THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY
by
Charlotte M. Yonge
Part 1 out of 11
and proofed by Sandra Laythorpe, slaythorpe@cwcom.net, from the 1880
edition published by MacMillan and Co., London. A Web Site for
Charlotte M. Yonge can be found at www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm.
THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY
by Charlotte M. Yonge
CHAPTER I
IN SEARCH OF A MISSION
"Thou didst refuse the daily round
Of useful, patient love,
And longedst for some great emprise
Thy spirit high to prove."--C. M. N.
"Che mi sedea con l'antica Rachele."--DANTE.
"It is very kind in the dear mother."
"But--what, Rachel? Don't you like it! She so enjoyed choosing it
for you."
"Oh yes, it is a perfect thing in its way. Don't say a word to her;
but if you are consulted for my next birthday present, Grace,
couldn't you suggest that one does cease to be a girl."
"Only try it on, Rachel dear, she will be pleased to see you in it."
"Oh yes, I will bedizen myself to oblige her. I do assure you I am
not ungrateful. It is beautiful in itself, and shows how well nature
can be imitated; but it is meant for a mere girl, and this is the
very day I had fixed for hauling down the flag of youth."
"Oh, Rachel."
"Ah, ha! If Rachel be an old maid, what is Grace? Come, my dear,
resign yourself! There is nothing more unbecoming than want of
perception of the close of young-ladyhood."
"Of course I know we are not quite young girls now," said Grace, half
perplexed, half annoyed.
"Exactly, from this moment we are established as the maiden sisters
of Avonmouth, husband and wife to one another, as maiden pairs always
are."
"Then thus let me crown, our bridal," quoth Grace, placing on her
sister's head the wreath of white roses.
"Treacherous child!" cried Rachel, putting up her hands and tossing
her head, but her sister held her still.
"You know brides always take liberties. Please, dear, let it stay
till the mother has been in, and pray don't talk, before her of being
so very old."
"No, I'll not be a shock to her. We will silently assume our
immunities, and she will acquiesce if they come upon her gradually."
Grace looked somewhat alarmed, being perhaps in some dread of
immunities, and aware that Rachel's silence would in any one else
have been talkativeness.
"Ah, mother dear, good morning," as a pleasant placid-looking lady
entered, dressed in black, with an air of feeble health, but of
comely middle age.
Birthday greetings, congratulations, and thanks followed, and the
mother looked critically at the position of the wreath, and Rachel
for the first time turned to the glass and met a set of features of
an irregular, characteristic cast, brow low and broad, nose
retrousse, with large, singularly sensitive nostrils quivering like
those of a high-bred horse at any emotion, full pouting lips, round
cheeks glowing with the freshest red, eyes widely opened, dark deep
grey and decidedly prominent, though curtained with thick black
lashes. The glossy chestnut hair partook of the redundance and
vigour of the whole being, and the roses hung on it gracefully though
not in congruity with the thick winter dress of blue and black
tartan, still looped up over the dark petticoat and hose, and stout
high-heeled boots, that like the grey cloak and felt hat bore witness
to the early walk. Grace's countenance and figure were in the same
style, though without so much of mark or animation; and her dress was
of like description, but less severely plain.
"Yes, my dear, it looks very well; and now you will oblige me by not
wearing that black lace thing, that looks fit for your grandmother."
"Poor Lovedy Kelland's aunt made it, mother, and it was very
expensive, and wouldn't sell."
"No wonder, I am sure, and it was very kind in you to take it off
their hands; but now it is paid for, it can't make much difference
whether you disfigure yourself with it or not."
"Oh yes, dear mother, I'll bind my hair when you bid me do it and
really these buds do credit to the makers. I wonder whether they
cost them as dear in health as lace does," she added, taking off the
flowers and examining them with a grave sad look.
"I chose white roses," proceeded the well-pleased mother, "because
I thought they would suit either of the silks you have now, though
I own I should like to see you in another white muslin."
"I have done with white muslin," said Rachel, rousing from her
reverie. "It is an affectation of girlish simplicity not becoming
at our age."
"Oh Rachel!" thought Grace in despair; but to her great relief in at
that moment filed the five maids, the coachman, and butler, and the
mother began to read prayers.
Breakfast over, Rachel gathered up her various gifts, and betook
herself to a room on the ground floor with all the appliances of an
ancient schoolroom. Rather dreamily she took out a number of copy-
books, and began to write copies in them in large text hand.
"And this is all I am doing for my fellow-creatures," she muttered
half aloud. "One class of half-grown lads, and those grudged to me!
Here is the world around one mass of misery and evil! Not a paper do
I take up but I see something about wretchedness and crime, and here
I sit with health, strength, and knowledge, and able to do nothing,
nothing--at the risk of breaking my mother's heart! I have pottered
about cottages and taught at schools in the dilettante way of the
young lady who thinks it her duty to be charitable; and I am told
that it is my duty, and that I may be satisfied. Satisfied, when I
see children cramped in soul, destroyed in body, that fine ladies may
wear lace trimmings! Satisfied with the blight of the most promising
buds! Satisfied, when I know that every alley and lane of town or
country reeks with vice and corruption, and that there is one cry for
workers with brains and with purses! And here am I, able and
willing, only longing to task myself to the uttermost, yet tethered
down to the merest mockery of usefulness by conventionalities. I am
a young lady forsooth!--I must not be out late, I must not put forth
my views; I must not choose my acquaintance, I must be a mere
helpless, useless being, growing old in a ridiculous fiction of
prolonged childhood, affecting those graces of so-called sweet
seventeen that I never had--because, because why? Is it for any
better reason than because no mother can bear to believe her daughter
no longer on the lists for matrimony? Our dear mother does not tell
herself that this is the reason, but she is unconsciously actuated by
it. And I have hitherto given way to her wish. I mean to give way
still in a measure; but I am five and twenty, and I will no longer be
withheld from some path of usefulness! I will judge for myself, and
when my mission has declared itself, I will not be withheld from it
by any scruple that does not approve itself to my reason and
conscience. If it be only a domestic mission--say the care of Fanny,
poor dear helpless Fanny, I would that I knew she was safe,--I would
not despise it, I would throw myself into it, and regard the training
her and forming her boys as a most sacred office. It would not be
too homely for me. But I had far rather become the founder of some
establishment that might relieve women from the oppressive task-work
thrown on them in all their branches of labour. Oh, what a worthy
ambition!"
"Rachel!" called Grace. "Come, there's a letter, a letter from Fanny
herself for you. Make haste, mamma is so nervous till you read it."
No exhortation was needed to make Rachel hurry to the drawing-room,
and tear open the black-edged letter with the Australian stamp.
"All is right, mamma. She has been very ill, but is fast recovering,
and was to sail by the Voluta. Why, she may be here any day."
"Any day! My dear Grace, see that the nurseries are well aired."
"No, mother, she says her party is too large, and wants us to take a
furnished house for her to come into at once--Myrtlewood if possible.
Is it let, Grace?"
"I think I saw the notice in the window yesterday."
"Then, I'll go and see about it at once."
"But, my dear, you don't really mean that poor dear Fanny thinks of
coming anywhere but to us?" said her mother, anxiously.
"It is very considerate of her," said Grace, "with so many little
children. You would find them too much for you, dear mother. It is
just like Fanny to have thought of it. How many are there, Rachel?"
"Oh! I can't tell. They got past my reckoning long ago. I only know
they are all boys, and that this baby is a girl."
"Baby! Ah, poor Fanny, I feared that was the reason the did not come
sooner."
"Yes, and she has been very ill; she always is, I believe, but there
is very little about it. Fanny never could write letters; she only
just says: 'I have not been able to attempt a letter sooner, though
my dear little girl is five weeks old to-day. Think of the daughter
coming at last, too late for her dear father, who had so wished for
one. She is very healthy, I am thankful to say; and I am now so much
better, that the doctor says I may sail next week. Major Keith has
taken our cabins, in the Voluta, and soon after you receive this, I
hope to be showing you my dear boys. They are such good,
affectionate fellows; but I am afraid they would be too much for my
dear aunt, and our party is so large, so the Major and I both think
it will be the best way for you to take a house for me for six
months. I should like Myrtlewood best, if it is to be had. I have
told Conrade all about it, and how pretty it is, and it is so near
you that I think there I can be happy as ever I can be again in this
world, and have your advice for the dear children.'"
"Poor darling! she seems but a child herself."
"My age--five and twenty," returned Rachel. "Well I shall go and
ask about the house. Remember, mother, this influx is to bring no
trouble or care on you; Fanny Temple is my charge from henceforth.
My mission has come to seek me," she added as she quitted the room,
in eager excitement of affection, emotion, and importance, for Fanny
had been more like a sister than a cousin.
Grace and Rachel Curtis were the daughters of the squire of the
Homestead; Fanny, of his brother, an officer in the army. Left at
home for education, the little girl had spent her life, from her
seventh to her sixteenth year, as absolutely one with her cousins,
until she was summoned to meet her father at the Cape, under the
escort of his old friend, General Sir Stephen Temple. She found
Colonel Curtis sinking under fatal disease, and while his relations
were preparing to receive, almost to maintain, his widow and
daughter, they were electrified by the tidings that the gentle little
Fanny, at sixteen, had become the wife of Sir Stephen Temple, at
sixty.
From that time little had been known about her; her mother had
continued with her, but the two Mrs. Curtises had never been
congenial or intimate; and Fanny was never a full nor willing
correspondent, feeling perhaps the difficulty of writing under
changed circumstances. Her husband had been in various commands in
the colonies, without returning to England; and all that was known of
her was a general impression that she had much ill-health and
numerous children, and was tended like an infant by her bustling
mother and doting husband. More than half a year back, tidings had
come of the almost sudden death of her mother; and about three months
subsequently, one of the officers of Sir Stephen's staff had written
to announce that the good old general had been killed by a fall from
his horse, while on a round of inspection at a distance from home.
The widow was then completely prostrated by the shock, but promised
to write as soon as she was able, and this was the fulfilment of that
promise, bringing the assurance that Fanny was coming back with her
little ones to the home of her childhood.
Of that home, Grace and Rachel were the joint-heiresses, though it
was owned by the mother for her life. It was an estate of farm and
moorland, worth some three or four thousand a year, and the house was
perched on a beautiful promontory, running out into the sea, and
inclosing one side of a bay, where a small fishing-village had
recently expanded into a quiet watering-place, esteemed by some for
its remoteness from railways, and for the calm and simplicity that
were yearly diminished by its increasing popularity. It was the
family fashion to look down from their crag at the new esplanade with
pity and contempt for the ruined loneliness of the pebbly beach; and
as Mrs. Curtis had not health to go often into society, she had been
the more careful where she trusted her daughters. They belonged to
the county by birth and tradition, and were not to be mixed up with
the fleeting residents of the watering-place, on whom they never
called, unless by special recommendation from a mutual friend; and
the few permanent inhabitants chanced to be such, that a visit to
them was in some degree a condescension. Perhaps there was more of
timidity and caution than of pride in the mother's exclusiveness, and
Grace had always acquiesced in it as the natural and established
state of affairs, without any sense of superiority, but rather of
being protected. She had a few alarms as to the results of Rachel's
new immunities of age, and though never questioning the wisdom of her
clever sister's conclusions, dreaded the effect on the mother, whom
she had been forbidden to call mamma. "At their age it was affecting
an interesting childishness."
Rachel had had the palm of cleverness conceded to her ever since she
could recollect, when she read better at three years old than her
sister at five, and ever after, through the days of education, had
enjoyed, and excelled in, the studies that were a toil to Grace.
Subsequently, while Grace had contented herself with the ordinary
course of unambitious feminine life, Rachel had thrown herself into
the process of self-education with all her natural energy, and
carried on her favourite studies by every means within her reach,
until she considerably surpassed in acquirements and reflection all
the persons with whom she came in frequent contact. It was a homely
neighbourhood, a society well born, but of circumscribed interests
and habits, and little connected with the great progressive world,
where, however, Rachel's sympathies all lay, necessarily fed,
however, by periodical literature, instead of by conversation or
commerce with living minds.
She began by being stranded on the ignorance of those who surrounded
her, and found herself isolated as a sort of pedant; and as time went
on, the narrowness of interests chafed her, and in like manner left
her alone. As she grew past girlhood, the cui bono question had come
to interfere with her ardour in study for its own sake, and she felt
the influence of an age eminently practical and sifting, but with
small powers of acting. The quiet Lady Bountiful duties that had
sufficed her mother and sister were too small and easy to satisfy a
soul burning at the report of the great cry going up to heaven from a
world of sin and woe. The examples of successful workers stimulated
her longings to be up and doing, and yet the ever difficult question
between charitable works and filial deference necessarily detained
her, and perhaps all the more because it was not so much the fear of
her mother's authority as of her horror and despair, that withheld
her from the decisive and eccentric steps that she was always feeling
impelled to take. Gentle Mrs. Curtis had never been a visible power
in her house, and it was through their desire to avoid paining her
that her government had been exercised over her two daughters ever
since their father's death, which had taken place in Grace's
seventeenth year. Both she and Grace implicitly accepted Rachel's
superiority as an unquestionable fact, and the mother, when
traversing any of her clever daughter's schemes, never disputed
either her opinions or principles, only entreated that these
particular developments might be conceded to her own weakness; and
Rachel generally did concede. She could not act; but she could talk
uncontradicted, and she hated herself for the enforced submission to
a state of things that she despised.
This twenty-fifth birthday had long been anticipated as the turning-
point when this submissive girlhood ought to close, and the
privileges of acting as well as thinking for herself ought to be
assumed. Something to do was her cry, and on this very day that
something seemed to be cast in her way. It was not ameliorating the
condition of the masses, but it was educating those who might
ameliorate them; and Rachel gladly hailed the prospect of a vocation
that might be conducted without pain to her mother.
Young children of her own class were not exactly what her dream of
usefulness had devised; but she had already a decided theory of
education, and began to read up with all her might, whilst taking the
lead in all the details of house taking, servant hiring, &c., to
which her regular occupations of night school in the evening and
reading to the lacemakers by day, became almost secondary. In due
time the arrival of the ship was telegraphed, a hurried and
affectionate note followed, and, on a bright east-windy afternoon,
Rachel Curtis set forth to take up her mission. A telegram had
announced the arrival of the Voluta, and the train which would bring
the travellers to Avonchester. The Homestead carriage was sent to
meet them, and Rachel in it, to give her helpless cousin assistance
in this beginning of English habits. A roomy fly had been engaged
for nurses and children, and Mrs. Curtis had put under the coachman's
charge a parcel of sandwiches, and instructed him to offer all the
appliances for making her own into an invalid carriage.
Full of warm tenderness to those who were to be dependent on her
exertions, led by her good sense, Rachel paced the platform till the
engine rushed up, and she looked along the line of windows, suddenly
bewildered. Doors opened, but gentlemen alone met her disappointed
eye, until close to her a soft voice said, "Rachel!" and she saw a
figure in deep black close to her; but her hand had been hardly
clasped before the face was turned eagerly to a tall, bearded man,
who was lifting out little boy after little boy, apparently in an
endless stream, till at last a sleeping baby was brought out in the
arms of a nurse.
"Good-bye. Thank you, oh, thank you. You will come soon. Oh, do
come on now."
"Do come on now," was echoed by many voices.
"I leave you in good hands. Good-bye."
"Good-bye. Conrade dear, see what Cyril is doing; never mind,
Wilfred, the Major will come and see us; run on with Coombe." This
last was a respectable military-looking servant, who picked up a
small child in one hand and a dressing-case in the other, and awaited
orders.
There was a clinging to the Major by all the children, only ended by
his finally precipitating himself into the carriage, and being borne
off. Then came a chorus--"Mamma, let me go with you;" "I'll go with
mamma " "Me go with mamma;" according to the gradations of age.
While Coombe and mamma decided the question by lifting the lesser
ones into the fly, Rachel counted heads. Her mission exceeded her
expectations. Here was a pair of boys in knickerbockers, a pair in
petticoats, a pair in pelisses, besides the thing in arms. When the
fly had been nearly crammed, the two knickerbockers and one pelisse
remained for the carriage, quite against Rachel's opinion, but
"Little Wilfred can sit on my lap, he has not been well, poor little
man," was quite conclusive; and when Rachel suggested lying back to
rest, there was a sweet, low laugh, and, "Oh, no thank you, Wilfred
never tires me."
Rachel's first satisfaction was in seeing the veil disclose the face
of eight years back, the same soft, clear, olive skin, delicate, oval
face, and pretty deep-brown eyes, with the same imploring, earnest
sweetness; no signs of having grown older, no sign of wear and tear,
climate, or exertion, only the widow's dress and the presence of the
great boys enhancing her soft youthfulness. The smile was certainly
changed; it was graver, sadder, tenderer, and only conjured up by
maternal affection or in grateful reply, and the blitheness of the
young brow had changed to quiet pensiveness, but more than ever there
was an air of dependence almost beseeching protection, and Rachel's
heart throbbed with Britomart's devotion to her Amoret.
"Why wouldn't the Major come, mamma?"
"He will soon come, I hope, my dear."
Those few words gave Rachel a strong antipathy to the Major.
Then began a conversation under difficulties, Fanny trying to inquire
after her aunt, and Rachel to detail the arrangements made for her at
Myrtlewood, while the two boys were each accommodated with a window;
but each moment they were claiming their mother's attention, or
rushing across the ladies' feet to each other's window, treating
Rachel's knees as a pivot, and vouchsafing not the slightest heed to
her attempts at intelligent pointing out of the new scenes.
And Fanny made no apology, but seemed pleased, ready with answers and
with eyes, apparently ignorant that Rachel's toes were less
insensible than her own, and her heavy three-years-old Wilfred asleep
on her lap all the time.
"She feeble, helpless, sickly!" thought Rachel, "I should have been
less tired had I walked the twenty miles!"
She gave up talking in despair, and by the time the young gentlemen
had tired themselves into quiescence, and began to eat the
provisions, both ladies were glad to be allowed a little silence.
Coming over the last hill, Conrade roused at his mother's summons to
look out at "home," and every word between them showed how fondly
Avonmouth had been remembered far away.
"The sea!" said Fanny, leaning forwards to catch sight of the long
grey line; "it is hard to believe we have been on it so long, this
seems so much more my own."
"Yes," cried Rachel, "you are come to your own home, for us to take
care of you."
"I take care of mamma! Major Keith said so," indignantly exclaimed
Conrade.
"There's plenty of care for you both to take," said Fanny, half-
smiling, half-sobbing. "The Major says I need not be a poor
creature, and I will try. But I am afraid I shall be on all your
hands."
Both boys drummed on her knee in wrath at her presuming to call
herself a poor creature--Conrade glaring at Rachel as if to accuse
her of the calumny.
"See the church," said Lady Temple, glad to divert the storm, and
eagerly looking at the slender spire surmounting the bell-turret of a
small building in early-decorated style, new, but somewhat stained by
sea-wind, without having as yet acquired the tender tints of time.
"How beautiful!" was her cry. "You were beginning the collection for
it when I went away! How we used to wish for it."
"Yes, we did," said Rachel, with a significant sigh; but her cousin
had no time to attend, for they were turning in a pepper-box lodge.
The boys were told that they were arrived, and they were at the door
of a sort of overgrown Swiss cottage, where Mrs. Curtis and Grace
stood ready to receive them.
There was a confusion of embraces, fondlings, and tears, as Fanny
clung to the aunt who had been a mother to her--perhaps a more tender
one than the ruling, managing spirit, whom she had hardly known in
her childhood; but it was only for a moment, for Wilfred shrieked out
in an access of shyness at Grace's attempt to make acquaintance with
him; Francis was demanding, "Where's the orderly?" and Conrade
looking brimful of wrath at any one who made his mother cry.
Moreover, the fly had arrived, and the remainder had to be produced,
named, and kissed--Conrade and Francis, Leoline and Hubert, Wilfred
and Cyril, and little Stephana the baby. Really the names were a
study in themselves, and the cousins felt as if it would be hopeless
to endeavour to apply them.
Servants had been engaged conditionally, and the house was fully
ready, but the young mother could hardly listen to her aunt's
explanations in her anxiety that the little ones should be rested and
fed, and she responded with semi-comprehending thanks, while moving
on with her youngest in her arms, and as many hanging to her dress as
could get hold of it. Her thanks grew more emphatic at the sight of
cribs in inviting order, and all things ready for a meal.
"I don't drink tea with nurse," was Conrade's cry, the signal for
another general outcry, untranquillized by soothings and persuasions,
till the door was shut on the younger half of the family, and those
who could not open it remained to be comforted by nurse, a soldier's
widow, who had been with them from the birth of Conrade.
The Temple form of shyness seemed to consist in ignoring strangers,
but being neither abashed nor silenced, only resenting or avoiding
all attempts at intercourse, and as the boys rushed in and out of the
rooms, exploring, exclaiming, and calling mamma, to the interruption
of all that was going on, only checked for a few minutes by her
uplifted hand and gentle hush, Grace saw her mother so stunned and
bewildered that she rejoiced in the fear of cold that had decided
that Rachel alone should spend the evening there. Fanny made some
excuses; she longed to see more of her aunt, but when they were a
little more settled,--and as a fresh shout broke out, she was afraid
they were rather unruly,--she must come and talk to her at the dear
Homestead. So kind of Rachel to stay--not that the boys seemed to
think so, as they went racing in and out, stretching their ship-bound
legs, and taking possession of the minute shrubbery, which they
scorned for the want of gum-trees and parrots.
"You won't mind, Rachel dear, I must first see about baby;" and
Rachel was left to reflect on her mission, while the boys' feet
cantered up and down the house, and one or other of them would look
in, and burst away in search of mamma.
Little more satisfactory was the rest of the evening, for the boys
took a great deal of waiting on at tea, and then some of the party
would not go to sleep in strange beds without long persuasions and
comfortings, till Fanny looked so weary that it was plain that no
conversation could have been hoped from her, even if the baby had
been less vociferous. All that could be done for her was to wish
her good-night, and promise to come down early.
Come early! Yes, Rachel might come, but what was the use of that
when Fanny was at the mercy of so many claimants? She looked much
better than the day before, and her sweet, soft welcome was most
cordial and clinging. "Dear Rachel, it is like a dream to have you
so near. I felt like the old life come back again to hear the surge
of the sea all night, and know I should see you all so soon again."
"Yes, it is a great satisfaction to have you back in your old home,
under our wing. I have a great deal to tell you about the
arrangements."
"Oh yes; thank you--"
"Mamma!" roared two or three voices.
"I wanted to explain to you--" But Fanny's eye was roaming, and just
then in burst two boys. "Mamma, nurse won't undo the tin box, and my
ship is in it that the Major gave me."
"Yes, and my stuffed duck-bill, and I want it, mamma."
"My dear Con, the Major would not let you shout so loud about it, and
you have not spoken to Aunt Rachel."
The boys did present their hands, and then returned to the charge.
"Please order nurse to unpack it, mamma, and then Coombe will help us
to sail it."
"Excuse me, dear Rachel," said Fanny, "I will first see about this."
And a very long seeing it was, probably meaning that she unpacked the
box herself, whilst Rachel was deciding on the terrible spoiling of
the children, and preparing a remonstrance.
"Dear Rachel, you have been left a long time."
"Oh, never mind that, but, Fanny, you must not give way to those
children too much; they will be always-- Hark! was that the door-
bell?"
It was, and the visitor was announced as "Mr. Touchett;" a small,
dark, thin young clergyman he was, of a nervous manner, which, growing
more nervous as he shook hands with Rachel, became abrupt and
hesitating.
"My call is--is early, Lady Temple; but I always pay my respects at
once to any new parishioner--resident, I mean--in case I can be of
any service."
" Thank you, I am very much obliged," said Fanny, with a sweet,
gracious smile and manner that would have made him more at ease at
once, if Rachel had not added, "My cousin is quite at home here,
Mr. Touchett."
"Oh yes," he said, "so--so I understood."
"I know no place in England so well; it is quite a home to me, so
beautiful it is," continued Fanny.
"And you see great changes here."
"Changes so much for the better," said Fanny, smiling her winning
smile again.
"One always expects more from improvements than they effect," put
in Rachel, severely.
"You have a large young party," said Mr. Touchett, looking uneasily
towards Lady Temple.
"Yes, I have half a dozen boys and one little girl."
"Seven!" Mr. Touchett looked up half incredulous at the girlish
contour of the gentle face, then cast down his eyes as if afraid he
had been rude. "Seven! It is--it is a great charge."
"Yes, indeed it is," she said earnestly; "and I am sure you will be
kind enough to give your influence to help me with them--poor boys."
"Oh! oh!" he exclaimed, "anything I can do--" in such a transport of
eager helpfulness that Rachel coldly said, "We are all anxious to
assist in the care of the children." He coloured up, and with a sort
of effort at self-assertion, blurted out, "As the clergyman of the
parish--," and there halted, and was beginning to look foolish, when
Lady Temple took him up in her soft, persuasive way. "Of course we
shall look to you so much, and you will be so kind as to let me know
if there is any one I can send any broth to at anytime."
"Thank you; you are very good;" and he was quite himself again.
"I shall have the pleasure of sending you down a few names."
"I never did approve the broken victual system," began Rachel, "it
creates dependence."
"Come here, Hubert," said Fanny, beckoning a boy she saw at a
distance, "come and shake hands with Mr. Touchett." It was from
instinct rather than reason; there was a fencing between Rachel and
the curate that made her uncomfortable, and led her to break it off
by any means in her power; and though Mr. Touchett was not much at
his ease with the little boy, this discussion was staged off. But
again Mr. Touchett made bold to say that in case Lady Temple wished
for a daily governess, he knew of a very desirable young person, a
most admirable pair of sisters, who had met with great reverses, but
Rachel snapped him off shorter than ever. "We can decide nothing
yet; I have made up my mind to teach the little boys at present."
"Oh, indeed!"
"It is very kind," said the perplexed Lady Temple.
"I beg your pardon, I only thought, in case you were wishing for some
one, that Miss Williams will be at liberty shortly."
"I do not imagine Miss Williams is the person to deal with little
boys," said Rachel. "In fact, I think that home teaching is always
better than hired."
"I am so much obliged," said Fanny, as Mr. Touchett, after this
defeat, rose up to take leave, and she held out her hand, smiled,
thanked, and sent him away so much sweetened and gratified, that
Rachel would have instantly begun dissecting him, but that a whole
rush of boys broke in, and again engrossed their mother, and in the
next lull, the uppermost necessity was of explaining about the
servants who had been hired for the time, one of whom was a young
woman whose health had given way over her lace pillow, and Rachel was
eloquent over the crying evils of the system (everything was a system
with Rachel) that chained girls to an unhealthy occupation in their
early childhood, and made an overstocked market and underpaid
workers--holding Fanny fast to listen by a sort of fascination in her
overpowering earnestness, and great fixed eyes, which, when once
their grasp was taken, would not release the victim; and this was a
matter of daily occurrence on which Rachel felt keenly and spoke
strongly.
"It is very sad. If you want to help the poor things, I will give
anything I can."
"Oh, yes, thank you, but it is doleful merely to help them to linger
out the remnant of a life consumed upon these cobwebs of vanity. It
is the fountainhead that must be reached--the root of the system!"
Fanny saw, or rather felt, a boy making signs at the window, but
durst not withdraw her eyes from the fascination of those eager ones.
"Lace and lacemakers are facts," continued Rachel; " but if the
middle men were exploded, and the excess of workers drafted off by
some wholesome outlet, the price would rise, so that the remainder
would be at leisure to fulfil the domestic offices of womanhood."
There was a great uproar above.
"I beg your pardon, dear Rachel," and away went Fanny.
"I do declare," cried Rachel, when Grace, having despatched her home-
cares, entered the room a quarter of an hour after; "poor Fanny's a
perfect slave. One can't get in a word edgeways."
Fanny at last returned, but with her baby; and there was no chance
for even Rachel to assert herself while this small queen was in
presence. Grace was devoted to infants, and there was a whole court
of brothers vying with one another in picking up her constantly
dropped toys, and in performing antics for her amusement. Rachel,
desirous to be gracious and resigned, attempted conversation with one
of the eldest pair, but the baby had but to look towards him, and he
was at her feet.
On her departure, Rachel resumed the needful details of the
arrangements respecting the house and servants, and found Lady Temple
as grateful and submissive as ever, except that, when advised to take
Myrtlewood for a term of seven years, she replied, that the Major had
advised her not to bind herself down at once.
"Did you let him think we should quarrel?"
"Oh, no, my dear; but it might not agree with the children."
"Avonmouth! Grace, do you hear what heresy Fanny has been learning?
Why, the proportion of ozone in the air here has been calculated to
be five times that of even Aveton!"
"Yes, dearest," said poor Fanny, very humbly, and rather scared,
"there is no place like Avonmouth, and I am sure the Major will think
so when he has seen it."
"But what has he to do with your movements?"
"Sir Stephen wished--" murmured Fanny.
"The Major is military secretary, and always settles our head-
quarters, and no one interferes with him," shouted Conrade.
Rachel, suspicious and jealous of her rival, was obliged to let Fanny
pass on to the next item, where her eager acceptance of all that was
prescribed to her was evidently meant as compensation for her
refractoriness about the house.
Grace had meanwhile applied herself to keeping off the boys, and was
making some progress in their good graces, and in distinguishing
between their sallow faces, dark eyes, and crisp, black heads.
Conrade was individualized, not only by superior height, but by
soldierly bearing, bright pride glancing in his eyes, his quick
gestures, bold, decided words, and imperious tone towards all, save
his mother--and whatever he was doing, his keen, black eye was always
turning in search of her, he was ever ready to spring to her side to
wait on her, to maintain her cause in rough championship, or to claim
her attention to himself. Francis was thick-set, round-shouldered,
bullet-headed and dull-eyed, in comparison, not aggressive, but
holding his own, and not very approachable; Leoline, thin, white-
cheeked, large-eyed and fretful-lipped, was ready to whine at
Conrade's tyranny and Francis's appropriations, but was grateful for
Grace's protection, and more easy of access than his elders; and
Hubert was a handsome, placid child, the good boy, as well as the
beauty of the family. The pair in the nursery hardly came on the
stage, and the two elders would be quite sufficient for Mrs. Curtis,
with whom the afternoon was to be spent.
The mother, evidently, considered it a very long absence, but she was
anxious to see both her aunt and her own home, and set out, leaning
on Rachel's arm, and smiling pleased though sad recognition of the
esplanade, the pebbly beach, bathing machines and fishing boats, and
pointing them out to her sons, who, on their side, would only talk of
the much greater extent of Melbourne.
Within the gates of the Homestead, there was a steep, sharp bit of
road, cut out in the red sandstone rock, and after a few paces she
paused to rest with a sigh that brought Conrade to her side, when she
put her arm round his neck, and leant on his shoulder; but even her
two supporters could not prevent her from looking pale and exhausted.
"Never mind," she said, "this salt wind is delightful. How like old
times it is!" and she stood gazing across the little steep lawn at
the grey sea, the line of houses following the curve of the bay, and
straggling up the valley in the rear, and the purple headlands
projecting point beyond point, showing them to her boys, and telling
their names.
"It is all ugly and cold," said Francis, with an ungracious shiver.
"I shall go home to Melbourne when I'm a man."
"And you will come, mamma ?" added Conrade.
He had no answer, for Fanny was in her aunt's arms; and, like mother
and daughter, they clung to each other--more able to sympathize, more
truly one together, than the young widow could be with either of the
girls.
As soon as Fanny had rested and enjoyed the home atmosphere
downstairs, she begged to visit the dear old rooms, and carried
Conrade through a course of recognitions through the scarcely altered
apartments. Only one had been much changed, namely, the schoolroom,
which had been stripped of the kindly old shabby furniture that Fanny
tenderly recollected, and was decidedly bare; but a mahogany box
stood on a stand on one side; there was a great accession of books,
and writing implements occupied the plain deal table in the centre.
"What have you done to the dear old room--do you not use it still?"
asked Fanny.
"Yes, I work here," said Rachel.
Vainly did Lady Temple look for that which women call work.
"I have hitherto ground on at after-education and self-improvement,"
said Rachel; "now I trust to make my preparation available for
others. I will undertake any of your boys if you wish it."
"Thank you; but what is that box?"--in obedience to a curious push
and pull from Conrade.
"It is her dispensary," said Grace.
"Yes," said Rachel, "you are weak and nervous, and I have just the
thing for you."
"Is it homoeopathy?"
"Yes, here is my book. I have done great things in my district, and
should do more but for prejudice. There, this globule is the very
thing for your case; I made it out last night in my book. That is
right, and I wanted to ask you some questions about little Wilfred."
Fanny had obediently swallowed her own globule, but little Wilfred
was a different matter, and she retreated from the large eyes and
open book, saying that he was better, and that Mr. Frampton should
look at him; but Rachel was not to be eluded, and was in full career
of elucidation to the meanest capacity, when a sharp skirmish between
the boys ended the conversation, and it appeared that Conrade had
caught Francis just commencing an onslaught on the globules, taking
them for English sweetmeats of a minute description.
The afternoon passed with the strange heaviness well known to those
who find it hard to resume broken threads after long parting. There
was much affection, but not full certainty what to talk about, and the
presence of the boys would have hindered confidence, even had they not
incessantly occupied their mother. Conrade, indeed, betook himself to
a book, but Francis was only kept out of mischief by his constantly
turning over pictures with him; however, at dark, Coombe came to
convey them home, and the ladies of the Homestead experienced a sense
of relief. Rachel immediately began to talk of an excellent
preparatory school.
"I was thinking of asking you," said Fanny, "if there is any one here
who would come as a daily governess."
"Oh!" cried Rachel, "these two would be much better at school, and I
would form the little ones, who are still manageable."
"Conrade is not eight years old yet," said his mother in an imploring
tone, "and the Major said I need not part with him till he has grown
a little more used to English ways."
"He can read, I see," said Grace, "and he told me he had done some
Latin with the Major."
"Yes, he has picked up a vast deal of information, and on the voyage
the Major used to teach him out of a little pocket Virgil. The Major
said it would not be of much use at school, as there was no
dictionary; but that the discipline and occupation would be useful,
and so they were. Conrade, will do anything for the Major, and
indeed so will they all."
Three Majors in one speech, thought Rachel; and by way of
counteraction she enunciated, "I could undertake the next pair of
boys easily, but these two are evidently wanting school discipline."
Lady Temple feathered up like a mother dove over her nest.
"You do not know Conrade. He is so trustworthy and affectionate,
dear boy, and they are both always good with me. The Major said it
often hurts boys to send them too young."
"They are very young, poor little fellows," said Mrs. Curtis.
"And if they are forward in some things they are backward in others,"
said Fanny. "What Major Keith recommended was a governess, who would
know what is generally expected of little boys."
"I don't like half measures," muttered Rachel. "I do not approve of
encouraging young women to crowd the overstocked profession of
governesses."
Fanny opened her brown eyes, and awaited the words of wisdom.
"Is it not a flagrant abuse," continued Rachel, "that whether she
have a vocation or not, every woman of a certain rank, who wishes to
gain her own livelihood, must needs become a governess? A nursery
maid must have a vocation, but an educated or half-educated woman has
no choice; and educator she must become, to her own detriment, and
that of her victims."
"I always did think governesses often much to be pitied," said Fanny,
finding something was expected of her.
"What's the use of pity if one runs on in the old groove? We must
prevent the market from being drugged, by diverting the supply into
new lines."
"Are there any new lines?" asked Fanny, surprised at the progress of
society in her absence.
"Homoeopathic doctresses," whispered Grace; who, dutiful as she was,
sometimes indulged in a little fun, which Rachel would affably
receive unless she took it in earnest, as in the present instance.
"Why not--I ask why not? Some women have broken through prejudice,
and why should not others? Do you not agree with me, Fanny, that
female medical men--I mean medical women--would be an infinite boon?"
"It would be very nice if they would never be nervous."
"Nerves are merely a matter of training. Think of the numbers that
might be removed from the responsibility of incompetently educating!
I declare that to tempt a person into the office of governess,
instead of opening a new field to her, is the most short-sighted
indolence."
"I don't want to tempt any one," said Fanny. "She ought to have been
out before and be experienced, only she most be kind to the poor
boys. I wanted the Major to inquire in London, but he said perhaps I
might hear of some one here."
"That was right, my dear," returned her aunt. "A gentleman, an
officer, could not do much in such a matter."
"He always does manage whatever one wants."
At which speech Rachel cast a glance towards her mother, and saw her
look questioning and perplexed.
"I was thinking," said Grace, "that I believe the people at the Cliff
Cottages are going away, and that Miss Williams might be at liberty."
"Didn't I know that Grace would come out with Miss Williams?"
exclaimed Rachel. "A regular eruption of the Touchettomania.
We have had him already advertising her."
"Miss Williams!" said Mrs. Curtis. "Yes, she might suit you very
well. I believe they are very respectable young women, poor things!
I have always wished that we could do more for them."
"Who?" asked Fanny.
"Certain pets of Mr. Touchett's," said Rachel; "some of the numerous
ladies whose mission is that curatolatry into which Grace would lapse
but for my strenuous efforts."
"I don't quite know why you call them his pets," said Grace, "except
that he knew their antecedents, and told us about them."
"Exactly, that was enough, for me. I perfectly understand the
meaning of Mr. Touchett's recommendations, and if what Fanny wants is
a commonplace sort of upper nursemaid, I dare say it would do." And
Rachel leant back, applied herself to her wood carving, and virtually
retired from the discussion.
"One sister is a great invalid," said Grace, "quite a cripple, and
the other goes out as a daily governess. They are a clergyman's
daughters, and once were very well off, but they lost everything
through some speculation of their brother. I believe he fled the
country under some terrible suspicion of dishonesty; and though no
one thought they had anything to do with it, their friends dropped
them because they would not give him up, nor believe him guilty, and
a little girl of his lives with them."
"Poor things!" exclaimed Lady Temple. "I should very much like to
employ this one. How very sad."
"Mrs. Grey told me that her children had never done so well with any
one," said Mrs. Curtis. "She wanted to engage Miss Williams
permanently, but could not induce her to leave her sister, or even to
remove her to London, on account of her health."
"Do you know her, Grace?" asked Fanny.
"I have called once or twice, and have been very much pleased with
the sick sister; but Rachel does not fancy that set, you see. I meet
the other at the Sunday school, I like her looks and manner very
much, and she is always at the early service before her work."
"Just like a little mauve book!" muttered Rachel.
Fanny absolutely stared. "You go, don't you, Rachel? How we used to
wish for it!"
"You have wished and we have tried," said Rachel, with a sigh.
"Yes, Rachel," said Grace; "but with all drawbacks, all
disappointments in ourselves, it is a great blessing. We would not
be without it."
"I could not be satisfied in relinquishing it voluntarily," said
Rachel, "but I am necessarily one of the idle. Were I one of the
occupied, laborare est orare would satisfy me, and that poor
governess ought to feel the same. Think of the physical reaction of
body on mind, and tell me if you could have the barbarity of
depriving that poor jaded thing of an hour's sleep, giving her an
additional walk, fasting, in all weathers, and preparing her to be
savage with the children."
"Perhaps it refreshes her, and hinders her from being cross."
"Maybe she thinks so; but if she have either sense or ear, nothing
would so predispose her to be cross as the squeaking of Mr.
Touchett's penny-whistle choir."
"Poor Mr. Touchett," sighed Mrs. Curtis; "I wish he would not make
such ambitious attempts."
"But you like the choral service," said Fanny, feeling as if
everything had turned round. "When all the men of a regiment chant
together you cannot think how grand it is, almost finer than the
cathedral."
"Yes, where you can do it," said Rachel, "but not where you can't."
"I wish you would not talk about it," said Grace.
"I must, or Fanny will not understand the state of parties at
Avonmouth."
"Parties! Oh, I hope not."
"My dear child, party spirit is another word for vitality. So you
thought the church we sighed for had made the place all we sighed to
see it, and ourselves too. Oh! Fanny is this what you have been
across the world for?"
"What is wrong?" asked Fanny, alarmed.
"Do you remember our axiom? Build your church, and the rest will
take care of itself. You remember our scraping and begging, and how
that good Mr. Davison helped us out and brought the endowment up to
the needful point for consecration, on condition the incumbency was
given to him. He held it just a year, and was rich, and could help
out his bad health with a curate. But first he went to Madeira, and
then he died, and there we are, a perpetual curacy of £70 a year, no
resident gentry but ourselves, a fluctuating population mostly sick,
our poor demoralized by them, and either crazed by dissent, or
heathenized by their former distance from church. Who would take us?
No more Mr. Davisons! There was no more novelty, and too much
smartness to invite self-devotion. So we were driven from pillar to
post till we settled down into this Mr. Touchett, as good a being as
ever lived, working as hard as any two, and sparing neither himself
nor any one else."
Fanny looked up prepared to admire.
"But he has two misfortunes. He was not born a gentleman, and his
mind does not measure an inch across."
"Rachel, my dear, it is not fair to prejudice Fanny; I am sure the
poor man is very well-behaved."
"Mother! would you be calling the ideal Anglican priest, poor man?"
"I thought he was quite gentlemanlike," added Fanny.
"Gentlemanlike! ay, that's it," said Rachel, "just so like as to
delight the born curatolatress, like Grace and Miss Williams."
"Would it hurt the children?" asked Fanny, hardly comprehending the
tremendous term.
"Yes, if it infected you," said Rachel, intending some playfullness.
"A mother of contracted mind forfeits the allegiance of her sons."
"Oh, Rachel, I know I am weak and silly," said the gentle young
widow, terrified, "but the Major said if I only tried to do my duty
by them I should be helped."
"And I will help you, Fanny," said Rachel. "All that is requisite is
good sense and firmness, and a thorough sense of responsibility."
"That is what is so dreadful. The responsibility of all those dear
fatherless boys, and if--if I should do wrong by them."
Poor Fanny fell into an uncontrollable fit of weeping at the sense of
her own desolation and helplessness, and Mrs. Curtis came to comfort
her, and tell her affectionately of having gone through the like
feelings, and of the repeated but most comfortable words of promise
to the fatherless and the widow--words that had constantly come
before the sufferer, but which had by no means lost their virtue by
repetition, and Fanny was soothed with hearing instances of the
special Providence over orphaned sons, and their love and deference
for their mother. Rachel, shocked and distressed at the effect of
her sense, retired out of the conversation, till at the announcement
of the carriage for Lady Temple, her gentle cousin cheered up, and
feeling herself to blame for having grieved one who only meant aid
and kindness, came to her and fondly kissed her forehead, saying,
"I am not vexed, dear Rachel, I know you are right. I am not clever
enough to bring them up properly, but if I try hard, and pray for
them, it may be made up to them. And you will help me, Rachel dear,"
she added, as her readiest woe-offering for her tears, and it was the
most effectual, for Rachel was perfectly contented as long as Fanny
was dependent on her, and allowed her to assume her mission, provided
only that the counter influence could be averted, and this Major,
this universal referee, be eradicated from her foolish clinging
habits of reliance before her spirits were enough recovered to lay
her heart open to danger.
But the more Rachel saw of her cousin, the more she realized this
peril. When she went down on Monday morning to complete the matters
of business that had been slurred over on the Saturday, she found
that Fanny had not the slightest notion what her own income was to
be. All she knew was that her General had left everything
unreservedly to herself, except £100 and one of his swords to Major
Keith, who was executor to the will, and had gone to London to "see
about it," by which word poor Fanny expressed all the business that
her maintenance depended on. If an old general wished to put a major
in temptation, could he have found a better means of doing so?
Rachel even thought that Fanny's incapacity to understand business
had made her mistake the terms of the bequest, and that Sir Stephen
must have secured his property to his children; but Fanny was
absolutely certain that this was not the case, for she said the Major
had made her at once sign a will dividing the property among them,
and appointing himself and her Aunt Curtis their guardians. "I did
not like putting such a charge on my dear aunt," said Fanny, "but the
Major said I ought to appoint a relation, and I had no one else! And
I knew you would all be good to them, if they had lost me too, when
baby was born."
"We would have tried," said Rachel, a little humbly, "but oh! I am
glad you are here, Fanny!"
Nothing could of course be fixed till the Major had "seen about it."
After which he was to come to let Lady Temple know the result; but
she believed he would first go to Scotland to see his brother. He
and his brother were the only survivors of a large family, and he had
been on foreign service for twelve years, so that it would be very
selfish to wish him not to take full time at home. "Selfish,"
thought Rachel; "if he will only stay away long enough, you shall
learn, my dear, how well you can do without him!"
The boys had interrupted the conversation less than the previous one,
because the lesser ones were asleep, or walking out, and the elder
ones having learnt that a new week was to be begun steadily with
lessons, thought it advisable to bring themselves as little into
notice as possible; but fate was sure to pursue them sooner or later,
for Rachel had come down resolved on testing their acquirements, and
deciding on the method to be pursued with them; and though their
mamma, with a curtain instinctive shrinking both for them and for
herself, had put off the ordeal to the utmost by listening to all the
counsel about her affairs, it was not to be averted.
"Now, Fanny, since it seems that more cannot be done at present, let
us see about the children's education. Where are their books?"
"We have very few books," said Fanny, hesitating; "we had not much
choice where we were."
"You should have written to me for a selection."
"Why--so we would, but there was always a talk of sending Conrade and
Francis home. I am afraid you will think them very backward, dear
Rachel, especially Francie; but it is not their fault, dear children,
and they are not used to strangers," added Fanny, nervously.
"I do not mean to be a stranger," said Rachel.
And while Fanny, in confusion, made loving protestations about not
meaning that, Rachel stepped out upon the lawn, and in her clear
voice called "Conrade, Francis!" No answer. She called "Conrade"
again, and louder, then turned round with "where can they be--not
gone down on the beach?"
"Oh, dear no, I trust not," said the mother, flurried, and coming to
the window with a call that seemed to Rachel's ears like the roar of
a sucking dove.
But from behind the bushes forth came the two young gentlemen, their
black garments considerably streaked with the green marks of laurel
climbing.
"Oh, my dears, what figures you are! Go to Coombe and get yourselves
brushed, and wash your hands, and then come down, and bring your
lesson books."
Rachel prognosticated that these preparations would be made the
occasion, of much waste of time; but she was answered, and with
rather surprised eyes, that they had never been allowed to come into
the drawing-room without looking like little gentlemen.
"But you are not living in state here," said Rachel; "I never could
enter into the cult some people, mamma especially, pay to their
drawing-room."
The Major used to be very particular about their not coming to sit
down untidy," said Fanny. "He said it was not good for anybody."
Martinet! thought Rachel, nearly ready to advocate the boys making no
toilette at any time; and the present was made to consume so much
time that, urged by her, Fanny once more was obliged to summon her
boys and their books.
It was not an extensive school library--a Latin grammar an extremely
dilapidated spelling-book, and the fourth volume of Mrs. Marcet's
"Little Willie." The other three--one was unaccounted for, but Cyril
had torn up the second, and Francis had thrown the first overboard in
a passion. Rachel looked in dismay. "I don't know what can be done
with these!" she said.
"Oh, then we'll have holidays till we have got books, mamma," said
Conrade, putting his hands on the sofa, and imitating a kicking
horse.
"It is very necessary to see what kind of books you ought to have,"
returned Rachel. "How far have you gone in this?"
"I say, mamma," reiterated Conrade, "we can't do lessons without
books."
"Attend to what your Aunt Rachel says, my dear; she wants to find out
what books you should have."
"Yes, let me examine you."
Conrade came most inconveniently close to her; she pushed her chair
back; he came after her. His mother uttered a remonstrating, "My
dear!"
"I thought she wanted to examine me," quoth Conrade. "When Dr.
M'Vicar examines a thing, he puts it under a microscope."
It was said gravely, and whether it were malice or simplicity, Rachel
was perfectly unable to divine, but she thought anyway that Fanny had
no business to laugh, and explaining the species of examination that
she intended, she went to work. In her younger days she had worked
much at schools, and was really an able and spirited teacher, liking
the occupation; and laying hold of the first book in her way, she
requested Conrade to read. He obeyed, but in such a detestable
gabble that she looked up appealingly to Fanny, who suggested, "My
dear, you can read better than that." He read four lines, not badly,
but then broke off, "Mamma, are not we to have ponies? Coombe heard
of a pony this morning; it is to be seen at the 'Jolly Mariner,' and
he will take us to look at it."
"The 'Jolly Mariner!' It is a dreadful place, Fanny, you never will
let them go there?"
"My dear, the Major will see about your ponies when he comes."
"We will send the coachman down to inquire," added Rachel.
"He is only a civilian, and the Major always chooses our horses,"
said Conrade.
"And I am to have one too, mamma," added Francis. "You know I have
been out four times with the staff, and the Major said I could ride
as well as Con!"
"Reading is what is wanted now, my dear, go on."
Five lines more; but Francis and his mother were whispering together,
and of course Conrade stopped to listen. Rachel saw there was no
hope but in getting him alone, and at his mother's reluctant desire,
he followed her to the dining-room; but there he turned dogged and
indiifferent, made a sort of feint of doing what he was told, but
whether she tried him in arithmetic, Latin, or dictation, he made
such ludicrous blunders as to leave her in perplexity whether they
arose from ignorance or impertinence. His spelling was phonetic to
the highest degree, and though he owned to having done sums, he would
not, or did not answer the simplest question in mental arithmetic.
"Five apples and eight apples, come, Conrade, what will they make?"
"A pie."
That was the hopeful way in which the examination proceeded, and when
Rachel attempted to say that his mother would be much displeased, he
proceeded to tumble head over heels all round the room, as if he knew
better; which performance broke up the seance, with a resolve on her
part that when she had the books she would not be so beaten. She
tried Francis, but he really did know next to nothing, and whenever
he came to a word above five letters long stopped short, and when
told to spell it, said, "Mamma never made him spell;" also muttering
something depreciating about civilians.
Rachel was a woman of perseverance. She went to the bookseller's,
and obtained a fair amount of books, which she ordered to be sent to
Lady Temple's. But when she came down the next morning, the parcel
was nowhere to be found. There was a grand interrogation, and at
last it turned out to have been safely deposited in an empty dog-
kennel in the back yard. It was very hard on Rachel that Fanny
giggled like a school-girl, and even though ashamed of herself and
her sons, could not find voice to scold them respectably. No wonder,
after such encouragement, that Rachel found her mission no sinecure,
and felt at the end of her morning's work much as if she had been
driving pigs to market, though the repetition was imposing on the
boys a sort of sense of fate and obedience, and there was less active
resistance, though learning it was not, only letting teaching be
thrown at them. All the rest of the day, except those two hours,
they ran wild about the house, garden, and beach--the latter place
under the inspection of Coombe, whom, since the "Jolly Mariner"
proposal, Rachel did not in the least trust; all the less when she
heard that Major Keith, whose soldier-servant he had originally been,
thought very highly of him. A call at Myrtlewood was formidable from
the bear-garden sounds, and delicate as Lady Temple was considered to
be, unable to walk or bear fatigue, she never appeared to be
incommoded by the uproar in which she lived, and had even been seen
careering about the nursery, or running about the garden, in a way
that Grace and Rachel thought would tire a strong woman. As to a
tete-a-tete with her, it was never secured by anything short of
Rachel's strong will, for the children were always with her, and she
went to bed, or at any rate to her own room, when they did, and she
was so perfectly able to play and laugh with them that her cousins
scarcely thought her sufficiently depressed, and comparing her with
what their own mother had been after ten months' widowhood, agreed
that after all "she had been very young, and Sir Stephen very old,
and perhaps too much must not be expected of her."
"The grand passion of her life is yet to come," said Rachel.
"I hope not," said Grace.
"You may be certain of that," said Rachel. "Feminine women always
have it one time or other in their lives; only superior ones are
exempt. But I hope I may have influence enough to carry her past it,
and prevent her taking any step that might be injurious to the
children."
CHAPTER II
RACHEL'S DISCIPLINE
"Thought is free, as sages tells us--
Free to rove, and free to soar;
But affection lives in bondage,
That enthrals her more and more."
JEAN INGELOW.
An old friend lived in the neighbourhood who remembered Fanny's
father, and was very anxious to see her again, though not able to
leave the house. So the first day that it was fine enough for Mrs.
Curtis to venture out, she undertook to convey Fanny to call upon
her, and was off with a wonderfully moderate allowance of children,
only the two youngest boys outside with their maid. This drive
brought more to light about Fanny's past way of life and feelings
than had ever yet appeared. Rachel had never elicited nearly so much
as seemed to have come forth spontaneously to the aunt, who had never
in old times been Fanny's confidante.
Fanny's life had been almost a prolonged childhood. From the moment
of her marriage with the kind old General, he and her mother had
conspired to make much of her; all the more that she was almost
constantly disabled by her state of health, and was kept additionally
languid and helpless by the effects of climate. Her mother had
managed her household, and she had absolutely had no care, no duty at
all but to be affectionate and grateful, and to be pretty and
gracious at the dinner parties. Even in her mother's short and
sudden illness, the one thought of both the patient and the General
had been to spare Fanny, and she had been scarcely made aware of the
danger, and not allowed to witness the suffering. The chivalrous old
man who had taken on himself the charge of her, still regarded the
young mother of his children as almost as much of a baby herself, and
devoted himself all the more to sparing her trouble, and preventing
her from feeling more thrown upon her by her mother's death. The
notion of training her to act alone never even occurred to him, and
when he was thrown from his horse, and carried into a wayside-hut to
die, his first orders were that no hurried message might be sent to
her, lest she might be startled and injured by the attempt to come to
him. All he could do for her was to leave her in the charge of his
military secretary, who had long been as a son to him. Fanny told
her aunt with loving detail all that she had heard from Major Keith
of the brave old man's calm and resigned end--too full of trust even
to be distressed with alarms for the helpless young wife and
children, but committing them in full reliance to the care of their
Father in heaven, and to the present kindness of the friend who stood
by his pillow.
The will, which not only Rachel but her mother thought strangely
unguarded, had been drawn up in haste, because Sir Stephen's family
had outgrown the provisions of a former one, which had besides
designated her mother, and a friend since dead, as guardians. Haste,
and the conscious want of legal knowledge, had led to its being made
as simple as possible, and as it was, Sir Stephen had scarcely had
the power to sign it.
It was Major Keith who had borne the tidings to the poor little
widow, and had taken the sole care of the boys during the sad weeks
of care utter prostration and illness. Female friends were with her,
and tended her affectionately, but if exertion or thought were
required of her, the Major had to be called to her sofa to awaken her
faculties, and she always awoke to attend to his wishes, as though he
were the channel of her husband's. This state of things ended with
the birth of the little girl, the daughter that Sir Stephen had so
much wished for, coming too late to be welcomed by him, but awakening
her mother to tearful joy and renewed powers of life. The nine
months of little Stephana's life had been a tone of continual change
and variety, of new interests and occupations, and of the resumption
of a feeling of health which had scarcely been tasted since the first
plunge into warm climates. Perhaps it was unreasonable to expect to
find Fanny broken down; and she talked in her own simple way with
abundant overflowing affection of her husband; but even Mrs. Curtis
thought it was to her more like the loss of her own father than of
the father of her children; and though not in the least afraid of
anything unbecoming in her gentle, retiring Fanny, still felt that it
was more the charge of a girl than of a widow, dreaded the boys,
dreaded their fate, and dreaded the Major more.
During this drive, Grace and Rachel had the care of the elder boys,
whom Rachel thought safer in her keeping than in Coombe's. A walk
along the cliffs was one resource for their amusement, but it
resulted in Conrade's climbing into the most break-neck places, by
preference selecting those that Rachel called him out of, and as all
the others thought it necessary to go after him, the jeopardy of
Leoline and Hubert became greater than it was possible to permit; so
Grace took them by the hands, and lured them home with promises of an
introduction to certain white rabbits at the lodge. After their
departure, their brothers became infinitely more obstreperous.
Whether it were that Conrade had some slight amount of consideration
for the limbs of his lesser followers, or whether the fact were--what
Rachel did not remotely imagine--that he was less utterly
unmanageable with her sister than with herself, certain it is that
the brothers went into still more intolerable places, and treated
their guardian as ducklings treat an old hen. At last they quite
disappeared from the view round a projecting point of rock, and when
she turned it, she found a battle royal going on over an old lobster-
pot--Conrade hand to hand with a stout fisher-boy, and Francis and
sundry amphibious creatures of both sexes exchanging a hail of
stones, water-smoothed brick-bats, cockle-shells, fishes' backbones,
and other unsavoury missiles. Abstractedly, Rachel had her theory
that young gentlemen had better scramble their way among their poor
neighbours, and become used to all ranks; but when it came to
witnessing an actual skirmish when she was responsible for Fanny's
sons, it was needful to interfere, and in equal dismay and
indignation she came round the point. The light artillery fled at
her aspect, and she had to catch Francis's arm in the act of
discharging after them a cuttlefish's white spine, with a sharp "For
shame, they are running away! Conrade, Zack, have done!" Zack was
one of her own scholars, and held her in respect.
He desisted at once, and with a touch of his rough forelock, looked
sheepish, and said, "Please ma'am, he was meddling with our lobster-
pot."
"I wasn't doing any harm," said Conrade. "I was just looking in, and
they all came and shied stones at us."
"I don't care how the quarrel began," said Rachel. "You would not
have run into it if you had been behaving properly. Zack was quite
right to protect his father's property, but he might have been more
civil. Now shake hands, and have done with it."
"Not shake hands with a low boy," growled Francis. But happily
Conrade was of a freer spirit, and in spite of Rachel's interference,
had sense enough to know himself in the wrong. He held out his hand,
and when the ceremony had been gone through, put his hands in his
pockets, produced a shilling, and said, "There, that's in case I did
the thing any harm." Rachel would have preferred Zachary's being
above its acceptance, but he was not, and she was thankful that a
wood path offend itself, leading through the Homestead plantations
away from the temptations and perils of the shore.
That the two boys, instead of listening to her remonstrance, took to
punching and kicking one another, was a mitigated form of evil for
which she willingly compounded, having gone through so much useless
interference already, that she felt as if she had no spirit left to
keep the peace, and that they must settle their little affairs
between themselves. It was the most innocent diversion in which she
could hope to see them indulge. She only desired that it might last
them past a thrush's nest, in the hedge between the park and
plantation, a somewhat treasured discovery of Grace's. No such good
luck. Either the thrush's imprudence or Grace's visits had made the
nest dangerously visible, and it was proclaimed with a shout.
Rachel, in hot haste, warned them against taking birds'-nests in
general, and that in particular.
"Nests are made to be taken," said Francis.
"I've got an egg of all the Australian birds the Major could get me,"
said Conrade, "and I mean to have all the English ones."
"Oh, one egg; there's no harm in taking that; but this nest has young
birds."
The young birds must of course be seen, and Rachel stood by with
despairing frowns, commands, and assurances of their mother's
displeasure, while they peeped in, tantalized the gaping yellow
throats, by holding up their fingers, and laid hands on the side of
the nest, peeping at her with laughing, mischievous eyes, enjoying
her distress. She was glad at last to find them coming away without
the nest, and after crossing the park, arrived at the house, tired
out, but with two hours of the boys still on her hands. They,
however, were a little tired, too; and, further, Grace had hunted out
the old bowls, much to the delight of the younger ones. This sport
lasted a good while, but at last the sisters, who had relaxed their
attention a little, perceived that Conrade and Hubert were both
missing, and on Rachel's inquiry where they were, she received from
Francis that elegant stock answer, "in their skins." However, they
came to light in process of time, the two mothers returned home, and
Mrs. Curtis and Grace had the conversation almost in their own hands.
Rachel was too much tired to do anything but read the new number of
her favourite "Traveller's Magazine," listening to her mother with
one ear, and gathering additional impressions of Sir Stephen Temple's
imprudence, and the need of their own vigilance. To make Fanny feel
that she could lean upon some one besides the military secretary,
seemed to be the great object, and she was so confiding and
affectionate with her own kin, that there were great hopes. Those
boys were an infliction, no doubt, but, thought Rachel, 'there is
always an ordeal at the beginning of one's mission. I am mastering
them by degrees, and should do so sooner if I had them in my own
hands, and no more worthy task can be done than training human beings
for their work in this world, so I must be willing to go through a
little while I bring them into order, and fit their mother for
managing them."
She spent the time before breakfast the next morning in a search
among the back numbers of the "Traveller's Magazine" for a paper upon
"Educational Laws," which she thought would be very good reading for
Fanny. Her search had been just completed when Grace returned home
from church, looking a good deal distressed. "My poor thrushes have
not escaped, Rachel," she said; "I came home that way to see how they
were going on, and the nest is torn out, one poor little fellow lying
dead below it."
"Well, that is much worse than I expected!" burst out Rachel. "I did
think that boy Conrade would at least keep his promises." And she
detailed the adventure of the previous day, whence the conclusion was
but too evident. Grace, however, said in her own sweet manner that
she believed boys could not resist a nest, and thought it mere
womanhood to intercede for such lawful game. She thought it would be
best to take no notice, it would only distress Fanny and make "the
mother" more afraid of the boys than she was already, and she doubted
the possibility of bringing it home to the puerile conscience.
"That is weak!" said Rachel. "I received the boy's word, and it is
my business to deal with the breach of promise."
So down went Rachel, and finding the boys rushing about the garden,
according to their practice, before her arrival, she summoned
Conrade, and addressed him with, " Well, Conrade, I knew that you
were violent and disobedient, but I never expected you to fail in
your honour as a gentleman."
"I'll thrash any one who says I have," hotly exclaimed Conrade.
"Then you must thrash me. You gave your word to me not to take your
Aunt Grace's thrush's nest."
"And I didn't," said Conrade, boldly.
But Rachel, used to flat denials at the village-school, was not to be
thus set aside. "I am shocked at you, Conrade," she said. "I know
your mamma will be exceedingly grieved. You must have fallen into
very sad ways to be able to utter such a bold untruth. You had
better confess at once, and then I shall have something to tell her
that will comfort he."
Conrade's dark face looked set as iron.
"Come; tell me you are sorry you took the nest, and have broken your
word, and told a falsehood."
Red colour flushed into the brown cheek, and the hands were clenched.
"There is not the smallest use in denying it. I know you took it
when you and Hubert went away together. Your Aunt Grace found it
gone this morning, and one of the poor little birds dead below.
What have you done with the others?"
Not a word.
"Then I grieve to say I must tell all to your mother."
There was a sort of smile of defiance, and he followed her. For a
moment she thought of preventing this, and preparing Fanny in
private, but recollecting that this would give him the opportunity
of preparing Hubert to support his falsehood, she let him enter with
her, and sought Lady Temple in the nursery.
"Dear Fanny, I am very sorry to bring you so much vexation. I am
afraid it will be a bitter grief to you, but it is only for Conrade's
own sake that I do it. It was a cruel thing to take a bird's-nest at
all, but worse when he knew that his Aunt Grace was particularly fond
of it; and, besides, he had promised not to touch it, and now,
saddest of all, he denies having done so."
"Oh, Conrade, Conrade!" cried Fanny, quite confounded, "You can't
have done like this!"
"So, I have not," said Conrade, coming up to her, as she held out her
hand, positively encouraging him, as Rachel thought, to persist in
the untruth.
"Listen, Fanny," said Rachel. "I do not wonder that you are
unwilling to believe anything so shocking, but I do not come without
being only too certain." And she gave the facts, to which Fanny
listened with pale cheeks and tearful eyes, then turned to the boy,
whose hand she had held all the time, and said, "Dear Con, do pray
tell me if you did it."
"I did not," said Conrade, wrenching his hand away, and putting it
behind his back.
"Where's Hubert?" asked Rachel, looking round, and much vexed when
she perceived that Hubert had been within hearing all the time,
though to be sure there was some little hope to be founded upon the
simplicity of five years old.
"Come here, Hubert dear," said his mother; "don't be frightened, only
come and tell me where you and Con went yesterday, when the others
were playing at bowls." Hubert hung his head, and looked at his
brother.
"Tell," quoth Conrade. "Never mind her, she's only a civilian."
"Where did you go, Hubert?"
"Con showed me the little birds in their nest."
"That is right, Hubert, good little boy. Did you or he touch the
nest?"
"Yes." Then, as Conrade started, and looked fiercely at him, "Yes
you did, Con, you touched the inside to see what it was made of."
"But what did you do with it?" asked Rachel.
"Left it there, up in the tree," said the little boy.
"There, Rachel!" said the mother, triumphantly.
"I don't know what you mean," said Rachel, angrily, "only that
Conrade is a worse boy than I had thought him, end has been teaching
his little brother falsehood."
The angry voice set Hubert crying, and little Cyril, who was very
soft-hearted, joined in chorus, followed by the baby, who was
conscious of something very disagreeable going on in her nursery.
Thereupon, after the apparently most important business of comforting
Miss Temple had been gone through, the court of justice adjourned,
Rachel opening the door of Conrade's little room, and recommending
solitary imprisonment there till he should be brought to confession.
She did not at all reckon on his mother going in with him, and
shutting the door after her. It was not the popular notion of
solitary confinement, and Rachel was obliged to retire, and wait in
the drawing-room for a quarter of an hour before Fanny came down, and
then it was to say--
"Do you know, Rachel dear, I am convinced that it must be a mistake.
Conrade assures me he never touched the nest."
"So he persists in it?"
"And indeed, Rachel dear, I cannot help believing him. If it had
been Francie, now; but I never knew Conrade tell an untruth in his
life."
"You never knew, because you always believe him."
"And it is not only me, but I have often heard the Major say he could
always depend on Conrade's word."
Rachel's next endeavour was at gentle argument. "It must be dreadful
to make such a discovery, but it was far worse to let deceit go on
undetected; and if only they were firm--" At that moment she beheld
two knickerbocker boys prancing on the lawn.
"Didn't you lock the door? Has he broken out? How audacious!"
"I let him come out," said Fanny; "there was nothing to shut him up
for. I beg your pardon, dear Rachel; I am very sony for the poor
little birds and for Grace, but I am sure Conrade did not take it."
"How can you be so unreasonable, Fanny--the evidence," and Rachel
went over it all again.
"Don't you think," said Fanny, "that some boy may have got into the
park?"
"My dear Fanny, I am sorry for you, it is quite out of the question
to think so; the place is not a stone's-throw from Randall's lodge.
It will be the most fatal thing in the world to let your weakness be
imposed on in this way. Now that the case is clear, the boy must be
forced to confession, and severely punished."
Fanny burst into tears.
"I am very sorry for you, Fanny. I know it is very painful; I assure
you it is so to me. Perhaps it would be best if I were to lock him
up, and go from time to time to see if he is come to a better mind."
She rose up.
"No, no, Rachel!" absolutely screamed Fanny, starting up, "my boy
hasn't done anything wrong, and I won't have him locked up! Go away!
If anything is to be done to my boys, I'll do it myself: they haven't
got any one but me. Oh, I wish the Major would come!"
"Fanny, how can you be so foolish?--as if I would hurt your boys!"
"But you won't believe Conrade--my Conrade, that never told a
falsehood in his life!" cried the mother, with a flush in her cheeks
and a bright glance in her soft eyes. "You want me to punish him for
what he hasn't done."
"How much alike mothers are in all classes of life," thought Rachel,
and much in the way in which she would have brought Zack's mother to
reason by threats of expulsion from the shoe-club, she observed,
"Well Fanny, one thing is clear, while you are so weak as to let that
boy go on in his deceit, unrepentant and unpunished, I can have no
more to do with his education."
"Indeed," softly said Fanny, "I am afraid so, Rachel. You have taken
a great deal of trouble, but Conrade declares he will never say a
lesson to you again, and I don't quite see how to make him after
this."
"Oh, very well; then there's an end of it. I am sorry for you,
Fanny."
And away walked Rachel, and as she went towards the gate two
artificial jets d'eau, making a considerable curve in the air,
alighted, the one just before her, the other, better aimed, in the
back of her neck. She had too much dignity to charge back upon the
offenders, but she went home full of the story of Fanny's lamentable
weakness, and prognostications of the misery she was entailing on
herself. Her mother and sister were both much concerned, and thought
Fanny extremely foolish; Mrs. Curtis consoling herself with the hope
that the boys would be cured and tamed at school, and begging that
they might never be let loose in the park again. Rachel could not
dwell much longer on the matter, for she had to ride to Upper Avon
Park to hold council on the books to be ordered for the book-club;
for if she did got go herself, whatever she wanted especially was
always set aside as too something or other for the rest of the
subscribers.
Mrs. Curtis was tired, and stayed at home; and Grace spent the
afternoon in investigations about the harrying of the thrushes, but,
alas! without coming a bit nearer the truth. Nothing was seen or
heard of Lady Temple till, at half-past nine, one of the midges, or
diminutive flies used at Avonmonth, came to the door, and Fanny came
into the drawing-room--wan, tearful, agitated.
"Dear Rachel, I am so afraid I was hasty, I could not sleep without
coming to tell you how sorry I am."
"Then you.are convinced? I knew you would be."
"Oh, yes, I have just been sitting by him after he was gone to bed.
He never goes to sleep till I have done that, and he always tells me
if anything is on his mind. I could not ask him again, it would have
been insulting him; but he went over it all of himself, and owned he
ought not to have put a finger on the edge of the nest, but he wanted
so to see what it was lined with; otherwise he never touched it. He
says, poor boy, that it was only your being a civilian that made you
not able to believe him, I am sure you must believe him now."
Mrs. Curtis began, in her gentle way, about the difficulty of
believing one's children in fault, but Lady Temple was entirely past
accepting the possibility of Conrade's being to blame in this
particular instance. It made her bristle up again, so that even
Rachel saw the impossibility of pressing it, and trusted to some
signal confutation to cure her of her infatuation. But she was as
affectionate as ever, only wanting to be forgiven for the morning's
warmth, and to assure dear Aunt Curtis, dear Grace, and dearest
Rachel in particular, that there was no doing without them, and it
was the greatest blessing to be near them.
"Oh! and the squirting, dear Rachel! I was so sorry when I found it
out, it was only Francie and Leo. I was very angry with them for it,
and I should like to make them ask pardon, only I don't think Francie
would. I'm afraid they are very rude boys. I must write to the
Major to find me a governess that won't be very strict with them, and
if she could be an officer's daughter, the boys would respect her so
much more."
CHAPTER III
MACKAREL LANE
"For I would lonely stand
Uplifting my white hand,
On a mission, on a mission,
To declare the coming vision."
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
"Well, Grace, all things considered, perhaps I had better walk down
with you to Mackarel Lane, and then I can form a judgment on these
Williamses without committing Fanny."
"Then you do not intend to go on teaching?"
"Not while Conrade continues to brave me, and is backed up by poor
Fanny."
"I might speak to Miss Williams after church, and bring her in to
Myrtlewood for Fanny to see."
"Yes, that might do in time; but I shall make up my mind first. Poor
Fanny is so easily led that we must take care what influences fall in
her way."
"I always wished you would call."
"Yes, and I would not by way of patronage to please Mr. Touchett, but
this is for a purpose; and I hope we shall find both sisters at
home."
Mackarel Lane was at right angles to the shore, running up the valley
of the Avon; but it soon ceased to be fishy, and became agricultural,
owning a few cottages of very humble gentility, which were wont to
hang out boards to attract lodgers of small means. At one of these
Grace rang, and obtained admittance to a parlour with crazy French
windows opening on a little strip of garden. In a large wheeled
chair, between the fire and the window, surrounded by numerous little
appliances for comfort and occupation, sat the invalid Miss Williams,
holding out her hand in welcome to the guests.
"A fine countenance! what one calls a fine countenance!" thought
Rachel. "Is it a delusion of insipidity as usual? The brow is good,
massive, too much for the features, but perhaps they were fuller
once; eyes bright and vigorous, hazel, the colour for thought;
complexion meant to be brilliant brunette, a pleasant glow still;
hair with threads of grey. I hope she does not affect youth; she
can't be less than one or two and thirty! Many people set up for
beauties with far less claim. What is the matter with her? It is
not the countenance of deformity--accident, I should say. Yes, it
is all favourable except the dress. What a material; what a pattern!
Did she get it second-hand from a lady's-maid? Will there be an
incongruity in her conversation to match? Let us see. Grace making
inquiries--Quite at my best--Ah! she is not one of the morbid sort,
never thinking themselves better."
"I was afraid, I had not seen you out for some time."
"No; going out is a troublesome business, and sitting in the garden
answers the same purpose."
"Of air, perhaps, but hardly of change or of view."
"Oh! I assure you there is a wonderful variety," she answered, with
an eager and brilliant smile.
"Clouds and sunsets?" asked Rachel, beginning to be interested.
"Yes, differing every day. Then I have the tamarisk and its
inhabitants. There has been a tom-tit's nest every year since we
came, and that provides us with infinite amusement. Besides the sea-
gulls are often so good as to float high enough for me to see them.
There is a wonderful charm in a circumcribed view, because one is
obliged to look well into it all."
"Yes; eyes and no eyes apply there," said Rachel.
"We found a great prize, too, the other day. Rosie!"
At the call a brown-haired, brown-eyed child of seven, looking like
a little fawn, sprang to the window from the outside.
"My dear, will you show the sphynx to Miss Curtis?"
The little girl daintily brought a box covered with net, in which
a huge apple-green caterpillar, with dashes of bright colour on his
sides, and a horny spike on his tail, was feasting upon tamarisk
leaves. Grace asked if she was going to keep it. "Yes, till it
buries itself," said the child. "Aunt Ermine thinks it is the
elephant sphynx."
"I cannot be sure," said the aunt, "my sister tried to find a figure
of it at Villars', but he had no book that gave the caterpillars.
Do you care for those creatures?"
"I like to watch them," said Grace, "but I know nothing about them
scientifically; Rachel does that."
"Then can you help us to the history of our sphynx?" asked Miss
Williams, with her pleasant look.
"I will see if I have his portrait," said Rachel, "but I doubt it.
I prefer general principles to details."
"Don't you find working out details the best way of entering into
general principles?"
It was new to Rachel to find the mention of a general principle
received neither with a stare nor a laugh; and she gathered herself
up to answer, "Naming and collecting is not science."
"And masonry is not architecture, but you can't have architecture
without it."
"One can have broad ideas without all the petty work of flower
botanists and butterfly naturalists."
"Don't you think the broad ideas would be rather of the hearsay
order, at least to most people, unless their application were worked
out in the trifle that came first to hand?"
"Experimental philosophy," said Rachel, in rather a considering tone,
as if the notion, when presented to her in plain English, required
translation into the language of her thoughts.
"If you like to call it so," said Miss Williams, with a look of arch
fun. "For instance, the great art of mud pie taught us the porous
nature of clay, the expansive power of steam, etc. etc."
"You had some one to improve it to you?"
"Oh dear no. Only afterwards, when we read of such things we
remembered how our clay manufactures always burst in the baking
unless they were well dried first."
"Then you had the rare power of elucidating a principle?"
"No, not I. My brother had; but I could only perceive the
confirmation."
"This reminds me of an interesting article on the Edgeworth system of
education in the 'Traveller's Review.' I will send it down to you."
"Thank you, but I have it here."
"Indeed; and do you not think it excellent, and quite agree with it?"
"Yes, I quite agree with it," and there was an odd look in her bright
transparent eyes that made Grace speculate whether she could have
heard that agreement with the Invalid in the "Traveller's Review" was
one of the primary articles of faith acquired by Rachel.
But Grace, though rather proud of Rachel's falling under the spell of
Miss Williams' conversation, deemed an examination rather hard on
her, and took the opportunity of asking for her sister.
"She is generally at home by this time; but this is her last day at
Cliff Cottages, and she was to stay late to help in the packing up."
"Will she be at home for the present?" asked Grace.
"Yes, Rose and I are looking forward to a festival of her."
Grace was not at all surprised to hear Rachel at once commit herself
with "My cousin, Lady Temple," and rush into the matter in hand as if
secure that the other Miss Williams would educate on the principles
of the Invalid; but full in the midst there was a sound of wheels and
a ring at the bell. Miss Williams quietly signed to her little
attendant to put a chair in an accessible place, and in walked Lady
Temple, Mrs. Curtis, and the middle brace of boys.
"The room will be too full," was Grace's aside to her sister, chiefly
thinking of her mother, but also of their hostess; but Rachel
returned for answer, "I must see about it;" and Grace could only
remove herself into the verandah, and try to attract Leoline and
Hubert after her, but failing in this, she talked to the far more
conversible Rose about the bullfinch that hung at the window, which
loved no one but Aunt Ermine, and scolded and pecked at every one
else; and Augustus, the beloved tame toad, that lived in a hole under
a tree in the garden. Mrs. Curtis, considerate and tender-hearted,
startled to find her daughter in the field, and wishing her niece to
begin about her own affairs, talked common-place by way of filling up
the time, and Rachel had her eyes free for a range of the apartment.
The foundation was the dull, third-rate lodging-house, the
superstructure told of other scenes. One end of the room was almost
filled by the frameless portrait of a dignified clergyman, who would
have had far more justice done to him by greater distance; a
beautifully-painted miniature of a lady with short waist and small
crisp curls, was the centre of a system of photographs over the
mantel-piece; a large crayon sketch showed three sisters between the
ages of six and sixteen, sentimentalizing over a flower-basket; a
pair of water-colour drawings represented a handsome church and
comfortable parsonage; and the domestic gallery was completed by two
prints--one of a middle-aged county-member, the other one of Chalon's
ladylike matrons in watered-silk aprons. With some difficulty Rachel
read on the one the autograph, J. T. Beauchamp, and on the other the
inscription, the Lady Alison Beauchamp. The table-cover was of
tasteful silk patchwork, the vase in the centre was of red
earthenware, but was encircled with real ivy leaves gummed on in
their freshness, and was filled with wild flowers; books filled every
corner; and Rachel felt herself out of the much-loathed region of
common-place, but she could not recover from her surprise at the
audacity of such an independent measure on the part of her cousin;
and under cover of her mother's civil talk, said to Fanny, "I never
expected to see you here."
"My aunt thought of it," said Fanny, "and as she seems to find the
children too much--"
She broke off, for Mrs. Curtis had paused to let her introduce the
subject, but poor Fanny had never taken the initiative, and Rachel
did it for her by explaining that all had come on the same errand, to
ask if Miss Williams would undertake the lessons of her nephews; Lady
Temple softly murmured under her veil something about hopes and too
much trouble; an appointment was made for the following morning, and
Mrs. Curtis, with a general sensation of an oppressive multitude in a
small room, took her leave, and the company departed, Fanny, all the
way home, hoping that the other Miss Williams would be like her
sister, pitying the cripple, wishing that the sisters were in the
remotest degree military, so as to obtain the respect of the hoys,
and wondering what would be the Major's opinion.
"So many ladies!" exclaimed little Rose. "Aunt Ermine, have they
made your head ache?"
"No, my dear, thank you, I am only tired. If you will pull out the
rest for my feet, I will be quiet a little, and be ready for tea when
Aunt Ailie comes."
The child handily converted the chair into a couch, arranging the
dress and coverings with the familiarity of long use, and by no means
shocked by the contraction and helplessness of the lower limbs, to
which she had been so much accustomed all her life that it never even
occurred to her to pity Aunt Ermine, who never treated herself as an
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