colours! Mysie thinks +her delightful.”</p> +<p>“At any rate, let him get a dose of common sense before committing +himself. He is a capital fellow, sure to rise; has the soul and +head and hands for it, but he ought not to weight himself with a drag.”</p> +<p>“Do you think he is really in love with her?”</p> +<p>Lord Rotherwood waved his hands. “He thinks so, but nobody +knows with those boys! I had to tell him at last that I would +not have any philandering on board <i>my</i> ship; and whatever he might +think it his duty to say, must be put off for aunt - sister - Gorgon +- Medusa or what not. And I don’t think he’s very +bad, Fly, for he modestly asked permission to sketch Francie’s +head for St. Mildred, or Milburg, or somebody; and was ready to run +crazy about the tints on that dogfish. The young fellow is in +the queerest state between the artist and the lover! delight and shame! +I should like to take him north with us; the colours of the cliffs in +the Isles would soon drive out Miss Victoria - what’s her name?”</p> +<p>“You don’t think him like Stephen in the <i>Mill on the +Floss</i>, who ought to have married Maggie Tulliver.”</p> +<p>“I believe that is his precedent - but it is sheer stuff - +pure accident - as a respectable old householder like me is ready to +testify to the Gorgons and Chimeras dire - Grundys and all. We +must encounter Rock Quay, Fly, if it is only to rescue this unlucky +youth.”</p> +<p>“What is he doing now? Oh, I see; drawing Francie, who +sits as stiff as a Saint of Burne-Jones! Well, I’ll have +an eye to them! Vera! Have you finished <i>Rudder Grange</i>?”</p> +<p>“Not quite. I can’t make out who Lord Edward was.”</p> +<p>“Why, the big dog! Did you think he was Pomona’s +hero?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know. Wasn’t Pomona very silly?”</p> +<p>“If life was to be taken from story-books,” said Phyllis, +in a very didactic mood; “but you see she imbibed the best side, +what they really taught her of good.”</p> +<p>“I thought, when you gave me the book, it was to be an adventure +like mine, not all standing still in an old river. What do you +think Hubert Delrio ought to do after persuading me into such an awful +predicament?”</p> +<p>“Tell your sister he is very sorry that you two foolish children +got into such a scrape, and very thankful that you were saved.”</p> +<p>“We are very thankful to Lord Rotherwood.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t mean to him. To some One else,” +said Phyllis, reverently.</p> +<p>“Oh, of course,” said Vera. “But what <i>do</i> +you think, Lady Phyllis?” (Since her discovery of the title +she made a liberal use of it.) “What do you think people +will say?”</p> +<p>“That a little girl has had a dangerous adventure and a happy +escape.”</p> +<p>“I am seventeen, Lady Phyllis!”</p> +<p>“One is nothing like grown up at seventeen! I declare +there’s a big steamer coming into sight. I wonder if it +belongs to the Channel Fleet!”</p> +<p>Nothing more sentimental could be extracted for the rest of the voyage.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV - PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“I marry without more ado,<br />My dear Dick Red Cap, what +say you?”<br />COWPER.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The telegram had been received about mid-day; and Mr. Flight rushed +up with it to the Goyle, just in time to prevent poor old Mr. Delrio +from starting hopelessly home. It had suffered a good deal in +spelling and precision, in spite of Lady Phyllis’s precautions; +but “both safe” was understood, as it was known in Rock +Quay that “Lord Rotherwood and family,” as the papers had +it, were yachting in the <i>Kittiwake</i> and might be expected in the +bay.</p> +<p>Agatha and Paula threw their arms round one another and cried; Magdalen, +with a choke in her voice, struggled to ask Mr. Flight to lead them +in a few words of thanksgiving; and as soon as these were over, Thekla +expressed her hopes that they had been cast on a desert island and would +bring home Man Friday.</p> +<p>The Goyle ladies walked over to Clipstone with the good news, and +the whole party went down afterwards to Rockstone to look out for yachts, +and inquire about possibilities. The <i>Kittiwake</i> being a +steamer, light and swift, might be expected in harbour in the course +of the night, and Mr. Delrio meant to wait for her at his son’s +lodgings. The ladies wished they could do the same; and Paula +was allowed to accept Sister Beata’s humble entreaty to house +her. But they did not know how long before the telegraph from +St. Malo the <i>Kittiwake</i> from St. Cadoc had spread her wings and +hoisted her feather, for, happily, her coals had held out better than +her provisions. So, as they were looking their last look from +the cliffs of Beechcroft Miss Mohun exclaimed, “A steamer! a yacht! +<i>Kittiwake</i>!”</p> +<p>Glasses were rushed for, and unaccustomed eyes could trace the graceful +course through the gentle evening waves towards the quay.</p> +<p>Every one was on the quay in time to receive the boat, which, rowed +by four smart sailors, was seen with the party of six, two sailor hats, +and one red cap being at once spied out among the female figures. +Then two hats were waved and answered by cheers of welcome; and the +figures were recognised, and unnecessarily numerous hands stretched +out to assist the landing from the plank extended to the boat.</p> +<p>Vera was put first by her kind rescuers, Lord Rotherwood’s +hand guiding her to the rail, and, after an insecure step or so, she +found herself in the arms of Paulina, sobbing for joy; and the little +cluster of sisters seemed to know nothing else, except Thekla, who presently, +in the confusion of the greetings, was found by Lord Rotherwood looking +about vaguely, and saying, “But where’s their man Friday?”</p> +<p>“You must accept me for him,” said he. “’Tis +Friday, unless we have lost our reckoning! I hope you think me +something promising in the way of savages!”</p> +<p>Young Delrio’s first proceeding, even while his father was +wringing his hand in speechless welcome and thankfulness, was to turn +to Captain Henderson. “Sir, your boat is safe, it will be +brought in to-morrow. I am much concerned, and beg your forgiveness, +but I had no idea that it was yours till Griggs found your name. +Only one oar is lost, and a cushion, which I will replace.”</p> +<p>“Say no more, pray,” said Captain Henderson. “The +fault was my servant’s, who took it without leave, and left it +out. He must repair the very slight damage.”</p> +<p>Miss Mohun wanted the whole troop to come up to Beechcroft to drink +tea, and her relations consented; but the hearts of the Prescotts were +a great deal too full for them not to wish to be alone together; and +after Magdalen had given her hand to Lord Rotherwood with a fervent, +“You know what I would say, my lord - beyond all words,” +they turned homewards; but Mr. Flight ran after them to say in a low +voice, “Can we meet to-morrow at eight for a service of thanksgiving?” +And this was gladly accepted.</p> +<p>Hubert was dragged off by his father.</p> +<p>“Nonsense! they don’t want your apologies and explanations. +It would only be besetting them. Come home with me, and don’t +be a fool! But write a few lines to your poor mother, after the +intolerable fright you have given her; meddling and presuming where +you had no business. A Providence it is that you are not half +across the Atlantic, if not at the bottom of it.”</p> +<p>Of course this was the reaction of great anxiety; but however meekly +Hubert submitted to the queer outpouring of affection, and however thankful +they both were, and glad and content over the particulars of the youth’s +work and progress, still he was not to be withheld from laying hand +and heart at Vera Prescott’s feet, as he insisted was due to her +and her family after the compromising situation in which he had placed +her. His father said it was talking novels and folly; but he was +a man of three and twenty, and could not well be stopped, as he was +earning his own livelihood, and had always been irreproachable. +So Mr. Delrio had to leave the matter, only expressing discouragement, +and insisting that it must be no more than an engagement.</p> +<p>The thanksgiving took place as arranged, and Lord Rotherwood, his +daughter, and Mysie were there. For indeed there had been danger +enough during the thunderstorm to make the safety of the <i>Kittiwake</i> +a matter of thankfulness, though the rescue of the boat had caused it +to be almost forgotten in the history of the night.</p> +<p>Lady Flight had begged that all would come to breakfast with her, +and this was accepted by the Goyle party; but the Clipstone pony-carriage +was waiting for the others, and they could not accede to Lady Flight’s +impromptu, and rather nervous, invitation. But before they started +Lord Rotherwood managed to say a few words aside to Miss Prescott of +the impression he had divined from his voyage with Hubert Delrio, whom +he thought a young man of great ability and promise, and of excellent +principles, but with a chivalry it was quite refreshing to see in youth, +perhaps ready to strain honourable scruples almost too far for his own +good or that of others.</p> +<p>Magdalen thought she perceived what had been in the marquis’s +mind when, immediately after her return home, Hubert and Vera came up, +hand in hand, and he informed her of their mutual attachment.</p> +<p>“I am afraid, Miss Prescott,” he said, “that we +may not have acted rightly or squarely by you; and this last adventure +was a most unhappy result of my careless awkwardness and preoccupation.”</p> +<p>“It was the merest accident. We all quite understand. +It is not to be thought of.”</p> +<p>“You are very good to say so, but - ”</p> +<p>Both he and Magdalen wished that Vera had not been present, blushing +and smiling, or rather simpering; and as Hubert hesitated over his “but,” +Magdalen said:</p> +<p>“Vera, my dear, Hubert and I can talk over this better without +you. You had better go and find Paula.”</p> +<p>“Only, sister, please do understand that I care for Hubert +with all my heart,” said Vera, much less childishly than Magdalen +had expected.</p> +<p>However, she went, while Magdalen succeeded in saying what she had +intended - that Hubert must not consider himself in the smallest degree +bound by what had been accident, entirely unintentional and innocent.</p> +<p>“You are generous, Miss Prescott. You understand! +But the world! It was public.”</p> +<p>“Never mind the world. You see what sensible people think.”</p> +<p>“But, indeed, Miss Prescott, I cannot leave you to suppose +I am only actuated by the fact of that awkward situation. Of course +that would never have been if I did not deeply, entirely love your sister. +It has only precipitated matters. I entreat of you to give her +to me, as one who is - who is devoted to her! If my station is +inferior I will work - ”</p> +<p>“That is not the point. Vera is too young for such things. +What does your father say?”</p> +<p>“My father sees that I am right.”</p> +<p>“I see what that means,” said Magdalen, smiling. +“But where is he? I should like to talk to him.”</p> +<p>Mr. Delrio, pretty well knowing what was going on, was found endeavouring +to distract his mind by sketching the Goyle. He and Magdalen walked +up and down the drive together, perfectly agreeing that it would be +senseless cruelty to permit an early marriage between these two young +people, and that it was a pity there should be an engagement; but this +could hardly be prevented, since Mr. Delrio could only give advice, +and leave a self-supporting worthy son to judge for himself; but the +elder sister and the trustee could stipulate for delay till Vera should +be of age.</p> +<p>So Hubert was called, and acquiesced, cheerfully observing that he +trusted that four years would make him able to render Vera’s life +an easy and pleasant one; and after heartily thanking both Miss Prescott +and his father, he went off to rejoice the heart of the maiden, who +was sitting under the pear-tree, watching with anxious eyes.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XV - BROODS ASTRAY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“But ill for him who, bettering not with time,<br />Corrupts +the strength of Heaven-descended will,<br />And ever weaker grows through +acted crime,<br />Or seeming genial venial fault.”<br />- TENNYSON.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Man Friday hope piccaniny live well - bring her buckra fish +from sea!” Such was the greeting from Lord Rotherwood to +Thekla when the whole party walked over in time for tea on the lawn, +before church at Clipstone, as he presented her with a facsimile oyster +which he had hunted up in a sweet shop, making an absurd bow and scrape.</p> +<p>Poor Thekla coloured, and mumbled a shy, “Thank you, my - my +- ” having had a lecture from Vera on treating a marquis with +over familiarity and it was left to Primrose to ask where Friday learnt +nigger language. “By nature, Missy buckra,” he responded; +“all same nigger everywhere.” And he repeated his +bow so drolly that Primrose’s laugh carried Thekla’s along +with it, as Lady Phyllis walked up with, “Come, father, you are +wanted to congratulate.”</p> +<p>“Eh! Am I? So they have perpetrated it, have they? +More’s the pity is what I should say in the Palace of Truth; but +the maiden has landed a better fish than she knows - that is, if she +have landed him.”</p> +<p>“There! take care, don’t be tiresome, Papa!” admonished +Lady Phyllis, drawing him on, when he met Vera with a courtly manner, +and, “I hope I see you recovered, Miss Prescott, and able to rejoice +in the pleasant consequences of your adventure.”</p> +<p>Vera blushed, and looked very pretty and modest, making not much +answer as she retreated among her contemporaries to show them her ring, +a hoop of pearls, which Wilfred insisted were Roman pearls, fishes’ +eyes, most appropriate; but Flapsy felt immeasurably older than Wilfred +to-day, and able to despise his teasing, though Hubert Delrio was not +present, and indeed Wilfred was not disposed to bestow much of his attention +upon her, having much more inclination to beset his cousin, Lady Phyllis, +who surely ought to perceive that he had attained at least the same +height as his brother Jasper, and could, in his absence, pose as the +young man of the household.</p> +<p>Phyllis had not much to say to him, nor after the first to Vera, +though she duly admired the ring so exultantly shown, and accepted the +assurance that Hubert was the dearest fellow in the world. But +there was no getting any condolence out of her upon the misery of having +to wait four whole years. She said, “It was a very good +thing! There was her cousin Gillian, who had insisted on waiting +three years to finish her education.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but dear Hubert likes me as I am,” simpered Vera.</p> +<p>“You might wish that he should find more in you to like. +Gillian,” said Phyllis, coming up to her and Agatha, “I +want you to assure Vera that four years is not such a great trial in +waiting.”</p> +<p>“It is what I have been trying to persuade her,” said +Agatha; “she is hardly seventeen.”</p> +<p>“And I would not have been married at seventeen for anything,” +said Gillian to the pouting Vera. “I want to be more worth +having.”</p> +<p>Vera did not like it, she had heard the like at home, and she fell +back upon Valetta, while the others walked on. “Poor little +Flapsy!” said Agatha, “I do hope this engagement may make +more of a woman of her.”</p> +<p>“My father was very much struck by Mr. Delrio,” said +Phyllis, “both as artist and personally.”</p> +<p>“You must be glad of the time for putting her up to his level,” +said Gillian.</p> +<p>“Do you think such things are to be done?” asked Agatha.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Phyllis stoutly. “You may not +make her able to be a Senior Wrangler - (Oh you are Oxford!) - or capable +of it, like this Gillyflower; but you can get the stuff into her that +makes a sound sensible wife.”</p> +<p>Gillian caught a little hopeless sigh of “<i>can</i>,” +and answered it with, “When all this effervescence is blown off, +then will be the time for working at the substance, and she may be all +the better wife - especially for the artist temperament, if she is of +the homely sort.”</p> +<p>“How angry she would be if she heard you say so!” returned +Agatha. “Yet certainly I do feel relieved that wifehood +is to be my poor Flapsy’s portion, for she is not of the sort +that can stand alone and make her own way.”</p> +<p>“There will always be plenty of such women in the world,” +said Gillian.</p> +<p>“So much the better for the world,” retorted Phyllis, +who had never shown any symptoms of exclusive devotion to any one of +the other sex, except her father.</p> +<p>One thing Agatha wanted to know, and dared not ask, namely, what +impression Vera had made in the <i>Kittiwake</i> and what Hubert had +said about her; for she and Paula had begun to remark that, lover as +he was, not a word about her heroism had escaped him. And it was +as well that she did not hear what the extra plain spoken Primrose did +not spare the boasting Thekla. “Cousin Rotherwood and Fly +both say they can’t think how Mr. Delrio got on with such a silly +little hysterical goose upon his hands; and that it is a foolish romantic +unlucky notion that he ought to be engaged to her. I think Mamma +will tell Miss Prescott so.”</p> +<p>The <i>Kittiwake</i>, having arrived three days later than had been +expected, there had been an amount of revolution in the general arrangements. +The break up of the High School was to be on an early day of the next +week. It had become a much more extensive and public matter than +in the days of Valetta and Maura, though these were not so very long +ago, and there was a great day of exhibitions and speeches to the parents +and neighbourhood generally. Two ladies had been secured for the +purpose, Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret, and the former arrived +on the Saturday afternoon, but as the Rotherwood party almost overflowed +Clipstone, she was transferred to Miss Mohun.</p> +<p>After the death of their parents, about three years previously, Susan +and Elizabeth had gone to live at Coalham, and to be useful to their +brother David’s parish; Susan betaking herself to the poor, and +Bessie finding herself specially available in the various forms of improvement +undertaken by ladies in modern days. To her own surprise, and +her sister’s discomfiture, her talent as a public speaker had +become developed. With a little assistance from her sister-in-law +Agnes’s unwilling stage experience, and entreaties, not easily +to be withstood, came from various quarters that she would come and +advocate the good cause.</p> +<p>Of course she was ever welcome at Clipstone, and she walked up thither +with General Mohun, arriving just after the others from the Goyle; and +in the general confusion of greetings, and the Babel of cousinly tongues, +there were no introductions nor naming of names. Bessie declared +herself delighted with the chance of seeing Lady Ivinghoe, whom she +considered more to realise the beauty of women than any one she had +hitherto beheld, and the fair face had not lost its simplicity, but +rather gained in loveliness by the sweetness of early motherhood, as +she and Phyllis sat by Mysie, regaling her with tales of what they regarded +as the remarkable precocity of the infant Claude, reluctantly left to +his grandmother.</p> +<p>“But where’s Dolores?” asked Bessie. “I +miss her among the swarm of mice!”</p> +<p>“Dolores is at Vale Leston,” answered Gillian. +“She has been a long time making up her mind to go there, to Gerald’s +home; and now she is there, they will not let her go till some birthday +is over.”</p> +<p>“Uncle Felix’s!” whispered Franceska to Mysie. +“You know it was dear Gerald’s place. She had never +seen it.”</p> +<p>Another voice was now raised, asking, “What had become of Miss +Arthuret?”</p> +<p>“She only comes down on Monday,” said Bessie. “Just +in time for the meeting. She is too valuable to come for more +than one meeting.”</p> +<p>“But who is she?”</p> +<p>“Arthurine Arthuret? She is a girl, or rather woman, +who has some property at Stokesley. In fact, she is one of those +magnets that seem to attract inheritance without effort - like the Hapsburgs, +though happily she makes a most beneficent, though, sometimes, original +use of them.”</p> +<p>“Is not that very dangerous?” said Aunt Lily.</p> +<p>“The first came to her early, and coming into it very young, +and overflowing with new ideas, she began rather grotesquely; but she +has tamed down a good deal since, and really has done an immense deal +of good in finding employment for people, making improvements and the +like, though she is Sam’s pet aversion, a tremendous Liberal, +almost a Socialist. They are so like cat and dog that Susan and +I were really glad to be away from Stokesley, especially at election +times; but altogether she is an admirable person.”</p> +<p>Lady Merrifield thought she detected a start of Miss Prescott at +the name Stokesley, and that her eyes looked anxiously at the speaker. +Bessie was not of the sandy part of the family. Was the unattractive +schoolboy, once seen, like his sisters? All that was observable +was startling similitudes to her own children, though in them the elements +of the handsome dark Mohun generally predominated.</p> +<p>But by and by, in a quiet moment, Bessie suddenly asked, “Did +you say her name was Magdalen?”</p> +<p>Lady Merrifield laughed. “Four years <i>may</i> do a +good deal at that time of life,” she said. “I suppose +no time ever so changes - changes - what shall I say? - eyes - views +- characters. Only constancy in absence is the dangerous thing. +There are distinguished examples of - of the mischief of being constant +without knowing what one is constant to. Virulent constancy, as +Mrs. Malaprop has it.”</p> +<p>Magdalen thanked and smiled. Perhaps there was a certain virulent +constancy in a remote corner of her heart which had been revived by +a certain indescribable look in the eyes and contour of Bessie Merrifield.</p> +<p>And Bessie herself, while sitting under the verandah with Lady Merrifield, +while all the others were walking down to embark Lord and Lady Ivinghoe +in the yacht, suddenly repeated, “Did you say that her name was +Magdalen?”</p> +<p>“Yes; I saw it startled you, my dear.”</p> +<p>“It revived an old, old story. I do not know whether +there was anything in it. Who or what is she, Aunt Lily? +I only know her as the sister of the girl that the Ivinghoes picked +up.”</p> +<p>“She is the owner of a little property at Arnscombe, and has +taken home her four young half-sisters to live with her, after having +slaved for them as a governess till she came into this inheritance. +She is an excellent person.”</p> +<p>“Ah! Was her house at Filsted?”</p> +<p>“I am not sure. Yes, I think the young ones were at school +there. You think - ”</p> +<p>“I feel certain. May I tell you, Aunt Lily? Some +of the others cannot bear to mention my poor Hal; but to me the worst +of the sting is gone, since I know he repented.”</p> +<p>“My dear, I should be very glad to hear. Your father +and mother never mention your brother, and we were away at the time.”</p> +<p>“Poor Hal! I am afraid there was a weakness in him. +He never had that determination that carried all the others on. +He never could get through an examination, and my father put him into +a bank at Filsted. By and by, after some years, came a letter +telling my father he was gambling very seriously, getting into temptation, +and engaging himself to an attorney’s daughter. It was while +I was living with grandmamma, and he used sometimes to look in on me, +and talk to me about this Magdalen. Once he showed me her photograph +and I thought I knew her face again. But my father went off, very +angry. I have always feared he found poor Hal on the verge of +tampering with the bank money, but he never would say a word. +He broke everything up, put an end to the engagement if there was one, +and sent Hal off to John and George, who had just got their farm in +Manitoba, and were getting on by dint of hard work.”</p> +<p>“They have done very well, have they not?”</p> +<p>“Yes, by working and living harder than any day labourer at +Stokesley. Hal could not stand it, and - and I’m afraid +the boys were not very merciful to him, poor fellow, and he got something +to do in Winnipeg. There he fell in with a speculator called Golding, +they all did in fact; he was a plausible man, whom they all liked, and +used to put up at his house when they took waggons in with their produce. +He had a daughter, and Johnnie got engaged to her, or thought he was. +They all were persuaded to put money into a horrid building speculation, +- Henry, what he had brought out, the other two what they had realised. +Well, suddenly it all ended. They were all gone, Golding, daughter, +Hal and all - yes, all - the money the other boys had put in the thing, +off to the States, as we suppose! No trace ever found.”</p> +<p>“Really no trace?”</p> +<p>“None! The poor boys lost all they had, and were obliged +to begin over again.”</p> +<p>“And has really nothing been heard of this unfortunate Hal?”</p> +<p>“There is one thing that does give me a hope. There did +come to Stokesley a letter from a Brisbane bank, addressed to J. and +G. Merrifield, to the care of Rear-Admiral Merrifield, and in it were +bank bills up to the value of what the boys had been robbed of, about +two hundred and fifty pounds. Poor Henry must have repented, and +wished to make restitution.”</p> +<p>“Was there no name, no clue?”</p> +<p>“None at all. We know no more.”</p> +<p>“But was there no inquiry made at Brisbane?”</p> +<p>“It was when my father was very ill. The parcel was not +opened at first. I have been always sorry he never heard of it; +but after all there was no asking of forgiveness, nor anything that +could be answered. The boys got it with the tidings of our dear +father’s death. John came home to see about things, George +stayed to look after his Stokesley. They were well over their +troubles by that time, and they gave the restored money to David for +his churches.”</p> +<p>“And no more was done, not even by David?” said Lady +Merrifield, thinking over what she had heard from Geraldine Grinstead, +and how the Underwoods would have accepted such a token from their lost +sheep.</p> +<p>“David did write to Brisbane to the bank, but there never was +any answer. There is no knowing how it might have been, if any +one had gone out and done his best; but you see we were all much taken +up with home duties and cares, and I am afraid we have not dwelt enough +upon our poor boy, and he had much against him. The discipline +from my dear father, that all the elders responded to with a sort of +loyal exultation, only frightened him and made him shifty. They +despised him, and I do not think any of us were as kind to him as we +ought to have been; though on the whole he liked me the best, for he +cared for books and quiet pursuits, such as all laughed at, except David. +I wish he could have seen more of David.”</p> +<p>“Did your mother hear of this ray of hope?”</p> +<p>“Susan thought it best not to tell her. We used to hear +her murmuring his name among all ours in her prayers, Susie, Sam, Hal, +Bessie, and so on; but she never was herself enough to understand, and +they thought it might only stir her up to expect to see him. Oh, +Aunt Lily, I don’t think you - any of you - would have gone on +so; but you are all much more affectionate and demonstrative than our +branch of the family.”</p> +<p>“Ah, my dear, I am sure there was a pang in your mother’s +heart that she never durst mention,” said Lady Merrifield, her +imagination dwelling in terror on her Wilfred, the one child in whom +she could not help detecting the weakness of character of his unhappy +cousin. “Depend upon it, Bessie, her prayers were hovering +round him all the time, and bringing that act of restitution, though +she was not allowed to hear of it.”</p> +<p>“I had not thought of that,” said Bessie, in a low tone, +“though I think David has. I have heard his voice choke +over an intercession for the absent.”</p> +<p>“Think of it now, my dear, and do not let habitual reserve +hinder you from speaking of it to Susan and David, though most likely +they have the habit already. Who knows what united prayer may +do with Him who deviseth means to bring home His banished?”</p> +<p>Steps returning, Bessie wiped away her tears in haste, actually the +first she had shed for the lost Hal, though there was a heartache too +deep for tears.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI - THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“And happier than the merriest games<br />Is the joy of our +new and nobler aims.”<br />F. R. HAVERGAL.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Miss Mohun and Miss Merrifield encountered Miss Prescott and Agatha +among a perfect herd of cycles, making Bessie laugh over the recollections +of the horror caused at Stokesley by the arrival of Arthurine Arthuret +on a tricycle twelve years previously.</p> +<p>The place was the Town Hall, the High School having proved too small +for the number of the intended audience, and Lord Rotherwood having +been captured, in spite of the <i>Kittiwake</i> being pronounced ready +to sail, and all the younger passengers being actually on board, entertaining +a party from Clipstone. There he sat enthroned on the platform, +with portraits of himself, his Elizabethan ancestor, and the Prince +of Wales overhead, and, in <i>propria persona</i> on either side, the +Mayor of Rockstone, Captain Henderson, and a sprinkling of the committee, +Jane, of course, being one; while in the space beneath was a sea of +hats, more or less beflowered and befeathered.</p> +<p>Lord Rotherwood began by complaining of an act of piracy! After +being exposed to a tempest and forced to put in for supplies, here he +was captured, and called upon to distribute prizes! He perceived +that it was a new act of aggression on the part of the ladies, proving +to what lengths they were coming. Tyrants they had always been, +but to find them wreckers to boot was a novelty. However, prizes +were the natural sequence of a maritime exploit, and he was happy to +distribute them to the maidens about to start on the voyage of life, +hoping that these dainty logbooks would prove a stimulus and a compass +to steer by even into unexplored seas, such as he believed the better-informed +ladies were about to describe to them.</p> +<p>Rockstone was used to its Marquis’s speeches, and always enjoyed +them; and he handed the prize-books to the recipients with a shake of +the hand, and a word or two of congratulation appropriate to each, especially +when he knew their names; and then he declared that they were about +to hear what education was good for, much better than from himself, +from such noted examples as Miss Arthuret and Miss Merrifield, better +known to them as Mesa. Wherewith he waved forward Miss Arthuret, +a slight, youthful-looking lady, fashionably attired, and made his escape +with rapid foot and hasty nods, almost furtively, while the audience +were clapping her.</p> +<p>She spoke with voice and utterance notably superior to his well-known +halting periods, scarcely saved by long training and use from being +a stutter. The female population eagerly listened, while she painted +in vivid colours the aim of education, in raising the status of women, +and extending their spheres not only of influence in the occult manner +which had hitherto been their way of working through others, but in +an open manner, which compelled attention; and she dwelt on certain +brilliant achievements of women, and of others which stood before them, +and towards which their education, passing out of the old grooves, was +preparing them to take their place among men, and temper their harshness +and indifference to suffering with the laws of mercy and humanity, speaking +with an authority and equality such as should ensure attention, no longer +in home and nursery whispering alone, but with open face asserting and +claiming justice for the weakest.</p> +<p>It was a powerful and effective speech; and Agatha’s eye lighted +with enthusiasm, as did those of several others of the elder scholars +and younger teachers, as these high aims were unfolded to them.</p> +<p>Then followed Elizabeth Merrifield, not contradictory, but recognising +what wide fields had been opened to womanhood, dwelling on such being +the work of Christianity, which had always tended to repress the power +of brute animal strength and jealousy, and to give preponderance to +the force of character and the just influence of sweet homely affection. +Exceptional flashes, even in heathen lands, and still more under the +Divine guidance of the Israelites, showed what women were capable of; +and ever since a woman had been the chosen instrument of the mystery +of the Incarnation, the Church, the chosen emblem of the union of humanity +with her Lord, had gradually purified and exalted the sex by training +them through the duties of mercy, of wifehood and motherhood, to be +capable of undertaking and fulfilling higher and more extensive tasks, +always by the appointment and with the help of Him who had increased +their outside powers, for the sake of the weaker ones of His flock. +What might, by His will, in the government and politics of the country, +be put into their hands, no one could tell; but it was right to be prepared +for it, by extending their intellectual ability and knowledge of the +past, as well as of the laws of physical nature - all, in short, that +modern education aimed at opening young minds to pursue with growing +faculties. This was what made her rejoice in the studies here +followed with good success, as the prizes testified so pleasantly; and +she trusted that the cultivation, which here went on so prosperously, +was leading - if she might use old well-accustomed words - to the advancement +of God’s glory, the good of His Church, aye! and to the safety, +honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her dominions.</p> +<p>The words brought tears of feeling into the eyes of some; but Jane +Mohun could not help observing, “Ah! I was afraid you were +going to hold up to us the example of the ants and bees, where the old +maids do all the working and fighting and governing! Don’t +make Gillian regret that she is falling away from the spinsterhood.”</p> +<p>“Come, Aunt Jane, Bessie never did make it the praise of spinsters. +I am sure married women can do as much as spinsters, and have more weight,” +said Gillian, facing round gallantly, and winning the approval of her +aunt and of Bessie. There was no doubt but that since her engagement +she had been much quieter and less opinionative.</p> +<p>With what different sensations the same occasion may be attended! +To Bessie Merrifield, the primary object was, as ever, woman’s +work, especially her own, for the Church; and the actual business absorbed +her. In spite of her evenings’ talk to her Aunt Lilias, +and the sad and painful recollections it had aroused, still her only +look at Magdalen Prescott’s face was one half of curiosity half +of sorrow, as of the object of the brief calf-love of one of many brothers, +and who had been now lost sight of, with the passing wonder whether, +if the affection had survived and been encouraged, it might have led +him to better things.</p> +<p>While Magdalen felt the poignant renewal of the one romance of a +lifetime, as she caught tones, watched little gestures and recognised +those indescribable hereditary similarities which more and more bore +in upon her the fraternal connection of the bright earnest woman with +the lively pleasant young man who had brought the attraction of a higher +tone of manners and cultivation into the country town. No more +had been heard of him since his promise to write, a promise that had +been only once remembered, so that she had tried to take refuge in the +supposition, unlikely as it was, that her stepmother had confiscated +his letters. All was a blank since that last stolen kiss; and +the wonder whether she could by any means discover anything further +from Lady Merrifield or Gillian, so occupied her that she hardly heard +the tenor of the two speeches, and did not observe Agatha’s glowing +cheeks and burning eyes, which might have told her that this was one +of the moments which direct the current of life.</p> +<p>When Hubert Delrio came up in the evening he was curious to hear +about the meeting. His young landlady, who had been a High School +girl for a short time, thought Miss Arthuret’s speech the most +beautiful discourse that ever was spoken; while other reports said that +Lady Flight and Miss Mohun were very much shocked, and thought it unwholesome, +not to say dangerous; and he wanted to know the meaning of it. +Magdalen was quite dismayed to find how entirely her attention had been +absent, and how little account she could give of what had passed by +her like the wind; but she need not have been at a loss, for Agatha, +with sparkling eyes and clasped hands, burst out into a very able and +spirited abstract of the speech, and the future it portrayed, showing +perhaps more enthusiasm than the practised public speaker thought it +prudent to manifest.</p> +<p>“I see,” said Hubert with something of a smile, “you +ladies are charmed with the great future opened to you.”</p> +<p>“I’m sure,” said Vera, perhaps a little nettled +by attention paid so long to Agatha, “I can’t see the sense +of it all; I think a woman is made just to love her husband, and be +his pet, without all that fuss about societies, and speeches and learning +and fuss!” And she gave a little caress to Hubert’s +hand, which was returned, as he said, “She may well be loved, +but, without publicly coming forward, she may become the more valuable +to her home.”</p> +<p>“Of course she may, at home or abroad. She ought +- ” began Agatha, but Vera snapped her off. “Well, +it only comes to being one of a lot of horrid old maids; and you don’t +want me to be one of them, do you, darling? Come and look at my +doves!”</p> +<p>“What do you think of it all, sister?” asked Paulina.</p> +<p>“So far as I grasp the subject,” said Magdalen, to whom, +of course, this was not new, “I think that if a larger scope is +to be given to women, it is for the sake and under the direction of +the Church that it can be rightly and safely used.”</p> +<p>She knew she was speaking by rote, and was not surprised that Agatha +said, “That is just what one has heard so often, and what Miss +Merrifield harped upon! I want to breathe in a fresh atmosphere +beyond the old traditions, and know which are Divine and which are only +the superstructure of those who have always had the dominion and justified +it in their own way!”</p> +<p>“Who gave them that dominion?” said Magdalen.</p> +<p>“Brute strength,” began Agatha.</p> +<p>“Nag, Nag!” cried Paula. “Surely you believe +- ”</p> +<p>“I did not say - I did not mean - I only meant to think it +out, and understand what is Divine and what is in the eternal fitness +of things.”</p> +<p>Here came an interruption, leaving Magdalen conscious of the want +of preparation for guiding the thought of these young things, and of +self-reproach too, for having let herself be so absorbed in the thought +of “her broken reed of earth beneath,” as not to have dwelt +on what might be the deep impressions of the young sisters under her +charge.</p> +<p>A few days later, as Agatha sat reading in the garden, two figures +appeared on the drive, wheeling up their bicycles. One was Gillian, +the other had a general air of the family, but much darker, and not +one of the old acquaintances. Advancing to meet them, she said, +“I am the only one at home. My sisters are all at lessons +or in the village.”</p> +<p>“I’ll leave a message,” said Gillian. “My +mother wants you all to come up to picnic tea to see the foxgloves in +the dell, on Monday, and to bring Mr. Delrio - ”</p> +<p>“Oh! thank you.”</p> +<p>“I forgot, you had not seen my cousin Dolores Mohun before. +Mysie calls her a cousin-twin, if you know what that is.”</p> +<p>Agatha thought the newcomer’s great pensive dark eyes and overhanging +brow under very black hair made her look older than Mysie, or indeed +than Gillian herself; and when the message had been disposed of, the +latter continued, “Dolores wanted to know about Miss Arthuret’s +lecture, being rather in that line herself. She could not get +home in time for it, and I was seeing the <i>Kittiwake</i> party on +board, and only crept in at the other end of the hall in time for Bessie’s +faint echoes.”</p> +<p>“I was in the very antipodes,” said Dolores, “in +a haunt of ancient peace, whence they would not let me come away soon +enough.”</p> +<p>“And, Agatha, Aunt Jane says she saw you devouring Miss Arthuret +with your eyes,” said Gillian.</p> +<p>“It gave one a sense of new life,” said Agatha; and she +related again Miss Arthuret’s speech, broken only by appreciative +questions and comments from Dolores’ auditor, to whom, in the +true fashion of nineteen, Agatha straightway lost her heart. Dolores, +who had seen much more of the outer world than her cousins, and had +had besides a deeply felt inward experience which might well render +her far more responsive, and able to comprehend the questions working +in the girl’s mind, and which found expression in, “I went +to St. Robert’s only wanting to get my education carried on so +that I might be a better governess; but I see now there are much farther +on, much greater things to aim at, than I ever thought of.”</p> +<p>“Alps on Alps arise!” said Dolores. “Yes +- till they lose themselves - and where?”</p> +<p>“Miss Merrifield would say in Heaven, by way of the Church.”</p> +<p>“The all things in earth or under the earth rising up in circles +of praise to the Cherubim and the Great White Throne,” said Dolores, +her dark eyes raised in a moment’s contemplation.</p> +<p>“Ah! One knows. But is that thought the one to +be brought home to every one, as if they could bear it always? +Are not we to do something - something - for the helping people here +in this life, not always going on to the other life - ”</p> +<p>“Temporal or spiritual?” said Dolores; “or spiritual +through temporal?”</p> +<p>“And our part in helping,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“There is an immense deal to be thought out,” said Dolores. +“I feel only at the beginning of the questions, and there is study +and experience to go to them.”</p> +<p>“You mean what one gets at Oxford?”</p> +<p>“Partly. Thorough - at least, as thorough as one can +- of the physical and material nature of things, then of the precedent +which then results, also of reasoning.”</p> +<p>“Metaphysical, do you mean, or logical?”</p> +<p>“That comes in; but I was thinking of mathematical in the indirect +training of the mind. It all works into needful equipment, and +so does actual life.”</p> +<p>“It takes one’s breath away.”</p> +<p>“Well, we have begun our training,” said Dolores, with +a sweet sad smile. “At least, I hope so.”</p> +<p>“At St. Robert’s, you mean?”</p> +<p>“You have, I think. But I believe my aunt will be expecting +us.”</p> +<p>“Oh! And then they talk about modesty and womanliness +and retiring! What do you think about all that?”</p> +<p>“That we never shall do any good without it.”</p> +<p>They were interrupted by the hasty rushing up of Paula, who had committed +her bicycle to Vera, and came dashing up the steep slope, crying, “O +Nag, Nag, they are going away!”</p> +<p>The announcement was interrupted as she perceived the presence of +the visitor, and they rose to meet her, but saw that there were tears +in her eyes, and she had rushed up so fast that she was panting and +could hardly speak, though she gave her hand, as Agatha, after naming +the two cousins, asked, “Who are going?”</p> +<p>“The Sisters - Sister Mena - ” with another overflow +of tears which made Dolores and Gillian think they had better retreat +and leave her to her sister’s consolation; so they took leave +hastily, Agatha however, coming as far as their machines, and confiding +to them, “Poor Polly, it is a great blow to her, but I believe +it is very good for her.”</p> +<p>“There’s stuff in that girl,” said Dolores, as +soon as they were out of reach. “She has the faculty of +hearkening as well as of hearing.”</p> +<p>“You would say so if you saw her at a lecture; and she is also +gaining power of expressing and reproducing,” said Gillian.</p> +<p>“She will be a power by and by, unless some blight comes across +her.”</p> +<p>“Will me, will me, it seems as if we <i>had</i> to do it. +Even Mamma, whose ideal was chivalry, Church and home, has to be drawn +out to take a certain public part; Aunt Jane, who only wished to live +to potter about among neighbours, poor and rich, must needs come out +of her traditional conventions, and relate her experiences, and you +- ”</p> +<p>“Oh, I am only trying to do the work Gerald aimed at!”</p> +<p>“Any way we have our work before us, whether we call it for +the Church or mankind.”</p> +<p>“Charity or Altruism,” said Dolores.</p> +<p>“May not altruism lead to charity?” said Gillian.</p> +<p>“Sometimes, but sometimes disappointment leads only to intolerance +of those whose methods differ. Altruism will not stand without +a foundation,” said Dolores.</p> +<p>“Mysie has been impressing on me, with what she heard from +Phyllis Devereux, of the work Sister Angela has been doing at Albertstown +- the most utter self-abnegation, through bitter disappointment in her +most promising pupils - only the charity that is rooted could endure. +It is just the old difference Tennyson points out between Wisdom and +Knowledge.”</p> +<p>“And with wisdom come those feminine attributes that Agatha +began asking about.”</p> +<p>“Yes, softening, gentleness, tact. If people have not +grown up to them, they must be taught as parts of wisdom.”</p> +<p>Gillian sighed. “I wonder what Ernley Armitage will say +when he comes home?”</p> +<p>“He won’t want you to throw up everything.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think he will! But if he did - No, I think +he will be a staff to guide a silly, priggish heart to the deeper wisdom.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII - FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“With her venturous climbings, and tumbles, and childish escapes.”<br />TENNYSON.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Hubert Delrio, pleased and gratified, but very shy, joined the ladies +from the Goyle in their walk to Clipstone, expecting perhaps a good +deal of stiffness and constraint, since every one at St. Kenelm’s +told him what a severe and formidable person Sir Jasper Merrifield was, +and that all Lady Merrifield’s surroundings were “so very +clever.” “They did want <i>such</i> books ordered +in the library.”</p> +<p>Magdalen laughed, and said her only chance of seeing a book she wanted +was that Lady Merrifield should have asked for it. At Clipstone, +they were directed to the dell where the foxgloves were unusually fine +that year, covering one of the banks of the ravine with a perfect cloud +of close-grown spikes, nodding with thick clustered bells, spotted withinside, +and without, of that indescribable light crimson or purple, enchanting +in reality but impossible to reproduce. It was like a dream of +fairy land to Hubert to wander thither with his Vera, count the tiers +of bells, admire the rings of purple and the crooked stamens, measure +the height of the tall ones, some almost equal to himself in stature, +and recall the fairy lore and poetry connected with them, while Vera +listened and thought she enjoyed, but kept herself entertained by surreptitiously +popping the blossoms, and trying to wreath her hat with wild roses.</p> +<p>Thekla meantime admired from the opposite bank, in a state of much +elevation at acquiring a dear delicious brother-in-law, and insisted +on Primrose sharing her sentiments till her boasting at last provoked +the exclamation, “I wouldn’t be so cocky! I don’t +make such a fuss if my sisters do go and fall in love. I have +two brothers-in-law out in India, and Gillian has a captain, an Egyptian +hero, with a medal, a post captain out at sea in the <i>Nivelle</i>. +You shall see his photograph coloured in his lovely uniform, with his +sword and all! Your Flapsy’s man isn’t even an officer!”</p> +<p>“He is a poet, and that’s better!”</p> +<p>“Better! why, if you <i>will</i> have it, Wilfred and Fergus +always call him that ‘painter cad,’” broke out Primrose, +who had not outgrown her childish power of rudeness, especially out +of hearing of her elders.</p> +<p>“Then it is very wicked of them,” exclaimed Thekla, “when +the Marquis of Rotherwood himself said that Hubert Delrio is a very +superior young man” (each syllable triumphantly rounded off).</p> +<p>Primrose was equal to the occasion. “Oh, they all laugh +at Cousin Rotherwood; and, besides, a superior young man does not mean +a gentleman.”</p> +<p>Thekla burst into angry tears and sobs, which brought Gillian, and +a grave, dark young lady from the other side of a rock to inquire what +was the matter - there was a confession on the two tongues of “she +did,” and “I didn’t” of “painter cad, +superior young man and no gentleman,” but at last it cleared itself +into Primrose allowing that, to take down Thekla’s conceit, she +had declared that a very superior young man did not mean a gentleman.</p> +<p>“I could not have believed that you could have been so abominably +ill-mannered,” said Gillian gravely; “you ought to apologise +to Thekla.”</p> +<p>“Oh, never mind,” began Thekla ashamed; and at that moment +a frantic barking was heard in the depths, and Valetta, Wilfred, Fergus +and a dog or two darted headlong past, calling out, “Hedgehogs, +hedgehogs! Run! come!” And Primrose, giving a hand +to Thekla, joined in the general rush down the glade.</p> +<p>“A situation relieved!” said the newcomer.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“For all ran to see,<br />For they took him to be<br /> An +Egyptian porcupig,”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>quoted Gillian. “They have wanted such a beast for some +time for their menagerie; but really Primrose is getting much too old +to indulge in such babyish incivility to a guest, true though the speech +was, ‘a superior young man,’ not necessarily a gentleman.”</p> +<p>“I am colonial enough to like him the better for the absence +of a hall mark.”</p> +<p>“Should you have missed it? He is very good looking, +and has a sensible refined countenance, poor man!”</p> +<p>“He is a little too point device, too obviously got up for +the occasion!”</p> +<p>“Too like the best electroplate! No; that is not fair, +for it is not pretence, at least, I should think there was sound material +below, and that never would brighten instead of dimming it.”</p> +<p>“According to Mysie and Fly, there is plenty of good taste; +and his principle is vouched for. Mysie is quite furious at any +lady-love having gone to sleep to the sound of original verses from +a lover!”</p> +<p>“Dear old Mysie! No, she would not. She has a practical +vein in her! Would you?”</p> +<p>“I’m not likely to be tried!” said Gillian merrily. +“Catch Ernley either practising or not minding his boat! +But come! Mamma will want me, I feel only deputy daughter, with +Mysie away.”</p> +<p>The two girls rose from the mossy bank, and proceeded across the +paddock to the opening of the glade.</p> +<p>On the turf Lady Merrifield sat enthroned; making a nucleus to the +festivities and delicacies of all sorts, from sandwiches and cakes down +to strawberries, cherries and Devonshire cream, were displayed before +her; and the others drifted up gradually, Miss Mohun first. “I +am later than I meant to be,” she said, “but I was delayed +by a talk with Sister Beata. I never saw a woman more knocked +down than she is by that adventure of Vera’s.”</p> +<p>“I know,” said Magdalen, rousing herself. “It +has made her look ten years older, and she could not talk it over or +let a word be said to comfort her. She says it was all her fault, +and I should have thought it was that silly little Sister Mena’s, +if that is her name.</p> +<p>“She considers it her fault for objecting to strict discipline +in things of which she did not see the use,” said Jane Mohun, +“and so getting absorbed in her own work, and having no fixed +rule by which to train Mena.”</p> +<p>“I see,” said Lady Merrifield; “it reminds me of +a story told in Madame de Chantal’s life, how, when, <i>par mortification</i>, +a Sister quietly ate up a rotten apple without complaint and another +made signs of amusement, a rule was made that no one should raise her +eyes at meals. It shows that some rules which seem unreasonable +may have a foundation.”</p> +<p>“It is an unnatural life altogether,” said Dolores. +“Why should the rotten apple have been swallowed? or, if it was, +I should think a joke over it might have been wholesome.”</p> +<p>“Hindering priggishness in the mortified Sister,” said +Gillian.</p> +<p>“The fact is,” said Lady Merrifield, “that if you +vow yourself to an unnatural life, so to speak, you must submit to the +rules that have been found best to work for it.”</p> +<p>“And poor Sister Beata did neither the one nor the other, by +her own account,” said Jane. “She called herself a +Sister, but disliked each rule, and chose to go her own way, like any +other benevolent woman, doing very admirable work herself, but letting +little Mena have the prestige of a Sister, while too busy to look after +her, and without rules to restrain her.”</p> +<p>“But surely there has been no harm!” exclaimed Lady Merrifield.</p> +<p>“No harm, only a little incipient flirtation with the organist, +nothing in any one else, but not quite like a convent maid.”</p> +<p>“Ah! I rather suspected,” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“I should think the best thing for Sister Mena would be to +go to a good school, leave off her veil, in which she looks so pretty, +and be treated like an ordinary girl,” said Lady Merrifield.</p> +<p>“That is just what Sister Beata intends,” said Miss Mohun. +“She is to sink down into Miss Marian Jenkins, to wear a straw +hat and blue frock, and go to school with the other girls, the pupils, +while Sister Beata begins life as a probationer at Dearport.”</p> +<p>“Poor Sister Beata!”</p> +<p>“She says she has experienced that it is best to learn to obey +before one begins to rule. It is most touching to see how humble +she is. Such a real good woman too! I doubt whether she +gets a night’s rest three days in a week, and she looks quite +haggard with this distress,” said Jane.</p> +<p>“She will be a great power by and by! But what will Mr. +Flight and St. Kenelm’s do without her?”</p> +<p>“He is promised relays of Sisters from Dearport, which has +stood so many years that they have a supply. You see, he, like +Sister Beata, tried a little too much to be original and stand aloof.”</p> +<p>“Ah!” said Lady Merrifield, “that is the benefit +of institutions. They hinder works from dying away with the original +clergyman or the wonderful woman.”</p> +<p>“But, Aunt Lily,” put in Dolores, “institutions +get slack?”</p> +<p>“They have their <i>downs</i>, but they also have their ups. +There is something to fall back upon with public schools.”</p> +<p>“Yes, like croquet,” laughed Aunt Jane. “We +saw it rise and saw it fall; and here come all the players, the revival. +Well, how went the game?”</p> +<p>So the party collected, and the two Generals came in from some vanity +of inspection to grumble a little merrily at the open air banquet, but +to take their places in all good humour, and the lively meal began with +all the home witticisms, yet not such as to exclude strangers. +Indeed, Hubert Delrio was treated with something like distinction, and +was evidently very happy, with Vera by his side. Perhaps Magdalen +perceived that there was not the perfect ease of absolute equality and +familiarity; but his poetical and chivalrous nature was gratified by +the notice of a Crimean hero, and he infinitely admired the dignity +and courtesy of Lady Merrifield, and the grace and ease of her daughters, +finding himself in a new world of exquisite charm for him.</p> +<p>And before they broke up, Magdalen had a quiet time with Lady Merrifield, +in which she was able, not without a tell-tale blush even at her years, +to ascertain that there were two Henry Merrifields, and that, alas! +there was nothing good known of the son of Stokesley, except that anonymous +attempt at restitution which gave hopes of repentance.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII - PALACES OR CHURCHES</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“And if I leave the thing that lieth next,<br />To go and do +the thing that is afar,<br />I take the very strength out of my deed.”<br />- +MACDONALD.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Those were happy days that succeeded Vera’s engagement. +It had made her more womanly, or at least less childish; and the intercourse +with Hubert Delrio became an increasing delight to her sisters, who +had never known anything so like a brother.</p> +<p>He was at first shy and not at ease with Magdalen, who, on her side, +perceived the lack of public school and university training; but in +grain he was so completely a good man, a churchman, and a gentleman, +and had so much right sense as well as talent, that she liked him thoroughly +and began to rely on him, as a woman with unaccustomed property is glad +to do with a male relation.</p> +<p>And to him, the society of the Goyle was a new charm. He had +been brought up to the technicalities and the business relations of +art, and had a cultivated taste; but to be with a thoughtful, highly +educated lady, able to enter into its higher and deeper associations, +was an unspeakable delight and improvement to him. Vera was fairly +satisfied as long as he sketched her in various attitudes, and held +her hand while he talked; though she did grudge having so much time +spent on “taste, Shakespeare and the musical glasses.” +Paula had various ecclesiastical interests in common with him, and began +to expand and enter more into realities, while Thekla had in him a dear +delightful delicious brother, who petted her, bantered her, mended her +rabbit hutch, caught her hedgehog, taught her to guide her bicycle, +drew picture games for her, and taught her to sketch.</p> +<p>Agatha had endless discussions with him on his various aspirations, +in some of which Magdalen took her share, sometimes thinking with a +pang of regret and self-reproach that that brief time of intercourse +with Hal Merrifield had been spent in youthful nonsense that could have +left no permanent influence for good.</p> +<p>In fact, whether through Hubert or through Agatha, a certain intellectual +waft had breathed upon the Goyle. Hubert was eager for assistance +in learning German and Italian, and read and discussed books of interest; +and even when he had left Rockstone, and his work at St. Kenelm’s +being finished, the stimulus was kept up by his letters, comments and +questions; and the younger girls had entirely ceased to form an opposite +camp, or to view “sister” as a taskmistress, even when Agatha +had returned to St. Robert’s.</p> +<p>Mysie had come home, very brown, fuller of Scott than ever for her +mother, and of Hugh Miller for Fergus, for whom she had brought so many +specimens that Cousin Rotherwood declared that she would sink the <i>Kittiwake</i>. +Over the sketches and photographs of Iona, she and Paulina became great +friends, and Paula was admitted to hear accounts of the modern missions +that had come from the other Harry Merrifield among the Karens in Burmah, +or again through Franciska Ivinghoe, of her Aunt Angela Underwood, who +was considered to have a peculiar faculty for dealing with those very +unpromising natives, the Australian gins. Franciska remembered +her tender nursing and bright manner in the days of fever at Vale Leston, +and had a longing hope that she would take a holiday and come home; +but at present she was bound to the couch of her slowly declining old +friend, Sister Constance, the Mother of Dearport. It was another +bond of interest with Magdalen, to whom missions to the heathens had +always been a dream.</p> +<p>Thus had passed a year uneventful and peaceable, with visits from +Hubert whenever he had a day or two to spare. They were looked +forward to with delight; but if there were a drawback it was in Vera’s +viewing him partly as one who held her in a sort of chain, and partly +as one whom it was pleasant to tease by allowing little casual civilities +from Wilfred Merrifield.</p> +<p>For Wilfred was an embarrassment to his family. He had never +been strong, his public school career had been shortened by failure +in health, and headaches in the summer, and coughs in the winter made +it needful to keep him at home, and trust to cramming at Rockstone, +enforced by his father’s stern discipline and his mother’s +authoritative influence.</p> +<p>Thus he was always within reach of the mild social gaieties in which +each family indulged, and Vera was not quite so ready as were his sisters +to contrast unfavourably his hatred of all self-improvement with Hubert +Delrio’s eagerness to pick up every crumb of information, thus +deservedly getting on well in his profession.</p> +<p>One morning, at breakfast, Hubert opened a letter and made a sudden +exclamation; and in answer to Vera’s vehement inquiry said, “It +seems that the great millionaire swell, Pettifer - is that his name?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, he was at Rock Quay.”</p> +<p>“Well, he went to see St. Kenelm’s, fell in love with +the ceiling, and offered Pratt and Pavis any sum they like to decorate +a huge new hall he is building in the same style. So they write +to propose to me to come and do it, with a promise of future work, at +any terms I like to ask.”</p> +<p>“Oh! but that’s jolly,” cried Vera. “Can’t +you?”</p> +<p>“No,” he said; “this is immediate, and I have two +churches, reredos and walls, on my hands, enough to last me all the +year. Nor could I throw over Eccles and Beamster.”</p> +<p>“Is there an agreement with them?” asked Magdalen.</p> +<p>“Not regularly; but Mr. Eccles has been very kind to me, and +promised me employment for four years to come; in fact, he has made +engagements on that understanding.”</p> +<p>“I see,” said Magdalen. “You could not break +with them.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not. Nor do I entirely like the line of this +other house. It is a good deal more secular.”</p> +<p>“And you have dedicated your talents to the Church!” +cried Paulina.</p> +<p>“Not that exactly, Paula,” he said, smiling; “but +I had rather work for the Church, so I am glad the matter is definitely +settled for me.”</p> +<p>To that he kept, though he had a very kind letter from Mr. Eccles, +who had evidently been applied to, wishing not to stand in his light, +especially as he was engaged to be married, and telling him how it might +be possible to fairly compensate for the loss to the firm. Between +the lines, however, it was plain that it would be a great blow, only +possible because the agreement had been neglected; and Hubert was only +the more determined, out of gratitude for the generosity, not to break +what he felt to be an implied pledge; and all the sisters sympathised +with his determination.</p> +<p>He adhered to it even after his return to London, though his father +thought it a pity to lose the chance, if it could be accepted without +discourtesy to Mr. Eccles; and he had been interviewed by various parties +concerned, and there had been an attempt to dazzle him by the prospects +held out to him by an enthusiastic young member of the firm. Perhaps +he was too shrewd entirely to trust them, but at any rate he felt his +good faith to Eccles and Beamster a bond to hold him fast from the temptation; +and his heart was really set on the consecration of the higher uses +of his art; so that regard to the simple rule of honour was an absolute +relief to him.</p> +<p>So he wrote to Vera, who, if there were a secret wish on her part, +did not dare to give it shape; while all her sisters, to whom she showed +the letters that she scarcely comprehended, were open-mouthed in their +admiration. Thekla, who had been seized with a fit of hagiology, +went the length of comparing him to St. Barbara; even Paula pronounced +it a far-fetched resemblance.</p> +<p>It was some months later that Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood had +decided on building a magnificent cathedral-like church for the population +rising around him in the Rocky Mountains; and meeting Lord Rotherwood +in London heard of the work at St. Kenelm’s, and resorted to Eccles +and Beamster as the employers of young Delrio. There would be +plenty of varieties of beautiful material to be found near at hand in +the mountains; but Hubert was sent first for a short journey in Italy +to study the effect of the old mosaics as well as the frescoes, and +then to go out to America to the work that would last a considerable +time.</p> +<p>Vera was much excited by the notion of the Italian journey, and thought +she ought to have been married at once and have shared it, including +as it did a short visit to Rocca Marina. But she was scarcely +eighteen, and neither her trustee nor her elder sister thought it advisable +to dispense with the decision that her twenty-first birthday must be +waited for, at which she pouted. Hubert came for two nights on +his return, and was exceedingly full of his tour, talking over Italian +scenes and churches with Magdalen, who had never seen them, but had +the descriptions and the history at her fingers’ ends, and listened +with delight to all the impressions of a mind full of feeling and poetry. +The time was only too short to discuss or look out everything, and much +was left to be copied and sent after him, with many promises on Vera’s +part of writing everything for him, and translating the books that Magdalen +would refer to. He was allowed to take Vera and Paulina to Filsted +for a hurried visit to his parents. When they came home again, +it soon became plain that it had not been a success. “I +am glad to be at home again,” said Paula, as the pony carriage +turned up the steep drive, and the girls jumped out to walk. “I +am quite glad to feel the stones under my feet again!”</p> +<p>Magdalen laughed. “A new sentiment!” she said.</p> +<p>“I don’t like the stones,” said Vera, “but +I did not know Filsted was such a poky place.”</p> +<p>“A dead flat!” added Paula. “No sea, no torrs! +one wanted something to look at! and <i>such</i> a church!”</p> +<p>“Did you see Minnie Maitland?” put in Thekla.</p> +<p>“I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry,” said Vera. +“I don’t remember which was which. They were all dressed +alike in horrid colours. Hubert said they set his teeth on edge!”</p> +<p>“How was old Mrs. Delrio?”</p> +<p>“Just the same as ever, lean and pinched.”</p> +<p>“But so kind!” added Paula. “She could not +make enough of Flapsy.”</p> +<p>“I should think not!” ejaculated Vera. “Enough! +aye, and too much! just fancy, no dinner napkins! and Edith went away +and made the scones herself!”</p> +<p>“Very praiseworthy,” said Magdalen. “Don’t +you know how Hubert always tells us what a dear devoted good girl she +is?”</p> +<p>“Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in that +way,” said Vera. “His mother looks like a half-starved +hare, and Edith is giving lessons as a daily governess!</p> +<p>“Edith is very nice,” said Paula; “and I never +understood before how excellent old Mr. Delrio’s pictures are! +Do you remember his ‘Country Lane’? What a pity it +did not sell!”</p> +<p>“Poor man!” said Magdalen. “He married too +soon, and that has kept him down.”</p> +<p>“It is beautiful to see how proud they are of Hubert,” +said Paula, “and his pretty gentle attention and deference to +them both. Mr. Delrio is really a gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie,” +she said, falling back with her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, +“it was very odd to see how different things looked to us from +what they seemed when we were at Mrs. Best’s. Filsted High +Street has grown so small, and one could hardly breathe in Mrs. Delrio’s +stuffy drawing-room. And as to Waring Grange, which we used to +think just perfect, it was all so pretentious and in such bad taste. +Hubert saw it as much as we did, but I could see he was on thorns to +hinder Flapsy from making observations.”</p> +<p>Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making the +girls appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the Goyle.</p> +<p>And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale Leston, +asking questions requiring some research in books, either Magdalen’s +or at the Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and sighed over them; and +when the more zealous Magdalen or Paula took all the trouble, and left +nothing for her to do but to copy their notes, and write the letters, +she grew cross. “It was for Hubert, and she did not want +any one else to meddle! So stupid! If he had only taken +Pratt and Pavis’s offer, there would not have been all this bother!”</p> +<p>That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and Thekla, +and it made them both so furious that she declared she was only in joke, +and did not mean it.</p> +<p>She was indulging in reflections on the general dulness of her lot, +and the lack of sympathy in her sisters, as she lingered by the confectioner’s +window, with her eyes fixed on a gorgeous combination of coloured bonbons, +when Wilfred Merrifield sauntered out. “Fresh from Paris!” +he said. “Going to choose some?”</p> +<p>“Oh no, I haven’t got any cash. M. A. keeps us +horribly short.”</p> +<p>“As usual with governors! But look here! Pocket +this. Sweets to the sweet, from an old chum!”</p> +<p>“Oh, Will, how jolly! Such a love of a box.”</p> +<p>“Make haste! Some of the girls are lurking about, and +if there is any mischief to be made, trust Gill for doing it.”</p> +<p>“Mischief! - ” but before the words were out of her mouth, +Gillian and Mysie appeared from the next shop, a bootmaker’s, +and Mysie stood aghast with, “What <i>are</i> you doing? +Buying goodies! How very ridiculous!”</p> +<p>“The proper thing between chums, isn’t it, Vera?” +said Wilfred, with an indifferent air. “We aren’t +unlucky Sunday scholars, Mysie, to be jumped upon! Good-bye, Vera, +<i>au revoir</i>!”</p> +<p>He sauntered away with his hands in his pockets; while Gillian, from +her eldership of two years, and her engagement, gravely said, “Vera, +perhaps you do not fully know, but I should say this is not quite the +thing.”</p> +<p>“He told you we are just chums!” exclaimed Vera. +“As if there were any harm in it! You’ve not got a +sweet tooth yourself, so you need not grudge me just a few goodies.”</p> +<p>Gillian saw that it was of no use to prolong the dispute either for +the place or the time, and she hushed Mysie, who was about to expostulate +farther, and made her go away with a brief parting, such as she hoped +would impress on Vera that the sisters thought very badly of her discretion +and loyalty. They could not hear the reflection, “They need +not be so particular and so cross. Hubert never thought of giving +me anything nice like this. Why should not my chum? Such +a sweet little box too, with a dear girl’s head on it! Would +Polly fuss about it, and set on Sister? I shall put it into my +own drawer, and then if they notice it, they may think somebody at Filsted +gave it! No one has any business to worry me about Hubert, and +Wilfred being civil to me. He <i>is</i> a gentleman.”</p> +<p>The gentleman had been overtaken by his sisters. He was walking +his bicycle up the hill rather breathlessly and slowly. Mysie +indignantly began, “Of all the stupid things to do, to give goodies +to that girl, like a baby!”</p> +<p>“I have been wishing to speak to you,” said Gillian. +“You are going the way to get that foolish girl into a scrape.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, of course. Sisters uniformly object to a little +civility to a pretty girl,” carelessly answered Wilfred.</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” returned Mysie, hotly. “We don’t +care! only it is not fair on Mr. Delrio.”</p> +<p>“The painter cad! A very good thing too! The sacrifice +ought to be prevented. Is not that the general sentiment?”</p> +<p>“Wilfred!” cried the scandalised Mysie, “when it +is all the other way, and he is ever so much too good for her.”</p> +<p>“Consummate prig! The cheek of him pretending to a lady!”</p> +<p>“But, Wilfred,” went on downright Mysie, “is it +only mischief, or do you want to marry her yourself?”</p> +<p>“Draw your own conclusions,” responded Wilfred, mounting +his machine, and spinning down the hill faster than they could follow +on foot.</p> +<p>“What is to be done, Gill?” sighed Mysie. “Ought +we to get mamma to speak to him?”</p> +<p>“Better not,” said Gillian, with more experience. +“It would only make it worse to take it seriously. Half +of it is play - and half to tease you.”</p> +<p>“And,” said Mysie, with due deference to the engaged +sister, “how about Mr. Delrio? Will it make him unhappy?”</p> +<p>“If he finds out in time what a horrid little thing it is, +I should say it would be very well for him; but I don’t want Will +to be the means.”</p> +<p>“Oh! when his examination is over, and he gets an appointment, +he will go away, and it will be safe.”</p> +<p>“I have not much hopes of his getting in!”</p> +<p>“Oh, Gill, none of us ever failed before.”</p> +<p>On the side of the Goyle not much was known or cared about Wilfred’s +little attentions, which were generally out of sight of Magdalen, and +did not amount to much; but Paula saw enough of them to consult Agatha +on, and to observe that Flapsy was going on just as she used to at Filsted, +and she thought Hubert would not like it.</p> +<p>“I believe Flapsy can’t live without it,” sighed +Agatha.</p> +<p>“But would you speak to her? I don’t think she +ought to let him give her boxes of bonbons - to keep up in her room, +and never give a hint to Maidie.”</p> +<p>Agatha did speak but the effect was to set Vera into crying out at +every one being so intolerably cross about such a trifle, Gillian Merrifield +and all!</p> +<p>“Did Gillian speak to you?”</p> +<p>“Yes, as if she had any business to do so!”</p> +<p>“I am sure it is not the way she would treat Captain Armitage.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe she cares for Captain Armitage one bit! +You said yourself that all the girls at Oxford thought she cared much +more for her horrid examination! I wouldn’t be a dry, cold-hearted, +insensible stick like her for the world.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps she is the more quietly in earnest,” said Agatha, +repenting a little that she had told before Vera the college jokes over +what had leaked out of Gillian’s reception of Ernley Armitage +when he had hastened up to Oxford as soon as his ship was paid off, +and she had been called down to him in the Lady Principal’s room. +Report said that she had only prayed him to keep out of the way, and +not to upset her brain, and that he had meekly obeyed - as one who knew +what it was to have promotion depending on it.</p> +<p>It was a half truth, exaggerated, but it had not a happy effect on +Vera. Nevertheless, the finishing push of preparation brought +on such a succession of violent headaches as quite to disable the really +delicate boy. Moreover, the tutor declared that there had been +little chance of his success, and Dr. Dagger said that he had +much better not try again. The best hope for his health, and even +for his life, was to keep him at home for a few years, and give him +light work.</p> +<p>He had never been the pleasantest element in the household; and if +his parents were glad of the avoidance of the risk of a launch into +the world, and his mother’s love rejoiced in the power of watching +over him, there were others who felt his temper a continual trial, while +his career was a perplexity.</p> +<p>However, Captain Henderson offered a clerkship at the Marble Works, +subject to Mr. White’s approval; and this was gratefully accepted. +Nor did Agatha come home again at the Long Vacation for more than two +days, in which there was no time for consultation with her sisters on +matters of uncertain import.</p> +<p>Miss Arthuret and Elizabeth Merrifield had arranged together to take +the old roomy farmhouse on Penbeacon for three or four months, and there +receive parties of young women in need of rest, fresh air, and, in some +cases, of classes, or time for study. It was to be a sort of Holiday +House, though not altogether of idleness; and Dolores undertook to be +a kind of vice-president, with Agatha to pursue her reading under her +superintendence, and to assist in helping others, governesses, students, +schoolmistresses from Coalham, in whose behalf indeed the scheme had +been first started, and it was extremely delightful to Agatha, among +many others.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX - TWO WEDDINGS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“How happy by my mother’s side<br />When some dear friend +became a bride!<br />To shine beyond the rest I was<br /> In +gay embroidery drest.<br />Vain of my drapery’s rich brocade,<br />I +held my flowing locks to braid.”<br />ANSTICE <i>(from the Greek).</i></p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Epidemics of marriage set in from time to time,” said +Jane Mohun. “Gillian has set the fashion.”</p> +<p>For the Rock Quay neighbourhood was in a state of excitement over +a letter from Mrs. White, of Rocca Marina, announcing the approaching +marriage of Mr. White’s niece, Maura, with Lord Roger Grey, a +nephew of dear Emily’s husband, and heir to the Dukedom. +The White family were coming home for the wedding, and the interest +entirely eclipsed that of Gillian Merrifield’s. In fact, +though that young lady somewhat justified the Oxford stories, she was +in a state of much inward agitation between real love for Ernley, and +pain in leaving home, so she put on an absolutely imperturbable demeanour. +Her reserve and dread of comments made her so undemonstrative and repressive +to her Captain that there were those who doubted whether she cared for +him at all, or only looked on her wedding as a mediæval maiden +might have done, as coming naturally a few years after she had grown +up. Ernley Armytage knew better, and so did her parents. +The wedding was hurried on by Captain Armytage’s appointment to +a frigate on the coast of Southern America, where he had to join at +once, in lieu of a captain invalided home; and Gillian accepted the +arrangements, which would take her to Rio, “as much a matter of +course,” said her aunt, “as if she had been a wife for ten +years.” Her uncle, Mr. Mohun, was anxious that the marriage +of his sister Lily’s daughter should take place at the family +home, Beechcroft. If there had been scruples, chiefly founded +on the largeness of the party, and the trouble to Mrs. Mohun, these +were forgotten in the convenience of being out of the way of Rockstone +gossip, as well as for other reasons.</p> +<p>“I should certainly have escaped,” said General Mohun. +“I have no notion of meeting that unmitigated scamp.”</p> +<p>“Mr. White ought to be warned,” said Jane.</p> +<p>“You’ll do so, I suppose; and much good it will be.”</p> +<p>“I do not imagine that it will. It will be too charming +to surpass Franciska and Ivinghoe; but if neither you nor Jasper will +speak to old Tom, I shall deliver my conscience to Ada.”</p> +<p>“And be advised to mind your own business.”</p> +<p>Nevertheless, Jane Mohun did deliver her conscience, when, on the +day after the arrival, there had been loud lamentations over the intended +absence of the Merrifield family. “It would have looked +well to make it a double wedding, all in the family,” said Mr. +White.</p> +<p>To which Miss Mohun only answered by a silence which Mrs. White was +unwilling to break, but Maura exclaimed -</p> +<p>“But I thought Valetta would be sure to be my bridesmaid. +Such friends as we were at the High School!”</p> +<p>It did not strike Miss Mohun that the friendship had been very close +or very beneficial; but Adeline added, “We thought she would pair +so well with Vera Prescott, and then uncle will give all the dresses +- white silk with cerise trimmings. We ordered them in Paris.”</p> +<p>“Uncle Tom is so generous!” said Maura. “There +is no end to his kindness. I’ll go and unpack some of the +patterns, that Miss Mohun may see them.”</p> +<p>She tripped out of the room, and Jane exclaimed, “Poor child! +Has Emily written to you, Ada?”</p> +<p>“Yes, rather stiffly. Mr. White thinks it aristocratic +pride.”</p> +<p>“Ada, you know it is not that.”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose the Greys are hardly gratified by the connection, +though Mr. White will make it worth their while. You see the Duke +leaves everything in his power to his daughters, so poor Roger will +be very badly off.”</p> +<p>“But - ” There was so much expressed in that “but” +that Adeline began to answer one of the sentiments she supposed it to +convey. “He can do it easily - for all the rest are provided +for by the Marble Works - except the two eldest brothers. Richard +has gone away, and Alexis - oh, you know he has notions of his own that +Mr. White does not like.”</p> +<p>“Does Mr. White know all about Lord Roger, or why the Duke +should cut him off as far as possible?”</p> +<p>“My dear Jane, it is not charitable to bring things up against +young men’s follies.”</p> +<p>“It is a pretty considerable folly to have done what compelled +him to retire. Reginald was called in at the inquiry, and knows +all about it.”</p> +<p>“But that was ages ago, and he has been quite distinguished +in the Turkish army.”</p> +<p>“Yes; and I also know that English gentlemen have associated +with him as little as possible. I should call it a fatal thing +to let Maura marry him. What does Captain Henderson say?”</p> +<p>“Mr. White thinks that it is all jealousy. And really, +Jenny, I do not in the least believe that he will make her unhappy. +He is old enough to have quite outgrown all his wild ways, and he has +quite gentlemanly manners and ways. Besides, Maura likes him, +and is quite bent upon it.”</p> +<p>Still there was a dissatisfied look on Jane’s face, and Adeline +went on answering it, with tears in her eyes. “My dear Jane, +I know what you would say, and what Reginald and all the rest feel, +that it is not what we should like! But, my dear, don’t +let the whole family rise up in arms! It would be of no use, only +make it painful for me. Maura is quite bent upon it, and she has +arrived at turning her uncle round her finger so much that I am sometimes +hardly mistress of the house! Oh, I don’t tell any one, +not Lily nor any one, but it will really be a relief to me when she +is gone, with her Greek coaxing ways. Her uncle is wrapped up +in her, and so proud of her being a Duchess that he would condone anything. +Indeed, I am always afraid of her putting it into his head to suppose +that her disappointment about Ivinghoe was in any way owing to my family +pride.”</p> +<p>Jane was sorry for Adeline, and able to perceive how the wifely feelings, +which she had taken on herself, by choosing a man of inferior breeding +and nature clashed with her hereditary character and principles.</p> +<p>“You are absolutely relieved that the Beechcroft wedding takes +all of us out of the way naturally and without offence,” she said +so kindly that Ada laid her head on her sisterly shoulder, and allowed +herself to shed a few tears.</p> +<p>“Yes, yes,” she said; “I am glad to have so good +a reason to mention. Only I do hope Jasper will not object to +Valetta’s coming back to be bridesmaid. That would really +be a blow and give offence, and it would make difficulties with others +- even James Henderson, who swears by Jasper. I have often wished +they would have done as I advised, and have had this wedding at Rocca +Marina, out of the way of everybody! I sometimes think it will +be the death of me. Do come home to help me through it.”</p> +<p>She spoke so like the Ada of old that it went to Jane’s heart.</p> +<p>She promised that she would return in time to give the very substantial +assistance in which all believed, and the more sentimental support in +which nobody believed, though her distaste arose tenfold after seeing +the bridegroom, who looked like an old satyr, all the more because Maura +was like a Greek nymph. Mrs. Henderson was much grieved, and had +tried remonstrance with her sister, but found her quite impervious.</p> +<p>Glad were all the Merrifields to escape to the quiet atmosphere of +Beechcroft, where the relations were able to congregate between the +Court, the Vicarage, and the more-distant Rotherwood; and the wedding +was an ideal one in ecclesiastical beauty, and the festivities of those +who had known and loved Lady Merrifield as Miss Lily in early youth, +grandmothers who had been her schoolchildren, and were pleased to hear +that she was a grandmother herself, and hoped in a year or two to welcome +her grandchildren.</p> +<p>Alethea and her little Somervilles she had seen <i>en route</i> to +Canada, and Phyllis was to come in due time when Bernard Underwood could +be spared from the bank in Colombo, and they would bring their little +pair.</p> +<p>In the matter of bridesmaids Gillian certainly had the advantage, +for she was amply provided with sisters and cousins, Dolores coming +for a few days for the wedding; whereas the six whom Maura had provided +for beforehand in Paris were only, as Miss Jane said, “scraped +up” with difficulty from former schoolfellows. Lord Roger’s +nieces would not hear of being present. Paulina was unwillingly +pressed into the service, as well as the more willing Vera; but Mysie +Merrifield was not to be persuaded to give up her visit to Lady Phyllis, +and Aunt Jane could only carry home Valetta, who held the whole as “capital +fun,” and liked the acquisition of the white silk and lace and +cerise ribbons. Dolores had negotiated that No. 6 of the Vanderkist +girls should spend a year with Miss Mohun for a final polish at the +High School at Rock Quay, so as to be with her brother Adrian, who was +completing his term at the preparatory school before his launch at Winchester.</p> +<p>Wilfred also returned, father and uncle having decided that he did +not merit a game licence, nor to attack the partridges of Beechcroft, +and the prospect of the gaieties of Cliffe House consoled him.</p> +<p>Adeline had to endure her husband’s mortification at other +disappointments. The Ducal family was wholly unrepresented. +Even Emily, the connecting link, would not venture on the journey; and +the clerical nephew was not sufficiently gratified by Lord Roger’s +intention to <i>se ranger</i> to undertake to officiate; and a Bishop, +who had enjoyed the hospitality of Rocca Marina, proved to have other +engagements. No clergyman could be imported except Maura’s +brother Alexis, who had been two years at work at Coalham under Mr. +Richard Burnet, and had just been appointed by the newly-chosen Bishop +of Onomootka, and both were to go out with him as chaplains. In +the meantime, while the Bishop was preparing, by tours in England, Alexis +undertook the duties of Mr. Flight’s curate, rejoicing in the +opportunity of seeing his elder sister, and the old friends with whom +he had never been since his unlucky troubles with Gillian Merrifield, +now no more.</p> +<p>The delight of receiving him compensated to Kalliope Henderson for +much that was distressing to both in Maura’s choice. The +seven years that had passed had made him into a noble-looking man, with +a handsome classical countenance, lighted up by earnestness and devotion, +a fine voice and much musical skill, together with a bright attractive +manner that, all unconsciously on his part, had turned the heads of +half the young womanhood of Coalham, and soon had the same effect at +Rock Quay.</p> +<p>Vera and Paulina were in a state of much excitement over their white +silks, in which the three other sisters took great pleasure in arraying +them, and Thekla only wished that Hubert could see them. She should +send him out a photograph, buying it herself with her own money.</p> +<p>She was, of course, to see the wedding, in her Sunday white and broad +pink sash, of the appropriateness of which she was satisfied when, at +Beechcroft, they met Miss Mohun’s young friend, Miss Vanderkist, +in the same garb. She and her brother had been put under Magdalen’s +protection, as Miss Mohun was too much wanted at Cliffe House to look +after them; but Sir Adrian, a big boy of twelve, wanted to go his own +way, and only handed her over with “Hallo, Miss Prescott! you’ll +look after this pussy-cat of ours while Aunt Jane is dosing Aunt Ada +with salts and sal volatile. She - I’ll introduce you! +Miss Prescott, Miss Felicia Vanderkist! She wants to be looked +after, she is a little kitten that has never seen anything! I’m +off to Martin’s.”</p> +<p>The stranger did look very shy. She was a slight creature, +not yet seventeen, with an abundant mass of long golden silk hair tied +loosely, and a very lovely face and complexion, so small that she was +a miniature edition of Lady Ivinghoe.</p> +<p>Her name was Wilmet Felicia, but the latter half had been always +used in the family, and there was something in the kitten grace that +suited the arbitrary contractions well. In fact, Jane Mohun had +been rather startled to find that she had the charge of such a little +beauty, when she saw how people turned around at the station to look, +certainly not at Valetta, who was a dark bright damsel of no special +mark.</p> +<p>At church, however, every one was in much too anxious a state to +gaze at the coming procession to have any eyes to spare for a childish +girl in a quiet white frock. St. Andrew’s had never seen +such a crowded congregation, for it was a wedding after Mr. White’s +own heart, in which nobody dared to interfere, not even his wife, whatever +her good taste might think. So the church was filled, and more +than filled, by all who considered a wedding as legitimate gape seed, +and themselves as not bound to fit behaviour in church. On such +an occasion Magdalen, being a regular attendant, and connected with +the bridesmaids, was marshalled by a churchwarden into a reserved seat; +but there they were dismayed by the voices and the scrambling behind +them, which, in the long waiting, the Vicar from the vestry vainly tried +to subdue by severe looks; and Felicia, whose notions of wedding behaviour +were moulded on Vale Lecton and Beechcroft, looked as if she thought +she had got into the house of Duessa, amid all Pride’s procession, +as in the prints in the large-volumed “Faërie Queene.”</p> +<p>And when, on the sounds of an arrival, the bridegroom stood forth, +the resemblance to Sans Foy was only too striking, while the party swept +up the church, the bride in the glories of cobweb veil, white satin, +&c., becomingly drooping on her uncle’s arm, while he beamed +forth, expansive in figure and countenance, with delight. Little +Jasper Henderson, anxious and patronising to his tiny brother Alexis, +both in white pages’ dresses picked out with cerise, did his best +to support the endless glistening train.</p> +<p>The bridesmaids’ costumes taxed the descriptive powers of the +milliners in splendour and were scarcely eclipsed by the rich brocade +and lace of Mrs. White, as she sailed in on Captain Henderson’s +arm; but her elaborate veil and feathery bonnet hardly concealed the +weary tedium of her face, though to the shame, well nigh horror, of +her sister, she was rouged. “I must, I must,” she +said; “he would be vexed if I looked pale.”</p> +<p>It was true that “he” loved her heartily, and that he +put all the world at her service; but she had learnt where he must not +be offended, and was on her guard. Hers had been the last wedding +that Jane had attended in St. Andrew’s. “Did she repent?” +was Jane’s thought. No, probably not. She had the +outward luxuries she had craved for, and her husband was essentially +a good man, though not of the caste to which her instincts belonged +- very superior in nature and conscience to him to whom his blinded +vanity was now giving his beautiful niece, a willing sacrifice.</p> +<p>It was over! More indecorous whispering and thronging; and +the procession came down the aisle, to be greeted outside by a hail +of confetti and rice; the schoolboys, profiting by the dinner interval, +and headed by Adrian, had jostled themselves into the foreground, and +they ran headlong to the portico of Cliffe House to renew the shower.</p> +<p>And there, unluckily, Mr. White recognised the boy, and, pleased +to have anything with a title to show, turned him round to the bridegroom, +with, “Here, Lord Roger, let me introduce a guest, Sir Adrian +Vanderkist.”</p> +<p>“Ha, I didn’t know poor Van had left a son. I knew +your father, my boy. Where was it I saw him last? Poor old +chap!”</p> +<p>“You must come in to taste the cake, my boy,” began Mr. +White.</p> +<p>“Thank you, Mr. White, I must get back to Edgar’s. +Late already. The others are off.”</p> +<p>“Not a holiday! For shame! He’ll excuse you. +I’ll send a note down to say you must stay to drink the health +of your father’s old friend.”</p> +<p>Those words settled the matter with Adrian. The holiday was +enticing, and might have overpowered the chances of a scholarship, for +which he was working; but he had begun to know that there were perplexities +from which it was safer to retreat; and that he had never transgressed +his Uncle Clement’s warning might be read in the clear open face +that showed already the benefits, not only of discipline, but of self-control. +So obedience answered the question; though, as he again thanked and +refused, he looked so dogged as he turned and walked off, that Ethel +Varney whispered to Vera that at school he was called, “the Dutchman, +if not the Boer.”</p> +<p>Nor did he ever mention the temptation or his own resistance. +Only Mr. White asked Miss Mohun to bring him to the dance which was +to be given in the evening, telling her of his refusal of the invitation +to wedding cake and champagne and she - mindful of her duty to her charge +as hinted by Clement Underwood - had not granted the honour of his presence +on the score of his school obligations.</p> +<p>The afternoon was spent in desultory wanderings about the gardens, +Magdalen and her sisters being invited guests, and Vera in a continual +state of agitated expectation. Had not Wilfred Merrifield always +been a cavalier of her own? And here he was, paying no attention +to her, with all the embellishment of her bridesmaid’s adornments, +and squiring instead that little insignificant Felicia, in a simple +hat, and hair still on her shoulders; whilst she had to put up with +nothing better than a young Varney, who was very shy, and had never +probably mastered croquet.</p> +<p>She was an ill-used mortal; and why had she not Hubert to show how +superior she was to them all, in having a piece of property of her own +to show off?</p> +<p>There was Paula, too, playing animated tennis with that clerical +brother of the bride, who had been talking to Magdalen about the frescoes +of St. Kenelm’s (as if she, Vera, had not the greatest right to +know all about those frescoes!). Even little Thekla was better +off, for she was reigning over a merry party of the little ones, which +had been got up for the benefit of the small Hendersons, and of which +Theodore White had constituted himself the leader, being a young man +passionately devoted to little children.</p> +<p>So when the guests dispersed to eat their dinner at their homes and +dress for the dance, Vera was extremely cross. Each of the other +three had some delightful experiences to talk over; but whether it was +Mr. Theodore’s fun in acting ogre behind the great aloe, or Mr. +Alexis’s achievements with the croquet ball, or his information +about the Red Indians and Onomootka, she was equally ungracious to all; +she scolded Thekla for crumpling her skirt, and was quite sure that +Paula had on the wrong <i>fichu</i> that was meant for her. Each +bridesmaid had been presented with a bracelet, like a snake with ruby +eyes; but Vera, fingering hers with fidgeting petulance, seemed to have +managed to loosen the clasp, and when arranging her dress for the evening +thought that her snake had escaped.</p> +<p>Upstairs and downstairs she rushed in hopes of finding it. +The cab in which they had returned was gone home to come again, and +there was the chance that it might be there or in the Cliffe House gardens; +and then the others tried to console her, but they were not able to +hinder a violent burst of crying, which scandalised Thekla.</p> +<p>“I am sure you couldn’t cry more if you had lost Hubert’s, +and that would be something worth crying about.”</p> +<p>Hubert’s was an ingeniously worked circle of scales of Californian +gold, the first ornament that Vera had ever possessed, and that all +the sisters had set great store by. But with an outcry of joy +Vera exclaimed, “Here’s the snake all safe! I pushed +the other up my arm because it looked so plain and dull, and it was +that which came off.”</p> +<p>“That is a great deal worse than losing the snake,” said +Thekla. “He has a nasty face, and I don’t like him, +with his red eyes.”</p> +<p>“Don’t be silly,” returned Vera; “this is +a great deal more valuable.”</p> +<p>“Surely the value is in the giver,” said Paula; to which +Vera returned in the same vein, “Don’t be silly and sentimental, +Polly.”</p> +<p>She was so much cheered by the recovery of the snake that they brought +her off to the evening dance without a fresh fit of ill-humour, and +she sprang out under the portico of Cliffe House, with her spirits raised +to expectation pitch.</p> +<p>But disappointment was in store for her. It was not disappointment +in other eyes. Paula had all the attention she expected or desired, +she danced almost every time and did not reckon greatly on who might +be her partner. What pleased and honoured her most was being asked +to dance by Captain Henderson himself.</p> +<p>What was it to Vera, however, that partners came to her, young men +of Rock Quay whom she knew already and did not care about? And +she never once had the pleasure of saying that she was keeping the next +dance for Wilfred Merrifield! To her perceptions, he was always +figuring away with Felicia Vanderkist, her golden hair seemed always +gleaming with him; and though this was not always the case, as the nephew +of the house was one of those who had duties to guests and was not allowed +by his aunts to be remiss, yet whenever he was not ordered about by +them, he was sure to be found by Felicia’s side.</p> +<p>Vera’s one consolation was that Alexis White took her to supper. +To be sure he was a clergyman, and had stood talking to Lady Flight +half the time, and his conversation turned at once to Hubert Delrio’s +frescoes; but then he was very handsome, and graceful in manner, and +he sympathised with her on the loss of her bracelet, and promised to +have a search for it by daylight in the gardens.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XX - FLEETING</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“And variable as the shade<br />By the light quivering aspen +made.”<br />- SCOTT.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The bracelet came to light in the gardens of Cliffe House the next +morning, and Alexis White walked over to the Goyle to return it safely, +little guessing, when he set forth to enjoy the sight of the purple +moors, and to renew old recollections, what a flutter of gratified vanity +would be excited in one silly little breast, though he only stayed ten +minutes, and casually asked whether the sisters were coming to Lady +Flight’s garden party. Everybody was going there. +Miss Mohun even took Felicia, as it was on a Saturday’s holiday; +and, unwittingly, she renewed all the agitation caused by Wilfred’s +admiration, and that of others, to the all-unconscious girl. Vera +could no longer think herself the reigning belle of Rock Quay, though +she talked of Felicia as a schoolgirl or a baby, or a horrid little +forward chit! Her excitement was, however, divided between Wilfred +and Mr. Alexis White, who could not look in her direction without putting +her in a state of eagerness.</p> +<p>In this, however, she was not alone. Half the ladies were interested +about him; his manners were charming, his voice in church beautiful, +and his destination as chaplain to a missionary bishop made him doubly +interesting; while he himself, even though his mind was set on higher +things, was really enjoying his brief holiday, and his sister, Mrs. +Henderson, was delighted to promote his pleasure, and garden parties +and the like flourished as long as weather permitted; and as Vera was +a champion player, she was sure to be asked to the tournaments, and +to have to practise for them.</p> +<p>Inopportunely there arrived a letter from Hubert, requiring an answer +about the form of ornament in the moulding of the fourteenth century! +Paula dutifully went to the library, looked out and traced two or three +examples, French and English. Nothing remained but for Vera to +write the letter after the early dinner. However, she went to +sleep in a hammock, and only roused herself to recollect that there +was to be tea and lawn tennis at Carrara.</p> +<p>“Won’t you just write to Hubert first?”</p> +<p>“Oh, bother, how can I now? Don’t worry so!”</p> +<p>“But, Flapsy, he really needs it without loss of time.”</p> +<p>“I’m sure he has no right to make me his clerk in that +horrid peremptory way, as if one had nothing else to do but wait on +his fads.”</p> +<p>“Flapsy, how can you?” broke out even Thekla.</p> +<p>“Surely it is the greatest honour,” said Paula.</p> +<p>“Well, do it yourself then, I’m not going to be bothered +for ever.”</p> +<p>Thekla went off, in great indignation, to beg “sister” +to speak to Flapsy, and beg her not to use dear Hubert so very very +badly, which of course Magdalen refused to do, and Thekla had her first +lesson on the futility of interfering with engaged folk; Paula meanwhile +sent off the despatch, with one line to say that Vera was too busy to +write that day.</p> +<p>There had been two or three letters from Hubert, over which Vera +had looked cross, but had said nothing; and at last she came down from +her own room, and announced passionately, “There! I have +done with Mr. Hubert Delrio, and have written to tell him so!”</p> +<p>“Vera, what have you done?”</p> +<p>“Written to tell him I have no notion of a man being so tiresome +and dictatorial! I don’t want a schoolmaster to lecture +me, and expect me to drudge over his work as if I was his clerk.”</p> +<p>“My dear,” said Magdalen, “have you had a letter +that vexed you? Had you not better wait a little to think it over?”</p> +<p>“No! Nonsense, Maidie! He has been provoking ever +so long, and I won’t bear it any longer!” and she flounced +into a chair.</p> +<p>“Provoking! Hubert!” was all Paulina could utter, +in her amazement and horror.</p> +<p>“Oh, I daresay you would like it well enough! Always +at me to slave for him with stupid architectural drawings and stuff, +as if I was only a sort of clerk or fag! And boring me to read +great dull books, and preaching to me about them, expecting to know +what I think! Dear me!”</p> +<p>“Those nice letters!” sighed Paula.</p> +<p>“Nice! As if any one that was one bit in love would write +such as that! No, I don’t want to marry a schoolmaster or +a tyrant!”</p> +<p>“How can you, Flapsy?” went on Paula, so vehemently that +Magdalen left the defence thus far to her; “when he only wishes +for your sympathy and improvement.”</p> +<p>The worst plea she could have used, thought the elder sister, as +Vera broke out with, “Improvement, indeed! If he cared for +me, he would not think I wanted any <i>improving</i>! But he never +did! Or he would have taken Pratt and Povis’ offer, and +I should have been living in London and keeping my carriage! Or +he would have taken me to Italy! But that horrid home of his, +and his mother just like a half-starved hare! I might have seen +then it was not fit for me; but I was a child, and over-persuaded among +you all! But I know better now, and I know my own mind, as I didn’t +then. So you need not talk! I have done with him.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Flapsy, Flapsy, how can you grieve him so? You don’t +know what you are throwing away!” incoherently cried Paula, collapsing +in a burst of tears. “Maidie, Maidie, why don’t you +speak to her, and tell her how wicked it is - and - and - and - ”</p> +<p>The rest was cut short by sobs.</p> +<p>“No, Paula, authority or reasoning of mine would not touch +such a mood as this. We must leave it to Hubert himself. +If she really cares for him, she will have recovered from her fit of +temper by the time his letter can come, and it may have an effect upon +her, if our tongues have not increased her spirit of opposition. +I strongly advise you to say nothing.”</p> +<p>Paula tried to take her sister’s advice, and would have adhered +to it, but that Vera would talk and try to make her declare the rupture +to have been justified; and this produced an amount of wrangling which +did good to no one. Magdalen really rejoiced when the frequent +golf and tennis parties carried Vera on her bicycle out of reach of +arguing, even if it took her into the alternative of flirtation.</p> +<p>Thekla cried bitterly, and declared that she should never speak to +Flapsy again; but in half an hour’s time was heard chattering +about the hedgehog’s meal of cockroaches. In another week +the excitement was over. The Bishop of Onomootka had come and +gone, after holding meetings and preaching sermons at Rock Quay and +all the villages round, and had carried off Alexis White with him.</p> +<p>Nothing had come of the intercourse of the latter with his rich uncle, +nor of the varieties of encounters with the damsels of Rock Quay, except +that society was declared by more than one to have become horridly flat +and slow.</p> +<p>Vera was one of these, and the letters received from Hubert Delrio +did not stir up a fresh excitement. There were no persuasions +to revoke her decision, no urgent entreaties, no declaration of being +heart-broken. He acquiesced in her assurance that the engagement +had been a mistake; and he wrote at more length to Magdalen, avowing +that he had for some time past traced discontent in Vera’s letters, +and fearing that he had been too didactic and peremptory in writing +to her. He relinquished the engagement with much regret, and should +always regard it as having been a fair summer dream - but, though undeserving, +he hoped still to retain Miss Prescott’s kindness and friendship, +which had been of untold value to him.</p> +<p>A little more zeal and distress would have been much more pleasing +to Vera; and she began to be what Agatha and Thekla called cross, and +Paula called drooping, and even excited alarm in her, lest Flapsy should +be going into a decline. But a note came to the Goyle which Magdalen +read alone, and likewise she cycled alone to Rockstone.</p> +<p>“Miss Mohun, can you give me a few minutes?” said she, +as the trim little figure emerged from beneath the copper beeches, basket +in hand.</p> +<p>“By all means; I shall not be due at the cutting-out meeting +till three o’clock.”</p> +<p>“I wanted to consult you about an invitation that Mrs. White +has been so very kind as to give my little sister, Vera.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” quoth Jane Mohun, in a dry sort of tone.</p> +<p>“I know that she had wished to take out one of her own nieces +to Rocca Marina, but that Sir Jasper did not wish it, and I thought +perhaps it would be easier for you than for Lady Merrifield to tell +me whether there is any objection that would apply to Vera.”</p> +<p>“I suppose Vera wishes to go?”</p> +<p>“She is so wild with delight that it would be a serious thing +to disappoint her. Mrs. White is very kind and good, and has thought +that she has flagged of late, and has supposed it might be due to poor +Hubert Delrio, but, indeed, it was no fault of his.”</p> +<p>“None at all, except for out-growing her.”</p> +<p>“The offer was hinted at to go with Valetta even before we +knew it was declined at Clipstone, and that made me anxious to know +whether it would be well for me to send Vera. I suppose she would +pick up pronunciation of languages, which would be a great advantage, +as she will have to earn her own living, and Mrs. White is so good as +to promise lessons in arts and music. I hear, too, it is quite +an English colony, with a church and schools.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, Mr. White is a very good and careful man about his +workmen. I have been there at the Henderson’s wedding, and +it is a charming place, a castle fit for Mrs. Radclyffe, with English +comforts, and an Italian garden and an English village on the mountain +side. My sister would do all that she promises, and would look +after any young girl very well; you may quite trust her.”</p> +<p>“Then is there any fear of Italian society? - not that poor +Vera has any attraction <i>of that kind</i>,” hesitated Magdalen.</p> +<p>“None at all. All the society they have is of English +travellers coming with introductions. I fancy it is very dull +at times, and that Adeline wants a young person about her. You +need have no fears. Ah! I see you still want to know why +the Merrifields don’t consent. It is not their way. +They would not let the Rotherwoods have Mysie to bring up with Phyllis, +and - and Val is just the being that needs a mother’s eye over +her. But I really and honestly think that your Vera may quite +safely be put under Adeline’s care, and that she is likely to +be all the better for it.”</p> +<p>“One thing more, added Magdalen, with a little hesitation; +“is your nephew, Wilfred, likely to be one of the party?”</p> +<p>“None at all. His father wants to keep him under his +own eye, and his mother is anxious about his health; nor do I think +Mr. White wants him, having his own two nephews, who are useful, so +he will remain under Captain Henderson here.”</p> +<p>“Thank you! That settles it in my mind. I am sure +the change to a fresh home will be an excellent thing for my poor Vera, +and that the training of imitation of one to whom she looks up is what +she most needs.”</p> +<p>“Very true,” said Miss Mohun.</p> +<p>And as she afterwards said to Lady Merrifield, “It was in all +sincerity and honesty that I gave the advice to Magdalen, who is very +sensible in the matter. In plain English, Ada can’t do without +a lady in waiting, and Vera probably fancies that Lords, young or old, +start from every wave like the spirits of our fathers, at Rocca Marina, +in which she will probably be disappointed; but Ada will be a very dragon +as to her manners and discretion, and not being his own niece, old Tom +White will not be deluded by his ambition and any blandishments of hers. +As people go, they are very safe guardians, and Vera - Flapsy as they +call her - is just of the composition to be improved, and not disimproved, +by living with Ada.”</p> +<p>“Probably, though I do not like the foolish little puss to +be rewarded for throwing over young Delrio.”</p> +<p>“He was so much too good for her that I am more inclined to +reward her for doing so!”</p> +<p>Agatha, however, came home somewhat annoyed by the whole arrangement. +She supposed the rupture with Hubert might have been inevitable; but +she was very sorry for it, thinking that Vera might have grown up to +him, and regretting the losing him as a brother. Nor did she like +the atmosphere of the Whites and Rocca Marina for her feather-brained +young sister. “Dolores had no great opinion of her Aunt +Adeline,” she said.</p> +<p>“My dear,” said Magdalen, as they sat over their early +fire, “I have talked it over with Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, +and they both tell me that Mrs. White is very sensible, and sure to +be discreet for any girl in her charge - probably better for Flapsy +than a more intellectual woman.”</p> +<p>“But - ! Such a marriage as this one!” said Agatha.</p> +<p>“It was Mr. White’s own niece, and taken out of Mrs. +White’s hands,” said Magdalen. “Besides,” +as Agatha still looked unconvinced, “one thing that made me think +the invitation desirable was that it would break off any foolishness +with Wilfred Merrifield - I think it was in their minds too.”</p> +<p>“Wilfred! Oh, there was a little nonsense.”</p> +<p>“Less on his side, since Felicia Vanderkist has been here; +but I think Vera has been all the more disposed to - to - ”</p> +<p>“Run after him,” said Agatha. “I could fancy +it in Flapsy; but he is such a boy, and not half so nice-looking as +the rest of them either.”</p> +<p>“My dear Agatha, I must tell you he reminds me strangely of +a young Mr. Merrifield whom I knew at Filsted when I was younger than +you.”</p> +<p>“A brother of Bessie?”</p> +<p>“Even so. He got into some kind of trouble at Filsted, +his father came and broke it off, and sent him out to Canada, where +I fear he did not do well, and nothing has been heard of him since, +except -</p> +<p>She spoke with a catch in her voice which made Agatha look up at +her, and detect a rising colour.</p> +<p>“Nothing!” she repeated.</p> +<p>“Except an anonymous parcel, returning to the brothers in Canada +the sum he had taken with him. Strangely, the clue was not followed +up, and he is lost sight of! But Wilfred’s air, and still +more his manner, is always recalling his cousin to me, and, Nag, dear, +I could not bear to see Vera go through the same trial by my exposing +her to the intercourse. Not that I know any harm of Wilfred, but +his parents could not like anything of the kind.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not! Yes, I suppose you are right, dear old +Maidie.” But Agatha pondered over those words that had slipped +out, “the same trial.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI - THE ELECTRICIANS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p> “Thou shalt have the air<br />Of freedom. +Follow and do me service.”<br />- “THE TEMPEST.”</p> +<p>“Is Agatha in?” asked Dolores Mohun, jumping off her +bicycle as she saw Magdalen, on a frosty day the next Christmas vacation, +in her garden.</p> +<p>“She is doing scientific arithmetic with Thekla; giving me +a holiday, in fact! You University maidens quite take the shine +out of us poor old teachers.”</p> +<p>“Ah! if we can give shine we can’t give substance. +But I want to borrow Nag, if you have no objection.”</p> +<p>“Borrow her! I am sure it is something she will like.”</p> +<p>“It is in the way of business, but she will like it all the +same. They want me to give a course of lectures on electricity +at Bexley to the Institute and the two High Schools, and I particularly +want a skilled assistant, whom I can depend upon; not masters, nor boys! +Now Nag is just what I should like. We should stay at Lancelot +Underwood’s, a very charming place to be at.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t he some connection?”</p> +<p>“Connection all round. Phyllis Merrifield married his +brother, banking in Ceylon, and may come home any day on a visit; and +Ivinghoe’s pretty wife is Lancelot’s niece. He edits +what is really the crack newspaper of the county, in spite of its being +true blue Conservative, Church and all.”</p> +<p>“The <i>Pursuivant</i>? It has such good literary articles.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! Mrs. Grinstead and Canon Harewood write them. +His wife is a daughter of old Dr. May - rather a peculiar person, but +very jolly in her way.”</p> +<p>“But would they like to have Agatha imposed upon them?”</p> +<p>“Certainly; they are just the people to like nothing better, +and it will only be for a fortnight. I have settled it all with +them.”</p> +<p>At which Magdalen looked a little doubtful, but Dolores reiterated +that there need be no scruple, she might ask Aunt Lily if she liked; +but Lance Underwood was Mayor, and member of all the committees, and +the most open-hearted man in the world besides, and it was all right.</p> +<p>To the further demur as to safety, Dolores answered that to light +a candle or sit by the fire might be dangerous, but as long as people +were careful, it was all right, and Agatha had already assisted in some +experiments at Rock Quay, which had shown her to be thoroughly understanding +and trustworthy, and capable of keeping off the amateur - the great +bugbear.</p> +<p>So Magdalen consented, after rapturous desires on the part of Agatha, +and assurances from General Mohun that Dolores had it in her by inheritance +and by training to meddle with the lightning as safely as human being +might; and Lady Merrifield owned with a sigh that she must accept as +a fact that what even the heathens owned as a Divine mystery and awful +attribute, had come to be treated as a commonplace business messenger +and scientific toy, though (as Mrs. Gatty puts it) the mystery had only +gone deeper. So much for the peril; and for the other scruple, +it was set at rest by a hospitable letter from Mrs. Underwood, heartily +inviting Miss Agatha Prescott, as an Oxford friend of Gillian.</p> +<p>So off the two electricians set, and after two days of business and +sight-seeing in London, went down to Bexley. In the third-class +carriage in which they travelled they were struck by the sight of a +tall lady in mourning - a sort of compromise between a conventual and +a secular bonnet over short fair hair, and holding on her lap a tiny +little girl of about six years old, with a small, pinched, delicate +face and slightly red hair, to whom she pointed out by name each spot +they passed, herself wearing an earnest absorbed look of recognition +as she pointed out familiar landmark after landmark till the darkness +came down. Also there were two cages - one with a small pink cockatoo, +and another with two budgerigars.</p> +<p>As the train began slackening Dolores exclaimed:</p> +<p>“There he is! Lance - !”</p> +<p>“Lance! Oh, Lance!” was echoed; and setting the +child down, her companion almost fell across Agatha, and was at the +window as the train stopped.</p> +<p>What happened in the next moment no one could quite tell; but as +the door was torn open there was a mingled cry of “Angel!” +and of “Lance!” and the traveller was in his arms, turning +the next moment to lift out the frightened little girl, who clung tight +round her neck; while Lance held out his hand with, “Dolores! +Yes. This is Dolores, Angel, whom you have never seen.”</p> +<p>Each knew who the other was in a moment, and clasped hands in greeting, +as well as they could with the one, and the other receiving bird-cages, +handbags, umbrellas, and rugs from Agatha, whom, however, Lance relieved +of them with a courteous, “Miss Prescott! You have come +in for the arrival of my Australian sister! What luggage have +you?” Wherewith all was absorbed in the recognition of boxes, +and therewith a word or two to an old railway official, “My sister +Angela.”</p> +<p>“Miss Angela! this is an unexpected pleasure!”</p> +<p>“Tom Lightfoot! is it you? You are not much altered. +Mr. Dane, I should have known you anywhere!” with corresponding +shakes of the hand.</p> +<p>“Yes, that’s ours. Oh, the birds! There they +are! All right! Oh! not the omnibus, Lance! Let the +traps go in that! Then Lena will like to stretch her legs, and +I must revel in the old street.”</p> +<p>Dolores and Agatha felt it advisable to squeeze themselves with the +bird-cages into the omnibus, and leave the brother and sister to walk +down together, though the little girl still adhered closely to her protector’s +hand.</p> +<p>“Poor Field’s little one? Yes, of course.”</p> +<p>“But tell me! tell me of them all!”</p> +<p>“All well! all right! But how - ”</p> +<p>“The <i>Mozambique</i> was out of coal and had to put in at +Falmouth. You know, I came by her because they said the long sea +voyage would be best for this child, and it was so long since I had +heard of any one that I durst not send anywhere till I knew - and I +knew Froggatt’s would be in its own place. Oh! there’s +the new hotel! the gas looks just the same! There’s the +tower of St. Oswald’s, all shadowy against the sky. Look, +Lena! Oh! this is home! I know the lamps. I’ve +dreamt of them! Tired, Lena, dear? cold? Shall I carry you?”</p> +<p>“No, no; let me!” and he lifted her up, not unwillingly +on her part, though she did not speak. “You are a light +weight,” he said.</p> +<p>“I am afraid so,” answered Angel. “Oh! there’s +the bus stopping at Mr. Pratt’s door.”</p> +<p>“Mine, now. We have annexed it.”</p> +<p>“But let me go in by the dear old shop. The window is +as of old, I see. Ernest Lamb! don’t you know me?” +as a respectable tradesman came forward. “And Achille, is +it? You are as much changed as this old shop is transmogrified! +And they are all well? Do you mean Bernard?”</p> +<p>“Bernard and Phyllis may come home any day to deposit a child. +They lost their boy, and hope to save the elder one. But come, +Angel! if you have taken in enough we must go up to those electrical +girls. Dolores is come to give a lecture, with the other girl +to assist, Miss Prescott.”</p> +<p>“Dolores! Yes, poor Gerald’s love! They are +almost myths to me. Ah!” as Lancelot opened his office-door, +“now I know where I am! And there’s the old staircase! +This is the real thing, and no mistake.”</p> +<p>“Angel, Angel, come to tea!” And Gertrude, comfortable +and substantial, in loving greeting threw arms round the new comers, +Lance still carrying the child, who clung round his neck as he brought +her into the room, full of his late fellow travellers, and also of a +group of children.</p> +<p>“It is as if we had gone back thirty years or more,” +was Angela’s cry, as she looked forth on what had been as little +altered as possible from the old family centre; and Lance, setting down +the child, spoke as the pretty little blue-eyed girls advanced to exchange +kisses with their new aunt.</p> +<p>“Margaret, or Pearl, whom you knew as a baby; Etheldred, or +Awdrey, and Dickie! Fely is at Marlborough. There, take +little Lena - is that her name - to your table, and give her some tea.”</p> +<p>“Her name is Magdalen,” said Angela, removing the little +black hat and smoothing the hair; but Lena backed against her, and let +her hand hang limp in Pearl’s patronising clasp. Nor would +she amalgamate with the children, nor even eat or drink except still +beside “Sister,” as she called Angela. In fact, she +was so thoroughly worn out and tired, as well as shy and frightened, +that Angela’s attention was wholly given to her and she could +only be put to bed, but not in the nursery, which, as Angel said, seemed +to her like a den of little wild beasts. So she was deposited +in the chamber and bed hastily prepared for the unexpected guest; and +even there, being wakeful and feverish from over-fatigue, there was +no leaving her alone, and Gertrude, after seeing her safely installed, +could only go down with the hope that she would be able to spare her +slave or nurse, which was it? by dinner-time.</p> +<p>“Who is that child so like?” said Dolores, in their own +room.</p> +<p>“Very like somebody, but I can’t tell whom,” said +Agatha. “Who did you say she is?”</p> +<p>“I cannot say I exactly know,” said Dolores. “I +believe she is the daughter of Fulbert Underwood’s mate, on a +sheep-farm in Queensland, and that as her mother died when she was born, +she has been always under the care of this Angela, living in the Sisterhood +there.”</p> +<p>“Not a Sister?”</p> +<p>“Not under vows, certainly. I never saw her before, but +I believe she is rather a funny flighty person, and that Fulbert was +afraid at one time that she would marry this child’s father.”</p> +<p>“Is he alive?”</p> +<p>“Which? Fulbert died four or five years ago, and I think +the little girl’s father must be dead, for she is in mourning.”</p> +<p>“There’s something very charming about her - Miss Underwood.”</p> +<p>“Yes there is. They all seem to be very fond of her, +and yet to laugh about her, and never to be quite sure what she will +do next.”</p> +<p>“Did I not hear of her being so useful among the Australian +black women?”</p> +<p>“No one has ever managed those very queer gins so well; and +she is an admirable nurse too, they say. I am very glad to have +come in her way.”</p> +<p>They did not, however, see much of her that evening. The head +master of the Grammar School and his wife, the head mistress of the +High School, and a few others had been invited to meet them; and Angela +could only just appear at dinner, trusting to a slumber of her charge, +but, on coming out of the dining-room, a wail summoned her upstairs +at once, and she was seen no more that night.</p> +<p>However, with morning freshness, Lena showed herself much less <i>farouche</i>, +and willing to accept the attentions of Mr. Underwood first, and, later, +of his little daughter Pearl - a gentle, elder sisterly person, who +knew how to avert the too rough advances of Dick - and made warm friends +over the pink cockatoo; while Awdrey was entranced by the beauties of +the budgerigars.</p> +<p>Robina had been informed by telegram, and came up from Minsterham +with her husband, looking just like his own father, and grown very broad. +He was greatly interested in the lecture, and went off to it, to consider +whether it would be desirable for the Choristers’ School. +Lancelot had, of course, to go, and Angela declared that she must be +brought up to date, and rejoiced that Lena was able to submit to be +left with the other children under the protection of Mrs. Underwood, +who averred that she abhorred electricity in all its forms, and that +if Lance were induced to light the town, or even the shop by that means, +he must begin by disposing of her by a shock.</p> +<p>It was an excellent lecture, only the two sisters hardly heard it. +They could think of nothing but that they were once more sitting side +by side in the old hall, where they had heard and shared in so many +concerts, on the gala days of their home life.</p> +<p>The two lecturers, as well as the rest of the party, were urgently +entreated to stay to tea at the High School; but when the interest of +the new arrival was explained, the sisters and brother were released +to go home, Canon Harewood remaining to content their hostesses.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII - ANGEL AND BEAR</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Enough of science and of art!<br /> Close +up those barren leaves,<br />Come forth, and bring with you a heart<br /> That +watches and receives.”<br />- WORDSWORTH.</p> +<p>A telegram had been handed to Mr. Mayor, which he kept to himself, +smiling over it, and he - at least - was not taken utterly by surprise +at the sight of a tall handsome man, who stepped forward with something +like a shout.</p> +<p>“Angel! Lance! Why, is it Robin, too?”</p> +<p>“Bear, Bear, old Bear, how did you come?”</p> +<p>“I couldn’t stop when I heard at Clipstone that Angel +was here, so I left Phyllis and the kid with her mother. Oh, Angel, +Angel, to meet at Bexley after all!”</p> +<p>They clung together almost as they had done when they were the riotous +elements of the household, while Lance opened the front door, and Robina, +mindful of appearances, impelled them into the hall, Bernard exclaiming, +“Pratt’s room! Whose teeth is it?”</p> +<p>“Don’t you want Wilmet to hold your hands and make you +open your mouth?” said Lance, laughing.</p> +<p>Gertrude, who had already received the Indian arrival, met Angela, +who was bounding up to see to her charge, with, “Not come in yet! +She is gone out with the children quite happily, with Awdrey’s +doll in her arms. Come and enjoy each other in peace.”</p> +<p>“In the office, please,” said Angela. “That +is home. We shall be our four old selves.”</p> +<p>Lance opened the office door, and gave a hint to Mr. Lamb, while +they looked at each other by the fire.</p> +<p>Bernard was by far the most altered. The others were slightly +changed, but still their “old selves,” while he was a grave +responsible man, looking older than Lancelot, partly from the effects +of climate; but Angela saw enough to make her exclaim, “Here we +are! Don’t you feel as if we were had down to Felix to be +blown up?”</p> +<p>“Not a bit altered,” said Bernard, looking at the desks +and shelves of ledgers, with the photographs over the mantelpiece - +Felix, Mr. Froggatt, the old foreman, and a print of Garofalo’s +Vision of St. Augustine, hung up long ago by Felix, as Lance explained, +as a token of the faith to which all human science and learning should +be subordinated.</p> +<p>“A declaration of the <i>Pursuivant</i>,” said Angela. +“How Fulbert did look out for <i>Pur</i>! I believe it was +his only literature.”</p> +<p>“Phyllis declares,” said Bernard, “that nothing +so upsets me as a failure in <i>Pur’s</i> arrival.”</p> +<p>“And this is <i>Pur’s</i> heart and centre!” said +Robina.</p> +<p>“Only,” added Angela, “I miss the smell of burnt +clay that used to pervade the place, and that Alda so hated.”</p> +<p>“Happily the clay is used up,” said Lance. “I +could not have brought Gertrude and the children here if the ceramic +art, as they call it, had not departed. Cherry was so delighted +at our coming to live here. She loved the old struggling days.”</p> +<p>“Fulbert said he never felt as if he had been at home till +he came here. He never <i>took</i> to Vale Leston.”</p> +<p>“Clement and Cherry have settled in very happily,” said +Robina, “with convalescent clergy in the Vicarage.”</p> +<p>“I say, Angel, let us have a run over there,” cried Bernard, +“you and I together, for a bit of mischief.”</p> +<p>“Do, <i>do</i> let us! Though this is real home, our +first waking to perception and naughtiness, it is more than Vale Leston. +We seem to have been up in a balloon all those five happy years.”</p> +<p>“A balloon?” said Bernard. “Nay, it seems +to me that till they were over, I never thought at all except how to +get the most rollicking and the finest rowing out of life. It +seems to me that I had about as much sense as a green monkey.”</p> +<p>“Something sank in, though,” said Lance; “you did +not drift off like poor Edgar.”</p> +<p>“Some one must have done so,” said Angela. “I +wanted to ask you, Lancey, about advertising for my little Lena’s +people; the Bishop said I ought.”</p> +<p>“I say,” exclaimed Bernard, “was it her father +that was Fulbert’s mate? I thought he was afraid of your +taking up with him. You didn’t?”</p> +<p>“No, no. Let me tell you, I want you to know. Field +and a little wife came over from Melbourne prospecting for a place to +sit down in. They had capital, but the poor wife was worn out +and ill, and after taking them in for a night, Fulbert liked them. +Field was an educated man and a gentleman, and Ful offered them to stay +there in partnership. So they stayed, and by and by this child +was born, and the poor mother died. The two great bearded men +came galloping over to Albertstown from Carrigaboola, with this new +born baby, smaller than even Theodore was, and I had the care of her +from the very first, and Field used to ride over and see the little +thing.”</p> +<p>“And - ?” said Bernard, in a rather teasing voice, as +his eyes actually looked at Angela’s left hand.</p> +<p>“I’ll own it <i>did</i> tempt me. I had had some +great disappointments with my native women, running wild again, and +I could not bear my child having a horrid stepmother; and there was +the glorious free bush life, and the horses and the sheep! But +then I thought of you all saying Angel had broken out again; and by +and by Fulbert came and told me that he was sure there was some ugly +mystery, and spoke to Mother Constance, and they made me promise not +to take him unless it was cleared up. Then, as you know, dear +Ful’s horse fell with him; Field came and fetched me to their +hut, and I was there to the last. Ful told each of us again that +all must be plain and explained before we thought of anything in the +future. He, Henry Field, said he had great hopes that he should +be able to set it right. Then, as you know, there was no saving +dear Fulbert, and after that Mother Constance’s illness began. +Oh! Bear, do you recollect her coming in and mothering us in the little +sitting-room? I could not stir from her, of course, while she +was with us. And after that, Harry Field came and said he had +written a letter to England, and when the answer came, he would tell +me all, and I should judge! But I don’t think the answer +ever did come, and he went to Brisbane to see if it was at the bank; +and there he caught a delirious fever, and there was an end of it</p> +<p>At that moment something between a whine or a call of “sister” +was heard. Up leapt Angela and hurried away, while Lance observed, +“Well! That’s averted, but I am sorry for her.”</p> +<p>“It was not love,” said Robina.</p> +<p>“Or only for the child,” said Bernard; “and that +would have been a dangerous speculation.”</p> +<p>“The child or something else has been very good for her,” +said Lance; “I never saw her so gentle and quiet.”</p> +<p>“And with the same charm about her as ever,” said Bernard. +“I don’t wonder that all the fellows fall in love with her. +I hope she won’t make havoc among Clement’s sick clergy.”</p> +<p>“I suppose we ought to go up and fulfil the duties of society,” +said Robina, rising. “But first, Bear, tell me how is Phyllis?”</p> +<p>“Pretty fair,” he answered. “Resting with +her mother, but she has never been quite the thing of late. I +almost hope Sir Ferdinand will see his way to keeping us at home, or +we shall have to leave our little Lily.”</p> +<p>Interruption occurred as a necessary summons to “Mr. Mayor,” +and the paternal conclave was broken up, and had to adjourn to Gertrude’s +tea in the old sitting-room.</p> +<p>“I see!” exclaimed Agatha, as she looked at the party +of children at their supplementary table. “I see what the +likeness is in that child. Don’t you, Dolores? Is +it not to Wilfred Merrifield?”</p> +<p>“There is very apt to be a likeness between sandy people, begging +your pardon, Angel,” said Gertrude.</p> +<p>“Yes, the carroty strain is apt to crop up in families,” +said Lance, “like golden tabbies, as you ladies call your stable +cats.”</p> +<p>“All the Mohuns are dark,” said Dolores, “and all +Aunt Lily’s children, except Wilfred; and is not your Phyllis +of that colour?”</p> +<p>“Phyllis’s hair is not red, but dark auburn,” said +Bernard, in a tone like offence.</p> +<p>“I never saw Phyllis,” said dark-browed Dolores, “but +I have heard the aunts talk over the source of the - the fair variety, +and trace it to the Merrifields. Uncle Jasper is brown, and so +is Bessie; but Susan is, to put it politely, just a golden tabby, and +David’s baby promises to be, to her great delight, as she says +he will be a real Merrifield. So much for family feeling!”</p> +<p>“Sister, Sister!” came in a bright tone, “may I +go with Pearl and get a stick for Ben? He wants something to play +with! He is eating his perch.”</p> +<p>Ben, it appeared, was the pink cockatoo, who was biting his perch +with his hooked beak. The children had finished their meal, and +consent was given. “Only, Lena, come here,” said Angela, +fastening a silk handkerchief round her neck, and adding, “Don’t +let Lena go on the dew, Pearl; she is not used to early English autumn, +I must get her a pair of thicker boots.”</p> +<p>“What is her name?” asked Agatha, catching the sound.</p> +<p>“Magdalen Susanna. Her father made a point of it, instead +of his wife’s name, which, I think, was Caroline.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think I ever knew a Magdalen except my own elder +sister,” said Agatha, “and Susanna! Did you say Miss +Merrifield had a sister Susan?”</p> +<p>“An excellent, sober-sided, dear old Susan! Yes, Susanna +was their mother’s name,” said Dolores “and now that +you have put it into my head, little Lena, when she is animated, puts +me more in mind of Bessie than even of Wilfred, though the colouring +is different. Why?”</p> +<p>“Did you never hear,” said Agatha, “that there +was one of the brothers who was a bad lot, and ran away. My sister +says Wilfred is like him. I believe,” she added, “that +he was her romance!”</p> +<p>“Ha!” exclaimed Bernard, “that’s queer! +We had a clerk in the bank who gave his name as Meriton, and who cut +and ran the very day he heard that Sir Jasper Merrifield was coming +out as Commandant. Yes, he was carroty. I rarely saw Wilfred +at Clipstone, but this might very well have been the fellow, afraid +to face his uncle.”</p> +<p>Angela did not look delighted. “She is not destitute, +you know,” she said, “I am her guardian, and she will have +about two hundred a year.”</p> +<p>“Is there a will?” asked Lance.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, I have it upstairs! It is all right. +It was at the bank at Brisbane, and they kept a copy. I brought +her because the Bishop said it was my duty to find out whether there +were any relations.”</p> +<p>“Certainly,” said Bernard. “In our own case, +remember what joy Travis’s letter was!”</p> +<p>Angela was silent, and presently said, “You shall see the will +when I have unpacked it, but there is no doubt about my being guardian.”</p> +<p>“Probably not,” said Bernard, rather drily.</p> +<p>“If it be a valid will, signed by his proper name,” said +Lance.</p> +<p>Whereupon the two brothers fell into a discussion on points of law, +not unlike the editor of the <i>Pursuivant</i>, as he had become known +to his family, but most unlike the Bernard they had known before his +departure for the East. At any rate it dissipated the emotional +tone of the party; and by and by, when Bernard and Angela had agreed +to make a bicycle rush to Minsterham the next day, “that is,” +said Angela “if Lena is happy enough to spare me,” the Harewoods +took leave.</p> +<p>When the children had gone to bed, and Angela had stayed upstairs +so long that Gertrude augured that she was waiting till her charge had +gone to sleep, and that they should have no more of her henceforth but +“Lena’s baulked stepmother,” she came down, bringing +a document with her, which she displayed before her brothers.</p> +<p>There was no question but that it was a will drawn up in due form, +and very short, bequeathing his property at Carrigaboola, Queensland, +to his daughter, Magdalen Susanna, and appointing Fulbert Underwood +and Angela Margaret Underwood and “my brother Samuel” her +guardian. It was dated the year after his daughter’s birth, +and was signed Henry Field, with a word interposed, which, as Lance +said, might be anything, but was certainly the right length for the +first syllables of Merrifield. Bernard looked at it, and declared +it was, to the best of his belief, the same signature as his former +clerk used to write.</p> +<p>“And this,” he said, looking at the seal, “is the +crest of the Merrifield’s - the demi lion. I know it well +on Sir Jasper’s seal ring.”</p> +<p>“Have you nothing else, Angel?” asked Lance.</p> +<p>“Here is the certificate of her baptism, but that will tell +you nothing.”</p> +<p>No more it did, it only called the child the daughter of Henry and +Caroline Field, and the surname was omitted in the bequest.</p> +<p>“Who was the mother?” asked Lance.</p> +<p>“I never exactly knew. Fulbert thought she had been a +person whom Field had met in America or somewhere, and married in a +hurry. Fulbert said she was rather pretty, but she was a poor +helpless, bewildered thing, and very poorly. He wanted to bring +her to Albertstown for fit help and nursing; but she cried so much at +the idea of either horse or wagon over the-no-roads, that it was put +off and off and she had only his shepherd’s housekeeper, so it +was no wonder she did not live! Field was dreadfully cut up, and +blamed himself extremely for having given way to her; but it is as likely +as not the journey would have been just as fatal.”</p> +<p>“Poor thing!”</p> +<p>“You never heard her surname?”</p> +<p>“No, it did not signify.”</p> +<p>“He did not name his child after her?”</p> +<p>“No. I remember Fulbert saying he supposed she should +be called Caroline; and he exclaimed, ‘No, no, I always said it +should be Magdalen and Susanna.’”</p> +<p>“My sister’s name,” repeated Agatha.</p> +<p>“And Susan Merrifield,” added Dolores.</p> +<p>“But she is mine, mine!” cried Angela, with a tone like +herself, of a sort of triumphant jealousy. “They can’t +take her away from me!”</p> +<p>“Gently, Angela, my dear,” said Lance, in a tone so like +Felix of old, that it almost startled her. “Tell me what +arrangement is this about the property. Your share of Fulbert’s +has never been taken out, I think?”</p> +<p>“No, Macpherson, the purchaser, you know, of Fulbert’s +share, pays me my amount out of it, and agreed to do the same by Lena. +I don’t think the value is quite what it used to be. It +rather went down under Field; but Macpherson is all there, and it has +been a better season. I could sell it all to him, hers and mine +both; but I have thought how it would be, as it is her native country, +and I have not parted with my own to go out again to Carrigaboola, and +bring her up there. I assure you I am up to it,” she added, +meeting an amused look. “I know a good deal more about sheep +farming than either of you gentlemen. I can ride anything but +a buckjumper, and boss the shepherds, and I do love the life, no stifling +in fields and copses! I only wish you would come too, Bear; it +would do you ever so much good to get a little red paint on those white +banker’s hands of yours.”</p> +<p>“Well done, sister Angel!” And the brothers both +burst out laughing.</p> +<p>“But really,” proceeded Angela, “it is by far the +best hope of keeping up Christianity among those hands. Fulbert +had a sort of little hut for a chapel, and once a month one of the clergy +from Albertstown came over there; I used to ride with him when I could, +and if I were there, I could keep a good deal going till the place is +more peopled, and we can get a cleric. It is a great opportunity, +not to be thrown away. I can catch those cockatoos better than +a parson. And there are the blacks.”</p> +<p>The brothers had not the least doubt of it. Angela was Angela +still, for better or for worse. Or was it for worse? Yet +she went up to bed chanting -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“His sister she went beyond the seas,<br />And died an old +maid among black savagees.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII - WILLOW WIDOWS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p> “Set your heart at rest.<br />The fairyland +buys not that child of me.<br />- “MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.”</p> +<p>An expedition to Minsterham finished the visit of Dolores and her +faithful “Nag,” whose abilities as an assistant were highly +appreciated, and who came home brilliantly happy to keep her remaining +holiday with Magdalen; while Dolores repaired to Clipstone. Bernard +had been obliged to go to London, to report himself to Sir Ferdinand +Travis Underwood, but his wife and little girl were the reigning joy +at Clipstone. Phyllis looked very white, much changed from the +buxom girl who had gone out with her father two years ago. She +had never recovered the loss of the little boy, and suffered the more +from her husband’s inability to bear expression, and it was an +immense comfort to her to speak freely of her little one to her mother.</p> +<p>The little Lilias looked frail, but was healthy, happy, and as advanced +as a well-trained companion child of six could well be, and the darling +of the young aunts, who expected Dolores to echo their raptures, and +declare the infinite superiority of the Ceylonese to “that little +cornstalk,” as Valetta said.</p> +<p>“There’s no difficulty as to that,” said Dolores, +laughing. “The poor little cornstalk looks as if she had +grown up under a blight.”</p> +<p>“It is a grand romance though,” said Mysie; “only +I wish that Cousin Harry had had any constancy in him.”</p> +<p>“I wonder if Magdalen will adopt her!” was Valetta’s +bold suggestion.</p> +<p>“Poor Magdalen has had quite adopting enough to do,” +said Mysie.</p> +<p>“Besides,” said Dolores, “Sister Angela will never +let her go. And certainly I never saw any one more <i>taking</i> +than Sister Angela. She is so full of life, and of a certain unexpectedness, +and one knows she has done such noble work. I want to see more +of her.”</p> +<p>“You will,” said Mysie. “Mamma is going to +ask her to come, for Phyllis says there is no one that Bernard cares +for so much. She was his own companion sister.”</p> +<p>“Magdalen might have the little cornstalk,” said Valetta.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Mysie, “it is rather funny to have +two - what shall I say? - willow widows, and a child that is neither +of theirs! How will they settle it?”</p> +<p>Magdalen had heard from Agatha on the first evening of the arrival +of the sister, and the probability of the identification of little Lena’s +father with the Henry Merrifield of her former years, and she was deeply +touched by the bestowal of her name - so much that Nag avoided saying +more, but only kissed her and went to bed.</p> +<p>The Merrifields discussed the subject dispassionately.</p> +<p>Sir Jasper recollected what his brother had written to him of his +anxieties and disappointment in his son Henry, and of his absconding +from Manitoba, since which time all trace of him had been lost, except +in the restoration to the two brothers in Canada. To the surprise +and indignation of Sir Jasper, there had been no attempt to follow it +up.</p> +<p>“If my poor brother Edgar had done anything of the kind,” +said Bernard, “none of us would have rested.”</p> +<p>So far as they could put recollections together this act of restitution +must have been made soon after the connection with Fulbert Underwood +began, perhaps at the time of the wife’s death. If there +had been another letter, as Sister Angela thought, it was more recent, +certainly within the last two years.</p> +<p>Captain Samuel Merrifield, of Stokesley, had been on a voyage for +four years, and had not long been at home. His wife had been charged +with the forwarding of the letters that she thought of immediate interest, +and there was an accumulation of those that had been left for his return, +as yet not looked over.</p> +<p>Of course, Sir Jasper impelled him to plunge into these, and by and +by one came to light, which Mrs. Merrifield had taken “for only +some Australian gold mines,” and left to wait, especially as it +was directed to his father instead of himself.</p> +<p>It was a letter full of repentance, and entreaties for forgiveness, +describing in part poor Henry’s past life, and adding that the +best thing that had ever befallen him was his association with “such +a fellow as Underwood.”</p> +<p>It was to be gathered that Fulbert’s uprightness of mind had +led him to the first impulse of restitution, and he went on to mention +his first hasty marriage and the loss of his wife, with the kindness +of the Carrigaboola Sisterhood; above all, of Sister Angela, and declaring +his love and admiration for her, and his sense that she was the one +person who could keep him straight now that her brother was gone.</p> +<p>He had more than once offered to her, but he found that her brother +had solemnly charged her not to accept him till he had made all his +past clear before her, and could show her that he was acknowledged by +his family, and had his father’s forgiveness, and for this he +humbly craved, as one deeply sensible of his own demerits.</p> +<p>It was piteous to think of the poor fellow waiting and hoping for +an answer to such a letter as this, and dying without one, while all +the time it was lying unread in the Captain’s desk, and no one +even knew of the changed life and fresh hopes. Sir Jasper was +much moved by it; but Sam said, “Ay, ay! poor Harry always was +a plausible fellow!” and his wife was chiefly concerned to show +that the suppression was not by her fault. Sir Jasper had brought +the will with him, and the certificate of the child’s baptism.</p> +<p>Both were met with a little hesitation. So little had been +said in the letter about the marriage that the Captain wanted to know +more, and also whether the will had been properly proved in Australia, +and whether it had force in England. In that case he was surely +the right person to have the custody of his brother’s child. +His wife, who had been bred up in a different school, was not by any +means satisfied that she should be consigned to a member of a Sisterhood.</p> +<p>David came to Stokesley, saw the letter, and agreed with his brother +on the expediency of obtaining full proof of the validity of the will +in both Queensland and England, and put in hand the writing of inquiries +for the purpose, from the legal authorities at Brisbane, for which purpose +Angela had to be consulted.</p> +<p>She had been (having left the budgerigars to the delight of Pearl +and Awdrey), in the meantime, at Vale Leston, enjoying the atmosphere +of peace that prevailed wherever were Clement and Geraldine, and hailed +with delight by all her old village friends, as well as Lady Vanderkist +and her somewhat thinned flock.</p> +<p>She won Adrian’s heart by skating or golfing with him, and +even, on one or two hunting days, joining in his pursuit of the chase, +being altogether, as he said, ever so much better a fellow than even +his youngest sister Joan, and entrancing them all with tales of kangaroos. +Lena had really a tame kangaroo at Carrigaboola. Oh, why did they +not bring it home as well as Ben, the polly? She quite pined for +it, and had tears in her eyes when it was spoken of.</p> +<p>Indeed the joyous young Vanderkists were too much for the delicate +little girl, and sorry as Angela was to leave Vale Leston, she was not +ungrateful for an invitation to the Goyle, where there was more room +for them than at Clipstone in the holidays, and with the Bernard Underwoods +making it their headquarters.</p> +<p>Lena and she were much better and happier with “Sister” +always at her service, and Paula and Thekla were delighted to amuse +her. Paula was in a state of delight with Sister Angela, only +a little puzzled by the irregularity of her course, though it was carefully +explained that she had never been under any vows. To hear of her +doings among the Australian women was a romance, often as there had +been disappointment. “Paula is a born Sister,” said +Angela, “a much truer one than I have ever been, for there does +not seem to be any demon of waywardness to drive her wild.”</p> +<p>These talks with Magdalen, often prolonged hours after the young +people had gone to bed, were a great solace to both the elders. +Girls like Mysie Merrifield and Phyllis Devereux thought sitting up +to converse a propensity peculiar to themselves, and to their own age, +of new experiences and speculations; but the two “old girls,” +whose experiences were not new, and whose speculations had a certain +material foundation, they were equally fascinating.</p> +<p>There were no small jealousies in either of them - “willow +widows” - though Mysie’s name stuck. There was nothing +but comfort to Magdalen in the certainty of the ultimate “coming +home” of one who had finished a delusive dream of her younger +days, and been yearned after with a heartache now quenched; and Angela, +who had never been the least in love with Henry Merrifield, could quite +afford her interest in the scanty records of his younger days, and fill +up all she knew of the measure of the latter and better days. +There was another bond, for Mrs. Best’s daughter was, “as +distances go,” a neighbour to Carrigaboola, and resorted thither +on great occasions.</p> +<p>Angela’s vision began to be, to take Magdalen and her sisters +out to Carrigaboola, where a superior school for colonists’ daughters +was much needed, and where Paula might enter the Sisterhood. She +longed all the more when she saw how much better Magdalen could deal +with Lena as to teaching and restraint than she could. The child +was very backward, and could hardly read words of one syllable, though +she knew any amount of Scripture history and legends of Saints, and +was very fairly intelligent; but though she was devoted to “Sister,” +always hanging on her, and never quite happy when out of sight of her, +she had hardly any notion of prompt obedience or of giving up her own +way.</p> +<p>Angela’s visit to Vale Leston had been partly spoilt by the +little girl’s fretful worry at the elder children, and by the +somewhat uncalled for fears that all the Vanderkists were hard on the +poor little colonial damsel; but whether it was the air of Rock Quay, +or the quiet influence of Miss Prescott, Lena certainly improved in +health at the Goyle, and was much more amenable, and less rudely shy. +But her guardian trembled at hearing that, pending Captain Merrifield’s +correspondence with Brisbane, the sisters, Susan and Elizabeth, were +coming to Miss Mohun’s to see their niece, there being no room +for them at Clipstone.</p> +<p>They came - Susan, plump, comfortable and good-natured looking, as +like an apricot as ever, with an air many years more than three above +her sister Bessie, who as ever was brisk and bright, scarcely middle +aged in face, dress or demeanour. They arrived too late for visiting, +and only dined at Clipstone to be introduced to Bernard Underwood, and +see their cousin Phyllis, whom they had once met when all were small +children. Dolores was much amused, as she told her Aunt Jane, +to see how gratified they were at the “sanguine” colouring +of Phyllis and Wilfred, quite Merrifields, they said, though Phyllis +with auburn eyes and hair was far handsomer than any other of the clan +had ever been; and Wilfred had simply commonplace carrots and freckles.</p> +<p>“The fun is,” said Jane, “to remember how some +of us Mohuns have sighed at Lily’s having any yellow children, +and, till we saw Stokesley specimens, wondering where the strain came +from! As if it signified!”</p> +<p>“It does in some degree,” said Dolores; “something +hereditary goes with the complexion.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Jane. “I believe +too much is made in these days of heredity, and by those who believe +least in the Bible indications on the effect, forgetting the counteracting +grace.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Dolores, “Wilfred was always a <i>bête +noire</i> to me - no, not <i>noire</i> - in my younger days, and I can’t +help being glad he is not of our strain! Though you know the likeness +was the first step to identifying that poor little girl.”</p> +<p>“Poor child! I am afraid she will be a bone of contention.”</p> +<p>The two aunts were at Clipstone early; and might be satisfied with +the true Merrifield tints of Magdalen Susanna, but perhaps she had been +over much warned to be gracious, for the very contrary was the effect. +She had been very civil to her great-aunt Lilias, and had allowed both +her uncles to take her up in their arms; but she retreated upon Angela, +planted an elbow on the well-known lap, turned her back, and put a skinny +little finger in her mouth by way of answer to Susan’s advances, +advances which had hardly ever before been repelled even by the most +untamable of infants.</p> +<p>Angela tried to coax, lift her up and turn her round; but this only +led to the shoulder being the hiding-place, and it might be suspected +that there was a lurking perception that these strangers asserted a +closer claim than the beloved “Sister.” She would +not even respond to Susan’s doll or Bessie’s picture book; +and Bessie advised leaving her alone, and turned to the window with +Agatha, who was nothing loth to tell of her Bexley and Minsterham experiences.</p> +<p>Angela tried to talk about the voyage, or any thing that might save +the child from being discussed or courted; but Susan’s heart was +in the subject, and she had not enough tact or knowledge of the world +to turn away from it. Regret for the past was strong within her, +and she could not keep from asking how much “little Magdalen” +(at full length) remembered of her father, how much she had been with +him, whether he had much altered, whether there were a photograph of +him, and a great deal more, with tears in her eyes and a trembling in +her voice which made Angela feel much for her, even while vexed at her +pertinacity, for the child was by no means the baby she looked like, +but perfectly well able to listen and understand, and this consciousness +made her own communications much briefer and more reserved than otherwise +they would have been.</p> +<p>Bessie, with more perception, saw the embarrassment, turned round +from Agatha, went up to the cockatoo in his cage, and asked in a pleasant +voice if Magdalen would show him to her, and tell her his name. +Angela was glad enough to break off poor Susan’s questioning, +and come forward, with the child still clinging, to incite the bird +to display the rose colour under his crest, put up a grey claw to shake +hands, and show off his vocabulary, laughing herself and acting merriment +as she did so, in hopes to inspire Lena.</p> +<p>“Come, Ben, tell how you were picked up under a gum tree, quite +a baby, a little grey ball, and brought over in the shepherd’s +pocket for a present to the little Boss, and how we fed you and nursed +you till you turned all rose-colour and lovely! There! put up +your crest and make red revelations. Can’t you speak? +Fetch him a banana, Lena. That will open his mouth.”</p> +<p>At sight of the banana, the bird put his head on one side and croaked +in a hoarse whisper, “Yo ho!”</p> +<p>“No, you need not be afraid of any more sailors’ language,” +said Angela. “They were as careful as possible on board. +I overheard once, ‘Hold hard, Tom, Polly Pink is up there, and +she’s a regular lady born!</p> +<p>Whereupon Polly indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the banana +cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered more and more +nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the visitors by what Susan +at least took for unbecoming flippancy.</p> +<p>“<i>That</i> Sister,” said Susan, as they drove away, +“does not seem to me at all the person to have the charge of Henry’s +poor little girl!”</p> +<p>“I wish she had not thrust herself in,” said Bessie, +“to prevent me from getting on with the child over the cockatoo.”</p> +<p>“She calls herself a Sister! I don’t understand +it, for she seems to have been bent on marrying poor Henry.”</p> +<p>“She never took any vows.”</p> +<p>“Then why does she wear a ridiculous cap over all that hair?”</p> +<p>By and by they were met by Bernard Underwood striding along. +“Holloa! have you seen Angel and her darling? She is a perfect +slave to the little thing, and one only gets fragments of her.”</p> +<p>“She seems very fond of her,” said Bessie.</p> +<p>“Just kept her alive, you see. Poor old Angel! +She is all for one thing at a time! Are you going up to Clipstone?”</p> +<p>“I think we shall find Phyllis at Beechcroft.”</p> +<p>“Yes, she is driving there to lunch, and Angel is to bring +the little cornstalk over to make friends with our Lily! I trust +the creature goes to sleep now, and I may get a word out of Angel!” +Wherewith he dashed on, and the two ladies agreed that “those +Underwoods seemed to be curiously impulsive.”</p> +<p>They were, however, much better satisfied with the Ceylonese Lily, +who was a very well trained civilised specimen, conversing very prettily +over one of Aunt Jane’s picture books, which Bessie looked at +with her, and showing herself fully able to read the titles beneath, +a feat of which Lena was quite incapable, though she was less on the +defensive than she had shown herself at the Goyle, and Angela was far +more at her ease than when she was conscious that “Field’s” +original love was watching the introduction to his sisters. Besides, +Bernard’s presence was sunshine to her, and the two expanded into +bright reminiscences and merry comparisons of their two lives, absolutely +delightful to themselves, and to Phyllis and her Aunt Jane, and which +would have been the same to Elizabeth, if she had not been worried at +Susan’s evident misunderstanding of - and displeasure at - the +quips and cranks of the happy brother and sister; also she was bent +on promoting an intercourse between Lily and Lena, over the doll she +had brought for the former. She was a little hurt that Lena had +not been accompanied by the blue-eyed article with preposterously long +eyelashes that had been bestowed on her at the Goyle; but the little +Australian had no opinion of dolls, and had let the one bought for her +at Sydney be thrown overboard by the ship’s monkey.</p> +<p>“That was cruel!” said Lily, fondling her black-eyed +specimen.</p> +<p>“She could not feel,” reasoned Lena, with contempt.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Lily, knitting her brows. +“It’s not <i>all</i> make believe! I do love my Rosamunda +Rowena, and she loves me, and I shall tell her not to be jealous of +this dear Betsinda. For, do you know, when Rosamunda was ill in +the Red Sea, father carried her up and down on deck, and made her a +dear little deck chair.”</p> +<p>“But she is not alive. She <i>couldn’t</i> be,” +sighed Lena. “I like my Ben and my kangaroo! Oh, I +do want to go back to my kangaroo!”</p> +<p>“And does Lily want to go back to her riki-tiki?” asked +Lily’s father, lifting a little girl on each knee, so that they +might be <i>vis-à-vis</i>, when certainly his own had the advantage +in beauty, as she answered, leaning against him, “Granny’s +better than riki-tiki!”</p> +<p>For which pretty speech some of the ladies gave her much credit; +but her father, with a tender arm round her, said, “Ah! you are +a sentimental little pussy-cat! Is anything here as good as Carrigaboola? +Eh, Lena?”</p> +<p>But Lena resolutely shook her carrots; but kept silence, while Bernard +turned over the leaves of a great book of natural history, till as a +page was displayed with a large kangaroo under a blue-gum tree, with +a yellow wattle tree beside him, her lips quivered, her face puckered, +and she burst into an uncontrollable fit of crying; “Oh! +I want to go home, home! Sister, Sister, take me home!”</p> +<p>Angela was in a minute beside her, took her within loving arms, and +carried her off.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV - CRUEL LAWYERS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Tender companions of our serious days,<br /> Who +colour with your kisses, smiles and tears,<br />Life’s worn web +woven over wasted ways.”<br />- LOWELL.</p> +<p>There was a good deal of worry and anxiety for some little time, +while correspondence was going on about Henry Merrifield’s will, +and in the meantime Angela decided to board with Miss Prescott, since +her charge was certainly much better in health there; and besides, as +Mrs. Bernard Merrifield was naturally at Clipstone, it became the head +quarters of her husband, though he made many excursions to his own people, +and on business affairs to Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood in London.</p> +<p>And Clipstone suited him well for his holiday. Sir Jasper had, +of course, a certain amount of intercourse with the garrison at Avoncester, +and the officers stationed there at present had already some acquaintance +with Bernard Underwood, who was known to be a champion in Ceylon in +all athletic sports, especially polo and cricket. Tall and well +made, he had been devoted to all such games in his youth, and they had +kept up his health in his sedentary occupation. Now, in his leisure +time, his prowess did much to efface the fame of the much younger and +slighter Alexis White, and, so far as might be, Angela enjoyed the games +with him, keeping well within bounds, but always feeling activity a +wholesome outlet for her superfluous strength, and, above all, delighting +in an interval of being a child again with her Bear of old times; and +her superabundant life, energy, and fun amazed all, especially by the +contrast with her poor little languid charge, who seemed, as Jane Mohun +said, centuries older.</p> +<p>The Merrifield lads were also devoted to him. Even Fergus was +somewhat distracted from his allegiance to Dolores and her experiments, +and in the very few days that Christmas afforded for skating, could +think of nothing else.</p> +<p>And as to Wilfred, his whole mind seemed to be set on sports, and +marble works to be only an incident thrown in. Bernard, whom he +followed assiduously, and who took him to Avoncester, and introduced +him to young officers, began to have doubts whether he had done wisely. +Bernard had, in his time, vexed Felix’s soul by idleness and amusement, +but he had been one betted upon, not himself given to betting. +He loved football and cricket for their bodily excitement, not the fictitious +one of a looker on, or reader of papers, and it struck him that Wilfred +knew a good deal too much about this more dangerous side of races and +athletics.</p> +<p>He said so to Angela, and she answered, “Oh, nonsense! +Young men are out of it if they don’t know the winning horse. +Even <i>Pur</i> had to be up to the Derby.”</p> +<p>And Angela had her own bitter trial in the decision of the lawyers. +Not only was the signature of the will unsatisfactory, from the confusion +between Field and Merrifield, but the two witnesses failed to be traced, +John Shepherd and George Jones were not to be identified, and though +Brisbane might accept wills easily, an English court of law required +more certainty. The little daughter being the only child and natural +heiress, this was not felt to be doing her any injury; but the decision +deprived her of the guardian her father had chosen, and Angela was in +despair. She was ready to write to the <i>Pursuivant</i>, to the +Bishop of Albertstown, to the Lord Chancellor, with an exposition of +the wicked injustice and hardness of heart of lawyers, and the inexpedience +of taking the poor child from her earliest motherly friend, expressly +chosen by her father. All Bernard’s common sense and Magdalen’s +soothing were needed to make her hold her peace, when correspondence +made it plain that the guardianship being assumed by the uncles, Captain +Merrifield would not hear for a moment of the scheme of taking the child +out to Carrigaboola. In his opinion, and his sister Susan’s, +the only fit thing to be done with her was to place her with the two +aunts at Coalham to be educated. He came down to Rock Quay to +inspect her. It was a cold, raw day, with the moors wrapped in +mist, and the poor little maid looked small, peaky and pinched. +He was sure that the dry winds of the north were what she needed, wanted +to carry her off immediately, and looked regardless of Angela’s +opinion, though backed by Miss Prescott, that it would be highly dangerous +to take the delicate child of a semi-tropical climate off in the depth +of winter to a northerly town. Angela walked off to ask Dr. Dagger +to inspect the child and give his opinion, while Captain Sam repaired +to Clipstone to visit his relations and lunch with them.</p> +<p>He did not meet with all the sympathy he expected. Lady Merrifield +said that Coalham had not agreed with her own son Harry, and that little +Lena ought not to be taken there till after the cold winds of spring +were over; and her daughters all chimed in with a declaration that Angela +Underwood was perfectly devoted to the little one, and that no one else +could make her happy.</p> +<p>“Petting her! spoiling her!” scoffed the Captain. +“Why, Susan and Bessie were full of the contrast with your little +girl.”</p> +<p>“Health,” began Phyllis.</p> +<p>“An Indian child too!” he went on. “Just +showing what a little good sense in the training can do! No, indeed! +Since I am to be her guardian, I have no notion of swerving from my +duty, and letting poor Hal’s child be bred up to Sisterhoods and +all that flummery.”</p> +<p>“It will just break Angela’s heart,” cried Valetta, +with tears in her eyes, at which the Captain looked contemptuous.</p> +<p>“I must say,” added Bernard, “that I should think +it little short of murderous to take that unlucky child from the one +woman who understands her up into the bleak north at this time of year.”</p> +<p>“Decidedly!” added Sir Jasper. “Miss Underwood +deserves every consideration in dealing with the child who has been +always her sole charge.”</p> +<p>Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about Stokesley; +but he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, and as he was +the only person for whose opinion Captain Sam had any respect, it had +its effect, though there was a sense that he might be biassed by his +son-in-law and his herd of womanfolk, and that he did not partake Mrs. +Samuel Merrifield’s dislike to the very name of Sister or of anything +not commonplace.</p> +<p>Angela obtained Dr. Dagger’s opinion to reinforce her own and +Lady Merrifield’s, and the Captain was obliged to give way so +far as to consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on calling her, being +allowed to remain at Arnscombe till after Easter, when her aunts were +to fetch her to Coalham, there to send her to the kindergarten.</p> +<p>After Angela’s period of raging against law and lawyers and +all the Stokesley family, and being on the verge of impertinence to +Captain Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect more quietly than +her friends had dared to hope. Lance had almost expected her to +deport her charge, parrot and all, suddenly and secretly by an Australian +liner, and had advised Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to +be on his guard if she hinted at anything so preposterous; but Bernard +shook his head, and said Angel was more to be trusted than her elders +thought. “Waves and storms don’t go over us for nothing, +I hope,” he said.</p> +<p>And he found himself right on his return. Angela had bowed +her head to the inevitable, and was quietly trying to prepare her little +charge for the change, accustoming her to more discipline and less petting. +When Angela proposed to walk over to Clipstone with her brother on his +return, and the whine was set up, “Let me go, Sister,” it +was answered, “No, my dear, it is too far for you. You must +stay and walk with Paula.”</p> +<p>“I want to go with Sister.”</p> +<p>“You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells you. +No, I can’t have any fretting. Paula will show you how to +drive your hoop. Keep her moving fast, Paula, don’t let +her fret and get cold.”</p> +<p>And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it into Paulina’s, +and, holding up her finger, silenced the burst of weeping, though tears +sprang to her own eyes as she resolutely turned away, and, after running +out and shutting the back gate after her, put her arm with a clinging +gesture into Bernard’s.</p> +<p>“That’s right!” he said, pressing her hand.</p> +<p>“Cruel,” she said, “but better by and by for her. +Oh, Bear, if one could but learn to lie still and say, ‘Thou didst +it,’ when it is human agency that takes away the desire of one’s +eyes with a stroke.”</p> +<p>“The desire of thine eyes!” repeated Bernard. “How +often I thought of that last February.”</p> +<p>It was the only time he had referred to the loss of his little boy. +His wife had told her mother that he could not bear to mention it, and +had poured out all her own feelings of sorrow and her struggle for cheerfulness +and resignation alone with her or with Mysie; but he had shrunk from +the least allusion to the little two year old Felix, who slept beneath +a palm tree at Colombo.</p> +<p>Now, however, still holding his sister’s hand, he drifted into +all the particulars of the little ways, the baby language, the dawning +understanding, and the very sudden sharp illness carrying the beautiful +boy away almost before they were aware of danger; and he took out the +photograph from his breast, and showed her the little face, so recalling +old fond remembrances. “Forbear to cry, make no mourning +for the dead,” he repeated. “Yes, the boy is saved +the wear and tear and heat and burthen of the day, but it is very hard +to be thankful.”</p> +<p>“Ah, and it is all the harder if you have to leave your Lily.”</p> +<p>“If - yes; but Travis <i>may</i> so arrange that we can stay, +or I make only one voyage out to settle matters and then come home for +good. If you are still bent on Carrigaboola you might come as +far as Frisco with me. I may have to go there about the Californian +affairs.”</p> +<p>“That would be jolly. Yes, I think it will clench the +matter, for I believe I am of more good at Carriga than anywhere else, +though the heart of it is taken out of it for me; but one lives on and +gets on somehow without a heart, or a heart set where I suppose it ought +not to be entirely at least! And, indeed, I think that little +one taught me better than ever before how to love.”</p> +<p>“That’s what the creatures are sent us for,” said +Bernard, in a low voice. “And here are, looming in the distance, +all the posse of girls to meet us.”</p> +<p>“Ah-h!” breathed Angela, withdrawing her arm. “Well, +Bear, you have given me something to look forward to, whether it comes +to anything or not. It will help me to be thankful. I know +they are good people, and the child will do well when once the pining +and bracing are over. They are her own people, and it is right.”</p> +<p>“Right you are, Angel!” said Bernard, with a fresh squeeze +of the hand, as he resumed his own cheerful, resolute voice ere joining +his sisters-in-law.</p> +<p>“What! Angela without her satellite!” cried Primrose.</p> +<p>“Too far,” murmured Angela; but Mysie tried to hush her +sister, perceiving the weaning process, and respecting Angela for it.</p> +<p>And the next moment Angela was challenging Bernard to a game at golf.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV - BEAR AS ADVISER</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Weary soul and burthened sore<br />Labouring with thy secret +load.”<br />- KEBLE.</p> +<p>The early spring brought a new development. Thekla, who attended +classes at the High School, came home with unmistakable tokens of measles, +and Primrose did the same, in common with most of their contemporaries +at Rockstone. Nor was there any chance that either Lily Underwood +at Clipstone or Lena Merrifield at the Goyle would escape; indeed, they +both showed an amount of discomfort that made it safer to keep them +where they were, than to try to escape in the sharp east wind and frost.</p> +<p>No one was much dismayed at what all regarded as a trifling ailment, +even if dignified as German. Angela owned that she regarded it +as a relief, since infection might last till the summer, and the only +person who was - as he owned - trying to laugh at himself with Angela, +was Bernard, who could not keep out of his mind’s eye a little +grave at Colombo. As he walked home, at the turning he saw a figure +wearily toiling upwards, which proved to be Wilfred. “Holloa! +you are at home early!”</p> +<p>“I had an intolerable headache!”</p> +<p>“Measles, eh?”</p> +<p>“No such thing! Once when I was a kid in Malta. +But I say, Bear,” he added, coming up with quickened pace, “you +could do me no end of a favour if you would advance me twenty pounds.”</p> +<p>“Whew!” Bernard whistled.</p> +<p>“There is Lady Day coming, and I can pay you then - most assuredly.” +And an asseveration or two was beginning.</p> +<p>“Twenty pounds don’t fly promiscuously about the country,” +muttered Bernard, chiefly for the sake of giving himself time.</p> +<p>“But I tell you I shall have a quarter from the works, and +a quarter from my father (with his hand to his head). That’s +- that’s - . Awful skinflints both of them! How is +a man to do, so cramped up as that?”</p> +<p>“Oh! and how is a man to do if he spends it all beforehand?”</p> +<p>“I tell you, Bernard, I must have it, or - or it will break +my mother’s heart! And as to my father, I’d - I’d +cut my throat - I’d go to sea before he knew! Advance it +to me, Bear! You know what it is to be in an awful scrape. +Get me through this once and I’ll never - ”</p> +<p>Bernard did not observe that the scrape of his boyhood over the drowned +Stingo had hardly been of the magnitude that besought for twenty pounds. +He waived the personal appeal, and asked, “What is the scrape?”</p> +<p>“Why, that intolerable swindler and ruffian, Hart, deceived +me about Racket, and - ”</p> +<p>“A horse at Avoncester?” said Bernard, light beginning +to dawn on him.</p> +<p>“I made sure it was the only way out of it all, and they said +Racket was as sure as death, and now the brute has come in third. +Hart swears there was foul play, but what’s that to me? +I’m done for unless you will help me over.”</p> +<p>“If it is a betting debt, the only safe way is to have it out +with your father, and have done with it.”</p> +<p>“You don’t know what my father is! Just made of +iron. You might as well put your hand under a Nasmyth’s +hammer.” And as he saw that his hearer was unconvinced, +“Besides, it is ever so much more than what I put upon Racket! +That was only the way out of it! It is all up with me if he hears +of it. You might as well pitch me over the cliff at once!”</p> +<p>“Well, what is it then?”</p> +<p>Incoherently, Wilfred stammered out what Bernard understood at last +to mean that he had got into the habit of betting at the billiard table, +surreptitiously kept up in Ivinghoe Terrace in a house of Richard White’s, +not for any excessive sums, and with luck at first on his side than +otherwise; but at last he had become involved for a sum not in itself +very terrible to elder years, and his creditor was in great dread of +pressure from his employers, and insisted on payment. Wilfred, +who seemed to have a mortal terror of his father, beyond what Bernard +could understand, had been unable to believe that the offence for so +slight a sum might be forgiven if voluntarily confessed, had done the +worst thing he could, he had paid the debt with a cheque which had, +unfortunately, passed through his hands at the office, trusting in a +few days to recover the amount by a bet upon the horse, in full security +of success! And now!</p> +<p>Before the predicament was made clear, Wilfred reeled, and would +have fallen if Bernard had not supported him, and he mumbled something +about giddiness and dazzling, insisting at the same time that it was +nothing but the miserable pickle, and that if Bernard would not see +him out of it, he might as well let him lie there and have done with +it.</p> +<p>Happily they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the house, and +it was possible to get him into the hall before he entirely collapsed +upon a chair; but seeming to recover fresh vigour from alarm at the +sound of voices, he rushed at the stairs and dashed up rapidly the two +flights to his own room, only throwing back the words, “Dead secret, +mind!”</p> +<p>Bernard was glad to have made no promise, and, indeed, Wilfred’s +physical condition chiefly occupied him at the moment, for one or two +of the girls were hurrying in, asking what was the matter, and at the +answer, “He is gone up to his room with a bad headache,” +Valetta declared with satisfaction, “Then he has got it! +We told him so! But he would go to the office! and, Bernard, so +has Lily.”</p> +<p>“Pleasing information!” said Bernard, nettled and amused +at the tone of triumph, while Mysie, throwing behind her the words, +“It may be nothing,” went off to call Mrs. Halfpenny, who +was in a state of importance and something very like pleasure. +Bernard strode up to his wife’s room, leaving Valetta half-way +in her exposition that when all the family had been laid low by measles +at Malta, Wilfred had been a very young infant, and it had always been +doubtful whether he had been franked or not; and how he had been reproached +with looking ill in the morning, but had fiercely insisted on going +down to the office, which he was usually glad to avoid on any excuse.</p> +<p>By the time the household met at dinner, it was plain that they had +to resign themselves to being an infected family, though there were +not many probable victims, and they were likely only to have the disorder +favourably, with the exception of Wilfred, who had evidently got a severe +chill, and could only be reported as very ill, though still he vehemently +resented any suspicion of being subject to such a babyish complaint. +But when the break up for the night was just over, Lady Merrifield came +in search of Bernard, entreating him to come to speak to Wilfred, who +was more and more feverish, almost light-headed, and insisting that +he must speak to Bear, “Bear had not promised,” reiterating +the summons, so that there was no choice but to comply with it.</p> +<p>He found Wilfred flushed with fever, and violently restless, starting +up in bed as he entered, and crying out, “Bear, Bear, will you? +will you? You did not promise!”</p> +<p>“I will see about it! Lie down now! There’s +nothing to be done to-night.”</p> +<p>“But promise! promise! And not a word!”</p> +<p>All this was reiterated till Wilfred at last was exhausted for the +time, and to a certain degree pacified by the reassuring voice in which +Bernard soothed him and undertook to take the matter in hand, hardly +knowing what he undertook, and only feeling the necessity of quieting +the perilous excitement, and of helping the mother to bring a certain +amount of tranquillity.</p> +<p>His own little girl was going on well, and quite capable of being +amused in the morning by being compared to a lobster or a tiger lily; +and Primrose was reported in an equally satisfactory state, ready either +for sleep or continuous reading by her sisters. Only Wilfred was +in the same, or a more anxious, state of fever; and as soon as Bernard +had satisfied himself that there was no special use in his remaining +in the house, he set out for the marble works office, having made up +his mind as to one part of what he had expressed as “seeing about +it.”</p> +<p>He had hardly turned into the Cliffe road before he met Captain Henderson +walking up, and they exchanged distant inquiries and answers as to whether +each might be thought dangerous to the other’s home; after which +they forgathered, and compared notes as to invalids. The Captain +had heard of Wilfred’s going home ill, and was coming, he said, +to inquire.</p> +<p>“He seems very seriously ill,” was the answer. +“I imagine there has been a chill, and a check. I was coming +to speak to you about him.”</p> +<p>“He has spoken to you?”</p> +<p>Both could now consult freely. “It is a very anxious +matter - not so much for the actual amount as for the habits that it +shows.”</p> +<p>“The amount? Oh, I have made up that as regards the firm. +I could not let it come before Sir Jasper, especially in the present +state of things! I meant to give the young chap a desperate fright +and rowing, but that will have to be deferred.”</p> +<p>“You must let me take it!”</p> +<p>“No, no. Remember, Sir Jasper was my commanding officer, +and I and my wife owe everything to him. I could supply the amount, +so that no one would guess from the accounts that anything had been +amiss.”</p> +<p>Bernard could hardly allow himself to be thus relieved, but there +was the comfort of knowing that Wilfred’s name was safe, and that +the unstained family honour would not have to suffer shame. Still +the other debts remained, of which Captain Henderson had been only vaguely +suspicious, till the two took counsel on them. Wilfred had not +given up the name of the person for whom he had meant to borrow from +the office; but Captain Henderson had very little doubt who it was, +and it was agreed that he should receive the amount through a cheque +of Bernard on Brown and Travis Underwood, from Captain Henderson’s +hands, with a scathing rebuke and peremptory assurance of exposure to +Mr. White, and consequent dismissal, if anything more of the same kind +among the younger men were detected. The man was a clever artist +in his first youth, and had always been something of a favourite with +the authorities, and had a highly respectable father; so Captain Henderson +meant to spare him as much as possible, and endeavour to ascertain how +far the mischief had gone among the young men connected with the marble +works, also to consult Mr. White on the amount of stringency in the +measures used to put a stop to it. All this, of course, passed +out of Bernard Underwood’s hands and knowledge, but a sad and +anxious day was before him. All the young girls were going on +well, but Wilfred was increasingly ill all day, and continually calling +for Bernard. Being told, “I have settled the matter” +did not satisfy him. He looked eagerly about the room to find +whether his mother were present, and fancying she was absent demanded, +“Does he know? Do they know?” reiterating again and +again. It was necessary to tell Lady Merrifield that there was +an entanglement about money matters on his mind, which had been settled; +but towards evening he grew worse and more light-headed, apparently +under the impression that only Bernard could guard him from something +unknown, or conceal, whenever he was conscious of the presence of his +mother; and on his father’s entrance he hid his face in the pillows +and trembled, of course to their exceeding distress and perplexity; +and when he believed no one present but Bernard and Mrs. Halfpenny, +he became more and more rambling, sometimes insisting that his father +must not know, sometimes abusing all connected with the racing bet, +and more often fancying that he was going to be arrested for robbing +the firm, the enormity of the sum and of the danger increasing with +the fever, and therewith his horror of his father’s knowing. +It was of no use for his mother to hang over him, hold his hands, and +assure him that she knew (as, in fact, she did, for Bernard had been +obliged to make a cursory explanation), and that nothing could hinder +her loving him still; he forgot it in the next interruption, and turned +from her with terror and dismay, and once he nearly flung himself out +of bed, fancying that the policeman was coming.</p> +<p>Bernard held him on this occasion, and told him, “Nothing will +do you good, Willie, but to tell your father, and he will keep all from +you. Let him know, and it will be all right.”</p> +<p>It only seemed to add to his misery and terror. Something that +passed in his hearing, gave him the impression that he was in great +danger, if not actually dying; but his cry was still for Bernard, who +had not ventured to go to bed; but it was still, “Oh, Bear, save +me! Don’t let me die with this upon my name! I can’t +go to God!”</p> +<p>“There’s nothing for it, Wilfred, but to tell your father. +He will pardon you. Your mother has, you see. Tell him, +and when he forgives, you will know that God does. It will come +right. Let me call him!”</p> +<p>“Let me bring him, my boy, my dear boy!” entreated his +mother. “You know he will.”</p> +<p>Wilfred seemed as if he did not know, but still held fast by Bernard’s +strong hands, as though there were support in them; and when in a few +moments Sir Jasper entered the room, there was the same clinging gesture +and endeavour to hide, in spite of the gentle sweetness of the tone +of, “Well, my poor boy.”</p> +<p>It was Bernard who was obliged to say, turning the poor flushed face +towards him, “Wilfred wishes to say - ”</p> +<p>“Father,” it came with a gasp at last, “I’ve +done it. I’ve disgraced us all. Forgive!”</p> +<p>He was repeating his own exaggerated ideas of what his crime had +been, and what Sir Jasper would have said to him if all had been discovered +in any other way.</p> +<p>“Do not think of it now, my boy. I forgive you, whatever +it is.”</p> +<p>Thereupon Dr. Dagger entered. He turned every one out except +Mrs. Halfpenny, and gave a draught, which silenced the patient and put +him to sleep in a few minutes. While Bernard hastily satisfied +the parents that a good deal was exaggerated feeling, and that an old +soldier must have known of a good many worse things in his time, though +not so near home.</p> +<p>There was a general sense of relief in the morning, for Wilfred’s +attack had become an ordinary, though severe one, and the other cases +were going on well. But Sir Jasper, who had not been able to grasp +the extent of Wilfred’s delinquency, and had been persuaded by +his despair that it was much more serious than it really was, called +his son-in-law into council, and demanded whether the whole could have +been told.</p> +<p>Bernard was certain that it was so, and related his transactions +with Captain Henderson, much of course to the father’s relief, +so far as the outer world was concerned; but what principally grieved +him, besides the habits thus discovered, was his son’s abject +terror of him, not only in the exaggeration of illness, but in his mode +of speaking of him.</p> +<p>It had never been thus with any of his sons before.</p> +<p>Claude, the soldier, had always been satisfactory, so had Harry the +clergyman, though often widely separated from the parents in their wandering +life; but the bond of confidence had never been broken. Jasper +had never teased any one but his sisters. Fergus, too, the youngest +of all the sons, and of an individual, rather peculiar nature, was growing +up in straight grooves of his own; but Wilfred, who from delicate health, +had been the most at home, had never seemed to open to his father. +The family discipline of the General seemed only to oppress and terrify +him, and the irregularities and subterfuges that had from time to time +been detected had been met with just anger, never received in such a +manner as to call forth the tenderness of forgiveness. Each discovery +of a misdemeanour had only been the prelude to fresh and worse concealments +and hardening.</p> +<p>And experience of mankind did not give any decided hope that even +the last day’s agony of repentance would be the turning over of +a new leaf, when convalescence should bring the same surroundings and +temptations, and perhaps the like disproportionate indignation and impatience +in dealing with errors and constitutional weakness. “And +the example of my brother’s poor son is not encouraging,” +he added. “He who seems to have owed everything to your +brother and sister.”</p> +<p>“Yet poor Fulbert and I were to our homes, perhaps not the +black sheep, but at any rate the vagrant ones.”</p> +<p>“And what made a difference to you, may I ask?”</p> +<p>“Strong infusion by character and example of principle,” +said Bernard thoughtfully; “then, real life, and having to be +one’s own safeguard, with nothing to fall back on. As my +brother told me at his last, I should swim when my plank was gone.”</p> +<p>“Yes, but, plainly, you were never weak,” and as Bernard +did not answer at once, “Old-fashioned severity used to be the +rule with lads, but it seems only to alienate them now and make them +think themselves unjustly treated. What is one to do with these +boys?”</p> +<p>A question which Bernard could not answer, though it carried him +back with a strange yearning, yet resignation, to the little figure +that had curled round on his knee, and the hopes connected with the +hands that had caressed his cheek.</p> +<p>He thought over it the more the next week, when he was called to +sit by Wilfred, who was getting better and anxious to talk.</p> +<p>“My father is very kind,” he said. “Oh, yes, +very kind now; but it will be all the same when I get well. You +see, Bear, how can a man be always dawdling about with a lot of girls? +There’s Dolores bothering with her science, and Fergus every bit +as bad; and Mysie after her disgusting schoolchildren; and Val and Prim +horrid little empty chatterboxes; and if one does turn to a jolly girl +for a bit of fun, their tongues all go to work, so that you would think +the skies were going to fall; and if one goes in for a bit of a spree, +down comes the General like a sledge-hammer! I wish you would +take me out with you, Bear.”</p> +<p>The same idea had already been undeveloped in Bernard’s mind, +and ever on his tongue when alone with his wife; but he kept it to himself, +and only committed himself to, “You would not find an office in +Colombo much more enlivening.”</p> +<p>“There would be something to see - something to do. It +would not be all as dull as ditch-water - just driving one to do something +to get away from the girls and their fads.”</p> +<p>This was nearly a fortnight from the night of crisis, when Wilfred, +very weak, was still in bed; when Primrose and Lily were up and about, +but threatened with whooping cough. Thekla much in the same case, +and very cross; and little Lena weak, caressing and dependant, but angelically +good and patient, so much so that Magdalen and Angela were quite anxious +about her.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI - NEW PATHS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“I’ll put a girdle round the earth<br />In forty minutes.”<br />- +SHAKESPEARE.</p> +<p>The visitation had not been confined to the High School. The +little cheaply-built rows for workmen and fishermen had suffered much +more severely, owing chiefly to the parents’ callous indifference +to infection. “Kismet,” as they think it, said Jane +Mohun, and still more to their want of care. Chills were caught, +fevers and diphtheria ensued, and there was an actual mortality among +the children at the works and at Arnscombe. Mr. Flight begged +for help from the Nursing Sisterhood at Dearport, and, to her great +joy, Sister Beata was sent down to him, with another who was of the +same standing as Angela, and delighted to have a glimpse of her; though +Angela thought it due to her delicate charge, and the Merrifields, not +to plunge into actual nursing while Lena needed her hourly attention, +and was not yet in a state for the training to do without it to continue. +Paulina, however, being regarded as infection proof, was permitted to +be an attendant and messenger of her dear Sister Beata, to her own great +joy. She was now nineteen, and her desire to devote herself to +a Sisterhood had never wavered, and intercourse with Sister Angela had +only strengthened it.</p> +<p>“Oh, Maidie!” she said, “I do not think there can +be any life so good or so happy as being really given up to our Lord +and His work among the sick and poor.”</p> +<p>“My dear, He can be served if you are in the world, provided +you are not <i>of</i> the world, and if you keep yourself from the evil.”</p> +<p>“Yes; but why should I run into the world? It is not +evil, I know, so far as you and all your friends can manage; but it +stirs up the evil in one’s self.”</p> +<p>“And so would a Sisterhood. That is a world, too.”</p> +<p>“I suppose it is, and that there would be temptation; but there +is a great deal to help one to keep right. And, oh! to have one’s +work in real good to Christ’s poor, or in missions, instead of +in all these outside silly nonsensical diversions that one doubts about +all the time. If you would only let me go back with dear Sister +Beata and Sister Elfleda as a probationer!”</p> +<p>“You could not be any more yet,” said Magdalen; “but +I will think about it, and talk it over with Sister Angela. You +know your friend Sister Mena, as she called herself, does not mean to +be a Sister, but a governess.”</p> +<p>“Yes; she wrote to me. She has never seen or known anything +outside the Convent, and it is all new and turns her head,” said +Paulina, wisely. “I know she helped me to be all the more +silly about Vera and poor Hubert Delrio.”</p> +<p>Magdalen promised to talk the matter over with Sister Angela.</p> +<p>“I should call it a vocation,” said Angela. “I +have watched her ever since I have been here, and I am sure her soul +is set on these best things, in a steady, earnest way.”</p> +<p>“She has always been an exceedingly good girl ever since I +have had to do with her,” said Magdalen. “I have hardly +had a fault to find with her, except a little exaggeration in the direction +of St. Kenelm’s.”</p> +<p>“A steady, not a fitful flame,” said Angela.</p> +<p>“But she is so young.”</p> +<p>“If you will believe me, Magdalen, such a home as that Dearport +Sisterhood is a precious thing - I have not been worthy of it. +I have been a wild colt, carried about by all manner of passing excitements. +Oh, dear! love of sheer fun and daring enterprise, and amusement, in +shocking every one, even my very dearest, whom I loved best. I +have done things too dreadful to think of, and been utterly unreasonable +and unmanageable, and proud of it; but always that Sisterhood has been +like a cord drawing me! I never quite got free of it, even when +I sent back my medal, and fancied it had been playing at superstition. +I was there for a month as almost a baby, and the atmosphere has brought +peace ever since. That, and my brother, and Sister Constance, +and Bishop Fulmort, have been the saving of me, if anything has. +I mean, if they will have me, to spend a little time at Dearport after +all this perplexity is over, and I know how it is with Lena, and I could +see how it is with Paula if you liked.”</p> +<p>Magdalen accepted the suggestion, perhaps the more readily because +of a fleeting visit from Hubert Delrio, who had finished his frescoes +at the American Vale Leston, and came for a day or two to Mr. Flight’s. +She had sometimes doubted whether the supposed love of Vera had not +been a good deal diffused among the young ladies, and might not so far +awaken in Paulina as to render her vocation doubtful; but there were +no such symptoms. Paula was quiet and cheerful, with a friendly +welcome, but no excitement; but it was Thekla, now fifteen, who was +all blushes whenever Hubert looked or spoke to her, all her forwardness +gone; and shyness, or decidedly awkwardness, set in, resulting chiefly +in giggle.</p> +<p>Hubert looked more manly and substantial, and he had just had an +order for an important London church, which pleased him much, and involved +another journey to Italy to study some of the designs in the Lombardic +churches.</p> +<p>Not that there was any chance of meeting Vera. Mr. and Mrs. +White had spent the last summer at Baden; and Vera, who had many pretty +little drawing-room talents, and was always obliging, had been very +acceptable there. This winter an attack of rheumatism had made +them decide on trying Algiers, with a view to the Atlas marbles, and +then German baths again might claim them for the summer.</p> +<p>In fact, the fear of infection had rendered Rock Quay a deserted +place during the Easter vacation. Fergus Merrifield might not +come near Primrose and Lily, and was charmed to accept an invitation +from his friend and admirer, Adrian Vanderkist, to Vale Leston, where +he would be able to explore the geology of Penbeacon, to say nothing +of the coast; while his sister Felicia, who had been one of the victims, +remained to be disinfected with Miss Mohun. Dolores was at Vale +Leston Priory, and Agatha Prescott with her, so as to have a clean bill +of health for her return to Oxford for her last term.</p> +<p>The Holy Week was calm and grave; and the two girls, with Anna Vanderkist +and her little sisters, were very happy over their primroses and anemones +on Easter Eve, with the beautiful Altar Cross that no one could manage +like Aunt Cherry, whose work was confined to that, and to the two crosses +on the graves.</p> +<p>Another notion soon occupied them. There was a vague idea that +a sort of convalescent or children’s hospital might be established +for the training of women intending to study medicine or nursing, chiefly +at Miss Arthuret’s expense, and Dolores was anxious to consider +the possibility of placing it in the sweet mountain air, tempered by +the sea breezes of Penbeacon.</p> +<p>It was an idea to make Mrs. Grinstead shudder; but neither she nor +her niece, Anna Vanderkist, could forget Gerald’s view that Penbeacon +was not only to be the playground of Vale Leston, and they always felt +as if Dolores had a certain widow’s right to influence any decision. +So she cheerfully acquiesced in what, in her secret heart, seemed only +a feeble echo of the past, though, to the young generations it was a +very happy hopeful present when all the youthful party, under the steerage +of Mary and Anna, and the escort of Sir Adrian and Fergus, started off +with ponies, donkeys, cycles and sturdy feet to picnic on Penbeacon, +if possible in the March winds - well out of the way of the clay works.</p> +<p>How Fergus divided his cares between the strata and Dolores’ +kodak, how even his photography could not spoil Aunt Alda; how charming +a group of sisters Dolores contrived to produce; how Adrian was the +proud pioneer into a coach adorned with stalactites and antediluvian +bones; how Anna collected milkwort and violets for Aunt Cherry; how +a sly push sent little Joan in a headlong career down a slope that might +have resulted in a terrible fall, but did only cause a tumble and great +fright, and a severe reprimand from the elder sisters; how Agatha was +entranced by the glorious view in the clearness of spring, how they +ate their sandwiches and tried to think it was not cold; how grey east +wind mist came over the distance and warned them it was time to trot +down, - all this must belong to the annals of later Vale Leston; and +of those years of youth which in each generation leave impressions as +of sunbeams for life. And on their return, Dolores found a letter +which filled her with a fresh idea. It was from her father in +New Zealand, telling her that there was an opening for her to come and +give a course of lectures on electricity at Canterbury, Auckland and +the other towns, and proposing to her to come out with her lady assistant, +when she might very probably extend her tour to Australia.</p> +<p>“Would you come, Naggie?” asked Dolores.</p> +<p>“Oh! I should like nothing half so well. If you +could only wait till my turn is over, and the exam!”</p> +<p>“Of course! Why, we shall not have finished the correspondence +till after the examination! How capital it will be! My father +will like your bright face, and you will think him like Fergus grown +older. Will your sister consent?”</p> +<p>“Oh! Magdalen will be glad enough to have me off on a +career. We will write and prepare her mind. I believe I +am not to go home, so as to bring a clean bill of health to St. Robert’s.”</p> +<p>“I really think,” added Dolores, “that Magdalen +would make an admirable head matron, or whatever you call it!”</p> +<p>“Dear old thing! She is very fond of her Goyle.”</p> +<p>“True, but Sophy’s engineer husband tells us that a new +line is projected to Rock Quay, through the very heart of the Goyle, +Act of Parliament, compulsory sale and all.”</p> +<p>“Well! work might console her for being uprooted, and she is +quite youthful enough to take to it with spirit.”</p> +<p>“Besides that she would greatly console Clement and Cherry +for the profanation of their Penbeacon. I declare I will suggest +it to Arthurine!”</p> +<p>So the two young people resolved, not without a consciousness that +what was to them a fresh and inspiring gale, to the elder generation +was “winds have rent thy sheltering bowers.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII - A SENTENCE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“What should we give for our beloved?”<br />- E. B. BROWNING.</p> +<p>No sooner had the visitors departed than the others now out of quarantine +appeared at Vale Leston. Angela was anxious to spend a little +time there, and likewise to have Lena overhauled by Tom May. The +child had never really recovered, and was always weakly; and whereas +on the journey, Lily, now in high health, was delighted with all she +saw, though she could not compare Penbeacon to Adam’s Peak, Lena +lay back in Sister Angela’s arms, almost a dead weight, hardly +enduring the bustle of the train, though she tried not to whine, as +long as she saw her pink Ben looking happy in his cage.</p> +<p>Angela was an experienced nurse, and was alarmed at some of the symptoms +that others made light of. Mrs. Grinstead had thought things might +be made easier to her if the Miss Merrifields came to meet her and hear +the doctor’s opinion; and Elizabeth accepted her invitation, arriving +to see the lovely peaceful world in the sweet blossoming of an early +May, the hedges spangled with primroses, and the hawthorns showing sheets +of snow; while the pear trees lifted their snowy pyramids, and Lily +in her white frock darted about the lawn in joyous play with her father +under the tree, and the grey cloister was gay with wisteria.</p> +<p>Angela was sitting in the boat, safely moored, with a book in her +hand, the pink cockatoo on the gunwale, nibbling at a stick, and the +girl lying on a rug, partly on her lap. Phyllis and Anna, who +had come out on the lawn, made Elizabeth pause.</p> +<p>“That’s the way they go on!” said Phyllis. +“All day long Angela is reading to the child either the ‘Water +Babies’ or the history of Joseph.”</p> +<p>“Or crooning to her the story of the Cross,” said Anna; +“and as soon as one is ended she begins it again, and Lena will +not let her miss or alter a single word.”</p> +<p>“They go on more than half the night,” added Phyllis. +“Bear sat up long over his letters and accounts, and as he went +up he heard the crooning, and looked in; and the very moment Angela +paused, there came the little plaintive voice, ‘Go on, please.’ +‘Women are following’ - ”</p> +<p>“But is not that spoiling her?” asked Bessie.</p> +<p>A look of sad meaning passed between her two companions. Phyllis +shook her head slightly, and, instead of answering, conducted Bessie +on to the bank, when Angela looked up and made a sign that she could +not move or speak, for the child was asleep. The yellow head was +shaded by Angela’s parasol, the thin hair lying ruffled on the +black dress, and the small face looked more pinched than when the aunt +had last seen it, nearly a year previously. She had watched the +decay of aged folks, but she was unused to the illnesses of children; +and she recoiled with a little shock, as she looked down at the little +wasted face, with a slight flush of sleep. “Recovery from +measles,” she said.</p> +<p>Phyllis smiled a little pitifully as her own little girl, all radiant +with health and joy, came skipping up, performing antics over her father’s +hand. “Take care, Lily, don’t wake poor little Lena,” +was murmured quietly.</p> +<p>“Northern breezes - ” began Bessie, but the voices had +broken the light slumber; and as Angela began, “See, Lena, here +is Aunt Bessie,” the effect was to make her throw herself over +Angela’s shoulder and hide her face; and when her protector tried +to turn her round and reason her into courtesy, she began to cry in +a feeble manner.</p> +<p>“She has had a bad night,” said motherly Phyllis; “let +her alone.”</p> +<p>“May not I get down into the boat?” asked Lily. +“I’ll be very good.”</p> +<p>There would have been a little hesitation, but at the voice Lena +looked up and called “Lily, Lily!” Bernard lifted +his small daughter down, Elizabeth was not sorry to be led away for +the present, and when, after a turn in the rose garden, she came back, +the two children were sitting with arms round one another, holding a +conversation with Ben, the cockatoo, and making him dance on one of +the benches of the boat, under Angela’s supervision, lest he should +end by dancing overboard. The rich fair hair, shining dark blue +eyes, and plump glowing cheeks of Lily were a contrast to the wan wasted +colouring of her little cousin; but Lena was more herself now than when +just awake, and let Lily lead her up and introduce her, as it might +be called, to Cousin Bessie as Lily called her, a less formidable sound +than “Aunt Elizabeth.” They were both kissed, and +she endured it. Angela was, as her brothers and sisters said, +“very good,” and scrupulously abstained from absorbing the +child all the evening, letting Elizabeth show her pictures and tell +her stories, to which, by Lily’s example, she listened quietly +enough and with interest.</p> +<p>When the two children went off, hand in hand, to their beds, Elizabeth +said, “Really, Magdalen is improved. If you leave Lily with +her, Phyllis, I think we should get on beautifully. The bracing +air will do wonders for them both.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said poor Phyllis forbearingly; “we +have not made our plans about Lily yet.”</p> +<p>But Elizabeth thought out a beautiful scheme of discipline and study +in the long light hours of the morning, and began to feel herself drawn +towards her delicate little niece, feeling sure that the little thing +would soon be Susan’s darling, if Susan could be brought to endure +the cockatoo walking loose about the house.</p> +<p>Early in the day Professor May appeared, and was hailed as an old +friend by all the Underwoods. He rejoiced to see Clement looking +well and active; and “as to this fellow,” he said, looking +at Bernard, “it shows what development will do.”</p> +<p>“Not quite the young Bear of Stoneborough,” said Clement, +leaning affectionately on his broad shoulder; “our skittish pair +are grown very sober-minded. But you have not told us of your +father.”</p> +<p>“My father is very well. He walks down every day to sit +with my wife, and visits a selection of his old patients, who are getting +few enough now. This is not my patient, I suppose?”</p> +<p>“Unless you are ready to prescribe only laughing and good Jersey +cows’ milk,” said Bernard, pulling the long silky brown +hair. “Where’s mother, little one?”</p> +<p>“Mother sent me to say Aunt Angel is ready, if Dr. May will +come up to Aunt Cherry’s room. Lena is frightened, and they +did not like to leave her.”</p> +<p>It was a long visit, after Phyllis had come down; and, walking up +and down the cloister with Bessie Merrifield, listened to her schemes +of education for the little maidens. Lily she liked and admired, +and she was convinced that Magdalen’s weak health and spirits +were the result of the spoiling system. Phyllis trembled a little +as she heard of the knocking about, out-of-doors ways that had certainly +produced fine strong healthy frames and upright characters, but she +forbore to say that if her little girl had to be left, it would be to +her mother and Mysie.</p> +<p>By and by Tom came down, and finding Geraldine alone in the drawing-room, +he answered her inquiry with a very grave look. “Poor little +thing! You do not think well of her! Is it as Angel feared?”</p> +<p>“Confirmed disease, from original want of development of heart. +Measles accelerated it. I doubt her lasting six months, though +it may be longer or less.”</p> +<p>“Have you told Angel?”</p> +<p>“She knew it, more or less. She is ready to bear it, +though one can see how her soul is wrapped up in the child, and the +child in her.”</p> +<p>“One thing, Tom, will you tell Miss Merrifield yourself, and +alone, and make her feel that it is an independent opinion? It +may save both the poor child and Angel a great deal.”</p> +<p>“Are you prepared to keep her here?”</p> +<p>“Of course we are. It is Angel’s natural home. +Clement and I could think of nothing else”</p> +<p>“I knew you would say so. If I understand rightly there +is something like a jealousy of her case in the Merrifields, prompted +greatly by their wish to expiate any neglect of her father.”</p> +<p>“That is what I gather from what Phyllis tells me.”</p> +<p>“What a lovely countenance hers is in expression! No +wonder Bernard has softened down. There is strength and solidity +as well as sweetness in her face. Ah, there they are!”</p> +<p>“I will call Phyllis in. Bessie Merrifield has almost +walked her to death by this time.”</p> +<p>So Phyllis was called and told. What she said was, “I +only hope he will make her understand that it could not be helped, and +it was not Angela’s fault.”</p> +<p>Tom May had wisdom enough to make this clear in what was a greater +shock to Elizabeth than it was to Angela, who had suspected enough to +be prepared for the sentence, and had besides a good deal of hospital +experience, which enabled her thoroughly to understand the Professor’s +explanations. So, indeed, did it seem to Elizabeth at the time +he was speaking; but she had lived a good deal in London, and had a +great idea that a London physician must be superior to a man who had +lived in the country, and, moreover, whom all the household called Tom, +and she asked Mrs. Grinstead if he were really so clever.</p> +<p>“Indeed, I think he is; and I have seen a great deal of his +treatment. You may quite trust him. He lives down here at +Stoneborough for his father’s sake, or he would be quite at the +head of his profession.”</p> +<p>“Superior to the two Doctors Brownlow?”</p> +<p>“I should not say superior, but quite equal.”</p> +<p>“The Brownlows,” said Clement, looking up from his paper, +“helped me through an ordinary malarial fever. John Lucas +is a brilliant specialist in such cases, but certifying an affection +of the heart. Tom May latterly has treated me better. As +far as I understand the case of your little niece, I should say both +that it was more in the line of Tom May, and likewise that it would +be very hurtful to her to take her about and subject her to more examinations.”</p> +<p>“Poor little thing! no doubt it would be a terrible distress,” +acquiesced Bessie; “but still, if it is bracing that she needs +- northern air might make all the difference.”</p> +<p>Clement sighed a little hopelessly over making a woman understand +or give way, and returned to his newspaper; while Geraldine tried to +argue that air could not make much difference, speaking in the interest +of the child herself and of her sister. Elizabeth listened and +agreed; but there was in the Merrifield family a fervour of almost jealous +expiation of their neglect of Henry, inattention to his daughter, and +desire to appropriate her, and to restore her to health, strength, and +wisdom, in spite of her would-be stepmother.</p> +<p>“They hate me as much as if I were her stepmother!” cried +Angela. “I wish I was, to have a right to protect her! +No, Clem; I’ll not break out, if I can help it, as long as they +don’t worry her; and I think Bessie does see the rights of it.”</p> +<p>Yes; the peaceful, thoughtful atmosphere of Vale Leston, unlike the +active bustle of Coalham, had an insensible influence on Elizabeth’s +mind; and she saw that Angela’s treatment of the child, always +cheerful though tender, was right, and that it would be sheer cruelty +to separate them. She promised to use all her power to prevent +any such step, and finally left Vale Leston, perfectly satisfied that +it was impossible to take Lena with her.</p> +<p>But her family did not see it thus, especially Mrs. Samuel Merrifield, +the child’s guardian. She insisted that it was her husband’s +duty to bring the little one to London for advice, and to remove her +from all the weakening, morbid influences of Vale Leston.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII - SUMMONED</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“What would we give to our beloved?”<br />- E. B. BROWNING.</p> +<p>“I wish they all would not go so very fast,” said little +Lena, hiding her face against him from the whirl of cabs and omnibuses.</p> +<p>“They bewilder us savages,” said Angela, smiling. +“Remember we are from the wilds.”</p> +<p>“She shall have her tea, and a good rest,” said Marilda; +“and then I have asked her uncle and aunts to meet you at dinner, +and Fernan hopes to bring home another old friend. Whom do you +think, Angel?”</p> +<p>“Oh! Not our Bishop?”</p> +<p>“Yes, the Bishop of Albertstown! He is actually in town; +Fernan saw him yesterday at the Church House.”</p> +<p>“Oh! that is joy!” cried Angela; and Lena raised her +head, with, “Is it mine - mine own Bishop?”</p> +<p>“Mine own, mine own Bishop and godfather, my sweet!” +said Angela; “more to us in our own way than any one else. +Oh! it is joy! How happy Clement will be!”</p> +<p>It was with much feeling, almost akin to shame, that Bessie wrote +to Angela this decision of her brother, that a London authority must +be consulted - not Dr. Brownlow, but one whom Mrs. Sam had heard highly +spoken of.</p> +<p>“That man!” cried Angela. “I have heard of +him! He is a regular mealy-mouthed old woman of a doctor! +And she is so well just now! How horrid to shake her up again! +Oh, Bear! if I could only sail away with her to Queensland!”</p> +<p>“You would if it was ten years ago,” said Bernard.</p> +<p>“Yes! Is it the way of the world, or learning resignation, +that makes one know one must submit? Giving up an idol is a worse +thing when the idol is made of flesh and blood.”</p> +<p>Bernard wanted to see Sir Ferdinand, so made it an excuse for helping +his sister on the way; and he did so effectively, for his knee and broad +breast were Lena’s great resting-place; and his stories of monkeys +and elephants were almost as good as kangaroos. Was there not +a kangaroo to be seen in London, which she apparently thought would +be a place of about the size of Albertstown?</p> +<p>Lady Underwood had insisted on receiving the travellers from Vale +Leston in her house in Kensington; and there was her broad, kindly face +looking out for them at the station, and her likewise broad and kindly +carriage ready to carry them from it. How natural all looked to +Angela, with all her associations of being a naughty, wild, mischievous +schoolgirl, the general plague and problem!</p> +<p>“But always a dear,” said Marilda, with her habit of +forgetting everybody’s faults. “Why didn’t you +bring your wife, Bernard, and your little girl for this darling’s +playfellow?”</p> +<p>“She is her best playfellow,” said Angela; “Adela’s +Joan is too rough, and fitter for Adrian’s companion.”</p> +<p>“She is my playfellow,” said Bernard, holding her up. +“Look out, Lena. Here’s Father Thames to go over.”</p> +<p>“And Fernan is so glad,” added Marilda.</p> +<p>For Bishop Robert Fulmort had, when Vicar of St. Wulstan’s, +been the guide and helper of Ferdinand Travis’s time of trial +and disappointment, as well as the spiritual father of Clement Underwood; +he had known and dealt with Angela in her wayward girlhood, and aided +her bitter repentance; and in these later days in Australia had been +her true fatherly friend, counsellor and comforter in the trials and +perplexities that had befallen her. Bernard read, in her lifted +head and brightened eye, that she felt the meeting him almost a compensation +for the distress and perplexity of this journey to London.</p> +<p>Bernard carried the little girl up to the room and laid her down +to sleep off her fatigue, while Marilda waited on her and Angela with +her wonted bustling affection, extremely happy to have two of her best +beloved cousins under her roof.</p> +<p>Bernard went off to find Sir Ferdinand at his office, and quiet prevailed +till nearly dinner time, when Lena awoke and would not be denied one +sight of her godfather. So Angela dressed her in her white frock, +and smoothed her thin yellow hair, and took her down to the great stiff +handsome room that all Emilia’s efforts had never made to look +liveable. Emilia Brown was there, very fashionably attired, but +eager for news of Vale Leston, and the Merrifields soon arrived with, +“Oh! here she is!” from the Captain, “Well! she looks +better than I expected!”</p> +<p>“Poor little dear!” observed his wife, dressed in a low +dress and thin fringe on her forehead in honour of what, to the country +mind, was a grand dinner party, at which Angela’s plain black +dress and tight white cap were an unbecoming sight. Elizabeth +was there, kissing Angela with real sympathy; and Lena, who had grown +a good deal more accustomed to strange relations, endured the various +embraces without discourtesy.</p> +<p>But when the door opened and the grey-headed Bishop came in there +was a low half scream of “Oh! oh!” and with one leap she +was in his arms, as he knelt on one knee, and clasped her, holding out +a hand to Angela, whose eyes were full of tears of relief and trust. +Marilda gave a glad welcome, but they were startled by perceiving that +the joy of meeting had brought on a spasm of choking on Lena, who was +gasping in a strange sort of agony. Angela took her in her arms +and carried her out of the room. Marilda presently following, +came back reporting that the little girl had been relieved by a shower +of tears, but was still faint and agitated, and that Angela could not +leave her, but begged that they would not wait dinner.</p> +<p>“Such sensitiveness needs anxious care,” said Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“If it be not the effect of spoiling. Just affectation!” +replied the sister-in-law in a decided voice, which made Bessie glad +that the poor child’s home was not to be among the rough boys +at Stokesley, who were not credited with any particular feelings.</p> +<p>Angela’s absence gave the Bishop the opportunity of telling +what she had been during her years at Albertstown, what a wonderful +power among the natives, though not without disappointment, and she +had been still more effective among the settlers and their daughters. +Carrigaboola, Fulbert’s farm, had been an oasis of hope and rest +to the few clergy of his scanty staff, and Fulbert himself had been +a tower of strength for influence over the settlers who had fallen in +his way, by his unswerving uprightness and honour, with the deeper principles +of religion, little talked of but never belied. Even after his +death, the power he had been told over all with whom he had come in +contact.</p> +<p>Bernard heard it with immense pleasure, as did the faithful Ferdinand +and Marilda; while Elizabeth felt more and more that Sister Angela was +not to be treated, as she feared Sam and his wife were inclined to do, +as a mere interloper in their family affairs, but as one to be not merely +considered with gratitude, but even reverenced.</p> +<p>Indeed, Sam began to feel it, as he saw how the other men, both practical +business men, listened, and were impressed; but it was not quite the +case with his wife, who did not particularly esteem colonial Bishops, +and still less Sisterhoods or devotion to missionary efforts, especially +among the Australian blacks, whom her old geography book had told her +were the most degraded and hopeless of natives, scarcely removed from +mere animals.</p> +<p>When Angela appeared half through dinner time and said that Lena +was safely asleep, and Marilda sat her down to be happy in exchange +of Carrigaboola tidings with her Bishop, Fernando greeted her with a +reverence not undeserved, though perhaps all the more from the contrast +to the mischievous little sprite who used to disturb the days of his +philandering with Alda.</p> +<p>How much shocked Mrs. Samuel was, when the magnificent Sir Ferdinand, +whom she regarded with awe as a millionaire, was flippantly answered +by this extraordinary Sister, “Thank you, Fernan, I should like +to have a sight of the old office. I hope you have a descendant +of the old cat, Betty. Didn’t she come from your grandmother, +Marilda? Do you remember her being found playing tricks with the +nugget, just come from Victoria?”</p> +<p>“That was in her kitten days,” said Ferdinand.</p> +<p>“Is that personal, Fernan?”</p> +<p>“A compliment, Angel,” said the Bishop. “Kittens +alter a good deal.”</p> +<p>“Not much for the better,” said Angela. “If +you only could see Mrs. Lamb, who used to be the very moral of a kitten, +scratchiness and all!”</p> +<p>“I thought her very much improved,” said Lady Underwood +gravely.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; grown into a sleek and personable tabby, able to +wave her tail at the tip and tuck her paws - her velvet paws - well +under her; and lick her lips over the - oh, dear! - what do you call +it? - your <i>menu</i> is quite too much for us poor savages, Marilda. +A bit of damper is quite enough for us, isn’t it, Bishop?”</p> +<p>“Varied with opossum and fern root,” he said smiling; +“but that’s only when we have lost our way.”</p> +<p>The talk drifted off to the history of a shepherd’s child, +who had strayed into the bush, and after much searching, in which the +Bishop and Fulbert had been half starved, had finally been found and +carried home by Angela’s “crack gin,” as she told +it to Bernard; and as Marilda thought the poor child was in a trap, +it had to be translated into “favourite pupil,” though Bernard +carried on the joke by asking Marilda if she thought the natives cannibals +given to the snaring of mankind.</p> +<p>Altogether it was a thoroughly merry evening, such as comes to pass +in the meeting of old friends and comrades in too large numbers for +grave discourse, but with habits of close intercourse and associations +of all kinds. Emilia and her husband tried in all courtesy not +to let the Merrifields feel themselves neglected; and indeed Bessie +was only too glad to listen and join at times in the talk; but it all +went outside Mrs. Sam, who was on the whole scandalised at the laughter +of a Bishop, and a Sister. Indeed, it was true that Bishop Fulmort, +naturally a grave man, very much so in his early days, comported himself +on this occasion as if he realised Southey’s wish -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“That in mine age as cheerful I might be,<br />Like the green +winter of the holly tree.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>At any rate, that evening was long a bright remembrance. Lena +slept all night, and was so fresh and well in the morning that Angela +foreboded that the examination might not detect her delicacy. +They met Mrs. Merrifield, and took her with them to the doctor’s, +Lady Underwood Travis having placed her carriages at their disposal.</p> +<p>It was very much as Angela had expected, knowing by hospital reputation +what the doctor was supposed to be to old ladies and fanciful mothers, +while perhaps he had also heard of her <i>fracas</i> long ago at the +hospital. For he was not more courteous to her than could be helped, +treating her much as if she were only the nursery maid, and hardly looking +at the opinion which she had made Professor May write out for him.</p> +<p>To her mind, it was a very cursory examination that he made; and +the upshot of his opinion, triumphantly accepted by Mrs. Merrifield, +was that there was nothing seriously amiss with the child, that she +only needed care, regularity and bracing, and that the stifling, gasping +spasms were simply the effect of hysteria.</p> +<p>Hysteria! Angela felt as if she should run wild as she heard +Mrs. Merrifield’s complacent remarks on having always thought +so, and being sure that a few weeks of good air and good management +would make an immense difference. The need of not alarming or +prejudicing the poor little victim was all that kept Angela in any restraint; +and Mrs. Merrifield went on to say that she had promised her youngest +boy, who was with her in London, to take him to the Zoological Gardens, +and it would be a good opportunity for Magdalen to see them.</p> +<p>“Is that where there is a kangaroo?” asked Lena, so eagerly +that Angela, though thinking that morning’s work enough for the +feeble strength, could not withstand her. Besides, if the Merrifields +were to have her wholly in another day, what was the use of standing +out for one afternoon? One comfort was that Elizabeth, who would +really have the charge of the child, had much more good sense and knowledge +of the world than her sister-in-law.</p> +<p>Still Angela felt the only way of bearing it was that after setting +Mrs. Merrifield down, she stopped the carriage at a church she knew +to have a noon-tide Litany, knelt there, with the little girl beside +her, and tried to say, “Thy will be done! To Thy keeping +I commit her.” Her “hours” came to help her.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Quench Thou the fires of hate and strife,<br /> The +wasting fever of the heart,<br />From perils guard her feeble life,<br /> And +to our souls Thy help impart.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>She was able to be calm, and to utter none of her rage when they +came back to luncheon; and Marilda, declaring she liked nothing so well +as seeing children at the Zoo, wished to go with the party. All, +save Mrs. Merrifield and her boy, had gone different ways in London, +so there was plenty of room in the barouche.</p> +<p>The boy’s mind was set on riding on the elephant, and they +walked on that way, turning aside, however, to the yard where towered +the kangaroo, tall, gentle, graceful and gracious. Lena sprang +forward with a cry of joy, and clasped her hands; but in one moment +the same spasm, at first of ecstasy then of overpowering feeling, becoming +agony, came over her, and gasping and choking, Angela held her in her +arms and carried her to a seat, holding her up, loosening her clothes; +but still she did not come round. Her aunt tried to say, “hysteric.” +Some one brought water, but it was of no use - there were still the +labouring gasps, and the convulsive motion. “Let us take +her home,” Marilda said.</p> +<p>“Nothing but hysterics!” repeated the aunt. “I +will stay with Jackie.”</p> +<p>Marilda found her servant and the carriage, and in the long drive, +a few drops of strong stimulant at a chemist’s brought a little +relief though scarcely consciousness; and when Angela had carried her +up to her room, there was a blueness about the lips, a coldness about +the fingers, that told much. Marilda had at once sent for Dr. +Brownlow as the nearest, and he was at home; but he could only look +and do nothing, but attempt to revive circulation, all in vain; and +with Marilda standing by, with one convulsive clutch of Angela’s +hand, the true mother of her orphaned life, little Lena sank to a peaceful +rest from the tribulations that awaited her here.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX - SAFE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Rest beyond all grief and pain,<br />Death to thee is truest +gain.”<br />KEBLE.</p> +<p>Angela’s nearest and best friends had anticipated that the +peaceful climax of all her cares would be a relief to her; and so indeed +in the long run it would be to her higher sense, and she would be thankful. +But even those who knew her most thoroughly had not estimated the pangs +of personal affection and deprivation of the child she had fostered +with a mother’s tenderness for seven years, and the absolute suffering +of the sudden parting, even though it was to security of bliss, instead +of doubt and uneasiness.</p> +<p>She was quite broken and really ill with neuralgia and exhaustion, +unable to attend the funeral, which the Merrifields wished to have at +Stokesley, and unfit for anything but lying still with the pink parrot +on the rail below, kindly watched over by good Marilda. The strain +of many disturbed nights, the perplexities, the struggle for resignation, +all coming after a succession of trying events in Australia, had told +heavily upon her. Indeed, no one guessed how much she had undergone, +physically as well as spiritually, till Marilda would not be denied +the consulting Dr. Brownlow, who questioned her closely, and extorted +confessions of the long continued strain of exertion. Rest was +all she needed; and Marilda took care that she had it, bringing Robina +up from Minsterham to make it more effectual, and letting her have visits +from her Bishop and from Bernard as they could afford the time, both +being very and variously busy.</p> +<p>Angela had made up her mind to go out to Australia again, and to +make Carrigaboola an endowment for the Sisterhood; but the means of +doing this could best be arranged there, and she intended to go out +when her Bishop should return in the autumn, feeling that her vocation +was there, though there was a blank in all she had most cared for on +earth in that home.</p> +<p>As soon as she had recovered, she wished to spend a fortnight at +Dearport, beginning with a retreat that was held there. Remembering +her old career there, and the abrupt close of her novitiate, she felt +and spoke as if she was to be received as in penitence, but to the Sisters +who surrounded her it was more as if they were receiving a saint.</p> +<p>When she came back to Vale Leston, she had recovered cheerfulness, +more equable than it had ever been, and Cherry and Alda found her a +charming companion. There was much going on at Vale Leston just +then. Miss Arthuret and Dolores were at Penbeacon, seriously considering +of the scheme of converting the old farm house into a kind of place +of study for girls who wanted to work at various technicalities, and +to fit themselves for usefulness or for self-maintenance. There +was to be more or less of the Convalescent Home or House of Rest in +combination, and it had occurred to Dolores that there could hardly +be a better head of such an establishment than Magdalen Prescott.</p> +<p>Magdalen had been asked to the Priory to meet Angela, to whom it +was now a comfort and pleasure to talk of her treasure, so much less +lost to her than in the uncongenial surroundings threatened at Coalham. +And the invitation, followed by the proposal, came at a not unpropitious +moment. A railway company, after much surveying, much disputing, +and many heartburnings, were actually obtaining an Act of Parliament, +empowering it to lay its cruel hands upon the Goyle, running its viaducts +down the ravine of Arnscombe, and destroy all the peace and privacy! +It did much, as Agatha had said, to make the new scheme of Penbeacon +acceptable though.</p> +<p>“That comes of making one’s nest,” she sighed, +“and thinking one’s self secure in it for life! Oh! +it is worse and more changeable in this latter century than in any other! +Does the world go round faster?”</p> +<p>“Of course it does,” said Geraldine. “Think +how many fashions, how many styles, how many ways of thinking, have +passed away, even in our own time.”</p> +<p>“And what have they left behind them?”</p> +<p>“Something good, I trust. Coral cells, stones for the +next generation of zoophytes to stand upon to reach up higher.”</p> +<p>“Is it higher?”</p> +<p>“In one sense, I hope. The same foundation, remember, +and each cell forms a rock for the future - a white and beautiful cell, +remember, as it grows unconsciously, beneath this creature.”</p> +<p>Magdalen smiled, delighted with the illustration.</p> +<p>“It forms into the rocks, the strong foundations of the earth,” +she said.</p> +<p>“When it has undergone its baptism beneath the sea,” +added Geraldine. “But practically and unpoetically, perhaps +- how the young folk mount upon all our little achievements in Church +matters, and think them nearly as old-fashioned and despicable as we +did pews and black gowns! Or how attempts like the schools that +brought up Robina and Angela have shot out into High Schools, colleges, +professions, and I know not what besides.”</p> +<p>“Ah! we come to my old notions for my sisters. I thought +they would have been governesses like myself, but they married; and +now tell me, what do you think of this scheme of Miss Mohun and Agatha?”</p> +<p>“You know Dolores is going to her father first. I never +saw him, but Lady Merrifield and Jane tell me he is a very wise, highly-principled +person, perfectly to be trusted; and they like all that they have heard +of his young wife. I should think if Agatha is to become a scientific +lecturer, she could not begin her career under better training.”</p> +<p>“Career, exactly! People used not to talk of careers.”</p> +<p>“Life and career! Tortoise and hare, eh? But the +hare may and ought still to reach the goal, and have her cell built, +even if she does have her <i>wander yahr</i>, like the young barnacles, +before becoming attached! No! she need not become the barnacle +goose. That is fabulous,” said Mrs. Grinstead, laughing +off a little of her seriousness, and adding, “Tell me of the other +girls. I think Vera did not come home last year.”</p> +<p>“No; nor the year before. She has a good many pretty +little talents, and is very obliging. Mrs. White seems to be very +fond of her, and did not want to spare her when they went to Gastein +for the summer. And this year, when there was so much infection +about, I could not press it.”</p> +<p>“Is it true that there is anything between her and Petros White?”</p> +<p>“I know Miss Mohun - Jane - infers it, but I don’t like +to build upon it.”</p> +<p>“I should build on most inferences that Jane Mohun ventured +to make known,” said Geraldine, smiling; “and Paulina’s +fate is pretty well fixed, I suppose!”</p> +<p>“Dear child, she has never had any other purpose since I first +knew her thoroughly, and I do not think her present stay at Dearport +will disenchant her. I think she is really devoted, not to the +theoretical romance of a Sisterhood, but to the deeper full purpose +of self-devotion.”</p> +<p>“I can fully believe it of her. Hers have not been the +ups and downs of my Angela, though indeed, after all she has gone through, +there is something in her face that brings to my mind, ‘After +that ye have suffered awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’”</p> +<p>“It is a lovely countenance - so patient, and yet so bright.”</p> +<p>“I do not think anything in all her life has tried her so much +as the distress about little Lena; and after knowing her wildness - +to use a weak word for it - under other troubles, I see what grace and +self-control have done for her. You still keep your Thekla!” +she added, as the girl flashed by, in company with a coeval Vanderkist.</p> +<p>“For a few years to come, though I am beginning to feel like +the old hens who do but bring their children up to launch them on the +waters.”</p> +<p>“Well, it is happy if the launch can be made with hope present +as well as faith; and to see what Angel has become after many vicissitudes, +not confined to her first years of youth, is an immense encouragement.”</p> +<p>To Angela’s great delight, the affairs of Brown and Underwood +were found to require inspection at San Francisco, as well as at Colombo, +where Bernard was to put the firm into the hands of one of the Browns, +who was to meet him there, and he would then be able to come home to +the central office in England.</p> +<p>It was not expedient for Phyllis to make the voyage for so brief +a stay, so it was decided that she should remain with her mother, and +she declared that she should be happy about Bernard being taken care +of if Angela, before settling in at Carrigaboola, would go and stay +with him at Ceylon. “No one can tell the pleasure it is,” +she said to Magdalen, “to borrow one’s own especial brother +from his wife for a little while. Oh, yes, I know it goes against +the grain with him, and it is right it should; but the poor old sister +enjoys her treat nevertheless and notwithstanding.”</p> +<p>There was a great family gathering at Vale Leston, including both +the Harewoods; and the Bishop of Albertstown came to spend that last +fortnight in England with Clement, the boy who had been committed to +him as a chorister, then trained as a young deacon, and almost driven +out in his inexperience to the critical charge of the neglected parish +and the old squire, only to be recalled after seven years to the more +important charge in London on the Bishop’s appointment, there +to serve till strength gave way, and he must perforce return to his +former home. There was a farewell picnic of the elders at Penbeacon, +merry and yet wistful in its hopeful auguries that the loved play place +would be a glad and beneficial home.</p> +<p>It was a strange retrospect, talked over by the two old friends in +deep thankfulness, yet humility over their own shortcomings and failures, +and no less strange were the recollections of the wild noisy insubordinate +schoolgirl whom the Bishop’s sister had failed to tame, and who +had to both seemed to live only on sensation, whether religious or secular, +and who had been one continual care and perplexity to each. By +turns they had thought that the full Church system acted as a hotbed +on her peculiar temperament, and at others they had thought it only +an alternative to the amusements of vanity and flirtation. Each +had felt himself a failure with regard to her, and had hoped for a fresh +start from each crisis of repentance, notably, from the death of Felix, +only to be disappointed by some fresh aberration.</p> +<p>However, in Queensland, her work had been noble, and thoroughly effective +in many cases; it had involved much self-denial and even danger, and +though these might agree with her native spirit of adventure, there +had likewise been not fitful, but steadily earnest devotion in her convent +life, as well as the tenderest reverent care of Mother Constance in +a long and painful decline, and therewith a steady cheerful influence +which had immensely assisted the growth of Fulbert’s character. +For some years past, Sister Angela had been not a care, but a trusty +helper to the Bishop; and the later trials and difficulties, especially +the sore rending of the tie with the being she had come to love with +all the force of her strong nature, had been borne in a manner that +bore witness to the subduing of that over-rebellious and vehement spirit.</p> +<p>And, as she said to Geraldine on the last evening as they bade good-night, +“This has been the very happiest time I ever spent here - yes, +happier than in those exultant days of new possession and liberty. +Oh, yes, all experiments, as it were, bold ventures, self-reproach and +failure, defiance and fun, and then - oh, the ache I would not confess, +the glory of being provoking, and, oh, the final anguish I brought on +myself and on you all; and I went on, when it began to wear away, still +stifling the sting which revived whenever I came home, and all was renewed! +Really, whenever I shammed it was only remorse. I don’t +think that real repentance, and the peace after it, began till those +quiet days with dear Mother Constance.”</p> +<p>“And is it peace now?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I think so. Even the parting with my child has +not torn me up. I can say it is well - far better than leaving +her, far better, indeed! And Felix is what he meant to be, my +treasure, not my accuser. Oh, I am glad to have been at home, +and made it all up, to bear away - and leave with you the sense of Peace.”</p> +<p>All who had loved and feared for her were very happy over her when +all joined in that farewell service on her own birthday, St. Michael +and All Angels’ Day.</p> +<p>The party were joined by Dolores and Wilfred at Liverpool; Bernard +having undertaken to establish the latter at Colombo in hands as safe +as might be.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX - THE MAIDEN ROCKS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“What need we more if hearts be true,<br />Our voyage safe, +our port in view.”<br />- KEBLE.</p> +<p>A telegram that a steamer had been wrecked on the Maiden Rocks filled +three homes with dismay. The rocks were sought out in maps, and +found to be specks lying between County Antrim and Scotland - no doubt +terrible in their reality.</p> +<p>Another day brought something more definite. It <i>was</i> +the <i>Afra</i>, - “wrecked in the fog of October 11th. +Boats got off.”</p> +<p>That was all; but a day’s post brought letters, of which the +fullest was from Dolores:</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“CORNCASTLE, LARNE, CO. ANTRIM, IRELAND,<br /><i>October</i> +12.</p> +<p>“DEAREST AUNT LILY, -</p> +<p>“I trust Phyllis has by this time heard from Bernard, as I +heard him called on, as a good oarsman, to go in the first boat, and +we saw Angela’s bonnet. We - that is Wilfred, Nag, and the +Bishop - are all safe here, with eight or nine others. Will will +do well, I trust. He quite owes his life to Nag. This is +how it was: We had not long been out of the Mersey before an impenetrable +fog came down upon us, and we could not see across the deck; but on +we went, on what proved to be our blind way, till, after a night and +day, just as we were getting up from dinner, there came a hideous shock +and concussion, throwing us all about the room; and in less than a minute +it was repeated, with horrible crackings, tearings, yells and shouts. +No one needed to tell us what it meant, and down came the call, ‘Don’t +wait to save your things, only wraps, ladies! Up on deck! +Life-belts if you can!’ I remember Bernard standing at the +top of the ladder, helping us up, and somehow, I understand from him, +that we were on a reef, and might either remain there, and sink, or +be washed off. The fog was clearing, and there was a dim light +up high, somewhere, one of the lighthouses, I believe. I don’t +quite know how it all went; I think we kept in the background, round +the Bishop, and that a boat full of emigrant women was put off. +I know there were only about half a dozen women left, who had been crying +and refusing to leave their husbands; and about thirty altogether, men +and women, were somehow got into our boat with the chief mate; the Bishop +all consolation and prayer; poor Wilfred limp, cold and trembling, for +he had been very seasick till the last moment, when Bernard pulled him +out of his berth, and put him into a lifebelt. The sea was not +very rough, with an east wind; but the mate said the current was so +strong he could make no way against it. It would bring us on to +the Irish cliffs, and then, God help us! Knowing what that coast +is, I thought there was no hope; and as it was beginning to grow light +there rose an awful wall, all black and white, ready to close upon us; +but just as I set my teeth and tried to recollect prayers, or follow +the Bishop’s, but I could only squeeze Agatha harder and harder, +there was a fresh shouting among the men, and the boat was heaved up +in a fearful way, then down. It was tide, and we were near upon +breakers; but there were answering shouts, or so they said - I believe +a line was thrown, and a light shown. But as the boat rose again, +Nag and I expected to be hurled on the rocks the next moment, and clung +together. But instead - though the waves had almost torn us asunder +- we were lying on a stony beach, and human hands were dragging at us +- voices calling and shouting about our not being dead. God had +helped us! We had been carried into a clift where there is a coastguard +station; and the good men had come down and were helping us on shore. +But before I well knew anything, Agatha was on her feet; I heard her +cry ‘Wilfred, Wilfred!’ and then I saw her dragging him, +quite like a dead thing, out of the surf, just in time before another +great wave rushed in which would have washed them both back, if a man +had not grappled her at the very moment, calling out, ‘Let go, +let go, he’s a dead man!’ She did not let go; when +the wave broke, happily, just short of them, and another came to help, +and saved them from being sucked back. Then the Bishop came and +assured us that he was alive, and got the men to carry him up to the +coastguard cottages; indeed, it was an awful escape; for of our boatload +most were lost altogether, three lie dead, dashed against the rock, +and two more, the mate one of them, have broken limbs. Wilfred +was unconscious for a long time, at least an hour; but by the help of +spoonfuls of whiskey he came round to a dreamy kind of state, and he +does not seem to suffer much; and the Bishop, the Preventive man and +Nag all are sure no limbs are broken, but he seems incapable of movement +except his hands. It may be only jar upon the spine, and go off +in another day or two; but we do not dare to send for a doctor, or anything +else, indeed, till we have some money; for we all of us have lost everything +except five shillings in my pocket and two in Nag’s. Even +our wraps were washed off - I believe Agatha gave hers to a shivering +woman in the boat. The Bishop, too, gave away his coat, forgetting +to secure his purse. But the people are very kind to us - North, +or Scotch Irish Presbyterians, I think - for they don’t seem to +know what to make of his being a Bishop when they found he was not R.C., +though they call him His Reverence. Please send us an order to +get cashed, at Larne, six miles off, where this is posted. Wilfred +lies on the good Preventive woman’s bed, clean and fairly comfortable, +and they have made a shake-down in their parlour for Nag and me. +The Bishop <i>says</i> he is well off, but I believe he is always looking +after the mate and the other man in the other house, and sleeps, if +at all, in a chair. Nag is <i>the</i> nurse. She had ambulance +lessons, you know, when at the High School, and profited by them more +than I ever did, and Wilfred likes to have her about him, and when he +is dazed, as he always is at first waking, he calls her Vera. +But don’t be uneasy about him, dear Aunt Lily. Deadly sea-sickness, +a night of tossing and cold, and then this terrible landing may well +upset him, and probably he will be on his legs by the time you get this +letter.</p> +<p>“I find our disaster was on the Maiden Rocks, a horrible group, +I only wonder that any one gets past them. There are five of them, +the wicked Sirens, and three have lighthouses, but not very efficient +ones, and apt to disappear in the fog, and there are reefs beneath on +one of which we came to grief. The folk here think a wreck on +these Maidens absolutely fatal, so we cannot be but most thankful for +being alive, though it is a worse experience than the Rotuma earthquake.</p> +<p>“Fergus would think the place worth all we have undergone. +The crags are wonderful, chalk at the bottom, basalt above, and of course +all round to the Giant’s Causeway it is finer still. Well +may we, as the Bishop is always doing, give thanks that we were taken, +by the Divine Hand guiding tide and current, to this milder and less +inhospitable opening.</p> +<p>“We can afford to dispense with less majesty, for one of those +finer cliffs would have been our destruction.</p> +<p>“This is going to Larne, where there is a railway station and +something of a town, and the Bishop has written to the doctor of the +place. I will write again when he has been here. I hope +to send you another and more cheery account to-morrow, or whenever post +goes.</p> +<p>“Nag is writing to her sister. I trust you will have +heard of Bernard and Angela. Their boat was a better one than +ours, and certainly got off safely. Let us know as soon you can.</p> +<p>“Your most loving niece,</p> +<p>“D. M. MOHUN.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Agatha had also written to Magdalen, very briefly, to assure her +of her safety and thankfulness, and to say she could not leave Wilfred +till more efficient care arrived, or till she had means to come back +with. She was evidently too busy over her patient to have much +possibility of writing, even if she had paper, which seemed to be scarce +at Corncastle.</p> +<p>The Bishop also wrote to Clement, and to Sir Jasper and others; but +he also could say little, only that he trusted that Angela and Bernard +were safe elsewhere, having heard them called, and, as he believed, +seen them off in the first boat, so that probably they had been already +heard of before these letters arrived. Their own party had been +spared from being dashed against the rocks almost by a miracle; and +Agatha Prescott’s courage and readiness, as now her nursing faculties, +were beyond all praise, as indeed was the brave patience of Miss Mohun. +He could only look on and be thankful, and hope for tidings of those +who were as his own children. The next day’s letters spoke +of the doctor as so much perplexed about Wilfred, and nothing had been +heard at Larne of the other boats.</p> +<p>But no tidings came; there was too much cause to fear that the first +boat had been borne away by the currents and swamped. Lady Merrifield +could not leave Phyllis in such a crisis of suspense, and Sir Jasper +was hardly fit for such a journey, so that his wife was much relieved +when her brother, General Mohun, came to Clipstone, and undertook to +hasten out to Corncastle, with money and appliances, including a nurse.</p> +<p>“Oh, Reggie, always good at need! I hardly dare to send +my good old Halfpenny - !”</p> +<p>“No, Mamma, send me. You know I had the ambulance lessons +with Nag,” said Mysie, “and we could get a real nurse from +Belfast or Dublin, if it was wanted.”</p> +<p>So it was arranged, and uncle and niece started, but hope faded more +and more! Were those two precious young lives so early quenched?</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI - THE WRECK</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“How purer were earth, if all its martyrdoms,<br />If all its +struggling sighs of sacrifice<br />Were swept away!”<br />E. HAMILTON +KING.</p> +<p>No tidings of Bernard and Angela. The suspense began to diminish +into “wanhope” or despair; and the brothers and sisters +continued to say that they were sorry above all for Phyllis, whose gentle +sweetness had made her one with them.</p> +<p>But at last, one forenoon, a telegram was put into Clement’s +hand, dated from Ewmouth:</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p><i>Muriel Ellen</i>, Ewmouth Harbour, October 14th. Blaine +to Rev. Underwood. Brother here. Come to infirmary.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Clement and Geraldine lost no time in driving to the infirmary, too +anxious to speak to one another. Blaine’s name was known +to them as a Gwenworth lad, who had gone to sea, and risen to be sailing +master of the <i>Muriel Ellen</i>, a trader plying between Londonderry +and Bristol. He, with another, who proved to be the American captain +of the <i>Afra</i>, were at the gate of the hospital, where an ambulance +had just entered.</p> +<p>“Oh! Sir,” as Clement held out his hand, “I +could not save her. I’d have given my life!”</p> +<p>“My brother?” as Clement returned his grasp fervently.</p> +<p>“We’ve just got him in here, Sir. I hope! +I hope! And here’s the doctor.”</p> +<p>The house surgeon, who, of course, knew the Rector of Vale Leston, +met him with, “Best see him before we touch him, it will set his +mind at rest - You must be prepared, Sir - No, better not you, Mrs. +Grinstead.”</p> +<p>Clement followed in silence, leaving Geraldine to the care of the +matron. All he was allowed to see was a ghastly, death-like face +and form, covered with rugs, lying prostrate on a mattress; but as he +came in, at the sound of his step, there was a quiver of recognition, +the eyes opened and looked up, the lips moved, and as Clement bent down +with a kiss, there was a faint sound gasped out, “Telegraph to +Clipstone.”</p> +<p>“I will, I will at once.”</p> +<p>“It was noble!” Then was added, “She gave +herself for the Bishop, for me.” Then the eyes closed, and +unconsciousness seemed to prevail. Some one came and put Clement +aside, saying -</p> +<p>“Go now, Sir; you shall hear!”</p> +<p>Clement, who thought it might be death, would have stayed at hand; +but he was turned away, and could only murmur an inarticulate blessing +and prayer, as he meant to fulfil the earnest desire that was thought +to have been conned over and over again by Bernard, as these half sentences +recurred again and again in semi-consciousness. His telegram despatched, +Clement returned to his sister, to hear from the two masters all they +had to tell. Captain Miller, of the <i>Afra</i>, had slight hurts, +which had been looked to before he should take the train for London; +and Blaine had waited to tell his story before pursuing his voyage to +Bristol, both, indeed, to hear the report of the patient, and likewise +to collect the news of the few who had been landed at Corncastle, to +the great relief of Captain Miller; but of the first boat there were +no tidings, and Blaine thought there was little probability that it +had not sunk or been dashed against the crags of the savage coast.</p> +<p>Captain Miller’s account was, that not long after leaving the +Mersey, there had set in an impenetrable fog, lasting for a night and +a day. There was perhaps some confusion as to charts, and the +scarcely visible lights upon the Maidens. At any rate, the <i>Afra</i> +had suddenly struck on a reef, and, shifting at once, had been hopelessly +rent, so as to leave no hope save in the boats. Every one seemed +to have behaved with the resolute fortitude and unselfishness generally +shown by English and Americans in the like circumstances. The +sea was not in a dangerous state, and there was a steady east wind, +so that the boats were lowered without much difficulty, and most of +the women disposed of in the first.</p> +<p>Before the second could be put off however, the water had reached +the fires; there was a violent lurch, the ship had heeled completely +over, washing many overboard, and of course causing a great confusion +among those who had been steady before, and making the deck almost perpendicular. +The captain, however, succeeded in lowering another boat, and putting +into it, as he trusted, the few remaining women, the Bishop, and most +of the men. This was, of course, that which had safely reached +Corncastle, and of which he only now heard. The last boat was +so overcrowded that he, with three of his crew, had thought it best +to remain for the almost desperate chance of being picked up before +they sank.</p> +<p>He had supposed Mr. Underwood had been washed overboard in the heeling +over of the ship, and that his sister had been put into the first boat; +but presently he heard a call.</p> +<p>“Oh, help me, please!” And he became aware that +Sister Angela was hanging over her brother, who lay crushed by a heavy +chest which had fallen on him, and thrown him against the gunwale, though +a moan or two showed him to be still alive. The remaining sailors +removed the weight, lifted him, and laid him in the best place and position +they could, while his sister hung over him and supported his head. +To Miller’s dismayed exclamation at finding a woman still on board, +she replied -</p> +<p>“It was no fault of yours. I hid below. Other lives +- the Bishop’s - were what mattered! I am glad to be here!”</p> +<p>He believed that Mr. Underwood had revived enough to know his sister, +for he had heard her voice talking to him. Yes, and singing; but +it was not for very long. The wreck was in motion, being carried +by current and tide along the Channel, and if it did not sink, might +be perceived now that daylight had come, and a signal of distress might +be seen by some passing vessel.</p> +<p>Seen it was, in fact, and that there were persons to be rescued; +and Blaine, who was on his way from Londonderry to Bristol, in the <i>Muriel +Ellen</i>, a cattle-boat, possessed a boat in which to attempt a rescue.</p> +<p>All that experienced sailors could do in transferring the helpless +and unconscious form to the boat first, and then to the sloop had been +done; but it was no wonder that in the transit Angela, more heedful +of her brother’s safety than her own, had fallen between, and +been lost in the waves, to the extreme grief of Tom Blaine, who had +been one of her scholars, and devoted to her, as all the boys of Vale +Leston were.</p> +<p>The cattle-boat had few facilities for comfort, and all he could +do was to let Mr. Bernard Underwood lie, as softly as could be contrived, +on deck, and make sail for Ewmouth, so as to land him as near home as +possible. How far he had been conscious it was impossible to say, +though once he had asked for Angela, but had seemed to understand from +an evasion, that she was missing, and had said no more, but muttered +parts of these requests, as if afraid of not being capable of them.</p> +<p>All this had been told or implied, while messages came down that +the surgeons did not think the injuries need be mortal, provided the +exhaustion and exposure had not fatal consequences. The left arm, +two ribs, and the leg had been broken, and were reduced before the doctors +ventured on a hopeful report with which to send home the brother and +sister. One sight, Clement was allowed of a more unconscious, +but much less distressed face, and one murmur, “Noble! Phyllis!” +and he was promised a telegram later in the day. The two hardly +knew which to feel most; grief or thankfulness, the loss or the mercy, +and yet - and yet - after the fitful, wayward, yet always devout life, +with all its strains, there was a sense of wistful acceptance of such +a close.</p> +<p>They felt it all the more deeply when, a day or two later, Bernard +was able to say, at intervals, for the injury rendered speech difficult +and almost dangerous, as Clement leant over him -</p> +<p>“Yes! I woke to see her face over me, all bright in wavy +hair just as when we were children, and she said, ‘Bear! +Bear! we are going together!’ Then somehow she tried to +help me to trust for Phyllis and Lily.”</p> +<p>Then his voice sank, but presently he added, “There was more, +but it is like a dream. She was singing in her own, own voice. +There was ‘Lead, kindly Light!’ and when it came to ‘Angel +faces smile’ there was a cry - quite glad - ‘There! there +on the water! Felix! Coming for us! Oh! and another +One! Lord, into Thy hands.’ That is all I know - a +kiss here, and ‘Yes! thanks! For me!’ But the +lifting hurt so much that I lost all sense, when she must have fallen +between the wreck and the boat. You are glad for her! Mine +own! mine Angel!”</p> +<p>“Safe home!” said Clement. “Oh, thankworthy!”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII - ANCHORED</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Safe home, safe home in port,<br /> Rent +cordage, shattered deck;<br />Torn sails, provision short,<br /> And +only not a wreck;<br />But all the joy upon the shore,<br />To tell +our voyage the perils o’er!”</p> +<p>Safe home! It might be said in another sense for Bernard, for +he was naturally so strong and healthy that the effects of exposure +and exhaustion were not long in passing off, the injury to the chest +proved to be only temporary; and having cased him like a statue in plaster +of Paris, the surgeons decided, to the joy of his family, that the more +serious injuries would be better recovered from in the fresh air of +Vale Leston, than in the fishy, muddy atmosphere of Ewmouth.</p> +<p>So he was transported thither, and installed in Felix’s study, +among the familiar sights and sounds, and where another joy awaited +him, and where he lay in happy stillness.</p> +<p>Phyllis had borne up bravely through the suspense, never relinquishing +a strong assurance of hope; but when that hope was actually crowned +by the first telegram, the reaction set in, and she had broken down +so entirely that her mother durst not let her move at first, and indeed +accompanied her and her little girl as far as the junction, being herself +on the way to Larne.</p> +<p>And Geraldine’s heart was at peace when she saw Phyllis sitting +by the bed, her hand in his, content to see and not to speak. +Another visitor appeared the following day, namely, the Bishop of Albertstown, +who had remained at Larne till he could see his fellow passengers in +safe hands. Then he had crossed to Bristol, and before his hurried +visit to his sisters he could not but come to see his beloved old pupil, +Clement, and share with him those reminiscences of her, who, as he had +only now learnt, had given her young superabundant life for him, a man +growing into age, whose work might be nearly done.</p> +<p>He only saw Bernard in silence, but heard from Clement the account +of those last moments, which showed how entirely Angela had been conscious +of what she was doing, and how willingly she had devoted herself to +save those whom she loved and valued.</p> +<p>While yet they talked, there was a fresh arrival. Sir Ferdinand +Travis Underwood, who could not forbear the running down to hear perfectly +all that was to be heard, and to make arrangements that might relieve +Bernard’s mind, if he were indeed on the way of recovery.</p> +<p>In fact, almost the first thought after that of the wife and child +had been the security of the drenched, stained, and soiled pocket-book; +nor would the patient be satisfied till he had been allowed himself +to hand it over to the head of his firm, with, “There, Fernan, +safe, though smashed with me. Tell Brown.”</p> +<p>“Never mind Brown or anything else but getting well, Bernard. +I have taken our passage for next week. I shall get things arranged +so that you need not think of being wanted again out there. We +will find a berth for you in the office in town, as soon as you are +about again.”</p> +<p>Bernard’s eye lightened. “I hope - ”</p> +<p>But Ferdinand would not let him either thank or hope, scarcely even +allow any words from Phyllis, who could not be grateful enough for the +relief. To Alda, who had received her old companion, since Marilda +seemed unable to let her husband out of her sight; it was explained +that she was going too, happen what would. Oh, yes, it was true +she was a shocking bad sailor, but she was not going to have Fernan’s +ships running upon rocks or getting on fire, or anything of that sort, +without her. She wanted to see about Ludmilla Schmetterling, who +was reported to have found a lover while studying at a class in the +States, and she also meant to settle her own especial niece Emilia, +whose husband was to take Bernard’s place in Ceylon and who had +become heartily tired of London’s second-rate gaieties.</p> +<p>Those thus concerned met at the memorial service in the morning before +the Bishop quitted them, where many parishioners gathered who had been +spellbound in Angela’s freakish days of early girlhood, and who +were greatly touched when the committal to the deep was inserted from +the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea.</p> +<p>It brought a deep sense of awe and thankfulness to those who had +feared and wondered through the stormy uncertain life, and now could +exult in what was almost a martyrdom, and had brought their beloved +one to the great pure grave, as her Baptism for eternity.</p> +<p>Some months later, while Bernard still lay on his couch, but could +speak and be glad, he rejoiced indeed, for a sore in his heart was healed, +when two fair babes were brought to him, - a boy who would be as another +firstborn son, and a little maiden who would bear that name which had +become dear and saintly in the peculiar calendar of Vale Leston.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII - FAREWELL</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>“Nay, your pardon! Cry you, ‘Forward.’ +Yours are youth, we hope - but I?”<br />- BROWNING.</p> +<p>The visit of the Bishop of Albertstown had, in fact, been deferred +till he could quit his fellow-sufferers, especially Wilfred, who could +not well be left to the charge of the two girls, with the Larne doctor +evidently in difficulty about his case.</p> +<p>It was with great joy that a telegram was received with tidings that +General Mohun and Mysie were on the way, and also Magdalen Prescott, +who met them at Liverpool, being unable to stay away from Agatha under +such circumstances. At Belfast they obtained a trained nurse, +and a doctor was to follow them.</p> +<p>The joy of the meeting between Magdalen and Agatha was almost that +of mother and daughter, and nothing could be more entirely convincing +that they were one.</p> +<p>Indeed, Agatha was thoroughly worn out; for the main strain of attendance +had fallen upon her, since the Bishop was fully occupied with some of +the seriously hurt in other cottages; and though Dolores tried to be +helpful, it was chiefly in outside work, and attempts at sick cookery, +in which she was rather too scientific, and found the lack of appliances +very inconvenient. Besides, cousin though she was, or perhaps +for that very reason, Wilfred was far less amenable to her voice than +Agatha’s; and if she attempted authority it was sure to rouse +all the resistance left in him. Agatha had been constantly on +the alert, liable to be called on every half-hour, to soothe fretful +distress over impossible impatience at delay, anger at want of comforts, +and dolefulness over the chances of improvements, and abuse, whether +just or not, of the only accessible doctor.</p> +<p>In fact, Magdalen, on seeing how utterly worn out she was, and how +little space the cottages afforded, thought it best, now that the patient +was in the hands of sister, uncle, and nurse, to carry her off at once +by the return car to Larne; and Dolores thought it best to accompany +them, after Mysie had hung on her as one restored from death. +But Mysie was absorbed in her brother, and Dolores had a strong yearning +to be with her father, so strong that she decided not to return to England, +but to procure a second outfit at Belfast, and to set forth again from +thence, nothing daunted, for, as she said (not carelessly), such things +did not happen immediately after, in a second voyage. In fact, +though thankful and impressed by the loss of the others, she had gone +through the crisis of the life of her heart and affections, and she +had likewise been once in imminent peril through a convulsion of nature. +Thus she was inclined to look on the wreck and the Irish cliffs as an +experience in the way of business, so she was resolved to see the Giant’s +Causeway, and to make notes upon it for her lectures.</p> +<p>But it was a different thing with Agatha. She had been brought +face to face with death; and though the actual time had been spent in +hurry and bustle, and even the subsequent tossing in the boat had been +not so much waiting and thinking as attending to others more terrified +and injured than herself, and there followed the incessant waiting on +Wilfred; still the experiences had worked in. She rested very +silently, dwelling little to Magdalen on her thoughts; but each word +she said, and her very countenance, showed that she had made a great +step in life and realised the spiritual world, which hitherto had been +outside her life - not disbelieved, but almost matter of speculation +and study.</p> +<p>She was not at all desirous of falling back from Dolores, whose grave +steadiness and fortitude, the result of a truly brave and deep trust, +had given her a sense of confidence and protection. So they wrote, +and arranged for their passage, and, with Magdalen, spent the intermediate +time in needful preparations at Belfast, and in an expedition to the +Causeway, where they laid in a stock of notes and observations, all +in a spirit that made Magdalen feel that she knew both in a manner she +had never done before, and loved them with a deep value and confidence.</p> +<p>Wilfred meanwhile made very slow, if any, progress.</p> +<p>They took him to Belfast as soon as it was possible, and his mother +came to him. He was gentle and quiet, with little power of movement, +and scarcely any of thought; and in a consultation of doctors, the verdict +was given that he must be carefully tended for months, if not for years +to come; and though there might finally be full recovery, yet it would +depend on the most tender and careful treatment of body and mind. +London doctors, when he could be moved thither, confirmed the decision, +and he began a helpless invalid life, in which a certain indifference +and dulness made him a much less peevish and trying patient than would +have been anticipated. Mysie was his willing, but intelligent +slave; and his mother was not only thankful to have him brought back +to her at any price, but really - though she would not have confessed +it even to herself - was less troubled and anxious about him than she +had been since he had begun to “roam in youth’s uncertain +wilds.” Indeed, there were hopes that slow recovery might +find him a much changed person in character.</p> +<p>He had become so uninterested in his former predilections that he +heard with little emotion that Vera was to marry Petros White.</p> +<p>“I thought she would take up with some cad,” he said. +But his family were really glad that this wedding was to take place +at Rocca Marina, whither the two sisters and Magdalen were invited.</p> +<p>Paulina would not go. She still resented the treatment of Hubert +Delrio, and she was devoted to her study of nursing at the Dearport +Sisterhood; but Magdalen thought it right to take Thekla, and give her +the advantages of improvement in languages, and the sight of fine scenery.</p> +<p>And certainly Rocca Marina was a wonderful place for marriages. +Vera, handsome and happy and likely to turn into a fairly good commonplace +wife, had no sooner been sent off on a honeymoon tour to Greece and +Egypt, and Mrs. White had begged the other two to prolong their visit, +considering, perhaps, if one or the other aunt or niece could not be +promoted to the vacant post of lady-in-waiting, than Hubert Delrio came +to secure specimens of marble for some mosaic work on which he was engaged. +He was fast becoming a man of mark, whom the Whites were delighted to +receive and entertain, and who was delighted to be with the old friends +who had had so great an influence on his life. And was it Magdalen +alone to whom he chiefly looked up as his helper and guide? So +he thought; but before the time of separation had come, he had found +out that Thekla was far prettier than ever Vera had been, and with a +mind and principle - no Flapsy, but a real sympathetic and poetic nature, +which had grown up in these years. Young as she was, their destinies +were fixed.</p> +<p>And Magdalen? The railroad had obtained authority to pass through +the Goyle, and thus break up her home and shelter. Still she was +not tempted by Adeline White’s desire to make her a companion; +but rather she accepted the plan on which Dolores had first started, +and on which Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret were set, of making +her the head of their home at Penbeacon, partly a convalescent home, +and partly a training college for young women in need of technical instruction +in nursing or other possible feminine avocations. Tom May was +delighted with all it might set on foot, and Clement saw in her leading +the hopes that a high and pure spirit might inspire it.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Footnotes:</p> +<p><a name="footnote100"></a><a href="#citation100">{100}</a> +It is Russian, and means Faith.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MODERN BROODS ***</p> +<pre> + +******This file should be named mdbr10h.htm or mdbr10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, mdbr11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mdbr10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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