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diff --git a/78661-h/78661-h.htm b/78661-h/78661-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e8327f --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/78661-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7658 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Heather's Mistress │ Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/image001.jpg" type="image/cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size:12.0pt; + font-family:"Verdana"; +} + +p {text-indent: 2em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h2 {font-size: 1.17em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + +.w100 { + width: auto + } + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 125%; + text-align: center + } + +p.t2 { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center + } + +p.t3 { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center + } + +p.t3b { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center + } + +p.t4 { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center + } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.poem { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + padding: 20px 0; + text-align: left; + width: 555px; + } + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78661 ***</div> + + +<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001"> +</figure> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002"> +</figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"OH! ARE YOU BACK ALREADY?"</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h1>HEATHER'S MISTRESS</h1> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> +BY<br> +</p> + +<p class="t1"> +AMY LE FEUVRE<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> +AUTHOR OF "PROBABLE SONS," "THE CARVED CUPBOARD,"<br> +"DWELL DEEP," "ON THE EDGE OF A MOOR," ETC.<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> +WITH FIFTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. S. CROMPTON<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> +<em>SECOND IMPRESSION</em><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> +LONDON<br> +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY<br> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> +56, PATERNOSTER ROW AND 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>CHAPTER</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_1">I. LEFT ALONE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_2">II. A RELATION</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_3">III. IN AN OLD-FASHIONED HOUSEHOLD</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_4">IV. A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_5">V. IN PARK LANE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_6">VI. A TASTE OF TOWN LIFE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_7">VII. DUTY'S CALL</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_8">VIII. SEPARATION</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_9">IX. THE VILLAGERS</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_10">X. A SUMMER LODGER</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_11">XI. BROUGHT INTO LIGHT</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_12">XII. A FISHERMAN</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_13">XIII. BLUEBELL'S RETURN</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_14">XIV. "THE RIGHT MAN"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_15">XV. THE OLD PRIORY</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_16">XVI. A CALAMITY</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_17">XVII. IN THE OLD GARDEN</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_18">XVIII. WITH FRIENDS AGAIN</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_19">XIX. AN UNEXPECTED OFFER</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_20">XX. ABROAD</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_21">XXI. A TREASURE TAKEN</a></p> + +<p><a href="#Chapter_22">XXII. DUTY A GOOD MISTRESS</a></p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t2"> +<b>HEATHER'S MISTRESS</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_1">CHAPTER I</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +LEFT ALONE<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"By the fireside there are youthful dreamers,<br> + Building castles fair with stately stairways,<br> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Asking blindly</span><br> + Of the future what it cannot give them."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 19.5em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>IT was a grey dreary afternoon. Steady rain, leaden skies, and a flat +straight road bordered by leafless hedges did not provide a cheery +outlook to the solitary walker. She stepped along bravely, a slim +little figure in a grey ulster and a black straw hat. Her thoughts were +far away from her surroundings, and it was not until she had reached a +wooden gate leading up a drive that she roused herself with a start.</p> + +<p>"How wet I am!" she murmured. "And here have I been carrying my +umbrella unopened in my hand, and spoiling my new hat! What will +Abigail say?"</p> + +<p>She passed through the gate and up the drive edged by tall shrubberies, +and then came out before an old-fashioned red-brick house which had +something forbidding and grim in the look of its ivy-clad walls and +tall narrow windows.</p> + +<p>She paused in the porch and shook out her damp garments with a grimace +of disgust. Then quietly opening a glass door, she entered a small +square hall. It was dusk, and the dark oak walls and stone-flagged +floor seemed cold and dreary. An old-fashioned oak staircase rose from +the centre of it, and some oil portraits and a few antlers were dimly +discernible on the walls.</p> + +<p>The girl opened a door on the right, and shutting it behind her said in +a quick clear voice—</p> + +<p>"Bluebell, are you here?"</p> + +<p>There was a bright wood fire in the wide open fireplace, and the +contrast to the dull greyness of the atmosphere without was striking. +It was a long low room, with casement windows in deep recesses facing +east and west. The walls were covered with a deep crimson flock paper; +all the furniture was oak, dark with age; and the flickering firelight +played on some massive silver plate on a sideboard behind the door. A +dark crimson cloth on the square centre table, and crimson curtains +to the windows, gave a most cosy look to the room. And perhaps the +pleasantest picture in it was that of a young girl seated on the +hearthrug, her elbows on a leather chair, and a book before her in +which she was engrossed.</p> + +<p>She raised her head at her sister's entrance, then sprang to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you back already? I've been having a splendid time!"</p> + +<p>Looking from one sister to the other, one would have had no difficulty +in deciding that they were twins.</p> + +<p>Each possessed the same bright brown hair which curled naturally +round their broad white brows, and was fastened in a careless fashion +of their own in loose coils on the top of their heads. Their eyes +were grey, with long curling lashes, but whilst Bluebell's twinkled +irrepressibly and continually, Heather's seemed to be looking out into +the future with a soft dreaminess that was characteristic of her. Both +had the same delicately cut features and clear pale skin, both the +same determined little mouth and rounded chin. And the pair of them, +in spite of country-made garments and a quaint old-fashioned air, were +interesting in the extreme.</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt you have," was Heather's reply, as, taking off her wet +ulster, she came over to the fire and seated herself in an easy chair. +"It is a dreadful day out. Look at my boots! They're soaked through. I +am so glad to be home again."</p> + +<p>"Why did you go? Rachael said she would go for you to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know." And Heather gave a little sigh as she leant back and +warmed her damp toes.</p> + +<p>Then, after a minute, she added abruptly, "I went because I felt it +would be right. Grandmother would have wished it. I have been thinking, +Bluebell, that we have been wasting our time rather lately, and I think +we ought not to read so much."</p> + +<p>Bluebell laughed a little consciously, then she looked down at her +black frock and shook her pretty head.</p> + +<p>"It is just six weeks since grandmother died, and it seems a year. I +don't think we could have lived through this time, Heather, if we had +not found these books. It has made such a change in the house, hasn't +it? No invalid to read to or amuse, no one to watch over our words and +actions. Suddenly we find ourselves our own mistresses, and our daily +round of occupation all swept away. For three weeks we haven't seen a +soul to speak to—I mean outside the house. Every day is the same, and I +suppose it always will be now. I am getting and enjoying fresh life in +'Ivanhoe,' so don't you say it is waste of time."</p> + +<p>Heather glanced at the book in question, then spoke rather hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Of course I know it is delicious. I am dying to get to the end of 'The +Monastery' myself, but I think we're rather overdoing it. Sir Walter +Scott won't run away from us; we have plenty of time before us, and—and +I think it unsettles us for our daily life."</p> + +<p>"No; it brings fresh thoughts into our heads, I allow, but I don't feel +unsettled. I went over the store cupboard this morning with Abigail, +made a fresh list for you to take into the town with you, then I mended +some table-napkins, and fed the canaries. And I also put our myrtles +out into the rain, and watered the greenhouse plants. After that, I +settled myself with a good conscience to my reading, and, oh, how +I wonder that grandmother never told us what treasures were in her +bookcase!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she did not think them suitable reading for us," said Heather, +thoughtfully. "You see, we have not been brought up like other girls; +she was so particular!"</p> + +<p>"Well, we can do as we like now. There is no one in the wide world to +give us any advice. How do you like the sensation of it?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked across at her sister with a gleam of mischief in her +eye.</p> + +<p>Heather met her gaze gravely, then clasping her hands behind her neck, +she rested her head against them, and said with much emphasis, "Oh, it +is dreadfully and awfully lonely. I have been thinking of it out in +the rain. You and I with youth and health, and just enough money to +live comfortably here, and only Abigail and Rachael, not a friend or +relative belonging to us. And I suppose we shall live on here all our +lives, and will never see a bit more of the world than just this corner +of it. We have each other, but we shall never have any one else. And +we shall go on growing older and older, and our days will be just the +same; and Abigail will order us about and manage us as if we were still +children up to the very last."</p> + +<p>Bluebell's laughing lips took serious curves. "I don't think we shall +always live like this. I am looking for a benighted traveller, a prince +in disguise to arrive one day, and then suddenly, we shall find our +lives changed. Joking apart, don't you think we have a single relation +in the world? Everybody has some relations, however distant; why should +not we?"</p> + +<p>"We will ask Abigail. Grandmother never would talk to us about our +family, but I always understood from her we had none. Father was her +only son, and mother was an only daughter."</p> + +<p>There was a pause.</p> + +<p>Then Bluebell said, "I don't think our lives will be empty. We have +a lot of interests here—all the poor people that grandmother used to +relieve. You have your old blind man to read to every week. I have +my Band of Hope with the children, and—and when we want a little +dissipation, we can pull up the river and have a picnic or spend a day +in town, and I don't see why we shouldn't take an excursion by train +now and then."</p> + +<p>Heather gave a little impatient sigh.</p> + +<p>"It is people I want to know—people in our own class of life, girls +like ourselves, women and men."</p> + +<p>"We never shall know people here," said Bluebell; "there are none to +know. The doctor, the rector, and grandmother's lawyer from London are +the only ones we have seen for years, and they're all over sixty."</p> + +<p>Suddenly Heather started up, an inspiration having come to her. And her +soft eyes sparkled as she said, "What is there to prevent us going up +to see the sights of London? We have the money to do it."</p> + +<p>"London!" exclaimed Bluebell, opening her eyes at her sister's +audacity. "Grandmother said Paris and London were the most wicked +cities in the world! Do you think Abigail would let us go? Never!"</p> + +<p>A pink flush had come into Heather's cheeks, but her face fell at the +thought of Abigail. Then she said recklessly, "If Abigail tried to +prevent us, we could send her away. She is only a servant, after all, +and we are not children. We are of age, and can please ourselves!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell gave a little gasp. Life without Abigail as the controlling +power seemed vague and impossible.</p> + +<p>"We are our own mistresses," said Heather, with warmth, but she was +stopped by the entrance of Abigail herself.</p> + +<p>Abigail was a tall severe-looking woman, the personification of +neatness and order; her white cap and apron proclaimed her position, +otherwise the authority in her voice and demeanour would have led one +to suppose she was the mistress of the house.</p> + +<p>"Miss Heather, is this your wet ulster flung down on the chair? I did +not hear you come in."</p> + +<p>Heather's tone was meekness itself as she replied, "Yes, I was so tired +that I have been resting."</p> + +<p>"And you have not changed your damp boots?"</p> + +<p>"No, I am going upstairs to do it now."</p> + +<p>She slipped out of the room, and Abigail, taking up the ulster, +followed her upstairs to the pretty bedroom that both girls shared +together.</p> + +<p>Everything was very simple, but the white dimity curtains and +bed-hangings were spotless in their freshness. Two small beds, a +toilet-table draped in snowy muslin, a round table with devotional +books and writing materials upon it, and two old-fashioned wardrobes +were the chief pieces of furniture in it. The floor was covered with +an old Brussels carpet, and the casement windows, with their deep +window-seats, were the facsimile of the dining-room ones below.</p> + +<p>Abigail came up to her young mistress and felt the edge of her skirt.</p> + +<p>"You must change your dress at once, miss. You are too old to be so +careless. It is just the way to get a severe cold—coming in and sitting +down in your damp things and letting them dry on you!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, what does it matter?" Heather said, a little petulantly.</p> + +<p>But she obeyed Abigail at once, watched her close the shutters and +light the wax candles, and then detained her just as she was leaving +the room.</p> + +<p>"Abigail, you lived with grandmother before our father married, did you +not?"</p> + +<p>"I did," responded Abigail, grimly.</p> + +<p>"Well, you ought to know. Have we not a relation in the world?"</p> + +<p>Abigail's brows contracted.</p> + +<p>"Why do you ask, miss?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Heather, a little confusedly, "we have only been wondering, +that is all."</p> + +<p>"None that would improve your manners, or edify your souls," the old +servant said dryly. Then after a pause she added, "Your grandmother had +one niece, but she left the Society of Friends and went into the gay +world and married a worldling. We heard she had one daughter, and later +on, she died."</p> + +<p>"Who? The daughter?"</p> + +<p>"No, your grandmother's niece."</p> + +<p>"And what became of the daughter? She would be about our age, would she +not?"</p> + +<p>"A good ten or twelve years older. We saw her marriage in the paper +some years ago. She married a soldier, and you know what we think of +them."</p> + +<p>"I should like to find her out, and know her."</p> + +<p>Abigail looked startled at the quiet determination in Heather's tone.</p> + +<p>"Your grandmother would not wish it," she said sternly. "I promised +that things should go on after her death as they had done in her life, +and I am ashamed of your wishing otherwise."</p> + +<p>Heather said nothing.</p> + +<p>Abigail waited with her hand on the door-handle for some response. +Finding there was none forthcoming, she went out.</p> + +<p>But there was a look of care and perplexity on her face as she joined +her fellow-servant in the kitchen. Rachael was a great contrast to +Abigail. She was a short, stout little woman with a cheery face and +manner, and though Abigail had a real and deep affection for the +twins, Rachael showed hers by terms of endearment and an outward +demonstrativeness that was very acceptable to the young girls.</p> + +<p>Bluebell termed the two women "Sugar" and "Salt." Perhaps the terms +were not inappropriate.</p> + +<p>An hour later, and the two girls sat down to a solemn dinner; one at +the head of the long dining-table, the other at the foot, and Abigail +waited upon them in silence.</p> + +<p>Neither of them felt at ease this evening. They had a consciousness +that Abigail was criticizing every word and smile, and they were +longing to be able to talk freely to each other, without her taciturn +presence.</p> + +<p>When at length she left them, and they were finishing their substantial +meal with some grapes and nuts, they relapsed into easy and perhaps +startling confidences.</p> + +<p>It was a delicious sensation to be planning out audacious schemes for +their future, and Heather talked with rapidity and animation of the +possibility of a wider and fuller life before them.</p> + +<p>They left the table at seven, for their dinner-hour was the +old-fashioned one of six. And they demurely walked into the +drawing-room to renew their talk over the fire.</p> + +<p>The drawing-room might have been a pretty room. Every article in it was +real and good of its kind, but for thirty years it had remained the +same, and the handsome blue damask chairs and couches were shrouded +in brown holland covers bound with blue braid. The orthodox round +table, with photograph albums and a case of carved ivory chessmen +upon it, stood in the centre of the room. Old china and valuable +paintings hung upon the walls, which were adorned with gilt and white +paper. The carpet and curtains were covered with large bouquets of +impossible-looking flowers, but age had softened and mellowed their +tints. Screens of wonderful wool-work stood about, depicting rosy-faced +milkmaids and children disporting themselves under green trees with +baskets of fruit; and white crochet antimacassars were placed in +profusion on all the chairs. The two slight girls, in their black silk +evening dresses heavily trimmed with crape, looked sadly out of keeping +with their gaudy surroundings.</p> + +<p>They laughed and talked in the firelight as only young girls can do, +and then as the clock struck nine, Abigail wheeled in a small table, +upon which tea, bread and butter, and cake were placed. Heather poured +out tea. But after they had finished it, they took out their books and +read on in silence till ten o'clock.</p> + +<p>Abigail came in then, bearing a large Bible and Prayer-book in her +hand, and Rachael followed her.</p> + +<p>Bluebell sat up, and in her soft clear voice read and prayed. The twins +divided their honours very evenly. Heather led the morning devotions, +and this they had done for some time previous to their grandmother's +death.</p> + +<p>After prayers were over, Abigail went up to their room with them, and +brushed and plaited their hair, after which the girls performed their +private devotions in silence, and were soon enjoying a sweet and sound +slumber in their white dimity beds.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_2">CHAPTER II</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A RELATION<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">"Her presence</span><br> +Fell on their hearts like a ray of the sun on the walls of a<br> + prison."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 23.5em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"HEATHER, is your religion real to you?"</p> + +<p>This startling question was asked by Bluebell the next morning as she +was conning over her morning chapter in the Bible, before going down to +breakfast.</p> + +<p>Heather was rolling up her curly hair in front of her glass, but her +eyes were not on her reflected image. They were straying out of the +window into the sunny meadows below. She turned round with a start. The +sisters were peculiarly reserved about their deepest feelings. They +never failed in performing their devotional duties, which had been +prescribed and enforced by their Quaker grandmother from their earliest +childhood. In fact, they would as soon have thought of omitting to +brush their hair as to omit their daily Bible reading before breakfast.</p> + +<p>"My religion!" said Heather. "Of course it is real. I am not a +hypocrite!"</p> + +<p>"How far does it go?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's merry eyes were soft and grave as she put the question.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean."</p> + +<p>"I have just been reading this verse:</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.'<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"We have been talking so much of seeing more of the world, that I have +been wondering if our longing after it is not wrong!"</p> + +<p>"I don't see that it is wrong," said Heather, slowly, "as long as we +don't let it take the place of God Himself. Knowing it and seeing it is +not loving it."</p> + +<p>"But that may lead to our loving it!"</p> + +<p>"I don't expect we shall ever have that chance," said Heather, +carelessly.</p> + +<p>Bluebell gazed at her verse thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I think I want to be real," she said, "but we have never had our +religion tested, Heather."</p> + +<p>"No, that is true. Our lives are so even and monotonous. Do you +remember our naughty days when we were children? How we used to escape +Abigail's clutches, and knowing the punishment that would follow, how +we would revel in wickedness till she caught us? We have steadied down +now, she would tell us. But I don't know. This time of perfect freedom +sets all the pulses in me throbbing and tingling for action. And I do +not think our religion condemns us to this narrow, fettered life. I do +not believe it is right for us two young girls to be shut away from all +society and friendship, and have no one to talk to but our inferiors. +It is not right; I feel it is not. I shall pray hard that we may be +taken out of it."</p> + +<p>Bluebell shut up her Bible, and said no more. She danced downstairs +with as light a heart as if no serious thoughts had ever troubled her. +She had the old-fashioned urn brought in, and made the tea, and when +Heather came in, she chattered away as usual about her plans for the +day.</p> + +<p>"I shall do some gardening this morning. And now the spring is coming +on, old Peter must come oftener than once a week, Heather. I think I +had better walk over to the village this afternoon. I want to see some +of my children, and I can see him at the same time, and tell him to +come and bed out some seedlings."</p> + +<p>"You might take some jelly to Mrs. Wick's little girl. Abigail says she +is ill again, poor child. Why, here is old Watty coming up the drive! +How exciting! Now, who can the letter be from?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell darted out into the hall at once, and soon returned, holding a +letter in her hand.</p> + +<p>"It is addressed to Miss Fotheringay, and it is quite a strange hand. +Let us open it."</p> + +<p>They read it with their curly heads close together, and certainly the +contents filled them with a dazed kind of wonder.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"Park Lane, W.</span><br> +<br> + "MY DEAR COUSIN,—I am an unknown quantity to you, but Mr. Brody, your +grandmother's lawyer, has been to me, and has enlisted my sympathy +on your behalf. He tells me you and your sister are left all alone, +and are young enough to need a chaperon. I feel, as I am your second +cousin, that I ought to do something for you, so propose to come and +pay you a little visit. If we like each other, we may hit upon some +plan that will be agreeable to all of us. I feel sure that you will be +able to put me up, so hope to be with you on Friday afternoon. I shall +leave my maid behind, and come quite by myself, so do not make any +extra preparations for me. Your affectionate cousin,—<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"IDA CARTER."</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Isn't it extraordinary," said Heather, "that while we were talking +about having no relations, she should be writing to us? She must be the +cousin, Abigail told me of yesterday. Coming here on Friday! I can't +believe it."</p> + +<p>"So our lives are going to widen out at once! I like her letter. How I +hope we shall like her. And what will Abigail say?"</p> + +<p>They had not much appetite for their breakfast. At half-past nine, +Abigail, Rachael, and Johnnie, the small boy who cleaned the knives and +boots and made himself generally useful, filed in to prayers. Heather +read and prayed with an abstracted mind.</p> + +<p>When it was over, Abigail began to remove the breakfast things.</p> + +<p>Bluebell stood on the hearthrug with nervously clasped hands. She +glanced at Heather, who sat down on the arm of a leather chair, and, +assuming a careless attitude, hummed the air of an old song.</p> + +<p>Abigail looked at them both a little sharply.</p> + +<p>"Who has written to you?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>Heather resolved to show a brave front.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you saw the postman, did you, Abigail? We have heard from our +cousin, Mrs. Carter, and she is coming to stay with us next Friday. The +spare room must be got ready for her."</p> + +<p>Her tone was dignified. Abigail was so startled at the news that she +forgot her good manners, and, placing her arms akimbo, ejaculated, "Now +may the good Lord deliver us from the wolf coming down upon the fold! +Give me the letter, Miss Heather; let me see it. Who has told her about +you, I should like to know?"</p> + +<p>For a moment, Heather hesitated. She was longing to assert her +authority, but the habits of a lifetime were too strong for her, and +she meekly put the letter into Abigail's hand. That good woman whipped +out her spectacles from her capacious pocket, read it and re-read it, +and then gave a contemptuous sniff.</p> + +<p>"I should like to give Mr. Brody a piece of my mind! 'Young enough to +need—' what's this word? 'Chaper—chaperon!' some French nonsense, I +suppose! You need nothing, and will need nothing as long as I am with +you; and I will give Mrs. Carter my word for that as soon as she enters +this house."</p> + +<p>Rarely had the girls seen Abigail so moved.</p> + +<p>Bluebell said timidly—</p> + +<p>"It is very kind of her, Abigail, to think of us at all; we have been +longing to know some of our relations, and it will be a great pleasure +to see her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you poor little creatures!"</p> + +<p>No one but Abigail could have put such contemptuous pity in her tone. +She took up a covered dish, and went out of the room, as if she were +afraid to trust herself further.</p> + +<p>Heather's cheeks were scarlet, and her grey eyes flashed angrily.</p> + +<p>"She treats us like babies! I am thankful we shall have some one who +will make her remember her proper place. Since grandmother's death, she +has got worse and worse. I should like to be free from her!"</p> + +<p>"We shall be!" exclaimed Bluebell, dancing lightly round the room. "We +shall go to London with Mrs. Carter, and see the world at last."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if it is an answer to my prayer this morning," said Heather, +thoughtfully, her ire dying away as suddenly as it came. "I have been +longing so for something to happen, but I never expected the change to +come so soon."</p> + +<p>"Miss Heather," said Abigail, entering the room again, and speaking +in her usually quiet, grave tone, "Rachael is waiting to have the +stores given out, and there is some of last year's jam that needs to be +freshly covered. Perhaps you can do that this morning."</p> + +<p>Heather seized her housekeeping keys, and ran out to the kitchen.</p> + +<p>It was a relief to hear Rachael's view of things.</p> + +<p>"There, my dear Miss Heather, of course Abigail is a bit upset. The +mistress was so anxious you should grow up steady, good young women, +and keep out of all the world's temptations, but I've been sayin' the +Lord will take care of His own. And if this Mrs. Carter be what we +fears, a giddy, worldly woman, well, she won't be allowed to harm you, +and you have a good head on your shoulders, and won't let your early +training be all brought to nought. 'Tis dull for you two young girls, +as I have been sayin' to Abigail, and any one belongin' to one's own +flesh and blood is very welcome. We'll hope for the best, and I think +I shall walk into town to-morrow, and order a few necessary additions +to the list we made yesterday. I'll do the best for my dear departed +mistress's credit to give the lady good meals while she is here, and +I'll have a couple of the young spring chickens killed at once!"</p> + +<p>The next two days were very busy and pleasant ones. The garden, the +greenhouse, every room was looked over, and adorned afresh.</p> + +<p>For the first time, the twins began to wonder if their country-made +black dresses were correct in style. They were keenly anxious that +their visitor should be favourably impressed.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>When Friday came, they wandered up and down the house, longing for, yet +dreading her advent. Dusk set in before she arrived. They went up to +the spare bedroom, put flowers on the toilet-table, lit up the massive +silver candlesticks, and looked round with a critical eye. It was a +gloomy room, but the linen was of the finest, the green damask curtains +round the four-post bed had all been freshly shaken and hung, and the +bright wood fire that Abigail had grudgingly lighted shed its ruddy +light over all the dark corners.</p> + +<p>"I think she will be comfortable," said Bluebell. "Oh, I hope she will +like it here."</p> + +<p>"I don't want her to think us incompetent," said Heather, with a little +toss of her head. "We have never had a guest before, but I shall make +a point of seeing to her comfort. And now will be our time for shaking +off Abigail's yoke. I mean to have a good try."</p> + +<p>"You'll never—never succeed," said Bluebell, laughing. "Abigail is too +old to become different. Oh, Heather, listen! There are wheels! I feel +quite shy. Shall we go down?"</p> + +<p>They reached the hall, and in another moment were face to face with +their guest. Abigail stood in the background, and felt that her worst +fears were realized.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter was a pretty, vivacious little woman. She was clad in a +scarlet jacket trimmed with astrakan, a toque with scarlet wings was +set jauntily over a quantity of dark frizzy hair, her dress was covered +with costly trimming, and an atmosphere of scent and perfumes was about +her.</p> + +<p>She looked at the two girlish figures in their unbecoming dresses of +black silk and crape, then embraced them warmly.</p> + +<p>"So delighted to make your acquaintance, dears. What an out of the way +place this is! Four miles from a railway station, and not a house did +we pass during the drive. I'm afraid I should die of the dumps if I +lived here."</p> + +<p>"Will you come up to your room now?" asked Heather, feeling quite +bewildered at such an apparition in their Quaker household.</p> + +<p>"If you like, or shall I come into the drawing-room first—I am longing +for a cup of tea."</p> + +<p>"We shall be dining in half an hour," said Heather, with an uneasy +glance at Abigail, "but if you would like a cup of tea, I will send it +up to you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. I think I should. I had a very early lunch. How like you +two girls are to each other! I shall never know the difference between +you. Come along, both of you, and show me my room."</p> + +<p>She rustled up the stairs, Heather leading the way, and she sank into +the easy chair by her fire with a little sigh of content.</p> + +<p>Looking at the two girls in front of her, she said—</p> + +<p>"Now tell me your names. I do not even know those, and yet I am a +cousin."</p> + +<p>"Our baptismal names are Drusilla and Priscilla," said Bluebell, +quickly, "but our mother could not bear them. She was Scotch, and did +not belong to the Friends. So she called us Heather and Bluebell, and +even grandmother got to call us so too. We try and forget that we were +called anything else!"</p> + +<p>"Very wise of you," laughed Mrs. Carter. "And now may I ask what time +you dine? Surely not yet?"</p> + +<p>"At six o'clock," Heather replied.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter raised her eyebrows, but said nothing, and at this moment, +a knock was heard at the door.</p> + +<p>Heather looked round, and saw Abigail with a face like thunder.</p> + +<p>"Have you brought Mrs. Carter a cup of tea?" Heather asked, lifting her +little head up proudly.</p> + +<p>She felt sure that Abigail was determined to prevent any confidences +being exchanged between them and their cousin, and she resented it +accordingly.</p> + +<p>Abigail looked at her charges with a glance that made them quail +beneath it.</p> + +<p>"You will please to go downstairs, young ladies," she said sternly, +"and I will attend upon the lady myself. I have something to say to +her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter looked up quickly, and was about to speak, but checked +herself. She nodded brightly to the girls as she saw them slipping from +the room.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image003" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image003.jpg" alt="image003"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU A WORD</b><br> +<b>OF CAUTION, MEM."</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"I shall see you downstairs presently," she called out after them. And +then she turned to Abigail—"I was not going to trouble you," she said +very sweetly, "but since you have offered to attend upon me, perhaps +you will unlace my boots for me. I miss my maid when I am away from +her."</p> + +<p>This was more than Abigail was prepared to do. But she went down on her +knees at once, and Mrs. Carter continued pleasantly—</p> + +<p>"I want to have a good talk with you soon about your young ladies, but +I am tired to-night, so we will put off our chat till to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Abigail, struggling on her knees with a refractory lace, felt herself +at a disadvantage. She said nothing till her task was done, then she +rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I would like to give you a word of caution, mem," she said grimly. "I +have been in this family for years, before you were born. I knew your +mother when she was a slip of a girl, and my late mistress has given +me a trust that I will be faithful to, cost me what it may. The young +ladies have been brought up apart from the world, and into it they +shall not go with my consent. I promised her I would look after them +as long as I lived. She did not wish me to communicate with you, or I +would have done so. You never came near her as long as she lived, and +there is no need now to come putting foolish and sinful ideas into the +poor children's heads. Perhaps you do not know that my mistress wished +them to live on here with me?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter leant back in her chair and smiled. "Yes, I do know it, +and Mr. Brody is their guardian, and I am sure you have their best +interests at heart. Now, do not let me keep you any longer. Perhaps you +will kindly unstrap my trunk before you go. Thank you. We will have our +chat to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Abigail went downstairs shaking her head solemnly. She felt she had met +her match, and difficult times were ahead for them all.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_3">CHAPTER III</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +IN AN OLD-FASHIONED HOUSEHOLD<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "Home-keeping hearts are happiest,<br> +For those that wander they know not where<br> +Are full of trouble and full of care—<br> + To stay at home is best."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 19em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>HEATHER'S cheeks were scarlet with mortified shame, when she and her +sister were turned out of their cousin's room by Abigail.</p> + +<p>"She—she almost makes me hate her," she said in a vehement whisper; +"but I am sure Mrs. Carter will not stand much from her. I know it is +wrong, but I hope she will be well snubbed; and I shall enjoy seeing +it!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell took the matter lightly. She was a happy-hearted girl with an +affectionate sunshiny disposition, and viewed life at present through +rose-coloured spectacles. She had also a keen sense of humour, and she +laughed now at the remembrance of Abigail's face when Heather inquired +for the cup of tea.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," she said, "we must not expect Abigail to be different now +from what she always is. She is too old to change. Did you see what a +lot of luggage Mrs. Carter has brought? I think she is lovely, don't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Heather, warmly. "I have never seen any one like her. +Now let us come into the drawing-room. I wish Abigail would have had +the holland covers taken off. I can't bear them."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter did not make her appearance till dinner was on the table. +In fact, she was ten minutes behind time, and came down in a black +satin dress with low neck and short sleeves, apologizing very prettily +for keeping them waiting. The girls were too well-bred to show their +feelings, but cast many a shy admiring glance at her through their long +lashes. The pearls round her neck, the glittering bracelets on her +white arms and sparkling rings upon her fingers, all appealed to their +love of beauty.</p> + +<p>She talked and chatted with them on the most trivial subjects through +the meal. Abigail moved to and fro with a grim face, and an aching +heart. When she had finally left the room, Mrs. Carter came to more +personal matters.</p> + +<p>"Have you girls ever been to school?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Then who has educated you?"</p> + +<p>"Grandmother."</p> + +<p>"I always heard her spoken of as a very clever and cultivated woman," +Mrs. Carter said slowly. "I wonder what she taught you?"</p> + +<p>"Everything," said Bluebell, rashly. "We used to work five hours every +day, often six."</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything of Algebra, Latin, or Mathematics?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's face fell.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"How many languages can you speak?"</p> + +<p>"We know French fairly well, a little German and Italian."</p> + +<p>"Can you sing and play?"</p> + +<p>"Heather can play the harp. And I can sing a little. I am not very fond +of music."</p> + +<p>"Grandmother used to say," said Heather, thoughtfully, "that a woman +should be thoroughly grounded in history and geography. She should have +plenty of general knowledge, so that she could always be at ease in +literary society and conversation. A little music was essential, but +the main duties in her life would be housekeeping; and this I think +Bluebell and I know to our finger ends."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what you can do," said Mrs. Carter, looking kindly at them.</p> + +<p>"We will tell you what we do do," said Bluebell, vivaciously. "Heather +keeps the accounts, she is better at it than I am. She also looks after +a small farm that belongs to us. We get our butter and milk from it, +and every week the farmer comes up and does business with her in the +study. He says she 'do have a wunnerful head.' She also has charge of +the store cupboard, and orders dinner every day. I make all the jam, +and potted meat, and pickles, and everything of that sort, and we have +a tiny dispensary with simple remedies for the village people, which +is my province. The linen cupboard is in my charge too, and I look +after all the mending. Sometimes we make jellies and broth for the sick +people in the village. Grandmother would have us both learn cooking. +She said a woman ought to know it thoroughly, and we can do most +things, can't we, Heather?"</p> + +<p>Heather assented, adding, "You see, we are a small household, but the +villagers look to us for everything. They come up once a week during +the winter for soup, and there are always some old and sick who want +special attention."</p> + +<p>"I dare say your grandmother was more sensible than most people of +the present day," said Mrs. Carter. "I do not hold with this college +education for women, but times have changed. It is not every girl who +is placed in such comfortable circumstances as you are. Now I should +like to know if you are all Quakers here?"</p> + +<p>"No, we have never been brought up so," said Heather. "There are no +Friends about here. Abigail and Rachael used to attend a little meeting +in the town, but it is too far for them to walk, and they generally +go to chapel. Grandmother never left the house for seven years before +she died. Bluebell and I walk over to church, which is two miles away. +Mr. Monk is the rector. He is very old and very poor, and we don't see +much of him. He comes to us when he wants any special relief for a +parishioner."</p> + +<p>"Have you no friends? Surely this is not the only big house in the +neighbourhood?"</p> + +<p>"Our squire lives eight miles off. We don't know him. Grandmother never +visited. Our doctor is an old bachelor, and he lives six miles away. We +never meet any one in our own station of life!"</p> + +<p>"What a life!"</p> + +<p>After this ejaculation, Mrs. Carter seemed lost in thought, and then +they moved into the drawing-room. She made Heather play to her, and +when she was seated at the harp, and Bluebell leant back in a low chair +by the fire to listen, Mrs. Carter looked at her young cousins with +greater interest than ever. Heather played some old Scotch airs, and +then drifted into "Il Trovatore." Her touch was light and sweet, and +Mrs. Carter was charmed with the grace and spirit with which she played.</p> + +<p>"I feel," she said, when Heather had come to the fire, and taken a seat +opposite hers, "that I am in a dream. I have gone back a generation. Do +you know that you are utterly unlike most girls of your own age?"</p> + +<p>"We have never seen any," said Heather, simply; "at least only the +farmers' daughters, and the villagers."</p> + +<p>"Did your grandmother expect you would live and die here in seclusion?"</p> + +<p>"We thought, till your letter came, that we should have to do it," said +Bluebell. Then she added, with a laughing light in her eyes, "Heather +was meditating a bold stroke for freedom; may we tell you about it? You +won't be shocked?"</p> + +<p>"I do not think you two little Puritans will be likely to shock me," +was the amused reply. "Tell me, by all means."</p> + +<p>Then Heather spoke in hushed tones, with a backward glance at the door, +for fear of Abigail's form appearing.</p> + +<p>"It is Abigail. She rules us with a rod of iron. You saw how she sent +us from your room before dinner. She has been worse than ever since +grandmother died. She treats us like tiny children. And Bluebell and I +are children no longer. We are mistresses here; we have our own money. +Grandmother left everything to us. I know all about it, for I have +been over it with Mr. Brody. We have quite enough money to live very +comfortably, and—and to travel."</p> + +<p>"Yes," put in Bluebell, "and we were going up to London by ourselves. +We had hardly settled whether we should dismiss Abigail from our +service, or run away without telling her. Of course she would never +have allowed us to go to London, we knew that. It would have been more +dignified to send her away, but it would have taken a lot of courage to +do it, and she is—well—very awe-inspiring!"</p> + +<p>"I think we should have been driven to do it," said Heather. "I could +not have run away from our own home like a coward; and I have felt +lately things were getting desperate. You have come and solved the +difficulty. It will be all right now."</p> + +<p>"By that you mean I am to do battle on your behalf? Well, we will see."</p> + +<p>When tea was brought in by Abigail, she saw the new-comer on the best +of terms with the two girls, who, with flushed cheeks and bright eyes, +were listening to some of her London experiences. Abigail went out to +Rachael, and in tones of despair exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"She has bewitched them with her airs and graces. They didn't even so +much as look at me when I went in! They're drinking in the poison, and +it will be the ruin of their young lives. And I have to stand by and +say nothin'!"</p> + +<p>She wrung her hands, and Rachael looked aghast at the imperturbable +Abigail being so deeply moved.</p> + +<p>"We must trust them to the Lord," she said soothingly. "Maybe Mrs. +Carter is only young and giddy. She will find this a dull place to +linger in. She will come and go, and, when once in London, will forget +all about them again. Don't you fret now, don't, for mercy's sake!"</p> + +<p>Abigail shook her head, but said no more. She would not tell Rachael +her worst fears.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Prayer-time came, and Bluebell very simply asked Mrs. Carter to lead +the devotions. She laughed and declined, but watched her young cousin +sit up and conduct them with an amused and yet softened look in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"And now you are going to bed," she said afterwards. "Well, I will too; +it is not much beauty sleep that I get in town!"</p> + +<p>But when she was up in her bedroom, she did not retire to rest. Drawing +up the writing-table to her fire, she wrote a long letter to her +husband. And this was what she wrote:—</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "DEAREST OLD HAL,—I think I have tumbled into one of the quaintest and +most out of the world households in existence. I have to pinch myself +sometimes to make sure that I am not dreaming. How I wish you were here +to enjoy it with me. For enjoying it I am, and that most thoroughly. +Where shall I begin? With the house itself, I think. It is one of those +thoroughly comfortable old-fashioned residences, with thick walls, and +picturesque corners and gables, casement windows and deep window-seats, +plenty of good old oak about it.<br> +<br> + "I could make it simply sweet; but, oh, my dear boy! I think even +your inartistic soul would stand aghast at the colours and style of +the decorations within! I have been sitting in the drawing-room, and +inwardly shuddering all the time at my surroundings. I should think it +was furnished sixty or seventy years ago, in the most hideous fashion +of our grandmothers, and has never touched since—all gilt and white, +with the crudest colours all bunched together, a large long room with +four windows. Not a plant or flower in it. Chairs and sofas in brown +holland.<br> +<br> + "Fancy worsted-work screens, and glass cases of flowers, stuffed birds, +and fruit. Well, you're a man; and I can't write to you as I should to +a woman, so I will stop. Every room is the same. And yet, with it all, +it is thoroughly comfortable, though so inharmonious. I have not seen +the grounds, but I believe the garden is not a large one. There are +dense shrubberies in all directions. The household goes by clockwork. +You never saw such old characters as the two Quaker servants. They and +a small boy do all the work of the house between them. How they manage +it, I don't know, for I can give them credit for keeping everything +in the most beautiful order. The linen and plate are the very +best—exquisite, in fact—but I always heard that Quakers were noted for +those two items in their households.<br> +<br> + "And now I come to the girls. I wonder what you will think of them! +I foresee a bright future for them after a little training. Of course, +they are in the most hideous garbs imaginable, but it says much for +their natural grace that they draw attention to themselves, and not +to their dress. They hold themselves well, and are, as far as I have +seen them yet, without a trace of self-consciousness. Perfectly simple +and natural, but oh, so undeveloped! And yet, sometimes, when I say to +myself what babies they are, they will startle me with some words of +wisdom or depth of feeling that I feel I don't possess myself! They are +tall, slim maidens, with the most lovely eyes and hair, and delicate +features and complexions, as like as two peas. I don't yet know them +apart.<br> +<br> + "They are guarded by a regular dragon, whom I am longing to fight +and subdue. She sees in me everything that is evil, and is fiercely +determined that I shall not carry off her nurselings. I don't yet +know what I shall do with them, but they are too pretty to waste +their sweetness on the desert air. Tell me what you advise. Can't you +run down from Saturday to Monday? Don't get into mischief while your +'missis' is away, and tell Cyril that if I find the slightest whiff of +tobacco in my drawing-room when I return, he shall receive his 'congé' +immediately. Don't go to too many theatres, and remember I may be at +home any day, so will catch you out before you know it! Your loving—<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 13em;">"IDA."</span><br> +<br> + "P.S.—Imagine no afternoon tea, dinner at six o'clock, and an +old-fashioned tea-table with hot-buttered toast and cakes, wheeled +into the drawing-room at nine o'clock! Prayers at ten, and then to +bed; and if you could have seen the sweet gravity with which one of +these children conducted our devotions, and the calm air with which she +handed me a huge Bible, I think you would have longed to be good as I +did!"<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>The next morning Mrs. Carter begged to be shown over the house, and +whilst Heather was attending to her housekeeping, Bluebell took her +round. The study, which had been the girls' nursery and schoolroom in +former years, was rather a gloomy-looking room, but opened into a small +greenhouse, in which was a large cage of canaries filling the air with +their songs. Bluebell's plants and flowers looked flourishing; she was +a born gardener, and knew how to pot, plant, and graft to perfection. +She took her cousin out into the garden, which had a long stretch of +green turf edged with old elm trees, and a few flower beds; and a very +small kitchen garden was beyond.</p> + +<p>"We get most of our vegetables from the farm. Heather will take you +over to see that. We sometimes go there, and make the butter. When +Annie was ill—she is the farmer's wife; she used to help in the house, +and married our gardener who is now the farmer—when she was ill, after +her last baby was born, Heather and I went down and made the butter +every day!"</p> + +<p>"You are most industrious young people. I shall be quite afraid of you. +I am sure you never do anything wrong—now, do you?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's laugh rang out merrily.</p> + +<p>"Abigail would tell you how many scoldings we get in a day! But do you +know," and the girl's eyes were almost serious as she turned them upon +her cousin, "since we have been our own mistresses, we don't seem to +have got into half so many scrapes. In fact, when we are left to do +exactly as we like, we find that there is no temptation to do what we +ought not to do."</p> + +<p>"The moral is that you should be always left to yourselves, isn't it? I +am afraid you will not be willing to hand yourselves over to my keeping +for a little, will you?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked up eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to offer to take us away with you?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't said so. We must talk over it with your sister."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_4">CHAPTER IV</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"The soul, emancipated, unoppressed,<br> + Free to prove all things, and hold fast the best,<br> + Learns much."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 23.5em;">COWPER.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>MRS. CARTER seemed to adapt herself with the greatest ease to the quiet +routine of her young cousins' home. She was always bright and pleasant, +always ready for a chat with any one, from Rachael to little Johnnie +and any of the villagers who came in her way. Abigail alone stoutly +resisted her charms; and Abigail she had resolved to conquer by charms, +or sheer strength of will.</p> + +<p>She came down one morning braced for the conflict, looking, in her +fresh tailor-made shirt and skirt, a dainty little person. Captain +Carter had declined to come to her help, and she was longing to be back +in town with him again.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely spring morning. As she looked across at her little +black-robed cousins, she said, "I long to put you two girls into fresh +spring frocks. Don't look so shocked. I don't mean you should leave off +your mourning, but you might have lost two parents from the depth of +your crape!"</p> + +<p>"Grandmother acted as a parent," said Heather, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, I know, but such deep mourning is out of date. It is only +a matter of custom. It does those who are gone no mortal good, and +is only a burden to the wearers. Now I want to talk to you both very +seriously. I must be going home in a few days. Would you like to come +with me, and see some of the sights of London? Of course we shall +be very quiet. Your recent loss would be quite sufficient excuse to +prevent your going out much. But we could do a good deal in a quiet +way, and I am sure the change of air and scene would do you both a +great deal of good."</p> + +<p>"We should like to," said Heather, thoughtfully, "but Abigail is so +dreadfully set against it that she would never agree to it!"</p> + +<p>"You told me a little time ago, you would give her notice to leave if +she interfered with us," said Bluebell, mischievously.</p> + +<p>"I know I did, but that was when the possibility of doing it seemed +vague and uncertain."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Carter, a little impatiently; "I cannot force you to +come against your wills, but, if you would like to come, I will manage +Abigail."</p> + +<p>"I don't know who would take up the—the things we do," said Heather. +"The villagers will miss us going in and out, and we help a good deal +in the house."</p> + +<p>"My dear child, I am only asking for a short visit. Abigail could be +quite well left in charge until you returned. I am not asking you to +give up your home altogether."</p> + +<p>"Of course we must come," said Bluebell, impetuously. "It will be our +first chance of seeing more of life, which Heather is always longing +for. Abigail is the stumbling-block. If you will manage her, we will +come—gratefully and gladly, won't we, Heather?"</p> + +<p>And Heather assented a little doubtfully, but in accents of relief at +her sister's taking the decision into her own hands.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter waited till the afternoon to broach the subject to Abigail. +She sent the girls out for a walk, and when they were well out of the +way, she asked Abigail to come and have a little chat with her.</p> + +<p>She was sitting in the drawing-room, and Abigail entered with +compressed lips and lowering brows. She had a presentiment of what was +coming, and if Mrs. Carter had braced herself for the interview, so had +she.</p> + +<p>"Won't you sit down, Abigail? We shall not be interrupted, for I don't +suppose you have one visitor in a twelvemonth here, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose we might have a good many, if we opened the doors to all who +asked themselves without invitation," was the grim reply.</p> + +<p>"It is only a cousin's privilege to do that," responded Mrs. Carter, +gaily. "Now, we won't fence round the bush, but I will come at once to +the point. I have asked your young ladies to come and pay me a visit, +and they are coming to London with me the beginning of next week."</p> + +<p>"That they are not," was the stern reply, "and you'll excuse me for +contradicting you, mem. I've nursed those children since their birth, +and being their rightful guardian now, I shall have my say in the +matter."</p> + +<p>"Now, look here, Abigail, listen to me. I admire your faithfulness +and mistaken ideas of duty, but if you are as sensible a woman as I +take you to be, you must know in your heart that the present state of +things here cannot last. Miss Heather and Miss Bluebell are young, but +they are of age. Their grandmother left them her money without any +restrictions; and they have a perfect right to make their plans as they +think best. Do you imagine that they could be kept in this isolated +fashion for much longer? Did their grandmother wish to make nuns of +them? If so, she might as well have sent them off to a convent at once. +What do you think will happen to them when you and Rachael are taken +from them? You are neither of you very young persons, and in all human +probability, they will outlive you many years. Then two young girls +would be left friendless and unprotected, too innocent of the world and +its ways, to be able to defend themselves from any dangers that might +beset them."</p> + +<p>"Nothing will make me consent to them going away with you, if you +please, mem. No amount of smooth-spoken words will make me do it. +Perhaps I may have my say. My late mistress has trained the young +ladies in the way that they should go, and I have helped her to do it. +They are trained for heaven, and not for the pomps and vanities of this +wicked world. They are leading happy, useful lives here, and until you +came to instil sinful desires into their innocent minds, had no wish +to do otherwise. My late mistress did not wish them to be acquainted +with you at all. We have often talked it over together. Your husband is +a soldier—that alone prejudiced her against you. You live a butterfly +existence; your dress is such that no decent woman would wear. The +young ladies have never been accustomed to see bare necks and arms of +an evening, and such an amount of jewellery and flash! You wish to make +them like yourself, to rob them of their piety, their innocence, and +their maidenly modesty. You would take them to dances, to theatres, +to all sorts of worldly pleasures, you would deck them in flowers and +coloured silks and satins, you would have them spend their substance in +riotous living. I know the ways of London, and I tell you, mem, I would +rather see them in their graves than taken away to be under your roof +and influence."</p> + +<p>Abigail paused for breath.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter looked as placid and smiling as ever. "I think you +misunderstand me, Abigail. I am not going to take them away from you +altogether. They have a sweet old home here, and have no intention of +leaving it. But they tell me they have never slept a night away for +the last three years. It is extremely bad for them. Change of air is +necessary to us all, especially after the sad time they have lately +gone through. I think you are letting your prejudice run away with your +sound common sense. You are afraid I am going to steal your chicks from +you, and so in the soreness of your heart, you give me the credit of +all that is bad, and paint me as black as you can. I can promise you +that their religion shall not suffer whilst with me. I go to church +twice every Sunday, and once in the week all through Lent. I have only +asked them for a month, and have told them that their deep mourning +alone prevents them from taking part in any of the gaieties. London is +very quiet now, and will be until after Easter. You will have them back +with you then, more than ever in love with their sweet country home, +after all the dust and glare of London streets."</p> + +<p>"They shall never go with you," repeated Abigail, with determined lips. +"Never shall they leave me, while I have health and strength to prevent +it. You talk of your religion, mem, but it must be the religion of +the Pharisees of old, a whitened sepulchre outside, and inside dead +bones! Haven't I seen you stifling a yawn when we are in the midst of +our morning devotions? Have you any real love for the Word of Life, +and for the God who gave it to us? Ay, you may go to church, and think +that church-going covers a multitude of sins. You may bend your head +in worship, when your heart is full of disobedience and rebellion +against your Maker. Do you live for His glory alone, mem? Do you know +what it is to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow the +Master who was despised and rejected of men? If the summons came to +you to-day—'This night thy soul shall be required of thee'—would you +be ready to meet the Judge of all the earth? Folks talk about their +religion! Religion, as you understand it, won't redeem your soul from +destruction, won't blot out the sins and follies of a lifetime. It +lulls your immortal soul to sleep, and gives you a false peace that +will prove your ruin!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Abigail, I did not call you in here to preach to me. It +is beside the question altogether. If you will not see things in a +reasonable light, I will reason with you no longer. The young ladies +are coming home with me next week. There is nothing more to be said."</p> + +<p>"And how will you send them back to me?" said Abigail, in the +bitterness of her soul. "Having given them a taste of sinful pleasures, +and drawn them into your net, do you think they'll come back as fresh +and innocent as when they went?"</p> + +<p>"They may come back engaged to be married," said Mrs. Carter, +exasperatingly calm in tone. "I am going to try and get them good +husbands. That is the best thing that could happen to them."</p> + +<p>Abigail turned her back upon the speaker, and walked straight out of +the room. With clenched hands she went upstairs to her bedroom, and +there locking the door, she went down on her knees by her bedside in +agony of supplication.</p> + +<p>"Oh, God Almighty," she gasped, "I am weak and helpless by the side of +this sinful woman. Thou knowest how I have prayed for these children. +I have hoped they were in Thy fold. All things are possible to Thee! +Frustrate the design of the evil one. Give them the desire to stay at +home, and the strength to resist her persuasions. It is the thin edge +of the wedge, Lord. Oh, help me in this hour of need. Do Thou send +deliverance. All things are possible to Thee."</p> + +<p>Her honest, rugged face was quivering with emotion. She rose from her +knees more hopeful. Surely her influence was not at an end with the +girls! She would appeal to them, and as soon as they came back from +their walk, she would speak to them alone.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter did not feel very comfortable after Abigail's departure; +she got up and paced the room, her pretty brows contracted with +thought. Was it true that her religion was merely an empty form? +Abigail's words stung deeply, and she began to feel a little hesitation +in taking away the girls. Then she laughed aloud:</p> + +<p>"She is an ignorant, narrow-minded woman, and though I respect her +motives, it is ridiculous and absurd to suppose that my influence will +do the girls any harm."</p> + +<p>She met the twins at the hall door, when they returned.</p> + +<p>"Abigail and I have fought it out," she said laughingly. "She is sure +to speak to you, but say as little as possible, and it will be all +right."</p> + +<p>The girls looked at each other, then ran up to their room to take their +hats off.</p> + +<p>"I hope Abigail won't make a great fuss," said Heather; "but I feel, I +don't care if she does."</p> + +<p>"No, we shall soon get away from her. She has really no power to +prevent our going."</p> + +<p>A knock at the door made them look at each other in dismay.</p> + +<p>"Here she is, now for it!" said Bluebell, adding in a louder voice. +"Come in."</p> + +<p>Abigail appeared with a white and rigid face. Heather turned to her +looking-glass, and began to hum a tune as she arranged the front of her +hair. Her heart was beating violently, but she controlled her voice as +she said carelessly, "Do you want anything, Abigail?"</p> + +<p>For a moment Abigail did not speak. Then she turned to the door and +locked it behind her, standing like a sentinel in front of it.</p> + +<p>"It is well to prevent interruption," she said dryly; "for I have a few +words to say to you both, and I wish to have time to say them."</p> + +<p>"Now, Abigail, don't be cross," said Bluebell, plunging into the matter +at once. "We know what you're going to say, but our minds are quite +made up, and nothing you can say will alter our arrangements."</p> + +<p>"And may I ask, Miss Bluebell, if the wishes of one who has nursed you +from babyhood, and has your best welfare at heart, are to count for +nothing? Is an irreligious and flighty stranger by her flatteries and +temptations to beguile you from your home and your God? Are you and +Miss Heather so weak and foolish as to believe all her deceiving words, +and go astray like silly sheep from the true fold I was trusting you +were in?"</p> + +<p>Then Heather faced round with flushed cheeks and earnest eyes.</p> + +<p>"One would think we were going to do a dreadfully wicked thing, from +the way you talk, Abigail. We are going to London on a visit; our +mother did the same thing when she was young, and so did grandmother, +she told us so. You have no right to say we shall be acting wrongly."</p> + +<p>"'Tis the company you're going with, and the company you'll meet +with, you silly child, that is the sin. How can you serve God in such +a worldly house as you'll be going to? It's enough to raise your +grandmother's ghost, after all she has done and said to make you grow +up into good and virtuous young women! How can you go down on your +knees and ask God's blessing on such an enterprise? You're just a +couple of silly moths fluttering round the light, and it will be your +destruction in the end."</p> + +<p>Abigail's vehement earnestness had the effect she desired on her +charges. They looked at each other with troubled eyes. She continued in +tones of entreaty—</p> + +<p>"Now, be good children, and be advised by me. I would cut off my right +hand to prevent you going! I know the wickedness of the world, and you +do not. If you are tired of this place, you can go for a change to the +seaside with me. The summer will be coming on. I will do all in my +power to give you change and brightness. If you go with Mrs. Carter, +your happiness and peace in religion will depart from you. 'No man can +serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon!'"</p> + +<p>"But we mean to serve God in London," said Heather, in hesitating +tones. "There must be some good people there. We shall not do anything +that grandmother would not have liked us to do."</p> + +<p>Then Abigail took a false step. Seeing the girls were already wavering, +she thought she would clench their decision.</p> + +<p>"I forbid you to go!" she cried. "You were left in my charge, and I +shall prevent it. Mrs. Carter shall go back alone, and I'll lock you in +your rooms rather than you should go with her. You know how determined +I can be, and if fair words shall not move you, force will. You can +plan and plot as you like, but never as long as I'm alive shall I let +you go with her."</p> + +<p>If only Abigail had known how fatal these words were to her cause, she +would have bitten her tongue out rather than have uttered them.</p> + +<p>Heather's eyes flashed fire at once.</p> + +<p>"I think you forget, Abigail, your position. Bluebell and I have a +perfect right to make what plans we choose without consulting you in +the least. And—and we mean to in future. We have arranged to go to +London with Cousin Ida, and go we shall, and if you make any more fuss +about it, I shall give you notice to leave us!"</p> + +<p>Abigail was perfectly speechless. Never had she dreamt of such utter +indifference to her authority. She could hardly believe it was Heather +speaking. This was turning the tables upon her with a vengeance!</p> + +<p>"You poor misguided young creatures!" she exclaimed, and the real love +for them at the bottom of her heart seemed to come uppermost at once. +With a little choke in her throat, she unlocked the door, and went out +without another word.</p> + +<p>And Heather, white and trembling at the thought of her audacity, sank +down on a chair and burst into a flood of tears.</p> + +<p>Bluebell put her arms around her, and cried too. "We have done it, we +have done it!" she said. "And now we must go straight on, and never +look back!"</p> + +<p>"I wish," sobbed inconstant Heather, "that Cousin Ida had never found +us out. I am sure we shall come to a bad end! We are going against +grandmother and Abigail, and God won't give us His blessing!"</p> + +<p>And so it was with tears and misgivings that the twins gained their +independence.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_5">CHAPTER V</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +IN PARK LANE<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "This world is not worthy of your soul. Give it not a Good-day when +[Christ] cometh in competition with it."—RUTHERFORD.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>THE fly from the neighbouring town was at the door. Rachael and Johnnie +were assisting with the luggage. Abigail was nowhere to be seen. +Heather and Bluebell looked dazed and uncomfortable, but the future had +still its attractions for them. They had been into the kitchen early +that morning to get a little comfort from Rachael.</p> + +<p>"Do say you don't think us wicked, Rachael!" pleaded Heather. "It is so +dreadful leaving home when Abigail is so angry. She has hardly spoken +to us for the last three or four days."</p> + +<p>"Bless you both!" exclaimed warm-hearted Rachael. "I'm trusting to +the good Lord to take care of you, as I keep telling Abigail. She's +not angry with you, but sore grieved about it. We learn wisdom by +our mistakes sometimes. Ask the Lord's guidance, and He will give it +to you, and if you get to love the world more than Him, give it up +and come back. You'll want great judgment to discern, and separate +yourselves from the right and wrong that is mixed up in gay society. +But I'm trusting that we shall soon have you back again."</p> + +<p>They went to find Abigail at the last moment. She was locked in her +room.</p> + +<p>"Say good-bye to us," Bluebell called out.</p> + +<p>There was no answer for a moment, and then Abigail's stern old voice +rang out, "'She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.'"</p> + +<p>Not a word more could they get out of her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come on," exclaimed Heather, dragging Bluebell away. "She doesn't +care a bit for us. I told you it was no good coming up to her."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>When the fly drove away, Abigail leant out of her window, and with +straining eyes followed it. Her heart was nearly broken. She could +hardly realize that, after all these years of care and loving tyranny, +her authority had been swept aside with such ease, and that her +charges, in utter indifference to her threats and persuasions, had +taken their future into their own hands, and had left their home in +company with a comparative stranger.</p> + +<p>When they had passed out of her sight, she wiped the tears away with +her apron.</p> + +<p>"They're gone for ever. If I see them again, they'll be no longer the +innocent girls they are now."</p> + +<p>And then she walked downstairs, and set about cleaning the house, +and putting away all traces of the ones who had left her. From that +time forward, she closed her lips, and would never discuss her young +mistresses with Rachael or any one.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when the girls reached +Paddington Station with their cousin. As they alighted on the platform, +feeling bewildered with the bustle and confusion around them, a tall, +soldier-like man came forward, and Mrs. Carter seized hold of his arms +in delight.</p> + +<p>"Hal, you old dear! I never thought you would come to meet us. Here are +the girls. Let me introduce you. Now, will you see to our luggage?"</p> + +<p>Captain Carter pulled his big moustache, and looked down upon his +young wife with great affection. After the first glance at the girls, +who were hardly looking their best in their country-made garments, he +busied himself in carrying out his wife's directions, and he and she +carried on an animated conversation during the drive home.</p> + +<p>Heather and Bluebell were quietly enjoying all the fresh sights +and sounds around them. When they came into Mrs. Carter's pretty +drawing-room, full of hothouse plants and tasteful furniture, the +contrast between it and their room at home struck them very forcibly.</p> + +<p>Afternoon tea was brought in on a dainty little table, and then, just +as Captain Carter was handing them a cup, the door opened, and a very +tall, broad-shouldered man, bearing a great resemblance to the captain, +strolled in. Mrs. Carter welcomed him warmly, to which he responded +with a comical shrug of his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I feel I ought to do the welcoming, for Hal and I are quite at home +here. We have had a most enjoyable time together during your absence. +In fact, Hal has just come to the stage of believing that the house +belongs to him. Imagine it!"</p> + +<p>"You are as rude as ever, I see. Now, girls, let me introduce you to my +brother-in-law, Mr. Cyril Carter. He has just been returned member for +his county, and it has rather turned his head."</p> + +<p>Cyril Carter smiled very pleasantly as he bowed to the twins.</p> + +<p>"Your cousin is a martinet in her house. Did you know it? I hardly +know now which chair I can safely sit down upon without outraging some +delicate piece of work that has a trick of slipping down directly you +touch it. I set to work the other day with a needle and cotton and +sewed them on like grim death to the backs of the chairs to which they +are supposed to belong, but one of the maids, I see, has carefully +unpicked all my work. I expect she was afraid of her mistress."</p> + +<p>"I have been wondering how many of my household gods would be +destroyed," said Mrs. Carter, looking round the room as she spoke.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image004" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image004.jpg" alt="image004"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"WHERE IS MY WHITE FLOWER-POT?"</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"I don't think I shall ever leave two men alone in the house again. I +have lain awake at night thinking of the havoc I should find. Hal!"—And +sitting upright in her chair, Mrs. Carter pointed severely to a small +table in the window—"Where is my white flower-pot?"</p> + +<p>Captain Carter looked in a guilty manner across at his brother, who +leant back in his chair with a complacent smile.</p> + +<p>"Don't look at me, my dear fellow. I am not your scapegoat."</p> + +<p>Poor Captain Carter gulped down his cup of tea, and walked to the door.</p> + +<p>"I'm just going to have a smoke," he said carelessly. "I'm very sorry, +my dear, but it was when I heard that you were really coming home +to-day. In the excess of joy, I was standing up to execute a 'pas +seul', when my coat-tails caught the pot, and it fell—"</p> + +<p>"'Oh, what a fall was there!'" quoted Cyril with tragic air. "'Then you +and I and all the world fell down. Whilst—'"</p> + +<p>Captain Carter had disappeared. His wife stopped her brother-in-law's +quotation with a little vexed laugh.</p> + +<p>"I might have known it! And I gave seven and sixpence for that pot! +Girls, would you like to come upstairs? Don't think all members of +Parliament are as frivolous as this specimen. Come along—this way!"</p> + +<p>They had been listening to the conversation with amused faces, but +followed her at once, and were charmed with their rooms, which led into +one another, and were dainty in the extreme.</p> + +<p>"My maid will come and help you to unpack. Take a good rest. We do not +dine till eight."</p> + +<p>She left them, and they looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"Do you like it?" Heather asked.</p> + +<p>Bluebell nodded.</p> + +<p>"I think it seems delicious," she said; "every one is in such good +spirits, and it is all so different from home. Doesn't it seem a year +since this morning?"</p> + +<p>Heather looked out of her window which faced Hyde Park, and said +thoughtfully—</p> + +<p>"I cannot get Abigail's verse out of my head. 'She that liveth in +pleasure is dead while she liveth.' Where is that verse, Bluebell; do +you know?"</p> + +<p>"No. We will look when we do our reading to-night. We are not going to +live in pleasure, so why should it worry you?"</p> + +<p>"I think—we are," was Heather's slow reply.</p> + +<p>Bluebell did not answer. She was diving into her trunk, and brought up +her head with a flushed and anxious look.</p> + +<p>"I wish our dresses were made more like Cousin Ida's," she said. "I +never used to think of dress, but I am sure we look great frights. She +said to-day that she would take us to her dressmaker as soon as she +could. Do you like Captain Carter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and his brother too. But they talk more like boys than men; don't +you think so?"</p> + +<p>"I like it. I don't feel a bit afraid of either of them."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, they were the subjects of discussion downstairs. Captain +Carter could not stay away from his wife for very long, and he was back +in the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "you will have your hands full. I never saw such +oddities. What are you going to make of them?"</p> + +<p>"Humble imitations of your wife, sir," Mrs. Carter said, dropping him +a mock curtsey. "You wait till I have got them some London frocks! +I prophesy that next season they will be acknowledged beauties in +society. I shall marry one to a foreign prince and the other to a +duke—or shall I say a worthy millionaire? Dukes are all so poor +nowadays. Well, Cyril, you old wiseacre! I saw you stealing covert +glances at them through your half-closed lids. What do you think of +them?"</p> + +<p>"I think one of them is the ditto of the other," put in Captain Carter; +"I don't see the object in having the two. One expects a little variety +in one's guests."</p> + +<p>"I know them apart already," said his brother. "What is the one called +with the laughing eyes? They are the only bit of life about her staid +little figure, but they're as merry as a cricket!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is Bluebell. Isn't it a pretty name! And the graver-faced one +is Heather. I think she is the more clever of the two, and she has a +good bit of pride about her. I am going to give them dancing-lessons at +once. Fancy their never having had any! They have been brought up in a +Quaker household, and you must both be very careful not to shock them. +I am going to bring them on by degrees. Oh, I must tell you of the +she-dragon who has been fighting me!"</p> + +<p>And forthwith Mrs. Carter gave a most vivid and laughable description +of the quiet household in which she had been staying. Abigail's tone +and manner were mimicked so successfully that her husband laughed till +the tears rolled down his cheeks.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>The girls made their appearance at dinner with flushed cheeks and +bright eyes. Before the evening was over, they were on easy terms with +Captain Carter and his brother. Many things puzzled them, especially +the light badinage that flew backwards and forwards, but being +perfectly natural and unconscious of self, they got on far better than +they had feared.</p> + +<p>"I would like to change places with you," said Cyril to Bluebell in the +course of the evening; "it must be so delightful to be viewing London +and society for the first time. You ought to keep a diary—I suppose you +do, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Bluebell, laughing. "I don't see the use of diaries, do you? +Unless you are very very good, and leave them for people to publish +after your death, when they write your biography."</p> + +<p>"But aren't you very very good?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell shook her little head in the negative.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear no. Of course we try to be—everybody does, I suppose." Then in +a graver tone she added, "Our old servant Abigail thinks us very wicked +to come to London, but Heather and I don't agree with her. It doesn't +say much for your religion if you can only be good in one place."</p> + +<p>Cyril twisted his moustache in silence, looking at her with amused +eyes. Then he said lightly, "Let me know when our London air takes +effect, and you feel yourself turning wicked. Now, what sights are you +going to see to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked across at Mrs. Carter.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said hesitatingly. "You must ask Mrs. Carter."</p> + +<p>"What do you want to see most? The shops, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no indeed, we have shops at home. They are only three miles off."</p> + +<p>Cyril's eyes twinkled, but he went on gravely, "There must be a good +deal you are longing to see, isn't there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we want to see Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, and the +Zoological Gardens, and London Bridge, and—oh, ever so many places. The +Houses of Parliament too; you speak there, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Not always," said Cyril, dryly.</p> + +<p>"Ask him to rehearse his maiden speech," put in Captain Carter. "It +is like a page or two of Chaucer that I learnt when a boy. It was so +indelibly impressed upon my brain that I shall remember it to my dying +day. Your cousin and I had a private hearing of it, Miss Fotheringay. +It was about one a.m. We thought we heard murmured voices, and so +prowled round the house expecting to find burglars gloating over our +plate. We found the sounds proceeded from his room, and putting our +ears to the keyhole, heard our member, with inflated chest and sonorous +tones, addressing the House. It was grand. It saved us the trouble of +going to hear him the next day. He learnt every word of it by heart, +and he rolled it off with the fluency of a Paddy!"</p> + +<p>So with chat and laughter the evening wore away.</p> + +<p>The twins came upstairs to bed very tired, but very happy.</p> + +<p>As they were doing their evening's reading, Heather said with a +sigh—"Poor old Abigail! I don't feel quite comfortable at leaving +without her blessing."</p> + +<p>"I think she was really angry at our taking our own way instead of +hers," said Bluebell, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Is it our own way? It ought to be God's way."</p> + +<p>Heather sat down by the fire and clasped her hands round her knees as +she uttered these words.</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked up from her Bible quickly.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why it shouldn't be God's way for us. You told me you were +praying to have a fuller life. And then Cousin Ida came. I am thanking +God she did, and I shall thank Him every day for all our pleasures."</p> + +<p>There was almost a defiant note in her tones.</p> + +<p>Heather looked at her with a smile.</p> + +<p>"You always think everything is for the best."</p> + +<p>Bluebell did not reply for a minute, then she raised her head from her +Bible again.</p> + +<p>"Here it is. In the First Epistle to Timothy. 'But she that liveth in +pleasure is dead while she liveth.' It is about widows, I think."</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind, I'm so sleepy. Let us go to bed."</p> + +<p>But before Heather dropped off to sleep, she murmured, "Poor old +Abigail! I hope her verse won't come true!"</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_6">CHAPTER VI</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A TASTE OF TOWN LIFE<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "Every beginning is pleasant. The threshold is the place of +expectation."—GOETHE.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"BLUEBELL, do you know we have been here a month to-day? What shall I +say about our coming home to Rachael? I am writing to her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you needn't say anything, need you? Cousin Ida has no intention of +letting us go yet. Make haste with your letter, the dinner-bell will +ring soon. Give my love to Rachael, and tell her to give the canaries a +little saffron in their water. That is what they want when they don't +seem well."</p> + +<p>"Any message to Abigail?"</p> + +<p>"I should think not, indeed. She has never sent us one, or written us +one line since we left."</p> + +<p>"Well, we haven't written to her."</p> + +<p>"No, and we don't want to. Oh, Heather, aren't you longing for the +concert to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>The girls are sitting in their pretty bedrooms, and at first glance, +they seem much altered. Their simple white evening dresses with black +ribbons have a style about them that only a London dressmaker can give. +Their hair is coiled up in the latest fashion, and their radiant, +animated faces make them quite beautiful. They are getting accustomed +to town life now. They have done a large amount of sight-seeing under +the guidance of Cyril, whom they regard as a cousin. He seems to have a +good deal of spare time on his hands, and is not at all averse to his +position as mentor.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter is very well satisfied with her charges. After a great +deal of persuasion, she has begun to give them dancing-lessons, and +the girls, though wondering what Abigail would say, are quick and apt +pupils and thoroughly enjoy it. They have not been introduced into +society yet, but Captain Carter, who is in the Grenadier Guards, is in +the habit of bringing several of his brother officers in to dinner, +and Mrs. Carter has a great many friends and acquaintances who avail +themselves of her genial, pleasant hospitality. So that, altogether, +they see a great deal of company, and the novelty attracts and delights +them.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later, and the girls had left their rooms and were going +in to dinner.</p> + +<p>"It seems quite nice to be alone for once," said Mrs. Carter. "I hope +you have no engagement to-night, Hal?"</p> + +<p>"Tell me how you're going to entertain me if I stay at home."</p> + +<p>"We are going to have some music. You haven't heard Heather play on her +harp. It arrived this morning. I don't know whether it's the thing for +her to take up. Harp-playing has gone out of fashion."</p> + +<p>"Then by all means play it," said Cyril, turning to Heather, with a +little nod of approval. "There's nothing like novelty nowadays, and the +girls must be conspicuous, or they'll die!"</p> + +<p>"I don't mind being 'conspicuous,' as you call it, when we are alone," +said Heather, spiritedly; "and I am not going to give up my harp for +any one. I love it!"</p> + +<p>"We'll arrange a programme. Minnehaha, you and I will sing that duet +that we have been practising. The captain will recite a barrack-room +ballad, and the missus will finish up with a waltz on the piano, and +we'll foot it on the carpet. What? Is your precious carpet unable to +bear the strain of our light feet? We'll exit into the hall, then. +I have been yawning over County Council Bills all the day, and must +stretch my limbs a little."</p> + +<p>"I always say," said Captain Carter, meditatively, "that county members +are the most narrow useless beings in the whole House. Their interest +is only in agriculture and in game laws. Anything affecting the +metropolis or the world at large is a matter of perfect indifference to +them. They vote whichever way their party tells them. And as to matters +concerning the Services or the Colonies they're as ignorant as a baby. +They're sent to the House by a few hundreds of country yokels, and as +long as they know what their constituents want, and try to get it for +them, they think they have done their duty."</p> + +<p>"I will not be drawn into talking shop," said Cyril, calmly. "When +we are in ladies' society, let us suit the conversation to their +capabilities."</p> + +<p>"I never take interest in parliamentary affairs, unless there is +a row of some sort," said Mrs. Carter, not at all offended by her +brother-in-law's remark. "I like to read of the lords of creation +losing their tempers, and slanging each other like a pack of +schoolboys, but when they are all dull and prosy, they're no good at +all. I think your maiden speech was the essence of dulness, Cyril!"</p> + +<p>"Thank you. I know now what your taste is, and what style you prefer. +What are you making big eyes at, Minnehaha?"</p> + +<p>He had dubbed Bluebell this two days after her first arrival.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," she said, "how very seldom I have heard you speak +seriously on any subject."</p> + +<p>"He couldn't be serious," responded Mrs. Carter; "joking runs in the +family. Even on my wedding-day, just before we took our places in +church together, Hal whispered—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"'All the king's horses, and all the king's men,<br> + Can't make me a happy bachelor again!'"<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"She looked so exasperatingly superior and complacent," said Captain +Carter, joining in the laugh. "I suppose it's the one day when women +feel their power. The man is nowhere; people look upon him as a poor +fool!"</p> + +<p>"Power is a wonderful thing," said Cyril, fixing his eyes on Bluebell's +laughing face opposite his. "There isn't a human being on earth who +doesn't love power."</p> + +<p>"I don't," said Bluebell, promptly.</p> + +<p>"I do," said Mrs. Carter, nodding her head saucily across at her +husband.</p> + +<p>"And I think I do sometimes," said Heather, slowly.</p> + +<p>"Allow me to continue. It is a subject upon which I can speak +seriously. Power is an attribute that is in the breast of every human +creature from infancy. Take a baby; why does it love shaking a rattle, +ringing a handbell, seizing handfuls of its mother's hair? The love of +power over all objects it can grasp. Watch a girl alternately nursing +and slapping a doll, a boy beating a drum and whipping a top. Power +over inanimate objects again. See the schoolboy bullying, making pets +of anything he can control, and working havoc in all directions. Love +of power prompts him. Ask an artist, a musician, a sculptor, an author, +in what their chief enjoyment consists. They will allow, if they are +truthful, that it is their sense of power over their pencils, their +pens, their clay, and their instruments. Analyze your own feelings over +your favourite occupations, you will find you never really like a thing +unless you think you do it well."</p> + +<p>"Such as hearing one's self talk, and reducing others to silence," +murmured Captain Carter. "Pray go on."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I agree with you," said Heather, turning to Cyril.</p> + +<p>"You never do," said Mrs. Carter, laughing. "I think you two disagree +on every point brought up."</p> + +<p>Cyril raised his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>Heather said a little confusedly, "I was thinking about enjoyment. +I like playing on my harp, but I enjoy hearing others' music much +the best. I think I like anything that takes me quite away from my +surroundings."</p> + +<p>"Highly complimentary to present company," murmured Captain Carter +again, and Heather's fair young face was covered with blushes at once.</p> + +<p>"You are only half developed yet, my child," said Cyril, with his +grandfatherly air, stopping her confused apology. "Wait till you have +had a season in town; your tastes will have altered by that time, I +fancy."</p> + +<p>"Lady Grace asked me to-day if they were going to be presented," said +Mrs. Carter, looking across at her husband. "What do you male creatures +think about it?"</p> + +<p>"Folly and waste of money," said her husband tersely.</p> + +<p>Bluebell and Heather looked up greatly excited.</p> + +<p>"Presented to the queen!" they gasped. "Could we be?"</p> + +<p>"Very easily. I was presented just after my marriage, and I could take +you. If you stay a couple of months longer with me, I can manage it."</p> + +<p>"Are they going back to the country, after such a taste of society?" +queried Cyril, with a mocking light in his eyes.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter rose.</p> + +<p>"We need not discuss the matter further now," she said with great +dignity. "Come, girls, we will leave them to their smoke."</p> + +<p>But Heather and Bluebell were far too excited to let the matter drop. +They pursued it in the drawing-room till the gentlemen came in, and +when they retired to their rooms were still full of the subject.</p> + +<p>"We must stay away longer now," said Heather. "Why, even Abigail would +be proud to think we had been presented to the Queen! Isn't it almost +like a fairy tale, Bluebell? Sometimes I fancy we shall wake up and +find it all a dream."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bluebell; "it seems as if every enjoyment has been kept +away from us all our lives, and now they crowd upon us so thick and +fast that it is quite overwhelming."</p> + +<p>"And Abigail would have kept us out of it all."</p> + +<p>"Heather, do you know, I cannot go back to our old life again. Is it +wicked, I wonder, to feel so?"</p> + +<p>Heather gave an impatient little sigh.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't keep asking if it is wicked," she said; "I'm going to enjoy +the present as much as ever I can without thinking."</p> + +<p>Bluebell drew her Bible to her, but she soon closed it.</p> + +<p>"I feel I can't do anything but think about the Drawing-Room," she +said. "Won't you be very frightened of making your curtsey, Heather? +Cousin Ida says we can't be asked out to any really nice people's +houses until we have been presented. I did not know that was so +necessary."</p> + +<p>"Our dresses will cost a lot of money," said Heather, meditatively. "I +don't know how it is, but money seems to fly in London. We have spent +more in this month than we should do in a whole year at home."</p> + +<p>"Cousin Cyril said that was part of our education. To learn how to +spend money! How dreadfully satirical he is! He always seems to +consider women on such a much lower level than himself. And don't you +object to his making fun of serious subjects as he does? I do dislike +his asking us so often how our religion is getting on!"</p> + +<p>"He seems to think we're losing it," said Heather, slowly, as she +brushed out her curly hair and gazed at herself abstractedly in the +glass as she did so. Then after a moment's pause she added, "And I am +not sure that he isn't right."</p> + +<p>"Speak for yourself, please," said Bluebell, lightly. "I'm not going +to turn into a heathen because I am in London. It's ridiculous, and +absurd."</p> + +<p>"What is true religion?"</p> + +<p>Heather breathed rather than spoke the words. Then she flashed forth a +little excitedly—</p> + +<p>"I wonder now if we ever had anything but a mere form of religion. We +had nothing to tempt us, nothing to try us at home. I don't believe +any girls were more shielded from evil than we were. And now when our +lives are so utterly changed, it seems a test of it all. I cannot get +Abigail's verse out of my head, 'She that liveth pleasure is dead while +she liveth.' I don't know how you feel, but I want pleasure. I love +it, and I seem to want more and more of it. I should be miserable if I +went home now and left it all when we are only just beginning to enjoy +ourselves. But I do not believe God wants us to be shut out of the +world. Cousin Ida is religious and she loves London society. I mean +to copy her. I believe there are two kinds of religion in the Bible; +Abigail's is one kind and Cousin Ida's is the other, and which is +right, I wonder! I know which is the brightest and happiest life."</p> + +<p>"It's very puzzling," said Bluebell, a graver look stealing into her +merry eyes. "But I think we're both of one mind about it. We will enjoy +the present while we can. And don't let us philosophize too much about +it. It puts one in the blues!"</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_7">CHAPTER VII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +DUTY'S CALL<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "It is right to begin with the obligations of home—no other duties can +possibly be substituted for them."—DICKENS.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>MORE than a year has passed.</p> + +<p>Bluebell and Heather have not yet been home. They have travelled +abroad with their cousin; they have passed a season in town; and the +little simple country girls have developed into brilliant young women +of fashion. Mrs. Carter is beginning to wonder when they will marry. +Heather has had two or three offers, but has refused them all. She +charms many by her little imperious queenly ways, her bright wits, and +her quick changes of mood from grave to gay.</p> + +<p>Bluebell is always saucy and bewitching; some wonder if she can ever +be serious; some, if she has a heart at all. At present, she has a +persistent and devoted suitor, Sir Herbert Mowbray by name. He is not +a very young man, and is silent and reserved by nature. Bluebell alone +can bring the grave smile to his eye and lips. But she holds him aloof, +ignores his devotion, and treats him as she treats all others, with +laughing indifference.</p> + +<p>The sisters have very few grave conversations together now. Their Bible +reading is short and hurried, often missed altogether. The late hours +and rush of gaiety that they live in, have already left marks on their +young faces. But they appear in the brightest spirits, and Mrs. Carter +is more than satisfied with the success of her training. Captain Carter +looks upon them as permanent inmates of his household, and will not +hear of them taking their departure.</p> + +<p>Cyril still chaffs and criticizes their actions. He makes his brother's +house his home when Parliament is sitting, but is a good part of the +year in the country managing his property.</p> + +<p>"Girls, where shall we go this summer?" said Mrs. Carter one sunny +morning in July, as they sat at breakfast. "It is too stifling for +words in town. I am longing for a breath of country air."</p> + +<p>"We have four invitations for August," said Heather a little languidly, +"none of which we have accepted yet."</p> + +<p>"One of them is to Lady Grace in Scotland. I always think Scotch houses +are very dull except during the shooting. What are the others?" said +Mrs. Carter.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Finch wants us to go on a house-boat with her."</p> + +<p>"Without me. Yes, I remember, and I think she is too go-ahead! Who are +her party?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Finch, Major Rankin, Mr. Greeson, and a young nephew."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter pursed up her mouth and looked across at her brother-in-law.</p> + +<p>"I am not prudish," she said; "but what did you tell me about Major +Rankin, Cyril?"</p> + +<p>Cyril stroked his moustache with a superior air.</p> + +<p>"Something best not repeated," he said. "That invitation must be +declined at once."</p> + +<p>"That is for us to settle," said Heather, quickly, with a flash in her +eyes that Cyril always called the "danger signal."</p> + +<p>"What is number three?" asked Mrs. Carter, hastily. "We will talk about +accepting or declining them later."</p> + +<p>"Lady Mowbray's," put in Bluebell. "Sir Herbert has been pestering my +life out, ever since I had the letter."</p> + +<p>"And the fourth?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that doesn't really count," said Heather, looking out of the +window as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Because it is the only one that is coming off," said Cyril, coolly. +"Don't pretend you have forgotten, missus, that you are coming to +entertain for me. I expect the whole lot of you for a good month."</p> + +<p>"Oh, did we promise? I must say I like being entertained better than +entertaining," said Mrs. Carter with a little grimace. "I get enough of +that in my own house."</p> + +<p>"We certainly shall not give you a month," said Bluebell. "We should +all be bored to death. Heather and I will give you the last week in +August if you like, after we have done our other visits."</p> + +<p>"Speak for yourself, Minnehaha! Heather will come before that if you +don't."</p> + +<p>Both girls exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"We have never been separated in our lives. As if we would sleep apart +from each other for a single night!"</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear children, that idea is quite exploded. It is a perfect +fallacy to think twins ought not to be separated. I know two +fellows—twins—who led a life of misery till they took my advice; one +went towards the North Pole, the other towards the South, and they +quietly and firmly decided that they would never come into contact +with one another again. Their life was becoming a perfect bondage to +them, and when they were once away from each other, they said it was +a delicious sensation to realize their individuality apart and alone +from any one else's. The sooner you assert your separate individuality, +the better for both of you. Now, missus, put your oar in! You know +I am speaking words of wisdom. How are the silly young creatures to +get husbands if they will live in one another's pockets? There, I +thought the missus would rise to that bait. I will leave you to fight +it out together. Men are best out of the way when husbands are under +discussion!"</p> + +<p>Cyril sauntered out of the room after this speech.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter began to improve the occasion.</p> + +<p>"I think there is a certain amount of sense in what he says, girls. +If you could make up your minds to do without each other sometimes, +it would be much better for you. For instance, Lady Mowbray wants +Bluebell, Lady Grace wants you, Heather."</p> + +<p>Bluebell flushed a little, and laughed.</p> + +<p>"I am not going to Lady Mowbray's by myself, Cousin Ida. Not if I know +it! She is an irascible old lady, I have heard. Even her son says she +is 'difficult,' and he is devoted to her."</p> + +<p>"If you make up your mind to accept Sir Herbert, you must make the +best of his mother," said Mrs. Carter, quietly. Then looking at +Bluebell a little keenly, she said, "He spoke to me about you yesterday +evening—I—I wished him success!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell only laughed.</p> + +<p>"Don't look like that at me, Cousin Ida! As if you are longing to +congratulate me. It is premature, I assure you. If he doesn't take +care, he'll find such haste will spoil his cause. I am not going to be +tied or bound to any man yet. I love my liberty too much."</p> + +<p>She danced out of the room, singing as she did so—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"I care for nobody, and somebody cares for me.<br> + If somebody thinks he's nobody, I may care for he!"<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter looked a little worried.</p> + +<p>"I hoped you would both be engaged by this time," she said to Heather, +who sat gravely looking through her letters. "It isn't my fault that +you are not."</p> + +<p>"No indeed," said Heather, quickly looking up; "I am afraid we have +sadly disappointed you. I had never realized till I had gone through a +season what a solemn duty this business of marriage is. And sometimes, +Cousin Ida, it sickens me. Life isn't all marrying and giving in +marriage! You have been truly good to us, but I think Bluebell will +soon do what you want. Don't worry her too much."</p> + +<p>"And what about you?"</p> + +<p>Heather got up from her seat, and walked over to the window. She drew +her slight young figure up rather proudly.</p> + +<p>"I would rather not discuss myself. Bluebell and I cannot part with +each other yet. I think we must do our visits together. Shall we talk +over them now?"</p> + +<p>"There is one lesson I have to learn," said Mrs. Carter with a mock +plaintive air. "If I can come the 'missus' over Hal and Cyril, I cannot +over you two girls. Sometimes I think you look upon me as an old dowdy +chaperon. I wonder if you do! It's the way of young girls nowadays."</p> + +<p>"It will never be our way," said Heather, warmly; "Bluebell and I can +never thank you enough for all the enjoyment you have given us."</p> + +<p>Then the two sat down to earnest discussion over the forthcoming visits.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>A month later, and the twins were at Rawton Cross, Cyril's property. +They had visited Lady Mowbray, and had liked the hot-tempered, +good-natured old lady. Bluebell was not yet formally engaged to Sir +Herbert, but it was an understood thing, and Heather sometimes wondered +why her sister seemed to hang back when matters had gone so far.</p> + +<p>Cyril was a capital host. His house was a picturesque-looking Gothic +building, and he filled it with pleasant guests.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carter was in her element at once. She said one day as she was +dispensing afternoon tea on the lovely old lawn under the beech trees, +"I think I would have made you a good wife, Cyril. What a pity you +didn't ask me before Hal did!"</p> + +<p>"The red coat did it," said her husband, lazily. "I felt her heart +thump its admiration the first time we met, when I took her into supper +at one of our regimental festivities!"</p> + +<p>"How can you give me away so before these girls? You know you had to +propose to me three times before I accepted you!"</p> + +<p>"No," said Cyril, meditatively, as he leant back in his lounge chair +and surveyed the company with lazy satisfaction, "I have found celibacy +such a blessing that I have constantly congratulated myself that I have +'kept myself to myself' all these years."</p> + +<p>"It is a shame of you," said young Mrs. Plowman, coquettishly. "Your +house will never be truly comfortable till it has a mistress. And think +how many single women would be only too thankful to take charge of you—"</p> + +<p>"And my money!"</p> + +<p>"Mercenary wretch! Whom are you saving it for?"</p> + +<p>Heather, who had been listening to this silently, now got up and +sauntered away. Sometimes the empty chit-chat of society disgusted +her. She had never really become accustomed to it, and other, graver +thoughts were now occupying her mind.</p> + +<p>She turned her steps to a winding path that led into the woods close +by. Walking along, she found herself soon between steep banks of moss +and fern, and with a long-drawn breath of delight, she sprang up, and +curling herself up amongst the ferns, she rested her head against an +old tree, and proceeded to read and re-read a letter which seemed to +cause her much anxious thought.</p> + +<p>Time went on, and still she sat there. Bright-eyed rabbits, with +startled ears, peeped over the high ferns to look at this intruder. A +squirrel darted over the branches above her, and the wood-pigeons came +and cooed in the top of some tall elms close by.</p> + +<p>Heather did not heed them. She clasped and unclasped her hands +nervously. Her brows were puckered, and her face looked harassed. +Then she took out a pencil from her pocket, and began making rapid +calculations on paper. A heavy sigh followed, and then her quiet was +suddenly disturbed.</p> + +<p>"Found at last, Regina!"</p> + +<p>It was only Cyril who called her by this nickname, and he stood over +her with an amused look in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Now what may I ask has suddenly driven you to solitude? In love at +last?"</p> + +<p>Heather looked up startled, and a little annoyed. "Do you never feel +you would like to be alone?" she said, trying to speak carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, very often. But beautiful maidens must not be allowed to waste +their sweetness on the desert air. Major Canning has been hunting +for you. Jack Bedford is distrait at your absence, and each supposes +you are having a 'tête-à-tête' with Frank Rushton, who has also +disappeared."</p> + +<p>Heather gave another sigh.</p> + +<p>"I wish you could be serious," she said, "then I might confide in you. +I would just as soon tell you as Cousin Ida, because you can keep +things quiet, and she cannot."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image005" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image005.jpg" alt="image005"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>SHE CURLED HERSELF UP AMONG THE FERNS.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>He threw himself down on the grass beside her.</p> + +<p>"I am your elder brother. Now, child, tell it out!"</p> + +<p>A pink flush rose to Heather's face. She hesitated, then plunged into +her perplexity.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Cyril, I have a letter here from one of our old servants, +Rachael. It is not the first one I have received in such a strain. I +used to think I was very good at money matters, but somehow or other +now, Bluebell and I cannot keep within our incomes. Both these last two +quarters, I am ashamed to say, we have overdrawn at our bank. There +are things that must be seen to at once at home, repairs to our small +farm. We have not the money to send. And worse than all, there are two +or three old people to whom our grandmother always paid a small weekly +pittance. Rachael asks me to send the amount for the next quarter, +and—and I cannot do it."</p> + +<p>"Hard up!" said Cyril with a quiet smile. "Borrow from me, till you get +round the corner!"</p> + +<p>Heather drew her head up proudly.</p> + +<p>"Never," she said. "I will not go further into debt. I feel disgraced +and ashamed when I think of the sums we have been lavishing on our +amusements and dress, whilst our dear old people at home are actually +in want."</p> + +<p>She paused, then went on rapidly—</p> + +<p>"I dare say you cannot understand, but the villagers have always looked +to us for relief, and grandmother used to give a great deal away. I +promised her before she died that we would continue to do the same. It +is only lately that I have found it impossible to keep my promise. We +are spending a good deal of money, and do not seem able to draw in."</p> + +<p>"The only thing for you to do is to let or sell your old home. You will +never go back to live there again, so why have the expense of keeping +it all up for the sake of two old servants? Pension them off, let the +farm go, and you will find yourself the richer."</p> + +<p>Cyril spoke with easy indifference, but he was watching her very keenly +the while.</p> + +<p>Heather flashed round upon him impetuously. "Is pleasure before duty +your only clue out of the difficulty?"</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"I thought you had forgotten there was such a word as duty these past +twelve months," he said; "we who follow fashion's fancy will have none +of such an old-fashioned article!"</p> + +<p>Heather looked straight before her with compressed lips and flashing +eyes.</p> + +<p>"There is one way out of the difficulty," she said determinedly, "and +that is the way we must take."</p> + +<p>"Into the Bankruptcy Court?"</p> + +<p>"We must go home, and stay there!"</p> + +<p>He looked at her curiously, then sprang to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Away with such a dark thought! Let us return to lighter and brighter +realities. Come and have a row on the river!"</p> + +<p>Heather gave a sigh, put her letter in her pocket, and was her bright +self again when she joined the others still on the lawn.</p> + +<p>But she had made a resolve in her own heart, and that resolve she meant +to keep.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +SEPARATION<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "He who has well considered his duty, will at once carry his conviction +into action."—S. SMILES.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"BLUEBELL, we must go home. That is the only solution to our +difficulty."</p> + +<p>The girls were talking it over a few nights later, when they had +retired to their room for the night.</p> + +<p>"We can't do that."</p> + +<p>"When do you think of returning?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, some day. Not yet awhile. Picture Abigail's greeting! When I have +found life a failure, I will take refuge in her arms. She would welcome +me then. Never, if I was finding it a joy and a success?"</p> + +<p>"We cannot go on as we are doing. Bluebell, you are not a child—be +serious! Do you like being in debt! Do you enjoy thinking of Mary +Scrivens and old Ralph going without their little comforts, even +necessaries, because we are spending the money that rightfully belongs +to them? I cannot sleep at night for worrying over it. We must go back; +there is no way out of it."</p> + +<p>Bluebell leant back in an easy chair and clasped her hands behind her +neck. Her saucy eyes took a grave look.</p> + +<p>"I know we are in rather a fix. We mustn't be so extravagant in future. +Money seems to fly in London. Oh dear! I wish we were really rich! +Can't you borrow a little from Cousin Ida?"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think of it. When could we pay it back? The more I think +about it, the more convinced I am that it is our duty to go home and +stay there quietly. I have spoken to Cousin Ida about it to-day. She +was angry at first, but when I had talked to her for a little, she said +that perhaps it would be wise. Her idea is that we should go home for a +time, and come to her again next spring."</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked annoyed.</p> + +<p>"You needn't have spoken to her about it. I don't mean to go home. +Captain and Mrs. Foster have asked us to go a yachting trip with them. +Sir Herbert and Cousin Cyril are both going. And I have promised we +shall go."</p> + +<p>"I shall not go."</p> + +<p>"I shall."</p> + +<p>"Then I must go home alone!"</p> + +<p>There was dead silence. Each girl had a strong will, but never in their +lives had they clashed with each other before.</p> + +<p>And before long Bluebell was in tears, and Heather with a strained +white face was pacing the room.</p> + +<p>Then Bluebell, from passionate protestations, began to coax and entreat.</p> + +<p>Heather set her lips in hard lines, and listened without a word.</p> + +<p>Duty was before her. She had been brought up from her infancy to +consider it an important part of life, and not even the gay pleasures +she had so delighted in could turn her steps aside. Her heart felt +nearly breaking when she realized that Bluebell would prefer separation +to taking up the quiet country life again. She did not look forward to +it with pleasure herself. She was still enjoying her society life, and +the possibility of going back alone to the two old servants seemed too +dreadful to contemplate.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was almost as miserable at the thought of separation. And yet +the growing love for all that makes a society life pleasant perhaps +helped her to bear it with more equanimity.</p> + +<p>"Nothing will induce me to go back!" she sobbed. "I hate the idea of +it! I should die if I were stifled in that silent house again without a +soul to speak to from one year's end to another! I wish an earthquake +would swallow the whole place up! Yes, I do! Don't look so shocked! +I'll never go back there, never, never, never!"</p> + +<p>She crept off to bed, sobbing.</p> + +<p>Heather lay awake with tearless eyes, but with a sick pain at heart. +All sunshine in her path seemed to have gone. Only dull heavy clouds +hung above her. And when Bluebell had at last sobbed herself to sleep, +Heather crept up to her, hung over her with a world of love in her grey +eyes, and laying her cheek against hers, kissed her passionately.</p> + +<p>"Our first quarrel, our first separation! How shall I be able to bear +it!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell stirred and smiled in her sleep. Then one word came softly +between her lips—"Herbert!"</p> + +<p>Heather turned away passionately.</p> + +<p>"She does not care. She only thinks of him! It would have had to come +sooner or later, so I must bear it."</p> + +<p>And then, kneeling down by her bed, she took her trouble to One whom +she but seldom approached now. As she bent her head, a rush of sorrow +for her coldness and carelessness in her daily devotions came over her. +And the tears, which up to now had been stayed, gushed freely.</p> + +<p>When she crept into bed again, it was with a greater feeling of comfort +and peace than she had experienced for some time.</p> + +<p>The girls were very quiet the next morning. Cyril rallied them on their +gravity. Mrs. Carter looked anxious; the other guests were a little +puzzled, for the twins were acknowledged to be the life of every party +they joined.</p> + +<p>At last, the facts were known, and once known, Heather hastened to put +her resolve into action. In two days' time her trunks were packed, and +she was bidding good-bye to every one.</p> + +<p>Cyril drove her to the station in his dog-cart. Bluebell had taken +leave of her sister in private, and was now sobbing her heart out in +her room.</p> + +<p>Heather was very quiet and dignified; her feelings were too deep for +words, but she had the sense of rest when alone with Cyril that she +had sadly been needing before all the curious eyes and comments of her +friends.</p> + +<p>"You won't be able to do without us," said Cyril at last, quietly and +meditatively.</p> + +<p>Heather's spirit rose at once.</p> + +<p>"I lived twenty-two years very happily without any of you," she said.</p> + +<p>"Not without Minnehaha! But I was not thinking of her. How will you +spend your time! You are like a bird that has been freed, returning to +its cage. You will only beat your wings against the bars and stop your +singing."</p> + +<p>"Never! One would think my home was a prison."</p> + +<p>"How long will you immure yourself? I won't repeat some lady's +conjectures that I have heard. Your sex is very unmerciful."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can guess them," said Heather, with a hard little laugh. "They +say I am disappointed in love, and am going into seclusion to hide my +wounded heart. Or some say I am going to recruit my health and beauty, +and flash out afresh the beginning of next season, remembering the old +adage, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' You see I am well aware +of what is said behind my back."</p> + +<p>"It is a pity you haven't married," said Cyril, in his most fatherly +tone. "Now, Minnehaha is doing well for herself. It would be a good way +out of your difficulty."</p> + +<p>Heather smiled. Then looking up into his face, she said frankly—</p> + +<p>"Do you know, that is the one reason why I am glad I am going home. I +shall hear nothing of the modern marriage market. I am so tired of it +all."</p> + +<p>"Have you made up your mind to choose a spinster's lot?"</p> + +<p>"It is not one to be despised," she said.</p> + +<p>He was silent.</p> + +<p>When he had seen her into a comfortable carriage, tossed some +picture-papers into her lap, and held out his hand for the final +good-bye, he said, "You are a strong-minded young woman. But I admire +the principle that is at the root of it! The missus says you will be +back under her wings within a month. I give you two. Adieu!"</p> + +<p>The train moved off, Heather waved a laughing farewell, but when once +alone, great tears filled her eyes.</p> + +<p>She leant back in her seat, feeling lonely, forlorn, and miserable. Not +even the conviction that she was obeying the dictates of her conscience +and had not faltered in the path of duty could comfort her now.</p> + +<p>"I am so young," she murmured regretfully, "to leave it all, and to +lead the life in front of me. It was fit for our grandmother. It is not +fit for us. It is the best time of my life now, and it is wasting it to +shut myself up with Abigail and Rachael."</p> + +<p>So she mused, and then took herself to task for having such selfish +views. She took up the papers, and tried to bury herself in the news of +the day. The journey seemed never ending.</p> + +<p>At last she reached the country town. No one was there to meet her, but +she hardly expected it. Taking a fly, she was driven slowly through the +country lanes she knew so well, and reached home about five o'clock. +It was a lovely summer evening; the drive up to the house was bordered +with bright flower beds, and masses of crimson roses and white clematis +fell over the porch.</p> + +<p>As she stepped out, a burst of song came from the canaries' cage in the +greenhouse. And Heather lifted up her tired head, and with a bright +smile came into the cool, dark hall.</p> + +<p>Abigail stood like a sentinel inside; Rachael was fluttering about in +the background. Heather did not wait for a welcome; she went straight +into Abigail's arms, and was not repulsed.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image006" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image006.jpg" alt="image006"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"ONE OF YOUR WANDERERS HAS COME BACK."</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"One of your wanderers has come back," she whispered. And then, putting +her arms round the old servant's neck with the simplicity of a child, +she kissed her.</p> + +<p>Abigail cleared her throat, tried to speak, and then Heather felt a hot +tear touch her cheek.</p> + +<p>With a little jerk, Abigail released herself from those clinging arms, +and found her self-control again by scolding the driver for treading +on the beeswaxed floor with his heavy nailed boots. Heather turned to +Rachael, who laughed and cried in the same breath.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear Miss Heather, we thought we had lost you altogether. It +has been a long dreary time this past year. But eh!—how did you leave +Miss Bluebell? Are we not going to see her down here? And how bonny +you're looking, but not the same young lady that went from here! You +are so grand—have such an air. Is it dress has done it?"</p> + +<p>"I hope I am just the same," Heather said, laughing.</p> + +<p>And resolving to preserve a brave front, she ran in and out of the +rooms, looking at and praising all she could. The evening sunshine +stealing in through the casement windows brightened up the dark +corners. And though she found all exactly as she had left it, her heart +sank at the bareness, the crude colouring, and the absence of the +pretty details to which she had become accustomed in her cousin's house.</p> + +<p>"If I had not come home to economize, I would improve and alter many +things," was her thought as she stood in the drawing-room and surveyed +the brown holland coverings with uneasy disapproval. "I can arrange the +furniture a little differently, but what is the good of it when I am +all by myself! Oh, how shall I be able to live alone! Bluebell might +have come—she might have come!"</p> + +<p>It was her inward cry all that evening. Abigail waited upon her in +solemn silence at dinner. And afterwards, she wandered out into the +garden. But though the soft stillness of the evening air soothed her, +she could not feel content in her surroundings, and when later on +Abigail brought the big Bible and took her seat with Rachael to take +part in evening prayers, Heather had hard work to keep her self-control.</p> + +<p>When Abigail, silver candlestick in hand, came up with her to her room, +Heather put her hand on her arm wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Come in and talk to me, Abigail. Tell me you have forgiven us for +running away from you. And tell me all about the farm—and the old +people. I—I feel lonely to-night."</p> + +<p>Abigail's hard face softened.</p> + +<p>"If you have seen the evil of your ways, Miss Heather, and are +purposing to follow in your dear grandmother's footsteps, I will be the +last one to cast up the past in your face."</p> + +<p>"Don't scold me. I cannot stand scolding to-night. I don't know what I +am going to do yet. But to-morrow morning, I am going to talk business +with you and Rachael. I want the gossip of the neighbourhood, Abigail."</p> + +<p>"You went away a sweet and simple maiden," said Abigail, with a sigh, +"and you have come back a fashionable town lady. I hardly am liking to +touch your hair. Maybe you would rather I did not take up the old ways +again?"</p> + +<p>Heather laughed, and throwing her dressing-gown round her, handed +Abigail her brush.</p> + +<p>"I shall love to have you attend me. Now talk, and brush away."</p> + +<p>Abigail's next question brought a pink flush to Heather's cheeks.</p> + +<p>"And how goes your soul's health, Miss Heather? That is what I am +longing to know. Are you as near heaven as you were when you left this?"</p> + +<p>"I would rather you told me first what I am longing to know."</p> + +<p>Heather's tone was dignity itself.</p> + +<p>Abigail gave a heavy sigh, but after a pause began telling her the +village news.</p> + +<p>And Heather did not give her an opportunity again of any personal +questions. She chatted and laughed, and then wished her good night. But +seeing the grieved look on the old woman's face as she was taking her +departure, she said with one of her flashing smiles that were so rare—</p> + +<p>"I am not quite so wicked as you think me, Abigail. You will see how +good I mean to be now I am home again."</p> + +<p>A little time later, and Heather's face was buried in her pillow, +choking sobs escaping her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bluebell, you cannot love me as I love you! Shall we never be +together again? It is like death itself! How shall I be able to bear +it?"</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_9">CHAPTER IX</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +THE VILLAGERS<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Let it ever be thy pride<br> + To linger by the labourer's side;<br> + With words of sympathy or song<br> + To cheer the dreary march along,<br> + Of the great army of the poor."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 17em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>THE old servants hardly knew what to make of their young mistress +the next morning. She came downstairs apparently in the best of +spirits, but full of plans and innovations that sorely perplexed and +disconcerted them.</p> + +<p>She told Rachael she would in future like afternoon tea in the +drawing-room every afternoon at five o'clock, dinner not a minute +sooner than half-past seven. She uncovered the drawing-room chairs +and couches, and tossed the holland covers into the bottom of the +linen cupboard. She brought in flowering plants from the greenhouse, +and disposed of them in every corner of the room. Calling the small +boy into her service, she wheeled out the round table into an empty +bedroom, and by dint of banishing some articles of furniture and +altering others, had soon completely transformed the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>Abigail looked on in silent horror. This masterful young woman, with +bright careless smile and quick peremptory tones, was not the same +girl that had trembled at her voice in bygone days! Heather worked on +indifferent to her frown, and directly after her lunch, walked down to +the farm to see George Thatcher and his wife.</p> + +<p>For a good two hours, she perambulated round the premises, talking +business matters over with the farmer, and jotting down in her +note-book the repairs that were absolutely necessary, those that could +wait, and the respective cost of each.</p> + +<p>"Be you comin' in to see the missus?" asked George, shyly, after their +talk was done. "She do be expectin' to see you, miss."</p> + +<p>"Yes; I will come."</p> + +<p>And Heather followed him into a spotlessly clean kitchen.</p> + +<p>Annie, a fair, gentle-faced young woman, rose up from some needlework +with a blushing smile.</p> + +<p>"Eh, miss, 'tis nice to see you here again."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Heather, brightly, as she shook hands, and then stooped to +kiss a bonny child of two years old playing at his mother's feet. "I +feel as if I haven't been away so long, after all. And yet, when I see +Tommy, it does seem strange; he was a baby in arms when I left."</p> + +<p>"How is Miss Bluebell? 'Tis a disappointment not to see her. Will she +be coming home soon?"</p> + +<p>"Not just yet. She is going to Norway with some friends in a yacht. +Well, Annie, how do you think I look?"</p> + +<p>"Beautiful, miss."</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking the hearty admiration in Annie's face and tone.</p> + +<p>Heather laughed lightly, and George, who had swung his little son upon +his shoulder, now turned and looked at her.</p> + +<p>"We were hearing you went to see the Queen," he said a little +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we had the honour of kissing her hand, and making our curtsey to +her."</p> + +<p>"There now," broke in Annie, "I knew it were true. Some said one thing +and some another, and old Watty would have it that you must have a Lady +before your name to go to Buckingham Palace. I says to him,—</p> + +<p>"'Our young ladies are as high as any other ladies in the land, though +they have kept theirselves so quiet.'</p> + +<p>"And he was as obstinate as a donkey that the Queen's visitors were +duchesses and countesses, and lords and ladies, and no plain misses +could ever get near her. Did you have tea or dinner with her, miss? And +how did she look? Did she ask you any questions?"</p> + +<p>Heather tried to explain. And her experience at her first drawing-room +greatly raised her in the estimation of the farmer and his wife, though +it all seemed very unreal and puzzling to them.</p> + +<p>She chatted on to them, and then, as milking-time came round, she took +her leave and hastened homewards.</p> + +<p>Poor Heather! She was making valiant struggles to so occupy her time +that she would have no room for thought. But now as she was walking +through the green meadows, it all came back with a rush.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how I shall be able to bear it," she murmured to herself; +"it seems so dreadful to be quite alone. Bluebell will be surrounded +by friends; I am without a soul to speak to. I feel inclined to fly +back to them all, and yet I will not. It is my duty to stay here, and I +will. And I will try to be as cheerful as I can."</p> + +<p>She returned to the house, found some pleasure in showing Abigail how +to place tea in the drawing-room, and then took her solitary cup in +state, thinking idly how much she would like to see the door open and +some of her London friends and acquaintances appear.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Half an hour after, she was out again, this time wending her step +towards the village. She stopped first at a very small thatched cottage +with a bright flower garden in front. She lifted the latch of the door +quietly, and went in.</p> + +<p>For a moment, she thought that no one was in the tiny kitchen; then +from behind an old settle popped a bright-eyed little woman. Very old +and feeble she looked, and for a minute she peered up in alarm at her +visitor. This young lady, in her dainty white dress and hat, seemed a +stranger.</p> + +<p>"Mary, don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, bless your sweet voice; it can't be no other but Miss Heather!"</p> + +<p>And here the old woman seized hold of the delicately gloved hands, and +tears dropped fast upon them.</p> + +<p>"I thought ye were swallowed up in the big town, and had forgotten us +altogether. Ay, my dear, 'tis good to see you again. Abigail has come +in with my bit o' money every Saturday, but she never seemed to have no +tidings to tell of—leastways, not from you and Miss Bluebell. And 'twas +only last Saturday she shakes her head and says,—</p> + +<p>"'Ye mustn't be surprised, Mrs. Scrivens, if ye gets no more siller for +a bit. The young ladies are badly off, and times is not what they were, +and maybe this is the last I can bring ye!'</p> + +<p>"To be sure, when she'd gone, ye could have knocked me down with a +feather! For ye know my past, Miss Heather, dear, how with six children +and a husband that died when the eldest were but seven, and one little +one a cripple, and the other lost his sight through blastin', and one +o' the girls takin' consummation and dwindlin' down to a skellikon, and +me givin' of her a proper funeral, and then a helpin' my own sister who +come to sad want, bein' one who couldn't help herself—well, I didn't +put savin's by, 'tweren't to be expected, were it? And havin' had the +help from your dear grandmother so many years, my faith was rather took +aback, so to speak.</p> + +<p>"I sat in the corner here, and I thinks o' 'Lijah and the ravens, and +then I asks my Father not to let me come to want, and I casts about +in my mind what I could do without, and how I could earn a few pence. +All this week I've give up my ha'porth o' milk, and the bit o' meat +I has on the Wednesday, and I've kept half the bit o' drippin' Mrs. +Styles from next door gives me, to go towards nex' week. 'Tis hard to +be eckycomical with so little, but 'twas harder to tell old Ralph he +might come to-morrer bein' Saturday, and strip my bit o' garden of +all my bits o' flowers and take 'em and sell 'em in the market. And +then he tells me Abigail had brought him the same message, and he and +me had a good weep together, and then he said the Lord 'ud provide, +and went away with a solemn shake o' his head, and he's goin' to try +his cabbages in the market, but they be a poor lot. Ralph never was a +gardener; he allays were so took up wi' books an' such like."</p> + +<p>Old Mary stopped for breath. She had poured out her story with smiles +and tears, and Heather felt a little choke in her throat as she thought +of the luxury in which she had been living, and the contrast of her +life with this one.</p> + +<p>"You shall not want the money, Mary. I have brought it to you +myself this afternoon. I did not think Abigail had told you of our +difficulties, but she did not know last Saturday that I was coming +home."</p> + +<p>"Praise the Lord! He has not failed me. Now, Miss Heather, just you +kneel down and let us thank Him for His goodness. Ay, I have been +mistrustin' of Him, and He just brought you back to us Hisself when He +knew we couldn't a get on without you!"</p> + +<p>Down on the uneven stone floor knelt Heather, with the little woman +sniffing and ejaculating beside her. But it was not Heather's voice +broke the silence that fell on them, she felt too humiliated and +ashamed to utter a word. It was Mary who sobbed out her thanksgiving +with many tears, and when they got up from their knees, and the old +woman poured forth blessings on her head, Heather rather sadly hushed +her.</p> + +<p>"I am ashamed you should have had a day's anxiety about it, Mary. I +must go and see Ralph. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>She left her, after placing a little packet in her hand, and found +the old man at his garden gate reading the local newspaper. Ralph +was rather a character. He prided himself upon his knowledge of the +world and its ways. He would quote noted politicians in his talk, and +even crowned heads, as if they were intimate friends of his own. His +geography was vague, his history and all general knowledge was taken +from the papers. The more ignorant of the villagers gaped with open +mouths at his utterances when he had his paper in his hand. Without it, +he was as lost as a lame man without a stick, or a short-sighted man +without his spectacles!</p> + +<p>"Let us see now," he would say with a wise shake of his head, "what the +young Emperor of Germany has been saying to his ministers last Friday. +I misdoubted his wisdom in that affair in Chiny, but he allays has been +too precipitous with his tongue. He reminds me of his gran'-feyther in +that affair of the war with the Frenchies. And here's trouble again +in Indy. Well, well, if there's fightin't here, 'twill have to be the +sailors this time. There be all our soldiers wanted for Africa, Lord +Salisbury says, and they can't be fightin' on two sides of our island +at once!"</p> + +<p>He looked up as Heather approached.</p> + +<p>"Good arternoon, miss," he cried joyously. "Well, there! I have a bin +concerned about you! Right glad to see ye back, miss; and ye be lookin' +up foine too! Missis Abigail she be so close and mournful like at your +Lunnon visit, that I has high words with her on the subjec' last time +she were round. I sez to her,—</p> + +<p>"'Missis,' I sez, 'the young birds allays leaves their nest. 'Tis the +way of all nature; how else should they learn to fly?' I sez! 'And when +they be took up by her gracious Majesty, and be brought to see her in +the Palace,' I sez, 'they that knows 'em ought to be that joyful that +they should have the honour of being invited, that they should be werry +thankful they ever left their home.' I sez—</p> + +<p>"But there, miss, my tongue do run on! I was a just calculatin' from +the paper what my bits o' vegetables might fetch in the market."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Heather, hastily, "I have heard, Ralph, but you needn't be +afraid your money will stop. Now I am home again I will see that it +does not."</p> + +<p>The old man looked at her.</p> + +<p>"Then 'twas only Missis Abigail's croaks? Well, I do be truly thankful! +I never gives in, for 'tis a long lane that has no turnin', and there's +many a slip 'twix the cup and the lip, but this mornin' I had a heerd +how Mrs. Scrivens were a scrapin' together, and I felt if the choice +lay betwixt my paper and the house, well, it must be the house I goes +to, for a man is little better than a beast if he don't know the news +of the day!"</p> + +<p>Heather laughed, and stayed chatting to the old man for some time. They +discussed politics, and Heather gave him many bits of information about +London and its ways. Before she went, he asked her gravely—</p> + +<p>"And has Miss Bluebell got a husband? We heerd tell so. And haven't you +a lover, miss? There allays are plenty dangling about town, they say."</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't one yet, Ralph, neither has Miss Bluebell a husband! Now +I must go. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>One more old friend she met on the way home, and this was Watty Clark, +the postman. He was striding along, his long white beard reaching to +his waist, and the post-bag swinging to and fro. He looked the picture +of health and activity, though he had passed his seventy-fifth year. +His chief characteristic was a great belief in himself and utter +disbelief in every one and everything else. It was he who had thrown a +doubt on "our young ladies going to see the Queen," and now he stopped +to look rather queerly at Heather as she greeted him.</p> + +<p>"Well, Watty, did you think we were never coming back?"</p> + +<p>"Never," he said with a shake of his head, "and there's only half of ye +now without Miss Bluebell. I allays said she wouldn't never come back; +she were too fond of excitement and such like."</p> + +<p>"Did you think better of me?"</p> + +<p>"Ah well, I've heard say the reason, and I gives ye the credit of +meanin' well, but ye won't keep it up. 'Tisn't to be expected ye will, +and ye'll be pinin' for city life before many weeks be out! Lasses are +the same all the world over. They be no good for hard grindin' work and +duty; they just flitter flutters by and takes the cream, and leaves the +skim for them who ain't so flighty as theirselves."</p> + +<p>"Now, if you are rude to me, I shall not come and see you, and bring +you some medicine for your cough, as I used to do."</p> + +<p>"Are you going to start yer medicine-shop agen, miss?"</p> + +<p>The old man's tone was eager.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Heather. "Every Saturday morning I will see any one who +comes up."</p> + +<p>"Ah then, I'll bring up my wife's nephew, Fred. He's had gatherin' on +his thumb, poor little chap, and maybe ye'll be able to do somethin'. +He's bin cryin' out at nights latterly. Not that I has faith in +doctorin'. Natur' is our best doctor, but the missus is whinin' over +him, and I can't abear to see women's tears. I reckon she'll cheer up, +if she thinks you'll take him in hand; she's such a one for believin' +in everybody!"</p> + +<p>He passed on chuckling and muttering to himself, and Heather, now that +she was alone, lost her bright keen look, and wistful curves came to +her lips.</p> + +<p>"I must keep busy, that is the only thing; if only I need not think! +But now I shall have a long lonely evening and no one to speak to. If +I feel it like this to-day, when everything is so fresh, what shall I +do in a few weeks' time! Watty says I shan't keep it up. Well, I am +determined I shall. I shall brace myself for duty, and let pleasure +go. After all, I have had a good turn of enjoying myself. Now I will +live for others, and leave myself out of the question. I must try and +imagine I never had a sister; lots of girls live lonely lives, why +should not I be able to do it? Or just supposing Bluebell were dead, +how much more dreadful it would be!"</p> + +<p>Reasoning and philosophizing thus, Heather reached home, and filled +up the rest of her time that evening by writing a long letter to her +absent sister.</p> + +<p>When she went to her room, she took up her Bible thoughtfully, and +commenced reading it, as she had not done for a long time. She had an +uneasy feeling that her religion had not stood the test it had been +subjected to. As she looked back and remembered the days when she +realized the love and nearness of God, she now seemed far away, and her +heart was lifeless and cold. She read a chapter with difficulty. It +seemed dreary and uninteresting; she knelt in prayer, but her thoughts +wandered away to Bluebell.</p> + +<p>Yet when she got up, she thought to herself, "I am sure I must be +pleasing God by doing my duty and coming home."</p> + +<p>And feeling rather virtuous, and very miserable, she crept into bed, +sleep coming to her aid, and taking her into its embrace very soon.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_10">CHAPTER X</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A SUMMER LODGER<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"A transient visit intervening,<br> + And made almost without a meaning,<br> + *          * +          *          *<br> + Produced a friendship, then begun,<br> + That has cemented us in one."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 17.5em;">COWPER.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>THE next month dragged very heavily. Heather brought all her pride and +pluck into requisition, and never betrayed to those around how bitterly +she bewailed her lot in private. Abigail looked on and wondered. She +saw her young mistress taking a keener interest in all that concerned +the villagers than ever before. She was always ready with a laugh and +jest, and her spirit and energy never seemed to flag.</p> + +<p>Yet Abigail knew well that she was not really happy. The old servant +had keen sight, and there were hard strained lines round the young +girl's eyes that never used to be there. She watched her in silence. +It had been a great shock to find how entirely her former rule was +now cast lightly aside. Heather was always pleasant, but there was a +reserve and dignity about her that forbade any familiarity on the part +of Abigail. She was mistress of the household, and showed every one +that she meant to be treated as such.</p> + +<p>Abigail waited on her for the most part in silence, but her old heart +was full of love and pity for the lonely girl. And as Heather seemed +to increase rather than diminish the distance between them, so did +Abigail's affection rise proportionately.</p> + +<p>A few weeks after Heather's return, she had visitors.</p> + +<p>A Lady Monteith, living about four miles off, came to call with her +daughters. Heather had met some connections of theirs in town, and she +found to her amusement that she and Bluebell could no longer be buried +in oblivion. Their season in town had made a great difference in their +social status, and the county families who had ignored them before, +now intended to stretch out a welcome to the bright young beauties of +fashion. Lady Monteith was followed by others, and Heather was not +surprised to receive soon the following letter from her cousin:—</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "MY DEAREST HEATHER,—I am getting distinctly anxious about you, and +though you have cast me off for a time, I will not yet disclaim all +responsibility of your actions. How long are you going to be in the +country? All the winter? Because, if so, I think you ought to have some +worthy duenna living with you. Lady Monteith is talking about you, and +you know what that means. If you weren't so good-looking, it would not +matter. But if the county is opening its arms to you, as I hear from +her it intends doing, you must have some one to go about with you. I +think I can find some one for you if you wish it, but I know of old +what a decided little person you are, so won't do anything till I hear +from you. I can't offer to come and stay with you myself, for your +worthy handmaiden is too much for my temper. Hal sends love. He expects +you back next spring, and says you will take London by storm. Cyril +has gone off to a Scotch moor with a new friend of his whom I fear and +dislike. He is deeply religious, and you don't suspect from his manners +at first what traps he is laying for you. I fell into his clutches +once, and keep a safe distance off now, I can assure you! I suppose you +hear from Bluebell? I don't, but I am told matters are proceeding very +smoothly between her and Sir Herbert.<br> +<br> + "In haste, with love, your affectionate cousin,—<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 23.5em;">"IDA."</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Her answer was brief and to the point:—</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "My DEAR IDA,—Do not distress yourself about me. If I intended to +continue my gay life in the country, I should not have come. I may +return a few calls, but beyond that I shall not mix in society. I have +quite enough to do in attending to my home duties and the needs of our +poor people to keep me occupied. I came home to retrench my expenses. +That I am doing.<br> +<br> + "With love, your affectionate cousin,—<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 17em;">"HEATHER."</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"It sounds curt and cold," she mused, as she read it over before +sending off. "But I fancy Cousin Ida is not so genial as she was. I +can never forget what she has done for us, but I know she is vexed at +my coming home, and disappointing some of her hopes. Her letter sounds +uninterested. I have taken my choice, and she will soon forget me, I +expect."</p> + +<p>Perhaps Heather judged harshly, but she was not far from the truth. +Mrs. Carter was getting a little tired of her chaperonage. Her views +were that girls ought to become engaged in their first season. She had +been gratified by her young cousins' favourable impression upon society +when first introduced, and their growing popularity had been very +pleasant to witness. But after a time, she grew a little tired of her +responsibility regarding their movements. She found them more difficult +to manage, and when Heather explained her motives for returning home, +she resented them, and chose to consider they cast a reflection on her +superintendence of dress and expenditure.</p> + +<p>When she received Heather's letter, she tossed it across to her husband +with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"She is a cool young woman, isn't she? I cannot quite understand her. I +think she has a puritanical vein in her nature—hereditary, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"She took to town life very easily," said Captain Carter.</p> + +<p>"As a duck takes to water! Well, I have relieved my conscience, and +shall let her 'gang her ain gait.' I only wrote because I was smarting +from Lady Monteith's scathing comments on 'girls of the present day, +and the farce of chaperons.' I looked after her well as long as she was +under my roof. She left it of her own accord, so I shall trouble no +more about her."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>A little later than this, Heather was one day asked by George Thatcher +if she would object to his wife taking in lodgers for a month or so. It +appeared that a sister of his in service had written to ask him if he +knew of any rooms in the neighbourhood that would suit an invalid lady. +Times were rather bad; Annie had two or three spare rooms, and would +like to accommodate the lady.</p> + +<p>"But we weren't certain if you'd like it, miss. 'Tis your farm, and we +wouldn't do nothink to put you about."</p> + +<p>Heather laughed.</p> + +<p>"Of course I don't object. Why should I? I envy the invalid such cosy +quarters. I will come down and see Annie, and find out if I can do +anything to help her in this new venture." Which she accordingly did.</p> + +<p>In her quiet, uneventful life, even the advent of a summer lodger +brought interest and pleasure. And when the invalid finally arrived, +Heather resolved to go and call upon her.</p> + +<p>So, one bright afternoon, she set out for the farm. On the way, she +passed Watty and old Ralph in the midst of an animated discourse. They +were leaning over the old stone bridge which arched the river, and +which was called by many "The Idler's Corner."</p> + +<p>"Well, Watty," said Heather, as she came up to them, "aren't you +supposed to be on your afternoon rounds? Have you any letters for me?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't I bring you three this mornin', miss?" said Watty, not +attempting to move. "You couldn't go for to expec' any more to-day. +We be havin' an argiment, Ralph and me, and he be such a one with his +tongue that I can't get my innin's."</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!" laughed Ralph, cheerily, as he spread out his beloved paper +before him. "Well, Miss Heather, here be Watty shakin' his head over +strangers a-comin' to lodge to your farm. I sez, the more we get, the +better it be for trade; he sez, importation of any sort ruins our +country. I sez, we want our village to grow; he sez, railways and +telegraphs are a curse instead of a blessin'. I sez, they brings work +to hundreds; he sez, increase o' poppylation means increase o' crime +and taxes. I sez—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please stop," said Heather, laughingly putting her hands to her +ears. "I never will discuss such questions. What does it matter? If you +waste your time much longer, Watty, you will get into trouble. Good +afternoon! I am too busy to stay gossiping here."</p> + +<p>She left them, and as her light steps sped on their way, Watty shook +his head after her.</p> + +<p>"She have taken up grand airs since she have a bin in Lunnon; she rules +as strong as a master, and it ought not to be! Women be sadly fallin' +off, in these wicked days, and everything be turnin' topsy-turvy and +inside out!"</p> + +<p>Heather reached the farm, and paused just before she went up the garden +to look around her. The orchard close by was full of ripe and rosy +fruit, the virginian creeper over the old porch was in its scarlet +mantle; everything around seemed united in glowing gold and crimson. +The old-fashioned border that went right round the smooth grass-plot +was full of bright dahlias, sunflowers, and hollyhocks, and the foliage +of the woods in the distance would have delighted any artist's eye, for +every shade from gold to deep copper quivered in the autumn sunshine. +Heather drew a deep breath as she gazed.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing in London like this," she said.</p> + +<p>And then feeling soothed and comforted, she entered the house.</p> + +<p>She was shown at once into the best parlour, a pretty old room with +large bay window overlooking the orchard. In an easy chair drawn up to +the window was the invalid, and Heather, who had quite expected to see +a fragile old lady, almost started at the contrast to her expectation. +Miss Vaughan was not a very young woman, but there was no sign of +feebleness or of age about her, and Heather thought her face was the +handsomest she had ever seen. Very dark eyes which flashed and glowed +with intense feeling, rippling brown hair with hardly a streak of grey +discernible, finely cut features, and a broad intellectual forehead, +and, lastly, lips that parted in a most bewitching smile,—these were +the points that Heather's quick glance took note of.</p> + +<p>She introduced herself very simply, and laid an exquisite bunch of +tea-roses on the small table by the invalid's side.</p> + +<p>"I thought you might like a few roses," she said. "It may be vain of +me, but I never think any roses smell like ours!"</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan looked delighted.</p> + +<p>"You have indeed given me a treat. I have heard a great deal about you, +Miss Fotheringay. Mrs. Thatcher has a great affection for you and your +sister."</p> + +<p>"She was one of our maids a few years ago. I hope she will make you +comfortable."</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure she will. This is such a delicious contrast to my +London lodgings."</p> + +<p>"Do you live in London?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I have been staying there for the last six months. Not a very +bright time, for I went up for treatment, and have been in the doctor's +hands until now."</p> + +<p>"I hope you are better," said Heather, sympathetically.</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan answered brightly, "I am not worse, and I know now that +nothing more can be done. Certainty is always preferable to doubt."</p> + +<p>Heather was silent. She did not like to appear too inquisitive.</p> + +<p>But Miss Vaughan, after a glance at her, said frankly, "It is my spine. +I hurt it two years ago out hunting, and I have been living in the +hopes of getting about on my feet again. I have had the best advice, +and know now that that can never be."</p> + +<p>"How dreadful for you! How can you bear it?"</p> + +<p>Such a glad light shone out of Miss Vaughan's speaking eyes.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I could have borne it two years ago, but I have had +great happiness since I have been laid aside, and nothing seems to +matter much now."</p> + +<p>Heather looked at her inquiringly, and Miss Vaughan responded to her +look.</p> + +<p>"I only thought of earth and its pleasures before," she said softly. "I +have had my eyes and heart opened to so much more since."</p> + +<p>Heather was silent, but there was a wistful look in her eyes that Miss +Vaughan noticed at once.</p> + +<p>"Do you know my receipt for happiness?" was the next question gently +put.</p> + +<p>"I ought to know it, Miss Vaughan. I thought I did once, but I don't +know it now. It is all unreal and far away."</p> + +<p>Encouraged by the sympathetic voice of the stranger, Heather was +surprised afterwards to realize how fully she confided to her the +events of her life for the past few years. She did not say much about +her inner feelings, but what was omitted Miss Vaughan was able to fill +in for herself. She had a very good idea of what the girl was passing +through.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Heather, trying to speak gaily, "I am settling into a +quiet country life, and am trying to do my duty in every respect. If I +had my sister with me, I think I should be quite happy."</p> + +<p>Then, being a little afraid of Miss Vaughan's probing her too deeply, +she deftly turned the subject.</p> + +<p>"I am wondering how you get about. Don't you go out at all? Do you +drive?"</p> + +<p>"I am out a great deal. I have a wheelchair, and I have brought my +little attendant with me. He is a small ugly boy with a shock of red +hair, but with the warmest heart imaginable, and faithful to the last +degree. I have sent him out to buy me some stamps. He wheels me out, +and looks after me as an old nurse would. Can you tell me if there is +good fishing in the neighbourhood?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; our river is splendid for trout."</p> + +<p>They talked a little longer, and then Heather took her leave, feeling +keenly interested in this fresh-comer.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image007" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image007.jpg" alt="image007"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>A LOVELY NOOK BY THE RIVER.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_11">CHAPTER XI</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +BROUGHT INTO LIGHT<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Another called, another brought, dear Master, to Thy feet!<br> + Oh, where are words to tell the joy so wonderful and sweet!<br> + *           *           * +          *           *          *<br> + Another heart will own Thee, Lord, and worship Thee as King,<br> + And grateful love and glowing praise and willing service bring."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">F. R. HAVERGAL.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>AS days went on, Heather spent a good deal of her time at the farm, and +before long had become fast friends with Miss Vaughan.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, they were out-of-doors together in a lovely nook by the +river. Dick, the red-haired boy, was farther down the river, trying to +catch fish for his mistress's supper.</p> + +<p>"I think," said Heather, laughing, "if I had been a man, I should have +fallen in love with you at first sight, and by this time, I should have +proposed to you. Would you have had me, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"I am certain I should not," was the amused reply. "Disparity of age +would have been the chief obstacle."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are not so very very much older than I am."</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan rested her hand affectionately on Heather's shoulder, as +she reclined on the grass at her side.</p> + +<p>"I am years older in experience, dear."</p> + +<p>"I feel I have had experience," said Heather, thoughtfully. "Society +life in London makes one grow old very quickly. I learnt more in one +year about the world, and—and people generally, than I would have done +if I had lived on here for twenty years."</p> + +<p>"And did the knowledge do you good?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not; and yet how I did enjoy it! Miss Vaughan, don't think +better of me than I deserve. I did not leave society because I was sick +of it. I would go back to it to-morrow with joy, if I could with a +clear conscience. If some one left me a fortune, I would. I am fretting +and chafing my heart out here in this narrow groove."</p> + +<p>"You conceal it very well."</p> + +<p>Heather laughed.</p> + +<p>"I try to, of course. I should despise myself if I went crawling about +and whining to everybody about my hard fate. And I am fond of our poor +people. There are compensations. Still one is dreadfully cramped and +stifled in such a life."</p> + +<p>"What must mine be, then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are different."</p> + +<p>"My dear child, I had ten years of what you call 'society life.' I +suppose I enjoyed it after my own fashion, but comparing it with my +present one, I shiver at the narrowness, the paucity, the emptiness of +it all! If you want width—breadth—depth—you will never have it in all +that. It cramps and chokes the soul as nothing else does! I can breathe +now, parts of me live that were lying dead or dormant, and isn't it a +grand thing to be able to defy all circumstances to mar or disturb your +happiness and peace! There! I must not talk so much of myself and my +feelings! It is a way invalids have!"</p> + +<p>Heather looked at the glowing eyes of her friend and sighed.</p> + +<p>"I often wonder if my religion was real at all," she said. "I think +Bluebell and I grew up in a Christian atmosphere, took everything for +granted, and just went through a routine of it. Yet I cannot remember +the time when I did not realize that God loved me, was watching over +me, and that I belonged to Him."</p> + +<p>"And when did you first lose the reality of it all?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose in London. There seemed so little time for thinking about +such things. We seemed in such a whirl. And I think, when we found the +things we had been brought up to consider as wicked were what every +nice person seemed to be doing, it shook our faith in what we had been +taught. Abigail would tell you that we have 'fallen from grace.' I +hardly know where I am now. I try not to think of it."</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan looked at Heather with much interest.</p> + +<p>"We have had a very different experience. Now, I was brought up to +be a success in society. I never had a serious thought till after my +accident. Perhaps that is the reason why my happiness is so great now. +I always had an uneasy feeling at the bottom of my heart that I was not +ready to meet death. To look forward now, and to be able to say with +calm assurance, 'I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He +is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day,' +why, it does indeed bring one a peace that is not of this world!"</p> + +<p>Heather sighed again, and said after a few minutes' silence—</p> + +<p>"I have no love for God; I feel quite indifferent."</p> + +<p>"No love for your Saviour?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not much."</p> + +<p>"Do you want to have love for Him?"</p> + +<p>"I—I—don't know. Yes, I think I do, but I have—to put it frankly—a fear +if I were to become a very earnest Christian, I should think it right +to give up all enjoyments of any kind, and I don't want to do that."</p> + +<p>"You feel you haven't had your fill yet of this world's pleasures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; Abigail's religion is such a hard and narrow one."</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear Heather, don't take your religion from Abigail. She has +naturally, I expect, an austere, severe nature. I find that since I +have given myself to God as His servant, I have tenfold more pleasure +in life. Grasp the fact that God loves you, and wants you to be +happy. That He gives us this lovely country, the flowers, the birds, +everything that sings His praises; that He is caring for us, shaping +every circumstance for our good, and teaching and preparing us a little +every day, for our glorious future by-and-by! If you can once believe +this, will you be able to go about in gloom and depression? And add to +this the wonderful fact of our redemption and the intense love of our +Saviour for us, what ingrates we are, not to be bursting with praise +all our lives long!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish I could feel as you do," said Heather, wistfully. "I +think if I were really happy, I could be quite content not to go back +to London again, but to live my life here. But I am restless and +dissatisfied, and I find doing my duty every day is very irksome and +disagreeable. Tell me how I can learn to love God as you do?"</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan was silent for a few minutes, her usually bright face +softened into solemn reverence. Then she said quickly—</p> + +<p>"Do you like me, Heather?"</p> + +<p>"You know I do. I have never met any one before that I wanted so much +to be my friend."</p> + +<p>"When you first heard I was coming to lodge here, you didn't care about +me?"</p> + +<p>"I did not know you."</p> + +<p>"I think, dear, that answer explains your lack of love for your +Saviour; you do not know Him. Now, how did you get to know me?"</p> + +<p>"I came over to see you, we had talks together, and every time I was +with you, I liked you better."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Now, the oftener you talk to Christ, the oftener you read His +Word, His Life, His Sayings, the better you will get to know Him, the +more you will love Him. And the first step towards loving Him comes +when we gaze at Him on the cross."</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Heather, breathlessly; "tell me more!"</p> + +<p>"Have you ever stood gazing up at the cross like Christian, with his +burden on his back? Have you ever realized your sins nailed Him there? +Have you heard His cry of agony when your sins were laid on Him, 'My +God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' And then, have you heard the +cry of triumph, 'It is finished'? And have you cast yourself at His +feet, in humble gratitude for the pardon He obtained for you then?"</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan sank her voice to an impressive whisper.</p> + +<p>Heather shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked across the rippling +water in front of her to the blue sky beyond. Her heart was stirred; +light was creeping in, as it had never done before. She was intensely +still, and Miss Vaughan did not break the silence that fell on them +both. She had the consciousness of a soul groping after its Redeemer, +and would not by word or look thrust herself in between.</p> + +<p>And then, after a long time, Heather turned round, and with misty eyes +silently kissed her friend.</p> + +<p>"I am going home," she said very quietly. "I shall hope to see you +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan let her go without a word, and sat in her chair silently +praying for her, till Dick came up excitedly with a fair-sized trout, +and claimed his mistress's interest and attention for the time.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Miss Vaughan was not surprised the next afternoon, when Heather met her +with a happy face.</p> + +<p>They talked long together of the subject uppermost in their minds.</p> + +<p>"I never saw it so before," said Heather, softly. "I don't think I ever +realized that I had part in the Crucifixion. I have been thinking of it +so much. Of course, all my life I have believed that Christ died for +the sins of the whole world, but it never came home to me personally. +I grew up trying to be good, but I never definitely took Him for my +Saviour. Miss Vaughan, you have brought me into close touch with God at +last. How can I thank you! I think I hardly deserve to have come into +the light so suddenly. I wasn't properly seeking. I was only wanting it +in a half-hearted way."</p> + +<p>"The Shepherd goes out to seek His sheep before they are conscious of +seeking Him," responded Miss Vaughan. "You will find it make a great +difference in your life, Heather."</p> + +<p>"Indeed I shall. I seem almost overwhelmed with God's goodness. I feel +I shall never be unhappy again."</p> + +<p>It was not long before Abigail was aware of the change in her young +mistress. She found her one evening with her Bible on her knees, +marking some verses. Heather's first natural instinct was to close her +Bible at once upon Abigail's approach. Though perfectly frank and open +with Miss Vaughan, she could not conquer the reserve that had sprung up +between herself and Abigail, but she thought better of it, and did not +move her position.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to see you reading that blessed Book," was Abigail's comment.</p> + +<p>Heather looked up gravely.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, "I hope I shall never neglect it again."</p> + +<p>"Are you back in the fold, Miss Heather?"</p> + +<p>"I think I am, perhaps safer than I ever was before."</p> + +<p>Abigail turned round and abruptly left the room, to Heather's great +surprise.</p> + +<p>She would have been still more surprised if she had seen that good +woman hasten downstairs and with radiant smile and streaming eyes fling +open the kitchen door.</p> + +<p>"Rachael, give thanks with me. The Lord has answered my prayers. Miss +Heather is restored to His favour!"</p> + +<p>And Abigail's solemn, rugged face seemed a good ten years younger for +the next few days.</p> + +<p>Heather's friendship with Miss Vaughan, or "Ena," as she had learnt to +call her, deepened day by day. Those days were intensely happy ones +to her. She had been very lonely since she had left London. She could +not even yet become reconciled to her separation from Bluebell, but +her heart was satisfied as it had never been before, and the Christian +life, instead of a monotonous round of duty, seemed to be one flooded +with sunshine.</p> + +<p>She said something of this sort to Ena one afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," was the quick response. "It is good to bask in the +sunshine of God's great love; but, Heather, do not think there will +never be any clouds in your life again."</p> + +<p>"Have you experienced any? You do not look as if you have."</p> + +<p>Ena laughed a little, then she said earnestly—"My experience has +been this. I, like you, felt at first my heart and life flooded with +sunshine, and wondered if it were possible that anything on earth +could trouble me again. Very soon clouds came. Physical weakness and +depression with me. I lost heart, and then was led to realize that +the sun was shining still, and always would shine, behind the cloud. +So I waited, believing the cloud would pass. It did. I have had many +ups and downs; and I think the lesson one gradually learns is that +one will never find sunshine in one's self—only in our Master. He is +always the same. Our feelings may rise and fall, but we can rest on +His faithfulness and unchangeableness, and this brings the settled +brightness and peace into our souls. I wonder if I have explained +myself clearly? I am not a very experienced Christian, you know, but I +seem to have learnt this."</p> + +<p>"It must have been dreadful when the doctor told you that you would +never walk again," said Heather, slowly, after a pause. "I don't +think I could be as bright us you are, if I knew I was doomed to be a +perpetual invalid."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you could," replied Ena, smiling. "It was a black cloud at first, +but I don't feel it now. Religion is not real if it does not help you +to rise above your circumstances."</p> + +<p>Then Heather changed the subject.</p> + +<p>"I have been wanting to ask you, Ena, if you will take pity on my +loneliness, and leave your lodgings for a week or two. It would be so +delightful for me if you were my visitor. I could give you a bedroom +on the ground floor, and Dick could come too. You don't know what +miserable evenings I have. Of course, I have been happier lately, but I +never shall get accustomed to living alone, it is dreadful! I generally +spend my evenings in writing to Bluebell, and I cry over my letters, +and go to bed in the depths of woe. It is very foolish of me, but I +have never been away from her before. She is a bit of my life gone."</p> + +<p>"I do not think you should be alone. You are too young."</p> + +<p>"That is what Cousin Ida says. She says I want a chaperon. Oh, Ena, +will you come and act as one? I should love to have you."</p> + +<p>"And what about my brother?"</p> + +<p>"I keep forgetting you have one. Isn't he always abroad?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. He has been in Scotland for the last month, but I heard +from him this morning, and he is coming down in a few days' time to see +what my quarters are like, and how soon I shall return home."</p> + +<p>Heather's face fell.</p> + +<p>"He doesn't want you as much as I do. Do you always live together?"</p> + +<p>"Always. I don't know what I should do without him. He has been so +good, so patient with me since my accident. I should like you to know +him, Heather. He is one of those people who say little but do much. His +whole life has been one long sacrifice for others. I never talk about +him much, for I cannot bear brothers and sisters singing each other's +praises in public. But it is only since I have been lying on a sick bed +that I seem to have had glimpses of what he has given up and missed for +our sakes."</p> + +<p>"I don't think that is the way of most men," said Heather, slowly.</p> + +<p>"No. I will tell you a little of our family life, if you like. We were +very well off as long as my father lived. When he died, my mother and +I had hardly enough to live upon. Bertram was in the 9th Lancers. He +was just made captain, and was going abroad. I must tell you my father +had left him and my eldest brother Frank a very comfortable allowance, +and this was rather a sore point with my mother. The fact was, the +investment that my father hoped would bring in a good bit to my mother +failed almost directly after his death. It was not his fault.</p> + +<p>"Frank married at once, and went out to Australia. Bertram wrote to +him to suggest that they should both make my mother a small allowance, +and so enable her to have the same comforts she had always been +accustomed to. He wrote back saying that as he was a married man, this +was impossible. Then Bertram, after much thought, left his regiment, +and exchanged into the Line. He felt this very keenly, but he did it +without saying a word to us, for he could not afford to give my mother +so much if he stayed on in the Cavalry.</p> + +<p>"I was just leaving school then, and I am afraid, wishing to please me, +and give me a good time, my mother moved to London, and we soon were +in the midst of a lot of gaiety, and consequently spent a good deal of +money. Bertram came to our rescue more than once, but the more he gave +us, the easier it seemed to us to spend, and we had no idea how rigidly +he was denying himself. I heard through a girl then that he had been +very nearly engaged to the colonel's daughter in the 9th Lancers, but +when he left the regiment, he lost her as well. I remember wondering +why he had done it. Of course, I did not understand then what I do now.</p> + +<p>"My mother died rather suddenly, when we were staying abroad, and then +I wrote to Bertram asking him what I had better do. He came out and +brought me back, and then told me that he could not bear the idea of +barrack life for me, so he had resolved to leave the Service. If I +would be content with a country life, and an occasional visit to town, +he would take the offer he had had of an old priory that belonged to a +cousin of ours, and farm his own land. It would give him occupation, +and we could live very comfortably together. I was delighted at the +idea, and we have lived there ever since. He gave me every comfort, and +till I met with this accident, I used to hunt four days in every week +in the season, and enjoyed myself immensely. But I see now how all my +life I have been taking from him and giving nothing in return.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I tell you this in the greatest confidence. I think we are +very happy together. But he has still anxieties about money matters. My +brother Frank seems in continual trouble. He helps him a great deal. +Now, don't you see, dear, that I cannot leave him? Doesn't this make +you understand how strongly I feel that my home is with him?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," said Heather, with a sigh. "Still, you could come to me +for a short visit, could you not?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I could do that. I will talk it over when he comes."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_12">CHAPTER XII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A FISHERMAN<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"He was a man of honour, of noble and generous nature."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>HEATHER had been visiting in the village. She had just come out of Mary +Scrivens's cottage, where she had been reading to her; for the poor +old woman was confined to her bed with a bad cold. She was making her +way across to the village post-office to get some stamps, when she was +stopped by old Ralph, who was talking very eagerly to a stranger.</p> + +<p>"Here be our young leddy, sir. She can tell you if she don't agree with +me, for she's bin to Court herself, and knows the ways of royalty!"</p> + +<p>Heather looked up amused, and met the glance of a tall man in +fisherman's garb, his basket slung over his shoulder, and rod in his +hand.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Ralph?" asked Heather, lightly. "You are not going to draw +me into a political discussion, are you?"</p> + +<p>The stranger raised his hat, and Heather acknowledged it with a +dignified little bow. She knew how little these old villagers stood on +ceremony with any one. Strangers were few and far between; they saw no +reason why "their young leddy" should not "pass the time of day" with a +stranger, as well as with any of them. Ralph began at once—</p> + +<p>"Me and this gent has been discussin' the clack and fightin' that is +just goin' on in the French assembly. I sez it is all for want of a +king to keep 'em in order. He sez a president be just as good, but I +sticks to what I sez! The countries go to the dogs where there ain't +no kings or queens! 'Tis natural, like. Every one for their selves, +and all wantin' to climb over each other's heads! He sez Americky is +a grand country. I sez it allays has the biggest calamities that ever +befalls a nation! The earthquakes, and floods, and fires, all gives +it a turn, as if God Almighty shows His disapproval. And, in course, +He made the first king—He didn't make a president or a parliament. I +b'lieve, now I come to think on't, He tried judges, but they turned out +a bad sort, and 'tis kings and queens the Almighty ordains to reign."</p> + +<p>"We are very loyal in this part of the country," said Heather, looking +at the fisherman with a smile.</p> + +<p>"So I perceive. I wonder if you can give me the information I was +trying to obtain from our good friend here, before we touched on +politics. I want to know if there is a cart track to Willow Pool, +which, I am told, is the best spot for trout. They say there is no +road, but would it be possible for a wheelchair to get there?"</p> + +<p>A light came into Heather's eyes.</p> + +<p>"I think you must be Captain Vaughan?" she said. And on receiving an +assent, she added, "There is only one locked gate at the end of the +large meadow, and I can get you the key of that, for it belongs to us. +I hope Miss Vaughan may be able to go with you. Ralph, where is Ted +Hind?"</p> + +<p>Ralph folded up his paper leisurely, and put it in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Maybe he's gone to market. Maybe he's in the Dragon's Arms."</p> + +<p>"Will you step across and ask his wife to give you the key of the water +meadow gate? And then bring it to this gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Maybe she's out in the fields."</p> + +<p>Heather looked at the unwilling old man rather sternly.</p> + +<p>"Ralph, you do nothing all day but read your paper, and gossip to +everybody you see. Don't be disagreeable, but do what I ask you."</p> + +<p>"Ay, Miss Heather, 'tis all very well, but you've interrupted an +important discussion, and my old legs don't work so easy as my tongue!"</p> + +<p>"It is a mercy they don't," said Heather, severely.</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan looked on with a twinkle in his eye. He was a +good-looking man, with rather rugged features, his moustache and hair +Just tinged with grey, and a humorous, kindly look in his blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to you," he said, turning to Heather, who was just +moving away; "I will go myself to get the key. My sister, as you know, +has not many opportunities of getting about, and it will be a great +pleasure to her, if she can accompany me."</p> + +<p>"I am sure it will," said Heather, warmly, "and I am so glad she has +you to look after her. Please give her my love."</p> + +<p>They parted, and Heather went into the post-office. Mrs. Carpenter, who +kept it, was a busy, talkative little woman. She had been a widow for +twenty years, and was supposed to have saved a good bit of money.</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss Heather, and what may you think of the captin? I have +seed you a-makin' acquaintance with one another. Have he come a long +while to stay? 'Tis a new thing—visitors a-comin' to this part o' the +world. But so long as they pays their way, they be welcome. Do you +know anythin' of their fam'ly? They seem the gentry, judgin' from the +quantity of letters that do come and go!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think we need be alarmed, Mrs. Carpenter. They are most +respectable, I believe. Now, I want half a crown's worth of stamps, +please, for I am in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"You're a good customer, Miss Heather. Time you was away, I was +dreadful slack! But it seems to me you write more letters to Miss +Bluebell than she do to you! When be she comin' back? That Norway that +be on her letters be close to the North Pole, Ralph were tellin' me. +She must be dreadful cold. Is it all Polar bears and ice?"</p> + +<p>Heather could not get away from the old woman very quickly. But when +she did, she found herself walking home with her thoughts full of Ena +and her brother.</p> + +<p>"He is not a bit as I thought he would be. I pictured a grave, sad man. +Life does not seem to have gone hardly with him. He does not look like +a self-sacrificing hero at all. I know Ena thinks him very good. He +does not show it in his appearance. But, then, neither does she. And I +much prefer people who are perfectly natural, and don't look as if they +were always mourning for their sins. Poor Abigail does not recommend +her Christianity, and yet I dare say if she were not a Christian, she +would be ten times more severe. How I envy Ena going across to Willow +Pool! I wish they had asked me. I shall miss my afternoon talks with +her, but she won't want me while her brother is here."</p> + +<p>A sigh followed, and Heather felt more than usually lonely for the rest +of that day.</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan obtained the key, and hastened back to his sister.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Dick!" he shouted. "Bring the chair round. We must be off at +once."</p> + +<p>Dick grinned in pleased anticipation of an outing, as he tenderly +assisted his mistress into her chair. He was a little bit of a +character in his small way. Like an old woman for thoughtfulness and +patient devotion, he attended on Ena as well as any trained nurse +could have done. His manner to outsiders was at all times a trifle +supercilious. "My family, my lady, my sitivation," were quoted +constantly, and no one's opinion's or wishes were consulted in the +least before his mistress's.</p> + +<p>He had not been two days at the farm before he marched into Annie's +kitchen—</p> + +<p>"Here, missis," he said, his small nose well in the air, "we can't +stand this state o' things. Them filthy pigs are a-gruntin' and +a-walkin' past my lady's window, and are distractin' her h'observation +from the view. They must be got rid of, missis, at once. Pigs is meant +to be kept out o' sight, and certingly not to be marched past a lady's +window all the mornin'!"</p> + +<p>Obliging Annie felt a great awe of this small boy, and promised that +the pigs should be kept away. But when it came to the fowls being +tabooed the orchard, she went to Ena in perturbation of mind, which was +at once set at rest by that lady. Dick was called in, and admonished. +But whenever he could get a chance of administering a snub to the +farmer's wife, he quickly made use of it.</p> + +<p>"I think I have seen your young friend, Ena," said Captain Vaughan, as +he leisurely walked by her chair across the green meadows smoking his +pipe.</p> + +<p>"Have you? Where?"</p> + +<p>"In the village. It was she who told me of the locked gate, and got me +this key."</p> + +<p>"And what did you think of her?"</p> + +<p>"She seemed a nice little girl."</p> + +<p>His tone was indifferent.</p> + +<p>"She is a dear child," said Ena, warmly. "It is not many girls who +would give up a society life in town, and come and live alone in the +country because the poor people needed her care."</p> + +<p>"A healthier life for her," said her brother. "I should not think there +need be much self-denial in it!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, but you don't know her circumstances. She has a twin sister from +whom she has never been separated before. It was a terrible wrench. The +sister would not come with her."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it was a question of principle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—or, rather, of duty. She was spending too much money, she told me, +and if she had not come home, their charities here would have had to +be stopped. It was very noble of her, I think, for she had no better +motive to assist her, and was enjoying her life immensely. She wants me +to stay with her a short time before I leave. What do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Just as you like. I expected you to return with me, but if you're +happy and well here, it would be a pity to leave."</p> + +<p>Ena looked at him a little wistfully, then she said with her bright +laugh—</p> + +<p>"I wish you would say sometimes that you miss me, Bertram. A woman +loves to feel herself of importance. And though I am such a useless +appendage to your household, I am company, am I not?"</p> + +<p>"That you are," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>There was silence for a few minutes. Then he said, with a humorous +gleam in his eye that his sister so loved to see—</p> + +<p>"You do not make such quick friendships as a rule. What is the +fascination about this young person?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you. I took an interest in her from the very first, +before I saw her. My landlady was full of 'the young ladies,' and 'Miss +Heather's wonderful business head.' She superintends all the business +of the farm, and the farmer looks upon her decisions with the greatest +respect. It is such a lonely life for a young girl. And she is so +brave and natural about it. I like to see her little regal ways with +the villagers; she comes to me like a sweet fresh sunbeam, and if you +really get into deep conversation with her, you would be astonished +at her powers of thought. Then, too, lately, well, I think I have +helped her by my own experience these past two years. She was dazed and +bewildered between the fashionable religion of London society and the +austere and puritan belief of her two old servants, who are Quakers by +persuasion."</p> + +<p>"And how long do you propose to stay with her?"</p> + +<p>"I thought perhaps a fortnight. This air seems to give me fresh life, +after London."</p> + +<p>"But the Priory is not London."</p> + +<p>"No; and I am longing to be home again, and settle down quietly for the +winter."</p> + +<p>"Well, extend your stay to the fortnight. Then I have to go up to town, +so it will suit me just as well to go now."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Heather was pleased the next day to receive a little note of invitation +to tea at the farm. She went, and found that Captain Vaughan's being +there did not diminish her enjoyment of her friend's society, though +she had a feeling that he was only kindly tolerant of her presence.</p> + +<p>"The natives of this part are a constant entertainment," Captain +Vaughan said presently. "The old postman told me this morning that he +had lived for fifty years in one house, and considered that the bulk of +his neighbours had very little good in them at all, but that outside +Thornlea Vale they were absolutely and entirely evil."</p> + +<p>"That is Watty," said Heather, smiling. "He has had a sad life. He was +brought up by a drunken stepmother, and was engaged to be married for +ten years to a girl who jilted him in the end."</p> + +<p>"Could not wait any longer?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I hardly wonder; Watty will never hurry himself. However, he +is married now to a very nice woman. He is a pessimist, and glories +in it. He does not approve of your coming here at all, and told +Mrs. Carpenter at the post-office that all diseases and crimes were +introduced into country villages by wayside lodgers."</p> + +<p>Ena's rippling laugh rang out.</p> + +<p>"Dick came back from the post-office purple in the face yesterday. +He said he had been 'giving information to ignorant folks as to the +ways and h'ideas of their betters.' Can't you fancy him holding forth, +Bertram?"</p> + +<p>"I back him to hold his own anywhere, young scamp!"</p> + +<p>"Of course, I know the narrowness and bigotry of our village strikes +every outsider," said Heather, thoughtfully. "But, after life in town, +it is very refreshing to return to. We are like one big family here. +Our interests, our doings and sayings, are all important to every one. +I am always sure of sympathy if my usual letter from Bluebell does +not come, from at least three or four of the villagers. In London, it +struck me when first I went there, how far divided the classes were. +How uninterested everybody was. I think if I were to be doomed to a +lonely life, I would live it in the country and not in the town."</p> + +<p>"It is bad training," said Captain Vaughan, with a comical shake of his +head. "We need to find our own level, and not be exalted into little +popes, whose every word is of importance. Of all dogmatic, obstinate, +narrow-minded beings on the face of the earth, give me a country +squire!"</p> + +<p>"No, no," cried Heather, "I will not have you abuse us country-folk. I +found the men in town infinitely more self-satisfied and egotistical +than any I had seen near home. Of course," she added truthfully, "I +have not seen very many in this part, but everybody in town gets to +look and talk as if it is too much trouble to breathe, and they are +great martyrs because they have to do it."</p> + +<p>"The best specimens of manhood do not frequent London drawing-rooms," +said Captain Vaughan, dryly.</p> + +<p>"Now, I will not have either of you begin running down our neighbours," +said Ena, briskly. "We will change the conversation. Let us remember we +are in the country, and choose a fresh and breezy topic."</p> + +<p>Heather returned home that evening with a flush on her cheek and light +in her eye. Ena had consented to come and pay her a visit.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_13">CHAPTER XIII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +BLUEBELL'S RETURN<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his +home."—GOETHE.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>CAPTAIN VAUGHAN only stayed with his sister for a week. Heather was a +little afraid of him. He was apt to be quietly sarcastic, and his eyes +seemed to note everything—not a thing escaped his keen observation. Yet +his sharpest speeches were always given with a kindly look in his eyes, +and he had a fund of keen humour which made him a most entertaining +companion. When he left, Ena, true to her promise, came to stay with +Heather.</p> + +<p>Abigail was rather doubtful of these newcomers, but Heather ruled +the old servants now with fearless firmness, and after a few days, +Abigail's stern heart was quite won by Ena's sweet good nature.</p> + +<p>As the two old servants heard the merry talk and laughter proceeding +from the drawing-room in the evening, Abigail, instead of shaking her +head, would grimly smile—</p> + +<p>"Ay, 'tis not the unholy mirth that Mrs. Carter brought with her. That +was the crackling of thorns under the pot. Miss Vaughan is a Christian +woman, and 'tis she I find that has helped Miss Heather so. One likes +to hear voices about. I've felt sorry for the poor child. And as to +Miss Bluebell, I fear she's entirely lost to us and to all that's +right. She seems sucked into the giddy stream of worldly gaiety!"</p> + +<p>The fortnight soon slipped away.</p> + +<p>And one afternoon, Heather returned to her home after bidding farewell +to her friend. She felt doubly lonely now, and needed all her spirit to +keep her from being depressed. But she was daily learning lessons from +a Master who was becoming very near and dear to her, and though not +always able to see bright sunshine, was able to draw all the comfort +and strength she needed for her daily life from above.</p> + +<p>"It is a test now of how much I lean upon the Lord," she would say to +herself. And the old servants never missed her bright smile and tones.</p> + +<p>Quietly and steadily, Heather was seeking to influence the villagers +she visited for good. It was no unusual thing for her to read a few +verses from her little Bible that she carried about with her, or have +a few words of prayer with those who were sick or in trouble. And she +found that, in seeking to help and comfort others, she obtained help +and comfort herself.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>It was late autumn now; the days were drawing in, and the weather +became damp and cold. Storms of wind and rain swept round the house, +the leaves from the old elms lay on the ground sodden with the wet, +and the canaries, instead of brightening the house with their song, +crouched on their perches with ruffled feathers and disconsolate gaze.</p> + +<p>Heather tried hard to keep cheerful. She had learnt the secret of being +always busy when she felt particularly lonely. But one wet afternoon, +she laid down a book she had been reading, and abandoned herself to her +thoughts. She seemed to see again that wet afternoon when she came in +from her walk and found Bluebell reading "Ivanhoe" by the dining-room +fire. How long ago it seemed! How differently she viewed life now, +since that first burst of longing to see the world and widen her +circle! Wrapped in her thoughts, she did not hear a fly drive up to +the door, nor steps and voices in the hall. But in a moment, the door +opened, and Bluebell flung herself into her arms.</p> + +<p>"I have come back, Heather! I can't live without you! I'm tired of them +all, and have come home!"</p> + +<p>The sisters embraced each other, divided between tears and laughter. +And it was some time before Bluebell could calm herself sufficiently to +tell her story.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image008" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image008.jpg" alt="image008"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"I HAVE COME BACK, HEATHER!"</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>After a cup of tea, which Abigail brought in with a dazed, bewildered +face, Bluebell began at once—</p> + +<p>"Oh, how good it is to be with you again! I've longed to say things +in my letters, and then I felt I couldn't. I am afraid Cousin Ida is +awfully vexed with me. Her last words were,—</p> + +<p>"'You have both thoroughly disappointed me!'</p> + +<p>"The fact is, Heather, I can't stand Sir Herbert! I used to fancy I was +in love with him, but I never was quite sure. And our yachting trip +settled it. By the time we had had a month of it, I was perfectly sick +of him! Bored to death with his prosiness! He is as dull as ditchwater, +and it would be dreadful to live with a husband who could never see or +make a joke! Now, wouldn't it? I've simply run away from him. I sent +him a note last night to say how sorry I was, but that I was sure we +should never suit each other. You know I've been with Cousin Ida for +a fortnight. Well, he has come round to the house every single day +after me. I couldn't really stand it. Cousin Hal said he would be a +good antidote to me. I told him it takes a fool to be always content +with his own jokes. Oh, may I never see another serious man as long +as I live! I am tired to death with his dulness and gravity. And so I +thought the best thing I could do was to come straight home to you. I +will stay in seclusion till all unpleasantness is over, and people will +have found something else to talk about. Do you think me heartless, +Heather? I am sorry for him. I think I have treated him shamefully, +but isn't it better to stop now than go on pretending I care for him +till it is too late to draw back? Oh, do comfort me, for I'm perfectly +miserable!"</p> + +<p>Here Bluebell broke down and burst into floods of tears, and Heather +was too glad and thankful to have her back again to scold her. She +petted and caressed and sympathized with her. And by the time dinner +came round, Bluebell had quite recovered her flow of high spirits, and +was making Heather laugh at her naïve accounts of the yachting trip.</p> + +<p>She tripped down to dinner in a pale-blue silk dress, looking as fresh +as a rose, and when she caught Abigail's disapproving eye in the hall, +she danced up to her.</p> + +<p>"Well, Abigail, aren't you glad to see me back again? Have you no +welcome for me? For shame! Heather is the only one who is really +delighted to see me."</p> + +<p>"What have you come back for, Miss Bluebell?" asked Abigail, severely.</p> + +<p>"Why did Heather come back? Is that how you greeted her? What a dismal +time she must have had! Now, Abigail, you must be nice. I'm going to +alarm you with my goodness. I have seen the error of my ways. That is +why I have come back, of course! Can't you give me a tiny smile? Don't +you like the idea of having both of us in your power for a little +while?"</p> + +<p>"You have grown out of my power, Miss Bluebell, and you know it! More's +the pity! I would fain see you in a more modest dress, and with a more +sober demeanour!"</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with my dress? Heather is in a white one. Oh, you +don't like to see so much of my neck, do you? Well, don't look, then. +And as to a sober demeanour, I wasn't born with one, Abigail, and you +know I wasn't!"</p> + +<p>She left her, and joined Heather in the dining-room with a radiant face.</p> + +<p>"It is good to be at home again," she said; "and how you've improved +the house, Heather! But there is a great deal more to be done. We +must get some fresh carpets and chintz for the drawing-room, and have +several of the rooms re-papered. I shall enjoy doing it. It will give +me something to do."</p> + +<p>"But, Bluebell, we have no money to spare for that kind of thing. I +have hardly got things straight yet."</p> + +<p>"Don't remind me of money. I shall have to borrow from you to pay my +dressmaker's last bill. She is bothering me continually about it. Why +can't every one have enough and to spare, I wonder!"</p> + +<p>Heather looked at her sister gravely. She saw she was talking +recklessly to conceal her true feelings, and was sorry that Abigail, +who was in the room, should hear her talk so. But Bluebell did not +care. She chatted on, as if she had not a care or thought beyond +herself and her own concerns, and Abigail left them at their dessert +with a sore and anxious heart.</p> + +<p>"She has come back as frivolous and empty-headed as Mrs. Carter," she +confided to Rachael. "Ay, 'tis sad to be her! I could sit down and +weep. She'll be for trying to entice Miss Heather up to London soon +again, that is what I fear. And she talks of her debts as gaily as if +it was the usual thing to buy things and have no money to pay for them!"</p> + +<p>The twins had much to talk over, but it was not until they were +upstairs in their bedroom over their fire that Bluebell began to soften.</p> + +<p>She looked at Heather's Bible dreamily.</p> + +<p>"Have you really become good, Heather? I couldn't quite understand from +your letters?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Heather, smiling, "I am afraid I haven't. I should like to. +I will tell you about it some other time. You look tired and sleepy. I +have found that real religion makes you very happy. That is all I will +say to-night."</p> + +<p>"Do you remember Abigail's text?" said Bluebell, gazing into the fire +thoughtfully. "'She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth'? +It has come true, in my case. I have lived in pleasure, and my soul is +perfectly dead!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bluebell, don't say such shocking things!"</p> + +<p>"But it is true. I never read my Bible. Prayer is just an empty form to +me. I have really no religion except going to church on Sunday. I went +out for a walk with Cousin Cyril yesterday. He has been away, and came +in for the first time. He asked me how my religion was getting on? He +always asks that question, periodically, if you remember. I told him, +it had left me entirely. He was silent for a whole minute! Then, what +do you think he said?</p> + +<p>"'I've been with a fellow lately who has the real article, and I'm more +than half inclined to try for it myself!'"</p> + +<p>"That does not sound like Cyril," said Heather, softly.</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked at her quickly. Then she left her chair, and seating +herself on the floor beside her sister, she leant her head against her +knees. After a pause, she said quietly—</p> + +<p>"Heather, tell me, has there ever been anything between Cyril and you?"</p> + +<p>"Between Cyril and me!" Heather repeated in astonishment. "Why, of +course not. I have always liked him, but I always bracket Cousin Hal +and him together. He is like a brother, that is all. Why do you ask? I +am sure neither he nor I ever did anything to set people talking!"</p> + +<p>"Oh no; I never heard any one mention your names," said Bluebell, +yawning slightly. "I only used to wonder, sometimes, if that was the +reason you never seemed to fancy any one else!"</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said Heather, and a faint flush came to her cheeks and +a proud intonation into her voice, "that this is why I am thankful to +be at home again? There is no question of marriage or of love. I got so +tired of it. I feel I can breathe freely again. I don't think it is a +nice atmosphere to spend one's life in. I never saw a single man that +I would think twice about, and I always hated the chaff and talk about +such things."</p> + +<p>Bluebell sighed. "I have made a mess of my affair," she said, "but I +was forced into it, and forced on. I think it was rather a shame." +Then, almost under her breath, she added, "Why is it, that it is always +the wrong man?"</p> + +<p>Heather heard, but answered nothing. She only pondered as she lay in +bed that night: Who, then, was the right man?</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>The sisters had much to talk over for the next few days. Bluebell +was here, there, and everywhere, apparently as gay and light-hearted +as ever. She bore the villagers' outspoken remarks with laughing +equanimity. Watty told her that she "had aged considerable," Ralph that +he "didn't expec' to see her without her bridegroom," Mrs. Carpenter +that "folks were sayin' that Missis Abigail was shakin' her head over +Miss Bluebell's carryin' on, and now she was to home agen, she meant to +keep her there!"</p> + +<p>Yet Heather was keenly conscious that Bluebell's apparent levity was +only on the surface. She told her soon about her own experience, and +finished up by saying wistfully—</p> + +<p>"I wish you could see it as I do, Bluebell, or as we are meant to see +it."</p> + +<p>Bluebell shook her pretty head.</p> + +<p>"No, no; I'm afraid I shall never feel religious again. I love the +world too much. I could never settle down here as you have done. I +can't think how you can stand it!"</p> + +<p>"Don't I look happy? I am. I think happier than I have ever been in my +life before!"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, you're radiant. 'Brilliant' is what you were called in town. +Cousin Ida is rather disgusted with you quitting a fashionable life so +soon. And, by-the-by, she knows of a poor lady that she wants us to +have here as a chaperon. I told her I didn't intend to bury myself here +very long, but she is uneasy about you. She says this Mrs.—now what is +her name?—Fish—Fisher, that's it—Mrs. Fisher would be glad of a home, +and wouldn't require any salary, so you need not refuse her on that +score. What do you think about it? We might have people to stay if she +were here."</p> + +<p>"We have not the means to entertain at present, Bluebell. It is out of +the question. Does Cousin Ida think I am settled here for good and all?"</p> + +<p>"She is afraid so."</p> + +<p>"I did not intend to be here altogether, when I first came back," said +Heather, slowly, "but I think now that I shall be."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you must have Mrs. Fisher. I will write and tell Cousin +Ida to send her down."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bluebell! And we shall never be alone together again. It will be +dreadful having a third person always with us. I cannot understand your +wishing it."</p> + +<p>"I think it will be expedient; I want to have a little gaiety even here +this winter. We can do nothing till she comes."</p> + +<p>Impetuous Bluebell had her way, and before another fortnight had +elapsed, Mrs. Fisher arrived, and was soon a settled inmate of their +home. She was a quiet, unpretentious little widow. "An ideal chaperon" +she was called by girls whom she had taken about. She was the wife of a +naval officer who had lately died, and had seen a good bit of life in +her young days.</p> + +<p>She adapted herself to her vocation with easy complacency, and even +Abigail found nothing to say against her.</p> + +<p>The twins did not find her in the way. They walked, and talked, and +planned out their days together in the old style. But Heather felt that +there was a chasm between them that could not be bridged over, and her +heart ached over her bright young sister when she saw how uninterested +she was in spiritual things. She did not say much, but she prayed night +and morning for her, and dimly began to understand a little of the +stern Abigail's sentiments about a society life for her nurslings.</p> + +<p>Bluebell seemed entirely swallowed up in it. She was restless and +discontented at the narrow sphere in which she found herself. She did +not care to visit in the village; her talk, her aspirations, her hopes, +were all in the gay world which she had left. Yet at times, she would +sit looking at Heather with a sweet gravity that was out of keeping +with her reckless chatter. And one evening, by their bedroom fire, she +startled Heather by saying—</p> + +<p>"I think, when I am thirty, if I am not married, I will try to be good."</p> + +<p>Heather smiled at the childish sentence, then she said earnestly—</p> + +<p>"Bluebell, do you remember telling me before we went to London that you +wanted your religion to be real, but that you had never had it tested?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; it didn't stand the test, Heather, it failed me."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't the right sort. Oh, Bluebell, how I wish you knew the Lord +as your personal Friend! It makes such a difference. We went through +our religion like machines; I don't think either of us had ever come +into close touch with God. We had never accepted Christ's death for us, +and come to Him as guilty sinners for forgiveness, and received the +pardon He obtained for us."</p> + +<p>"You are getting out of my depth. I don't understand that kind of +thing. It is mere words to me."</p> + +<p>"But you must think seriously sometimes. You say you will wait till you +are thirty. You may not live so long."</p> + +<p>Bluebell shivered.</p> + +<p>"Don't put me in the blues. I should like to feel as you do, but I +can't. I tell you again, I think my soul is dead."</p> + +<p>"That is an awful thing to say. Do you realize what it means? Death of +the soul means separation from God for ever. Can you look forward to an +eternity spent without Him?"</p> + +<p>"Now you're talking like Abigail. Well, I won't say it is dead. It is +asleep for the present, and I would rather leave it so; it is more +comfortable. Don't look shocked at me. I am getting very sleepy, so +shall turn into bed."</p> + +<p>This was how all such discussions ended. But Heather did not lose +heart, and she believed her prayers would be answered before long.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_14">CHAPTER XIV</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +"THE RIGHT MAN"<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Maid choosing man, remember this:<br> + You take his nature with his name;<br> + Ask, too, what his religion is,<br> + For you will soon be of the same."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">COVENTRY PATMORE.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>IT was a bright frosty morning in December. Heather and Bluebell had +just returned from a walk, and were standing over the study fire +chatting to Mrs. Fisher, who, with her inevitable knitting, was seated +in her easy chair.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was just giving a laughable account of the village shop being +thrown into the utmost confusion by her request for a reel of red silk, +when the door opened, and Abigail said in tones of severity—</p> + +<p>"A gentleman has called, and is in the drawing-room. Here is his card."</p> + +<p>Heather took it, and she exclaimed in tones of delight, "It is Cyril! +Ask him to come in here, Abigail; it is so much more cosy."</p> + +<p>Abigail's face was a study, but she withdrew in silence.</p> + +<p>And a moment after, Cyril was ushered in.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you surprised to see me?" he said, after the first greetings +had been exchanged. "The fact is, I remembered your station, and as I +have to go twenty miles beyond it on business, I thought I would have +a break, and come and see how you were getting on. Why, Minnehaha, +you look perfectly blooming, and not a bit conscience-stricken for +your—ahem—shall I say discreet retreat!"</p> + +<p>"The past is past, if you please," said Bluebell, trying to copy +Heather's dignified air, but failing to impress her audience. "We only +live in the present. That was what I was taught in good society."</p> + +<p>Cyril looked at her quizzically, then turned to Heather.</p> + +<p>"Well, Regina, don't you think it was time for her to return to you? +How have you been occupying your time in this secluded spot? I must +tell you, I have walked from the station. It's a good three miles, I +suppose, but I wanted to stretch my legs. And on the way, I overtook +your country postman. We began to compare notes upon our boots, and +agreed that leather and humanity were sadly deteriorating. When he +heard whither I was bound, he became most interested, asked me some +searching questions, and took stock of me from head to foot. Then he +began to give me his views upon 'our young leddies.' I can tell you, +I've heard more about your ways and doings from his lips than I should +ever have learnt from your own!"</p> + +<p>"Watty doesn't think much of us," said Heather, laughing. "In fact, he +has a very poor idea of the world in general."</p> + +<p>"So I gathered; but he holds one person in great esteem!"</p> + +<p>"Himself? Yes, one soon discovers that."</p> + +<p>Cyril stayed to lunch, and it was a cheery, pleasant meal, in spite of +Abigail's increased severity of face and tone as she moved in and out.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, the girls took him round the garden, which, in spite of its +wintry appearance, charmed the critical visitor.</p> + +<p>"It has an old-world atmosphere, and so has your house. I understand +you both better, now I have seen the home in which you have been +brought up."</p> + +<p>"I always thought our home had none of the picturesque beauty of most +old-fashioned places," said Bluebell, slowly. "But now I have been away +from it, in spite of much that is hideous, I like it better than I did."</p> + +<p>"You think you could be reconciled to a country life?" said Cyril, with +a quick glance at her.</p> + +<p>"No," said Bluebell, laughing and tossing her head; "I can't vegetate. +It wants great minds or little minds to live contented in the country, +and I have just a medium commonplace one, which must be taken out of +itself, and amused and interested by external circumstances. There! I +am talking like an old wiseacre! Come down to our farm. It will be a +nice walk before tea."</p> + +<p>"I must write letters," said Heather, hesitatingly; "I'm afraid I shall +not have time to do both."</p> + +<p>"We shall be back for a cup of tea," said Bluebell.</p> + +<p>And she walked off with Cyril, talking and laughing with him in the +freest and most careless way.</p> + +<p>For a minute, Heather stood at the garden gate and watched them. Then +she resolutely hastened to the house, and tackled some business letters +with a divided mind.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Mrs. Fisher had retired to her room for her usual afternoon nap. An +hour passed, and Heather rose from her writing-table, her business +done. She took a seat by the study window, which overlooked the +meadows. Something in Bluebell's manner, since Cyril had arrived, gave +her uneasiness. Was it only from seeing an old friend again that gave +her eyes such brightness, and brought such soft flushes to her checks? +She remembered how Cyril and she had always chaffed and laughed with +one another; how more than usually reckless and audacious Bluebell had +always been in his company; and she laughed at herself for imagining +anything different now.</p> + +<p>Presently, from the window she saw two figures crossing the meadows, +and she watched them as they came nearer.</p> + +<p>There was a little droop and softness in the poise of Bluebell's +figure that again awoke misgiving in Heather's heart. She saw her +stop and pick something from a hedge, she saw Cyril spring eagerly +to her assistance, two heads very close together, and a pause in the +gathering. Then she turned away, ashamed of overlooking them, and +wondering if this was for her sister's good.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, and she heard voices in the hall. Still, she did +not go to meet them. And when the door opened and Bluebell came in +search of her, she did not move from her seat.</p> + +<p>Was this the right man, after all?</p> + +<p>A moment later, and she was told. With arms clinging round her neck, +her soft cheeks pressed against hers, Bluebell told her story. And it +was enough to look at her softened, radiant face to know that she was +happy.</p> + +<p>"He came on purpose, Heather. I never thought he cared, and he never +thought I did. And when Sir Herbert was pestering me, he kept back. +And if I had married him, I should never have known what I had missed! +Aren't men stupid! I used to think you were fond of him, and so I +wouldn't let myself think of him. But it is all right now, and oh, +isn't it delicious to have a right to let your feelings go, instead of +bottling them all up, and thinking them wicked!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell rattled this off incoherently, then subsided into tears.</p> + +<p>"I want to be good, Heather. He has been talking quite differently from +what he did. He says he never really scoffed at real religion, only at +shams, and he has been with some friend who has made him see things +quite differently. I told him I was a butterfly, but he seems to think +I shall steady down. Do you think I shall? Oh! Here is Abigail—what a +nuisance! Tea is in, I suppose."</p> + +<p>Bluebell dashed away to her room, and Heather went into the +drawing-room, feeling almost bewildered at this sudden confirmation of +her fears.</p> + +<p>She found Cyril alone, standing on the hearthrug, his back to the fire.</p> + +<p>He looked at her with a queer smile. "Well, Regina?"</p> + +<p>"I can't congratulate either of you yet," said Heather, trying to speak +calmly. "It has been such a surprise to me that I cannot get accustomed +to the thought of it. It never entered my head till I saw you together +to-day."</p> + +<p>"Are you averse to me as a brother-in-law?"</p> + +<p>There was a silence, then Heather spoke with kindling eyes—</p> + +<p>"I would rather have you as a brother-in-law—than—than many others in +town. But, Cyril, frankly I tell you, I see things differently now from +what I did. And I long for Bluebell to have some one to help her on +the upward path. Not to drag her down to a dead level of stagnation, +and—and mere pleasure-seeking!"</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image009" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image009.jpg" alt="image009"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"WELL, REGINA?"</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"Is that my life?"</p> + +<p>"It was ours in London."</p> + +<p>Cyril looked at her with his keen eyes, in silence, for a minute.</p> + +<p>"The old influences have been at work with you, then, and have +prejudiced you against society life?"</p> + +<p>"No; I think it is quite a new influence that has crept into my life," +said Heather, smiling—"an influence that has brought me real happiness +at last."</p> + +<p>There was another pause, then Cyril said—</p> + +<p>"You know that I never consider myself a society man, as you term it. +I have too much to do when in town, and Minnehaha is quite willing to +spend most of the year in the country. We shall not be butterflies of +fashion."</p> + +<p>Heather was silent, then he said in a lighter tone, "Your venture back +here has been a success, then? You do not regret it? Won't you be +pining for more life soon?"</p> + +<p>"I have got as much as I can hold here," said Heather, turning upon him +such a radiant look of happiness that Cyril wondered, and said no more.</p> + +<p>He had to leave very soon, but promised to come down again before long. +His last words to Heather were—</p> + +<p>"I will try and be to Minnehaha what you desire. I, too, like yourself, +have had a new influence creeping into my life. It has made a great +difference to me."</p> + +<p>Bluebell insisted upon Heather accompanying her to the station to see +Cyril off. As the two girls were walking back, they met Watty, who was +generally to be found loitering along the high-road. His wife was a +good laundress, and was always well supplied with work, so he did not +see any necessity for doing anything besides his letter-carrying.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said, with a knowing look, as the girls stopped to speak to +him, "and which is it of you he be after?"</p> + +<p>"Which do you think?" asked Bluebell, with twinkling eyes.</p> + +<p>Watty rubbed his left ear reflectively.</p> + +<p>"I said to him, as we be a-joggin' along this mornin',—</p> + +<p>"'And what be your business in these parts? 'Tis to be hoped ye're an +honest man if ye be after the young leddies, for them Londoners are +mostly thieves and vagabonds, and the gentry a wild lot, I've heerd +tell!'</p> + +<p>"And he were bound to agree, for he wished me to think well of 'un. I +sez to him,—</p> + +<p>"'If 'tis Miss Bluebell ye've come after, ye can have 'en, and welcome, +I sez, but she'll lead a sober man a dance, and want tight reins and a +strong hand wi' 'er. But if 'tis Miss Heather,' I sez, 'well, there be +several parties in this 'ere village that will have a word to say on +that p'int. And ye won't earn their goodwill by carryin' of her off; +not but what she be rather a haughty-headed young wiman with a will o' +her own, and needs a deal o' managin', but her heart and purse goes +well together, and she have a care for the poor and destitoot.'"</p> + +<p>"And what did he say?" asked Bluebell, quite unabashed by the old man's +speech.</p> + +<p>"Well, he appeared to be a-considerin', and I gave 'un a bit more +profitable talk, for which he thanked me, and us went our ways. I sez,—</p> + +<p>"'I wish you well, sir, but b'lieve me, a maid is a risky treasure, and +'tis them that is single that is blest!'"</p> + +<p>"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Watty," said Heather, severely, +"with such a good wife at home, to speak so! Where would you be without +her?"</p> + +<p>Watty chuckled dryly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well. Her does her best. And I will allow she might be worse, but +I have 'er well in hand. Which be it, young leddies, which be it?"</p> + +<p>"You had the honour, Watty," said Bluebell, drawing herself up with +great assumption of dignity, "to speak to my affianced husband this +morning. Miss Heather is still going to remain amongst you to manage +you all. I don't wish her joy of it; good afternoon."</p> + +<p>They passed rapidly on, and Watty gazed after them for a moment in +silence.</p> + +<p>"Well, my reckonin' were not far out! So there 'll be weddin'-bells +soon, and a good hearty supper after, if Miss Heather does her part +well. I must just step into the office and tell Mrs. Carpenter. She +allays thinks she's first hand for news, but this 'll take the feather +out o' her cap, I reckon!"</p> + +<p>Abigail received the news in grim silence.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was content to have her silent, and she did not ask her for +congratulations.</p> + +<p>But when Heather happened to go into the kitchen late in the evening, +Abigail came forward.</p> + +<p>"Is this match to your likin', Miss Heather?" she asked sternly.</p> + +<p>"My opinion has not been asked, Abigail," Heather answered gently. +"Bluebell must please herself. She will not stand dictation from me. +Mr. Carter is an upright, honourable gentleman; we have known him +intimately for a long time, and he will make a good husband."</p> + +<p>"And is this all you can say? Have you no thought for their immortal +souls? Is he a servant of the Lord, Miss Heather? One that my late +departed mistress would have approved of? Will he be for following +righteousness, or the wicked ways of the world? Is Miss Bluebell to be +allowed to yoke herself to an unbeliever, I ask you?"</p> + +<p>Heather looked a little troubled.</p> + +<p>"I know all you feel, Abigail, and wish I could reassure you. You must +remember, Bluebell does not see things in the light that we do. But +from what I know of Mr. Carter, I feel sure he will lead her right, and +not wrong. This is in confidence to you. Some time ago, Mrs. Carter +wrote to me saying that Mr. Carter was in Scotland with a friend who +was very religious. I am sure he must have influenced him, for Mr. +Carter seems graver, and talks differently about serious things now. In +fact, he told me as much when I spoke to him, and I am hoping very much +that he will lead Bluebell to think differently too. We must pray for +them both."</p> + +<p>She left the kitchen, and Abigail said no more. Just before going to +bed, Heather put her arm round her twin sister affectionately.</p> + +<p>"And are you perfectly happy now, Bluebell?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly!" said Bluebell, with emphasis. "Oh," she added impetuously, +"I can't tell what a nightmare Sir Herbert was to me! The feeling that +he could not and would not see a joke, the heavy stolid conversation he +tried to make, and the awful oppression I always felt in his company! +Now, with Cyril, it is all sunshine; I always felt I could go to the +wilds of Africa and be happy with him. You need have no fears about +us, Heather. We shall be a well-matched couple, without being a too +sentimental one!"</p> + +<p>"And what do you intend your married life to be?"</p> + +<p>"To be? I don't quite understand you. We shall be up in town a good +part of the year, so I shall see plenty of society, and the rest of the +year, we shall be in the country, and I shall have nice people staying +with us. And if I feel very good, I shall visit our tenants and look +after their welfare."</p> + +<p>"It sounds delightful," said Heather, earnestly. "But, Bluebell dear, +you can never be really happy living only for your own pleasure and +amusement. Don't start a married life without God. You will only drift +farther away. I don't say much to you, but I do long that you should +know what real religion is!"</p> + +<p>"I don't want Abigail's religion!" said Bluebell, flippantly.</p> + +<p>"No one wants you to have her religion. Your nature is quite a +different one from hers. I don't want you to have any one's religion +but Christ's."</p> + +<p>Bluebell sighed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I will some day," she said, "when I get tired of life. But I +want to enjoy it at present."</p> + +<p>"You will never, never enjoy it until you are a true Christian," said +Heather, with kindling eyes. "I couldn't have believed the difference +it makes in one's heart. Do I seem unhappy, Bluebell?"</p> + +<p>"No, I can't say you do; I've never seen you so bright. But don't worry +me any more. I told you my soul was asleep, and I want it to stay +asleep for a little. I hate feeling uncomfortable. I mean to be really +good later on, but not just now."</p> + +<p>She changed the subject as she always did, and Heather only prayed the +more.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_15">CHAPTER XV</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +THE OLD PRIORY<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"The thread of our life would be dark, Heaven knows,<br> + If it were not with friendship and love intertwined."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 26.5em;">MOORE.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>SPRING again. We find Heather still in her country home. But Bluebell +has married, and is travelling abroad with her husband. The wedding +was a quiet one. Mrs. Carter wished it to be in town, but both girls +decided that it must be in their old home. And so Captain and Mrs. +Carter, and a few friends, came to be present at it, and Mrs. Carter +enjoyed a battle of words again with the inexorable Abigail.</p> + +<p>"Miss Heather must marry next, and if she is not quick about it, I +shall carry her off to London again. She is not going to be an old +maid, if I can help it!"</p> + +<p>"She is going to be what the Lord means her to be, mem," retorted +Abigail. "He is her Keeper, and not those that tempted her astray from +His paths for a time! Miss Heather has thoughts above marryin' and +givin' in marriage!"</p> + +<p>"Her time hasn't come yet. Wait till the right man turns up, and then +away she will go like all the rest of us! She is very much admired +in town, Abigail. A certain major in my husband's battalion has not +forgotten her yet. I think I shall give him a hint to follow Mr. +Carter's example, and come and see how the land lies now. She would +make a good soldier's wife!"</p> + +<p>"A soldier, mem! A paid murderer, we would consider him! And Miss +Heather has not been nurtured and brought up by a member of the Society +of Friends, to fling herself away on one with the lowest calling in our +nation!"</p> + +<p>The wedding over, Heather settled down to her quiet life, having Mrs. +Fisher to enliven her solitude, and her poor people to interest her. +She steadfastly refused Mrs. Carter's invitation to pay her a visit, +and, though missing her sister daily, preserved a bright and sunshiny +spirit.</p> + +<p>One morning, she received a letter from Ena Vaughan, in which she asked +her to come and stay with her for a short time.</p> + +<p>She sat with this letter in her hand for some time considering, and +then consulted Mrs. Fisher.</p> + +<p>The thought of seeing her friend again filled her with delight. It was +a visit that would not only give her intense pleasure, but would, she +felt sure, be beneficial to her in many ways. And when Mrs. Fisher and +Abigail both said that a change would do her good, Heather wrote off, +and joyfully accepted the invitation.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image010" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image010.jpg" alt="image010"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>TURNING ROUND, SHE ENCOUNTERED DICK.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>It was a lovely spring evening when she reached the small country +station that was her destination. She alighted on the platform, and +looked about her. There were very few passengers by the same train, +and the old porter seemed half asleep. She was trying to make him +understand where she wanted to go, when turning round, she encountered +Dick, who had arrived rather warm and breathless after a sharp run.</p> + +<p>"If you please, miss, the missus said as I were to take charge of your +luggage and see it packed in the trap. Mr. Spike, he can't leave the +horse, and I were kept waiting on a message or I should have been here +before, and the master, he is away on business or he would have come to +meet you himself. The trap is this way, if you please, miss."</p> + +<p>Dick was struggling with his dignity and breathlessness, but Heather +smiled, and understood. She followed him out, and found the trap +waiting for her. In a few minutes, she was being driven swiftly through +sweet-smelling lanes, eventually stopping at an old stone gateway with +a rustic lodge at one side. Then up a rhododendron drive, where the +flowers were in masses of bloom. They eventually drew up before an +ivy-clad turreted stone house with old-fashioned casement windows, and +a weather-beaten porch, over which was sculptured in stone the Latin +device, "Sic vos non vobis."</p> + +<p>Heather looked around her with a keen sense of pleasure and refreshment +in everything she saw. Just inside the door, waiting in her wheelchair +to receive her, was Ena. Great bowls of golden daffodils stood on the +old oak sideboards in the square wainscoted hall. The stairs with their +crimson carpets wound round and upwards, past a richly stained window, +and all inside the house seemed to give an atmosphere of warmth and +comfort, which contrasted delightfully with the dark oak panelling and +dusky corners that abounded in the old Priory.</p> + +<p>The first greetings over, Dick gently wheeled his mistress into the +drawing-room, and Heather followed her. It was a quaint low room, +panelled in oak; old china and beautiful paintings adorned the walls, +thick oriental rugs covered the polished floor; books, music, spring +flowers in abundance, and a dozen other nameless trifles, showed that +it was a room for use and comfort, and not for show.</p> + +<p>A bright wood fire was burning in the grate; the evening sun shone in, +and played upon the silver tea-service and flowers that were on the +afternoon tea-table drawn up to Ena's couch. Dick assisted his mistress +there, then noiselessly left the room, and Heather sank into an easy +chair feeling that her lines had fallen in pleasant places.</p> + +<p>"It is delicious to be here," she said. "I feel rather tired of being +mistress, and managing every one."</p> + +<p>"You are looking tired and pale," said Ena, affectionately. "I have +felt so sorry for you since your sister's marriage."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Heather said, with a little sigh, "it is a dreadful experience +to go through, for I feel that she will never be quite the same again. +But I was prepared for it when she was away from me before. That was +the worst wrench, I think, for it was our first parting."</p> + +<p>"Now I am going to give you some tea, and then you would like to go +to your room. I hope you will be comfortable, but I can trust my maid +to see after you. It is one of my trials that I cannot look to my +visitors' comfort, but I never go upstairs at all. I have my bedroom on +the ground floor. What do you think of our home?"</p> + +<p>"I think it is sweet," said Heather, enthusiastically. "It must be very +old, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Very old. The monks lived here in the time of Henry VIII., but were +turned out by the king, who gave it to one of his court favourites—a +certain baron, Sir Bertram Havish. The Havishes were ancestors of my +mothers, and the Priory has belonged to them ever since. A cousin of +ours lived here up to the time we came into it. He handed it over to my +brother because he wanted to go off to the Colonies. I think I told you +about it. Of course the best part of the Priory is in ruins; this is +quite a small bit of it, but it is the only part of it that has always +been lived in, and it is quite large enough for us. Did you notice the +doorway as you came in?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, and the carved motto above. What is the exact meaning of +it? Something about labour or work, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"'Thus you do not labour for yourselves.' Rather nice, isn't it? A +gentle reminder to all who live here that selfishness and indolence +will not be tolerated. I like to put with it that verse, 'that they +which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him +which died for them.'"</p> + +<p>Heather's eyes shone.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said; "it isn't only living and labouring for other people, +but for Him!"</p> + +<p>Ena nodded smilingly.</p> + +<p>They drank their tea and chatted together, and then Heather was taken +upstairs to her room. It was as quaint as the rest of the house, with +its deep recesses and low window-seat, overlooking a range of wooded +hills and a winding river. All the rooms were panelled in oak, but +light chintz curtains and hangings relieved the bedrooms of any gloom. +A small wood fire was burning in her grate, and bowls of daffodils and +primroses stood on her dressing-table.</p> + +<p>Heather felt as she sat down on her cushioned window-seat, and surveyed +the scene within and without, that her room would be a pleasant resort +for rest and enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Later on, she came down to the drawing-room in her dinner-dress, and +found Ena and her brother together.</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan apologized, as he shook hands with her, for not meeting +her at the station.</p> + +<p>"My sister and I have so few guests now that I feel we ought to welcome +warmly any who do come to us. But I was obliged to attend a committee +meeting at the very hour your train arrived."</p> + +<p>"I did not mind at all," Heather responded. "We have been so used to +manage for ourselves lately that I feel quite independent. At home, no +one ever meets us. You see, we have no trap, so we always take a fly +and drive straight back with no difficulty."</p> + +<p>"Bertram thinks that no woman ought to be able to do anything for +herself," said Ena, laughing. "He can't understand the up-to-date +girls, who are so well accustomed to take care of themselves."</p> + +<p>Heather laughed as she turned frankly to Captain Vaughan.</p> + +<p>"It is pleasant to be taken care of," she said, "but if you have no +father or brothers, it naturally makes you independent."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," he said, with a little smile; "and the independence is very +pleasant, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is. I know Bluebell and I gloried in it a year ago, but I +fancy after a time, one tires of it."</p> + +<p>There was unconscious wistfulness in her eyes. Ena said quickly—</p> + +<p>"You have left all leadership and responsibility behind you now, and +have sunk into a commonplace country visitor. I am going to treat you +as such, and I am sure you are longing for some dinner. There is the +gong, so let us go in. Do congratulate me upon my improvement. I can +join you at dinner in my wheelchair. I have only managed this for the +last month, so am still proud of my achievement."</p> + +<p>Dinner was a pleasant meal. Heather thoroughly enjoyed the cheerful, +cultivated society of her friends. Captain Vaughan had a good deal of +quiet humour, but he was also a well-read and well-informed man with +literary tastes. And both he and his sister took a keen interest in the +current literature of the day.</p> + +<p>"I feel very ignorant when I hear you and your brother talk," Heather +said to Ena as they sat in the drawing-room afterwards, leaving Captain +Vaughan to his smoke. "But you don't know how I like hearing you! +We are so shut up at home to our housekeeping, and the wants of the +village, that I sometimes forget the great world outside us."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I should do without outside interests," said Ena, +thoughtfully. "It takes one out of one's self so, and I dread falling +into an invalid's self-centred life. Bertram is such a help in that +way. I always think men are like a fresh breeze through a house, +especially those who are out-of-doors a good deal, and are in the way +of meeting other men. Bertram is a keen sportsman, though he looks upon +sport only as a recreation. And then he very often goes up to town, and +I hear the latest news in that way."</p> + +<p>"I should like to have had a brother," said Heather, as she gazed into +the fire, making a pretty picture as she sat in an old oak chair, her +slender little figure, in its white dress, thrown into full relief by +the dark wood background.</p> + +<p>Ena looked at her and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you will be given a husband instead," she said playfully.</p> + +<p>Heather shook her head, and changed the subject.</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan soon came in, and Ena asked him what engagements he had +for the next day?</p> + +<p>"I want you to show Heather the church, and the dripping well. I cannot +manage it because of the steps."</p> + +<p>"I shall be busy all the morni<a href="#image003"></a><a href="#Chapter_1"></a><a href="#image002"></a>ng," he said, "but after luncheon, I can +take Miss Fotheringay anywhere. We can do the church and well and go on +to St. Margaret's. I think those are all the antiquities to be seen. +Are you fond of ruins, Miss Fotheringay?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if they're picturesque," said Heather, smiling. "It reminds me +of old Ralph at home, who met a wandering artist one day. He asked if +there were any ruins to be seen, and Ralph led him off with alacrity to +a half-burnt pigstye of Farmer White's.</p> + +<p>"'There,' he said, ''tis a newer ruin than those old ruins at Rome my +paper tells me of, for 'twas only burnt last Toosday week, so you've +come to the right man for showin' the right sort!'"</p> + +<p>"One never quite understands whether it is simplicity or shrewdness in +many of these rustics," said Captain Vaughan. "I always feel they're +having a quiet laugh at my expense when I talk with them. Well, St. +Margaret's is worth seeing. It used to be an old convent, and the good +people in those days knew how to pitch their retreats in the most +exquisite parts of our country."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it solaced them for what they had forsaken," said Heather. +"And after all, there is nothing like Nature to soothe and calm, and +help meditation."</p> + +<p>"For the tired and weary spirits," put in Ena, "but hardly for the +young restless ones. There must have been many who, like caged birds, +beat their wings against their prison walls, and pined away in the +narrow sphere in which they found themselves. Their energies must have +been cramped, their lives dwarfed, and their tempers soured by the +constant restrictions and supervision over them."</p> + +<p>"Yet I fancy it was easier in those days to act, when contrasts were +so strongly defined," said Heather, thoughtfully. "If one wanted to be +good, there was always the convent. You weren't supposed to be half in +the world and half out of it; it was one thing or the other."</p> + +<p>"Not taken out of the world, but kept from the evil. In the world, but +not of it."</p> + +<p>Ena spoke softly, and Heather looked up with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I think the world has always approved of Christians taking themselves +right out of the way so as not to be objectionable and give offence," +said Captain Vaughan, strolling to the window and looking out on the +dusky garden. "It always has been fashionable to enter convents and +sisterhoods, but not fashionable to be introducing one's religious +opinions to society in general."</p> + +<p>"No," said Heather, "and I suppose if a Christian bottles up his +religion, he becomes like a stagnant pool. He must be a worker of some +sort. So there is nothing for it but to separate himself at once."</p> + +<p>"But he need not hide himself away in a monastery," said Ena, brightly. +"Do you think so, Bertram?"</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan turned round from the window with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I consider if ever we are in doubt about the kind of life we should +lead, whether we should mix with our fellows in society to show them +that Christians are not narrow and bigoted, and are able to take part +in all their pleasures, we have our guidance in Nehemiah, and a very +good reason given for our withdrawal from much of it."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked Heather, with interest.</p> + +<p>"I suppose each one of us is helping to build the walls of the church. +If we are, this is Nehemiah's excuse:</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "'I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the +work cease whilst I leave it, and come down to you?'"<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I like that," exclaimed Heather, with a flash of gladness in her eye. +"But of course it can only apply to busy Christians."</p> + +<p>"Ought we not all to be busy about our Father's business?"</p> + +<p>There was a little silence, broken by Dick's appearance with a message.</p> + +<p>But Heather had enough for plenty of thought that evening, and she lay +her head on her pillow a little later with a happy, restful heart.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_16">CHAPTER XVI</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A CALAMITY<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> + "Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise +above it."—WASHINGTON IRVING.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>THE days slipped by very quickly to Heather. She enjoyed the walks with +Captain Vaughan, the talks with Ena, and the wonderful beauty of her +picturesque surroundings.</p> + +<p>She lost a little of her imperious manner; she was no longer the +mistress of house and farm, "the young leddy" of the village. There was +no one to keep in order, no business matters to be taken in hand, and +the relaxation of her life brought out all the light-hearted gaiety of +her nature, and made her gain in girlish grace what she lost in dignity.</p> + +<p>Ena watched her flitting about with a happy ringing laugh, and listened +to her bright humorous speeches with delight.</p> + +<p>"I am making you younger," she said to her, laughingly, one morning, as +they sat in the sunshine under the old stone porch.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are," Heather replied, with twinkling eyes. "I feel very +old at home, especially when I am trying to manage Abigail. And since +Bluebell has married, I have been lonely. It isn't good to live alone, +now, is it? What would you feel like if you had no brother in and out?"</p> + +<p>Ena shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I fail to imagine. And yet, of course, he may marry, and I may have to +seek a home elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"Then you could come and live with me. That would be delightful."</p> + +<p>Ena laughed.</p> + +<p>Heather went on more seriously. "It is a great comfort to feel that +one's future is already planned by God, and out of our own hands. I +like to think of it. I wish I had realized it before; it would have +saved me from a good deal of fret. I don't think I should have tried to +change our lives so. I often think now that it has not been good for +Bluebell. She seems to love nothing better than a whirl of excitement. +I hope she will be different now that she is married, but I don't know."</p> + +<p>A little sigh followed her words.</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew your sister. I have never seen her."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I should like you to know her. She always has taken life +brightly, much more so than I. I used to be much more discontented +with our quiet life than she was. I incited her to want a change, and +it seems strange that it should be I who have been brought back to the +quiet life again, and she who is away from it."</p> + +<p>"But I think you must be the happier of the two."</p> + +<p>"I really think I am. But, Ena, I am wondering if I ought to do more +definite work for God."</p> + +<p>"What do you do? I mean outside your home duties."</p> + +<p>"I visit the villagers, and since I have—well, since I have seen the +reality of it all, I have tried to speak to them about it. I have +started a little working-party amongst the mothers, it is a kind of a +mothers' meeting. And then I have Bluebell's Band of Hope, and I have +my Sunday class on Sunday. I don't think I do anything else. I go to +the Union once a week, that is four miles away. But in a small village, +there is not much to be done. I have been wondering, as I have no +home-ties, whether I ought not to go into some distinct work, perhaps +abroad as a missionary. I feel I should like to give my life right up +for God."</p> + +<p>"That we can do at home as well as abroad," said Ena, quietly. "I know +when first I became a true Christian I thought the same, and grumbled a +little because my accident prevented all such ideas. But I have come to +see that a Christian's work is close to them, all round them, and that +a soul is worth winning, whether it is a fashionable member of society, +or a cannibal in heathen lands. If we each did our part in soul-winning +from our own home-centre, the world would be a different place.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I know the needs of missions are great, and many are right +to obey the call and go. For myself, I have been placed here, and my +brother and I both try to quietly influence our neighbours. You have +not seen many of our friends yet. There are one or two that, judging +from appearances and life, would have been the last persons you would +imagine had any religious cravings. Yet three of them come to me for +real downright earnest talk; and one has quite lately seen with us, +that life is not life till one gets linked on to the Living One. I am +only telling you this to encourage you. Get to know young girls in your +neighbourhood and try to influence them. Ask them to stay with you—oh, +there is a great deal of work close to one's hand always, if we would +only see it."</p> + +<p>"But," said Heather, hesitating a little, "I can speak to the poor +people about these things, but not to those in my own class. It would +be so difficult."</p> + +<p>"Why? Is our Lord's service only for the poor? Are the rich to be +excluded from it? Don't their very temptations and difficulties appeal +to us from having known them ourselves?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is cowardice," said Heather. "One knows the poor do not +sneer at one or shrug their shoulders at 'such fanaticism' as it is +termed. There is no cross to bear when working among the poor. But I am +afraid of girls of my own class. And the fact is, there are very few +about our neighbourhood. We have never had any girl-friends. I met a +good many when staying with Cousin Ida in town, but they would be bored +to death if I asked them to stay with me."</p> + +<p>"I know a good many here," said Ena, thoughtfully. "I think I must have +some of them over to tea, and let you get acquainted with them."</p> + +<p>But this plan was not carried into action.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>The very next morning, Heather received a letter from her lawyer, Mr. +Brody, asking her for an immediate interview.</p> + +<p>"It is something disagreeable about our money affairs, I know," said +Heather, with a perplexed face.</p> + +<p>It was after breakfast. Captain Vaughan had just brought his sister +some early tomatoes from the greenhouse, and he stood in the French +window of his sister's morning-room.</p> + +<p>"Cannot he come and see you here?" asked Ena. "You have only been with +us a fortnight, and you promised me a month."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I must go home. Mr. Brody has written me several long +letters lately. Some of our dividends have not come in, and grandmother +left us nearly all her money in shares that are very shaky now, I am +afraid. I cannot quite follow his letters, but I must see him, and I +think I would rather see him at home."</p> + +<p>"When do you want to go?" asked Captain Vaughan, quietly.</p> + +<p>"He wants to see me to-morrow. I ought to leave this afternoon. Would +it be possible?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, if you wish it. I will drive you to the station myself. +There is a train leaving at three, which will get you home before dark. +Will that do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank you, very nicely."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan walked away without another word, and Heather turned to +her friend.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ena, I am so sorry. I have been enjoying myself so!"</p> + +<p>The tears were in Heather's eyes as she stooped to kiss her friend.</p> + +<p>"I sometimes think," she went on, trying to speak bravely, "that I am +not meant to have much pleasure in my life; duty is always stepping in +and spoiling it. Aren't there some plants that thrive best in the shade +and not in the sunshine? I think I must be one of them."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Ena, shaking her head, "my dear child, that is a gloomy +theory. This is a great disappointment to both of us, but I hope after +your interview, you will come back to us and finish your visit. Don't +you think that could be managed?"</p> + +<p>"I should like to," said Heather, somewhat wistfully, "but I don't feel +as if I shall."</p> + +<p>Then, brightening up a little, she added, "It is ungrateful of me to +talk so. I shall have enough pleasant memories of this dear old Priory +to last me till I come again. And you have promised me a visit later +on, so I shall look forward to that. I must go to pack my trunk now. I +shall not be long."</p> + +<p>And for the rest of the time before she went, Heather was her bright, +brave self. She talked cheerily to Captain Vaughan on the way to the +station, and asked his advice about one or two things connected with +the farm.</p> + +<p>Though perfectly at ease with him, she felt a strange shyness sometimes +when in his company. He was an extremely reticent and undemonstrative +man, and though always courteous and pleasant to her, and occasionally +humorous, he never seemed to invite any one's confidence, and had an +absent distrait manner that was not flattering to the one with whom he +was conversing.</p> + +<p>Just before they came to the station, Heather asked him, a little +diffidently, "Do you know anything about these shares of ours, Captain +Vaughan? Do you think I need be uneasy?"</p> + +<p>"Have you most of your income from them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, nearly all of it."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan was silent, then he said, "I expect your lawyer can +give you better information about them than I can. Sometimes the tide +turns, and things look up when they've been about as bad as they can +be."</p> + +<p>"I can see you think badly of them."</p> + +<p>"If you want the truth, I do. But do not worry yourself unnecessarily. +Wait until you have had a good talk with your lawyer. Are you coming +back to us?"</p> + +<p>"If—if things are satisfactory," said Heather, with knitted brow.</p> + +<p>They were at the station. Captain Vaughan saw to her comforts, and, as +she shook hands the last thing, said—</p> + +<p>"My best wishes, Miss Fotheringay. And, after all, remember money is +not happiness. There are other things left."</p> + +<p>"It is an anxiety," said Heather, with a smile.</p> + +<p>And as she was borne away by the express, her thoughts went back to the +day she had first separated from Bluebell, nearly a twelvemonth ago.</p> + +<p>"Then it was want of money took me home. Now it is the same thing. I +almost wish I had none to lose!"</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>A week after, Ena received the following letter from Heather:—</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "DEAREST ENA,—I sent you such a hasty line, telling you of my safe +arrival, that I am ashamed I have not written since. Truth to tell, I +have been so worried and uncertain about our affairs, that I felt I +could tell you nothing. I have had several interviews with Mr. Brody, +and now I can tell you definitely that Bluebell and I have lost nearly +the whole of our income. I can hardly realize it, even as I write it. +This house must be sold. I shall have barely forty pounds a year to +live upon, but I must be thankful for that.<br> +<br> + "Of course, Bluebell wants me to go and live with her, but I feel I +cannot do it—Abigail and Rachael have been so kind—so has everybody. I +think I feel most for our poor people. How I should love to have you to +talk to about things! At first, I thought I could live on in our farm, +but it is not paying as it ought, and we shall have to sell that too. +I have no light at present upon my future. I lie awake at night and +wonder, and try to believe that it is all right.<br> +<br> + "Don't you think this may be God's way of preparing me for some special +work? He has taken my home away from me. I am trying to discover what I +am fit for. My education has not been a modern one. A governess is out +of the question. A companion or mother's help may be more in my line, +but I don't know. Can you give me any advice? Remember, I must earn my +living. I cannot help telling you of an interview I have just had with +Watty.<br> +<br> + "'Ay, well, Miss Heather, 'tis a proper breakdown to ye, but us will +hope some un will come along and patch ye up a bit. Some of your fine +Lunnon folks might do somethin' for ye!'<br> +<br> + "'Thank you, Watty,' I said, with all the dignity I could assume, 'but +I don't feel at all broken down. I have health and strength, and hands +and feet to work, and I shall soon be earning my living like most of +you.'<br> +<br> + "'Well, to be sure!' he ejaculated. 'And what may you be thinkin' +of?' Then, with a burst of generosity, he added, 'Tell you what, Miss +Heather—ye can't be spared from this 'ere village. If ye'll put up +with my wife's tantrums, and like a humble lodgin' wi' us, I'll let +you do turn-about with me of a carryin' them letters, for since this +'ere Lunnon post-master has given the public leave to send such vollims +of their trashy writin's for a penny, my old back just cracks wi' the +weight on 'em! Turn-about wi' the carryin'—turn-about wi' the pay! And +it'll keep you from the Union, Miss Heather, so let us settle it right +away!'<br> +<br> + "I think I hurt him by my laughter, but I was very near tears! No more +for now. Cyril is so good. He is coming down to see about the sale of +everything for me, and I am going to lodge at the farm for the present, +for I think Annie and her husband will be allowed to keep it on under +their fresh landlord. Sir Thomas Black is going to buy it. Much love, +and kind regards to Captain Vaughan.<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 17em;">"Your loving—</span><br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 20.5em;">"HEATHER."</span><br> +<br> + "This is a dull letter, but don't think I am perfectly hopeless. I feel +any troubles that come now will be light compared with what they would +have been a year ago."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"She is a dear child," said Ena to her brother, after she had told him +the contents of the letter. "I always think happiness will come to her; +she tries to do her duty so bravely. It does seem as if her sister has +had all the sunshine and she the shade. She is such a lonely little +thing with no relatives to look after her. What would you say, Bertram, +to her coming to live with us?"</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan looked at his sister gravely. "I scarcely think she +would do it," he said.</p> + +<p>"Why not? I should love to have her. She makes me forget my +helplessness so. She has such a quick, quiet way of seeing what I want, +and doing it before I have time to express the wish."</p> + +<p>"You would ask her as a paid companion?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Bertram, do you think I would? She is too proud, I fear, for +that. I should like her to come back to finish her visit, and then +drift on into staying with us altogether. You are so silent. Would you +dislike her here?"</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan gave a short laugh that seemed to his sister rather +constrained.</p> + +<p>"My dear Ena, if you would like her, that is quite enough. I am out so +much that her presence really hardly affects me. You can ask her if you +like, but I am of the opinion that she will decline the invitation."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan was right. Ena begged Heather to come to them directly +the sale was over, but she wrote saying it was impossible.</p> + +<p>"I promise to come to you before I start my independent life," she +wrote, "but I must settle my future before paying any visits."</p> + +<p>And with this, Ena had to be content.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>A month passed, and then Heather wrote again:—</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "You will be glad to hear that, through the exertions of Cousin Ida, +I have found a berth. An old lady, a friend of hers, is going abroad +for the winter in September, and wants a companion. I have been up to +London to see her, and she has approved of me. She is a thorough woman +of the world, and a little irascible in temper. Do you think I am right +in accepting this post? I shall not be plunged into society, for she +told me she liked her companions to keep themselves in the background!<br> +<br> + "But I cannot help hoping I may be a comfort to her, and perhaps may be +given opportunities of work amongst those in my own class, as you have +so often suggested. Bluebell is a little vexed about it, but I cannot +be dependent upon any one. I do not feel at my age that it is right. I +am going to stay with Bluebell for a month now, and then, if you will +have me, I should like to come to you before going abroad."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked Ena, as she folded up the letter, "I suppose she is +right to go, but I cannot bear to think of her in such a position. She +is too young, too pretty, and too refined, to be turned into an old +woman's slave."</p> + +<p>Her brother made no reply. He seemed absorbed in his newspaper.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_17">CHAPTER XVII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +IN THE OLD GARDEN<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"My poverty, but not my will, consents."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 17.5em;">SHAKESPEARE.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>IT was Heather's last day in her native village. She stood in the +deserted garden of her home, and her heart ached at the thought of +leaving it all. The sale was over. Straw and paper littered the gravel +paths, the shutters were closed, and the house lay in the shadows of +the old elms, dark and silent, having finished a long chapter of its +life. The family that had moved within its walls for over sixty years +had left it for ever, and a new era had already begun.</p> + +<p>Heather had been saying good-bye to the villagers, and it was hard work +preserving her bright demeanour. Now she felt she could let herself go, +and leaning her head down on the old sun-dial, she sobbed as if her +heart would break.</p> + +<p>The sun shone down, the blackbird in the laurels sang as sweetly as +in days gone by, the bees hummed lazily over the roses and peonies, +and Nature seemed supremely indifferent to the grief in its vicinity. +Heather was not the only one in her sorrow that afternoon.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image011" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image011.jpg" alt="image011"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>SHE SOBBED AS IF HER HEART WOULD BREAK.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Along the narrow cinder path that led through the kitchen garden walked +Abigail. She was picking bits of lavender and sweet herbs with many a +sniff, and muttering to herself in an audible undertone—</p> + +<p>"The Lord will comfort His own. 'Tis good to be afflicted, and He will +care for her. My life is nearly over. I could not have gone on in +service much longer. Me and Rachael have saved, and we will make our +home together, please God. But my heart aches over that child. 'Twas +here she used to run, and Miss Bluebell with her, when they were little +trots, and liked to pick the parsley for Rachael. I can see them now, +and the mistress watchin' them from the window. Ay well, she would be +sorely grieved if she were to see us now, and 'tis to be hoped she does +not. But she would be glad to see Miss Heather growin' into a good and +sober woman. I daren't think of Miss Bluebell. She has chosen the broad +road, and her heart is full of vanity. May the Lord in His mercy bring +her to a right mind and show her her sins and wickedness!"</p> + +<p>Heather's thoughts were with Bluebell, too. She felt it keenly that +her sister had left her to break up their home alone. Cyril had indeed +been a help, but he had only stayed a couple of days, and the bulk +of the work had fallen on Heather's shoulders. Bluebell had written +sympathizingly, but said she would be in town the week of the sale, or +she would have tried to go to her.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "I am sure," she wrote, "it can be no grief to you to shut up that +house. It never has had happy associations to me, though of course it +has been our home. My only memories are of always being pounced upon by +Abigail, and lectured, if ever we were trying to enjoy ourselves. You +will be far happier away from it. You must come and live with me, and +perhaps after another season in town, you will meet your fate. I am not +at all anxious about your future, so don't worry about it."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Wise advice, perhaps, but Heather felt her sister understood her +less than ever since her marriage. Even Cyril seemed to guess at her +feelings better. Just before he left, he said—</p> + +<p>"I wish you would come right away with me instead of staying on here. +It is not fit work for you."</p> + +<p>"I cannot leave it. It is impossible."</p> + +<p>"Why have you all the grit, I wonder, and Minnehaha none? She takes +life as easily as you do seriously."</p> + +<p>"Don't spoil her, Cyril," Heather said rather earnestly. "Bluebell has +depths in her that can only be stirred by emergencies or trouble, and +I hope she will not have that. She has not a butterfly heart, whatever +her manner may lead you to believe. I sometimes wish life had not been +made so easy to her."</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"'Wayward as the Minnehaha,<br> + With her moods of shade and sunshine,<br> + Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate,<br> + Feet as rapid as the river,<br> + Tresses flowing like the water<br> + And as musical a laughter.'<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I find she bears out that description exactly, and I am very well +satisfied with my wife as she is."</p> + +<p>"That is only as you ought to be," said Heather, smiling. "But if you +want her to show more grit, as you express it, you must let her share +some of your responsibility."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, that will come in time." Then with change of tone he added, +"I hope things may turn out better than you expect. You are very plucky +over it. I suppose you hardly realize your misfortune with so much to +do and to see to."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I can ever forget it," said Heather, with gravity. Then +she added with a smile, "You must remember earthly comforts are not so +much to me as they used to be. I have something now that I cannot lose."</p> + +<p>"Ah yes, I know. Well, I thought some months ago I had got hold of +life differently, but it was a passing emotion, I fancy. We are +impressionable creatures sometimes, even we men."</p> + +<p>Then Heather looked him straight in the face.</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me how you saw life differently, Cyril? Did you come +into real touch with God? Did you take Christ to be your Saviour and +Master?"</p> + +<p>Cyril stroked his moustache consideringly.</p> + +<p>"Well, you put it so crudely. I hardly got to those lengths. But I +seemed to see we were not meant to live mere animal lives, and ought to +bring glory to our Creator."</p> + +<p>"And you never got any further?"</p> + +<p>"I think I meant to look into the matter, but Minnehaha came into my +life, and we—well, we haven't the time, you know, for quiet meditation. +Are you going to preach to me, Regina?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I pray a good deal that you and Bluebell may be out and out +for Christ. You will never bring glory to your Creator till you accept +the work of His Son, and own Him as your Saviour, and take Him to be +your King. It is dishonouring to God to refuse allegiance to the One +He sent into the world to be our King. Forgive my plain speaking, but +you do not know how I long that those I care for should experience the +peace and happiness in their souls that have been given to me."</p> + +<p>She said no more, but Cyril Carter went away more impressed by her +words than he would care to allow.</p> + +<p>Now, as Heather, with tearful eyes, raised her head from the dial and +looked at the empty, deserted house for the last time, her thoughts +were still with Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"She and I will never be the same again to each other as we have been +in this old garden. Our girlhood seems a thing of the past. I feel a +woman now in experience, and I dread seeing how changed she is, when I +stay with her. Oh, why need changes come so fast? Nothing will ever be +the same to me again now I have lost my home!"</p> + +<p>She started when Abigail touched her elbow.</p> + +<p>"Miss Heather, don't take on so. 'Tis the Lord's doin', and ye'll be +givin' Him praise one day for this very trouble."</p> + +<p>"Shall I?"</p> + +<p>Heather looked up with a tearful smile.</p> + +<p>"Don't be hard on me," she added. "I came here to have my cry out +alone. I did not know you would be here, Abigail."</p> + +<p>"Ah well, I was havin' a look round, and the old times had come up and +near overwhelmed me. Miss Heather, my words may have been hard to you +at times, but my heart has always held you tight, and it will to my +dyin' day!"</p> + +<p>A choke in her voice made Heather glance at her astonished, and then in +a moment, the faithful old servant had gathered her into her arms like +a little child, and was sobbing her heart out over her.</p> + +<p>At last, ashamed of her display of feeling, she turned gruffly away. +But Heather kissed the worn old cheek very tenderly before she let her +go.</p> + +<p>"I shall never have another faithful friend like you, Abigail," she +said; "it is nice to feel you care so. There are times lately when I +have felt that there is no one left to care what becomes of me."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>A few days afterwards, and Heather was in Bluebell's country home. The +sisters were glad to be together, but the house was so full of guests +that they had little opportunity for talk alone. Heather watched her +sister dispensing her hospitality and entertaining all her husband's +friends with her pretty graciousness, and wondered if she had ever a +thought beyond the present. Sometimes she fancied Bluebell eluded close +talk with her, and she could only pray, and try not to withhold her +testimony if opportunity favoured it.</p> + +<p>One evening after dinner, as the ladies were in the drawing-room by +themselves, conversation turned upon old Mrs. Macintyre, with whom +Heather was going abroad.</p> + +<p>"I am told she is an awful old tartar," said Lady Robertson, a +vivacious young bride, who seemed to carry with her plenty of society +gossip, "and she gambles dreadfully. I knew a girl who lived with her +for a time. She gives her companions a handsome allowance, but compels +them to play cards with her every evening; she always manages to win, +and the poor creatures find their salary making its way back into the +old lady's pockets. I am told she meditates going to Monte Carlo this +year. I pity the slavey who goes with her."</p> + +<p>Bluebell gave a little sign to Heather not to speak, but she ignored +it, and said frankly—</p> + +<p>"Thank you for your pity, Lady Robertson. I am going with her, I +believe."</p> + +<p>"Good gracious! You don't say so! But not as her companion?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You know we have lost a good bit of our money."</p> + +<p>"It is a freak of hers," said Bluebell, a little crossly. "I want her +to stay with me, but she will be independent. I am sure a month of old +Mrs. Macintyre will send her back to us."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you take my advice, you will get out of that card-playing," +said Lady Robertson.</p> + +<p>"I don't think there is any fear of her doing that," said Bluebell, +laughing; "is there, Heather?"</p> + +<p>"No, certainly not. If such a thing had been mentioned to me, I should +have declined going with her," said Heather, with decision.</p> + +<p>"Why? Do you object to card-playing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Heather is a good person," said Bluebell, laughing; "of course she +does. I think she considers all amusements wrong. I should enjoy seeing +her tackle Mrs. Macintyre on the subject."</p> + +<p>"Are you good?" asked a girl, Laura Kent by name. "I remember you were +not at all prudish in your first season?"</p> + +<p>"I hope I am not prudish now," said Heather, with a rising colour. "I +don't feel so."</p> + +<p>"You don't look it," said Lady Robertson, good naturedly. "I have an +aunt who is dreadfully good. She drags religion into every sentence, +until she sickens every one with it. Now, I am not against religion +myself, but it is not a thing to be talked about."</p> + +<p>"I think there are times," said Heather, "when it is desirable to +mention it. But it depends upon circumstances. I used to think all +mention of religion was out of place, but if it is the most real thing +in our lives, why should it be?"</p> + +<p>"It's a very shadowy thing to me," said Laura, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be, if you got hold of the real thing," said Heather, +quietly.</p> + +<p>"But what is the real thing? Nothing seems real nowadays. Everything is +just a mere hobby, which gets ridden to death, until a fresh one comes +along."</p> + +<p>"I suppose real Christianity is living our lives in touch with Christ, +and having the consciousness of His presence in everything that we do +or say."</p> + +<p>"No one could live like that, unless you were always in church or +retired to a convent," said Lady Robertson, with a slight yawn.</p> + +<p>"And how can any one arrive at such a stage, even then?" queried Laura, +turning her honest grey eyes upon Heather with interest.</p> + +<p>But at this moment, the gentlemen entered, and Bluebell gave a sigh of +relief.</p> + +<p>"Come along," she said gaily; "we were just forgetting that we were +a set of frivolous women whose after dinner talk always consists in +picking one another to pieces. We were actually getting into deep +theology. Let us have some music."</p> + +<p>That short conversation brought Heather into close contact with Laura +Kent. She came to her bedroom afterwards, and had a long talk with her. +And before Heather left her sister's, one restless, dissatisfied soul +had found its way into the true path of peace.</p> + +<p>She began to see now that even in society there are many who need a +helping hand and word.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_18">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +WITH FRIENDS AGAIN<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Friendship! Mysterious cement of the soul!<br> + Sweet'ner of life, and solder of society,<br> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I owe thee much."</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 21.5em;">BLAIR.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>AGAIN Heather found herself at the Priory, for a farewell visit before +she went abroad. It was autumn, and the roses and dahlias brightened +the old house with their rich colouring. As she stood on the lawn by +Ena's side the first morning after her arrival, she gave a little sigh +of happiness.</p> + +<p>"It is good to be here," she said, "and I am going to enjoy my time +with you to the full, so that I shall look back with pleasure to this +visit when I am abroad this coming winter."</p> + +<p>"I wish you were not going," said Ena.</p> + +<p>"Please don't make me dissatisfied. I have decided that it is right to +go, so we will not talk about it."</p> + +<p>"That is Regina's tone," said Ena, laughing, for she had heard of +Cyril's nickname, and sometimes used it herself.</p> + +<p>Heather laughed with her, then said a little wistfully—</p> + +<p>"Don't think me headstrong. I have had to decide things myself, and no +one else can judge for me. I think I am being taught more and more that +I must stand alone."</p> + +<p>"Never alone, Heather."</p> + +<p>"No," said Heather, colouring, "not in the sense you mean, and that is +my greatest comfort."</p> + +<p>She changed the subject, and began asking Ena about her friends. +Presently Captain Vaughan came up.</p> + +<p>"I am off on a fishing expedition, Miss Fotheringay. Won't you bring +Ena out this afternoon, and meet me at the pool below St. Margaret's? I +shall work down the river that way."</p> + +<p>"I should like to very much, if you feel up to it, Ena."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I shall manage very well, and we will take the kettle in the +bottom of my chair, and have tea down there. It is an exquisite day."</p> + +<p>So it was settled, and soon after lunch they started, Dick in high +feather at having the "charge of the h'expedition," as he expressed it.</p> + +<p>St. Margaret's was a ruined convent beneath a wooded hillside, and in +a most exquisite hollow close to the river, which dashed over grey +boulders of rock, arched in by overhanging trees. Ferns of the rarest +kind grew in profusion along its banks, and Ena's chair was drawn up +into a mossy glade, a little way from the rush of the water. There was +no sign of Captain Vaughan when they got there, and Heather flitted +about, gathering fir cones and dry sticks to kindle the fire, with +girlish delight. Jack helped her with his usual dignity, and amused her +with his remarks:</p> + +<p>"It h'appears too damp a h'atmosphere to h'ignite as it should," he +said, watching her unavailing efforts to create the flame.</p> + +<p>But Heather persevered, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the +flames curl and crackle round the kettle.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it delicious here?" she said presently, throwing herself down on +the grass by Ena's side. "It makes one feel at peace with all mankind."</p> + +<p>Ena was busy with her sketching block. She was a clever artist, and was +rapidly filling in the nook in front of her.</p> + +<p>"Now, Heather dear, go a little farther away, and I will put you in. +There—just so! I will not trouble you long."</p> + +<p>"You must give it to me as a memento, only I should like your figure in +it, not mine."</p> + +<p>Just as the sketch was being finished, Captain Vaughan appeared. He had +had a successful day, and turned out his fish with some pride before +his sister's eyes. Then, lounging on the grass by her side, he looked +at her sketch, and Heather, springing up, busied herself about the tea.</p> + +<p>"I have told Ena," she said to Captain Vaughan, "that if I am to keep +that sketch I would rather she figured in it than I. Her own position +and background is quite a picture, and I long to sketch it myself."</p> + +<p>"Don't you sketch at all?" asked Captain Vaughan, a little lazily.</p> + +<p>"No; I have no talents—except, perhaps, music. But I got disheartened +when I was in town over that. Bluebell and I were brought up in +the old-fashioned style, and my harp-playing seemed to most very +extraordinary, I know."</p> + +<p>"I will try my hand at a sketch," said Captain Vaughan, taking block +and pencil out of his sister's possession, in his slow deliberate way.</p> + +<p>And by the time tea was served round, he had sketched Ena in her chair, +with the background of rocks and overhanging green, with such a true +and skilful touch that Heather was delighted.</p> + +<p>"It is you exactly, isn't it, Ena? It is for me? Oh, thank you. When I +am on the Mediterranean with my old lady I shall often look at it."</p> + +<p>A little sigh escaped her, but she changed it into a laugh as she went +on—</p> + +<p>"Bluebell advises me to keep a diary, and call it 'Views of Riviera +Life by one in the Background.' She says if I was very racy in my +description of people and things, I could get it printed, and Mudie +would take it. I am afraid it would be a strong temptation to present +my charge in a ludicrous light. Her very appearance is awe-inspiring. +She is a conglomeration of colour and scent, and always wears white kid +gloves."</p> + +<p>"I want you to have some people to dinner this week, Ena," said Captain +Vaughan, rather abruptly.</p> + +<p>Heather often fancied her friends and interests bored him, and she was +always sorry when she became communicative in his presence.</p> + +<p>"Who are they?" asked Ena.</p> + +<p>"He is a friend I met in Rome some years ago. He is a dabbler in +archaeology and antiquities, and he married a Miss Phillips. Her father +is the noted sculptor. They are staying with the Gregorys; of course +you must ask them too."</p> + +<p>"Very well. How would Friday suit you? Or is it too short notice?"</p> + +<p>As brother and sister were discussing the subject, Heather wandered off +by herself along the river-side. She had a keen love of all that was +beautiful in nature, and this quiet, peaceful spot seemed to soothe +and quiet her anxious spirit. For though outwardly brave over her +future, she had many qualms and fears about it. She could not forget +the conversation at her sister's over the eccentric old lady who was +to give her a home, and she viewed her gambling propensity with the +greatest horror. Would she be able to stand her ground and refuse to +participate in the nightly play? Ought she to acquaint the old lady +with her principles, and let her know she could not oblige her on this +point? Yet, as nothing had been said to her about it when she was +engaged, it might after all be merely exaggerated gossip. Weighing the +matter to and fro in her mind, Heather walked on.</p> + +<p>She crossed the river by a slender plank, and then climbed up into the +fir-woods above, thinking she would catch sight of the others below. +But she had miscalculated the distance, and when she turned to retrace +her steps, the many winding paths in the wood confused her, and she +missed her bearings altogether. For some time she struggled to reach +the river, but the dense foliage below prevented her from seeing it, +and she at last stopped in despair.</p> + +<p>"It is ridiculous to think that I am lost," she said, half laughing, +half vexed; "they will wonder where I am. I shall not trust to these +paths any longer. If I clamber straight down, I must come to the river, +and then I shall find my way."</p> + +<p>With this resolve, she started her downward path through brambles and +undergrowth, and then suddenly, without a warning, the slippery soil +below her feet gave way, and down she rolled, over and over, with +increased force and swiftness, till unconsciousness came to her aid, +and she knew no more. When she at length opened her eyes, she found +herself lying against a fallen tree about twenty feet above the river, +which dashed along as merrily as ever. Her head felt bruised and +aching, and, when she tried to raise herself, she found her left arm +doubled under her, and giving her exquisite pain when she moved it. +After several struggles, she succeeded in getting to her feet, and then +she found she had cut her forehead in her fall.</p> + +<p>With one hand she tried to stop the bleeding and bandage it, but she +became so faint that she was obliged to reseat herself on the ground +and wait for assistance. She tried to call out, but she was still too +dazed with her fall to put much energy into her cries.</p> + +<p>It was a happy moment when in the distance she heard the sound of +footsteps, and the crackling of the dead twigs underfoot told her that +some one was approaching. And when she saw the brown fishing-suit of +Captain Vaughan through the trees, she called out for help with fresh +vigour.</p> + +<p>In another moment he was by her side. "I have been scouring the wood +for you," he said cheerily. "Have you lost yourself? Ena has gone on. I +persuaded her to go, though she was loth to do it; but it was getting +late. Not hurt, are you?"</p> + +<p>He was leaning over her now.</p> + +<p>And weak and unnerved, Heather was struggling against tears. "I've had +a tumble," she said with quivering lip, "and I've hurt my arm. I almost +think it must be broken."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image012" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image012.jpg" alt="image012"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>CAPTAIN VAUGHAN MADE AN IMPROMPTU SLING.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"Let me see it. Ah! Don't move. We must put it in a sling till it can +be seen to."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan was not easily nonplussed. He slipped out of his pocket +a large silk handkerchief, and in two minutes had made an impromptu +sling. Then, as deftly and quietly as a woman, he took her own +handkerchief and bound up her forehead.</p> + +<p>"Now sit still," he said quietly, "and drink this. And then we will see +about getting home."</p> + +<p>He produced his flask, and Heather did as she was told, and the colour +crept back into her lips and cheeks.</p> + +<p>In a short time she was able to walk, though in great pain. Captain +Vaughan took good care of her, and though talking cheerily all the +time, made her take his arm, and led her as gently as possible along +the river bank.</p> + +<p>Heather strove to be cheerful, and when they at last reached the +Priory, she turned to him with tears in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I can't thank you, Captain Vaughan. You have been so good to me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense," he said, laughing; "it is not much I have been able to +do. Come in and lie down. I will send that young scamp Dick for the +doctor. Here, Ena, we have a patient on our hands, but I hope it is +nothing serious."</p> + +<p>It was not serious. She was bruised and shaken by the fall, and had +broken a small bone in her arm; but quiet and complete rest for a few +days did wonders, and she was almost herself again in ten days' time.</p> + +<p>"You are too good to me, Ena," she said to her friend one afternoon, +when she insisted upon her resting on the sofa in her morning-room, and +brought her some grapes and a book to amuse herself with. "Think how I +shall miss all this attention soon."</p> + +<p>"The more reason you should have a little of it now," said Ena, +playfully. Then she added seriously, "I would give anything to have you +here altogether. I have become so dependent on your society, that when +you are away I feel inexpressibly lonely."</p> + +<p>"But you have your brother."</p> + +<p>"He is out a great deal. Oh, I know I ought not to complain, and I am +never unhappy, only I think having you about me has made me feel not +quite such a hopeless and incurable invalid."</p> + +<p>It was seldom Ena touched upon her infirmity. Heather looked wistfully +at her.</p> + +<p>"If I come back with my old lady next spring, perhaps you would let me +come to you for another visit."</p> + +<p>"You know how delighted I shall be. Oh, Heather dear, why don't you +throw it all up and be my companion instead?"</p> + +<p>Heather smiled and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"We have argued that out many times. I am afraid I am too proud, for +one thing. I must and will be independent of my friends, even of my +sister, who is only too anxious I should make my home with her."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe we were brought together to be separated so soon," Ena +went on, leaning back in her chair and looking out upon the lawn with +dreamy eyes.</p> + +<p>"We were brought together that you might be the means of bringing me a +big blessing," said Heather, stretching out her hand to her friend. "If +we drift apart on earth, we shall have eternity together."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I have a strong feeling that we shall not be allowed to drift +apart," was the quick response.</p> + +<p>"We will hope not. At all events, we can write to each other. I often +think how good God has been to me, Ena. Just at the time when I was +missing Bluebell so intensely, He sent you into our neighbourhood. It +does look as if you were meant to take her place. I don't think I could +have borne her being gradually taken away from me if I had not found a +friend in you. I feel Bluebell will never be the same to me again now +as she was before she married."</p> + +<p>"Yes," repeated Ena, smiling, "and I still believe we are meant to live +together, and I am waiting God's time for that pleasure to come."</p> + +<p>Heather shook her head, and changed the subject.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_19">CHAPTER XIX</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +AN UNEXPECTED OFFER<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Whither my heart has gone, there follows<br> + My hand, and not elsewhere."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>IT was a stormy day. Wind and rain fought for predominance, and lashed +the old trees on the lawn in their fury. The casement windows rattled, +and the wind howled down the chimneys, making even Ena shiver. It +was very near the end of Heather's visit, and she had just received +instructions from Mrs. Macintyre as to where and when she was to meet +her.</p> + +<p>Ena listened and advised, but soon after breakfast got such a violent +headache that she was forced to go to her room to lie down.</p> + +<p>"Storms always affect me," she said; "if I can manage to get to sleep, +I shall be better. Make yourself comfortable over the fire, Heather. I +think you will hear the wind less in the drawing-room."</p> + +<p>So to the drawing-room Heather went, trying to battle with her +depression of spirits. She took out Mrs. Macintyre's letter and re-read +it, trying to imagine herself in familiar and friendly relations with +that good lady. The postscript did not reassure her.</p> + +<p>"Do not bring fancy work of any sort with you. I have found it +engrosses the thoughts too much, and your time is mine whilst you are +with me. I wish you from the first to understand this."</p> + +<p>"It will be slavery," was Heather's thought, as, leaning back in an +easy chair, she looked into the glowing coals in front of her, and +tried to banish the sounds of the storm without.</p> + +<p>She remained there deep in thought until, with a start, she was roused +by Captain Vaughan's voice.</p> + +<p>"Are you in a brown study?"</p> + +<p>Heather laughed a little unsteadily.</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan came and leant against the old oak mantel-piece, +looking down upon her, and pulling out the ends of his moustache +thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"This kind of day always seems to send you women into the blues. Ena +has collapsed, and you—excuse me for the remark—look as if you are +going to drown yourself!"</p> + +<p>"I have no thoughts in that direction," said Heather, looking up at him +with a little laugh. "I think I was dreaming. I am sorry to be leaving +Ena. I have enjoyed my visit so much here, and only regret that it is +coming to an end."</p> + +<p>"Why do you go?"</p> + +<p>"I must."</p> + +<p>There was silence. Captain Vaughan walked to the window and looked out, +then came back to the fire and took up his former position.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why you need go," he persisted. "Ena enjoys having you +with her, and you do her a world of good."</p> + +<p>"I could not stay on with her indefinitely," said Heather, quietly.</p> + +<p>"I think you could."</p> + +<p>Something in his tone made Heather look up. There was purpose and +determination in it, such as she had never heard him use before.</p> + +<p>"Would you not like to make this your home?" was his next question.</p> + +<p>Heather felt a little puzzled.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I might," she said, "if I felt it right to do so. But I see +my way lies differently."</p> + +<p>"I want you to reconsider your decision. It is not too late. I want you +to stay here altogether, and stay here as my wife!"</p> + +<p>If a thunderbolt had dropped at Heather's feet, she could not have felt +more astonished. She had been accustomed to a great deal of attention +and admiration when in London, and the very quietness and polite +indifference with which Captain Vaughan had treated her made her regard +him entirely as her friend's brother, and in no other light.</p> + +<p>She looked at him now in complete bewilderment, and his quiet, steady +gaze did not help her.</p> + +<p>"Are you joking?" she asked, trying to smile.</p> + +<p>"No," he said; "I am in sober earnest."</p> + +<p>Heather's head felt in a whirl.</p> + +<p>"Is this for your sister's sake?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"For my own as well."</p> + +<p>And then mustering courage, Heather rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I am so utterly unprepared for this, Captain Vaughan, that I feel I +cannot give you an answer at present. Forgive me, but even now I am +wondering if you are in earnest."</p> + +<p>"I cannot do more than give you my word as a gentleman that I am."</p> + +<p>His tone was a little stiff. He added more gently—</p> + +<p>"Don't act in a hurry. Think it over. I believe you would be happy with +us. We would try to make you so. I know I am much older than yourself, +but you like our home, and are sorry to leave us. Isn't this a way out +of your difficulty?"</p> + +<p>Then Heather looked up, and as simply as a child placed her hand in his.</p> + +<p>"I believe in your kindness of heart," she said. "Let me think it over."</p> + +<p>She left the room softly, and after she had gone, Captain Vaughan paced +up and down with knitted brows.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Heather fled to her room, locked the door, and with a tumult of feeling +threw herself into the easy chair by the window. Her thoughts were +these.</p> + +<p>"Not a word of love! It was like offering me another situation. What +does he mean by it? If I did not know his past history, and how +self-sacrificing and unselfish he is, I would not fear so much. It +must be pity for me, love for his sister, that is making him act so! +Oh, I couldn't, I couldn't! If I am not wanted for my own sake, I +will not give myself away. He does not seem to reckon love or liking +at all in the question, nor care to know if I like him well enough to +link my life to his for good and all. And do I like him? Oh, I don't +know. I honour and respect him immensely, but I don't feel I know him. +He has depths that he will reveal to no one. He has seemed so calmly +indifferent to all I do or say, that I can't believe he means what he +says.</p> + +<p>"Of course I could be happy, oh, I know I could, if—if he really cared +for me. If he was even as tender and gentle as I have sometimes seen +him with Ena. Yet he was that the other day when he found me down by +the river after my accident. I felt then how good it was to have some +one to take care of one. He seemed so strong, so reliable. Oh, what +shall I do? It is such a temptation. The right to stay on here in +this dear old place, the right to make it my home and be shielded and +cared for all my life. He could not make an unkind husband. Need all +marriages be love ones? And how happy Ena would be! I know she would be +pleased. I could look after her and make her life a brighter one, I am +sure I could.</p> + +<p>"If only he seemed to care a little. If it is simply his unselfish +kindness in taking pity on my homeless condition, if it is done +entirely for his sister's sake, how could I place myself in such a +humiliating position? Oh, I don't know what to do! I wish I had a +mother to talk it over with. I cannot argue it out with Ena. I wonder +if she knows. I don't believe she has any idea of it."</p> + +<p>Poor Heather soon got on her knees to ask for the guidance and help +which she felt she so much needed at this crisis.</p> + +<p>It was a great temptation to her. She felt unutterably lonely when away +from her friend, and the prospect of the winter before her was not +cheering. Yet marriage had not lost its sacredness to her; she knew too +well what misery so many marriages "de convenance" brought, and her +pride recoiled from giving herself away unloved.</p> + +<p>The luncheon bell rang, and she reluctantly left her room, hoping that +she would not be condemned to a "tête-à-tête" meal with the one so much +in her thoughts. This was spared her. Ena's head was better, and she +was able to come to the table. Captain Vaughan was out, the maid told +them, and would not return till dinner-time.</p> + +<p>"Where can he have gone in this storm?" said Ena. "He told me he would +be indoors most of the day."</p> + +<p>"I think it is going to clear," Heather said, looking out of the +window, where great masses of dark clouds rolled by, and gleams of +light appeared on the horizon.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is. We must hope so. You look pale and worried, Heather +dear. What have you been doing with yourself?"</p> + +<p>"I have been in my room most of the morning."</p> + +<p>"Not packing?"</p> + +<p>"No, not yet. I have still two days before me."</p> + +<p>Ena saw she was troubled, but thought it was at the idea of her near +departure, and Heather still felt her mind in such chaos that she could +not mention what had passed.</p> + +<p>"He is the person to tell her, not I," she thought.</p> + +<p>The afternoon passed. Ena was at all times a pleasant companion, and +Heather was enough versed in self-control to set her feelings aside and +enter into her friend's interests.</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan made his appearance just as they were finishing +afternoon tea, and Heather slipped quietly out of the room, leaving him +telling his sister where he had been.</p> + +<p>When she had closed the door behind her, Captain Vaughan said abruptly—</p> + +<p>"Have you been told anything, Ena?"</p> + +<p>"No; what?"</p> + +<p>He did not answer for a moment, then he said slowly—</p> + +<p>"I asked your little friend to stay on with us indefinitely."</p> + +<p>"Did you really? I'm afraid you did not succeed in persuading her to do +so."</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>Something in his voice made his sister look up.</p> + +<p>"Now, Bertram, what is it? You're keeping something back."</p> + +<p>"I offered her an extra inducement to stay," was the dry response.</p> + +<p>Ena caught her breath. Her woman's quick wit guessed the truth at once.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bertram!" she exclaimed. "If you care for her, I shall have +obtained my heart's desire!"</p> + +<p>"How about her side?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she must, she will say Yes. I have secretly longed to be a +match-maker. You don't know how I have wished to bring you together. +But you are so silent, and have been particularly so in reference to +her, that I hardly dared to hope it. What did she say?"</p> + +<p>"She has postponed her reply."</p> + +<p>"No wonder she has looked so absorbed. Why didn't she confide in me? I +must see her at once. Oh, Bertram, I can't tell you what I feel about +it! It is more than I hoped, and now this dreadful visit abroad must be +put an end to. But why have you left it so late in the day? It might +have been too late altogether. Will you ring for Dick?"</p> + +<p>Ena was quite excited.</p> + +<p>Her brother listened to her apparently quite unmoved, then, with his +hand upon the bell, he said quietly—</p> + +<p>"I must ask you, as a special favour, not to allude to this matter +until after dinner. It will be an awkward time for all of us if you do. +I am going out afterwards, so you will have the whole evening to talk +over it."</p> + +<p>Ena's face fell, but she saw the wisdom of her brother's words.</p> + +<p>As it was, there was a certain constraint upon them all when they met +in the dining-room. Captain Vaughan was perhaps the least discomposed, +and Heather talked away to Ena rather more rapidly than usual, as if +she dreaded any pauses in the conversation.</p> + +<p>It was afterwards in the drawing-room that Ena touched upon the +subject, and her intense delight in the possibility of the engagement +made it very difficult for Heather to express her real sentiments.</p> + +<p>She could not let his sister know that she doubted his reality of +feeling about it. And she sighed to think that at such a time as this, +her friend could not give her an unbiassed opinion, for Ena felt that +no one could refuse her brother. And Heather wondered, if she were to +refuse him, whether it would bring a break in her friendship with his +sister.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image013" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image013.jpg" alt="image013"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"DO YOU REALLY WANT ME TO SAY 'YES'?"</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>She went to bed that night still restless and undecided, wondering if +the dictates of her heart would play her false.</p> + +<p>For by this time she had come to this conclusion. Life with Captain +Vaughan at her side wore a very roseate hue; without him, it would +be a blank. And if she had been convinced that he reciprocated these +sentiments, there would have been no cloud upon her horizon. There was +little or no sleep for her. The storm that still swept on its wild way +outside was a picture of the storm within her soul, but at length, as +another day dawned soft and fair, with no signs of the wild weather +that had preceded it, Heather's resolve was made. The dawning of a +love which now surprised herself overcame the pride that had battled +fiercely for predominance.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>It was after breakfast in the garden that Heather gave her answer. She +was gathering dahlias in an old-fashioned winding walk that led round +the outskirts of the grounds, when a step behind her sent a quick flush +to her cheek.</p> + +<p>It was Captain Vaughan, and he spoke with his usual simple directness.</p> + +<p>"I have come for my answer, Miss Fotheringay."</p> + +<p>Then Heather faced him, and her eyes held his for a moment as she tried +to read him through and through.</p> + +<p>"Do you really want me to say Yes?" she asked, a little unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"I do, indeed," was the grave reply.</p> + +<p>Her eyes dropped. With a pretty grace, she put both her hands in his.</p> + +<p>"Then I say it."</p> + +<p>"God bless you."</p> + +<p>That was all, but it was enough.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_20">CHAPTER XX</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +ABROAD<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Let nothing disturb thee,<br> + Nothing affright thee;<br> + All things are passing,<br> + God never changeth,<br> + Patient endurance<br> + Attaineth to all things."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 15em;">LONGFELLOW.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"SEND her a telegram, and tell her a letter will follow."</p> + +<p>"I could not do it."</p> + +<p>"What do you propose, then?"</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan and Heather were speaking, and they were out on the +lawn after breakfast the next morning. Ena was there, too, in her +chair, superintending a little gardening done by Dick. Captain Vaughan +was going to his farm, but stayed to discuss Heather's intended trip +abroad.</p> + +<p>"It would not be right to throw her over at the last minute," said +Heather, looking at Captain Vaughan rather pleadingly.</p> + +<p>He had a little frown between his eyes, for he was strongly averse to +her keeping to her engagement, and Heather still felt strangely shy of +him. She turned to Ena.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ena, help me; you know I could not do it. What would she say, when +all her preparations are made, and she is relying upon me to join her +to-morrow at Victoria Station?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to say," said Ena, with a smile. The future of the +two she loved best in the world looked so bright to her that nothing +else seemed to matter. "I am sure," she went on, "we shall not consent +to your being abroad with her till next spring. But I confess it is +very late now for you to refuse to go to her."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Captain Vaughan, with a shrug of his shoulders, "you must +talk it over together, and settle it your own way, as you will not have +my advice. My proposal is that she should be written to at once. She +could very soon find another companion; it would only delay her trip +for a week or two."</p> + +<p>He walked off. Heather looked after him for a minute, then with light +steps rejoined him before he reached the garden gate.</p> + +<p>"You won't be vexed with me if I go?" she asked.</p> + +<p>He stopped, and laid his hand on her shoulder. His tone was grave, but +his eyes had that kindly humour in them that was one of his attractions +to women.</p> + +<p>"You won't take care of yourself," he said, "and now I consider I have +the right to take care of you."</p> + +<p>"You would not like me to do anything dishonourable?"</p> + +<p>Heather was smiling now, but she watched his face a little anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you could," was the reply; "but settle it as you will +with Ena."</p> + +<p>"I think the best way for me to act is to go with Mrs. Macintyre, and +stay with her until she finds some one else to take my place. I will +tell her what you wish. And a month abroad will not hurt me. Please say +you approve of this."</p> + +<p>"I don't approve, but I will try and be content with it."</p> + +<p>He went off, and Heather returned to Ena, feeling lighter hearted at +his consent.</p> + +<p>Both he and his sister wished to prolong her stay with them, but +Heather never flinched where she saw her duty lay.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the next day found her making her departure, but not with +the sad heart-sinkings that she had anticipated a short time before.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image014" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image014.jpg" alt="image014"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"YOU WON'T BE VEXED WITH ME IF I GO?"</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>As she looked round the old Priory, and gazed at it lying still and +peaceful in the autumn sunshine, as she mounted the trap and let her +eyes rest on the old stone porch with its quaint inscription, now +almost hidden under the flaming creepers surrounding it, and waved a +misty farewell to Ena in her wheeled chair, and her important attendant +standing by her side, her heart was throbbing with bright hope and +gladness.</p> + +<p>"I shall come back to it again, and it will be my home."</p> + +<p>And if a little shadow lay on her path, if a little doubt of the strong +figure by her side seemed to rise in her heart, she stifled and stilled +it instantly.</p> + +<p>"He is a good, a noble man; an unselfish son and brother; and he will +be as good to me as he has been to every one else."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan was very silent during the drive, and Heather was quite +content to follow his example. He looked after her comforts, and when +the train was just moving off gave her a warm hand-grip.</p> + +<p>"God bless and keep you! Write to us soon. And remember that we expect +you back before Christmas."</p> + +<p>Heather leant back in her seat, and wondered if any girl had such an +undemonstrative lover as she. Yet she assured herself that she would +rather have one such hand-grip from him than dozens of flattering +protestations of admiration and love from any one else, and for the +rest of her journey she lived in a dream.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>She met Mrs. Macintyre, as arranged, at Victoria Station, and then, +indeed, she had her hands full. An exacting, nervous, and irritable +companion on a long railway journey is always a trial. It was doubly so +to Heather in her present position, and before three or four days had +elapsed, she felt nearly worn out.</p> + +<p>Yet her patience and good nature never flagged, and even Mrs. Macintyre +owned after a fortnight's time that she suited her very well.</p> + +<p>But Heather could not leave her long in ignorance of her own plans, and +when, as gently as possible, she told her that her circumstances had +changed, and that her friends wished her to return to them as soon as +she could be spared, there was trouble at once. Mrs. Macintyre was a +woman who had never controlled her temper or restrained her tongue, and +she was furious at this change of purpose.</p> + +<p>"You have deliberately deceived me; I engaged you for the winter, +and you are trying to leave me stranded in a foreign place amongst +strangers. But I will not have it. You are bound to me, and stay with +me you shall, for the time we agreed upon! Have I not given way to +your nasty narrow cranks? When you told me you never played for money +on principle, did I not generously concede to your request that you +should be allowed to read to me instead? Have I not denied myself the +pleasure of my usual recreation in order to gratify your Pharisaical +nature? It is only the pious people like yourself who can stoop to +such mean actions, and you are with the wrong person, let me tell you, +Miss Fotheringay, if you think you can act so! There would have been +hundreds only too glad and thankful to step into your shoes!"</p> + +<p>"I would not leave you, Mrs. Macintyre, until you have some one to +take my place. I think you will not find it difficult, as you say, to +find some one else. I am truly sorry. It would have been better not to +come with you at all, but I could not bear to put you off at the last +minute!"</p> + +<p>"I will not hear a word more from you," and Mrs. Macintyre literally +stamped her foot. "I forbid you to mention the subject again. You dare +not break your agreement with me, for I should simply take it into the +law courts rather than give way. Pack our trunks to-night for Monte +Carlo, and not another word!"</p> + +<p>So to Monte Carlo they went, and the old lady solaced herself for the +want of a congenial companion, by frequenting the gaming tables day by +day. It was a time of unspeakable wretchedness to Heather, for though +she never took part, she was dragged there against her will; and the +very atmosphere seemed degrading.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>But the end came in an unexpected way.</p> + +<p>Ena received a letter a fortnight after, which made her cheeks blanch. +She handed it to her brother without a word.</p> + +<p>And he sat for a moment after reading, as if considering his course of +action.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "DEAREST ENA,—I write to you because I feel I can give you fuller +details than Captain Vaughan. I have gone through such a dreadful +time this last twenty-four hours that I hardly know how to describe +it. I told you how infatuated poor Mrs. Macintyre has been over these +dreadful tables. She first won a great deal, but this last week has +been losing steadily every day. The night before last she came to my +room and implored me to lend her some money. She told me she had lost +everything she possessed, and must win it back. I did not know whether +to believe her or not, but we had a dreadful scene. I steadily refused +to lend her one franc, and then—I could not help it—I think she wrought +upon my feelings so that I felt I must speak plainly. And I spoke +straight to her about her soul and the life she was leading.<br> +<br> + "I am thankful I did now, but I shall never forget her look of +astonishment when I first began. Of course, she was very angry, but I +begged her to listen to me. I told her I knew I was only a young girl, +with not a quarter of her experience of the world, but that I had seen +a little of it, and compared with my present life it was as chaff to +wheat. And at last she grew calmer, and finally, to my perplexity and +distress, she burst into tears, and said that there was no one in the +wide world who cared for her. She was a ruined woman, and would die +in the workhouse, and life was a tangle and hideous disappointment +from beginning to end. She let me talk to her for over an hour. I felt +utterly inexperienced and helpless, and yet when I got my Bible, and +she let me give her a verse or two, I felt quite at rest about it. +She said no one had ever spoken to her about such things before. I +think she was utterly crushed by her losings, and so was more ready to +listen. Then I begged her to come away from Monte Carlo, and when she +said she had no ready money, I told her I would willingly lend her some +for that purpose.<br> +<br> + "So the next morning we left, and came straight on to Nice. We were +nearly there, when there was the most awful shock I have ever felt in +my life. I shall never forget the horror of it. It was a collision. You +will perhaps see it in the papers before this reaches you. I remember +nothing after the first shock. When I came to myself, I found myself +with a number of others on the railway bank, doctors and officials +rushing frantically about, and gesticulating and chattering as only +Frenchmen can. I felt dreadfully queer and shaken, but found I was not +injured in any way, and my first thought was for Mrs. Macintyre. I +can't tell you what a shock it was to come across her poor body. She +had been killed instantaneously, the doctors said, her skull fractured.<br> +<br> + "I cannot tell you all I have been through. They seem abroad as if +their one idea is to bury their dead instantaneously, and they hardly +gave me time to telegraph to her lawyer before they were making +arrangements for the burial. I am staying at this quiet hotel, and have +just received a telegram from her lawyer saying he and a cousin of hers +will be with me to-night. I feel almost as if it were my doing that we +were in the accident. If I had not hurried her away from Monte Carlo +she might have been alive and well now; and yet, would you not have +acted in the same way if you had been in my place? I can't believe she +is really gone, it seems so awful. Pray for me, won't you? I am quite +unnerved. Your loving—<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"HEATHER."</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I shall go out to her and fetch her back at once," he said briefly.</p> + +<p>"She may have started home before you can reach her."</p> + +<p>"I shall wire."</p> + +<p>"Poor dear child. What an awful experience! How little we thought by +what means she would be brought back to us!"</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan sent his telegram, but received one before he could +start.</p> + +<p>"Cyril here. Am returning with him."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>And so, a few days after, Heather found herself with her sister in her +London house. Bluebell received her affectionately. She was pleased +with her engagement, and begged Captain Vaughan to come up and stay +with them for a short time. This he was unable to do, and Heather +almost felt it a relief when she heard he was not coming.</p> + +<p>She had suffered more than she at first thought in the collision, and +for days she did not leave her room. The doctor said it had been a +great shock to her nerves, and she must be kept very quiet.</p> + +<p>Poor Heather felt that in such a gay house, and with the roar and +bustle of the London streets so close to her, this was a difficult +prescription to follow. But Bluebell was not very well herself, and +determined to spend a quiet Christmas in the country, so in a few +weeks' time, they went to their country house, and Heather's health and +spirits began to improve at once.</p> + +<p>It was in the middle of February that Bluebell became the happy mother +of a little son, and her joy and pride in her baby was intense.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Heather," she said one evening, as they were in the nursery seeing +him put into his little cot, "I never thought I should be so foolish +over a child. I think he will be my idol now. If anything could wean me +from society and the gay life you condemn, he will. I believe I could +be happy in a cottage with him in my arms."</p> + +<p>"He has been sent to you in love," responded Heather, gravely; "let him +draw you to the One who has given him to you."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I really mean to be a good mother. He is such a charge to train. +I should never like him to grow up and find anything in his mother to +condemn. I mean to be everything that is good and noble now that I am a +mother."</p> + +<p>She spoke in the full joy and confidence of her mother's love, and for +a time was very softened. Yet when her vigorous health and spirits +returned to her, she plunged afresh into gaiety, and laughed at her +sister's pleadings.</p> + +<p>Her love for her child seemed almost a passion, and Cyril shared in the +adoration. But, like many others, Bluebell cast all serious thoughts +away from her, and refused to recognize that the gift was from God, and +that she might be called upon to relinquish it.</p> + +<p>About this time Captain Vaughan came to pay his long-promised visit.</p> + +<p>Heather met him with mingled feelings of shyness and delight. She had +not seen him since she had been abroad, and her correspondence with him +was rather constrained. She still had the feeling that she did not know +him, and that his heart was not hers.</p> + +<p>She was alone in her sister's sunny drawing-room when he arrived. He +came in with his kindly smile and cheery voice, and, for the first time +since they had been engaged, stooped and kissed her. It brought the +blood with a rush to her cheeks, and almost overpowered her, but asking +after Ena and hearing the Priory news soon put her at ease.</p> + +<p>"And when are you coming back to us for good?" he asked presently. +"There is no need to wait much longer, is there?"</p> + +<p>Heather looked at him with startled eyes, and he did not press the +question.</p> + +<p>But before many days passed Bluebell asked Heather the same question.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to get rid of me?" Heather asked with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I want you to be happy in a home of your own like I am. Why should you +wait? I always think long engagements are a mistake. When you have once +made up your mind to marry a man, the sooner it is done the better. I +suppose your mind is made up?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it is. Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sometimes I think you are a queer couple, so dreadfully +matter-of-fact and undemonstrative! And then there is the sister. +I wish you were not going to be saddled with her. An invalid +sister-in-law is rather trying. I think she ought to live elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"If Ena were not there, I wouldn't marry at all," said Heather, with +some heat.</p> + +<p>Bluebell leant back in her chair and looked at her sister, half amused, +half perplexed.</p> + +<p>"It is the sister you are going to marry, then, not him? I thought so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bluebell, don't tease so. You know I wouldn't marry a man if I did +not care for him."</p> + +<p>And Heather walked away, with her head a little bit uplifted, whilst +Bluebell called after her mischievously—</p> + +<p>"He ought to take you to a desert island for your honeymoon, to find +out whether it is he or his sister who has won your affections."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_21">CHAPTER XXI</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +A TREASURE TAKEN<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Her little child hath gone to sleep,<br> + Why should a mother watch and weep?<br> + Earth's ills were gathering round his nest.<br> + He crept into a Father's breast."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>ANOTHER lovely spring afternoon, reminding Heather strangely of the +first day she saw the Priory. But now she was coming to it as a bride, +and as she entered the old stone porch, leaning on her husband's arm, +she looked up with a happy smile. "'Sic vos non vobis,'" she repeated; +"you must remind me of that, sometimes, Bertram. I hope I shall not be +tempted to forget it."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan knew his young wife too well to think that would be +possible, and later in the evening, when they stood together watching +the sun set in all its golden beauty, he drew her gently to him.</p> + +<p>"Will an old man make you happy?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Heather's doubts and fears had long gone now. She raised her face +trustingly to his.</p> + +<p>"I never thought I could be so happy," she said.</p> + +<p>And then he laughed.</p> + +<p>"Your sister had her doubts of me. She told me I was too +undemonstrative. But I cannot wear my heart on my sleeve. From the +first day that you set your foot inside this house, I knew that if I +were to have a wife at all, it must be you. I was afraid our life would +be too quiet for you, and the disparity in our ages made me waver."</p> + +<p>"But you ventured at last," Heather said, laughingly, "and I think I +was never so astonished in my life. If you ever do such a thing again, +let me advise you to show a little more warmth of feeling before you +propose; you were always like an iceberg to me."</p> + +<p>"I think one venture will be enough," Captain Vaughan replied +humorously. "I will see how this one turns out first."</p> + +<p>And then, secure in each other's trust and love, they settled down as +husband and wife, and Ena's cup of happiness was full.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>One evening towards the end of June, they were again in the garden. +Heather was picking some roses; Captain Vaughan resting in a lounge +chair under one of the old elms, for he had been away from home on +business all day, and had returned very tired; and Ena reading an +article in the "Times" by his side. Heather hovered about, occasionally +putting in a remark, and presently her husband called her.</p> + +<p>"Come here," he said, for he was watching her every movement; "you are +looking quite pale; why are you so restless? Leave the roses in peace, +and listen to this article."</p> + +<p>She came and stood over him, with her hand lightly resting on his +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I am listening," she said; "but I don't care for the subject. I am +afraid I am too insular to care about quarrels in the French senate."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan drew another chair to his side, and made her sit down. +But directly Ena had finished, she got up, and wandered away by herself +again.</p> + +<p>This time Captain Vaughan followed her, and found her leaning over a +stone wall at the end of the flower garden, which overlooked the valley +and river below.</p> + +<p>When she turned round and saw him, she smiled, but the creases in her +forehead did not disappear.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, taking out his pipe, and leaning against the wall +rather lazily, "what is the matter with you this evening? Why are you +so perturbed?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I am perturbed," Heather replied evasively; "it is very +close to-night. Do you think we are going to have a storm?"</p> + +<p>"I should not say so."</p> + +<p>There was silence for a minute, then he said lightly, watching her +keenly the while—</p> + +<p>"I am not to be honoured with your confidence then?"</p> + +<p>Heather flushed up at once. Then turning round in her pretty, graceful +way, she laid her hand on his arm.</p> + +<p>"You won't laugh at me?"</p> + +<p>"Do I ever?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, with your eyes, if not with your mouth."</p> + +<p>"I will shut them."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I will tell you."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan was a wise man. He said nothing, only waited.</p> + +<p>And then, with a little sigh, Heather looked away to some dark grey +clouds rolling by in the distance.</p> + +<p>"I feel oppressed," she said. "I have felt so all day. I can't describe +it to you, but I'm sure there's trouble coming, and—and Bluebell's in +it!"</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan did not laugh, but he raised his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>Heather went on with knitted brow—</p> + +<p>"I dreamt of her all last night, and I haven't had her out of my +thoughts all day. I feel as if she is in trouble, and it makes me +uneasy."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan put his arm round her, and drew her to him gently.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't get fanciful, little woman. I thought you were too +sensible to be so swayed by your imagination."</p> + +<p>"I am sure I shall hear some bad news," Heather said, in a troubled +voice, as she tightened her hold of his coat-sleeve. "We are twins, +Bertram. People may laugh at it, but I remember, when we were quite +children, I always knew if Bluebell were in trouble, even when she was +quite away from me."</p> + +<p>"Don't get into the way of anticipating trouble. You will make yourself +more miserable than you are intended to be."</p> + +<p>"You don't believe in it? Do you think I am mistaken?"</p> + +<p>Heather raised her face so wistfully that her husband had not the heart +to laugh at her.</p> + +<p>"My dear child," he said gently, "if you are anxious about her, pray +for her and leave it. What do you think could happen to her? She was +quite well when you heard last, was she not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; she is in town. I will try and think it fancy. Talk to me about +other things to take my mind off."</p> + +<p>Captain Vaughan did his best to comply with this request, but Heather +was not at all herself that evening.</p> + +<p>And she had unconsciously so impressed her husband with her sense of +impending trouble that he was not in the least surprised the next +morning when a telegram was brought up to the house for her. Its +contents were brief.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "Come to me at once."<br> +<br> +<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"BLUEBELL."</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Yes, after eighteen months of happy married life, Bluebell was called +to go through her first crushing trouble.</p> + +<p>She had come up for the season in town, without a shadow on her path. +Her boy was growing into a most lovely and engaging child, and when she +was not enjoying the society of her friends, she was always to be found +in his nursery. She had been fortunate enough to secure the services of +a very trustworthy and experienced nurse, so had no anxiety about his +welfare.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, her husband came into the drawing-room, and found +mother and son in the midst of a regular gambol on the hearthrug. He +remonstrated with a smile on his wife's undignified position, and she +rose to her feet, tossing her boy in the air with all a mother's pride +in his bonny beauty.</p> + +<p>"Isn't he a kill-joy, my sweet! Your mother shall crawl on all fours +with you if she pleases, and you shall satisfy her craving for a romp, +as her cynical old husband never can!"</p> + +<p>Baby Percival chuckled with delight at this thrust at his father, and +diving amongst his mother's curly tresses, wrought such havoc there +with his chubby fingers that Cyril had to come to the rescue. And then, +with wife on one knee and son on the other, he proceeded to deliver a +mild harangue on a time and season for all things.</p> + +<p>It was a pretty family scene, and one that lingered in the parents' +memories for long afterwards.</p> + +<p>Only the next day, the nurse remarked on baby's listlessness. It was +the heat, his mother said.</p> + +<p>"We shall be going out of town soon. He is looking pale; the country +will soon set him up again."</p> + +<p>She went out to dinner that night, and when she and her husband +returned, were met on their door-step by their doctor.</p> + +<p>"Your nurse has called me in," he said gravely; "I think the child has +had a touch of the sun—"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's cheeks blanched at once.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious, is it?" asked her husband, quickly.</p> + +<p>"We will hope not. I will come again to-morrow early. I have given your +nurse all necessary instructions."</p> + +<p>Bluebell had dashed upstairs with her usual impetuosity, and her +husband found her a few minutes later leaning over her child's cot with +agonized anxiety, the nurse trying in vain to soothe her.</p> + +<p>She turned her eyes up to her husband's face as he drew near, and her +expression was like that of some wounded animal brought to bay.</p> + +<p>"She won't let me touch him, Cyril! I'm his mother. He is ill; and he +shall be ill in his mother's arms!"</p> + +<p>With difficulty, she was persuaded to let her child alone. But an hour +after, her husband came again into the nursery, and found her in a low +rocking-chair, with her baby in her arms.</p> + +<p>"I have him fast," she said, "and—" lowering her voice to one of +intense determination—"I shall let no one—no, not death itself, take +him from me!"</p> + +<p>Cyril wondered if she were losing her senses. He noted the fever spots +on her cheeks, the dark circles round her eyes, and the anguish that +shone out of them.</p> + +<p>"You are exciting yourself needlessly, darling," he said. "Dr. Hope did +not say he was in danger."</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked at her husband, then at her child.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Hope is not a mother," she said. "I know! I can tell! He hardly +knows his mother, my bonny baby boy!"</p> + +<p>And all through the silent hours of the night, she sat with her child +in her lap, prepared to wrestle with the unseen foe, so close at hand.</p> + +<p>At early dawn the doctor was sent for, and he came in haste, but a look +at the baby's figure, with his curly golden head hanging like a dead +weight upon his mother's arm, told him the truth.</p> + +<p>He shook his head sadly. "I am afraid it is only a question of time."</p> + +<p>"You 'must' save him, doctor; you 'must.' He shall not be taken from +me. He hasn't yet learnt to call me mother; his life is only beginning; +it is all in front of him. I tell you, he 'shall' not die!"</p> + +<p>Dr. Hope stood silently by. He had witnessed too many of these scenes +to be very deeply moved; and yet something in the pitiable defiance of +this young mother, the hopeless fight against a power that was going to +crush her in spite of all her struggles, brought a huskiness into his +voice as he replied—</p> + +<p>"Life and death are in higher hands than mine. God alone can save your +child."</p> + +<p>"Then pray, oh, Cyril, pray, all of you pray!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's voice rang out, and it was shrill and metallic in tone. Her +husband stood by her side, working his moustache up and down fiercely +to hide his emotion. The nurse stood behind her mistress's chair, +and the doctor on his knees felt the tiny pulse that was beating so +fitfully, so feebly.</p> + +<p>There was no response to Bluebell's appeal, only silence.</p> + +<p>She talked recklessly on, hardly knowing what she said. "Only God +can save him. Well, He will, He 'must,' He gave him to me. I used to +love God once; He remembers; He won't be so cruel as to take him. If +He takes him, I shall go too, I shall! I will not live without him. +Oh, pray, Cyril, pray! Be quick, the minutes are flying! I am like a +stone; I can't do it; some one must. Will you see him die for want of a +prayer?"</p> + +<p>A sob rose in Cyril's throat. He turned despairing eyes towards the +doctor.</p> + +<p>And he did not fail them.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "O God Almighty, we beseech Thee to save this child's life, for +Christ's sake. Amen."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There was stillness. The angel of death hovered above as if awaiting +God's command.</p> + +<p>But in love and pity the word was given, and the angel softly descended.</p> + +<p>Baby opened his blue eyes, and the sweetest smile hovered over his +lips. But his look and smile were not at his mother, and she saw and +understood.</p> + +<p>Only the ticking of the doctor's watch in his hand was heard, and then +a little child's tired sigh and a sharp agonizing cry from a mother's +breaking heart.</p> + +<p>One more baby spirit gathered in all its fresh innocence and beauty +above, one more empty cot and childless home.</p> + +<p>An hour after, the telegram was sent to Heather, and she reached her +sister that same evening. She was met in the hall by Cyril.</p> + +<p>"It's the boy," he said huskily; "he has been taken from us. Go to +his mother, and get her to eat something if you can; she has touched +nothing for twenty-four hours."</p> + +<p>Without a word, Heather sped up the stairs, and was shown into her +sister's darkened bedroom. She found her seated in her easy chair, her +hands locked tightly together, but lying listlessly upon her lap. She +looked up, and Heather almost started. Could this white-strained face, +with vacant, hard stare and grim-set mouth, belong to her bright and +sunny sister? She seemed to have aged ten years.</p> + +<p>And then in a moment Heather had her arms round her, and was sobbing +out—</p> + +<p>"My darling, I knew of your trouble yesterday. I would have come to +you, even if I had received no telegram, for I felt you would need me. +How did it happen? Can you tell me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bluebell, in an unmoved tone. "I can tell you every +detail. God has struck hard at last. He couldn't have sent me a worse +punishment, could He? He knew better than you can, what my baby was to +me. I suppose He gave me my chance of serving Him in my prosperity, and +as I didn't do it, has begun to take away from me! Begun! He has taken +my all, and it will not draw me heavenwards. Cruelty will not draw me!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush, hush, dear. God is never cruel. He only wounds to heal. Tell +me about your darling."</p> + +<p>Bluebell gave her all the details in a hard, dry voice.</p> + +<p>"Come and see him," she said; "I have only just come away. Nurse won't +let me stay longer."</p> + +<p>She led the way into the nursery, and the sight of the little clothes, +the toys, and all the child's belongings, brought the tears with +another rush to Heather's eyes. The mother drew aside the curtains of +the little cot, and gazed with tearless eyes upon her boy.</p> + +<p>Like a little waxen image he lay, nestled in a bed of white flowers. +His little hands were clasped across his breast, and the long lashes, +resting on his cheek, looked as if they ought to lift and show his +mischievous blue eyes beneath them.</p> + +<p>Heather bent and kissed the white, fair brow, and softly stroked the +golden curls.</p> + +<p>"Happy baby," she murmured. "He will never give you a heartache now—an +anxious thought."</p> + +<p>"He never would have done that had he lived," said Bluebell, coldly.</p> + +<p>"How can you tell? You would have brought him up for the world, and +think of some of the men we have met, who have had just such careful +love from their mothers as you would have given him."</p> + +<p>"I would have taught him to be good," said Bluebell, gazing with +thoughtfulness on the silent little form. "I think I might have been +given another chance."</p> + +<p>"I suppose God felt He could train him better Himself," said Heather, +softly. "Don't think of him as dead, darling; he has been moved into +God's garden. You will thank God one day that He took him before he +knew either sorrow or sin."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image015" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image015.jpg" alt="image015"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>HEATHER KNELT QUIETLY BY HER AND PRAYED.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Bluebell made no reply, she continued to gaze upon her child with stony +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I keep thinking he may wake up," she said drearily; "it's the awful +stillness that appals one so. And yet I wish I could be lying dead +beside him. I have nothing to live for now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bluebell, not your husband?"</p> + +<p>"I am sick of everybody and everything. Oh, my boy, my boy!" She flung +herself on her knees by the cot, and bowed her head upon the little +form.</p> + +<p>Heather knelt quietly by her and prayed. She felt it was the only thing +she could do. Who could comfort a mother but the Comforter Himself?</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "O God, have pity upon us. Thou hast done it in love, let Bluebell feel +this. Comfort her; draw her to Thyself, and let her realize that the +same arm that is round her child is round her. And comfort Cyril too, +and make this heavy trial into a real blessing to them both. For Jesus +Christ's sake. Amen."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then sobs shook Bluebell's frame—dry, choking sobs at first, but soon +the tears came, and proved a real relief to her heated brain. And then, +by the side of her dead child, Bluebell crept back to the feet of that +Saviour whom she had left.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "Have pity on me!" she sobbed. "I want him to be mine still, though +Thou hast taken him. Help me to meet him again. Forgive my worldliness, +my love of everything but Thee. Take me back, receive me, pardon me. +Make me believe Thou hast done it in love. Keep me from getting more +hardened."<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h2><a id="Chapter_22">CHAPTER XXII</a></h2> + +<p class="t3"> +DUTY A GOOD MISTRESS<br> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Calmly we look behind us, on joys and sorrows past,<br> + We know that all is mercy now, and shall be well at last.<br> + Calmly we look before us—we fear no future ill:<br> + Enough for safety and for peace, if Thou art with us still."<br> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">H. L. L.</span><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>HEATHER stayed with her sister till after the funeral. And Bluebell, +after the first violence of her grief was over, was strangely calm and +self-controlled. Only once, when her husband called her by his pet +name, "Minnehaha," did she turn upon him almost fiercely—</p> + +<p>"Never call me that again, for there will be no more laughter for me."</p> + +<p>Heather was urged to stay with them longer, but she felt that husband +and wife would draw the closer together after she left.</p> + +<p>"I have my husband to think of," she said to Bluebell, as they were +talking in Heather's room one evening.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I always think you are only half married," said Bluebell, with a +little of her old impetuosity; "he has his sister."</p> + +<p>"But his sister is not his wife."</p> + +<p>And Heather's tone was regal.</p> + +<p>"Do you really love him?" asked Bluebell.</p> + +<p>But when she saw the light that sparkled in Heather's eyes, she sighed.</p> + +<p>"Well, we must part. Cyril wants to take me abroad; I suppose I must +go. Do you know, I have been thinking about our two selves a great +deal. I suppose we were children of many prayers. We never had a +temptation to speak of, until we forsook our quiet nest and plunged +into gaiety. I think I had more qualms about it at first than you had, +but it was strange how we drifted apart. I suppose God was calling us +both back; you listened, and I shut my ears."</p> + +<p>"No," said Heather; "I often wonder at it myself. I only went home +because I thought it was my duty, not because I thought our gay life +was wrong."</p> + +<p>"Well, I shut my eyes to duty. I tell you honestly, Heather, I have +been quietly fighting against God ever since our first season in town. +I knew in my heart, before that year was over, that the world was +swallowing up all my ambitions, my desires, and my affections. I knew I +could not serve two masters, and I deliberately chose the world. When I +was going to be married, you impressed me tremendously. I felt I ought +to be different, but I put it off. When my darling came to me, I almost +prayed I might be given the strength to change my life. But I still +clung on to everything that made life pleasant to me. And I have found +out this for myself, Heather, I am not judging any one else. I suppose +I am too impetuous. I must throw myself heart and soul into everything +I do. But—I cannot live a society life and be at peace with God. The +two things don't go together. Some people say they can. I think they +must be satisfied with a very little religion, not the sort that goes +deep down into your soul, and affects every fibre of your being. I have +been fighting, as I say, against God all this time, and I knew it."</p> + +<p>"I think your religion must have been more than a mere form in our +girlish days," said Heather, looking at her sister thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"It was. I often used to wonder if you felt it as deeply as I did."</p> + +<p>"No; it seemed to come upon me quite as a fresh revelation."</p> + +<p>"I was watching yesterday morning a few sheep being turned into an +enclosure in the Park," said Bluebell, gently. "I noticed the ones who +had to be driven and beaten before they would enter, and those who ran +in without any trouble."</p> + +<p>There was silence.</p> + +<p>Then Heather said—"You think I have run in without any trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and I have had to be driven. I am seeing the love of it dimly. +Prosperity would never have drawn me, I am afraid."</p> + +<p>Tears filled Heather's eyes at the quiet pathos of it. She kissed her +sister, saying in a whisper—</p> + +<p>"Thank God we are both inside. May we keep there."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>The next day, Captain Vaughan came to fetch his wife.</p> + +<p>They were at Paddington Station, just starting, when he asked her +rather abruptly—</p> + +<p>"Would you like to go round and have a look at your old home again? It +would be a little trip, and would not take us much out of our way."</p> + +<p>"I should love it," she exclaimed enthusiastically, "I should like to +call at the farm and see Annie and her husband."</p> + +<p>"And some of the old village characters, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Heather said, a pink colour coming into her cheeks; "I should +like to have Watty's opinion of my husband."</p> + +<p>So, that afternoon, in the sweet summer sunshine, Heather and her +husband walked up the old village street.</p> + +<p>"It seems one of the strangest things in life," said Heather, +thoughtfully, "that if you go away from a place for ages, you come +back to it and find the people doing exactly the same things at the +same time with a clockwork regularity that makes you almost start. +You wonder if all your life since has been a dream. Look, there are +Watty and Ralph gossiping on the old bridge. Watty has still got his +letter-bag, and Ralph his paper."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image016" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image016.jpg" alt="image016"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>"SAKE'S ALIVE! 'TIS MISS HEATHER."</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>They walked up to them, and much disturbed their equanimity.</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive!" ejaculated Ralph. "'Tis Miss Heather and her man! Well, +to be sure, what a sight!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, here we are," said Heather, in her old bright tone, and with the +little imperious toss of her head; "and what do you think of us?"</p> + +<p>"Do you remember me?" asked Captain Vaughan, with his cheery smile. +"The wayside lodger who came down to fish one summer?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay," said Watty, shaking his head knowingly, "us knowed ye was +after a bigger fish nor ye could drag out o' this 'ere bit o' river! An +I sez to Ralph here, when you was a-gone, that ye had the looks of a +adventurer after matrimony!"</p> + +<p>How they laughed! And then Watty seized his bag, more eager to spread +the news of Heather's appearance than to stay and see her himself.</p> + +<p>"Time is flyin'. 'Tis only folks like Ralph here that can afford to +dawdle with leisurable people holiday makin'. Good arternoon to ye, +sir. Good arternoon, Miss Heather."</p> + +<p>He lounged off, his bag swinging from side to side.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>And after a little chat with Ralph, Heather made her way to the farm.</p> + +<p>Annie and George were delighted to see them, and insisted upon their +having a cup of tea before they left.</p> + +<p>Then they went to the old house, which was still empty, looking more +desolate and forsaken than ever.</p> + +<p>Heather's thoughts went back to that dreadful day when she had sobbed +out her heart upon the old dial, and Captain Vaughan guessed a little +what was passing through her mind.</p> + +<p>"We mustn't let this be a sad day," he said.</p> + +<p>Heather looked up at him with misty eyes.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, smiling, "it is not going to be. God has been too good +to me for me to be sad."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you will love the Priory as much as you do this?"</p> + +<p>"I think I do more. The associations with this one are not altogether +happy ones. We used to look upon it almost like a prison when Abigail +was cross. Now let us come and see her."</p> + +<p>So to the cosy little thatched cottage they went, and Abigail opened +the door herself. Rachael was away visiting a friend. Abigail was +delighted and tearful, which made Heather wonder if she were getting +softer with increasing age. She had heard of Bluebell's trouble, and +turned to Captain Vaughan with fervour—</p> + +<p>"Ay, sir, you have the best of the two, but I'm thankful Miss Bluebell +has seen the error of her ways. I never forget to pray for them, both +night and morn. And Miss Heather has chosen well, for we've heard you +are on the Lord's side yourself, sir. We always hoped—Rachael and +me—that Miss Heather would meet with a sober, God-fearing man. She +always from a child had a stern idea of duty, and would go straight on +without a falter, as I hope she will to the end of her life. The only +crooked turn she took was when her poor, misguided cousin persuaded her +to go to London. But she saw her mistake, and came back to us, and I +wish her and yourself happiness, sir, with all my heart!"</p> + +<p>When they had said good-bye to the faithful old servant, and were +walking through the quiet lanes to the station, Captain Vaughan turned +to his wife and drew her hand through his arm.</p> + +<p>"Did you take your husband from a sense of duty, little woman?"</p> + +<p>"I was once afraid duty had led you to propose to me," said Heather, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"Well, duty is a good mistress."</p> + +<p>"But love is better," urged Heather.</p> + +<p>"We will have a combination of them in our life. It was your following +duty so conscientiously that first made me wish to have you always by +my side. I have found the old saying true—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"'Duty only frowns when you flee from it.<br> + Follow it, and it smiles upon you.'"<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>They walked on. The evening sun was setting across the meadows in front +of them, and presently they stood still and watched it slowly fade +away. Heather's face was soft and wistful as she watched its glowing +rays. Then her eyes met her husband's, and she smiled in perfect trust.</p> + +<p>"I suppose all earthly joys fade sooner or later," she said.</p> + +<p>"And then we shall be gathered into the land where our sun shall rise +to set no more."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> +THE END<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> +——————————————————————————————————————————<br> +LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED<br> +DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W.<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78661 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78661-h/images/image001.jpg b/78661-h/images/image001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..220487c --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image001.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image002.jpg b/78661-h/images/image002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd7de09 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image002.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image003.jpg b/78661-h/images/image003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d80d98b --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image003.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image004.jpg b/78661-h/images/image004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a17206e --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image004.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image005.jpg b/78661-h/images/image005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b22ea1 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image005.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image006.jpg b/78661-h/images/image006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2658207 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image006.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image007.jpg b/78661-h/images/image007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e1d92f --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image007.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image008.jpg b/78661-h/images/image008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ef9745 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image008.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image009.jpg b/78661-h/images/image009.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5491ad --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image009.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image010.jpg b/78661-h/images/image010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8304b9c --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image010.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image011.jpg b/78661-h/images/image011.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..47e8d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image011.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image012.jpg b/78661-h/images/image012.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d13fdd --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image012.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image013.jpg b/78661-h/images/image013.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..761e5ba --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image013.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image014.jpg b/78661-h/images/image014.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3028d00 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image014.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image015.jpg b/78661-h/images/image015.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..21365f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image015.jpg diff --git a/78661-h/images/image016.jpg b/78661-h/images/image016.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eb8944 --- /dev/null +++ b/78661-h/images/image016.jpg |
