diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:29:34 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:29:34 -0700 |
| commit | 54ebc44565949aadb38af029cff61bf028021e83 (patch) | |
| tree | 40eab4486816c2f1dde39acd4454e45dd79a168b | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-0.txt | 11052 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 242112 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1753971 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/7378-h.htm | 11958 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/coverb.jpg | bin | 0 -> 263265 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/covers.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39912 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/fpb.jpg | bin | 0 -> 253604 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/fps.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39658 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/p154b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 251610 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/p154s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39699 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/p346b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 245038 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/p346s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39235 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/p64b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 80642 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/p64s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39714 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/tpb.jpg | bin | 0 -> 192180 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7378-h/images/tps.jpg | bin | 0 -> 33543 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/chhs10.txt | 11474 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/chhs10.zip | bin | 0 -> 238229 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/chhs10h.htm | 9758 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/chhs10h.zip | bin | 0 -> 242107 bytes |
23 files changed, 44258 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7378-0.txt b/7378-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34b02b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11052 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge, +Illustrated by W. J. Hennessy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Chantry House + + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + + + +Release Date: November 14, 2014 [eBook #7378] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANTRY HOUSE*** + + +Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + [Picture: What I do remember, is my mother reading to me as I lay in my + crib. p. 3] + + + + + + CHANTRY HOUSE + + + BY + CHARLOTTE M. YONGE + + AUTHOR OF ‘THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE,’ ‘UNKNOWN TO HISTORY,’ ETC. + + [Picture: A feeble water-coloured drawing of the trio. p. 2] + + ILLUSTRATED BY W. J. HENNESSY + + * * * * * + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 1905 + + _All rights reserved_ + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER I. + PAGE +A NURSERY PROSE 1 + CHAPTER II. +SCHOOLROOM DAYS 11 + CHAPTER III. +WIN AND SLOW 17 + CHAPTER IV. +UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI 25 + CHAPTER V. +A HELPING HAND 34 + CHAPTER VI. +THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION 43 + CHAPTER VII. +THE INHERITANCE 50 + CHAPTER VIII. +THE OLD HOUSE 59 + CHAPTER IX. +RATS 67 + CHAPTER X. +OUR TUNEFUL CHOIR 73 + CHAPTER XI. +‘THEY FORDYS’ 82 + CHAPTER XII. +MRS. SOPHIA’S FEUD 89 + CHAPTER XIII. +A SCRAPE 96 + CHAPTER XIV. +THE MULLION CHAMBER 107 + CHAPTER XV. +RATIONAL THEORIES 117 + CHAPTER XVI. +CAT LANGUAGE 126 + CHAPTER XVII. +THE SIEGE OF HILLSIDE 136 + CHAPTER XVIII. +THE PORTRAIT 149 + CHAPTER XIX. +THE WHITE FEATHER 159 + CHAPTER XX. +VENI, VIDI, VICI 171 + CHAPTER XXI. +THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURTSHIP 179 + CHAPTER XXII. +BRISTOL DIAMONDS 186 + CHAPTER XXIII. +QUICKSANDS 198 + CHAPTER XXIV. +AFTER THE TEMPEST 208 + CHAPTER XXV. +HOLIDAY-MAKING 217 + CHAPTER XXVI. +C. MORBUS, ESQ. 229 + CHAPTER XXVII. +PETER’S THUNDERBOLT 236 + CHAPTER XXVIII. +A SQUIRE OF DAMES 245 + CHAPTER XXIX. +LOVE AND OBEDIENCE 251 + CHAPTER XXX. +UNA OR DUESSA 260 + CHAPTER XXXI. +FACILIS DESCENSUS 269 + CHAPTER XXXII. +WALY, WALY 278 + CHAPTER XXXIII. +THE RIVER’S BANK 284 + CHAPTER XXXIV. +NOT IN VAIN 293 + CHAPTER XXXV. +GRIFF’S BIRD 299 + CHAPTER XXXVI. +SLACK WATER 307 + CHAPTER XXXVII. +OUTWARD BOUND 316 + CHAPTER XXXVIII. +TOO LATE 328 + CHAPTER XXXIX. +A PURPOSE 337 + CHAPTER XL. +THE MIDNIGHT CHASE 344 + CHAPTER XLI. +WILLS OLD AND NEW 350 + CHAPTER XLII. +ON A SPREE 357 + CHAPTER XLIII. +THE PRICE 364 + CHAPTER XLIV. +PAYING THE COST 371 + CHAPTER XLV. +ACHIEVED 378 + CHAPTER XLVI. +RESTITUTION 385 + CHAPTER XLVII. +THE FORDYCE STORY 392 + CHAPTER XLVIII. +THE LAST DISCOVERY 399 + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +‘What I do remember, is my mother reading to me as _Frontispiece_. +I lay in my crib’ +A feeble water-coloured drawing of the trio _Vignette_. +‘That is poor Margaret who married your ancestor’ _Page_ 154 +Lady Margaret’s ghost 346 + + + + +CHAPTER I. +A NURSERY PROSE. + + + ‘And if it be the heart of man + Which our existence measures, + Far longer is our childhood’s span + Than that of manly pleasures. + + ‘For long each month and year is then, + Their thoughts and days extending, + But months and years pass swift with men + To time’s last goal descending.’ + + ISAAC WILLIAMS. + +THE united force of the younger generation has been brought upon me to +record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances connected +with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers. Once this could not +have been done without more pain than I could brook, but the lapse of +time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when the heart has ceased +from aching and yearning, makes the memory of what once filled it a +treasure to be brought forward with joy and thankfulness. Nor would it +be well that some of those mentioned in the coming narrative should be +wholly forgotten, and their place know them no more. + +To explain all, I must go back to a time long before the morning when my +father astonished us all by exclaiming, ‘Poor old James Winslow! So +Chantry House is came to us after all!’ Previous to that event I do not +think we were aware of the existence of that place, far less of its being +a possible inheritance, for my parents would never have permitted +themselves or their family to be unsettled by the notion of doubtful +contingencies. + +My father, John Edward Winslow, was a barrister, and held an appointment +in the Admiralty Office, which employed him for many hours of the day at +Somerset House. My mother, whose maiden name was Mary Griffith, belonged +to a naval family. Her father had been lost in a West Indian hurricane +at sea, and her uncle, Admiral Sir John Griffith, was the hero of the +family, having been at Trafalgar and distinguished himself in cutting out +expeditions. My eldest brother bore his name. The second was named +after the Duke of Clarence, with whom my mother had once danced at a ball +on board ship at Portsmouth, and who had been rather fond of my uncle. +Indeed, I believe my father’s appointment had been obtained through his +interest, just about the time of Clarence’s birth. + +We three boys had come so fast upon each other’s heels in the Novembers +of 1809, 10, and 11, that any two of us used to look like twins. There +is still extant a feeble water-coloured drawing of the trio, in nankeen +frocks, and long white trowsers, with bare necks and arms, the latter +twined together, and with the free hands, Griffith holding a bat, +Clarence a trap, and I a ball. I remember the emulation we felt at +Griffith’s privilege of eldest in holding the bat. + +The sitting for that picture is the only thing I clearly remember during +those earlier days. I have no recollection of the disaster, which, at +four years old, altered my life. The catastrophe, as others have +described it, was that we three boys were riding cock-horse on the +balusters of the second floor of our house in Montagu Place, Russell +Square, when we indulged in a general _mêlée_, which resulted in all +tumbling over into the vestibule below. The others, to whom I served as +cushion, were not damaged beyond the power of yelling, and were quite +restored in half-an-hour, but I was undermost, and the consequence has +been a curved spine, dwarfed stature, an elevated shoulder, and a +shortened, nearly useless leg. + +What I do remember, is my mother reading to me Miss Edgeworth’s _Frank +and the little do Trusty_, as I lay in my crib in her bedroom. I made +one of my nieces hunt up the book for me the other day, and the story +brought back at once the little crib, or the watered blue moreen canopy +of the big four-poster to which I was sometimes lifted for a change; even +the scrawly pattern of the paper, which my weary eyes made into purple +elves perpetually pursuing crimson ones, the foremost of whom always +turned upside down; and the knobs in the Marseilles counterpane with +which my fingers used to toy. I have heard my mother tell that whenever +I was most languid and suffering I used to whine out, ‘O do read _Frank +and the little dog Trusty_,’ and never permitted a single word to be +varied, in the curious childish love of reiteration with its soothing +power. + +I am afraid that any true picture of our parents, especially of my +mother, will not do them justice in the eyes of the young people of the +present day, who are accustomed to a far more indulgent government, and +yet seem to me to know little of the loyal veneration and submission with +which we have, through life, regarded our father and mother. It would +have been reckoned disrespectful to address them by these names; they +were through life to us, in private, papa and mamma, and we never +presumed to take a liberty with them. I doubt whether the petting, +patronising equality of terms on which children now live with their +parents be equally wholesome. There was then, however, strong love and +self-sacrificing devotion; but not manifested in softness or cultivation +of sympathy. Nothing was more dreaded than spoiling, which was viewed as +idle and unjustifiable self-gratification at the expense of the objects +thereof. There were an unlucky little pair in Russell Square who were +said to be ‘spoilt children,’ and who used to be mentioned in our nursery +with bated breath as a kind of monsters or criminals. I believe our +mother laboured under a perpetual fear of spoiling Griff as the eldest, +Clarence as the beauty, me as the invalid, Emily (two years younger) as +the only girl, and Martyn as the after-thought, six years below our +sister. She was always performing little acts of conscientiousness, +little as we guessed it. + +Thus though her unremitting care saved my life, and was such that she +finally brought on herself a severe and dangerous illness, she kept me in +order all the time, never wailed over me nor weakly pitied me, never +permitted resistance to medicine nor rebellion against treatment, +enforced little courtesies, insisted on every required exertion, and +hardly ever relaxed the rule of Spartan fortitude in herself as in me. +It is to this resolution on her part, carried out consistently at +whatever present cost to us both, that I owe such powers of locomotion as +I possess, and the habits of exertion that have been even more valuable +to me. + +When at last, after many weeks, nay months, of this watchfulness, she +broke down, so that her life was for a time in danger, the lack of her +bracing and tender care made my life very trying, after I found myself +transported to the nursery, scarcely understanding why, accused of having +by my naughtiness made ray poor mamma so ill, and discovering for the +first time that I was a miserable, naughty little fretful being, and with +nobody but Clarence and the housemaid to take pity on me. + +Nurse Gooch was a masterful, trustworthy woman, and was laid under +injunctions not to indulge Master Edward. She certainly did not err in +that respect, though she attended faithfully to my material welfare; but +woe to me if I gave way to a little moaning; and what I felt still +harder, she never said ‘good boy’ if I contrived to abstain. + +I hear of carpets, curtains, and pictures in the existing nurseries. +They must be palaces compared with our great bare attic, where nothing +was allowed that could gather dust. One bit of drugget by the fireside, +where stood a round table at which the maids talked and darned stockings, +was all that hid the bare boards; the walls were as plain as those of a +workhouse, and when the London sun did shine, it glared into my eyes +through the great unshaded windows. There was a deal table for the meals +(and very plain meals they were), and two or three big presses painted +white for our clothes, and one cupboard for our toys. I must say that +Gooch was strictly just, and never permitted little Emily, nor +Griff—though he was very decidedly the favourite,—to bear off my beloved +woolly dog to be stabled in the houses of wooden bricks which the two +were continually constructing for their menagerie of maimed animals. + +Griff was deservedly the favourite with every one who was not, like our +parents, conscientiously bent on impartiality. He was so bright and +winning, he had such curly tight-rolled hair with a tinge of auburn, such +merry bold blue eyes, such glowing dimpled cheeks, such a joyous smile +all over his face, and such a ringing laugh; he was so strong, brave, and +sturdy, that he was a boy to be proud of, and a perfect king in his own +way, making every one do as he pleased. All the maids, and Peter the +footman, were his slaves, every one except nurse and mamma, and it was +only by a strong effort of principle that they resisted him; while he +dragged Clarence about as his devoted though not always happy follower. + +Alas! for Clarence! Courage was not in him. The fearless infant boy +chiefly dwells in conventional fiction, and valour seldom comes before +strength. Moreover, I have come to the opinion that though no one +thought of it at the time, his nerves must have had a terrible and +lasting shock at the accident and at the sight of my crushed and deathly +condition, which occupied every one too much for them to think of +soothing or shielding him. At any rate, fear was the misery of his life. +Darkness was his horror. He would scream till he brought in some one, +though he knew it would be only to scold or slap him. The housemaid’s +closet on the stairs was to him an abode of wolves. Mrs. Gatty’s tale of +_The Tiger in the Coal-box_ is a transcript of his feelings, except that +no one took the trouble to reassure him; something undefined and horrible +was thought to wag in the case of the eight-day clock; and he could not +bear to open the play cupboard lest ‘something’ should jump out on him. +The first time he was taken to the Zoological Gardens, the monkeys so +terrified him that a bystander insisted on Gooch’s carrying him away lest +he should go into fits, though Griffith was shouting with ecstasy, and +could hardly forgive the curtailment of his enjoyment. + +Clarence used to aver that he really did see ‘things’ in the dark, but as +he only shuddered and sobbed instead of describing them, he was punished +for ‘telling fibs,’ though the housemaid used to speak under her breath +of his being a ‘Sunday child.’ And after long penance, tied to his stool +in the corner, he would creep up to me and whisper, ‘But, Eddy, I really +did!’ + +However, it was only too well established in the nursery that Clarence’s +veracity was on a par with his courage. When taxed with any +misdemeanour, he used to look round scared and bewildered, and utter a +flat demur. One scene in particular comes before me. There were strict +laws against going into shops or buying dainties without express +permission from mamma or nurse; but one day when Clarence had by some +chance been sent out alone with the good natured housemaid, his fingers +were found sticky. + +‘Now, Master Clarence, you’ve been a naughty boy, eating of sweets,’ +exclaimed stern Justice in a mob cap and frills. + +‘No—no—’ faltered the victim; but, alas! Mrs. Gooch had only to thrust +her hand into the little pocket of his monkey suit to convict him on the +spot. + +The maid was dismissed with a month’s wages, and poor Clarence underwent +a strange punishment from my mother, who was getting about again by that +time, namely, a drop of hot sealing-wax on his tongue, to teach him +practically the doom of the false tongue. It might have done him good if +there had been sufficient encouragement to him to make him try to win a +new character, but it only added a fresh terror to his mind; and nurse +grew fond of manifesting her incredulity of his assertions by always +referring to Griff or to me, or even to little Emily. What was worse, +she used to point him out to her congeners in the Square or the Park as +‘such a false child.’ + +He was a very pretty little fellow, with a delicately rosy face, wistful +blue eyes, and soft, light, wavy hair, and perhaps Gooch was jealous of +his attracting more notice than Griffith, and thought he posed for +admiration, for she used to tell people that no one could guess what a +child he was for slyness; so that he could not bear going out with her, +and sometimes bemoaned himself to me. + +There must be a good deal of sneaking in the undeveloped nature, for in +those days I was ashamed of my preference for Clarence, the naughty one. +But there was no helping it, he was so much more gentle than Griff, and +would always give up any sport that incommoded me, instead of calling me +a stupid little ape, and becoming more boisterous after the fashion of +Griff. Moreover, he fetched and carried for me unweariedly, and would +play at spillekins, help to put up puzzles, and enact little dramas with +our wooden animals, such as Griff scorned as only fit for babies. Even +nurse allowed Clarence’s merits towards me and little Emily, but always +with the sigh: ‘If he was but as good in other respects, but them quiet +ones is always sly.’ + +Good Nurse Gooch! We all owe much to her staunch fidelity, strong +discipline, and unselfish devotion, but nature had not fitted her to deal +with a timid, sensitive child, of highly nervous temperament. Indeed, +persons of far more insight might have been perplexed by the fact that +Clarence was exemplary at church and prayers, family and +private,—whenever Griff would let him, that is to say,—and would add +private petitions of his own, sometimes of a startling nature. He never +scandalised the nursery, like Griff, by unseemly pranks on Sundays, nor +by innovations in the habits of Noah’s ark, but was as much shocked as +nurse when the lion was made to devour the elephant, or the lion and wolf +fought in an embrace fatal to their legs. Bible stories and Watt’s hymns +were more to Clarence than even to me, and he used to ask questions for +which Gooch’s theology was quite insufficient, and which brought the +invariable answers, ‘Now, Master Clarry, I never did! Little boys should +not ask such questions!’ ‘What’s the use of your pretending, sir! It’s +all falseness, that’s what it is! I hates hypercrīting!’ ‘Don’t worrit, +Master Clarence; you are a very naughty boy to say such things. I shall +put you in the corner!’ + +Even nurse was scared one night when Clarence had a frightful screaming +fit, declaring that he saw ‘her—her—all white,’ and even while being +slapped reiterated, ‘_her_, Lucy!’ + +Lucy was a kind elder girl in the Square gardens, a protector of little +timid ones. She was known to be at that time very ill with measles, and +in fact died that very night. Both my brothers sickened the next day, +and Emily and I soon followed their example, but no one had it badly +except Clarence, who had high fever, and very much delirium each night, +talking to people whom he thought he saw, so as to make nurse regret her +severity on the vision of Lucy. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +SCHOOLROOM DAYS. + + + ‘In the loom of life-cloth pleasure, + Ere our childish days be told, + With the warp and woof enwoven, + Glitters like a thread of gold.’—JEAN INGELOW. + +Looking back, I think my mother was the leading spirit in our household, +though she never for a moment suspected it. Indeed, the chess queen must +be the most active on the home board, and one of the objects of her life +was to give her husband a restful evening when he came home to the six +o’clock dinner. She also had to make both ends meet on an income which +would seem starvation at the present day; but she was strong, spirited, +and managing, and equal to all her tasks till the long attendance upon +me, and the consequent illness, forced her to spare herself—a little—a +very little. + +Previously she had been our only teacher, except that my father read a +chapter of the Bible with us every morning before breakfast, and heard +the Catechism on a Sunday. For we could all read long before young +gentlefolks nowadays can say their letters. It was well for me, since +books with a small quantity of type, and a good deal of frightful +illustration, beguiled many of my weary moments. You may see my special +favourites, bound up, on the shelf in my bedroom. Crabbe’s _Tales_, +_Frank_, _the Parent’s Assistant_, and later, Croker’s _Tales from +English History_, Lamb’s _Tales from Shakespeare_, _Tales of a +Grandfather_, and the _Rival Crusoes_ stand pre-eminent—also _Mrs. +Leicester’s School_, with the ghost story cut out. + +Fairies and ghosts were prohibited as unwholesome, and not unwisely. The +one would have been enervating to me, and the other would have been a +definite addition to Clarence’s stock of horrors. Indeed, one story had +been cut out of Crabbe’s _Tales_, and another out of an Annual presented +to Emily, but not before Griff had read the latter, and the version he +related to us probably lost nothing in the telling; indeed, to this day I +recollect the man, wont to slay the harmless cricket on the hearth, and +in a storm at sea pursued by a gigantic cockroach and thrown overboard. +The night after hearing this choice legend Clarence was found crouching +beside me in bed for fear of the cockroach. I am afraid the vengeance +was more than proportioned to the offence! + +Even during my illness that brave mother struggled to teach my brothers’ +daily lessons, and my father heard them a short bit of Latin grammar at +his breakfast (five was thought in those days to be the fit age to begin +it, and fathers the fit teachers thereof). And he continued to give this +morning lesson when, on our return from airing at Ramsgate after our +recovery from the measles, my mother found she must submit to transfer us +to a daily governess. + +Old Miss Newton’s attainments could not have been great, for her answers +to my inquiries were decidedly funny, and prefaced _sotto voce_ with, +‘What a child it is!’ But she was a good kindly lady, who had the +faculty of teaching, and of forestalling rebellion; and her little thin +corkscrew curls, touched with gray, her pale eyes, prim black silk apron, +and sandalled shoes, rise before me full of happy associations of tender +kindness and patience. She was wise, too, in her own simple way. When +nurse would have forewarned her of Clarence’s failings in his own +hearing, she cut the words short by declaring that she should like never +to find out which was the naughty one. And when habit was too strong, +and he had denied the ink spot on the atlas, she persuasively wiled out a +confession not only to her but to mamma, who hailed the avowal as the +beginning of better things, and kissed instead of punishing. + +Clarence’s queries had been snubbed into reserve, and I doubt whether +Miss Newton’s theoretic theology was very much more developed than that +of Mrs. Gooch, but her practice and devotion were admirable, and she +fostered religious sentiment among us, introducing little books which +were welcome in the restricted range of Sunday reading. Indeed, Mrs. +Sherwood’s have some literary merit, and her _Fairchild Family_ indulged +in such delicious and eccentric acts of naughtiness as quite atoned for +all the religious teaching, and fascinated Griff, though he was apt to be +very impatient of certain little affectionate lectures to which Clarence +listened meekly. My father and mother were both of the old-fashioned +orthodox school, with minds formed on Jeremy Taylor, Blair, South, and +Secker, who thought it their duty to go diligently to church twice on +Sunday, communicate four times a year (their only opportunities), after +grave and serious preparation, read a sermon to their household on Sunday +evenings, and watch over their children’s religious instruction, though +in a reserved undemonstrative manner. My father always read one daily +chapter with us every morning, one Psalm at family prayers, and my mother +made us repeat a few verses of Scripture before our other studies began; +besides which there was special teaching on Sunday, and an abstinence +from amusements, such as would now be called Sabbatarian, but a walk in +the Park with papa was so much esteemed that it made the day a happy and +honoured one to those who could walk. + +There was little going into society, comparatively, for people in our +station,—solemn dinner-parties from time to time—two a year, did we give, +and then the house was turned upside down,—and now and then my father +dined out, or brought a friend home to dinner; and there were so-called +morning calls in the afternoon, but no tea-drinking. For the most part +the heads of the family dined alone at six, and afterwards my father read +aloud some book of biography or travels, while we children were expected +to employ ourselves quietly, threading beads, drawing, or putting up +puzzles, and listen or not as we chose, only not interrupt, as we sat at +the big, central, round, mahogany table. To this hour I remember +portions of Belzoni’s Researches and Franklin’s terrible American +adventures, and they bring back tones of my father’s voice. As an +authority ‘papa’ was seldom invoked, except on very serious occasions, +such as Griffith’s audacity, Clarence’s falsehood, or my obstinacy; and +then the affair was formidable, he was judicial and awful, and, though he +would graciously forgive on signs of repentance, he never was +sympathetic. He had not married young, and there were forty years or +more between him and his sons, so that he had left too far behind him the +feelings of boyhood to make himself one with us, even if he had thought +it right or dignified to do so,—yet I cannot describe the depth of the +respect and loyalty he inspired in us nor the delight we felt in a word +of commendation or a special attention from him. + +The early part of Miss Newton’s rule was unusually fertile in such +pleasures, and much might have been spared, could Clarence have been +longer under her influence; but Griff grew beyond her management, and was +taunted by ‘fellows in the Square’ into assertions of manliness, such as +kicking his heels, stealing her odd little fringed parasol, pitching his +books into the area, keeping her in misery with his antics during their +walks, and finally leading Clarence off after Punch into the Rookery of +St. Giles’s, where she could not follow, because Emily was in her charge. + +This was the crisis. She had to come home without the boys, and though +they arrived long before any of the authorities knew of their absence, +she owned with tears that she could not conscientiously be responsible +any longer for Griffith,—who not only openly defied her authority, but +had found out how little she knew, and laughed at her. I have reason to +believe also that my mother had discovered that she frequented the +preachings of Rowland Hill and Baptist Noel; and had confiscated some +unorthodox tracts presented to the servants, thus being alarmed lest she +should implant the seeds of dissent. + +Parting with her after four years under her was a real grief. Even Griff +was fond of her; when once emancipated, he used to hug her and bring her +remarkable presents, and she heartily loved her tormentor. Everybody +did. It remained a great pleasure to get her to spend an evening with us +while the elders were gone out to dinner; nor do I think she ever did us +anything but good, though I am afraid we laughed at ‘Old Newton’ as we +grew older and more conceited. We never had another governess. My +mother read and enforced diligence on Emily and me, and we had masters +for different studies; the two boys went to school; and when Martyn began +to emerge from babyhood, Emily was his teacher. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +WIN AND SLOW. + + + ‘The rude will shuffle through with ease enough: + Great schools best suit the sturdy and the rough.’ + + COWPER. + +AT school Griffith was very happy, and brilliantly successful, alike in +study and sport, though sports were not made prominent in those days, and +triumphs in them were regarded by the elders with doubtful pride, lest +they should denote a lack of attention to matters of greater importance. +All his achievements were, however, poured forth by himself and Clarence +to Emily and me, and we felt as proud of them as if they had been our +own. + +Clarence was industrious, and did not fail in his school work, but when +he came home for the holidays there was a cowed look about him, and +private revelations were made over my sofa that made my flesh creep. The +scars were still visible, caused by having been compelled to grasp the +bars of the grate bare-handed; and, what was worse, he had been suspended +outside a third story window by the wrists, held by a schoolfellow of +thirteen! + +‘But what was Griff about?’ I demanded, with hot tears of indignation. + +‘Oh, Win!—that’s what they call him, and me Slow—he said it would do me +good. But I don’t think it did, Eddy. It only makes my heart beat fit +to choke me whenever I go near the passage window.’ + +I could only utter a vain wish that I had been there and able to fight +for him, and I attacked Griff on the subject on the first opportunity. + +‘Oh!’ was his answer, ‘it is only what all fellows have to bear if +there’s no pluck in them. They tried it on upon me, you know, but I soon +showed them it would not do’—with the cock of the nose, the flash of the +eyes, the clench of the fist, that were peculiarly Griff’s own; and when +I pleaded that he might have protected Clarence, he laughed scornfully. +‘As to Slow, wretched being, a fellow can’t help bullying him. It comes +as natural as to a cat with a mouse.’ On further and reiterated +pleadings, Griff declared, first, that it was the only thing to do Slow +any good, or make a man of him; and next, that he heartily wished that +Winslow junior had been Miss Clara at once, as the fellows called him—it +was really hard on him (Griff) to have such a sneaking little coward tied +to him for a junior! + +I particularly resented the term Slow, for Clarence had lately been the +foremost of us in his studies; but the idea that learning had anything to +do with the matter was derided, and as time went on, there was vexation +and displeasure at his progress not being commensurate with his +abilities. It would have been treason to schoolboy honour to let the +elders know that though a strong, high-spirited popular boy like ‘Win’ +might venture to excel big bullying dunces, such fair game as poor ‘Slow’ +could be terrified into not only keeping below them, but into doing their +work for them. To him Cowper’s ‘Tirocinium’ had only too much sad truth. + +As to his old failing, there were no special complaints, but in those +pre-Arnoldian times no lofty code of honour was even ideal among +schoolboys, or expected of them by masters; shuffling was thought +natural, and allowances made for faults in indolent despair. + +My mother thought the Navy the proper element of boyhood, and her uncle +the Admiral promised a nomination,—a simple affair in those happy days, +involving neither examination nor competition. Griffith was, however, +one of those independent boys who take an aversion to whatever is forced +on them as their fate. He was ready and successful with his studies, a +hero among his comrades, and preferred continuing at school to what he +pronounced, on the authority of the nautical tales freely thrown in our +way, to be the life of a dog, only fit for the fool of the family; +besides, he had once been out in a boat, tasted of sea-sickness, and been +laughed at. My father was gratified, thinking his brains too good for a +midshipman, and pleased that he should wish to tread in his own steps at +Harrow and Oxford, and thus my mother could not openly regret his +degeneracy when all the rest of us were crazy over _Tom Cringle’s Log_, +and ready to envy Clarence when the offer was passed on to him, and he +appeared in the full glory of his naval uniform. Not much choice had +been offered to him. My mother would have thought it shameful and +ungrateful to have no son available, my father was glad to have the boy’s +profession fixed, and he himself was rejoiced to escape from the miseries +he knew only too well, and ready to believe that uniform and dirk would +make a man of him at once, with all his terrors left behind. Perhaps the +chief drawback was that the ladies _would_ say, ‘What a darling!’ +affording Griff endless opportunities for the good-humoured mockery by +which he concealed his own secret regrets. Did not even Selina Clarkson, +whose red cheeks, dark blue eyes, and jetty profusion of shining curls, +were our notion of perfect beauty, select the little naval cadet for her +partner at the dancing master’s ball? + +In the first voyage, a cruise in the Pacific, all went well. The good +Admiral had carefully chosen ship and captain; there were an excellent +set of officers, a good tone among the midshipmen, and Clarence, who was +only twelve years old, was constituted the pet of the cockpit. One lad +in especial, Coles by name, attracted by Clarence’s pleasant gentleness, +and impelled by the generosity that shields the weak, became his guardian +friend, and protected him from all the roughnesses in his power. If +there were a fault in that excellent Coles, it was that he made too much +of a baby of his _protégé_, and did not train him to shift for himself: +but wisdom and moderation are not characteristics of early youth. At +home we had great enjoyment of his long descriptive letters, which came +under cover to our father at the Admiralty, but were chiefly intended for +my benefit. All were proud of them, and great was my elation when I +heard papa relate some fact out of them with the preface, ‘My boy tells +me, my boy Clarence, in the _Calypso_; he writes a capital letter.’ + +How great was our ecstasy when after three years and a half we had him at +home again; handsome, vigorous, well-grown, excellently reported of, +fully justifying my mother’s assurances that the sea would make a man of +him. There was Griffith in the fifth form and a splendid cricketer, but +Clarence could stand up to him now, and Harrovian exploits were tame +beside stories of sharks and negroes, monkeys and alligators. There was +one in particular, about a whole boat’s crew sitting down on what they +thought was a fallen tree, but which suddenly swept them all over on +their faces, and turned out to be a boa-constrictor, and would have +embraced one of them if he had not had the sail of the boat coiled round +the mast, and palmed off upon him, when he gorged it contentedly, and +being found dead on the next landing, his skin was used to cover the +captain’s sea-chest. Clarence declined to repeat this tale and many +others before the elders, and was displeased with Emily for referring to +it in public. As to his terrors, he took it for granted that an officer +of H.M.S. _Calypso_, had left them behind, and in fact, he naturally +forgot and passed over what he had not been shielded from, while his +hereditary love of the sea really made those incidental to his profession +much more endurable than the bullying he had undergone at school. + +We were very happy that Christmas, and very proud of our boys. One +evening we were treated to a box at the pantomime, and even I was able to +go to it. We put our young sailor and our sister in the forefront, and +believed that every one was as much struck with them as with the +wonderful transformations of Goody-Two-Shoes under the wand of Harlequin. +Brother-like, we might tease our one girl, and call her an affected +little pussy cat, but our private opinion was that she excelled all other +damsels with her bright blue eyes and pretty curling hair, which had the +same chestnut shine as Griff’s—enough to make us correct possible vanity +by terming it red, though we were ready to fight any one else who +presumed to do so. Indeed Griff had defended its hue in single combat, +and his eye was treated for it with beefsteak by Peter in the pantry. We +were immensely, though silently, proud of her in her white embroidered +cambric frock, red sash and shoes, and coral necklace, almost an +heirloom, for it had been brought from Sicily in Nelson’s days by my +mother’s poor young father. How parents and doctors in these days would +have shuddered at her neck and arms, bare, not only in the evening, but +by day! When she was a little younger she could so shrink up from her +clothes that Griff, or little Martyn, in a mischievous mood, would put +things down her back, to reappear below her petticoats. Once it was a +dead wasp, which descended harmlessly the length of her spine! She was a +good-humoured, affectionate, dear sister, my valued companion, submitting +patiently to be eclipsed when Clarence was present, and everything to me +in his absence. Sturdy little Martyn too, was held by us to be the most +promising of small boys. He was a likeness of Clarence, only stouter, +hardier, and without the delicate, girlish, wistful look; imitating Griff +in everything, and rather a heavy handful to Emily and me when left to +our care, though we were all the more proud of his high spirit, and were +fast becoming a mutual admiration society. + +What then were our feelings when Griff, always fearless, dashed to the +rescue of a boy under whom the ice had broken in St. James’ Park, and +held him up till assistance came? Martyn, who was with him, was sent +home to fetch dry clothes and reassure my mother, which he did by dashing +upstairs, shouting, ‘Where’s mamma? Here’s Griff been into the water and +pulled out a boy, and they don’t know if he is drowned; but he looks—oh!’ + +Even after my mother had elicited that Martyn’s _he_ meant the boy, and +not Griff, she could not rest without herself going to see that our +eldest was unhurt, greet him, and bring him home. What happy tears stood +in her eyes, how my father shook hands with him, how we drank his health +after dinner, and how ungrateful I was to think Clarence deserved his +name of Slow for having stayed at home to play chess with me because my +back was aching, when he might have been winning the like honours! How +red and gruff and shy the hero looked, and how he entreated no one to say +any more about it! + +He would not even look publicly at the paragraph about it in the paper, +only vituperating it for having made him into ‘a juvenile Etonian,’ and +hoping no one from Harrow would guess whom it meant. + +I found that paragraph the other day in my mother’s desk, folded over the +case of the medal of the Royal Humane Society, which Griff affected to +despise, but which, when he was well out of the way, used to be exhibited +on high days and holidays. It seems now like the boundary mark of the +golden days of our boyhood, and unmitigated hopes for one another. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI. + + + ‘Clarence is come—false, fleeting, perjured Clarence.’ + + _King Richard III_. + +THERE was much stagnation in the Navy in those days in the reaction after +the great war; and though our family had fair interest at the Admiralty, +it was seven months before my brother went to sea again. To me they were +very happy months, with my helper of helpers, companion of companions, +who made possible to me many a little enterprise that could not be +attempted without him. My father made him share my studies, and thus +they became doubly pleasant. And oh, ye boys! who murmur at the Waverley +Novels as a dry holiday task, ye may envy us the zest and enthusiasm with +which we devoured them in their freshness. Strangely enough, the last +that we read together was the _Fair Maid of Perth_. + +Clarence and his friend Coles longed to sail together again, but Coles +was shelved; and when Clarence’s appointment came at last, it was to the +brig _Clotho_, Commander Brydone, going out in the Mediterranean Fleet, +under Sir Edward Codrington. My mother did not like brigs, and my father +did not like what he heard of the captain; but there had been jealous +murmurs about appointments being absorbed by sons of officials—he durst +not pick and choose; and the Admiral pronounced that if the lad had been +spoilt on board the _Calypso_, it was time for him to rough it—a dictum +whence there was no appeal. + +Half a year later the tidings of the victory of Navarino rang through +Europe, and were only half welcome to the conquerors; but in our +household it is connected with a terrible recollection. Though more than +half a century has rolled by, I shrink from dwelling on the shock that +fell on us when my father returned from Somerset House with such a +countenance that we thought our sailor had fallen; but my mother could +brook the fact far less than if her son had died a gallant death. The +_Clotho_ was on her way home, and Midshipman William Clarence Winslow was +to be tried by court-martial for insubordination, disobedience, and +drunkenness. My mother was like one turned to stone. She would hardly +go out of doors; she could scarcely bring herself to go to church; she +would have had my father give up his situation if there had been any +other means of livelihood. She could not talk; only when my father +sighed, ‘We should never have put him into the Navy,’ she hotly replied, + +‘How was I to suppose that a son of mine would be like that?’ + +Emily cried all day and all night. Some others would have felt it a +relief to have cried too. In more furious language than parents in those +days tolerated, Griff wrote to me his utter disbelief, and how he had +punched the heads of fellows who presumed to doubt that it was not all a +rascally, villainous plot. + +When the time came my father went down by the night mail to Portsmouth. +He could scarcely bear to face the matter; but, as he said, he could not +have it on his conscience if the boy did anything desperate for want of +some one to look after him. Besides, there might be some explanation. + +‘Explanation,’ said my mother bitterly. ‘That there always is!’ + +The ‘explanation’ was this—I have put together what came out in evidence, +what my father and the Admiral heard from commiserating officers, and +what at different times I learned from Clarence himself. Captain Brydone +was one of the rough old description of naval men, good sailors and stern +disciplinarians, but wanting in any sense of moral duties towards their +ship’s company. His lieutenant was of the same class, soured, moreover, +by tardy promotion, and prejudiced against a gentleman-like, fair-faced +lad, understood to have interest, and bearing a name that implied it. Of +the other two midshipmen, one was a dull lad of low stamp, the other a +youth of twenty, a born bully, with evil as well as tyrannical +propensities;—the crew conforming to severe discipline on board, but +otherwise wild and lawless. In such a ship a youth with good habits, +sensitive conscience, and lack of moral or physical courage, could not +but lead a life of misery, losing every day more of his self-respect and +spirit as he was driven to the evil he loathed, dreading the +consequences, temporal and eternal, with all his soul, yet without +resolution or courage to resist. + +As every one knows, the battle of Navarino came on suddenly, almost by +mistake; and though it is perhaps no excuse, the hurly-burly and horror +burst upon him at unawares. Though the English loss was comparatively +very small, the _Clotho_ was a good deal exposed, and two men were +killed—one so close to Clarence that his clothes were splashed with +blood. This entirely unnerved him; he did not even know what he did, but +he was not to be found when required to carry an order, and was +discovered hidden away below, shuddering, in his berth, and then made +some shallow excuse about misunderstanding orders. Whether this would +have been brought up against him under other circumstances, or whether it +would have been remembered that great men, including Charles V. and Henri +IV., have had their _moment de peur_, I cannot tell; but there were other +charges. I cannot give date or details. There is no record among the +papers before me; and I can only vaguely recall what could hardly be read +for the sense of agony, was never discussed, and was driven into the most +oblivious recesses of the soul fifty years ago. There was a story about +having let a boat’s crew, of which he was in charge, get drunk and +over-stay their time. One of them deserted; and apparently prevarication +ran to the bounds of perjury, if it did not overpass them. (N.B.—Seeing +seamen flogged was one of the sickening horrors that haunted Clarence in +the _Clotho_.) Also, when on shore at Malta with the young man whose +name I will not record—his evil genius—he was beguiled or bullied into a +wine-shop, and while not himself was made the cat’s-paw of some insolent +practical joke on the lieutenant; and when called to account, was so +bewildered and excited as to use unpardonable language. + +Whatever it might have been in detail, so much was proved against him +that he was dismissed his ship, and his father was recommended to +withdraw him from the service, as being disqualified by want of nerve. +Also, it was added more privately, that such vicious tendencies needed +home restraint. The big bully, his corrupter, bore witness against him, +but did not escape scot free, for one of the captains spoke to him in +scathing tones of censure. + +Whenever my mother was in trouble, she always re-arranged the furniture, +and a family crisis was always heralded by a revolution of chairs, +tables, and sofas. She could not sit still under suspense, and, during +these terrible days the entire house underwent a setting to rights. +Emily attended upon her, and I sat and dusted books. No doubt it was +much better for us than sitting still. My father’s letter came by the +morning mail, telling us of the sentence, and that he and our poor +culprit, as he said, would come home by the Portsmouth coach in the +evening. + +One room was already in order when Sir John Griffith kindly came to see +whether he could bring any comfort to a spirit which would infinitely +have preferred death to dishonour, and was, above all, shocked at the +lack of physical courage. Never had I liked our old Admiral so well as +when I heard how his chief anger was directed against the general +mismanagement, and the cruelty of blighting a poor lad’s life when not +yet seventeen. His father might have been warned to remove him without +the public scandal of a court-martial and dismissal. + +‘The guilt and shame would have been all the same to us,’ said my mother. + +‘Come, Mary, don’t be hard on the poor fellow. In quiet times like these +a poor boy can’t look over the wall where one might have stolen a horse, +ay, or a dozen horses, when there was something else to think about!’ + +‘You would not have forgiven such a thing, sir.’ + +‘It never would have happened under me, or in any decently commanded +ship!’ he thundered. ‘There wasn’t a fault to be found with him in the +_Calypso_. What possessed Winslow to let him sail with Brydone? But the +service is going,’ etc. etc., he ran on—forgetting that it was he himself +who had been unwilling, perhaps rightly, to press the Duke of Clarence +for an appointment to a crack frigate for his namesake. However, when he +took leave he repeated, as he kissed my mother, ‘Mind, Mary, don’t be set +against the lad. That’s the way to make ’em desperate, and he is a mere +boy, after all.’ + +Poor mother, it was not so much hardness as a wounded spirit that made +her look so rigid. It might have been better if the return could have +been delayed so as to make her yearn after her son, but there was nowhere +for him to go, and the coach was already on its way. How strange it was +to feel the wonted glow at Clarence’s return coupled with a frightful +sense of disgrace and depression. + +The time was far on in October, and it was thus quite dark when the +travellers arrived, having walked from Charing Cross, where the coach set +them down. My father came in first, and my mother clung to him as if he +had been absent for weeks, while all the joy of contact with my brother +swept over me, even though his hand hung limp in mine, and was icy cold +like his cheeks. My father turned to him with one of the little set +speeches of those days. ‘Here is our son, Mary, who has promised me to +do his utmost to retrieve his character, as far as may be possible, and +happily he is still young.’ + +My mother’s embrace was in a sort of mechanical obedience to her +husband’s gesture, and her voice was not perhaps meant to be so severe as +it sounded when she said, ‘You are very cold—come and warm yourself.’ + +They made room for him by the fire, and my father stood up in front of +it, giving particulars of the journey. Emily and Martyn were at tea in +the nursery, in a certain awe that hindered them from coming down; +indeed, Martyn seems to have expected to see some strange transformation +in his brother. Indeed, there was alteration in the absence of the blue +and gold, and, still more, in the loss of the lightsome, hopeful +expression from the young face. + +There is a picture of Ary Scheffer’s of an old knight, whose son had fled +from the battle, cutting the tablecloth in two between himself and the +unhappy youth. Like that stern baron’s countenance was that with which +my mother sat at the head of the dinner-table, and we conversed by jerks +about whatever we least cared for, as if we could hide our wretchedness +from Peter. When the children appeared each gave Clarence the shyest of +kisses, and they sat demurely on their chairs on either side of my father +to eat their almonds and raisins, after which we went upstairs, and there +was the usual reading. It is curious, but though none of us could have +told at the time what it was about, on turning over not long ago a copy +of Head’s _Pampas and Andes_, one chapter struck me with an intolerable +sense of melancholy, such as the bull chases of South America did not +seem adequate to produce, and by and by I remembered that it was the book +in course of being read at that unhappy period. My mother went on as +diligently as ever with some of those perpetual shirts which seemed to be +always in hand except before company, when she used to do tambour work +for Emily’s frocks. Clarence sat the whole time in a dark corner, never +stirring, except that he now and then nodded a little. He had gone +through many wakeful, and worse than wakeful, nights of wretched +suspense, and now the worst was over. + +Family prayers took place, chill good-nights were exchanged, and nobody +interfered with his helping me up to my bedroom as usual; but there was +something in his face to which I durst not speak, though perhaps I +looked, for he exclaimed, ‘Don’t, Ned!’ wrung my hand, and sped away to +his own quarters higher up. Then came a sound which made me open my door +to listen. Dear little Emily! She had burst out of her own room in her +dressing-gown, and flung herself upon her brother as he was plodding +wearily upstairs in the dark, clinging round his neck sobbing, ‘Dear, +dear Clarry! I can’t bear it! I don’t care. You’re my own dear +brother, and they are all wicked, horrid people.’ + +That was all I heard, except hushings on Clarence’s part, as if the +opening of my door and the thread of light from it warned him that there +was risk of interruption. He seemed to be dragging her up to her own +room, and I was left with a pang at her being foremost in comforting him. + +My father enacted that he should be treated as usual. But how could that +be when papa himself did not know how changed were his own ways from his +kindly paternal air of confidence? All trust had been undermined, so +that Clarence could not cross the threshold without being required to +state his object, and, if he overstayed the time calculated, he was +cross-examined, and his replies received with a sigh of doubt. + +He hung about the house, not caring to do much, except taking me out in +my Bath chair or languidly reading the most exciting books he could +get;—but there was no great stock of sensation then, except the Byronic, +and from time to time one of my parents would exclaim, ‘Clarence, I +wonder you can find nothing more profitable to occupy yourself with than +trash like that!’ + +He would lay down the book without a word, and take up Smith’s _Wealth of +Nations_ or Smollett’s _England_—the profitable studies recommended, and +speedily become lost in a dejected reverie, with fixed eyes and drooping +lips. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +A HELPING HAND. + + + ‘Though hawks can prey through storms and winds, + The poor bee in her hive must dwell.’—HENRY VAUGHAN. + +IN imagination the piteous dejection of our family seems to have lasted +for ages, but on comparison of dates it is plain that the first +lightening of the burthen came in about a fortnight’s time. + +The firm of Frith and Castleford was coming to the front in the Chinese +trade. The junior partner was an old companion of my father’s boyhood; +his London abode was near at hand, and he was a kind of semi-godfather to +both Clarence and me, having stood proxy for our nominal sponsors. He +was as good and open-hearted a man as ever lived, and had always been +very kind to us; but he was scarcely welcome when my father, finding that +he had come up alone to London to see about some repairs to his house, +while his family were still in the country, asked him to dine and +sleep—our first guest since our misfortune. + +My mother could hardly endure to receive any one, but she seemed glad to +see my father become animated and like himself while Roman Catholic +Emancipation was vehemently discussed, and the ruin of England hotly +predicted. Clarence moped about silently as usual, and tried to avoid +notice, and it was not till the next morning—after breakfast, when the +two gentlemen were in the dining-room, nearly ready to go their several +ways, and I was in the window awaiting my classical tutor—that Mr. +Castleford said, + +‘May I ask, Winslow, if you have any plans for that poor boy?’ + +‘Edward?’ said my father, almost wilfully misunderstanding. ‘His +ambition is to be curator of something in the British Museum, isn’t it?’ + +Mr. Castleford explained that he meant the other, and my father sadly +answered that he hardly knew; he supposed the only thing was to send him +to a private tutor, but where to find a fit one he did not know and +besides, what could be his aim? Sir John Griffith had said he was only +fit for the Church, ‘But one does not wish to dispose of a tarnished +article there.’ + +‘Certainly not,’ said Mr. Castleford; and then he spoke words that +rejoiced my heart, though they only made my father groan, bidding him +remember that it was not so much actual guilt as the accident of +Clarence’s being in the Navy that had given so serious a character to his +delinquencies. If he had been at school, perhaps no one would ever have +heard of them, ‘Though I don’t say,’ added the good man, casting a new +light on the subject, ‘that it would have been better for him in the +end.’ Then, quite humbly, for he knew my mother especially had a disdain +for trade, he asked what my father would think of letting him give +Clarence work in the office for the present. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘it is +not the line your family might prefer, but it is present occupation; and +I do not think you could well send a youth who has seen so much of the +world back to schooling. Besides, this would keep him under your own +eye.’ + +My father was greatly touched by the kindness, but he thought it right to +set before Mr. Castleford the very worst side of poor Clarence; declaring +that he durst not answer for a boy who had never, in spite of pains and +punishments, learnt to speak truth at home or abroad, repeating Captain +Brydone’s dreadful report, and even adding that, what was most grievous +of all, there was an affectation of piety about him that could scarcely +be anything but self-deceit and hypocrisy. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘my eldest +son, Griffith, is just a boy, makes no profession, is not—as I am afraid +you have seen—exemplary at church, when Clarence sits as meek as a mouse, +but then he is always above-board, frank and straightforward. You know +where to have a high-spirited fellow, who will tame down, but you never +know what will come next with the other. I sometimes wonder for what +error of mine Providence has seen fit to give me such a son.’ + +Just then an important message came for Mr. Winslow, and he had to hurry +away, but Mr. Castleford still remained, and presently said, + +‘Edward, I should like to know what your eyes have been trying to say all +this time.’ + +‘Oh, sir,’ I burst out, ‘do give him a chance. Indeed he never means to +do wrong. The harm is not in him. He would have been the best of us all +if he had only been let alone.’ + +Those were exactly my own foolish words, for which I could have beaten +myself afterwards; but Mr. Castleford only gave a slight grave smile, and +said, ‘You mean that your brother’s real defect is in courage, moral and +physical.’ + +‘Yes,’ I said, with a great effort at expressing myself. ‘When he is +frightened, or bullied, or browbeaten, he does not know what he is doing +or saying. He is quite different when he is his own self; only nobody +can understand.’ + +Strange that though the favoured home son and nearly sixteen years old, +it would have been impossible to utter so much to one of our parents. +Indeed the last sentence felt so disloyal that the colour burnt in my +cheeks as the door opened; but it only admitted Clarence, who, having +heard the front door shut, thought the coast was clear, and came in with +a load of my books and dictionaries. + +‘Clarence,’ said Mr. Castleford, and the direct address made him start +and flush, ‘supposing your father consents, should you be willing to turn +your mind to a desk in my counting-house?’ + +He flushed deeper red, and his fingers quivered as he held by the table. +‘Thank you, sir. Anything—anything,’ he said hesitatingly. + +‘Well,’ said Mr. Castleford, with the kindest of voices, ‘let us have it +out. What is in your mind? You know, I’m a sort of godfather to you.’ + +‘Sir, if you would only let me have a berth on board one of your vessels, +and go right away.’ + +‘Aye, my poor boy, that’s what you would like best, I’ve no doubt; but +look at Edward’s face there, and think what that would come to at the +best!’ + +‘Yes, I know I have no right to choose,’ said Clarence, drooping his head +as before. + +‘’Tis not that, my dear lad,’ said the good man, ‘but that packing you +off like that, among your inferiors in breeding and everything else, +would put an end to all hope of your redeeming the past—outwardly I mean, +of course—and lodge you in a position of inequality to your brothers and +sister, and all—’ + +‘That’s done already,’ said Clarence. + +‘If you were a man grown it might be so,’ returned Mr. Castleford, ‘but +bless me, how old are you?’ + +‘Seventeen next 1st of November,’ said Clarence. + +‘Not a bit too old for a fresh beginning,’ said Mr. Castleford cheerily. +‘God helping you, you will be a brave and good man yet, my boy—’ then as +my master rang at the door—‘Come with me and look at the old shop.’ + +Poor Clarence muttered something unintelligible, and I had to own for him +that he never went out without accounting for himself. Whereupon our +friend caused my mother to be hunted up, and explained to her that he +wanted to take Clarence out with him—making some excuse about something +they were to see together. + +That walk enabled him to say something which came nearer to cheering +Clarence than anything that had passed since that sad return, and made +him think that to be connected with Mr. Castleford was the best thing +that could befall him. Mr. Castleford on his side told my father that he +was sure that the boy was good-hearted all the time, and thoroughly +repentant; but this had the less effect because plausibility, as my +father called it, was one of the qualities that specially annoyed him in +Clarence, and made him fear that his friend might be taken in. However, +the matter was discussed between the elders, and it was determined that +this most friendly offer should be accepted experimentally. It was +impressed on Clarence, with unnecessary care, that the line of life was +inferior; but that it was his only chance of regaining anything like a +position, and that everything depended on his industry and integrity. + +‘Integrity!’ commented Clarence, with a burning spot on his cheek after +one of these lectures; ‘I believe they think me capable of robbing the +office!’ + +We found out, too, that the senior partner, Mr. Frith, a very crusty old +bachelor, did not like the appointment, and that it was made quite +against his will. ‘You’ll be getting your clerks next from Newgate!’ was +what some amiable friend reported him to have said. However, Mr. +Castleford had his way, and Clarence was to begin his work with the New +Year, being in the meantime cautioned and lectured on the crime and +danger of his evil propensities more than he could well bear. ‘Oh!’ he +groaned, ‘it serves me right, I know that very well, but if my father +only knew how I hate and abhor all those things—and how I loathed them at +the very time I was dragged into them!’ + +‘Why don’t you tell him so?’ I asked. + +‘That would make it no better.’ + +‘It is not so bad as if you had gone into it willingly, and for your own +pleasure.’ + +‘He would only think that another lie.’ + +No more could be said, for the idea of Clarence’s untruthfulness and +depravity had become so deeply rooted in our father’s mind that there was +little hope of displacing it, and even at the best his manner was full of +grave constrained pity. Those few words were Clarence’s first approach +to confidence with me, but they led to more, and he knew there was one +person who did not believe the defect was in the bent of his will so much +as in its strength. + +All the time the prospect of the counting-house in comparison with the +sea was so distasteful to him that I was anxious whenever he went out +alone, or even with Griffith, who despised the notion of, as he said, +sitting on a high stool, dealing in tea, so much that he was quite +capable of aiding and abetting in an escape from it. Two considerations, +however, held Clarence back; one, the timidity of nature which shrank +from so violent a step, and the other, the strong affections that bound +him to his home, though his sojourn there was so painful. He knew the +misery his flight would have been to me; indeed I took care to let him +see it. + +And Griffith’s return was like a fresh spring wind dispersing vapours. +He had gained an excellent scholarship at Brazenose, and came home +radiant with triumph, cheering us all up, and making a generous use of +his success. He was no letter-writer, and after learning that the +disaster and disgrace were all too certain, he ignored the whole, and +hailed Clarence on his return as if nothing had happened. As eldest son, +and almost a University man, he could argue with our parents in a manner +we never presumed on. At least I cannot aver what he actually uttered, +but probably it was a revised version of what he thundered forth to me. +‘Such nonsense! such a shame to keep the poor beggar going about with +that hang dog look, as if he had done for himself for life! Why, I’ve +known fellows do ever so much worse of their own accord, and nothing come +of it. If it was found out, there might be a row and a flogging, and +there was an end of it. As to going about mourning, and keeping the +whole house in doleful dumps, as if there was never to be any good again, +it was utter folly, and so I’ve told Bill, and papa and mamma, both of +them!’ + +How this was administered, or how they took it, there is no knowing, but +Griff would neither skate nor go to the theatre, nor to any other +diversion, without his brother; and used much kindly force and banter to +unearth him from his dismal den in the back drawing-room. He was only +let alone when there were engagements with friends, and indeed, when +meetings in the streets took place, by tacit agreement, Clarence would +shrink off in the crowd as if not belonging to his companion; and these +were the moments that stung him into longing to flee to the river, and +lose the sense of shame among common sailors: but there was always some +good angel to hold him back from desperate measures—chiefly just then, +the love between us three brothers, a love that never cooled throughout +our lives, and which dear old Griff made much more apparent at this +critical time than in the old Win and Slow days of school. That return +of his enlivened us all, and removed the terrible constraint from our +meals, bringing us back, as it were, to ordinary life and natural +intercourse among ourselves and with our neighbours. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION. + + + ‘But when I lay upon the shore, + Like some poor wounded thing, + I deemed I should not evermore + Refit my wounded wing. + Nailed to the ground and fastened there, + This was the thought of my despair.’ + + ABP. TRENCH. + +CLARENCE’S debut at the office was not wholly unsuccessful. He wrote a +good hand, and had a good deal of method and regularity in his nature, +together with a real sense of gratitude to Mr. Castleford; and this bore +him through the weariness of his new employment, and, what was worse, the +cold reception he met with from the other clerks. He was too quiet and +reserved for the wilder spirits, too much of a gentleman for others, and +in the eyes of the managers, and especially of the senior partner, a +disgraced, untrustworthy youth foisted on the office by Mr. Castleford’s +weak partiality. That old Mr. Frith had, Clarence used to say, a +perfectly venomous way of accepting his salute, and seemed always +surprised and disappointed if he came in in time, or showed up correct +work. Indeed, the old man was disliked and feared by all his +subordinates as much as his partner was loved; and while Mr. Castleford, +with his good-natured Irish wife and merry family, lived a life as +cheerful as it was beneficent, Mr. Frith dwelt entirely alone, in rooms +over the office, preserving the habits formed when his income had been +narrow, and mistrusting everybody. + +At the end of the first month of experiment, Mr. Castleford declared +himself contented with Clarence’s industry and steadiness, and permanent +arrangements were made, to which Clarence submitted with an odd sort of +passive gratitude, such as almost angered my father, who little knew how +trying the position really was, nor how a certain home-sickness for the +seafaring life was tugging at the lad’s heart, and making each morning’s +entrance at the counting-house an effort—each merchant-captain, redolent +of the sea, an object of envy. My mother would have sympathised here, +but Clarence feared her more than my father, and she was living in +continual dread of some explosion, so that her dark curls began to show +streaks of gray, and her face to lose its round youthfulness. + +Lent brought the question of Confirmation. Under the influence of good +Bishop Blomfield, and in the wave of evangelical revival—then at its +flood height—Confirmation was becoming a more prominent subject with +religious people than it had probably ever been in our Church, and it was +recognised that some preparation was desirable beyond the power of +repeating the Church Catechism. This was all that had been required of +my father at Harrow. My mother’s godfather, a dignified clergyman, had +simply said, ‘I suppose, my dear, you know all about it;’ and as for the +Admiral, he remarked, ‘Confirmed! I never was confirmed anything but a +post-captain!’ + +Our incumbent was more attentive to his duties, or rather recognised more +duties, than his predecessor. He preached on the subject, and formed +classes, sixteen being then the limit of age,—since the idea of the vow, +having become far more prominent than that of the blessing, it was held +that full development of the will and understanding was needful. + +I was of the requisite age, and my father spoke to the clergyman, who +called, and, as I could not attend the classes, gave me books to read and +questions to answer. Clarence read and discussed the questions with me, +showing so much more insight into them, and fuller knowledge of Scripture +than I possessed, that I exclaimed, ‘Why should you not go up for +Confirmation too?’ + +‘No,’ he answered mournfully. ‘I must take no more vows if I can’t keep +them. It would just be profane.’ + +I had no more to say; indeed, my parents held the same view. It was good +Mr. Castleford who saw things differently. He was a clergyman’s son, and +had been bred up in the old orthodoxy, which was just beginning to put +forth fresh shoots, and, as a quasi-godfather, he held himself bound to +take an interest in our religious life, while the sponsors, whose names +stood in the family Bible, and whose spoons reposed in the plate-chest, +never troubled themselves on the matter. I remember Clarence leaning +over me and saying, ‘Mr. Castleford thinks I might be confirmed. He says +it is not so much the promise we make as of coming to Almighty God for +strength to keep what we are bound by already! He is going to speak to +papa.’ + +Perhaps no one except Mr. Castleford could have prevailed over the fear +of profanation in the mind of my father, who was, in his old-fashioned +way, one of the most reverent of men, and could not bear to think of holy +things being approached by one under a stigma, nor of exposing his son to +add to his guilt by taking and breaking further pledges. However, he was +struck by his friend’s arguments, and I heard him telling my mother that +when he had wished to wait till there had been time to prove sincerity of +repentance by a course of steadiness, the answer had been that it was +hard to require strength, while denying the means of grace. My mother +was scarcely convinced, but as he had consented she yielded without a +protest; and she was really glad that I should have Clarence at my side +to help me at the ceremony. The clergyman was applied to, and consented +to let Clarence attend the classes, where his knowledge, comprehension, +and behaviour were exemplary, so that a letter was written to my father +expressive of perfect satisfaction with him. ‘There,’ said my father, ‘I +knew it would be so! It is not _that_ which I want.’ + +The Confirmation seemed at the time a very short and perfunctory result +of our preparation; and, as things were conducted or misconducted then, +involved so much crowding and distress that I recollect very little but +clinging to Clarence’s arm under a strong sense of my infirmities,—the +painful attempt at kneeling, and the big outstretched lawn sleeves while +the blessing was pronounced over six heads at once, and then the struggle +back to the pew, while the silver-pokered apparitor looked grim at us, as +though the maimed and halt had no business to get into the way. Yet this +was a great advance upon former Confirmations, and the Bishop met my +father afterwards, and inquired most kindly after his lame son. + +We were disappointed, and felt that we could not attain to the feelings +in the Confirmation poem in the _Christian Year_—Mr. Castleford’s gift to +me. Still, I believe that, though encumbered with such a drag as myself, +Clarence, more than I did, + + ‘Felt Him how strong, our hearts how frail, + And longed to own Him to the death.’ + +But the evangelical belief that dejection ought to be followed by a full +sense of pardon and assurance of salvation somewhat perplexed and dimmed +our Easter Communion. For one short moment, as Clarence turned to help +my father lift me up from the altar-rail, I saw his face and eyes radiant +with a wonderful rapt look; but it passed only too fast, and the more +than ordinary glimpse his spiritual nature had had made him all the more +sad afterwards, when he said, ‘I would give everything to know that there +was any steadfastness in my purpose to lead a new life.’ + +‘But you are leading a new life.’ + +‘Only because there is no one to bully me,’ he said. Still, there had +been no reproach against him all the time he had been at Frith and +Castleford’s, when suddenly we had a great shock. + +Parties were running very high, and there were scurrilous papers about, +which my father perfectly abhorred; and one day at dinner, when +declaiming against something he had seen, he laid down strict commands +that none should be brought into the house. Then, glancing at Clarence, +something possessed him to say, ‘You have not been buying any.’ + +‘No, sir,’ Clarence answered; but a few minutes later, when we were alone +together, the others having left him to help me upstairs, he exclaimed, +‘Edward, what is to be done? I didn’t buy it; but there is one of those +papers in my great-coat pocket. Pollard threw it on my desk; and there +was something in it that I thought would amuse you.’ + +‘Oh! why didn’t you say so?’ + +‘There I am again! I simply could not, with his eye on me! Miserable +being that I am! Oh, where is the spirit of ghostly strength?’ + +‘Helping you now to take it to papa in the study and explain!’ I cried; +but the struggle in that tall fellow was as if he had been seven years +old instead of seventeen, ere he put his hand over his face and gave me +his arm to come out into the hall, fetch the paper, and make his +confession. Alas! we were too late. The coat had been moved, the paper +had fallen out; and there stood my mother with it in her hand, looking at +Clarence with an awful stony face of mute grief and reproach, while he +stammered forth what he had said before, and that he was about to give it +to my father. She turned away, bitterly, contemptuously indignant and +incredulous; and my corroborations only served to give both her and my +father a certain dread of Clarence’s influence over me, as though I had +been either deceived or induced to back him in deceiving them. The +unlucky incident plunged him back into the depths, just as he had begun +to emerge. Slight as it was, it was no trifle to him, in spite of +Griffith’s exclamation, ‘How absurd! Is a fellow to be bound to give an +account of everything he looks at as if he were six years old? Catch me +letting my mother pry into my pockets! But you are too meek, Bill; you +perfectly invite them to make a row about nothing!’ + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +THE INHERITANCE. + + + ‘For he that needs five thousand pound to live + Is full as poor as he that needs but five. + But if thy son can make ten pound his measure, + Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.’ + + GEORGE HERBERT. + +IT was in the spring of 1829 that my father received a lawyer’s letter +announcing the death of James Winslow, Esquire, of Chantry House, +Earlscombe, and inviting him, as heir-at-law, to be present at the +funeral and opening of the will. The surprise to us all was great. Even +my mother had hardly heard of Chantry House itself, far less as a +possible inheritance; and she had only once seen James Winslow. He was +the last of the elder branch of the family, a third cousin, and older +than my father, who had known him in times long past. When they had last +met, the Squire of Chantry House was a married man, with more than one +child; my father a young barrister; and as one lived entirely in the +country and the other in town, without any special congeniality, no +intercourse had been kept up, and it was a surprise to hear that he had +left no surviving children. My father greatly doubted whether being +heir-at-law would prove to avail him anything, since it was likely that +so distant a relation would have made a will in favour of some nearer +connection on his wife’s or mother’s side. He was very vague about +Chantry House, only knowing that it was supposed to be a fair property, +and he would hardly consent to take Griffith with him by the Western +Royal Mail, warning him and all the rest of us that our expectations +would be disappointed. + +Nevertheless we looked out the gentlemen’s seats in _Paterson’s Road +Book_, and after much research, for Chantry House lay far off from the +main road, we came upon—‘Chantry House, Earlscombe, the seat of James +Winslow, Esquire, once a religious foundation; beautifully situated on a +rising ground, commanding an extensive prospect—’ + +‘A religious foundation!’ cried Emily. ‘It will be a dear delicious old +abbey, all Gothic architecture, with cloisters and ruins and ghosts.’ + +‘Ghosts!’ said my mother severely, ‘what has put such nonsense into your +head?’ + +Nevertheless Emily made up her mind that Chantry House would be another +Melrose, and went about repeating the moonlight scene in the _Lay of the +Last Minstrel_ whenever she thought no one was there to laugh at her. + +My father and Griffith returned with the good news that there was no +mistake. Chantry House was really his own, with the estate belonging to +it, reckoned at £5000 a year, exclusive of a handsome provision to Miss +Selby, the niece of the late Mrs. Winslow, a spinster of a certain age, +who had lived with her uncle, and now proposed to remove to Bath. Mr. +Winslow had, it appeared, lost his only son as a schoolboy, and his +daughters, like their mother, had been consumptive. He had always been +resolved that the estate should continue in the family; but reluctance to +see any one take his son’s place had withheld him from making any +advances to my father; and for several years past he had been in broken +health with failing faculties. + +Of course there was much elation. Griff described as charming the place, +perched on the southern slope of a wooded hill, with a broad fertile +valley lying spread out before it, and the woods behind affording every +promise of sport. The house, my father said, was good, odd and +irregular, built at different times, but quite habitable, and with plenty +of furniture, though he opined that mamma would think it needed +modernising, to which she replied that our present chattels would make a +great difference; whereat my father, looking at the effects of more than +twenty years of London blacks, gave a little whistle, for she was always +the economical one of the pair. + +Emily, with glowing cheeks and eager eyes, entreated to know whether it +was Gothic, and had a cloister! Papa nipped her hopes of a cloister, but +there were Gothic windows and doorway, and a bit of ruin in the garden, a +fragment of the old chapel. + +My father could not resign his office without notice, and, besides, he +wished Miss Selby to have leisure for leaving her home of many years; +after which there would be a few needful repairs. The delay was not a +great grievance to any of us except little Martyn. We were much more +Cockney than almost any one is in these days of railways. We were +unusually devoid of kindred on both sides, my father’s holidays were +short, I was not a very movable commodity, and economy forbade long +journeys, so that we had never gone farther than Ramsgate, where we +claimed a certain lodging-house as a sort of right every summer. + +Real country was as much unknown to us as the backwoods. My father alone +had been born and bred to village life and habits, for my mother had +spent her youth in a succession of seaport towns, frequented by +men-of-war. We heard, too, that Chantry House was very secluded, with +only a few cottages near at hand—a mile and a half from the church and +village of Earlscombe, three from the tiny country town of Wattlesea, +four from the place where the coach passed, connecting it with the +civilisation of Bath and Bristol, from each of which places it was about +half a day’s distance, according to the measures of those times. It was +a sort of banishment to people accustomed to the stream of life in +London; and though the consequence and importance derived from being +raised to the ranks of the Squirearchy were agreeable, they were a dear +purchase at the cost of being out of reach of all our friends and +acquaintances, as well as of other advantages. + +To my father, however, the retirement from his many years of drudgery was +really welcome, and he had preserved enough of country tastes to rejoice +that it was, as he said, a clear duty to reside on his estate and look +after his property. My mother saw his relief in the prospect, and +suppressed her sighs at the dislocation of her life-long habits, and the +loss of intercourse with the acquaintance whom separation raised to the +rank of intimate friends, even her misgivings as to butchers, bakers, and +grocers in the wilderness, and still worse, as to doctors for me. + +‘Humph!’ said the Admiral, ‘the boy will be all the better without them.’ + +And so I was; I can’t say they were the subject of much regret, but I was +really sorry to leave our big neighbour, the British Museum, where there +were good friends who always made me welcome, and encouraged me in +studies of coins and heraldry, which were great resources to me, so that +I used to spend hours there, and was by no means willing to resign my +ambition of obtaining an appointment there, when I heard my father say +that he was especially thankful for his good fortune because it enabled +him to provide for me. There were lessons, too, from masters in +languages, music, and drawing, which Emily and I shared, and which she +had just begun to value thoroughly. We had filled whole drawing-books +with wriggling twists of foliage in B B B marking pencil, and had just +been promoted to water-colours; and she was beginning to sing very +prettily. I feared, too, that I should no longer have a chance of +rivalling Griffith’s university studies. All this, with my sister’s girl +friends, and those kind people who used to drop in to play chess, and +otherwise amuse me, would all be left behind; and, sorest of all, +Clarence, who, whatever he was in the eyes of others, had grown to be my +mainstay during this last year. He it was who fetched me from the +Museum, took me into the gardens, helped me up and down stairs, spared no +pains to rout out whatever my fanciful pursuits required from shops in +the City, and, in very truth, spoilt me through all his hours that were +free from business, besides being my most perfect sympathising and +understanding companion. + +I feared, too, that he would be terribly lonesome, though of late he had +been less haunted by longings for the sea, had made some way with his +fellows, and had been commended by the managing clerk; and it was painful +to find the elders did not grieve on their own account at parting with +him. My mother told the Admiral that she thought it would be good for +Mr. Winslow’s spirits not to be continually reminded of his trouble; and +my father might be heard confiding to Mr. Castleford that the separation +might be good for both her and her son, if only the lad could be trusted. +To which that good man replied by giving him an excellent character; but +was only met by a sigh, and ‘Well, we shall see!’ + +Clarence was to be lodged with Peter, whose devotion would not extend to +following us into barbarism, where, as he told us, he understood there +was no such thing as a ‘harea,’ and master would have to kill his own +mutton. + +Peter had been tranquilly engaged to Gooch for years untold. They were +to be transformed into Mr. and Mrs. Robson, with some small appointment +about the Law Courts for him, and a lodging-house for her, where Clarence +was to abide, my mother feeling secure that neither his health, his +morals, nor his shirts could go much astray without her receiving warning +thereof. + +Meanwhile, by the help of an antiquarian friend of my father, Mr. +Stafford, who was great in county history, I hunted up in the Museum +library all I could discover about our new possession. + +The Chantry of St. Cecily at Earlscombe, in Somersetshire, had, it +appeared, been founded and endowed by Dame Isabel d’Oyley, in the year of +grace 1434, that constant prayers might be offered for the souls of her +husband and son, slain in the French wars. The poor lady’s intentions, +which to our Protestant minds appeared rather shocking than otherwise, +had been frustrated at the break up of such establishments, when the +Chantry, and the estate that maintained its clerks and bedesmen, was +granted to Sir Harry Power, from whom, through two heiresses, it had come +to the Fordyces, the last of whom, by name Margaret, had died childless, +leaving the estate to her stepson, Philip Winslow, our ancestor. + +Moreover, we learnt that a portion of the building was of ancient date, +and that there was an ‘interesting fragment’ of the old chapel in the +grounds, which our good friend promised himself the pleasure of +investigating on his first holiday. + +To add to our newly-acquired sense of consideration and of high pedigree, +the family chariot, after taking Miss Selby to Bath, came up post to +London to be touched up at the coachbuilder’s, have the escutcheon +altered so as to impale the Griffith coat instead of the Selby, and +finally to convey us to our new abode, in preparation for which all its +boxes came to be packed. + +A chariot! You young ones have as little notion of one as of a British +war-chariot armed with scythes. Yet people of a certain grade were as +sure to keep their chariot as their silver tea-pot; indeed we knew one +young couple who started in life with no other habitation, but spent +their time as nomads, in visits to their relations and friends, for +visits _were_ visits then. + +The capacities of a chariot were considerable. Within, there was a +good-sized seat for the principal occupants, and outside a dickey behind, +and a driving box before, though sometimes there was only one of these, +and that transferable. The boxes were calculated to hold family luggage +on a six months’ tour. There they lay on the spare-room floor, ready to +be packed, the first earnest of our new possessions—except perhaps the +five-pound note my father gave each of us four elder ones, on the day the +balance at the bank was made over to him. There was the imperial, a +grand roomy receptacle, which was placed on the top of the carriage, and +would not always go upstairs in small houses; the capbox, which fitted +into a curved place in front of the windows, and could not stand alone, +but had a frame to support it; two long narrow boxes with the like +infirmity of standing, which fitted in below; square ones under each +seat; and a drop box fastened on behind. There were pockets beneath each +window, and, curious relic in name and nature of the time when every +gentleman carried his weapon, there was the sword case, an excrescence +behind the back of the best seat, accessible by lifting a cushion, where +weapons used to be carried, but where in our peaceful times travellers +bestowed their luncheon and their books. + +Our chariot was black above, canary yellow below, beautifully varnished, +and with our arms blazoned on each door. It was lined with dark blue +leather and cloth, picked out with blue and yellow lace in accordance +with our liveries, and was a gorgeous spectacle. I am afraid Emily did +not share in Mistress Gilpin’s humility when + + ‘The chaise was brought, + But yet was not allowed + To drive up to the door, lest all + Should say that she was proud!’ + +It was then that Emily and I each started a diary to record the events of +our new life. Hers flourished by fits and starts; but I having perforce +more leisure than she, mine has gone on with few interruptions till the +present time, and is the backbone of this narrative, which I compile and +condense from it and other sources before destroying it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE OLD HOUSE. + + + ‘Your history whither are you spinning? + Can you do nothing but describe? + A house there is, and that’s enough!’ + + GRAY. + +How we did enjoy our journey, when the wrench from our old home was once +made. We did not even leave Clarence behind, for Mr. Castleford had +given him a holiday, so that he might not appear to be kept at a +distance, as if under a cloud, and might help me through our travels. + +My mother and I occupied the inside of the carriage, with Emily between +us at the outset; but when we were off the London stones she was often +allowed to make a third on the dickey with Clarence and Martyn, whose +ecstatic heels could be endured for the sake of the free air and the +view. Of course we posted, and where there were severe hills we indulged +in four horses. The varieties of the jackets of our post-boys, blue or +yellow, as supposed to indicate the politics of their inns, were +interesting to us, as everything was interesting then. Otherwise their +equipment was exactly alike—neat drab corduroy breeches and top-boots, +and hats usually white, and they were all boys, though the red faces and +grizzled hair of some looked as if they had faced the weather for at +least fifty years. + +It was a beautiful August, and the harvest fields were a sight perfectly +new, filling us with rapture unspeakable. At every hill which offered an +excuse, our outsiders were on their feet, thrusting in their heads and +hands to us within with exclamations of delight, and all sorts of +discoveries—really new to us three younger ones. Ears of corn, bearded +barley, graceful oats, poppies, corn-flowers, were all delicious +novelties to Emily and me, though Griff and my father laughed at our +ecstasies, and my mother occasionally objected to the wonderful +accumulation of curiosities thrust into her lap or the door pockets, and +tried to persuade Martyn that rooks’ wings, dead hedgehogs, sticks and +stones of various merits, might be found at Earlscombe, until Clarence, +by the judicious purchase of a basket at Salisbury, contrived to satisfy +all parties and safely dispose of the treasures. The objects that stand +out in my memory on that journey were Salisbury Spire, and a long hill +where the hedgebank was one mass of the exquisite rose-bay willow herb—a +perfect revelation to our city-bred eyes; but indeed, the whole route was +like one panorama to us of _L’Allegro_ and other descriptions on which we +had fed. For in those days we were much more devoted to poetry than is +the present generation, which has a good deal of false shame on that +head. + +Even dining and sleeping at an inn formed a pleasing novelty, though we +did not exactly sympathise with Martyn when he dashed in at breakfast +exulting in having witnessed the killing of a pig. As my father +observed, it was too like realising Peter’s forebodings of our return to +savage life. + +Demonstrations were not the fashion of these times, and there was a good +deal of dull discontent and disaffection in the air, so that no tokens of +welcome were prepared for us—not even a peal of bells; nor indeed should +we have heard them if they had been rung, for the church was a mile and a +half beyond the house, with a wood between cutting off the sound, except +in certain winds. We did not miss a reception, which would rather have +embarrassed us. We began to think it was time to arrive, and my father +believed we were climbing the last hill, when, just as we had passed a +remarkably pretty village and church, Griffith called out to say that we +were on our own ground. He had made his researches with the game keeper +while my father was busy with the solicitor, and could point to our +boundary wall, a little below the top of the hill on the northern side. +He informed us that the place we had passed was Hillside—Fordyce +property,—but this was Earlscombe, our own. It was a great stony bit of +pasture with a few scattered trees, but after the flat summit was past, +the southern side was all beechwood, where a gate admitted us into a +drive cut out in a slant down the otherwise steep descent, and coming out +into an open space. And there we were! + +The old house was placed on the widest part of a kind of shelf or natural +terrace, of a sort of amphitheatre shape, with wood on either hand, but +leaving an interval clear in the midst broad enough for house and +gardens, with a gentle green slope behind, and a much steeper one in +front, closed in by the beechwoods. The house stood as it were sideways, +or had been made to do so by later inhabitants. I know this is very +long-winded, but there have been such alterations that without minute +description this narrative will be unintelligible. + +The aspect was northwards so far as the lie of the ground was concerned, +but the house stood across. The main body was of the big symmetrical +Louis XIV. style—or, as it is now the fashion to call it, Queen +Anne—brick, with stone quoins, big sash-windows, and a great square hall +in the midst, with the chief rooms opening into it. The principal +entrance had been on the north, with a huge front door and a flight of +stone steps, and just space enough for a gravel coach ring before the +rapid grassy descent. Later constitutions, however, must have eschewed +that northern front door, and later nerves that narrow verge, and on the +eastern front had been added that Gothic porch of which Emily had +heard,—and a flagrantly modern Gothic porch it was, flanked by two +comical little turrets, with loopholes, from which a thread-paper or Tom +Thumb might have defended it. Otherwise it resembled a church porch, +except for the formidable points of a sham portcullis; but there was no +denying that it greatly increased the comfort of the house, with its two +sets of heavy doors, and the seats on either side. The great hall door +had been closed up, plastered over within, and rendered inoffensive. +Towards the west there was another modern addition of drawing and dining +rooms, and handsome bedchambers above, in Gothic taste, _i.e._ with +pointed arches filled up with glass over the sash-windows. The +drawing-room was very pretty, with a glass door at the end leading into +an old-fashioned greenhouse, and two French windows to the south opening +upon the lawn, which soon began to slope upwards, curving, as I said, +like an amphitheatre, and was always shady and sheltered, tilting its +flower-beds towards the house as if to display them. The dining-room +had, in like manner, one west and two north windows, the latter +commanding a grand view over the green meadow-land below, dotted with +round knolls, and rising into blue hills beyond. We became proud of +counting the villages and church towers we could see from thence. + +There was a still older portion, more ancient than the square _corps de +logis_, and built of the cream-coloured stone of the country. It was at +the south-eastern angle, where the ground began sloping so near the house +that this wing—if it may so be called—containing two good-sized rooms +nearly on a level with the upper floor, had nothing below but some open +stone vaultings, under which it was only just possible for my tall +brothers to stand upright, at the innermost end. These opened into the +cellars which, no doubt, belonged to the fifteenth-century structure. +There seemed to have once been a door and two or three steps to the +ground, which rose very close to the southern end; but this had been +walled up. The rooms had deep mullioned windows east and west, and very +handsome groined ceilings, and were entered by two steps down from the +gallery round the upper part of the hall. There was a very handsome +double staircase of polished oak, shaped like a Y, the stem of which +began just opposite the original front door—making us wonder if people +knew what draughts were in the days of Queen Anne, and remember Madame de +Maintenon’s complaint that health was sacrificed to symmetry. Not far +from this oldest portion were some broken bits of wall and stumps of +columns, remnants of the chapel, and prettily wreathed with ivy and +clematis. We rejoiced in such a pretty and distinctive ornament to our +garden, and never troubled ourselves about the desecration; and certainly +ours was one of the most delightful gardens that ever existed, what with +green turf, bright flowers, shapely shrubs, and the grand beech-trees +enclosing it with their stately white pillars, green foliage, and the +russet arcades beneath them. The stillness was wonderful to ears +accustomed to the London roar—almost a new sensation. Emily was found, +as she said, ‘listening to the silence;’ and my father declared that no +one could guess at the sense of rest that it gave him. + + [Picture: Map of the house] + +Of space within there was plenty, though so much had been sacrificed to +the hall and staircase; and this was apparently the cause of the modern +additions, as the original sitting-rooms, wainscotted and double-doored, +were rather small for family requirements. One of these, once the +dining-room, became my father’s study, where he read and wrote, saw his +tenants, and by and by acted as Justice of the Peace. The opposite one, +towards the garden, was termed the book-room. Here Martyn was to do his +lessons, and Emily and I carry on our studies, and do what she called +keeping up her accomplishments. My couch and appurtenances abode there, +and it was to be my retreat from company,—or on occasion could be made a +supplementary drawing-room, as its fittings showed it had been the +parlour. It communicated with another chamber, which became my +own—sparing the difficulties that stairs always presented; and beyond +lay, niched under the grand staircase, a tiny light closet, a +passage-room, where my mother put a bed for a man-servant, not liking to +leave me entirely alone on the ground floor. It led to a passage to the +garden door, also to my mother’s den, dedicated to housewifely cares and +stores, and ended at the back stairs, descending to the servants’ region. +This was very old, handsomely vaulted with stone, and, owing to the fall +of the ground, had ample space for light on the north side,—where, beyond +the drive, the descent was so rapid as to afford Martyn infinite delight +in rolling down, to the horror of all beholders and the detriment of his +white duck trowsers. + +I don’t know much about the upper story, so I spare you that. Emily had +a hankering for one of the pretty old mullioned-windowed rooms—the +mullion chambers, as she named them; but Griff pounced on them at once, +the inner for his repose, the outer for his guns and his studies—not +smoking, for young men were never permitted to smoke within doors, nor +indeed in any home society. The choice of the son and heir was +undisputed, and he proceeded to settle his possessions in his new +domains, where they made an imposing appearance. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +RATS. + + + ‘As louder and louder, drawing near, + The gnawing of their teeth he could hear.’ + + SOUTHEY. + +‘WHAT a ridiculous old fellow that Chapman is,’ said Griff, coming in +from a conference with the gaunt old man who acted as keeper to our not +very extensive preserves. ‘I told him to get some gins for the rats in +my rooms, and he shook his absurd head like any mandarin, and said, +“There baint no trap as will rid you of them kind of varmint, sir.”’ + +‘Of course,’ my father said, ‘rats are part of the entail of an old +house. You may reckon on them.’ + +‘Those rooms of yours are the very place for them,’ added my mother. ‘I +only hope they will not infest the rest of the house.’ + +To which Griff rejoined that they perpetrated the most extraordinary +noises he had ever heard from rats, and told Emily she might be thankful +to him for taking those rooms, for she would have been frightened out of +her little wits. He meant, he said, to get a little terrier, and have a +thorough good rat hunt, at which Martyn capered about in irrepressible +ecstasy. + +This, however, was deferred by the unwillingness of old Chapman, of whom +even Griff was somewhat in awe. His fame as a sportsman had to be made, +and he had had only such practice as could be attained by shooting at a +mark ever since he had been aware of his coming greatness. So he was +desirous of conciliating Chapman, and not getting laughed at as the +London young gentleman who could not hit a hay-stack. My father, who had +been used to carrying a gun in his younger days, was much amused, in his +quiet way, at seeing Griff watch Chapman off on his rounds, and then +betake himself to the locality most remote from the keeper’s ears to +practise on the rook or crow. Martyn always ran after him, having +solemnly promised not to touch the gun, and to keep behind. He was too +good-natured to send the little fellow back, though he often tried to +elude the pursuit, not wishing for a witness to his attempts; and he +never invited Clarence, who had had some experience of curious game but +never mentioned it. + +Clarence devoted himself to Emily and me, tugging my garden-chair along +all the paths where it would go without too much jolting, and when I had +had enough, exploring those hanging woods, either with her or on his own +account. They used to come home with their hands full of flowers, and +this resulted in a vehement attack of botany,—a taste that has lasted all +our lives, together with the _hortus siccus_ to which we still make +additions, though there has been a revolution there as well as everywhere +else, and the Linnæan system we learnt so eagerly from Martin’s _Letters_ +is altogether exploded and antiquated. Still, my sister refuses to own +the scientific merits of the natural system, and can point to school-bred +and lectured young ladies who have no notion how to discover the name or +nature of a live plant. + +On the Friday after our arrival the noises had been so fearful that Griff +had been exasperated into going off across the hills, accompanied by his +constant shadow, Martyn, in search of the professional ratcatcher of the +neighbourhood, in spite of Chapman’s warning—that Tom Petty was the +biggest rascal in the neighbourhood, and a regular out and out poacher; +and as to the noises—he couldn’t ‘tackle the like of they.’ After +revelling in the beauty of the beechwoods as long as was good for me or +for Clarence, I was left in the garden to sketch the ruin, while my two +companions started on one of their exploring expeditions. + +It was getting late enough to think of going to prepare for the six +o’clock dinner when Emily came forth alone from the path between the +trees, announcing—‘An adventure, Edward! We have had such an adventure.’ + +‘Where’s Clarence?’ + +‘Gone for the doctor! Oh, no; Griff hasn’t shot anybody. He is gone for +the ratcatcher, you know. It is a poor little herdboy, who tumbled out +of a tree; and oh! such a sweet, beautiful, young lady—just like a book!’ + +When Emily became less incoherent, it appeared that on coming out on the +bit of common above the wood, as she and Clarence were halting on the +brow of the hill to admire the view, they heard a call for help, and +hurrying down in the direction whence it proceeded they saw a stunted +ash-tree, beneath which were a young lady and a little child bending over +a village lad who lay beneath moaning piteously. The girl, whom Emily +described as the most beautiful creature she ever saw, explained that the +boy, who had been herding the cattle scattered around, had been climbing +the tree, a limb of which had broken with him. She had seen the fall +from a distance, and hurried up; but she hardly knew what to do, for her +little sister was too young to be sent in quest of assistance. Clarence +thought one leg seriously injured, and as the young lady seemed to know +the boy, offered to carry him home. School officers were yet in the +future; children were set to work almost as soon as they could walk, and +this little fellow was so light and thin as to shock Clarence when he had +been taken up on his back, for he weighed quite a trifle. The young lady +showed the way to a wretched little cottage, where a bigger girl had just +come in with a sheaf of corn freshly gleaned poised on her head. They +sent her to fetch her mother, and Clarence undertook to go for a doctor, +but to the surprise and horror of Emily, there was a demur. Something +was said of old Molly and her ‘ile’ and ‘yarbs,’ or perhaps Madam could +step round. When Clarence, on this being translated to him, pronounced +the case beyond such treatment, it was explained outside the door that +this was a terribly poor family, and the doctor would not come to parish +patients for an indefinite time after his summons, besides which, he +lived at Wattlesea. ‘Indeed mamma does almost all the doctoring with her +medicine chest,’ said the girl. + +On which Clarence declared that he would let the doctor know that he +himself would be responsible for the cost of the attendance, and set off +for Wattlesea, a kind of town village in the flat below. He could not +get back till dinner was half over, and came in alarmed and apologetic; +but he had nothing worse to encounter than Griff’s unmerciful banter (or, +as you would call it, chaff) about his knight errantry, and Emily’s +lovely heroine in the sweetest of cottage bonnets. + +Griff could be slightly tyrannous in his merry mockery, and when he found +that on the ensuing day Clarence proposed to go and inquire after the +patient, he made such wicked fun of the expectations the pair entertained +of hearing the sweet cottage bonnet reading a tract in a silvery voice +through the hovel window, that he fairly teased and shamed Clarence out +of starting till the renowned Tom Petty arrived and absorbed all the +three brothers, and even their father, in delights as mysterious to me as +to Emily. How she shrieked when Martyn rushed triumphantly into the room +where we were arranging books with the huge patriarch of all the rats +dangling by his tail! Three hopeful families were destroyed; rooms, +vaults, and cellars examined and cleared; and Petty declared the race to +be exterminated, picturesque ruffian that he was, in his shapeless hat, +rusty velveteen, long leggings, a live ferret in his pocket, and festoons +of dead rats over his shoulder. + +Chapman, who regarded him much as the ferret did the rat, declared that +the rabbits and hares would suffer from letting ‘that there chap’ show +his face here on any plea; and, moreover, gave a grunt very like a scoff; +at the idea of slumbers in the mullion rooms (as they were called) being +secured by his good offices. + +And Chapman was right. The unaccountable noises broke out +again—screaming, wailing, sobbing—sounds scarcely within the power of cat +or rat, but possibly the effect of the wind in the old building. At any +rate, Griff could not stand them, and declared that sleep was impossible +when the wind was in that quarter, so that he must shift his bedroom +elsewhere, though he still wished to retain the outer apartment, which he +had taken pleasure in adorning with his special possessions. My mother +would scarcely have tolerated such fancies in any one else, but Griff had +his privileges. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +OUR TUNEFUL CHOIR. + + + ‘The church has been whitewashed, but right long ago, + As the cracks and the dinginess amply doth show; + About the same time that a strange petrifaction + Confined the incumbent to mere Sunday action. + So many abuses in this place are rife, + The only church things giving token of life + Are the singing within and the nettles without— + Both equally rampant without any doubt.’ + + F. R. HAVERGAL. + +ALL Griff’s teasing could not diminish—nay, rather increased—Emily’s +excitement in the hope of seeing and identifying the sweet cottage bonnet +at church on Sunday. The distance we had to go was nearly two miles, and +my mother and I drove thither in a donkey chair, which had been hunted up +in London for that purpose because the ‘pheeāton’ (as the servants +insisted on calling it) was too high for me. My father had an +old-fashioned feeling about the Fourth Commandment, which made him +scrupulous as to using any animal on Sunday; and even when, in bad +weather, or for visitors, the larger carriage was used, he always walked. +He was really angry with Griff that morning for mischievously maintaining +that it was a greater breach of the commandment to work an ass than a +horse. + +It was a pretty drive on a road slanting gradually through the brushwood +that clothed the steep face of the hillside, and passing farms and +meadows full of cattle—all things quieter and stiller than ever in their +Sunday repose. We knew that the living was in Winslow patronage, but +that it was in the hands of one of the Selby connection, who held it, +together with it is not safe to say how many benefices, and found it +necessary for his health to reside at Bath. The vicarage had long since +been turned into a farmhouse, and the curate lived at Wattlesea. All +this we knew, but we had not realised that he was likewise assistant +curate there, and only favoured Earlscombe with alternate morning and +evening services on Sundays. + +Still less were we prepared for the interior of the church. It had a +picturesque square tower covered with ivy, and a general air of fitness +for a sketch; indeed, the photograph of it in its present beautified +state will not stand a comparison with our drawings of it, in those days +of dilapidation in the middle of the untidy churchyard, with little boys +astride on the sloping, sunken lichen-grown headstones, mullein spikes +and burdock leaves, more graceful than the trim borders and zinc crosses +which are pleasanter to the mental eye. + +The London church we had left would be a fearful shock to the present +generation, but we were accustomed to decency, order, and reverence; and +it was no wonder that my father was walking about the churchyard, +muttering that he never saw such a place, while my brothers were full of +amusement. Their spruce looks in their tall hats, bright ties, dark +coats, and white trowsers strapped tight under their boots, looked +incongruous with the rest of the congregation, the most distinguished +members of which were farmers in drab coats with huge mother-of-pearl +buttons, and long gaiters buttoned up to their knees and strapped up to +their gay waistcoats over their white corduroys. Their wives and +daughters were in enormous bonnets, fluttering with ribbons; but then +what my mother and Emily wore were no trifles. The rest of the +congregation were—the male part of it—in white or gray smock-frocks, the +elderly women in black bonnets, the younger in straw; but we had not long +to make our observations, for Chapman took possession of us. He was +parish clerk, and was in great glory in his mourning coat and hat, and +his object was to marshal us all into our pew before he had to attend +upon the clergyman; and of course I was glad enough to get as soon as +possible out of sight of all the eyes not yet accustomed to my figure. + +And hidden enough I was when we had been introduced through the little +north chancel door into a black-curtained, black-cushioned, black-lined +pew, well carpeted, with a table in the midst, and a stove, whose pipe +made its exit through the floriated tracery of the window overhead. The +chancel arch was to the west of us, blocked up by a wooden parcel-gilt +erection, and to the east a decorated window that would have been very +handsome if two side-lights had not been obscured by the two Tables of +the Law, with the royal arms on the top of the first table, and over the +other our own, with the Fordyce in a scutcheon of pretence; for, as an +inscription recorded, they had been erected by Margaret, daughter of +Christopher Fordyce, Esquire, of Chantry House, and relict of Sir James +John Winslow, Kt., sergeant-at-law, A.D. 1700—the last date, I verily +believe, at which anything had been done to the church. And on the wall, +stopping up the southern chancel window, was a huge marble slab, +supported by angels blowing trumpets, with a very long inscription about +the Fordyce family, ending with this same Margaret, who had married the +Winslow, lost two or three infants, and died on 1st January 1708, three +years later than her husband. + +Thus far I could see; but Griff was standing lifting the curtain, and +showing by the working of his shoulders his amazement and diversion, so +that only the daggers in my mother’s eyes kept Martyn from springing up +after him. What he beheld was an altar draped in black like a coffin, +and on the step up to the rail, boys and girls eating apples and +performing antics to beguile the waiting time, while a row of +white-smocked old men occupied the bench opposite to our seat, conversing +loud enough for us to hear them. + +My father and Clarence came in; the bells stopped; there was a sound of +steps, and in the fabric in front of us there emerged a grizzled head and +the back of a very dirty surplice besprinkled with iron moulds, while +Chapman’s back appeared above our curtain, his desk (full of dilapidated +prayer-books) being wedged in between us and the reading-desk. + +The duet that then took place between him and the curate must have been +heard to be credible, especially as, being so close behind the old man, +we could not fail to be aware of all the remarkable shots at long words +which he bawled out at the top of his voice, and I refrain from +recording, lest they should haunt others as they have done by me all my +life. Now and then Chapman caught up a long switch and dashed out at +some obstreperous child to give an audible whack; and towards the close +of the litany he stumped out—we heard his tramp the whole length of the +church, and by and by his voice issued from an unknown height, +proclaiming—‘Let us sing to the praise and glory — in an anthem taken +from the 42d chapter of Genesis.’ + +There was an outburst of bassoon, clarionet, and fiddle, and the +performance that followed was the most marvellous we had ever heard, +especially when the big butcher—fiddling all the time—declared in a +mighty solo, ‘I am Jo—Jo—Jo—Joseph!’ and having reiterated this +information four or five times, inquired with equal pertinacity, +‘Doth—doth my fa-a-u-ther yet live?’ Poor Emily was fairly ‘convulsed;’ +she stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth, and grew so crimson that my +mother was quite frightened, and very near putting her out at the little +door of excommunication. To our last hour we shall never forget the +shock of that first anthem. + +The Commandments were read from the desk, Chapman’s solitary response +coming from the gallery; and while the second singing—four verses from +Tate and Brady—was going on, we beheld the surplice stripped off,—like +the slough of a May-fly, as Griff said,—when a rusty black gown was +revealed, in which the curate ascended the pulpit and was lost to our +view before the concluding verse of the psalm, which we had reason to +believe was selected in compliment to us, as well as to Earlscombe,— + + ‘My lot is fall’n in that blest land + Where God is truly know, + He fills my cup with liberal hand; + ’Tis He—’tis He—’tis He—supports my throne.’ + +We had great reason to doubt how far the second line could justly be +applied to the parish! but there was no judging of the sermon, for only +detached sentences reached us in a sort of mumble. Griff afterwards +declared churchgoing to be as good as a comedy, and we all had to learn +to avoid meeting each other’s eyes, whatever we might hear. When the +scuffle and tramp of the departing congregation had ceased, we came forth +from our sable box, and beheld the remnants of a once handsome church, +mauled in every possible way, green stains on the walls, windows bricked +up, and a huge singing gallery. Good bits of carved stall work were +nailed anyhow into the pews; the floor was uneven; no font was visible; +there was a mouldy uncared-for look about everything. The curate in +riding-boots came out of the vestry,—a pale, weary-looking man, painfully +meek and civil, with gray hair sleeked round his face. He ‘louted low,’ +and seemed hardly to venture on taking the hand my father held out to +him. There was some attempt to enter into conversation with him, but he +begged to be excused, for he had to hurry back to Wattlesea to a funeral. +Poor man! he was as great a pluralist as his vicar, for he kept a boys’ +school, partially day, partially boarding, and his eyes looked hungrily +at Martyn. + +If the ‘sweet cottage bonnet’ had been at church there would have been +little chance of discovering her, but we found that we were the only +‘quality,’ as Chapman called it, or things might not have been so bad. +Old James Winslow had been a mere fox-hunting squire till he became a +valetudinarian; nor had he ever cared for the church or for the poor, so +that the village was in a frightful state of neglect. There was a +dissenting chapel, old enough to be overgrown with ivy and not too +hideous, erected by the Nonconformists in the reign of the Great +Deliverer, but this partook of the general decadence of the parish, and, +as we found, the chapel’s principal use was to serve as an excuse for not +going to church. + +My father always went to church twice, so he and Clarence walked to +Wattlesea, where appearances were more respectable; but they heard the +same sermon over again, and, as my father drily remarked, it was not a +composition that would bear repetition. + +He was much distressed at the state of things, and intended to write to +the incumbent, though, as he said, whatever was done would end by being +at his own expense, and the move and other calls left him so little in +hand that he sighed over the difficulties, and declared that he was +better off in London, except for the honour of the thing. Perhaps my +mother was of the same opinion after a dreary afternoon, when Griff and +Martyn had been wandering about aimlessly, and were at length betrayed by +the barking of a little terrier, purchased the day before from Tom Petty, +besieging the stable cat, who stood with swollen tail, glaring eyes, and +thunderous growls, on the top of the tallest pillar of the ruins. Emily +nearly cried at their cruelty. Martyn was called off by my mother, and +set down, half sulky, half ashamed, to _Henry and his Bearer_; and Griff, +vowing that he believed it was that brute who made the row at night, and +that she ought to be exterminated, strolled off to converse with Chapman, +who was a quaint compound of clerk and keeper—in the one capacity +upholding his late master, in the other bemoaning Mr. Mears’ +unpunctualities, specially as regarded weddings and funerals; one ‘corp’ +having been kept waiting till a messenger had been sent to Wattlesea, who +finding both clergy out for the day, had had to go to Hillside, ‘where +they was always ready, though the old Squire would have been mad with him +if he’d a-guessed one of they Fordys had ever set foot in the parish.’ + +The only school in the place was close to the meeting-house, ‘a very +dame’s school indeed,’ as Emily described it after a peep on Monday. +Dame Dearlove, the old woman who presided, was a picture of Shenstone’s +schoolmistress,—black bonnet, horn spectacles, fearful birch rod, +three-cornered buff ’kerchief, checked apron and all, but on meddling +with her, she proved a very dragon, the antipodes of her name. Tattered +copies of the _Universal Spelling-Book_ served her aristocracy, ragged +Testaments the general herd, whence all appeared to be shouting aloud at +once. She looked sour as verjuice when my mother and Emily entered, and +gave them to understand that ‘she wasn’t used to no strangers in her +school, and didn’t want ’em.’ We found that in Chapman’s opinion she +‘didn’t larn ’em nothing.’ She had succeeded her aunt, who had taught +him to read ‘right off,’ but ‘her baint to be compared with she.’ And +now the farmers’ children, and the little aristocracy, including his own +grand-children,—all indeed who, in his phrase, ‘cared for +eddication,’—went to Wattlesea. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +‘THEY FORDYS.’ + + + ‘Of honourable reckoning are you both, + And pity ’tis, you lived at odds so long.’ + + SHAKESPEARE. + +MY father had a good deal of business in hand, and was glad of Clarence’s +help in writing and accounts,—a great pleasure, though it prevented his +being Griff’s companion in his exploring and essays at shooting. He had +time, however, to make an expedition with me in the donkey chair to +inquire after the herdboy, Amos Bell, and carry him some kitchen physic. +To our horror we found him quite alone in the wretched cottage, while +everybody was out harvesting; but he did not seem to pity himself, or +think it otherwise than quite natural, as he lay on a little bed in the +corner, disabled by what Clarence thought a dislocation. Miss Ellen had +brought him a pudding, and little Miss Anne a picture-book. + +He was not so dense and shy as the children of the hamlet near us, and +Emily extracted from him that Miss Ellen was ‘Our passon’s young lady.’ + +‘Mr. Mears’!’ she exclaimed. + +‘No: ourn be Passon Fordy.’ + +It turned out that this place was not in Earlscombe at all, but in +Hillside, a different parish; and the boy, Amos, further communicated +that there was old Passon Fordy, and Passon Frank, and Madam, what was +Mr. Frank’s lady. Yes, he could read, he could; he went to Sunday +School, and was in Miss Ellen’s class; he had been to school worky days, +only father was dead, and Farmer Hartop gave him a job. + +It was plain that Hillside was under a very different rule from +Earlscombe; and Emily was delighted to have discovered that the sweet +cottage bonnet’s owner was called Ellen, which just then was the pet +Christian name of romance, in honour of the _Lady of the Lake_. + +In the midst of her raptures, however, just as we were about to turn in +at our own gate into the wood, we heard horses’ hoofs, and then came, +careering by on ponies, a very pretty girl and a youth of about the same +age. Clarence’s hand rose to his hat, and he made his eager bow; but the +young lady did not vouchsafe the slightest acknowledgment, turned her +head away, and urged her pony to speed. + +Emily broke out with an angry disappointed exclamation. Clarence’s face +was scarlet, and he said low and hoarsely, ‘That’s Lester. He was in the +_Argus_ at Portsmouth two years ago;’—and then, as our little sister +continued her indignant exclamations, he added, ‘Hush! Don’t on any +account say a word about it. I had better get back to my work. I am +only doing you harm by staying here.’ + +At which Emily shed tears, and together we persuaded him not to curtail +his holiday, which, indeed, he could not have done without assigning the +reason to the elders, and this was out of the question. Nor did he +venture to hang back when, as our service was to be on Sunday afternoon, +my father proposed to walk to Hillside Church in the morning. They came +back well pleased. There was care and decency throughout. The psalms +were sung to a ‘grinder organ’—which was an advanced state of things in +those days—and very nicely. Parson Frank read well and impressively, and +the old parson, a fine venerable man, had preached an excellent +sermon—really admirable, as my father repeated. Our party had been +scarcely in time, and had been disposed of in seats close to the door, +where Clarence was quite out of sight of the disdainful young lady and +her squire, of whom Emily begged to hear no more. + +She looked askance at the cards left on the hall table the next day—‘The +Rev. Christopher Fordyce,’ and ‘The Rev. F. C. Fordyce,’ also ‘Mrs. F. C. +Fordyce, Hillside Rectory.’ + +We had found out that Hillside was a family living, and that there was +much activity there on the part of the father and son—rector and curate; +and that the other clerical folk, ladies especially, who called on us, +spoke of Mrs. F. C. Fordyce with a certain tone, as if they were afraid +of her, as Sir Horace Lester’s sister,—very superior, very active, very +strict in her notions,—as if these were so many defects. They were an +offshoot of the old Fordyces of Chantry House, but so far back that all +recollection of kindred or connection must have worn out. Their +property—all in beautiful order—marched with ours, and Chapman was very +particular about the boundaries. ‘Old master he wouldn’t have a bird +picked up if it fell over on they Fordys’ ground—not he! He couldn’t +abide passons, couldn’t the old Squire—not Miss Hannah More, and all they +Cheddar lot, and they Fordys least of all. My son’s wife, she was for +sending her little maid to Hillside to Madam Fordys’ school, but, bless +your heart, ’twould have been as much as my place was worth if master had +known it.’ + +The visit was not returned till after Clarence had gone back to his +London work. Sore as was the loss of him from my daily life, I could see +that the new world and fresh acquaintances were a trial to him, and +especially since the encounter with young Lester had driven him back into +his shell, so that he would be better where he was already known and had +nothing new to overcome. Emily, though not yet sixteen, was emancipated +from schoolroom habits, and the dear girl was my devoted slave to an +extent that perhaps I abused. + +Not being ‘come out,’ she was left at home on the day when we set out on +a regular progress in the chariot with post-horses. The britshka and +pair, which were our ambition, were to wait till my father’s next rents +came in. Morning calls in the country were a solemn and imposing +ceremony, and the head of the family had to be taken on the first +circuit; nor was there much scruple as to making them in the forenoon, so +several were to be disposed of before fulfilling an engagement to +luncheon at the farthest point, where some old London friends had +borrowed a house for the summer, and had included me in their invitation. + +Here alone did I leave the carriage, but I had Cooper’s _Spy_ and my +sketch-book as companions while waiting at doors where the inhabitants +were at home. The last visit was at Hillside Rectory, a house of +architecture somewhat similar to our own, but of the soft creamy stone +which so well set off the vine with purple clusters, the myrtles and +fuchsias, that covered it. I was wishing we had drawn up far enough off +for a sketch to be possible, when, from a window close above, I heard the +following words in a clear girlish voice— + +‘No, indeed! I’m not going down. It is only those horrid Earlscombe +people. I can’t think how they have the face to come near us!’ + +There was a reply, perhaps that the parents had made the first visit, for +the rejoinder was—‘Yes; grandpapa said it was a Christian duty to make an +advance; but they need not have come so soon. Indeed, I wonder they show +themselves at all. I am sure I would not if I had such a dreadful son.’ +Presently, ‘I hate to think of it. That I should have thanked him. +Depend upon it, he will never pay the doctor. A coward like that is +capable of anything.’ + +The proverb had been realised, but there could hardly have been a more +involuntary or helpless listener. Presently my parents came back, +escorted by both the gentlemen of the house, tall fine-looking men, the +elder with snowy hair, and the dignity of men of the old school; the +younger with a joyous, hearty, out-of-door countenance, more like a +squire than a clergyman. + +The visit seemed to have been gratifying. Mrs. Fordyce was declared to +be of higher stamp than most of the neighbouring ladies; and my father +was much pleased with the two clergymen, while as we drove along he kept +on admiring the well-ordered fields and fences, and contrasting the +pretty cottages and trim gardens with the dreary appearance of our own +village. I asked why Amos Bell’s home had been neglected, and was +answered with some annoyance, as I pointed down the lane, that it was on +our land, though in Hillside parish. ‘I am glad to have such +neighbours!’ observed my mother, and I kept to myself the remarks I had +heard, though I was still tingling with the sting of them. + +We heard no more of ‘they Fordys’ for some time. The married pair went +away to stay with friends, and we only once met the old gentleman, when I +was waiting in the street at Wattlesea in the donkey chair, while my +mother was trying to match netting silk in the odd little shop that +united fancy work, toys, and tracts with the post office. Old Mr. +Fordyce met us as we drew up, handed her out with a grand seigneur’s +courtesy, and stood talking to me so delightfully that I quite forgot it +was from Christian duty. + +My father corresponded with the old Rector about the state of the parish, +and at last went over to Bath for a personal conference, but without much +satisfaction. The Earlscombe people were pronounced to be an ungrateful +good-for-nothing set, for whom it was of no use to do anything; and +indeed my mother made such discoveries in the cottages that she durst not +let Emily fulfil her cherished scheme of visiting them. The only +resemblance to the favourite heroines of religious tales that could be +permitted was assembling a tiny Sunday class in Chapman’s lodge; and it +must be confessed that her brothers thought she made as much fuss about +it as if there had been a hundred scholars. + +However, between remonstrances and offers of undertaking a share of the +expense, my father managed to get Mr. Mears’ services dispensed with from +the ensuing Lady Day, and that a resident curate should be appointed, the +choice of whom was to rest with himself. It was then and there decided +that Martyn should be ‘brought up to the Church,’ as people then used to +term destination to Holy Orders. My father said he should feel justified +in building a good house when he could afford it, if it was to be a +provision for one of his sons, and he also felt that as he had the charge +of the parish as patron, it was right and fitting to train one of his +sons up to take care of it. Nor did Martyn show any distaste to the +idea, as indeed there was less in it then than at present to daunt the +imagination of an honest, lively boy, not as yet specially thoughtful or +devout, but obedient, truthful, and fairly reverent, and ready to grow as +he was trained. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +MRS. SOPHIA’S FEUD. + + + ‘O’er all there hung the shadow of a fear, + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, + And said as plain as whisper in the ear, + The place is haunted.’—HOOD. + +WE had a houseful at Christmas. The Rev. Charles Henderson, a Fellow of +Trinity College, Oxford, lately ordained a deacon, had been recommended +to us by our London vicar, and was willing not only to take charge of the +parish, but to direct my studies, and to prepare Martyn for school. He +came to us for the Christmas vacation to reconnoitre and engage lodgings +at a farmhouse. We liked him very much—my mother being all the better +satisfied after he had shown her a miniature, and confided to her that +the original was waiting till a college living should come to him in the +distant future. + +Admiral Griffith could not tear himself from his warm rooms and his club, +but our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, came with his wife, and +revelled in the ceilings of the mullion room, where he would much have +liked to sleep, but that its accommodations were only fit for a bachelor. + +Our other visitor was Miss Selby, or rather Mrs. Sophia Selby, as she +designated herself, according to the becoming fashion of elderly +spinsters, which to my mind might be gracefully resumed. It irked my +father to think of the good lady’s solitary Christmas at Bath, and he +asked her to come to us. She travelled half-way in a post-chaise, and +then was met by the carriage. A very nice old lady she was, with a meek, +delicate babyish face, which could not be spoilt by the cap of the +period, one of the most disfiguring articles of head gear ever devised, +though nobody thought so then. She was full of kindness; indeed, if she +had a fault it was the abundant pity she lavished on me, and her +determination to amuse me. The weather was of the kind that only the +healthy and hardy could encounter, and when every one else was gone out, +and I was just settling in with a new book, or an old crabbed Latin +document, that Mr. Stafford had entrusted to me to copy out fairly and +translate, she would glide in with her worsted work on a charitable +mission to enliven poor Mr. Edward. + +However, this was the means of my obtaining some curious enlightenments. +A dinner-party was in contemplation, and she was dismayed at the choice +of the fashionable London hour of seven, and still more by finding that +the Fordyces were to be among the guests. She was too well-bred to +manifest her feelings to her hosts, but alone with me, she could not +refrain from expressing her astonishment to me, all the more when she +heard this was reciprocity for an invitation that it had not been +possible to accept. Her poor dear uncle would never hear of intercourse +with Hillside. On being asked why, she repeated what Chapman had said, +that he could not endure any one connected with Mrs. Hannah More and her +canting, humbugging set, as the ungodly old man had chosen to call them, +imbuing even this good woman with evil prejudices against their noble +work at Cheddar. + +‘Besides this, Fordyces and Winslows could never be friends, since the +Fordyces had taken on themselves to dispute the will, and say it had been +improperly obtained.’ + +‘What will?’ + +‘Mrs. Winslow’s—Margaret Fordyce that was. She was the heiress, and had +every right to dispose of her property.’ + +‘But that was more than a hundred years ago!’ + +‘So it was, my dear; but though the law gave it to us—to my uncle’s +grandfather (or great-grandfather, was it?)—those Fordyces never could +rest content. Why, one of them—a clergyman’s son too—shot young Philip +Winslow dead in a duel. They have always grudged at us. Does your papa +know it, my dear Mr. Edward? He ought to be aware.’ + +‘I do not know,’ I said; ‘but he would hardly care about what happened in +the time of Queen Anne.’ + +It was curious to see how the gentle little lady espoused the family +quarrel, which, after all, was none of hers. + +‘Well, you are London people, and the other branch, and may not feel as +we do down here; but I shall always say that Madam Winslow’s husband’s +son had every right to come before her cousin once removed.’ + +I asked if we were descended from her, for, having a turn for heraldry +and genealogy, I wanted to make out our family tree. Mrs. Sophia was +ready to hold up her hands at the ignorance of the ‘other branch.’ This +poor heiress had lost all her children in their infancy, and bequeathed +the estate to her stepson, the Fordyce male heir having been endowed by +her father with the advowson of Hillside and a handsome estate there, +which Mrs. Selby thought ought to have contented him, ‘but some people +never know when they have enough;’ and, on my observing that it might +have been a matter of justice, she waxed hotter, declaring that what the +Winslows felt so much was the accusation of violence against the poor +lady. She spoke as if it were a story of yesterday, and added, ‘Indeed, +they made the common people have all sorts of superstitious fancies about +the room where she died—that old part of the house.’ Then she added in a +low mysterious voice, ‘I hear that your brother Mr. Griffith Winslow +could not sleep there;’ and when the rats and the wind were +mentioned—‘Yes, that was what my poor dear uncle used to say. He always +called it nonsense; but we never had a servant who would sleep there. +You’ll not mention it, Mr. Edward, but I could not help asking that very +nice housemaid, Jane, whether the room was used, and she said how Mr. +Griffith had given it up, and none of the servants could spend a night +there when they are sleeping round. Of course I said all in my power to +dispel the idea, and told her that there was no accounting for all the +noises in old houses; but you never can reason with that class of +people.’ + +‘Did you ever hear the noises, Mrs. Selby?’ + +‘Oh, no; I wouldn’t sleep there for thousands! Not that I attach any +importance to such folly,—my poor dear uncle would never hear of such a +thing; but I am such a nervous creature, I should lie awake all night +expecting the rats to run over me. I never knew of any one sleeping +there, except in the gay times when I was a child, and the house used to +be as full as, or fuller than, it could hold, for the hunt breakfast or a +ball, and my poor aunt used to make up ever so many beds in the two +rooms, and then we never heard of any disturbance, except what they made +themselves.’ + +This chiefly concerned me, because home cosseting had made me old woman +enough to be uneasy about unaired beds; and I knew that my mother meant +to consign Clarence to the mullion chamber. So, without betraying Jane, +I spoke to her, and was answered, ‘Oh, sir, I’ll take care of that; I’ll +light a fire and air the mattresses well. I wish that was all, poor +young gentleman!’ + +To the reply that the rats were slaughtered and the wind stopped out, +Jane returned a look of compassion; but the subject was dropped, as it +was supposed to be the right thing to hush up, instead of fostering, any +popular superstition; but it surprised me that, as all our servants were +fresh importations, they should so soon have become imbued with these +undefined alarms. + +My father was much amused at being successor to this family feud, and +said that when he had time he would look up the documents. + +Mrs. Sophia was a sight when Mr. Fordyce and his son and daughter-in-law +were announced; she was so comically stiff between her deference to her +hosts and her allegiance to her poor dear uncle; but her coldness melted +before the charms of old Mr. Fordyce, who was one of the most delightful +people in the world. She even was his partner at whist, and won the +game, and that she _did_ like. + +Parson Frank, as we naughty young ones called him, was all good-nature +and geniality—a thorough clergyman after the ideas of the time, and a +thorough farmer too; and in each capacity, as well as in politics, he +suited my father or Mr. Henderson. His lady, in a blonde cap, exactly +like the last equipment my mother had provided herself with in London, +and a black satin dress, had much more style than the more gaily-dressed +country dames, and far more conversation. Mr. Stafford, who had dreaded +the party, pronounced her a sensible, agreeable woman, and she was +particularly kind and pleasant to me, coming and talking over the botany +of the country, and then speaking of my brother’s kindness to poor Amos +Bell, who was nearly recovered, but was a weakly child, for whom she +dreaded the toil of a ploughboy in thick clay with heavy shoes. + +I was sorry when, after Emily’s well-studied performance on the piano, +Mrs. Fordyce was summoned away from me to sing, but her music and her +voice were both of a very different order from ordinary drawing-room +music; and when our evening was over, we congratulated ourselves upon our +neighbours, and agreed that the Fordyces were the gems of the party. + +Only Mrs. Sophia sighed at us as degenerate Winslows, and Emily reserved +to herself the right of believing that the daughter was ‘a horrid girl.’ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +A SCRAPE. + + + ‘Though bound with weakness’ heavy chain + We in the dust of earth remain; + Not all remorseful be our tears, + No agony of shame or fears, + Need pierce its passion’s bitter tide.’ + + _Verses and Sonnets_. + +PERHAPS it was of set purpose that our dinner-party had been given before +Clarence’s return. Griffith had been expected in time for it, but he had +preferred going by way of London to attend a ball given by the daughter +of a barrister friend of my father’s. Selina Clarkson was a fine showy +girl, with the sort of beauty to inspire boyish admiration, and Griff’s +had been a standing family joke, even my father condescending to tease +him when the young lady married Sir Henry Peacock, a fat vulgar old man +who had made his fortune in the commissariat, and purchased a baronetcy. +He was allowing his young wife her full swing of fashion and enjoyment. +My mother did not think it a desirable acquaintance, and was restless +until both the brothers came home together, long after dark on Christmas +Eve, having been met by the gig at the corner where the coach stopped. +The dinner-hour had been put off till half-past six, and we had to wait +for them, the coach having been delayed by setting down Christmas guests +and Christmas fare. They were a contrast; Griffith looking very handsome +and manly, all in a ruddy glow from the frosty air, and Clarence, though +equally tall, well-made, and with more refined features, looked pale and +effaced, now that his sailor tan was worn off. The one talked as eagerly +as he ate, the other was shy, spiritless, and with little appetite; but +as he always shrank into himself among strangers, it was the less wonder +that he sat in his drooping way behind my sofa, while Griffith kept us +all merry with his account of the humours of the ‘Peacock at home;’ the +lumbering efforts of old Sir Henry to be as young and gay as his wife, in +spite of gout and portliness; and the extreme delight of his lady in her +new splendours—a gold spotted muslin and white plumes in a diamond +agraffe. He mimicked Sir Henry’s cockneyisms more than my father’s +chivalry approved towards his recent host, as he described the complaints +he had heard against ‘my Lady being refused the hentry at Halmack’s, but +treated like the wery canal;’ and how the devoted husband ‘wowed he would +get up a still more hexclusive circle, and shut hout these himpertinent +fashionables who regarded Halmack’s as the seventh ’eaven.’ + +My mother shook her head at his audacious fun about Paradise and the +Peri, but he was so brilliant and good-humoured that no one was ever long +displeased with him. At night he followed when Clarence helped me to my +room, and carefully shutting the door, Griff began. ‘Now, Teddy, you’re +always as rich as a Jew, and I told Bill you’d help him to set it +straight. I’d do it myself, but that I’m cleaned out. I’d give ten +times the cash rather than see him with that hang-dog look again for just +nothing at all, if he would only believe so and be rational.’ + +Clarence did look indescribably miserable while it was explained that he +had been commissioned to receive about £20 which was owing to my father, +and to discharge therewith some small debts to London tradesmen. All +except the last, for a little more than four pounds, had been paid, when +Clarence met in the street an old messmate, a good-natured rattle-pated +youth,—one of those who had thought him harshly treated. There was a +cordial greeting, and an invitation to dine at once at a hotel, where +they were joined by some other young men, and by and by betook themselves +to cards, when my poor brother’s besetting enemy prevented him from +withdrawing when he found the points were guineas. Thus he lost the +remaining amount in his charge, and so much of his own that barely enough +was left for his journey. His salary was not due till Lady Day; Mr. +Castleford was in the country, and no advances could be asked from Mr. +Frith. Thus Griff had found him in utter despair, and had ever since +been trying to cheer him and make light of his trouble. If I advanced +the amount, which was no serious matter to me, Clarence could easily get +Peter to pay the bill, and if my father should demand the receipt too +soon, it would be easy to put him off by saying there had been a delay in +getting the account sent in. + +‘I couldn’t do that,’ said Clarence. + +‘Well, I should not have thought you would have stuck at that,’ returned +Griff. + +‘There must be no untruth,’ I broke in; ‘but if without _that_, he can +avoid getting into a scrape with papa—’ + +Clarence interrupted in the wavering voice we knew so well, but growing +clearer and stronger. + +‘Thank you, Edward, but—but—no, I can’t. There’s the Sacrament +to-morrow.’ + +‘Oh—h!’ said Griff, in an indescribable tone. But he will never believe +you, nor let you go.’ + +‘Better so,’ said Clarence, half choked, ‘than go profanely—deceiving—or +not knowing whether I shall—’ + +Just then we heard our father wishing the other gentlemen good-night, and +to our surprise Clarence opened the door, though he was deadly white and +with dew starting on his forehead. + +My father turned good-naturedly. ‘Boys, boys, you are glad to be +together, but mamma won’t have you talking here all night, keeping her +baby up.’ + +‘Sir,’ said Clarence, holding by the rail of the bed, ‘I was waiting for +you. I have something to tell you—’ + +The words that followed were incoherent and wrong end foremost; nor had +many, indeed, been uttered before my father cut them short with— + +‘No false excuses, sir; I know you too well to listen. Go. I have +ceased to hope for anything better.’ + +Clarence went without a word, but Griff and I burst out with entreaties +to be listened to. Our father thought at first that ours were only the +pleadings of partiality, and endeavours to shield the brother we both so +heartily loved; but when he understood the circumstances, the real amount +of the transgression, and Clarence’s rejection of our united advice and +assistance to conceal it, he was greatly touched and softened. ‘Poor +lad! poor fellow!’ he muttered, ‘he is really doing his best. I need not +have cut him so short. I was afraid of more falsehoods if I let him open +his mouth. I’ll go and see.’ + +He went off, and we remained in suspense, Griff observing that he had +done his best, but poor Bill always would be a fool, and that no one who +had not always lived at home like me would have let out that we had been +for the suppression policy. As I was rather shocked, he went off to bed, +saying he should look in to see what remained of Clarence after the +pelting of the pitiless storm he was sure to bring on himself by his +ridiculous faltering instead of speaking out like a man. + +I longed to have been able to do the same, but my father kindly came back +to relieve my mind by telling me that he was better satisfied about +Clarence than ever he had been before. When encouraged to speak out, the +narrative of the temptation had so entirely agreed with what we had said +as to show there had been no prevarication, and this had done more to +convince my father that he was on the right track than the having found +him on his knees. He had had a patient hearing, and thus was able to +command his nerves enough to explain himself, and it had ended in my +father giving entire forgiveness for what, as Griff truly said, would +have been a mere trifle but for the past. The voluntary confession had +much impressed my father, and he could not help adding a word of gentle +reproof to me for having joined in aiding him to withhold it, but he +accepted my explanation and went away, observing, ‘By the by, I don’t +wonder at what Griffith says of that room; I never heard such strange +effects of currents of air.’ + +Clarence was in my room before I was drest, full of our father’s +‘wonderful goodness’ to him. He had never experienced anything like it, +he said. ‘Why! he really seemed hopeful about me,’ were words uttered +with a gladness enough to go to one’s heart. ‘O Edward, I feel as if +there was some chance of “steadfastly purposing” this time.’ + +It was not the way of the family to say much of religious feeling, and +this was much for Clarence to utter. He looked white and tired, but +there was an air of rest and peace about him, above all when my mother +met him with a very real kiss. Moreover, Mr. Castleford had taken care +to brighten our Christmas with a letter expressive of great satisfaction +with Clarence for steadiness and intelligence. Even Mr. Frith allowed +that he was the most punctual of all those young dogs. + +‘I do believe,’ said my father, ‘that his piety is doing him some good +after all.’ + +So our mutual wishes of a happy Christmas were verified, though not much +according to the notions of this half of the century. People made their +Christmas day either mere merriment, or something little different from +the grave Sunday of that date. And ours, except for the Admiral’s dining +with us, had always been of the latter description, all the more that +when celebrations of the Holy Communion were so rare they were treated +with an awe and reverence which frequency has perhaps diminished, and a +feeling (possibly Puritanical) prevailed which made it appear incongruous +to end with festivity a day so begun. That we had a Christmas Day +Communion at all at Earlscombe was an innovation only achieved by Mr. +Henderson going to assist the old Rector at Wattlesea; and there were no +communicants except from our house, besides Chapman, his daughter-in-law, +and five old creatures between whom the alms were immediately divided. +We afterwards learnt that our best farmer and his wife were much +disappointed at the change from Sunday interfering with the family +jollification; and Mrs. Sophia Selby was annoyed at the contradiction to +her habits under the rule of her poor dear uncle. + +Of the irregularities, irreverences, and squalor of the whole I will not +speak. They were not then such stumbling-blocks as they would be now, +and many passed unperceived by us, buried as we were in our big pew, with +our eyes riveted on our books; yet even thus there was enough evident to +make my mother rejoice that Mr. Henderson would be with us before Easter. +Still this could not mar the thankful gladness that was with us all that +day, and which shone in Clarence’s eyes. His countenance always had a +remarkable expression in church, as if somehow his spirit went farther +than ours did, and things unseen were more real to him. + +Hillside, as usual, had two services, and my father and his friend were +going to walk thither in the afternoon, but it was a raw cold day, +threatening snow, and Emily was caught by my mother in the hail and +ordered back, as well as Clarence, who had shown symptoms of having +caught cold on his dismal journey. Emily coaxed from her permission to +have a fire in the bookroom, and there we three had a memorably happy +time. We read our psalms and lessons, and our _Christian Year_, which +was more and more the lodestar of our feelings. We compared our +favourite passages, and discussed the obscurer ones, and Clarence was led +to talk out more of his heart than he had ever shown to us before. +Perhaps he had lost some of his reserve through his intercourse with our +good old governess, Miss Newton, who was still grinding away at her daily +mill, though with somewhat failing eyesight, so that she could do nothing +but knit in the long evenings, and was most grateful to her former pupil +for coming, as often as he could, to talk or read to her. + +She was a most excellent and devout woman, and when Emily, who in +youthful _gaieté de cœur_ had got a little tired of her, exclaimed at his +taste, and asked if she made him read nothing but Pike’s Early _Piety_, +he replied gravely, ‘She showed me where to lay my burthen down,’ and +turned to the two last verses of the poem for ‘Good Friday’ in the +_Christian Year_, as well as to the one we had just read on the Holy +Communion. + +My father’s kindness had seemed to him the pledge of the Heavenly +Father’s forgiveness; and he added, perhaps a little childishly, that it +had been his impulse to promise never to touch a card again, but that he +dreaded the only too familiar reply, ‘What availed his promises?’ + +‘Do promise, Clarry!’ cried Emily, ‘and then you won’t have to play with +that tiresome old Mrs. Sophia.’ + +‘That would rather deter me,’ said Clarence good-humouredly. + +‘A card-playing old age is despicable,’ pronounced Miss Emily, much to +our amusement. + +After that we got into a bewilderment. We knew nothing of the future +question of temperance _versus_ total abstinence; but after it had been +extracted that Miss Newton regarded cards as the devil’s books, the +inconsistent little sister changed sides, and declared it narrow and +evangelical to renounce what was innocent. Clarence argued that what +might be harmless for others might be dangerous for such as himself, and +that his real difficulty in making even a mental vow was that, if broken, +there was an additional sin. + +‘It is not oneself that one trusts,’ I said. + +‘No,’ said Clarence emphatically; ‘and setting up a vow seems as if it +might be sticking up the reed of one’s own word, and leaning on +_that_—when it breaks, at least mine does. If I could always get the +grasp of Him that I felt to-day, there would be no more bewildered heart +and failing spirit, which are worse than the actual falls they cause.’ +And as Emily said she did not understand, he replied in words I wrote +down and thought over, ‘What we _are_ is the point, more than even what +we _do_. We _do_ as we _are_; and yet we form ourselves by what we +_do_.’ + +‘And,’ I put in, ‘I know somebody who won a victory last night over +himself and his two brothers. Surely _doing_ that is a sign that he _is_ +more than he used to be.’ + +‘If he were, it would not have been an effort at all,’ said Clarence, but +with his rare sweet smile. + +Just then Griff called him away, and Emily sat pondering and impressed. +‘It did seem so odd,’ she said, ‘that Clarry should be so much the best, +and yet so much the worst of us.’ + +I agreed. His insight into spiritual things, and his enjoyment of them, +always humiliated us both, yet he fell so much lower in practice,—‘But +then we had not his temptations.’ + +‘Yes,’ said Emily; ‘but look at Griff! He goes about like other young +men, and keeps all right, and yet he doesn’t care about religious things +a bit more than he can help.’ + +It was quite true. Religion was life to the one and an insurance to the +other, and this had been a mystery to us all our young lives, as far as +we had ever reflected on the contrast between the practical failure and +success of each. Our mother, on the other hand, viewed Clarence’s +tendencies as part of an unreal, self-deceptive nature, and regretted his +intimacy with Miss Newton, who, she said, had fostered ‘that kind of +thing’ in his childhood—made him fancy talk, feeling, and preaching were +more than truth and honour—and might lead him to run after Irving, +Rowland Hill, or Baptist Noel, about whose tenets she was rather +confused. It would be an additional misfortune if he became a fanatical +Evangelical light, and he was just the character to be worked upon. + +My father held that she might be thankful for any good influence or safe +resort for a young man in lodgings in London, and he merely bade Clarence +never resort to any variety of dissenting preacher. We were of the +school called—a little later—high and dry, but were strictly orthodox +according to our lights, and held it a prime duty to attend our parish +church, whatever it might be; nor, indeed, had Clarence swerved from +these traditions. + +Poor Mrs. Sophia was baulked of the game at whist, which she viewed as a +legitimate part of the Christmas pleasures; and after we had eaten our +turkey, we found the evening long, except that Martyn escaped to +snapdragon with the servants; and, by and by, Chapman, magnificent in +patronage, ushered in the church singers into the hall, and clarionet, +bassoon, and fiddle astonished our ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +THE MULLION CHAMBER. + + + ‘A lady with a lamp I see, + Pass through the glimmering gloom, + And flit from room to room.’ + + LONGFELLOW. + +FOR want of being able to take exercise, the first part of the night had +always been sleepless with me, though my dear mother thought it wrong to +recognise the habit or allow me a lamp. A fire, however, I had, and by +its light, on the second night after Christmas, I saw my door noiselessly +opened, and Clarence creeping in half-dressed and barefooted. To my +frightened interrogation the answer came, through chattering teeth, ‘It’s +I—only I—Ted—no—nothing’s the matter, only I can’t stand it any longer!’ + +His hands were cold as ice when he grasped mine, as if to get hold of +something substantial, and he trembled so as to shake the bed. ‘That +room,’ he faltered. ‘’Tis not only the moans! I’ve seen her!’ + +‘Whom?’ + +‘I don’t know. There she stands with her lamp, crying!’ I could +scarcely distinguish the words through the clashing of his teeth, and as +I threw my arms round him the shudder seemed to pass to me; but I did my +best to warm him by drawing the clothes over him, and he began to gather +himself together, and speak intelligibly. There had been sounds the +first night as of wailing, but he had been too much preoccupied to attend +to them till, soon after one o’clock, they ended in a heavy fall and long +shriek, after which all was still. Christmas night had been undisturbed, +but on this the voices had begun again at eleven, and had a strangely +human sound; but as it was windy, sleety weather, and he had learnt at +sea to disregard noises in the rigging, he drew the sheet over his head +and went to sleep. ‘I was dreaming that I was at sea,’ he said, ‘as I +always do on a noisy night, but this was not a dream. I was wakened by a +light in the room, and there stood a woman with a lamp, moaning and +sobbing. My first notion was that one of the maids had come to call me, +and I sat up; but I could not speak, and she gave another awful +suppressed cry, and moved towards that walled-up door. Then I saw it was +none of the servants, for it was an antique dress like an old picture. +So I knew what it must be, and an unbearable horror came over me, and I +rushed into the outer room, where there was a little fire left; but I +heard her going on still, and I could endure it no longer. I knew you +would be awake and would bear with me, so I came down to you.’ + +Then this was what Chapman and the maids had meant. This was Mrs. Sophia +Selby’s vulgar superstition! I found that Clarence had heard none of the +mysterious whispers afloat, and only knew that Griff had deserted the +room after his own return to London. I related what I had learnt from +the old lady, and in that midnight hour we agreed that it could be no +mere fancy or rumour, but that cruel wrong must have been done in that +chamber. Our feeling was that all ought to be made known, and in that +impression we fell asleep, Clarence first. + +By and by I found him moving. He had heard the clock strike four, and +thought it wiser to repair to his own quarters, where he believed the +disturbance was over. Lucifer matches as yet were not, but he had always +been a noiseless being, with a sailor’s foot, so that, by the help of the +moonlight through the hall windows, he regained his room. + +And when morning had come, the nocturnal visitation wore such a different +aspect to both our minds that we decided to say nothing to our parents, +who, said Clarence, would simply disbelieve him; and, indeed, I inclined +to suppose it had been an uncommonly vivid dream, produced in that +sensitive nature by the uncanny sounds of the wind in the chinks and +crannies of the ancient chamber. Had not Scott’s _Demonology and +Witchcraft_, which we studied hard on that day, proved all such phantoms +to be explicable? The only person we told was Griff, who was amused and +incredulous. He had heard the noises—oh yes! and objected to having his +sleep broken by them. It was too had to expose Clarence to them—poor +Bill—on whom they worked such fancies! + +He interrogated Chapman, however, but probably in that bantering way +which is apt to produce reserve. Chapman never ‘gave heed to them +fictious tales,’ he said; but, when hard pressed, he allowed that he had +‘heerd that a lady do walk o’ winter nights,’ and that was why the garden +door of the old rooms was walled up. Griff asked if this was done for +fear she should catch cold, and this somewhat affronted him, so that he +averred that he knew nought about it, and gave no thought to such like. + +Just then they arrived at the Winslow Arms, and took each a glass of ale, +when Griff, partly to tease Chapman, asked the landlady—an old Chantry +House servant—whether she had ever met the ghost. She turned rather +pale, which seemed to have impressed him, and demanded if he had seen it. +‘It always walked at Christmas time—between then and the New Year.’ She +had once seen a light in the garden by the ruin in winter-time, and once +last spring it came along the passage, but that was just before the old +Squire was took for death,—folks said that was always the way before any +of the family died—‘if you’ll excuse it, sir.’ Oh no, she thought +nothing of such things, but she had heard tell that the noises were such +at all times of the year that no one could sleep in the rooms, but the +light wasn’t to be seen except at Christmas. + +Griff with the philosophy of a university man, was certain that all was +explained by Clarence having imbibed the impression of the place being +haunted; and going to sleep nervous at the noises, his brain had shaped a +phantom in accordance. Let Clarence declare as he might that the legends +were new to him, Griff only smiled to think how easily people forgot, and +he talked earnestly about catching ideas without conscious information. + +However, he volunteered to sit up that night to ascertain the exact +causes of the strange noises and convince Clarence that they were nothing +but the effects of draughts. The fire in his gunroom was surreptitiously +kept up to serve for the vigil, which I ardently desired to share. It +was an enterprise; it would gratify my curiosity; and besides, though +Griffith was good-natured and forbearing in a general way towards +Clarence, I detected a spirit of mockery about him which might break out +unpleasantly when poor Clarry was convicted of one of his unreasonable +panics. + +Both brothers were willing to gratify me, the only difficulty being that +the tap of my crutches would warn the entire household of the expedition. +However, they had—all unknown to my mother—several times carried me about +queen’s cushion fashion, as, being always much of a size, they could do +most handily; and as both were now fine, strong, well-made youths of +twenty and nineteen, they had no doubt of easily and silently conveying +me up the shallow-stepped staircase when all was quiet for the night. + +Emily, with her sharp ears, guessed that something was in hand, but we +promised her that she should know all in time. I believe Griff, being a +little afraid of her quickness, led her to suppose he was going to hold +what he called a symposium in his rooms, and to think it a mystery of +college life not intended for young ladies. + +He really had prepared a sort of supper for us when, after my father’s +resounding turn of the key of the drawing-room door, my brothers, in +their stocking soles, bore me upstairs, the fun of the achievement for +the moment overpowering all sense of eeriness. Griff said he could not +receive me in his apartment without doing honour to the occasion, and +that Dutch courage was requisite for us both; but I suspect it was more +in accordance with Oxford habits that he had provided a bottle of sherry +and another of ale, some brandy cherries, bread, cheese, and biscuits, by +what means I do not know, for my mother always locked up the wine. He +was disappointed that Clarence would touch nothing, and declared that +inanition was the preparation for ghost-seeing or imagining. I drank his +health in a glass of sherry as I looked round at the curious old room, +with its panelled roof, the heraldic devices and badges of the Power +family, and the trophy of swords, dirks, daggers, and pistols, chiefly +relics of our naval grandfather, but reinforced by the sword, helmet, and +spurs of the county Yeomanry which Griff had joined. + +Griff proposed cards to drive away fancies, especially as the sounds were +beginning; but though we generally yielded to him we _could_ not give our +attention to anything but these. There was first a low moan. ‘No great +harm in that,’ said Griff; ‘it comes through that crack in the wainscot +where there is a sham window. Some putty will put a stop to that.’ + +Then came a more decided wail and sob much nearer to us. Griff hastily +swallowed the ale in his tumbler, and, striking a theatrical attitude, +exclaimed, ‘Angels and ministers of grace defend us!’ + +Clarence held up his hand in deprecation. The door into his bedroom was +open, and Griff, taking up one of the flat candlesticks, pursued his +researches, holding the flame to all chinks or cracks in the wainscotting +to detect draughts which might cause the dreary sounds, which were much +more like suppressed weeping than any senseless gust of wind. Of +draughts there were many, and he tried holding his hand against each +crevice to endeavour to silence the wails; but these became more human +and more distressful. Presently Clarence exclaimed, ‘There!’ and on his +face there was a whiteness and an expression which always recurs to me on +reading those words of Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘Then a spirit passed before +my face, and the hair of my flesh stood up.’ Even Griff was awestruck as +we cried, ‘Where? what?’ + +‘Don’t you see her? There! By the press—look!’ + +‘I see a patch of moonlight on the wall,’ said Griff. + +‘Moonlight—her lamp. Edward, don’t you see her?’ + +I could see nothing but a spot of light on the wall. Griff (plainly +putting a force on himself) came back and gave him a good-natured shake. +‘Dreaming again, old Bill. Wake up and come to your senses.’ + +‘I am as much in my senses as you are,’ said Clarence. ‘I see her as +plainly as I see you.’ + +Nor could any one doubt either the reality of the awe in his voice and +countenance, nor of the light—a kind of hazy ball—nor of the choking +sobs. + +‘What is she like?’ I asked, holding his hand, for, though infected by +his dread, my fears were chiefly for the effect on him; but he was much +calmer and less horror-struck than on the previous night, though still he +shuddered as he answered in a low voice, as if loth to describe a lady in +her presence, ‘A dark cloak with the hood fallen back, a kind of lace +headdress loosely fastened, brown hair, thin white face, eyes—oh, poor +thing!—staring with fright, dark—oh, how swollen the lids! all red below +with crying—black dress with white about it—a widow kind of look—a glove +on the arm with the lamp. Is she beckoning—looking at us? Oh, you poor +thing, if I could tell what you mean!’ + +I felt the motion of his muscles in act to rise, and grasped him. Griff +held him with a strong hand, hoarsely crying, ‘Don’t!—don’t—don’t follow +the thing, whatever you do!’ + +Clarence hid his face. It was very awful and strange. Once the thought +of conjuring her to speak by the Holy Name crossed me, but then I saw no +figure; and with incredulous Griffith standing by, it would have been +like playing, nor perhaps could I have spoken. How long this lasted +there is no knowing; but presently the light moved towards the walled-up +door and seemed to pass into it. Clarence raised his head and said she +was gone. We breathed freely. + +‘The farce is over,’ said Griff. ‘Mr. Edward Winslow’s carriage stops +the way!’ + +I was hoisted up, candle in hand, between the two, and had nearly reached +the stairs when there came up on the garden side a sound as of tipsy +revellers in the garden. ‘The scoundrels! how can they have got in?’ +cried Griff, looking towards the window; but all the windows on that side +had peculiarly heavy shutters and bars, with only a tiny heart-shaped +aperture very high up, so they somewhat hurried their steps downstairs, +intending to rush out on the intruders from the back door. But suddenly, +in the middle of the staircase, we heard a terrible heartrending woman’s +shriek, making us all start and have a general fall. My brothers managed +to seat me safely on a step without much damage to themselves, but the +candle fell and was extinguished, and we made too heavy a weight to fall +without real noise enough to bring the household together before we could +pick ourselves up in the dark. + +We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something about pistols, +impelling Griff to call out, ‘It’s nothing, papa; but there are some +drunken rascals in the garden.’ + +A light had come by this time, and we were detected. There was a general +sally upon the enemy in the garden before any one thought of me, except a +‘You here!’ when they nearly fell over me. And there I was left sitting +on the stair, helpless without my crutches, till in a few minutes all +returned declaring there was nothing—no signs of anything; and then as +Clarence ran up to me with my crutches my father demanded the meaning of +my being there at that time of night. + +‘Well, sir,’ said Griff, ‘it is only that we have been sitting up to +investigate the ghost.’ + +‘Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense! What induced you to be dragging +Edward about in this dangerous way?’ + +‘I wished it,’ said I. + +‘You are all mad together, I think. I won’t have the house disturbed for +this ridiculous folly. I shall look into it to-morrow!’ + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +RATIONAL THEORIES. + + + ‘These are the reasons, they are natural.’ + + _Julius Cæsar_. + +IF anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant to Mr. and Mrs. +Winslow, it would have been the presence of guests. However, inquiry was +suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my mother made to +enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that Emily was nearly +frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew more about the popular +version of the legend than any of us. + +Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head was aching from a bump +against the edge of a step, and his cold was much worse; no wonder, said +my mother; but she was always softened by any ailment, and feared that +the phantoms were the effect of coming illness. I have always thought +that if Clarence could have come home from his court-martial with a brain +fever he would have earned immediate forgiveness; but unluckily for him, +he was a very healthy person. + +All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, where my +father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed ‘this +preposterous business.’ In our morning senses our impressions were much +more vague than at midnight, and we betrayed some confusion; but Griff +and I had a strong instinct of sheltering Clarence, and we stoutly +declared the noises to be beyond the capacities of wind, rats, or cats; +that the light was visible and inexplicable; and that though we had seen +nothing else, we could not doubt that Clarence did. + +‘Thought he did,’ corrected my father. + +‘Without discussing the word,’ said Griff, ‘I mean that the effect on his +senses was the same as the actual sight. You could not look at him +without being certain.’ + +‘Exactly so,’ returned my mother. ‘I wish Dr. Fellowes were near.’ + +Indeed nothing saved Clarence from being consigned to medical treatment +but the distance from Bath or Bristol, and the contradictory advice that +had been received from our county neighbours as to our family doctor. +However, she formed her theory that his nervous imaginings—whether +involuntary or acted, she hoped the former, and wished she could be +sure—had infected us; and, as she was really uneasy about him, she would +not let him sleep in the mullion room, but having nowhere else to bestow +him, she turned out the man-servant and put him into the little room +beyond mine, and she also forbade any mention of the subject to him that +day. + +This was a sore prohibition to Emily, who had been discussing it with the +other ladies, and was in a mingled state of elation at the romance, and +terror at the supernatural, which found vent in excited giggle, and moved +Griff to cram her with raw-head and bloody-bone horrors, conventional +enough to be suspicious, and send her to me tearfully to entreat to know +the truth. If by day she exulted in a haunted chamber, in the evening +she paid for it by terrors at walking about the house alone, and, when +sent on an errand by my mother, looked piteous enough to be laughed at or +scolded on all sides. + +The gentlemen had more serious colloquies, and the upshot was a +determination to sit up together and discover the origin of the +annoyance. Mr. Stafford’s antiquarian researches had made him familiar +with such mysteries, and enough of them had been explained by natural +causes to convince him that there was a key to all the rest. Owls, +coiners, and smugglers had all been convicted of simulating ghosts. In +one venerable mansion, behind the wainscot, there had been discovered +nine skeletons of cats in different stages of decay, having trapped +themselves at various intervals of time, and during the gradual +extinction of their eighty-one lives having emitted cries enough to +establish the ghastly reputation of the place. Perhaps Mr. Henderson was +inclined to believe there were more things in heaven and earth than were +dreamt of in even an antiquary’s philosophy. He owned himself perplexed, +but reserved his opinion. + +At breakfast Clarence was quite well, except for the remains of his sore +throat, and the two seniors were gruff and brief as to their watch. They +had heard odd noises, and should discover the cause; the carpenter had +already been sent for, and they had seen a light which was certainly due +to reflection or refraction. Mr. Henderson committed himself to nothing +but that ‘it was very extraordinary;’ and there was a wicked look of +diversion on Griff’s face, and an exchange of glances. Afterwards, in +our own domain, we extracted a good deal more from them. + +Griff told us how the two elders started on politics, and denounced +Brougham and O’Connell loud enough to terrify any save the most undaunted +ghost, till Henderson said ‘Hush!’ and they paused at the moan with which +the performance always commenced, making Mr. Stafford turn, as Griff +said, ‘white in the gills,’ though he talked of the wind on the stillest +of frosty nights. Then came the sobbing and wailing, which certainly +overawed them all; Henderson called them ‘agonising,’ but Griff was in a +manner inured to this, and felt as if master of the ceremonies. Let them +say what they would by daylight about owls, cats, and rats, they owned +the human element then, and were far from comfortable, though they would +not compromise their good sense by owning what both their younger +companions had perceived—their feeling of some undefinable presence. +Vain attempts had been made to account for the light or get rid of it by +changing the position of candles or bright objects in the outer room; and +Henderson had shut himself into the bedroom with it; but there he still +only saw the hazy light—though all was otherwise pitch dark, except the +keyhole and the small gray patch of sky at the top of the +window-shutters. ‘You saw nothing else?’ said Griff. ‘I thought I heard +you break out as Clarence did, just before my father opened the door.’ + +‘Perhaps I did so. I had the sense strongly on me of some being in +grievous distress very near me.’ + +‘And you should have power over it,’ suggested Emily. + +‘I am afraid,’ he said, ‘that more thorough conviction and comprehension +are needed before I could address the thing with authority. I should +like to have stayed longer and heard the conclusion.’ + +For Mr. Stafford had grown impatient and weary, and my father having +satisfied himself that there was something to be detected, would not +remain to the end, and not only carried his companions off, but locked +the doors, perhaps expecting to imprison some agent in a trick, and find +him in the morning. + +Indeed Clarence had a dim remembrance of having been half wakened by some +one looking in on him in the night, when he was sleeping heavily after +his cold and the previous night’s disturbance, and we suspected, though +we would not say, that our father might have wished to ascertain that he +had no share in producing these appearances. He was, however, fully +acquitted of all wilful deception in the case, and he was not surprised, +though he was disappointed, that his vision of the lady was supposed to +be the consequence of excited imagination. + +‘I can’t help it,’ he said to me in private. ‘I have always seen or +felt, or whatever you may call it, things that others do not. Don’t you +remember how nobody would believe that I saw Lucy Brooke?’ + +‘That was in the beginning of the measles.’ + +‘I know; and I will tell you something curious. When I was at Gibraltar +I met Mrs. Emmott—’ + +‘Mary Brooke?’ + +‘Yes; I spent a very happy Sunday with her. We talked over old times, +and she told me that Lucy had all through her illness been very uneasy +about having promised to bring me a macaw’s feather the next time we +played in the Square gardens. It could not be sent to me for fear of +carrying the infection, but the dear girl was too light-headed to +understand, and kept on fretting and wandering about breaking her word. +I have no doubt the wish carried her spirit to me the moment it was +free,’ he added, with tears springing to his eyes. He also said that +before the court-martial he had, night after night, dreams of sinking and +drowning in huge waves, and his friend Coles struggling to come to his +aid, but being forcibly withheld; and he had since learnt that Coles had +actually endeavoured to come from Plymouth to bear testimony to his +previous character, but had been refused leave, and told that he could do +no good. + +There had been other instances of perception of a presence and of a +prescient foreboding. ‘It is like a sixth sense,’ he said, ‘and a very +uncomfortable one. I would give much to be rid of it, for it is +connected with all that is worst in my life. I had it before Navarino, +when no one expected an engagement. It made me believe I should be +killed, and drove me to what was much worse—or at least I used to think +so.’ + +‘Don’t you now?’ I asked. + +‘No,’ said Clarence. ‘It was a great mercy that I did not die then. +There’s something to conquer first. But you’ll never speak of this, Ted. +I have left off telling of such things—it only gives another reason for +disbelieving me.’ + +However, this time his veracity was not called in question,—but he was +supposed to be under a hallucination, the creation of the noises acting +on his imagination and memory of the persecuted widow, which must have +been somewhere dormant in his mind, though he averred that he had never +heard of it. It had now, however, made a strong impression on him; he +was convinced that some crime or injustice had been perpetrated, and +thought it ought to be investigated; but Griffith made us laugh at his +championship of this shadow of a shade, and even wrote some mock heroic +verses about it,—nor would it have been easy to stir my father to seek +for the motives of an apparition which no one in the family save Clarence +professed to have seen. + +The noises were indisputable, but my mother began to suspect a cause for +them. To oblige a former cook we had brought down with us as stable-boy +her son, George Sims, an imp accustomed to be the pet and jester of a +mews. Martyn was only too fond of his company, and he made no secret of +his contempt for the insufferable dulness of the country, enlivening it +by various acts of monkey-mischief, in some of which Martyn had been +implicated. That very afternoon, as Mrs. Sophia Selby was walking home +in the twilight from Chapman’s lodge, in company with Mr. Henderson, an +eldritch yell proceeding from the vaults beneath the mullion chambers +nearly frightened her into fits. Henderson darted in and captured the +two boys in the fact. Martyn’s asseveration that he had taken the pair +for Griff and Emily would have pacified the good-natured clergyman, but +Mrs. Sophia was too much agitated, or too spiteful, as we declared, not +to make a scene. + +Martyn spent the evening alone and in disgrace, and only his +unimpeachable character for truth caused the acceptance of his +affirmation that the yell was an impromptu fraternal compliment, and that +he had nothing to do with the noises in the mullion chamber. He had been +supposed to be perfectly unconscious of anything of the kind, and to have +never so much as heard of a phantom, so my mother was taken somewhat +aback when, in reply to her demand whether he had ever been so naughty as +to assist George in making a noise in Clarence’s room, he said, ‘Why, +that’s the ghost of the lady that was murdered atop of the steps, and +always walks every Christmas!’ + +‘Who told you such ridiculous nonsense?’ + +The answer ‘George’ was deemed conclusive that all had been got up by +that youth; and there was considerable evidence of his talent for +ventriloquism and taste for practical jokes. My mother was certain that, +having heard of the popular superstition, he had acted ghost. She +appealed to _Woodstock_ to prove the practicability of such feats; and +her absolute conviction persuaded the maids (who had given warning _en +masse_) that the enemy was exorcised when George Sims had been sent off +on the Royal Mail under Clarence’s guardianship. + +None of the junior part of the family believed him guilty, but he had +hunted the cows round the paddock, mounted on my donkey, had nearly shot +the kitchen-maid with Griff’s gun, and, if not much maligned, knew the +way to the apple-chamber only too well,—so that he richly deserved his +doom, rejoiced in it himself, and was unregretted save by Martyn. +Clarence viewed him in the light of a victim, and tried to keep an eye on +him, but he developed his talent as a ventriloquist, made his fortune, +and retired on a public-house. + +My mother would fain have had the vaults under the mullion rooms bricked +up, but Mr. Stafford cried out on the barbarism of such a proceeding. +The mystery was declared to be solved, and was added to Mr. Stafford’s +good stories of haunted houses. + +And at home my father forbade any further mention of such rank folly and +deception. The inner mullion chamber was turned into a lumber-room, and +as weeks passed by without hearing or seeing any more of lady or of lamp, +we began to credit the wonderful freaks of the goblin page. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +CAT LANGUAGE. + + + Soon as she parted thence—the fearful twayne, + That blind old woman and her daughter deare, + Came forth, and finding Kirkrapine there slayne, + For anguish greate they gan to rend their heare + And beate their breasts, and naked flesh to teare; + And when they both had wept and wayled their fill, + Then forth they ran, like two amazèd deere, + Half mad through malice and revenging will, + To follow her that was the causer of their ill.’—SPENSER. + +THE Christmas vacation was not without another breeze about Griffith’s +expenses at Oxford. He held his head high, and declared that people +expected something from the eldest son of a man of property, and my +father tried to convince him that a landed estate often left less cash +available than did the fixed salary of an office. Griff treated all in +his light, good-humoured way, promised to be careful, and came to me to +commiserate the poor old gentleman’s ignorance of the ways of the new +generation. + +There ensued some trying weeks of dark days, raw frost, and black east +wind, when the home party cast longing, lingering recollections back to +the social intercourse, lamp-lit streets, and ready interchange of books +and other amenities we had left behind us. We were not accustomed to +have our nearest neighbours separated from us by two miles of dirty lane, +or road mended with excruciating stones, nor were they very congenial +when we did see them. The Fordyce family might be interesting, but we +younger ones could not forget the slight to Clarence, and, besides, the +girls seemed to be entirely in the schoolroom, Mrs. Fordyce was delicate +and was shut up all the winter, and the only intercourse that took place +was when my father met the elder Mr. Fordyce at the magistrates’ bench; +also there was a conference about Amos Bell, who was preferred to the +post left vacant by George Sims, in right of his being our tenant, but +more civilised than Earlscombers, a widow’s son, and not sufficiently +recovered from his accident to be exposed to the severe tasks of a +ploughboy in the winter. + +Mrs. Fordyce was the manager of a book-club, which circulated volumes +covered in white cartridge paper, with a printed list of the subscribers’ +names. Two volumes at a time might be kept for a month by each member in +rotation, novels were excluded, and the manager had a veto on all orders. +We found her more liberal than some of our other neighbours, who looked +on our wants and wishes with suspicion as savouring of London notions. +Happily we could read old books and standard books over again, and we +gloated over _Blackwood_ and the _Quarterly_, enjoying, too, every +out-of-door novelty of the coming spring, as each revealed itself. Emily +will never forget her first primroses, nor I the first thrush in early +morning. + +Blankets, broth, and what were uncomfortably termed broken victuals had +been given away during the winter, and a bewildering amount of begging +women and children used to ask interviews with ‘the Lady Winslow,’ with +stories that crumbled on investigation so as to make us recollect the +Rector’s character of Earlscombe. + +However, Mr. Henderson came in the second week of Lent, and what our +steps towards improvement introduced would have seemed almost as shocking +to you youngsters, as what they displaced. For instance, a plain crimson +cloth covered the altar, instead of the rags in the colours of the +Winslow livery, presented, according to the queer old register, by the +unfortunate Margaret. There was talk of velvet and the gold monogram, +surrounded by rays, alternately straight and wavy, as in our London +church, but this was voted ‘unfit for a plain village church.’ Still, +the new hangings of pulpit, desk, and altar were all good in quality and +colour, and huge square cushions were provided as essential to each. +Moreover, the altar vessels were made somewhat more respectable,—all this +being at my father’s expense. + +He also carried in the Vestry, though not without strong opposition from +a dissenting farmer, that new linen and a fresh surplice should be +provided by the parish, which surplice would have made at least six of +such as are at present worn. The farmers were very jealous of the +interference of the Squire in the Vestry—‘what he had no call to,’ and of +church rates applied to any other object than the reward of birdslayers, +as thus, in the register— + +Hairy Wills, 1 score sprows heds 2d. +Jems Brown, 1 poulcat 6d. +Jarge Bell, 2 howls 6d. + +It was several years before this appropriation of the church rates could +be abolished. The year 1830, with a brand new squire and parson, was too +ticklish a time for many innovations. + +Hillside Church was the only one in the neighbourhood where Holy Week or +Ascension Day had been observed in the memory of man. When we proposed +going to church on the latter day the gardener asked my mother ‘if it was +her will to keep Thursday holy,’ as if he expected its substitution for +Sunday. Monthly Communions and Baptisms after the Second Lesson were +viewed as ‘not fit for a country church,’ and every attempt at even more +secular improvements was treated with the most disappointing distrust and +aversion. When my father laid out the allotment grounds, the labourers +suspected some occult design for his own profit, and the farmers objected +that the gardens would be used as an excuse for neglecting their work and +stealing their potatoes. Coal-club and clothing-club were regarded in +like manner, and while a few took advantage of these offers in a grudging +manner, the others viewed everything except absolute gifts as ‘me-an’ on +our part, the principle of aid to self-help being an absolute novelty. +When I look back to the notes in our journals of that date I see how much +has been overcome. + +Perhaps we listened more than was strictly wise to the revelations of +Amos Bell, when he attended Emily and me on our expeditions with the +donkey. Though living over the border of Hillside, he had a family of +relations at Earlscombe, and for a time lodged with his grandmother +there. When his shyness and lumpishness gave way, he proved so bright +that Emily undertook to carry on his education. He soon had a wonderful +eye for a wild flower, and would climb after it with the utmost agility; +and when once his tongue was loosed, he became almost too communicative, +and made us acquainted with the opinions of ‘they Earlscoom folk’ with a +freedom not to be found in an elder or a native. + +Moreover, he was the brightest light of the Sunday school which Mr. +Henderson opened at once—for want of a more fitting place—in the disused +north transept of the church. It was an uncouth, ill-clad crew which +assembled on those dilapidated paving tiles. Their own grandchildren +look almost as far removed from them in dress and civilisation as did my +sister in her white worked cambric dress, silk scarf, huge Tuscan bonnet, +and the little curls beyond the lace quilling round her bright face, far +rosier than ever it had been in town. And what would the present +generation say to the odd little contrivances in the way of cotton +sun-bonnets, check pinafores, list tippets, and print capes, and other +wonderful manufactures from the rag-bag, which were then grand prizes and +stimulants? + +Previous knowledge or intelligence scarcely existed, and then was not due +to Dame Dearlove’s tuition. Mr. Henderson pronounced an authorised +school a necessity. My father had scruples as to vested rights, for the +old woman was the last survivor of a family who had had recourse to +primer and hornbook after their ejection on ‘black Bartholomew’s Day;’ +and when the meeting-house was built after the Revolution, had combined +preaching with teaching. Monopoly had promoted degeneracy, and this last +of the race was an unfavourable specimen in all save outward +picturesqueness. However, much against Henderson’s liking, an +accommodation was proposed, by which books were to be supplied to her, +and the Church Catechism be taught in her school, with the assistance of +the curate and Miss Winslow. + +The terms were rejected with scorn. No School Board could be more +determined against the Catechism, nor against ‘passons meddling wi’ she;’ +and as to assistance, ‘she had been a governess this thirty year, and +didn’t want no one trapesing in and out of her school.’ + +She was warned, but probably did not believe in the possibility of an +opposition school; and really there were children enough in the place to +overfill both her room and that which was fitted up after a very humble +fashion in one of our cottages. H.M. Inspector would hardly have thought +it even worth condemnation any more than the attainments of the mistress, +the young widow of a small Bristol skipper. Her qualifications consisted +in her piety and conscientiousness, good temper and excellent needlework, +together with her having been a scholar in one of Mrs. Hannah More’s +schools in the Cheddar district. She could read and teach reading well; +but as for the dangerous accomplishments of writing and arithmetic, such +as desired to pass beyond the rudiments of them must go to Wattlesea. + +So nice did she look in her black that Earlscombe voted her a mere town +lady, and even at a penny a week hesitated to send its children to her. +Indeed it was currently reported that her school was part of a deep and +nefarious scheme of the gentlefolks for reducing the poor-rates by +enticing the children, and then shipping them off to foreign parts from +Bristol. + +But the great crisis was one unlucky summer evening when Emily and I were +out with the donkey, and Griffith, just come home from Oxford, was airing +the new acquisition of a handsome black retriever. + +Close by the old chapel, a black cat was leisurely crossing the road. At +her dashed Nero, stimulated perhaps by an almost involuntary +scss—scss—from his master, if not from Amos and me. The cat flew up a +low wall, and stood at bay on the top on tiptoe, with bristling tail, +arched back, and fiery eyes, while the dog danced round in agony on his +hind legs, barking furiously, and almost reaching her. Female sympathy +ever goes to the cat, and Emily screamed out in the fear that he would +seize her, or even that Griff might aid him. Perhaps Amos would have +done so, if left to himself; but Griff, who saw the cat was safe, could +not help egging on his dog’s impotent rage, when in the midst, out flew +pussy’s mistress, Dame Dearlove herself, broomstick in hand, using +language as vituperative as the cat’s, and more intelligible. + +She was about to strike the dog—indeed I fancy she did, for there was a +howl, and Griff sprang to his defence with—‘Don’t hurt my dog, I say! He +hasn’t touched the brute! She can take care of herself. Here, there’s +half-a-crown for the fright,’ as the cat sprang down within the wall, and +Nero slunk behind him. But Dame Dearlove was not so easily appeased. +Her blood was up after our long series of offences, and she broke into a +regular tirade of abuse. + +‘That’s the way with you fine folk, thinking you can tread down poor +people like the dirt under your feet, and insult ’em when you’ve taken +the bread out of the mouths of them that were here before you. Passons +and ladies a meddin’ where no one ever set a foot before! Ay, ay, but +ye’ll all be down before long.’ + +Griff signed to us to go on, and thundered out on her to take care what +she was about and not be abusive; but this brought a fresh volley on him, +heralded by a derisive laugh. ‘Ha! ha! fine talking for the likes of +you, Winslows that you are. But there’s a curse on you all! The poor +lady as was murdered won’t let you be! Why, there’s one of you, poor +humpy object—’ + +At this savage attack on me, Griff waxed furious, and shouted at her to +hold her confounded tongue, but this only diverted the attack on himself. +‘And as for you—fine chap as ye think yourself, swaggering and swearing +at poor folk, and setting your dog at them—your time’s coming. Look out +for yourself. It’s well known as how the curse is on the first-born. +The Lady Margaret don’t let none of ’em live to come after his father.’ + +Griff laughed and said, ‘There, we have had enough of this;’ and in fact +we had already moved on, so that he had to make some long steps to +overtake us, muttering, ‘So we’ve started a Meg Merrilies! My father +won’t keep such a foul-mouthed hag in the parish long!’ + +To which I had to respond that her cottage belonged to the trustees of +the chapel, whereat he whistled. I don’t think he knew that we had heard +her final denunciation, and we did not like to mention it to him, +scarcely to each other, though Emily looked very white and scared. + +We talked it over afterwards in private, and with Henderson, who +confessed that he had heard of the old woman’s saying something of the +kind to other persons. We consulted the registers in hopes of confuting +it, but did not satisfy ourselves. The last Squire had lost his only son +at school. He himself had been originally second in the family, and in +the generation before him there had been some child-deaths, after which +we came back to a young man, apparently the eldest, who, according to +Miss Selby’s story, had been killed in a duel by one of the Fordyces. It +was not comfortable, till I remembered that our family Bible recorded the +birth, baptism, and death of a son who had preceded Griffith, and only +borne for a day the name afterwards bestowed on me. + +And Henderson, who was so little our elder as to discuss things on fairly +equal grounds, had some very interesting talks with us two over ancestral +sin and its possible effects, dwelling on the 18th of Ezekiel as a +comment on the Second Commandment. Indeed, we agreed that the +uncomfortable state of disaffection which, in 1830, was becoming only too +manifest in the populace, was the result of neglect in former ages, and +that, even in our own parish, the bitterness, distrust, and ingratitude +were due to the careless, riotous, and oppressive family whom we +represented. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +THE SIEGE OF HILLSIDE. + + + ‘Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar, + Represt ambition struggles round the shore; + Till, overwrought, the general system feels + Its motion stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.’ + + GOLDSMITH. + +GRIFFITH had come straight home this year. There were no Peacock +gaieties to tempt him in London, for old Sir Henry had died suddenly soon +after the ball in December; nor was there much of a season that year, +owing to the illness and death of George IV. + +A regiment containing two old schoolmates of his was at Bristol, and he +spent a good deal of time there, and also in Yeomanry drill. As autumn +came on we rejoiced in having so stalwart a protector, for the +agricultural riots had begun, and the forebodings of another French +Revolution seemed about to be realised. We stayed on at Chantry House. +My father thought his duty lay there as a magistrate, and my mother would +not leave him; nor indeed was any other place much safer, certainly not +London, whence Clarence wrote accounts of formidable mobs who were +expected to do more harm than they accomplished; though their hatred of +the hero of our country filled us with direful prognostications, and made +us think of the guillotine, which was linked with revolution in our +minds, before we had I beheld the numerous changes that followed upon the +thirty years of peace in which we grew up. + +The ladies did not much like losing so stalwart a defender when Griff +returned to Oxford; and Jane the housemaid went to bed every night with +the pepper-pot and a poker, the first wherewith to blind the enemy, the +second to charge them with. From our height we could more than once see +blazing ricks, and were glad that the home farm was not in our own hands, +and that our only stack of hay was a good way from the house. When the +onset came at last, it was December, and the enemy only consisted of +about thirty dreary-looking men and boys in smock-frocks and chalked or +smutted faces, armed only with sticks and an old gun diverted from its +purpose of bird-scaring. They shouted for food, money, and arms; but my +father spoke to them from the hall steps, told them they had better go +home and learn that the public-house was a worse enemy to them than any +machine that had ever been invented, and assured them that they would get +no help from him in breaking the laws and getting themselves into +trouble. A stone or two was picked up, whereupon he went back and had +the hall door shut and barred, the heavy shutters of the windows having +all been closed already, so that we could have stood a much more severe +siege than from these poor fellows. One or two windows were broken, as +well as the glass of the conservatory, and the flower beds were trampled; +but finding our fortress impregnable they sneaked away before dark. We +fared better than our neighbours, some of whom were seriously frightened, +and suffered loss of property. Old Mr. Fordyce had for many years past +been an active magistrate—that a clergyman should be on the bench having +been quite correct according to the notions of his younger days; and in +spite of his beneficence he incurred a good deal of unpopularity for +withstanding the lax good-nature which made his brother magistrates give +orders for parish relief refused to able-bodied paupers by their own +Vestries. This was a mischievous abuse of the old poor-law times, which +made people dispose of every one’s money save their own. He had also +been a keen sportsman; and though his son had given up field sports in +deference to higher notions of clerical duty (his wife’s, as people +said), the old man’s feeling prompted him to severity on poachers. Frank +Fordyce, while by far the most earnest, hardworking clergyman in the +neighbourhood, worked off his superfluous energy on scientific farming, +making the glebe and the hereditary estate as much the model farm as +Hillside was the model parish. He had lately set up a threshing-machine +worked by horses, which was as much admired by the intelligent as it was +vituperated by the ignorant. + +Neither paupers nor poachers abounded in Hillside; the natives were +chiefly tenants and employed on the property, and, between good +management and beneficence, there was little real want and much friendly +confidence and affection; and thus, in spite of surrounding riots, +Hillside seemed likely to be an exception, proving what could he done by +rightful care and attention. Nor indeed did the attack come from thence; +but the two parsons were bitterly hated by outsiders beyond the reach of +their personal influence and benevolence. + +It was on a Saturday evening, the day after Griff had come back for the +Christmas vacation, that, as Emily was giving Amos his lesson, she saw +that the boy was crying, and after examination he let out that ‘folk +should say that the lads were agoing to break Parson Fordy’s machine and +fire his ricks that very night;’ but he would not give his authority, and +when he saw her about to give warning, entreated, ‘Now, dont’ze say +nothing, Miss Emily—’ + +‘What?’ she cried indignantly; ‘do you think I could hear of such a thing +without trying to stop it?’ + +‘Us says,’ he blurted out, ‘as how Winslows be always fain of ought as +happens to the Fordys—’ + +‘We are not such wicked Winslows as you have heard of,’ returned Emily +with dignity; and she rushed off in quest of papa and Griff, but when she +brought them to the bookroom, Amos had decamped, and was nowhere to be +found that night. We afterwards learnt that he lay hidden in the +hay-loft, not daring to return to his granny’s, lest he should be +suspected of being a traitor to his kind; for our lawless, untamed, +discontented parish furnished a large quota to the rioters, and he has +since told me that though all seemed to know what was about to be done, +he did not hear it from any one in particular. + +It was no time to make light of a warning, but very difficult to know +what to do. Rural police were non-existent; there were no soldiers +nearer than Keynsham, and the Yeomanry were all in their own homesteads. +However, the captain of Griff’s troop, Sir George Eastwood, lived about +three miles beyond Wattlesea, and had a good many dependants in the +corps, so it was resolved to send him a note by the gardener, good James +Ellis, a steady, resolute man, on Emily’s fast-trotting pony, while my +father and Griff should hasten to Hillside to warn the Fordyces, who were +not unlikely to be able to muster trustworthy defenders among their own +people, and might send the ladies to take shelter at Chantry House. + +My mother’s brave spirit disdained to detain an effective man for her own +protection, and the groom was to go to Hillside; he was in the Yeomanry, +and, like Griff, put on his uniform, while my father had the Riot Act in +his pocket. All the horses were thus absorbed, but Chapman and the +man-servant followed on foot. + +Never did I feel my incapacity more than on that strange night, when +Emily was flying about with Martyn to all the doors and windows in a wild +state of excitement, humming to herself— + + ‘When the dawn on the mountain was misty and gray, + My true love has mounted his steed and away.’ + +My mother was equally restless, prolonging as much as possible the +preparation of rooms for possible guests; and when she did come and sit +down, she netted her purse with vehement jerks, and scolded Emily for +jumping up and leaving doors open. + +At last, after an hour according to the clock, but far more by our +feelings, wheels were heard in the distance; Emily was off like a shot to +reconnoitre, and presently Martyn bounced in with the tidings that a pair +of carriage lamps were coming up the drive. My mother hurried out into +the hall; I made my best speed after her, and found her hastily undoing +the door-chain as she recognised the measured, courteous voice of old Mr. +Fordyce. In a moment more they were all in the house, the old gentleman +giving his arm to his daughter-in-law, who was quite overcome with +distress and alarm; then came his tall, slim granddaughter, carrying her +little sister with arms full of dolls, and sundry maid-servants completed +the party of fugitives. + +‘We are taking advantage of Mr. Winslow’s goodness,’ said the old Rector. +‘He assured us that you would be kind enough to receive those who would +only be an encumbrance.’ + +‘Oh, but I must go back to Frank now that you and the children are safe,’ +cried the poor lady. ‘Don’t send away the carriage; I must go back to +Frank.’ + +‘Nonsense, my dear,’ returned Mr. Fordyce, ‘Frank is in no danger. He +will get on much better for knowing you are safe. Mrs. Winslow will tell +you so.’ + +My mother was enforcing this assurance, when the little girl’s sobs burst +out in spite of her sister, who had been trying to console her. ‘It is +Celestina Mary,’ she cried, pointing to three dolls whom she had carried +in clasped to her breast. ‘Poor Celestina Mary! She is left behind, and +Ellen won’t let me go and see if she is in the carriage.’ + +‘My dear, if she is in the carriage, she will be quite safe in the +morning.’ + +‘Oh, but she will be so cold. She had nothing on but Rosella’s old +petticoat.’ + +The distress was so real that I had my hand on the bell to cause a search +to be instituted for the missing damsel, when Mrs. Fordyce begged me to +do no such thing, as it was only a doll. The child, while endeavouring +to shelter with a shawl the dolls, snatched in their night-gear from +their beds, wept so piteously at the rebuff that her grandfather had +nearly gone in quest of the lost one, but was stopped by a special +entreaty that he would not spoil the child. Martyn, however, who had +been standing in open-mouthed wonder at such feeling for a doll, +exclaimed, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry. I’ll go and get it for you;’ and +rushed off to the stable-yard. + +This episode had restored Mrs. Fordyce, and while providing some of our +guests with wine, and others with tea, we heard the story, only +interrupted by Martyn’s return from a vain search, and Anne’s consequent +tears, which, however, were somehow hushed and smothered by fears of +being sent to bed, coupled with his promises to search every step of the +way to-morrow. + +It appeared that while the Fordyce family were at dinner, shouts, howls +and yells had startled them. The rabble had surrounded the Rectory, +bawling out abuse of the parsons and their machines, and occasionally +throwing stones. There was no help to be expected; the only hope was in +the strength of the doors and windows, and the knowledge that personal +violence was very uncommon; but those were terrible moments, and poor +Mrs. Fordyce was nearly dead with suppressed terror when her husband +tried haranguing from an upper window, and was received with execrations +and a volley of stones, while the glass crashed round him. + +At that instant the shouts turned to yells of dismay, ‘The so’diers! the +so’diers!’ + +Our party had found everything still and dark in the village, for in +truth the men had hidden themselves. They were being too much attached +to their masters to join in the attack, but were afraid of being +compelled to assist the rioters, and not resolute enough against their +own class either to inform against them or oppose them. + +Through the midnight-like stillness of the street rose the tumult around +the Rectory; and by the light of a few lanterns, and from the upper +windows, they could see a mass of old hats, smock-frocked shoulders, and +the tops of bludgeons; while at soonest, Sir George Eastwood’s troop +could not be expected for an hour or more. + +‘We must get to them somehow,’ said my father and Griff to one another; +and Griff added, ‘These rascals are arrant cowards, and they can’t see +the number of us.’ + +Then, before my father knew what he was about—certainly before he could +get hold of the Riot Act—he found the stable lantern made over to him, +and Griff’s sword flashing in light, as, making all possible clatter and +jingling with their accoutrements, the two yeomen dashed among the +throng, shouting with all their might, and striking with the flat of +their swords. The rioters, ill-fed, dull-hearted men for the most +part—many dragged out by compulsion, and already terrified—went tumbling +over one another and running off headlong, bearing off with them (as we +afterwards learnt) their leaders by their weight, taking the blows and +pushes they gave one another in their pell-mell rush for those of the +soldiery, and falling blindly against the low wall of the enclosure. The +only difficulty was in clearing them out at the two gates of the drive. + +When Mr. Fordyce opened the door to hail his rescuers he was utterly +amazed to behold only three, and asked in a bewildered voice, ‘Where are +the others?’ + +There were two prisoners, Petty the ratcatcher, who had attempted some +resistance and had been knocked down by Griff’s horse, and a young lad in +a smock-frock who had fallen off the wall and hurt his knee, and who +blubbered piteously, declaring that them chaps had forced him to go with +them, or they would duck him in the horse-pond. They were supposed to be +given in charge to some one, but were lost sight of, and no wonder! For +just then it was discovered that the machine shed was on fire. The +rioters had apparently detached one of their number to kindle the flame +before assaulting the house. The matter was specially serious, because +the stackyard was on a line with the Rectory, at some distance indeed, +but on lower ground; and what with barns, hay and wheat ricks, sheds, +cowhouses and stables, all thatched, a big wood-pile, and a long +old-fashioned greenhouse, there was almost continuous communication. +Clouds of smoke and an ominous smell were already perceptible on the +wind, generated by the heat, and the loose straw in the centre of the +farmyard was beginning to be ignited by the flakes and sparks, carrying +the mischief everywhere, and rendering it exceedingly difficult to +release the animals and drive them to a place of safety. Water was +scarce. There were only two wells, besides the pump in the house, and a +shallow pond. The brook was a quarter of a mile off in the valley, and +the nearest engine, a poor feeble thing, at Wattlesea. Moreover, the +assailants might discover how small was the force of rescuers, and return +to the attack. Thus, while Griff, who had given amateur assistance at +all the fires he could reach in London; was striving to organise +resistance to this new enemy, my father induced the gentlemen to cause +the horses to be put to the various vehicles, and employ them in carrying +the women and children to Chantry House. The old Rector was persuaded to +go to take care of his daughter-in-law, and she only thought of putting +her girls in safety. She listened to reason, and indeed was too much +exhausted to move when once she was laid on the sofa. She would not hear +of going to bed, though her little daughter Anne was sent off with her +nurse, grandpapa persuading her that Rosella and the others were very +much tired. When she was gone, he declared his fears that he had sat +down on Celestina’s head, and showed so much compunction that we were +much amused at his relief when Martyn assured him of having searched the +carriage with a stable lantern, so that whatever had befallen the lady he +was not the guilty person. He really seemed more concerned about this +than at the loss of all his own barns and stores. And little Anne was +certainly as lovely and engaging a little creature as ever I saw; while, +as to her elder sister, in all the trouble and anxiety of the night, I +could not help enjoying the sight of her beautiful eager face and form. +She was tall and very slight, sylph-like, as it was the fashion to call +it, but every limb was instinct with grace and animation. Her face was, +perhaps, rather too thin for robust health, though this enhanced the idea +of her being all spirit, as also did the transparency of complexion, +tinted with an exquisite varying carnation. Her eyes were of a clear, +bright, rather light brown, and were sparkling with the lustre of +excitement, her delicate lips parted, showing the pretty pearly teeth, as +she was telling Emily, in a low voice of enthusiasm, scarcely designed +for my ears, how glorious a sight our brother had been, riding there in +his glancing silver, bearing down all before him with his good sword, +like the Captal de Buch dispersing the Jacquerie. + +To which Emily responded, ‘Oh, don’t you love the Captal de Buch?’ And +their friendship was cemented. + +Next I heard, ‘And that you should have been so good after all my +rudeness. But I thought you were like the old Winslows; and instead of +that you have come to the rescue of your enemies. Isn’t it beautiful?’ + +‘Oh no, not enemies,’ said Emily. ‘That was all over a hundred years +ago!’ + +‘So my papa and grandpapa say,’ returned Miss Fordyce; ‘but the last Mr. +Winslow was not a very nice man, and never would be civil to us.’ + +A report was brought that the glare of the fire could be seen over the +hill from the top of the house, and off went the two young ladies to the +leads, after satisfying themselves that Anne was asleep among her +homeless dolls. + +Old Mr. Fordyce devoted himself to keeping up the spirits of his +daughter-in-law as the night advanced without any tidings, except that +the girls, from time to time, rushed down to tell us of fresh outbursts +of red flame reflected in the sky, then that the glow was diminishing; by +which time they were tired out, and, both sinking into a big armchair, +they went to sleep in each other’s arms. Indeed I believe we all dozed +more or less before any one returned from the scene of action—at about +three o’clock. + +The struggle with the flames had been very unequal. The long tongues +soon reached the roof of the large barn, which was filled with straw, nor +could the flakes of burning thatch be kept from the stable, while the +water of the pond was soon reduced to mud. Helpers began to flock in, +but who could tell which were trustworthy? and all were uncomprehending. + +There was so little hope of saving the house that the removal of +everything valuable was begun under my father’s superintendence. Frank +Fordyce was here, there, and everywhere; while Griffith, like a gallant +general, fought the foe with very helpless unmanageable forces. +Villagers, male and female, had emerged and stood gaping round; but, let +him rage and storm as he might, they would not go and collect pails and +buckets and form a line to the brook. Still less would they assist in +overthrowing and carrying away the faggots of a big wood-pile so as to +cut off the communication with the offices. Only Chapman and one other +man gave any help in this; and presently the stack caught, and Griff, on +the top, was in great peril of the faggots rolling down with him into the +middle, and imprisoning him in the blazing pile. ‘I never felt so like +Dido,’ said Griff. + +That woodstack gave fearful aliment to the roaring flame, which came on +so fast that the destruction of the adjoining buildings quickly followed. +The Wattlesea engine had come, but the yard well was unattainable, and +all that could be done was to saturate the house with water from its own +well, and cover the side with wet blankets; but these reeked with steam, +and then shrivelled away in the intense glow of heat. + +However, by this time the Eastwood Yeomanry, together with some +reasonable men, had arrived. A raid was made on the cottages for +buckets, a chain formed to the river, and at last the fire was got under, +having made a wreck of everything out-of-doors, and consumed one whole +wing of the house, though the older and more esteemed portion was saved. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +THE PORTRAIT. + + + ‘When day was gone and night was come, + And all men fast asleep, + There came the spirit of fair Marg’ret + And stood at William’s feet.’ + + _Scotch Ballad_. + +WHEN I emerged from my room the next morning the phaeton was at the door +to take the two clergymen to reconnoitre their abode before going to +church. Miss Fordyce went with them, and my father was for once about to +leave his parish church to give them his sympathy, and join in their +thanksgiving that neither life nor limb had been injured. He afterwards +said that nothing could have been more touching than old Mr. Fordyce’s +manner of mentioning this special cause for gratitude before the General +Thanksgiving; and Frank Fordyce, having had all his sermons burnt, gave a +short address extempore (a very rare and almost shocking thing at that +date), reducing half the congregation to tears, for they really loved +‘the fam’ly,’ though they had not spirit enough to defend it; and their +passiveness always remained a subject of pride and pleasure to the +Fordyces. It was against the will of these good people that Petty, the +ratcatcher, was arrested, but he had been engaged in other outrages, +though this was the only one in which a dwelling-house had suffered. And +Chapman observed that ‘there was nothing to be done with such chaps but +to string ’em up out of the way.’ + +Griff had toiled that night till he was as stiff as a rheumatic old man +when he came down only just in time for luncheon. Mrs. Fordyce did not +appear at all. She was a fragile creature, and quite knocked up by the +agitations of the night. The gentlemen had visited the desolate rectory, +and found that though the fine ancient kitchen had escaped, the pleasant +living rooms had been injured by the water, and the place could hardly be +made habitable before the spring. They proposed to take a house in Bath, +whence Frank Fordyce could go and come for Sunday duty and general +superintendence, but my parents were urgent that they should not leave us +until after Christmas, and they consented. Their larger possessions were +to be stored in the outhouses, their lesser in our house, notably in the +inner mullion chamber, which would thus be so blocked that there would be +no question of sleeping in it. + +Old Mr. Fordyce had ascertained that he might acquit himself of smashing +Celestina Mary, for no remains appeared in the carriage; but a miserable +trunk was discovered in the ruins, which he identified—though surely no +one else save the disconsolate parent could have done so. Poor little +Anne’s private possessions had suffered most severely of all, for her +whole nursery establishment had vanished. Her surviving dolls were left +homeless, and devoid of all save their night-clothing, which concerned +her much more than the loss of almost all her own garments. For what +dolls were to her could never have been guessed by us, who had forced +Emily to disdain them; whereas they were children to the maternal heart +of this lonely child. + +She was quite a new revelation to us. All the Fordyces were handsome; +and her chestnut curls and splendid eyes, her pretty colour and +unconscious grace, were very charming. Emily was so near our own age +that we had never known the winsomeness of a little maid-child amongst +us, and she was a perpetual wonder and delight to us. + +Indeed, from having always lived with her elders, she was an odd little +old-fashioned person, advanced in some ways, and comically simple in +others. Her doll-heart was kept in abeyance all Sunday, and it was only +on Monday that her anxiety for Celestina manifested itself with +considerable vehemence; but her grandfather gravely informed her that the +young lady was gone to an excellent doctor, who would soon effect a cure. +The which was quite true, for he had sent her to a toy-shop by one of the +maids who had gone to restore the ravage on the wardrobes, and who +brought her back with a new head and arms, her identity apparently not +being thus interfered with. The hoards of scraps were put under +requisition to re-clothe the survivors; and I won my first step in Miss +Anne’s good graces by undertaking a knitted suit for Rosella. + +The good little girl had evidently been schooled to repress her dread and +repugnance at my unlucky appearance, and was painfully polite, only +shutting her eyes when she came to shake hands with me; but after Rosella +condescended to adopt me, we became excellent friends. Indeed the +following conversation was overheard by Emily, and set down: + +‘Do you know, Martyn, there’s a fairies’ ring on Hillside Down?’ + +‘Mushrooms,’ quoth Martyn. + +‘Yes, don’t you know? They are the fairies’ tables. They come out and +spread them with lily tablecloths at night, and have acorn cups for +dishes, with honey in them. And they dance and play there. Well, +couldn’t Mr. Edward go and sit under the beech-tree at the edge till they +come?’ + +‘I don’t think he would like it at all,’ said Martyn. ‘He never goes out +at odd times.’ + +‘Oh, but don’t you know? when they come they begin to sing— + + ‘“Sunday and Monday, + Monday and Tuesday.” + +And if he was to sing nicely, + + ‘“Wednesday and Thursday,” + +they would be so much pleased that they would make his back straight +again in a moment. At least, perhaps Wednesday and Thursday would not +do, because the little tailor taught them those; but Friday makes them +angry. But suppose he made some nice verse— + + ‘“Monday and Tuesday + The fairies are gay, + Tuesday and Wednesday + They dance away—” + +I think that would do as well, perhaps. Do get him to do so, Martyn. It +would be so nice if he was tall and straight.’ + +Dear little thing! Martyn, who was as much her slave as was her +grandfather, absolutely made her shed tears over his history of our +accident, and then caressed them off; but I believe he persuaded her that +such a case might be beyond the fairies’ reach, and that I could hardly +get to the spot in secret, which, it seems, is an essential point. He +had imagination enough to be almost persuaded of fairyland by her +earnestness, and she certainly took him into doll-land. He had a turn +for carpentry and contrivance, and he undertook that the Ladies Rosella, +etc., should be better housed than ever. A great packing-case was routed +out, and much ingenuity was expended, much delight obtained, in the +process of converting it into a doll’s mansion, and replenishing it with +furniture. Some was bought, but Martyn aspired to make whatever he +could; I did a good deal, and I believe most of our achievements are +still extant. Whatever we could not manage, Clarence was to accomplish +when he should come home. + +His arrival was, as usual, late in the evening; and, as before, he had +the little room within mine. In the morning, as we were crossing the +hall to the bright wood fire, around which the family were wont to +assemble before prayers, he came to a pause, asking under his breath, +‘What’s that? Who’s that?’ + +‘It is one of the Hillside pictures. You know we have a great many +things here from thence.’ + +‘It is _she_,’ he said, in a low, awe-stricken voice. No need to say who +_she_ meant. + +I had not paid much attention to the picture. It had come with several +more, such as are rife in country houses, and was one of the worst of the +lot, a poor imitation of Lely’s style, with a certain air common to all +the family; but Clarence’s eyes were riveted on it. ‘She looks younger,’ +he said; ‘but it is the same. I could swear to the lip and the whole +shape of the brow and chin. No—the dress is different.’ + +For in the portrait, there was nothing on the head, and one long lock of +hair fell on the shoulder of the low-cut white-satin dress, done in very +heavy gray shading. The three girls came down together, and I asked who +the lady was. + +‘Don’t you know? You ought; for that is poor Margaret who married your +ancestor.’ + +No more was said then, for the rest of the world was collecting, and then +everybody went out their several ways. Some tin tacks were wanted for +the dolls’ house, and there were reports that Wattlesea possessed a +doll’s grate and fire-irons. The children were wild to go in quest of +them, but they were not allowed to go alone, and it was pronounced too +far and too damp for the elder sister, so that they would have been +disappointed, if Clarence—stimulated by Martyn’s kicks under the +table—had not offered to be their escort. When Mrs. Fordyce demurred, my +mother replied, ‘You may perfectly trust her with Clarence.’ + +‘Yes; I don’t know a safer squire,’ rejoined my father. + +Commendation was so rare that Clarence quite blushed with pleasure; and +the pretty little thing was given into his charge, prancing and dancing +with pleasure, and expecting much more from sixpence and from Wattlesea +than was likely to be fulfilled. + + [Picture: ‘That is poor Margaret who married your ancestor.’] + +Griff went out shooting, and the two young ladies and I intended to spend +a very rational morning in the bookroom, reading aloud Mme. de La +Rochejaquelein’s _Memoirs_ by turns. Our occupations were, on Emily’s +part, completing a reticule, in a mosaic of shaded coloured beads no +bigger than pins’ heads, for a Christmas gift to mamma—a most wearisome +business, of which she had grown extremely tired. Miss Fordyce was +elaborately copying our Müller’s print of Raffaelle’s St. John in pencil +on cardboard, so as to be as near as possible a facsimile; and she had +trusted me to make a finished water-coloured drawing from a rough sketch +of hers of the Hillside barn and farm-buildings, now no more. + +In a pause Ellen Fordyce suddenly asked, ‘What did you mean about that +picture?’ + +‘Only Clarence said it was like—’ and here Emily came to a dead stop. + +‘Grandpapa says it is like me,’ said Miss Fordyce. ‘What, you don’t mean +_that_? Oh! oh! oh! is it true? Does she walk? Have you seen her? +Mamma calls it all nonsense, and would not have Anne hear of it for +anything; but old Aunt Peggy used to tell me, and I am sure grandpapa +believes it, just a little. Have you seen her?’ + +‘Only Clarence has, and he knew the picture directly.’ + +She was much impressed, and on slight persuasion related the story, which +she had heard from an elder sister of her grandfather’s, and which had +perhaps been the more impressed on her by her mother’s consternation at +‘such folly’ having been communicated to her. Aunt Peggy, who was much +older than her brother, had died only four years ago, at eighty-eight, +having kept her faculties to the last, and handed down many traditions to +her great-niece. The old lady’s father had been contemporary with the +Margaret of ghostly fame, so that the stages had been few through which +it had come down from 1708 to 1830. + +I wrote it down at once, as it here stands. + +Margaret was the only daughter of the elder branch of the Fordyces. Her +father had intended her to marry her cousin, the male heir on whom the +Hillside estates and the advowson of that living were entailed; but +before the contract had been formally made, the father was killed by +accident, and through some folly and ambition of her mother’s (such +seemed to be the Fordyce belief), the poor heiress was married to Sir +James Winslow, one of the successful intriguers of the days of the later +Stewarts, and with a family nearly as old, if not older, than herself. +Her own children died almost at their birth, and she was left a young +widow. Being meek and gentle, her step-sons and daughters still ruled +over Chantry House. They prevented her Hillside relations from having +access to her whilst in a languishing state of health, and when she died +unexpectedly, she was found to have bequeathed all her property to her +step-son, Philip Winslow, instead of to her blood relations, the +Fordyces. + +This was certain, but the Fordyce tradition was that she had been kept +shut up in the mullion chambers, where she had often been heard weeping +bitterly. One night in the winter, when the gentlemen of the family had +gone out to a Christmas carousal, she had endeavoured to escape by the +steps leading to the garden from the door now bricked up, but had been +met by them and dragged back with violence, of which she died in the +course of a few days; and, what was very suspicious, she had been +entirely attended by her step-daughter and an old nurse, who never would +let her own woman come near her. + +The Fordyces had thought of a prosecution, but the Winslows had powerful +interest at Court in those corrupt times, and contrived to hush up the +matter, as well as to win the suit in which the Fordyces attempted to +prove that there was no right to will the property away. Bitter enmity +remained between the families; they were always opposed in politics, and +their animosity was fed by the belief which arose that at the +anniversaries of her death the poor lady haunted the rooms, lamp in hand, +wailing and lamenting. A duel had been fought on the subject between the +heirs of the two families, resulting in the death of the young Winslow. + +‘And now,’ cried Ellen Fordyce, ‘the feud is so beautifully ended; the +doom must be appeased, now that the head of one hostile line has come to +the rescue of the other, and saved all our lives.’ + +My suggestion that these would hardly have been destroyed, even without +our interposition, fell very flat, for romance must have its swing. +Ellen told us how, on the news of our kinsman’s death and our +inheritance, the ancestral story had been discussed, and her grandfather +had said he believed there were letters about it in the iron deed-box, +and how he hoped to be on better terms with the new heir. + +The ghost story had always been hushed up in the family, especially since +the duel, and we all knew the resemblance of the picture would be scouted +by our elders; but perhaps this gave us the more pleasure in dwelling +upon it, while we agreed that poor Margaret ought to be appeased by +Griffith’s prowess on behalf of the Fordyces. + +The two young ladies went off to inspect the mullion chamber, which they +found so crammed with Hillside furniture that they could scarcely enter, +and returned disappointed, except for having inspected and admired all +Griff’s weapons, especially what Miss Fordyce called the sword of her +rescue. + +She had been learning German—rather an unusual study in those days, and +she narrated to us most effectively the story of _Die Weisse Frau_, +working herself up to such a pitch that she would have actually +volunteered to spend a night in the room, to see whether Margaret would +hold any communication with a descendant, after the example of the White +Woman and Lady Bertha, if there had been either fire or accommodation, +and if the only entrance had not been through Griff’s private +sitting-room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +THE WHITE FEATHER. + + + ‘The white doe’s milk is not out of his mouth.’ + + SCOTT. + +CLARENCE had come home free from all blots. His summer holiday had been +prevented by the illness of one of the other clerks, whose place, Mr. +Castleford wrote, he had so well supplied that ere long he would be sure +to earn his promotion. That kind friend had several times taken him to +spend a Sunday in the country, and, as we afterwards had reason to think, +would have taken more notice of him but for the rooted belief of Mr. +Frith that it was a case of favouritism, and that piety and strictness +were assumed to throw dust in the eyes of his patron. + +Such distrust had tended to render Clarence more reserved than ever, and +it was quite by the accident of finding him studying one of Mrs. +Trimmer’s Manuals that I discovered that, at the request of his good +Rector, he had become a Sunday-school teacher, and was as much interested +as the enthusiastic girls; but I was immediately forbidden to utter a +word on the subject, even to Emily, lest she should tell any one. + +Such reserve was no doubt an outcome of his natural timidity. He had to +bear a certain amount of scorn and derision among some of his +fellow-clerks for the stricter habits and observances that could not be +concealed, and he dreaded any fresh revelation of them, partly because of +the cruel imputation of hypocrisy, partly because he feared the bringing +a scandal on religion by his weakness and failures. + +Nor did our lady visitors’ ways reassure him, though they meant to be +kind. They could not help being formal and stiff, not as they were with +Griff and me. The two gentlemen were thoroughly friendly and hearty; +Parson Frank could hardly have helped being so towards any one in the +same house with himself; and as to little Anne, she found in the +new-comer a carpenter and upholsterer superior even to Martyn; but her +candour revealed a great deal which I overheard one afternoon, when the +two children were sitting together on the hearth-rug in the bookroom in +the twilight. + +‘I want to see Mr. Clarence’s white feather,’ observed Anne. + +‘Griff has a white plume in his Yeomanry helmet,’ replied Martyn; +‘Clarence hasn’t one.’ + +‘Oh, I saw Mr. Griffith’s!’ she answered; ‘but Cousin Horace said Mr. +Clarence showed the white feather.’ + +‘Cousin Horace is an ape!’ cried Martyn. + +‘I don’t think he is so nice as an ape,’ said Anne. ‘He is more like a +monkey. He tries the dolls by court-martial, and he shot Arabella with a +pea-shooter, and broke her eye; only grandpapa made him have it put in +again with his own money, and then he said I was a little sneak, and if I +ever did it again he would shoot me.’ + +‘Mind you don’t tell Clarence what he said,’ said Martyn. + +‘Oh, no! I think Mr. Clarence very nice indeed; but Horace did tease so +about that day when he carried poor Amos Bell home. He said Ellen had +gone and made friends with the worst of all the wicked Winslows, who had +shown the white feather and disgraced his flag. No; I know you are not +wicked. And Mr. Griff came all glittering, like Richard Cœur de Lion, +and saved us all that night. But Ellen cried to think what she had done, +and mamma said it showed what it was to speak to a strange young man; and +she has never let Ellen and me go out of the grounds by ourselves since +that day.’ + +‘It is a horrid shame,’ exclaimed Martyn, ‘that a fellow can’t get into a +scrape without its being for ever cast up to him.’ + +‘_I_ like him,’ said Anne. ‘He gave Mary Bell a nice pair of boots, and +he made a new pair of legs for poor old Arabella, and she can really sit +down! Oh, he is _very_ nice; but’—in an awful whisper—‘does he tell +stories? I mean fibs—falsehoods.’ + +‘Who told you that?’ exclaimed Martyn. + +‘Mamma said it. Ellen was telling them something about the picture of +the white-satin lady, and mamma said, “Oh, if it is only that young man, +no doubt it is a mere mystification;” and papa said, “Poor young fellow, +he seems very amiable and well disposed;” and mamma said, “If he can +invent such a story it shows that Horace was right, and he is not to be +believed.” Then they stopped, but I asked Ellen who it was, and she said +it was Mr. Clarence, and it was a sad thing for Emily and all of you to +have such a brother.’ + +Martyn began to stammer with indignation, and I thought it time to +interfere; so I called the little maid, and gravely explained the facts, +adding that poor Clarence’s punishment had been terrible, but that he was +doing his best to make up for what was past; and that, as to anything he +might have told, though he might be mistaken, he never said anything +_now_ but what he believed to be true. She raised her brown eyes to mine +full of gravity, and said, ‘I _do_ like him.’ Moreover, I privately made +Martyn understand that if he told her what had been said about the +white-satin lady, he would never be forgiven; the others would be sure to +find it out, and it might shorten their stay. + +That was a dreadful idea, for the presence of those two creatures, to say +nothing of their parents, was an unspeakable charm and novelty to us all. +We all worshipped the elder, and the little one was like a new discovery +and toy to us, who had never been used to such a presence. She was not a +commonplace child; but even if she had been, she would have been as +charming a study as a kitten; and she had all the four of us at her feet, +though her mother was constantly protesting against our spoiling her, and +really kept up so much wholesome discipline that the little maid never +exceeded the bounds of being charming to us. After that explanation +there was the same sweet wistful gentleness in her manner towards +Clarence as she showed to me; while he, who never dreamt of such a child +knowing his history was brighter and freer with her than with any one +else, played with her and Martyn, and could be heard laughing merrily +with them. Perhaps her mother and sister did not fully like this, but +they could not interfere before our faces. And Parson Frank was really +kind to him; took him out walking when going to Hillside, and talked to +him so as to draw him out; certifying, perhaps, that he would do no harm, +although, indeed, the family looked on dear good Frank as a sort of boy, +too kind-hearted and genial for his approval to be worth as much as that +of the more severe. + +These were our only Christmas visitors, for the state of the country did +not invite Londoners; but we did not want them. The suppression of +Clarence was the only flaw in a singularly happy time; and, after all I +believe I felt the pity of it more than he did, who expected nothing, and +was accustomed to being in the background. + +For instance, one afternoon in the course of one of the grave discussions +that used to grow up between Miss Fordyce, Emily, and me, over subjects +trite to the better-instructed younger generation, we got quite out of +our shallow depths. I think it was on the meaning of the ‘Communion of +Saints,’ for the two girls were both reading in preparation for a +Confirmation at Bristol, and Miss Fordyce knew more than we did on these +subjects. All the time Clarence had sat in the window, carving a bit of +doll’s furniture, and quite forgotten; but at night he showed me the +exposition copied from _Pearson on the Creed_, a bit of Hooker, and +extracts from one or two sermons. I found these were notes written out +in a blank book, which he had had in hand ever since his Confirmation—his +logbook as he called it; but he would not hear of their being mentioned +even to Emily, and only consented to hunt up the books on condition I +would not bring him forward as the finder. It was of no use to urge that +it was a deprivation to us all that he should not aid us with his more +thorough knowledge and deeper thought. ‘He could not do so,’ he said, in +a quiet decisive manner; ‘it was enough for him to watch and listen to +Miss Fordyce, when she could forget his presence.’ + +She often did forget it in her eagerness. She was by nature one of the +most ardent beings that I ever saw, yet with enthusiasm kept in check by +the self-control inculcated as a primary duty. It would kindle in those +wonderful light brown eyes, glow in the clear delicate cheek, quiver in +the voice even when the words were only half adequate to the feeling. +She was not what is now called gushing. Oh, no! not in the least! She +was too reticent and had too much dignity for anything of the kind. +Emily had always been reckoned as our romantic young lady, and teased +accordingly, but her enthusiasm beside Ellen’s was + + ‘As moonlight is to sunlight, as water is to wine,’— + +a mere reflection of the tone of the period, compared with a real element +in the character. At least so my sister tells me, though at the time all +the difference I saw was that Miss Fordyce had the most originality, and +unconsciously became the leader. The bookroom was given up to us, and +there in the morning we drew, worked, read, copied and practised music, +wrote out extracts, and delivered our youthful minds to one another on +all imaginable topics from ‘slea silk to predestination.’ + +Religious subjects occupied us more than might have been held likely. A +spirit of reflection and revival was silently working in many a heart. +Evangelicalism had stirred old-fashioned orthodoxy, and we felt its +action. The _Christian Year_ was Ellen’s guiding star—as it was ours, +nay, doubly so in proportion to the ardour of her nature. Certain poems +are dearer and more eloquent to me still, because the verses recall to me +the thrill of her sweet tones as she repeated them. We were all very +ignorant alike of Church doctrine and history, but talking out and +comparing our discoveries and impressions was as useful as it was +pleasant to us. + +What the _Christian Year_ was in religion to us Scott was in history. We +read to verify or illustrate him, and we had little raving fits over his +characters, and jokes founded on them. Indeed, Ellen saw life almost +through that medium; and the siege of Hillside, dispersed by the splendid +prowess of Griffith, the champion with silver helm and flashing sword, +was precious to her as a renewal of the days of Ivanhoe or Damian de +Lacy. + +As may be believed, these quiet mornings were those when that true knight +was employed in field sports or yeomanry duties, such as the state of the +country called for. When he was at home, all was fun and merriment and +noise—walks and rides on fine days, battledore and shuttlecock on wet +ones, music, singing, paper games, giggling and making giggle, and +sometimes dancing in the hall—Mr. Frank Fordyce joining with all his +heart and drollery in many of these, like the boy he was. + +I could play quadrilles and country dances, and now and then a +reel—nobody thought of waltzes—and the three couples changed and +counterchanged partners. Clarence had the sailor’s foot, and did his +part when needed; Emily generally fell to his share, and their silence +and gravity contrasted with the mirth of the other pairs. He knew very +well he was the _pis aller_ of the party, and only danced when Parson +Frank was not dragged out, nothing loth, by his little daughter. With +Miss Fordyce, Clarence never had the chance of dancing; she was always +claimed by Griff, or pounced upon by Martyn. + +Miss Fordyce she always was to us in those days, and those pretty lips +scrupulously ‘Mistered’ and ‘Winslowed’ us. I don’t think she would have +been more to us, if we had called her Nell, and had been Griff, Bill, and +Ted to her, or if there had not been all the little formalities of +avoiding tête à têtes and the like. They were essentials of propriety +then—natural, and never viewed as prudish. Nor did it detract from the +sweet dignity of maidenhood that there was none of the familiarity which +breeds something one would rather not mention in conjunction with a lady. + +Altogether there was a sunshine around Miss Fordyce by which we all +seemed illuminated, even the least favoured and least demonstrative; we +were all her willing slaves, and thought her smile and thanks full +reward. + +One day, when Griff and Martyn were assisting at the turn out of an +isolated barn at Hillside, where Frank Fordyce declared, all the +burnt-out rats and mice had taken refuge, the young ladies went out to +cater for house decorations for Christmas under Clarence’s escort. +Nobody but the clerk ever thought of touching the church, where there +were holes in all the pews to receive the holly boughs. + +The girls came back, telling in eager scared voices how, while gathering +butcher’s broom in Farmer Hodges’ home copse, a savage dog had flown out +at them, but had been kept at bay by Mr. Clarence Winslow with an +umbrella, while they escaped over the stile. + +Clarence had not come into the drawing-room with them, and while my +mother, who had a great objection to people standing about in out-door +garments, sent them up to doff their bonnets and furs, I repaired to our +room, and was horrified to find him on my bed, white and faint. + +‘Bitten?’ I cried in dismay. + +‘Yes; but not much. Only I’m such a fool. I turned off when I began +taking off my boots. No, no—don’t! Don’t call any one. It is nothing!’ + +He was springing up to stop me, but was forced to drop back, and I made +my way to the drawing-room, where my mother happened to be alone. She +was much alarmed, but a glass of wine restored Clarence; and inspection +showed that the thick trowser and winter stocking had so protected him +that little blood had been drawn, and there was bruise rather than bite +in the calf of the leg, where the brute had caught him as he was getting +over the stile as the rear-guard. It was painful, though the faintness +was chiefly from tension of nerve, for he had kept behind all the way +home, and no one had guessed at the hurt. My mother doctored it +tenderly, and he begged that nothing should be said about it; he wanted +no fuss about such a trifle. My mother agreed, with the proud feeling of +not enhancing the obligations of the Fordyce family; but she absolutely +kissed Clarence’s forehead as she bade him lie quiet till dinner-time. + +We kept silence at table while the girls described the horrors of the +monster. ‘A tawny creature, with a hideous black muzzle,’ said Emily. +‘Like a bad dream,’ said Miss Fordyce. The two fathers expressed their +intention of remonstrating with the farmer, and Griff declared that it +would be lucky if he did not shoot it. Miss Fordyce generously took its +part, saying the poor dog was doing its duty, and Griff ejaculated, ‘If I +had been there!’ + +‘It would not have dared to show its teeth, eh?’ said my father, when +there was a good deal of banter. + +My father, however, came at night with mamma to inspect the hurt and ask +details, and he ended with, ‘Well done, Clarence, boy; I am gratified to +see you are acquiring presence of mind, and can act like a man.’ + +Clarence smiled when they were gone, saying, ‘That would have been an +insult to any one else.’ + +Emily perceived that he had not come off unscathed, and was much +aggrieved at being bound to silence. ‘Well,’ she broke out, ‘if the dog +goes mad, and Clarence has the hydrophobia, I suppose I may tell.’ + +‘In that pleasing contingency,’ said Clarence smiling. ‘Don’t you see, +Emily, it is the worst compliment you can pay me not to treat this as a +matter of course?’ Still, he was the happier for not having failed. +Whatever strengthened his self-respect and gave him trust in himself was +a stepping-stone. + +As to rivalry or competition with Griff, the idea seemingly never crossed +his mind, and envy or jealousy were equally aloof from it. One subject +of thankfulness runs through these recollections—namely, that nothing +broke the tie of strong affection between us three brothers. Griffith +might figure as the ‘vary parfite knight,’ the St. George of the piece, +glittering in the halo shed round him by the bright eyes of the rescued +damsel; while Clarence might drag himself along as the poor recreant to +be contemned and tolerated, and he would accept the position meekly as +only his desert, without a thought of bitterness. Indeed, he himself +seemed to have imbibed Nurse Gooch’s original opinion, that his genuine +love for sacred things was a sort of impertinence and pretension in such +as he—a kind of hypocrisy even when they were the realities and helps to +which he clung with all his heart. Still, this depression was only shown +by reserve, and troubled no one save myself, who knew him best guessed +what was lost by his silence, and burned in spirit at seeing him merely +endured as one unworthy. + +In one of our varieties of Waverley discussions the crystal hardness and +inexperienced intolerance of youth made Miss Fordyce declare that had she +been Edith Plantagenet, she would never, never have forgiven Sir Kenneth. +‘How could she, when he had forsaken the king’s banner? Unpardonable!’ + +Then came a sudden, awful silence, as she recollected her audience, and +blushed crimson with the misery of perceiving where her random shaft had +struck, nor did either of us know what to say; but to our surprise it was +Clarence who first spoke to relieve the desperate embarrassment. ‘Is +forgiven quite the right word, when the offence was not personal? I know +that such things can neither be repaired nor overlooked, and I think that +is what Miss Fordyce meant.’ + +‘Oh, Mr. Winslow,’ she exclaimed, ‘I am very sorry—I don’t think I quite +meant’—and then, as her eyes for one moment fell on his subdued face, she +added, ‘No, I said what I ought not. If there is sorrow’—her voice +trembled—‘and pardon above, no one below has any right to say +unpardonable.’ + +Clarence bowed his head, and his lips framed, but he did not utter, +‘Thank you.’ Emily nervously began reading aloud the page before her, +full of the jingling recurring rhymes about Sir Thomas of Kent; but I saw +Ellen surreptitiously wipe away a tear, and from that time she was more +kind and friendly with Clarence. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +VENI, VIDI, VICI. + + + ‘None but the brave, + None but the brave, + None but the brave deserve the fair.’—_Song_. + +CHRISTMAS trees were not yet heard of beyond the Fatherland, and both the +mothers held that Christmas parties were not good for little children, +since Mrs. Winslow’s strong common sense had arrived at the same +conclusion as Mrs. Fordyce had derived from Hannah More and Richard +Lovell Edgeworth. Besides, rick-burning and mobs were far too recent for +our neighbours to venture out at night. + +But as we were all resolved that little Anne should have a memorable +Christmas at Chantry House, we begged an innocent, though iced cake, from +the cook, painted a set of characters ourselves, including all the dolls, +and bespoke the presence of Frank Fordyce at a feast in the outer mullion +room—Griff’s apartment, of course. The locality was chosen as allowing +more opportunity for high jinks than the bookroom, and also because the +swords and pistols in trophy over the mantelpiece had a great fascination +for the two sisters, and to ‘drink tea with Mr. Griffith’ was always +known to be a great ambition of the little queen of the festival. As to +the mullion chamber legends, they had nearly gone out of our heads, +though Clarence did once observe, ‘You remember, it will be the 26th of +December;’ but we did not think this worthy of consideration, especially +as Anne’s entertainment, at its latest, could not last beyond nine +o’clock; and the ghostly performances—now entirely laid to the account of +the departed stable-boy—never began before eleven. + +Nor did anything interfere with our merriment. The fun of fifty years +ago must be intrinsically exquisite to bear being handed down to another +generation, so I will attempt no repetition, though some of those Twelfth +Day characters still remain, pasted into my diary. We anticipated +Twelfth Day because our guests meant to go to visit some other friends +before the New Year, and we knew Anne would have no chance there of +fulfilling her great ambition of drawing for king and queen. These +home-made characters were really charming. Mrs. Fordyce had done several +of them, and she drew beautifully. A little manipulation contrived that +the exquisite Oberon and Titania should fall to Martyn and Anne, for whom +crowns and robes had been prepared, worn by her majesty with complacent +dignity, but barely tolerated by him! The others took their chance. +Parson Frank was Tom Thumb, and convulsed us all the evening by acting as +if no bigger than that worthy, keeping us so merry that even Clarence +laughed as I had never seen him laugh before. + +Cock Robin and Jenny Wren—the best drawn of all—fell to Griff and Miss +Fordyce. There was a suspicion of a tint of real carnation on her cheek, +as, on his low, highly-delighted bow, she held up her impromptu fan of +folded paper; and drollery about currant wine and hopping upon twigs went +on more or less all the time, while somehow or other the beauteous glow +on her cheeks went on deepening, so that I never saw her look so pretty +as when thus playing at Jenny Wren’s coyness, though neither she nor +Griff had passed the bounds of her gracious precise discretion. + +The joyous evening ended at last. With the stroke of nine, Jenny Wren +bore away Queen Titania to put her to bed, for the servants were having +an entertainment of their own downstairs for all the out-door retainers, +etc. Oberon departed, after an interval sufficient to prove his own +dignity and advanced age. Emily went down to report the success of the +evening to the elders in the drawing-room, but we lingered while Frank +Fordyce was telling good stories of Oxford life, and Griff capping them +with more recent ones. + +We too broke up—I don’t remember how; but Clarence was to help me down +the stairs, and Mr. Fordyce, frowning with anxiety at the process, was +offering assistance, while we had much rather he had gone out of the way; +when suddenly, in the gallery round the hall giving access to the +bedrooms, there dawned upon us the startled but scarcely displeased +figure of Jenny Wren in her white dress, not turning aside that blushing +face, while Cock Robin was clasping her hand and pressing it to his lips. +The tap of my crutches warned them. She flew back within her door and +shut it; Griff strode rapidly on, caught hold of her father’s hand, +exclaiming, ‘Sir, sir, I must speak to you!’ and dragged him back into +the mullion room leaving Clarence and me to convey ourselves downstairs +as best we might. + +‘Our sister, our sweet sister!’ + +We were immensely excited. All the three of us were so far in love with +Ellen Fordyce that her presence was an enchantment to us, and at any rate +none of us ever saw the woman we could compare to her; and as we both +felt ourselves disqualified in different ways from any nearer approach, +we were content to bask in the reflected rays of our brother’s happiness. + +Not that he had gone that length as yet, as we knew before the night was +over, when he came down to us. Even with the dear maiden herself, he had +only made sure that she was not averse, and that merely by her eyes and +lips; and he had extracted nothing from her father but that they were +both very young, a great deal too young, and had no business to think of +such things yet. It must be talked over, etc. etc. + +But just then, Griff told us, Frank Fordyce jumped up and turned round +with the sudden exclamation, ‘Ellen!’ looking towards the door behind him +with blank astonishment, as he found it had neither been opened nor shut. +He thought his daughter had recollected something left behind, and coming +in search of it, had retreated precipitately. He had seen her, he said, +in the mirror opposite. Griff told him there was no mirror, and had to +carry a candle across to convince him that he had only been looking at +the door into the inner room, which though of shining dark oak, could +hardly have made a reflection as vivid as he declared that his had been. +Indeed, he ascertained that Ellen had never left her own room at all. +‘It must have been thinking about the dear child,’ he said. ‘And after +all, it was not quite like her—somehow—she was paler, and had something +over her head.’ We had no doubt who it was. Griff had not seen her, but +he was certain that there had been none of the moaning nor crying, ‘In +fact, she has come to give her consent,’ he said with earnest in his +mocking tone. + +‘Yes,’ said Clarence gravely, and with glistening eyes. ‘You are happy +Griff. It is given to you to right the wrong, and quiet that poor +spirit.’ + +‘Happy! The happiest fellow in the world,’ said Griff, ‘even without +that latter clause—if only Madam and the old man will have as much sense +as she has!’ + +The next day was a thoroughly uncomfortable one. Griff was not half so +near his goal as he had hoped last night when with kindly Parson Frank. + +The commotion was as if a thunderbolt had descended among the elders. +What they had been thinking of, I cannot tell, not to have perceived how +matters were tending; but their minds were full of the Reform Bill and +the state of the country, and, besides, we were all looked on still as +mere children. Indeed, Griff was scarcely one-and-twenty, and Ellen +wanted a month of seventeen; and the crisis had really been a sudden +impulse, as he said, ‘She looked so sweet and lovely, he could not help +it.’ + +The first effect was a serious lecture upon maidenliness and propriety to +poor Ellen from her mother, who was sure that she must have transgressed +the bounds of discretion, or such ill-bred presumption would have been +spared her, and bitterly regretted the having trusted her to take care of +herself. There were sufficient grains of truth in this to make the poor +girl cry herself out of all condition for appearing at breakfast or +luncheon, and Emily’s report of her despair made us much more angry with +Mrs. Fordyce than was perhaps quite due to that good lady. + +My parents were at first inclined to take the same line, and be vexed +with Griff for an act of impertinence towards a guest. He had a great +deal of difficulty in inducing the elders to believe him in earnest, or +treat him as a man capable of knowing his own mind; and even thus they +felt as if his addresses to Miss Fordyce were, under present +circumstances, taking almost an unfair advantage of the other family—at +which our youthful spirits felt indignant. + +Yet, after all, such a match was as obvious and suitable as if it had +been a family compact, and the only objection was the youth of the +parties. Mrs. Fordyce would fain have believed her daughter’s heart to +be not yet awake, and was grieved to find childhood over, and the hero of +romance become the lover; and she was anxious that full time should be +given to perceive whether her daughter’s feelings were only the result of +the dazzling aureole which gratitude and excited fancy had cast around +the fine, handsome, winning youth. Her husband, however, who had himself +married very young, and was greatly taken with Griff, besides being +always tender-hearted, did not enter into her scruples; but, as we had +already found out, the grand-looking and clever man of thirty-eight was, +chiefly from his impulsiveness and good-nature, treated as the boy of the +family. His old father, too, was greatly pleased with Griff’s spirit, +affection, and purpose, as well as with my father’s conduct in the +matter; and so, after a succession of private interviews, very +tantalising to us poor outsiders, it was conceded that though an +engagement for the present was preposterous, it might possibly be +permitted when Ellen was eighteen if Griff had completed his university +life with full credit. He was fervently grateful to have such an object +set before him, and my father was warmly thankful for the stimulus. + +That last evening was very odd and constrained. We could not help +looking on the lovers as new specimens over which some strange +transformation had passed, though for the present it had stiffened them +in public into the strictest good behaviour. They would have been +awkward if it had been possible to either of them, and, save for a +certain look in their eyes, comported themselves as perfect strangers. + +The three elder gentlemen held discussions in the dining-room, but we +were not trusted in our playground adjoining. Mrs. Fordyce nailed Griff +down to an interminable game at chess, and my mother kept the two girls +playing duets, while Clarence turned over the leaves; and I read over +_The Lady of the Lake_, a study which I always felt, and still feel, as +an act of homage to Ellen Fordyce, though there was not much in common +between her and the maid of Douglas. Indeed, it was a joke of her +father’s to tease her by criticising the famous passage about the tears +that old Douglas shed over his duteous daughter’s head—‘What in the world +should the man go whining and crying for? He had much better have +laughed with her.’ + +Little did the elders know what was going on in the next room, where +there was a grand courtship among the dolls; the hero being a small +jointed Dutch one in Swiss costume, about an eighth part of the size of +the resuscitated Celestina Mary, but the only available male character in +doll-land! Anne was supposed to be completely ignorant of what passed +above her head; and her mother would have been aghast had she heard the +remarkable discoveries and speculations that she and Martyn communicated +to one another. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURTSHIP. + + + ‘Or framing, as a fair excuse, + The book, the pencil, or the muse; + Something to give, to sing, to say, + Some modern tale, some ancient lay.’ + + SCOTT. + +IT seems to me on looking back that I have hardly done justice to Mrs. +Fordyce, and certainly we—as Griffith’s eager partisans—often regarded +her in the light of an enemy and opponent; but after this lapse of time, +I can see that she was no more than a prudent mother, unwilling to see +her fair young daughter suddenly launched into womanhood, and involved in +an attachment to a young and untried man. + +The part of a drag is an invidious one; and this must have been her part +through most of her life. The Fordyces, father and son, were of good +family, gentlemen to their very backbones, and thoroughly good, religious +men; but she came of a more aristocratic strain, had been in London +society, and brought with her a high-bred air which, implanted on the +Fordyce good looks, made her daughter especially fascinating. But that +air did not recommend Mrs. Fordyce to all her neighbours, any more than +did those stronger, stricter, more thorough-going notions of religious +obligation which had led her husband to make the very real and painful +sacrifice of his sporting tastes, and attend to the parish in a manner +only too rare in those days. She was a very well-informed and highly +accomplished woman, and had made her daughter the same, keeping her +children up in a somewhat exclusive style, away from all gossip or +undesirable intimacies, as recommended by Miss Edgeworth and other more +religious authorities, and which gave great offence in houses where there +were girls of the same age. No one, however, could look at Ellen, and +doubt of the success of the system, or of the young girl’s entire content +and perfect affection for her mother, though her father was her beloved +playfellow—yet always with respect. She never took liberties with him, +nor called him Pap or any other ridiculous name inconsistent with the +fifth Commandment, though she certainly was more entirely at ease with +him than ever we had been with our elderly father. When once Mrs. +Fordyce found on what terms we were to be, she accepted them frankly and +fully. Already Emily had been the first girl, not a relation, whose +friendship she had fostered with Ellen; and she had also become +thoroughly affectionate and at home with my mother, who suited her +perfectly on the conscientious, and likewise on the prudent and sensible, +side of her nature. + +To me she was always kindness itself, so kind that I never felt, as I did +on so many occasions, that she was very pitiful and attentive to the +deformed youth; but that she really enjoyed my companionship, and I could +help her in her pursuits. I have a whole packet of charming notes of +hers about books, botany, drawings, little bits of antiquarianism, +written with an arch grace and finish of expression peculiarly her own, +and in a very pointed hand, yet too definite to be illegible. I owe her +more than I can say for the windows of wholesome hope and ambition she +opened to me, giving a fresh motive and zest even to such a life as mine. +I can hardly tell which was the most delightful companion, she or her +husband. In spite of ill health, she knew every plant, and every bit of +fair scenery in the neighbourhood, and had fresh, amusing criticisms to +utter on each new book; while he, not neglecting the books, was equally +well acquainted with all beasts and birds, and shed his kindly light over +everything he approached. He was never melancholy about anything but +politics, and even there it was an immense consolation to him to have the +owner of Chantry House staunch on the same side, instead of in chronic +opposition. + +The family party moved to a tall house at Bath, but there still was close +intercourse, for the younger clergyman rode over every week for the +Sunday duty, and almost always dined and slept at Chantry House. He +acted as bearer of long letters, which, in spite of a reticulation of +crossings, were too expensive by post for young ladies’ pocket-money, +often exceeding the regular quarto sheet. It was a favourite joke to ask +Emily what Ellen reported about Bath fashions, and to see her look of +scorn. For they were a curious mixture, those girlish letters, of +village interests, discussion of books, and thoughts beyond their age; +Tommy Toogood and Prometheus; or Du Guesclin in the closest juxtaposition +with reports of progress in Abercrombie on the _Intellectual Powers_. It +was the desire of Ellen to prove herself not unsettled but improved by +love, and to become worthy of her ideal Griffith, never guessing that he +would have been equally content with her if she had been as frivolous as +the idlest girl who lingered amid the waning glories of Bath. + +We all made them a visit there when Martyn was taken to a preparatory +school in the place. Mrs. Fordyce took me out for drives on the +beautiful hills; and Emily and I had a very delightful time, undisturbed +by the engrossing claims of love-making. Very good, too, were our +friends, after our departure, in letting Martyn spend Sundays and +holidays with them, play with Anne as before, say his Catechism with her +to Mrs. Fordyce, and share her little Sunday lessons, which had, he has +since told, a force and attractiveness he had never known before, and +really did much, young as he was, in preparing the way towards the +fulfilment of my father’s design for him. + +When the Rectory was ready, and the family returned, it was high summer, +and there were constant meetings between the households. No doubt there +were the usual amount of trivial disappointments and annoyances, but the +whole season seems to me to have been bathed in sunlight. The Reform +Bill agitations and the London mobs of which Clarence wrote to us were +like waves surging beyond an isle of peace. Clarence had some unpleasant +walks from the office. Once or twice the shutters had to be put up at +Frith and Castleford’s to prevent the windows from being broken; and once +Clarence actually saw our nation’s hero, ‘the Duke,’ riding quietly and +slowly through a yelling, furious mob, who seemed withheld from falling +on him by the perfect impassiveness of the eagle face and spare figure. +Moreover a pretty little boy, on his pony, suddenly pushed forward and +rode by the Duke’s side, as if proud and resolute to share his peril. + +‘If Griffith had been there!’ said Ellen and Emily, though they did not +exactly know what they expected him to have done. + +The chief storms that drifted across our sky were caused by Mrs. +Fordyce’s resolution that Griffith should enjoy none of the privileges of +an accepted suitor before the engagement was an actual fact. Ellen was +obedient and conscientious; and would neither transgress nor endure to +have her mother railed at by Griff’s hasty tongue, and this affronted +him, and led to little breezes. + +When people overstay their usual time, tempers are apt to get rather +difficult. Griffith had kept all his terms at Oxford, and was not to +return thither after the long vacation, but was to read with a tutor +before taking his degree. Moreover bills began to come from Oxford, not +very serious, but vexing my father and raising annoyances and frets, for +Griff resented their being complained of, and thought himself ill-used, +going off to see his own friends whenever he was put out. + +One morning at breakfast, late in October, he announced that Lady Peacock +was in lodgings at Clifton, and asked my mother to call on her. But +mamma said it was too far for the horse—she visited no one at that +distance, and had never thought much of Selina Clarkson before or after +her marriage. + +‘But now that she is a widow, it would be such a kindness,’ pleaded +Griff. + +‘Depend upon it, a gay young widow needs no kindness from me, and had +better not have it from you,’ said my mother, getting up from behind her +urn and walking off, followed by my father. + +Griff drummed on the table. ‘I wonder what good ladies of a certain age +do with their charity,’ he said. + +And while we were still crying out at him, Ellen Fordyce and her father +appeared, like mirth bidding good-morrow, at the window. All was well +for the time, but Griff wanted Ellen to set out alone with him, and take +their leisurely way through the wood-path, and she insisted on waiting +for her father, who had got into an endless discussion with mine on the +Reform Bill, thrown out in the last Session. Griff tried to wile her on +with him, but, though she consented to wander about the lawn before the +windows with him, she always resolutely turned at the great beech tree. +Emily and I watched them from the window, at first amused, then vexed, as +we could see, by his gestures, that he was getting out of temper, and her +straw bonnet drooped at one moment, and was raised the next in eager +remonstrance or defence. At last he flung angrily away from her, and +went off to the stables, leaving her leaning against the gate in tears. +Emily, in an access of indignant sympathy, rushed out to her, and they +vanished together into the summer-house, until her father called her, and +they went home together. + +Emily told me that Ellen had struggled hard to keep herself from crying +enough to show traces of tears which her father could observe, and that +she had excused Griff with all her might on the plea of her own +‘tiresomeness.’ + +We were all the more angry with him for his selfishness and want of +consideration, for Ellen, in her torrent of grief, had even disclosed +that he had said she did not care for him—no one really in love ever +scrupled about a mother’s nonsense, etc., etc. + +We were resolved, like two sages, to give him a piece of our minds, and +convince him that such dutifulness was the pledge of future happiness, +and that it was absolute cruelty to the rare creature he had won, to try +to draw her in a direction contrary to her conscience. + +However, we saw him no more that day; and only learnt that he had left a +message at the stables that dinner was not to be kept waiting for him. +Such a message from Clarence would have caused a great commotion; but it +was quite natural and a matter of course from him in the eyes of the +elders, who knew nothing of his parting with Ellen. However, there was +annoyance enough, when bedtime came, family prayers were over, and still +there was no sign of him. My father sat up till one o’clock, to let him +in, then gave it up, and I heard his step heavily mounting the stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +BRISTOL DIAMONDS. + + + ‘_Stafford_. And you that are the King’s friends, follow me. + + _Cade_. And you that love the Commons, follow me; + We will not leave one lord, one gentleman, + Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon.’ + + Act I. _Henry VI_. + +THE next day was Sunday, and no Griff appeared in the morning. Vexation, +perhaps, prevented us from attending as much as we otherwise might have +done to Mr. Henderson when he told us that there were rumours of a +serious disturbance at Bristol; until Emily recollected that Griff had +been talking for some days past of riding over to see his friend in the +cavalry regiment there stationed, and we all agreed that it was most +likely that he was there; and our wrath began to soften in the belief +that he might have been detained to give his aid in the cause of order, +though his single arm could not be expected to effect as much as at +Hillside. + +Long after dark we heard a horse’s feet, and in another minute Griff, +singed, splashed, and battered, had hurried into the room—‘It has begun!’ +he said. ‘The revolution! I have brought her—Lady Peacock. She was at +Clifton, dreadfully alarmed. She is almost at the door now, in her +carriage. I’ll just take the pony, and ride over to tell Eastwood in +case he will call out the Yeomanry.’ + +The wheels were to be heard, and everybody hastened out to receive Lady +Peacock, who was there with her maid, full of gratitude. I heard her +broken sentences as she came across the hall, about dreadful +scenes—frightful mob—she knew not what would have become of her but for +Griffith—the place was in flames when they left it—the military would not +act—Griffith had assured her that Mr. and Mrs. Winslow would be so +kind—as long as any place was a refuge— + +We really did believe we were at the outbreak of a revolution or civil +war, and, all little frets forgotten, listened appalled to the tidings; +how the appearance of Sir Charles Wetherall, the Recorder of Bristol, a +strong opponent to the Reform Bill, seemed to have inspired the mob with +fury. Griff and his friend the dragoon, while walking in Broad Street, +were astonished by a violent rush of riotous men and boys, hooting and +throwing stones as the Recorder’s carriage tried to make its way to the +Guildhall. In the midst a piteous voice exclaimed— + +‘Oh, Griffith! Mr. Griffith Winslow! Is it you?’ and Lady Peacock was +seen retreating upon the stone steps of a house either empty, or where +the inhabitants were too much alarmed to open the doors. She was +terribly frightened, and the two gentlemen stood in front of her till the +tumultuary procession had passed by. She was staying in lodgings at +Clifton, and had driven in to Bristol to shop, when she thus found +herself entangled in the mob. They then escorted her to the place where +she was to meet her carriage, and found it for her with some difficulty. +Then, while the officer returned to his quarters, Griff accompanied her +far enough on the way to Clifton to see that everything was quiet before +her, and then returned to seek out his friend. The court at the +Guildhall had had to be adjourned, but the rioters were hunting Sir +Charles to the Mansion-House. Griff was met by one of the Town Council, +a tradesman with whom we dealt, who, having perhaps heard of his prowess +at Hillside, entreated him to remain, offering him a bed, and saying that +all friends of order were needed in such a crisis as this. Griff wrote a +note to let us know what had become of him, but everything was +disorganised, and we did not get it till two days afterwards. + +In the evening the mob became more violent, and in the midst of dinner a +summons came for Griff’s host to attend the Mayor in endeavouring to +disperse it. Getting into the Mansion-House by private back ways, they +were able to join the Mayor when he came out, amid a shower of brickbats, +sticks, and stones, and read the Riot Act three times over, after warning +them of the consequences of persisting in their defiance. + +‘But they were far past caring for that,’ said Griff. ‘An iron rail from +the square was thrown in the midst of it, and if I had not caught it +there would have been an end of his Worship.’ + +The constables, with such help as Griff and a few others could give them, +defended the front of the Mansion-House, while the Recorder, for whom +they savagely roared, made his escape by the roof to another house. A +barricade was made with beds, tables, and chairs, behind which the +defenders sheltered themselves, while volleys of stones smashed in the +windows, and straw was thrown after them. But at last the tramp of +horses’ feet was heard, and the Dragoons came up. + +‘We thought all over then,’ said Griff; ‘but Colonel Brereton would not +have a blow struck, far less a shot fired! He would have it that it was +a good-humoured mob! I heard him! When one of his own men was brought +up badly hurt with a brickbat, I heard Ludlow, the Town-Clerk, ask him +what he thought of their good humour, and he had nothing to say but that +it was an accident! And the rogues knew it! He took care they should; +he walked about among them and shook hands with them!’ + +Griff waited at the Mansion-House all night, and helped to board up the +smashed windows; but at daylight Colonel Brereton came and insisted on +withdrawing the piquet on guard—not, however, sending a relief for them, +on the plea that they only collected a crowd. The instant they were +withdrawn, down came the mob in fresh force, so desperate that all the +defences were torn down, and they swarmed in so that there was nothing +for it but to escape over the roofs. + +Griffith was sent to rouse the inhabitants of College Green and St. +Augustine’s Back to come in the King’s name to assist the Magistrates, +and he had many good stories of the various responses he met with. But +the rioters, inflamed by the wine they had found in sacking the +Mansion-House, and encouraged by the passiveness of the troops, had +become entirely masters of the situation. And Colonel Brereton seems to +have imagined that the presence of the soldiers acted as an irritation; +for in this crisis he actually sent them out of the city to Keynsham, +then came and informed the mob, who cheered him, as well they might. + +In the night the Recorder had left the city, and notices were posted to +that effect; also that the Riot Act had been read, and any further +disturbance would be capital felony. This escape of their victim only +had the effect of directing the rage of the populace against Bishop Grey, +who had likewise opposed the Reform Bill. + +Messages had been sent to advise the Bishop, who was to preach that day +at the Cathedral, to stay away and sanction the omission of the service; +but his answer to one of his clergy was—‘These are times in which it is +necessary not to shrink from danger! Our duty is to be at our post.’ +And he also said, ‘Where can I die better than in my own Cathedral?’ + +Since the bells were ringing, and it was understood that the Bishop was +actually going to dare the peril, Griff and others of the defenders +decided that it was better to attend the service and fill up the nave so +as to hinder outrage. He said it was a most strange and wonderful +service. Chants and Psalms and Lessons and prayers going on their course +as usual, but every now and then in the pauses of the organ, a howl or +yell of the voice of the multitude would break on the ear through the +thick walls. Griff listened and hoped for a volley of musketry. He was +not tender-hearted! But none came, and by the time the service was over, +the mob had been greatly reinforced and had broken into the prisons, set +them on fire, and released the prisoners. They were mustering on College +Green for an attack on the palace. Griff aided in guarding the entrance +to the cloisters till the Bishop and his family had had time to drive +away to Almondsbury, four miles off, and then the rush became so strong +that they had to give way. There was another great struggle at the door +of the palace, but it was forced open with a crowbar, while shouts rang +out ‘No King and no Bishops!’ A fire was made in the dining-room with +chairs and tables, and live coals were put into the beds, while the +plunder went on. + +Griff meantime had made his way to the party headed by the magistrates, +and accompanied by the dragoons, and the mob began to flee; but Colonel +Brereton had given strict orders that the soldiers should not fire, and +the plunderers rallied, made a fire in the Chapter House, and burnt the +whole of the library, shouting with the maddest triumph. + +They next attacked the Cathedral, intending to burn that likewise, but +two brave gentlemen, Mr. Ralph and Mr. Linne, succeeded in saving this +last outrage, at the head of the better affected. + +Griff had fought hard. He was all over bruises which he really had never +felt at the time, scarcely even now, though one side of his face was +turning purple, and his clothes were singed. In a sort of council held +at the repulse of the attack on the Cathedral, it had been decided that +the best thing he could do would be to give notice to Sir George +Eastwood, in order that the Yeomanry might be called out, since the +troops were so strangely prevented from acting. As he rode through +Clifton, he had halted at Lady Peacock’s, and found her in extreme alarm. +Indeed, no one could guess what the temper of the mob might be the next +day, or whether they might not fall upon private houses. The +Mansion-House, the prisons, the palace were all burning and were an +astounding sight, which terrified her exceedingly, and she was sending +out right and left to endeavour to get horses to take her away. In +common humanity, and for old acquaintance sake, it was impossible not to +help her, and Griff had delayed, to offer any amount of reward in her +name for posthorses, which he had at last secured. Her own man-servant, +whom she had sent in quest of some, had never returned, and she had to +set off without him, Griff acting as outrider; but after the first there +was no more difficulty about horses, and she had been able to change them +at the next stage. + +We all thought the days of civil war were really begun, as the heads of +this account were hastily gathered; but there was not much said, only Mr. +Frank Fordyce laid his hand on Griff’s shoulder and said, ‘Well done, my +boy; but you have had enough for to-day. If you’ll lend me a horse, +Winslow, I’ll ride over to Eastwood. That’s work for the clergy in these +times, eh? Griffith should rest. He may be wanted to-morrow. Only is +there any one to take a note home for me, to say where I’m gone;’ and +then he added with that sweet smile of his, ‘Some one will be more the +true knight than ever, eh, you Griffith you—’ + +Griffith coloured a little, and Lady Peacock’s eyes looked interrogative. +When the horse was announced, Griff followed Mr. Fordyce into the hall, +and came back announcing that, unless summoned elsewhere, he should go to +breakfast at Hillside, and so hear what was decided on. He longed to be +back at the scene of action, but was so tired out that he could not +dispense with another night’s rest; though he took all precautions for +being called up, in case of need. + +However, nothing came, and he rode to the Rectory in Yeomanry equipment. +Nor could any one doubt that in the ecstasy of meeting such a hero, all +the little misunderstanding and grief of the night before was forgotten? +Ellen looked as if she trod on air, when she came down with her father to +report that Griffith had gone, according to the orders sent, to join the +rest of the Yeomanry, who were to advance upon Bristol. They had seen, +and tried to turn back, some of the villagers who were starting with +bludgeons to share in the spoil, and who looked sullen, as if they were +determined not to miss their share. + +I do not think we were very much alarmed for Griff’s safety or for our +own, not even the ladies. My mother had the lion-heart of her naval +ancestors, and Ellen was in a state of exaltation. Would that I could +put her before other eyes, as she stood with hands clasped and glowing +cheek. + +‘Oh!—think!—think of having one among us who is as real and true knight +as ever watched his armour— + + ‘“For king, for church, for lady fight!” + +It has all come gloriously true!’ + +‘Should not you like to bind on his spurs?’ I asked somewhat +mischievously; but she was serious as she said, ‘I am sure he has won +them.’ All the rest of the Fordyces came down afterwards, too anxious to +stay at home. Our elders felt the matter more gravely, thinking of what +civil war might mean to us all, and what an awful thing it was for +Englishmen to be enrolled against each other. Nottingham Castle had just +been burnt, and things looked only too like revolution, especially +considering the inaction of the dragoons. After Griff had left Bristol, +there had been some terrible scenes at the Custom House, where the +ringleaders—unhappy men!—were caught in a trap of their own and perished +miserably. + +However, by the morning, the order sent from Lord Hill, the arrival of +Major Beckwith from Gloucester, and the proceedings of the good-humoured +mob had put an end to poor Brereton’s hesitations; a determined front had +been shown; the mob had been fairly broken up; troops from all quarters +poured into the city, and by dinner-time Griff came back with the news +that all was quiet and there was nothing more to fear. Ellen and Emily +both flew out to meet him at the first sound of the horse’s feet, and +they all came into the drawing-room together—each young lady having hold +of one of his hands—and Ellen’s face in such a glow, that I rather +suspect that he had snatched a reward which certainly would not have been +granted save in such a moment of uplifted feeling, and when she was +thankful to her hero for forgetting how angry he had been with her two +days before. + +Minor matters were forgotten in the details of his tidings, as he stood +before the fire, shining in his silver lace, and relating the tragedy and +the comedy of the scene. + +It was curious, as the evening passed on, to see how Ellen and Lady +Peacock regarded each other, now that the tension of suspense was over. +To Ellen, the guest was primarily a distressed and widowed dame, +delivered by Griff, to whom she, as his lady love, was bound to be +gracious and kind; nor had they seen much of one another, the elder +ladies sitting in the drawing-room, and we in our own regions; but we +were all together at dinner and afterwards, and Lady Peacock, who had +been in a very limp, nervous, and terrified state all day, began to be +the Selina Clarkson we remembered, and ‘more too.’ She was still in +mourning, but she came down to dinner in gray satin sheen, and with her +hair in a most astonishing erection of bows and bands, on the very crown +of her head, raising her height at least four inches. Emily assures me +that it was the mode in use, and that she and Ellen wore their hair in +the same style, appealing to portraits to prove it. I can only say that +they never astonished my weak mind in the like manner; and that their +heads, however dressed, only appeared to me a portion of the general +woman, and part of the universal fitness of things. Ellen was likewise +amazed, most likely not at the hair, but at the transformation of the +disconsolate, frightened widow, into the handsome, fashionable, stylish +lady, talking over London acquaintance and London news with my father and +Griff whenever they left the endless subject of the Bristol adventures. + +The widow had gained a good deal in beauty since her early girlhood, +having regular features, eyes of an uncommon deep blue, very black brows, +eye-lashes, and hair, and a form of the kind that is better after early +youth is over. ‘A fine figure of a woman,’ Parson Frank pronounced her, +and his wife, with the fine edge of her lips replied, ‘exactly what she +is!’ + +She looked upon us younger ones as mere children still—indeed she never +looked at me at all if she could help it—but she mortally offended Emily +by penning her up in a corner, and asking if Griff were engaged to that +sentimental little girl. + +Emily coloured like a turkey cock between wrath and embarrassment, and +hotly protested against the word sentimental. + +‘Ah yes, I see!’ she said in a patronising tone, ‘she is your bosom +friend, eh? That’s the way those things always begin. You need not +answer: I see it all. And no doubt it is a capital thing for him; +properties joining and all. And she will get a little air and style when +he takes her to London.’ It was a tremendous offence even to hint that +Ellen’s style was capable of improvement; perhaps an unprejudiced eye +would have said that the difference was between high-bred simplicity and +the air of fashion and society. + +In our eyes Lady Peacock was the companion of the elders, and as such was +appreciated by the gentlemen; but neither of the two mothers was equally +delighted with her, nor was mine at all sorry when, on Tuesday, the boxes +were packed, posthorses sent for, and my Lady departed, with great +expressions of thankfulness to us all. + +‘A tulip to a jessamine,’ muttered Griff as she drove off, and he looked +up at his Ellen’s sweet refined face. + +The unfortunate Colonel Brereton put an end to himself when the +court-martial was half over. How Clarence was shocked and how ardent was +his pity! But Griffith received the thanks of the Corporation of Bristol +for his gallant conduct, when the special assize was held in January. +Mrs. Fordyce was almost as proud of him as we were, and there was much +less attempt at restraining the terms on which he stood with Ellen—though +still the formal engagement was not permitted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. +QUICKSANDS. + + + ‘Whither shall I go? + Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?’ + + TENNYSON. + +IT was in the May of the ensuing year, 1832, that Clarence was sent down +to Bristol for a few weeks to take the place of one of the clerks in the +office where the cargoes of the incoming vessels of the firm were +received and overhauled. + +This was a good-natured arrangement of Mr. Castleford’s in order to give +him change of work and a sight of home, where, by the help of the coach, +he could spend his Sundays. That first spring day on his way down was a +great delight and even surprise to him, who had never seen our profusion +of primroses, cowslips, and bluebells, nor our splendid blossom of +trees—apple, lilac, laburnum—all vieing in beauty with one another. +Emily conducted him about in great delight, taking him over to Hillside +to see Mrs. Fordyce’s American garden, blazing with azaleas, and glowing +with rhododendrons. He came back with a great bouquet given to him by +Ellen, who had been unusually friendly with him, and he was more animated +and full of life than for years before. + +Next time he came he looked less happy. There was plenty of room in our +house, but he used, by preference, the little chamber within mine, and +there at night he asked me to lend him a few pounds, since Griffith had +written one of his off-hand letters asking him to discharge a little bill +or two at Bristol, giving the addresses, but not sending the accounts. +This was no wonder, since any enclosure doubled the already heavy +postage. One of these bills was for some sporting equipments from the +gunsmith’s; another, much heavier, from a tavern for breakfasts, or +rather luncheons, to parties of gentlemen, mostly bearing date in the +summer and autumn of 1830, before the friendship with the Fordyces had +begun. On Clarence’s defraying the first and applying for the second, +two more had come in, one from a jeweller for a pair of drop-earrings, +the other from a nurseryman for a bouquet of exotics. Doubting of these +two last, Clarence had written to Griff, but had not yet received an +answer. The whole amount was so much beyond what he had been led to +expect that he had not brought enough money to meet it, and wanted an +advance from me, promising repayment, to which latter point I could not +assent, as both of us knew, but did not say, we should never see the sum +again, and to me it only meant stinting in new books and curiosities. We +were anxious to get the matter settled at once, as Griffith spoke of +being dunned; and it might be serious, if the tradesmen applied to my +father when he was still groaning over revelations of college expenses. + +On the ensuing Saturday, Clarence showed me Griff’s answer—‘I had +forgotten these items. The earrings were a wedding present to the pretty +little barmaid, who had been very civil. The bouquet was for Lady +Peacock; I felt bound to do something to atone for mamma’s severe virtue. +It is all right, you best of brothers.’ + +It was consolatory that all the dates were prior to the Hillside fire, +except that of the bouquet. As to the earrings, we all knew that Griff +could not see a pretty girl without talking nonsense to her. Anyway, if +they were a wedding present, there was an end of it; and we were only +glad to prevent any hint of them from reaching the ears of the +authorities. + +Clarence had another trouble to confide to me. He had strong reason to +believe that Tooke, the managing clerk at Bristol, was carrying on a +course of peculation, and feathering his nest at the expense of the firm. +What a grand discovery, thought I, for such a youth to have made. The +firm would be infinitely obliged to him, and his fortune would be +secured. He shook his head, and said that was all my ignorance; the man, +Tooke, was greatly trusted, especially by Mr. Frith the senior partner, +and was so clever and experienced that it would be almost impossible to +establish anything against him. Indeed he had browbeaten Clarence, and +convinced him at the moment that his suspicions and perplexities were +only due to the ignorance of a foolish, scrupulous youth, who did not +understand the customs and perquisites of an agency. It was only when +Clarence was alone, and reflected on the matter by the light of +experience gained on a similar expedition to Liverpool, that he had +perceived that Mr. Tooke had been throwing dust in his eyes. + +‘I shall only get into a scrape myself,’ said Clarence despondently. ‘I +have felt it coming ever since I have been at Bristol;’ and he pushed his +hair back with a weary hopeless gesture. + +‘But you don’t mean to let it alone?’ I cried indignantly. + +He hesitated in a manner that painfully recalled his failing, and said at +last, ‘I don’t know; I suppose I ought not.’ + +‘Suppose?’ I cried. + +‘It is not so easy as you think,’ he answered, ‘especially for one who +has forfeited the right to be believed. I must wait till I have an +opportunity of speaking to Mr. Castleford, and then I can hardly do more +than privately give him a hint to be watchful. You don’t know how things +are in such houses as ours. One may only ruin oneself without doing any +good.’ + +‘You cannot write to him?’ + +‘Certainly not. He has taken his family to Mrs. Castleford’s home in the +north of Ireland for a month or six weeks. I don’t know the address, and +I cannot run the risk of the letter being opened at the office.’ + +‘Can’t you speak to my father?’ + +‘Impossible! it would be a betrayal. He would do things for which I +should never be forgiven. And, after all, remember, it is no business of +mine. I know of agents at the docks who do such things as a matter of +course. It is only that I happen to know that Harris at Liverpool does +not. Very possibly old Frith knows all about it. I should only get +scored down as a meddlesome prig, worse hypocrite than they think me +already.’ + +He said a good deal more to this effect, and I remember exclaiming, ‘Oh, +Clarence, the old story!’ and then being frightened at the whiteness that +came over his face. + +Little did I know the suffering to which those words of mine condemned +him. For not only had he to make up his mind to resistance, which to his +nature was infinitely worse than it was to Griffith to face a raging mob, +but he knew very well that it would almost inevitably produce his own +ruin, and renew the disgrace out of which he was beginning to emerge. I +did not—even while I prayed that he might do the right—guess at his own +agony of supplication, carried on incessantly, day and night, sleeping +and waking, that the Holy Spirit of might should brace his will and +govern his tongue, and make him say the right thing at the right time, be +the consequences what they might. No one, not constituted as he was, can +guess at the anguish he endured. I knew no more. Clarence did not come +home the next Saturday, to my mother’s great vexation; but on Tuesday a +small parcel was given to me, brought from our point of contact with the +Bristol coach. It contained some pencils I had asked him to get, and a +note marked _private_. Here it is— + + ‘DEAR EDWARD—I am summoned to town. Tooke has no doubt forestalled + me. We have had some curious interviews, in which he first, as I + told you, persuaded me out of my senses that it was all right, and + then, finding me still dissatisfied, tried in a delicate fashion to + apprise me that I had a claim to a share of the plunder. When I + refused to appropriate anything without sanction from headquarters, + he threatened me with the consequences of presumptuous interference. + It came to bullying at last. I hardly know what I answered, but I + don’t think I gave in. Now, a sharp letter from old Frith recalls + me. Say nothing at home; and whatever you do, do not betray Griff. + He has more to lose than I. Help me in the true way, as you know + how.—Ever yours, W. C. W. + +I need not dwell on the misery of those days. It was well that my father +had ruled that our letters should not be family property. Here were all +the others discussing a proposed tour in the north of Devon, to be taken +conjointly with the Fordyces, as soon as Griff should come home. My +mother said it would do me good; she saw I was flagging, but she little +guessed at the continual torment of anxiety, and my wonder at the warning +about Griff. + +At the end of the week came another letter. + + ‘You need not speak yet. Papa and mamma will know soon enough. I + brought down £150 in specie, to be paid over to Tooke. He avers that + only £130 was received. What is my word worth against his? I am + told that if I am not prosecuted it will only be out of respect to my + father. I am not dismissed yet, but shall get notice as soon as + letters come from Ireland. I have written, but it is not in the + nature of things that Mr. Castleford should not accept such proofs as + have been sent him. I have no hope, and shall be glad when it is + over. The part of black sheep is not a pleasant one. Say not a + word, and do not let my father come up. He could do no good, and to + see him believing it all would be the last drop in the bucket. + + _N.B._—In this pass, nothing would be saved by bringing Griff into + it, so be silent on your life. Innocence does not seem to be much + comfort at present. Maybe it will come in time. I know you will not + drop me, dear Ted, wherever I may be.’ + +Need I tell the distress of those days of suspense and silence, when my +only solace was in being left alone, and in writing letters to Clarence +which were mostly torn up again. + +My horror was lest he should be driven to go off to the sea, which he +loved so well, knowing, as nobody else did, the longing that sometimes +seized him for it, a hereditary craving that curiously conflicted with +the rest of his disposition; and, indeed, his lack was more of moral than +of physical courage. It haunted me constantly that his entreaty that my +father should not come to London was a bad sign, and that he would never +face such another return home. And was I justified in keeping all this +to myself, when my father’s presence might save him from the flight that +would indeed be the surrender of his character, and to the life of a +common sailor? Never have I known such leaden days as these, yet the +misery was not a tithe of what Clarence was undergoing. + +I was right in my forebodings. Prosecution and a second return home in +shame and disgrace were alike hideous to Clarence, and the present was +almost equally terrible, for nobody at the office had any doubt of his +guilt, and the young men who had sneered at his strictness and religious +habits regarded him as an unmasked hypocrite, only waiting on sufferance +till his greatly deceived patron should write to decide on the steps to +be taken with him, while he knew he was thought to be brazening it out in +hopes of again deceiving Mr. Castleford. + +The sea began to exert its power over him, and he thought with longing of +its freedom, as if the sails of the vessels were the wings of a dove to +flee away and be at rest. He had no illusions as to the roughness of the +life and companionship; but in his present mood, the frank rudeness and +profanity of the sailors seemed preferable to his cramped life, and the +scowls of his fellows; and he knew himself to have seamanship enough to +rise quickly, even if he could not secure a mate’s berth at first. + +Mr. Castleford could not be heard from till the end of the week. Friday, +Saturday came and not a word. That was the climax! When the consignment +of cash, hitherto carried by Clarence to the Bank of England, was +committed to another clerk, the very office boy sniggered, and the +manager demonstratively waited to see him depart. + +Unable to bear it any longer, he walked towards Wapping, bought a +Southwester, examined the lists of shipping, and entered into +conversation with one or two sailors about the vessels making up their +crews; intending to go down after dark, to meet the skipper of a craft +bound for Lisbon, who, he heard, was so much in want of a mate as perhaps +to overlook the lack of testimonials, and at any rate take him on board +on Sunday. + +Going home to pick up a few necessaries, a book lent to him by Miss +Newton came in his way, and he felt drawn to carry it home, and see her +face for the last time. + +All unconscious of his trouble and of his intentions, the good lady told +him of her strong desire to hear a celebrated preacher at a neighbouring +church on the Sunday evening, but said that in her partial blindness and +weakness, she was afraid to venture, unless he would have the extreme +goodness, as she said, to take care of her. He saw that she wished it so +much that he had not the heart to refuse, and he recollected likewise +that very early on Monday morning would answer his purpose equally well. + +It was the 7th of June. The Psalm was the 37th—the supreme lesson of +patience. ‘Hold thee still in the Lord; and abide patiently on Him; and +He shall bring it to pass. He shall make thy righteousness as clear as +the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday.’ + +The awful sense of desolation seemed to pass away under those words, with +that gentle woman beside him. And the sermon was on ‘Oh tarry thou the +Lord’s leisure; be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart; and put thou +thy trust in the Lord.’ + +Clarence remembered nothing but the text. But it was borne in upon him +that his purpose of flight was ‘the old story,’—cowardice and virtual +distrust of the Lord, as well as absolute cruelty to us who loved him. + +When he had deposited Miss Newton at her own door, he whispered thanks, +and an entreaty for her prayers. + +And then he went home, and fought the battle of his life, with his own +horrible dread of Mr. Castleford’s disappointment; of possible +prosecution; of the shame at home; the misery of a life a second time +blighted. He fought it out on his knees, many a time persuading himself +that flight would not be a sin, then returning to the sense that it was a +temptation of his worse self to be overcome. And by morning he knew that +it would be a surrender of himself to his lower nature, and the evil +spirit behind it; while, by facing the worst that could befall him, he +would be falling into the hand of the Lord. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. +AFTER THE TEMPEST. + + + ‘Nor deem the irrevocable past + As wholly wasted, wholly vain, + If rising on its wrecks at last + To something nobler we attain.’ + + LONGFELLOW. + +ALL the rest of the family were out, and I was relieved by being alone +with my distress, not forced to hide it, when the door opened and ‘Mr. +Castleford’ was announced. After one moment’s look at me, one touch of +my hand, he must have seen that I was faint with anxiety, and said, ‘It +is all right, Edward; I see you know all. I am come from Bristol to tell +your father that he may be proud of his son Clarence.’ + +I don’t know what I did. Perhaps I sobbed and cried, but the first words +I could get out were, ‘Does he know? Oh! it may be too late. He may be +gone off to sea!’ I cried, breaking out with my chief fear. Mr. +Castleford looked astounded, then said, ‘I trust not. I sent off a +special messenger last night, as soon as I saw my way—’ + +Then I breathed a little more freely, and could understand what he was +telling me, namely, that Tooke had accused Clarence of abstracting £20 +from the sum in his charge. The fellow accounted for it by explaining +that young Winslow had been paying extravagant bills at a tavern, where +the barmaid showed his presents, and boasted of her conquest. All this +had been written to Mr. Castleford by his partner, and he was told that +it was out of deference to himself that his _protégé_ was not in custody, +nor had received notice of dismissal; but, no doubt, he would give his +sanction to immediate measures, and communicate with the family. + +The effect had been to make the good man hurry at once from the Giant’s +Causeway to Bristol, where he had arrived on Sunday, to investigate the +books and examine the underlings. In the midst Tooke attempted to +abscond, but he was brought back as he was embarking in an American +vessel; and he then confessed the whole,—how speculation had led to +dishonesty, and following evil customs not uncommon in other firms. +Then, when the fugitive found that young Winslow was too acute to be +blinded, and that it had been a still greater mistake to try to overcome +his integrity, self-defence required his ruin, or at any rate his +expulsion, before he could gain Mr. Castleford’s ear. + +Tooke really believed that the discreditable bills were the young man’s +own, and proofs of concealed habits of dissipation; but this excellent +man had gone into the matter, repaired to the tradesfolk, learnt the +date, and whose the accounts really were, and had even hunted up the +barmaid, who was not married after all, and had no hesitation in avowing +that her beau had been the handsome young Yeomanry lieutenant. Mr. +Castleford had spent the greater part of Monday in this painful task, but +had not been clear enough till quite late in the evening to despatch an +express to his partner, and to Clarence, whom he desired to meet him +here. + +‘He has acted nobly,’ said our kind friend. ‘His only error seems to +have been in being too good a brother.’ + +This made me implore that nothing should be said about Griffith’s bills, +showing those injunctions of Clarence’s which had so puzzled me, and +explaining the circumstances. + +Mr. Castleford hummed and hawed, and perhaps wished he had seen my father +before me; but I prevailed at last, and when the others came in from +their drive, there was nothing to alloy the intelligence that Clarence +had shown rare discernment, as well as great uprightness, steadfastness, +and moral courage. + +My mother, when she had taken in the fact, actually shed tears of joy. +Emily stood by me, holding my hand. My father said, ‘It is all owing to +you, Castleford, and the helping hand you gave the poor boy.’ + +‘Nay,’ was the answer, ‘it seems to me that it was owing to his having +the root of the matter in him to overcome his natural failings.’ + +Still, in all the rejoicing, my heart failed me lest the express should +have come too late, and Clarence should be already on the high seas, for +there had been no letter from him on Sunday morning. It was doubtful +whether Mr. Castleford’s messenger could reach London in time for tidings +to come down by the coach—far less did we expect Clarence—and we had +nearly finished the first course at dinner, when we heard the front door +open, and a voice speaking to the butler. Emily screamed ‘It’s he! Oh +mamma, may I?’ and flew out into the hall, dragging in a pale, worn and +weary wight, all dust and heat, having travelled down outside the coach +on a broiling day, and walked the rest of the way. He looked quite +bewildered at the rush at him; my father’s ‘Well done, Clarence,’ and +strong clasp; and my mother’s fervent kiss, and muttered something about +washing his hands. + +Formal folks, such as we were, had to sit in our chairs; and when he came +back apologising for not dressing, as he had left his portmanteau for the +carrier, he looked so white and ill that we were quite shocked, and began +to realise what he had suffered. He could not eat the food that was +brought back for him, and allowed that his head was aching dreadfully; +but, after a glass of wine had been administered, it was extracted that +he had met Mr. Frith at the office door, and been gruffly told that Mr. +Castleford was satisfied, and he might consider himself acquitted. + +‘And then I had your letter, sir, thank you,’ said Clarence, scarcely +restraining his tears. + +‘The thanks are on our side, my dear boy,’ said Mr. Castleford. ‘I must +talk it over with you, but not till you have had a night’s rest. You +look as if you had not known one for a good while.’ + +Clarence gave a sort of trembling smile, not trusting himself to speak. +Approbation at home was so new and strange to him that he could scarcely +bear it, worn out as he was by nearly a month of doubt, distress, +apprehension, and self-debate. + +My mother went herself to hasten the preparation of his room, and after +she had sent him to bed went again to satisfy herself that he was +comfortable and not feverish. She came back wiping away a tear, and +saying he had looked up at her just as when she had the three of us in +our nursery cribs. In truth these two had seldom been so happy together +since those days, though the dear mother, while thankful that he had not +failed, was little aware of the conflict his resolution had cost him, and +the hot journey and long walk came in for more blame for his exhaustion +than they entirely deserved. + +My father perhaps understood more of the trial; for when she came back, +declaring that all that was needed was sleep, and forbidding me to go to +my room before bedtime, he said he must bid the boy good-night. + +And he spoke as his reserve would have never let him speak at any other +time, telling Clarence how deeply thankful he felt for the manifestation +of such truthfulness and moral courage as he said showed that the man had +conquered the failings of the boy. + +Nevertheless, when I retired for the night, it was to find Clarence +asleep indeed, but most uneasily, tossing, moaning, and muttering broken +sentences about ‘disgracing his pennant,’ ‘never bearing to see mamma’s +face’—and the like. I thought it a kindness to wake him, and he started +up. ‘Ted, is it you? I thought I should never hear your dear old crutch +again! Is it really all right’—then, sitting up and passing his hand +over his face, ‘I always mix it up with the old affair, and think the +court-martial is coming again.’ + +‘There’s all the difference now.’ + +‘Thank God! yes—He has dragged me through! But it did not seem so in +one’s sleep, nor waking neither—though sleep is worst, and happily there +was not much of that! Sit down, Ted; I want to look at you. I can’t +believe it is not three weeks since I saw you last.’ + +We talked it all out, and I came to some perception of the fearful ordeal +it had been—first, in the decision neither to shut his eyes, nor to +conceal that they were open; and then in the lack of presence of mind and +the sense of confusion that always beset him when browbeaten and talked +down, so that, in the critical contest with Tooke, he felt as if his feet +were slipping from under him, and what had once been clear to him was +becoming dim, so that he had only been assured that he had held his +ground by Tooke’s redoubled persuasions and increased anger. And for a +clerk, whose years were only twenty-one, to oppose a manager, who had +been in the service more than the whole of that space, was preposterous +insolence, and likely to result in the utter ruin of his own prospects, +and the character he had begun to retrieve. It was just after this, the +real crisis, that he had the only dream which had not been misery and +distress. In it she—she yonder—yes, the lady with the lamp, came and +stood by him, and said, ‘Be steadfast.’ + +‘It was a dream,’ said Clarence. ‘She was not as she is in the mullion +room, not crying, but with a sweet, sad look, almost like Miss Fordyce—if +Miss Fordyce ever looked sad. It was only a dream.’ + +Yet it had so refreshed and comforted him that we have often since +discussed whether the spirit really visited him, or whether this was the +manner in which conscience and imagination acted on his brain. Indeed, +he always believed that the dream had been either heaven-sent or +heaven-permitted. + +The die had been cast in that interview when he had let it be seen that +he was dangerous, and could not be bought over. The after consequences +had been the terrible distress and temptation I have before described, +only most inadequately. ‘But that,’ said Clarence, half smiling, ‘only +came of my being such a wretched creature as I am. There, dear old Miss +Newton saved me—yes, she did—most unconsciously, dear old soul. Don’t +you remember how Griff used to say she maundered over the text. Well, +she did it all the way home in my ear, as she clung to my arm—“Be strong, +and He shall comfort thine heart.” And then I knew my despair and +determination to leave it all behind were a temptation—“the old story,” +as you told me, and I prayed God to help me, and just managed to fight it +out. Thank God for her!’ + +If it had not been for that good woman, he would have been out of +reach—already out in the river—before Mr. Castleford’s messenger had +reached London! He might call himself a poor creature—and certainly a +man of harder, bolder stuff would not have fared so badly in the strife; +but it always seemed to me in after years that much of what he called the +poor creature—the old, nervous, timid, diffident self—had been shaken off +in that desperate struggle, perhaps because it had really given him more +self-reliance, and certainly inspired others with confidence in him. + +We talked late enough to have horrified my mother, but I did not leave +him till he was sleeping like a child, nor did he wake till I was leaving +the room at the sound of the bell. It was alleged that it was the first +time in his life that he had been late for prayers. Mr. Castleford said +he was very glad, and my mother, looking severely at me, said she knew we +had been talking all night, and then went off to satisfy herself whether +he ought to be getting up. + +There was no doubt on that score, for he was quite himself again, though +he was, in looks and in weariness, just as if he had recovered from a bad +illness, or, as he put it himself, he felt as tired and bruised as if he +had been in a stiff gale. Mr. Castleford was sorry to be obliged to ask +him to go through the whole matter with him in the study, and the result +was that he was pronounced to have an admirable head for business, as +well as the higher qualities that had been put to the test. After that +his good friend insisted that he should have a long and complete holiday, +at first proposing to take him to Ireland, but giving the notion up on +hearing of our projected excursion to the north of Devon. Pending this, +Clarence was, for nearly a week, fit for nothing but lying on the grass +in the shade, playing with the cats and dogs, or with little Anne, +looking over our drawings, listening to Wordsworth, our reigning +idol,—and enjoying, with almost touching gratitude, the first approach to +petting that had ever fallen to his share. + +The only trouble on his mind was the Quarter-Session. Mr. Castleford +would hardly have prosecuted an old employé, but Mr. Frith was furious, +and resolved to make an example. Tooke had, however, so carefully +entrenched himself that nothing could be actually made a subject of +prosecution but the abstraction of the £20 of which he had accused +Clarence, who had to prove the having received and delivered it. + +It was a very painful affair, and Tooke was sentenced to seven years’ +transportation. I believe he became a very rich and prosperous man in +New South Wales, and founded a family. My father received warm +compliments upon his sons, and Clarence had the new sensation of being +honourably coupled with Griffith, though he laughed at the idea of mere +honesty with fierce struggles being placed beside heroism with no +struggle at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. +HOLIDAY-MAKING. + + + ‘The child upon the mountain side + Plays fearless and at ease, + While the hush of purple evening + Spreads over earth and seas. + The valley lies in shadow, + But the valley lies afar; + And the mountain is a slope of light + Upreaching to a star.’ + + MENELLA SMEDLEY. + +HOW pleasant it was to hear Griffith’s cheery voice, as he swung himself +down, out of a cloud of dust, from the top of the coach at the wayside +stage-house, whither Clarence and I had driven in the new britshka to +meet him. While the four fine coach-horses were led off, and their +successors harnessed in almost the twinkling of an eye, Griff was with +us; and we did nothing but laugh and poke fun at each other all the way +home, without a word of graver matters. + +I was resolved, however, that Griff should know how terribly his +commission had added to Clarence’s danger, and how carefully the secret +had been guarded; and the first time I could get him alone, I told him +the whole. + +The effect was one of his most overwhelming fits of laughter. ‘Poor old +Bill! To think of his being accused of gallanting about with barmaids!’ +(an explosion at every pause) ‘and revelling with officers! Poor old +Bill! it was as bad as Malvolio himself.’ + +When, indignant at the mirth excited by what had nearly cost us so dear, +I observed that these items had nearly turned the scale against our +brother, Griff demanded how we could have been such idiots as not to have +written to him; I might at least have had the sense to do so. As to its +doing him harm at Hillside, Parson Frank was no fool, and knew what men +were made of! Griff would have taken the risk, come at once, and thrust +the story down the fellow’s throat (as indeed he would have done). The +idea of Betsy putting up with a pious young man like Bill, whose only +flame had ever been old Miss Newton! And he roared again at the +incongruous pair. ‘Oh, wasn’t she married after all, the hussy? She +always had a dozen beaux, and professed to be on the point of putting up +her banns; so if the earrings were not a wedding present, they might have +been, ought to have been, and would be some time or other.’ + +Then he patted me, and declared there was no occasion for my disgusted +looks, for no one knew better than himself that he had the best brace of +brothers in existence, wanting in nothing but common sense and knowledge +of the world. As to Betsy—faugh! I need not make myself uneasy about +her; she knew what a civil word was worth much better than I did. + +He showed considerable affection for Clarence after a fashion of his own, +which we three perfectly understood, and preferred to anything more +conventional. Griff was always delightful, and he was especially so on +that vacation, when every one was in high spirits; so that the journey +is, as I look back on it, like a spot of brilliant sunshine in the +distant landscape. + +Mrs. Fordyce kept house with her father-in-law, little Anne, and Martyn, +whose holidays began a week after we had started. The two children were +allowed to make a desert island and a robbers’ cave in the beech wood; +and the adventures which their imaginations underwent there completely +threw ours into the shade. + +The three ladies and I started in the big Hillside open carriage, with my +brothers on the box and the two fathers on horseback. Frank Fordyce was +a splendid rider, as indeed was the old rector, who had followed the +hounds, made a leap over a fearful chasm, still known as the Parson’s +Stride, and had been an excellent shot. The renunciation of field sports +had been a severe sacrifice to Frank Fordyce, and showed of what +excellent stuff he was made. He used to say that it was his own fault +that he had to give them up; another man would have been less engrossed +by them. Though he only read by fits and starts when his enthusiasm was +excited, he was thorough, able, and acute, and his intelligence and +sympathy were my father’s best compensation for the loss of London +society. + +The two riders were a great contrast. Mr. Winslow had the thoroughly +well-appointed, somewhat precise, and highly-polished air of a barrister, +and a thin, somewhat worn and colourless face, with grizzled hair and +white whiskers; and though he rode well, with full command of his horse, +he was old enough to have chosen Chancery for her sterling qualities. +Parson Frank, on the other hand, though a thorough gentleman, was as +ruddy and weather-browned as any farmer, and—albeit his features were +handsome and refined, and his figure well poised and athletic—he lost +something of dignity by easiness of gesture and carelessness of dress, +except on state occasions, when he discarded his beloved rusty old coat +and Oxford mixture trousers, and came out magnificent enough for an +archdeacon, if not an archbishop; while his magnificent horse, Cossack, +was an animal that a sporting duke might have envied. + +Nothing ever tired that couple, but my father had stipulated for +exchanges with Griffith. On these occasions it almost invariably +happened that there was a fine view for Ellen to see, so that she was +exalted to the box with Griffith to show it to her, and Chancery was +consigned to Clarence. Griff was wont to say that Chancery deserved her +name, and that he would defy the ninety-ninth part of a tailor to come to +harm with her; but Clarence was utterly unpractised in riding, did not +like it, was tormented lest Cossack’s antics should corrupt Chancery, and +was mortally afraid of breaking the knees of the precious mare. Not all +Parson Frank’s good advice and kindly raillery would induce him to risk +riding her on a descent; and as our travels were entirely up and down +hill, he was often left leading her far behind, in hot sun or misty rain, +and then would come cantering hastily up, reckless of parallels with John +Gilpin, and only anxious to be in time to help me out at the +halting-place; but more than once only coming in when the beefsteaks were +losing their first charm, and then good-humouredly serving as the general +butt for his noble horsemanship. Did any one fully comprehend how much +pleasanter our journey was through the presence of one person entirely at +the service of the others? For my own part, it made an immense +difference to have one pair of strong arms and dextrous well-accustomed +hands always at my service, enabling me to accomplish what no one else, +kind as all were, would have ventured on letting me attempt. Primarily, +he was my devoted slave; but he was at the beck and call of every one, +making the inquiries, managing the bargains, going off in search of +whatever was wanting—taking in fact all the ‘must be dones’ of the +journal. The contemplation of Cossack and Chancery being rubbed down, +and devouring their oats was so delightful to Frank Fordyce and Griffith +that they seldom wished to shirk it; but if there were any more pleasing +occupation, it was a matter of course that Clarence should watch to see +that the ostlers did their duty by the animals—an obsolete ceremony, by +the bye. He even succeeded in hunting up and hiring a side saddle when +the lovers, with the masterfulness of their nature, devised appropriating +the horses at all the most beautiful places, in spite of Frank’s murmur, +‘What will mamma say?’ But, as Griff said, it was a real mercy, for +Ellen was infinitely more at her ease with Chancery than was Clarence. +Then Emily had Clarence to walk up the hills with her, and help her in +botany—her special department in our tour. Mine was sketching, Ellen’s, +keeping the journal, though we all shared in each other’s work at times; +and Griff, whose line was decidedly love-making, interfered considerably +with us all, especially with our chronicler. I spare you the tour, young +people; it lies before me on the table, profusely illustrated and written +in many hands. As I turn it over, I see noble Dunster on its rock; +Clarence leading Chancery down Porlock Hill; Parson Frank in vain pursuit +of his favourite ancient hat over that wild and windy waste, the sheep +running away from him; a boat tossing at lovely Minehead; a ‘native’ +bargaining over a crab with my mother; the wonderful Valley of Rocks, and +many another scene, ludicrous or grand; for, indeed, we were for ever +taking the one step between the sublime and the ridiculous! I am +inclined to believe it is as well worth reading as many that have rushed +into print, and it is full of precious reminiscences to Emily and me; but +the younger generation may judge for itself, and it would be an +interruption here. The country we saw was of utterly unimagined beauty +to the untravelled eyes of most of us. I remember Ellen standing on +Hartland Point, with her face to the infinite expanse of the Atlantic, +and waving back Griff with ‘Oh, don’t speak to me.’ Yet the sea was a +delight above all to my mother and Clarence. To them it was a beloved +friend; and magnificent as was Lynmouth, wonderful as was Clovelly, and +glorious as was Hartland, I believe they would equally have welcomed the +waves if they had been on the flattest of muddy shores! The ripple, +plash, and roar were as familiar voices, the salt smell as native air; +and my mother never had thawed so entirely towards Clarence as when she +found him the only person who could thoroughly participate her feeling. + +At Minehead they stayed out, walking up and down together in the summer +twilight till long after every one else was tired out, and had gone in; +and when at last they appeared she was leaning on Clarence’s arm, an +unprecedented spectacle! + +At Appledore, the only place on that rugged coast where boating tempted +them, there was what they called a pretty little breeze, but quite enough +to make all the rest of us decline venturing out into Bideford bay. +They, however, found a boatman and made a trip, which was evidently such +enjoyment to them, that my father, who had been a little restless and +uneasy all the time, declared on their return that he felt quite jealous +of Neptune, and had never known what a cruelty he was committing in +asking a sea-nymph to marry a London lawyer. + +Mr. Fordyce told him he was afraid of being like the fisherman who wedded +a mermaid, and made Ellen tell the story in her own pretty way; but while +we were laughing over it, I saw my mother steal her hand into my father’s +and give it a strong grasp. Such gestures, which she denominated pawing, +when she witnessed them in Emily, were so alien to her in general that no +doubt this little action was infinitely expressive to her husband. She +was wonderfully softened, and Clarence implied to me that it was the +first time she had ever seemed to grieve for him more than she despised +him, or to recognise his deprivation more than his disgrace,—implied, I +say, for the words he used were little more than—‘You can’t think how +nice she was to me.’ + +The regaining of esteem and self-respect was lessening Clarence’s +bashfulness, and bringing out his powers of conversation, so that he +began to be appreciated as a pleasant companion, answering Griff’s +raillery in like fashion, and holding his own in good-natured repartee. +Mr. Fordyce got on excellently with him in their tête-à-têtes (who would +not with Parson Frank?), and held him in higher estimation than did +Ellen. To her, honesty was common, tame, and uninteresting in comparison +with heroism; and Griff’s vague statement that Clarence was the best +brother in the world did not go for much. Emily and I longed to get the +two better acquainted, but it did not become possible while Griff +absorbed the maiden as his exclusive property. + +The engagement was treated as an avowed and settled thing, though I do +not know that there had been a formal ratification by the parents; but in +truth Mrs. Fordyce must have tacitly yielded her consent when she +permitted her daughter to make the journey under the guardianship of +Parson Frank. After a walk in the ravine of Lynton, we became aware of a +ring upon Ellen’s finger; and Emily was allowed at night to hear how and +when it had been put on. + +Ellen only slightly deepened her lovely carnation tints when her father +indulged in a little tender teasing and lamentation over himself. She +was thoroughly happy and proud of her hero, and not ashamed of owning it. + +There was one evening when she and I were sitting with our sketchbooks in +the shade on the beech at Ilfracombe, while the rest had gone, some to +bathe, the others to make purchases in the town. We had been condoling +with one another over the impossibility of finding anything among our +water-colours that would express the wondrous tints before our eyes. + +‘No, nothing can do it,’ I said at last; ‘we can only make a sort of blot +to assist our memories.’ + +‘Sunshine outside and in!’ said Ellen. ‘The memory of such days as these +can never fade away,—no, nor thankfulness for them, I hope.’ + +Something then passed about the fact that it was quite possible to go on +in complete content in a quiet monotonous life, in an oyster-like way, +till suddenly there was an unveiling and opening of unimagined capacities +of enjoyment—as by a scene like this before us, by a great poem, an +oratorio, or, as I supposed, by Niagara or the Alps. Ellen put it—‘Oh! +and by feelings for the great and good!’ Dear girl, her colour deepened, +and I am sure she meant her bliss in her connection with her hero. +Presently, however, she passed on to saying how such revelations of +unsuspected powers of enjoyment helped one to enter into what was meant +by ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the +heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that +love him.’ Then there was a silence, and an inevitable quoting of the +_Christian Year_, the guide to all our best thoughts— + + ‘But patience, there may come a time.’ + +And then a turning to the ‘Ode to Immortality,’ for Wordsworth was our +second leader, and we carried him on our tour as our one secular book, as +Keble was our one religious book. We felt that the principal joy of all +this beauty and delight was because there was something beyond. +Presently Ellen said, prettily and shyly, ‘I am sure all this has opened +much more to me than I ever thought of. I always used to be glad that we +had no brothers, because our cousins were not always pleasant with us; +but now I have learnt what valuable possessions they are,’ she added, +with the sweetest, prettiest glance of her bright eyes. + +I ventured to say that I was glad she said they, and hoped it was a sign +that she was finding out Clarence. + +‘I have found out that I behaved so ill to him that I have been ashamed +ever since to look at him or speak to him,’ said Ellen; ‘I long to ask +his pardon, but I believe that would distress him more than anything.’ + +In which she was right; and I was able to tell her of the excuses there +had been for the poor boy, how he had suffered, and how he had striven to +conquer his failings; and she replied that the words ‘Judge not, that ye +be not judged,’ always smote her with the remembrance of her disdainfully +cantering past him. There was a tear on her eye-lashes, and it drew from +me an apology for having brought a painful recollection into our bright +day. + +‘There must be shade to throw up the lights,’ she said, with her +sparkling look. + +Was it shade that we never fell into one of these grave talks when +Griffith was present, and that the slightest approach to them was sure to +be turned by him into jest? + +We made our journey a little longer than we intended, crossing the moors +so as to spend a Sunday at Exeter; but Frank Fordyce left us, not liking +to give his father the entire duty of a third Sunday. + +Emily says she has come to have a superstition that extensions of +original plans never turn out well, and certainly some of the charm of +our journey departed with the merry, genial Parson Frank. Our mother was +more anxious about Ellen, and put more restrictions on the lovers than +when the father was present to sanction their doings. Griffith +absolutely broke out against her in a way he had never ventured before, +when she forbade Ellen’s riding with him when he wanted to hire a horse +at Lydford and take an excursion on the moor before joining us at +Okehampton. + +My father looked up, and said, ‘Griffith, I am surprised at you.’ He was +constrained to mutter some apology, and I believe Ellen privately begged +my mother’s pardon, owning her to have been quite right; but, by the dear +girl, the wonderful cascade and narrow gorge were seen through swollen +eyes. And poor Clarence must have had a fine time of it when Griffith +had to ride off with him _faute de mieux_. + +All was cleared off, however, when we met again, for Griff’s storms were +very fleeting, and Ellen treated him as if she had to make her own peace +with him. She sacrificed her own enjoyment of Exeter Cathedral to go +about with him when he had had enough of it, but on Sunday afternoon she +altogether declined to walk with him till after the second service. He +laughed at her supposed passion for sacred music, and offered to wait +with her to hear the anthem from the nave. ‘No,’ she said, ‘that would +be amusing ourselves instead of worshipping.’ + +‘We’ve done our devoir in that way already,’ said Griff. ‘Paid our +dues.’ + +‘One can’t,’ cried Ellen, with an eager look. ‘One longs to do all the +more when He has just let us have such a taste of His beautiful things.’ + +‘_One_, perhaps, when one is a little saint,’ returned Griff. + +‘Oh don’t, Griff! I’m not _that_; but you know every one wants all the +help and blessing that can be got. And then it is so delightful!’ + +He gave a long whistle. ‘Every one to his taste,’ he said; ‘especially +you ladies.’ + +He did come to the Cathedral with us, but he had more than half spoilt +this last Sunday. Did he value her for what was best in her, or was her +influence raising him? + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. +C. MORBUS, ESQ. + + + ‘Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears, + The plaintive voice alone she hears, + Sees but the dying man.’ + + SCOTT. + +C. MORBUS, Esq. Such was the card that some wicked wag, one of +Clarence’s fellow-clerks probably, left at his lodgings in the course of +the epidemic which was beginning its ravages even while we were upon our +pleasant journey—a shade indeed to throw out the light. + +In these days, the tidings of a visitation of cholera are heard with +compassion for crowded towns, but without special alarm for ourselves or +our friends, since its conditions and the mode of combating it have come +to be fairly understood. + +In 1832, however, it was a disease almost unknown and unprecedented +except in its Indian abode, whence it had advanced city by city, seaport +by seaport, sweeping down multitudes before it; nor had science yet +discovered how to encounter or forestall it. We heard of it in a +helpless sort of way, as if it had been the plague or the Black Death, +and thought of its victims as doomed. + +That terrible German engraving, ‘Death as a Foe,’ which represents the +grisly form as invading a ballroom in Paris, is an expression of the +feeling with which the scourge was regarded on that first occasion. _Two +Years Ago_ gives some notion of the condition of things in 1849, but by +that time there had been some experience, and means of prevention were +better understood. On the alarm in that year there was a great +inspection of cottages throughout Earlscombe and Hillside, but in 1832 +there was no notion of such precautions. Nevertheless, on neither +visitation, nor any subsequent one, has the disease come nearer to us +than Bristol. + +As far as memory serves me, the idea was that wholesome food, regular +habits, and cleanliness were some protection, but one locality might be +as dangerous as another. There had been cases in London all the spring, +but no special anxiety was felt when Clarence returned to his work in the +end of July, much refreshed and invigorated by his holiday, and with the +understanding that he was to have a rise in position and salary on Mr. +Castleford’s return from Ireland, where he was still staying with his +wife’s relations. Clarence was received at the office with a kind of +shamefaced cordiality, as if every one would fain forget the way in which +he had been treated; and he was struck by finding that all the talk was +of the advances of the cholera, chiefly at Rotherhithe. And a great +shock awaited him. He went, as soon as business hours were over, to +thank good old Miss Newton for the comfort and aid she had unwittingly +given him, and to tell her from what she had saved him. Alas! it was the +last benefit she was ever to confer on her old pupil. At the door he was +told by a weeping, terrified maid that she was very ill with cholera, and +that no hope was given. He tried to send up a message, but she was in a +state of collapse and insensible; and when he inquired the next morning, +the gentle spirit had passed away. + +He attended her funeral that same evening. Griff said it was a proof how +your timid people will do the most foolhardy things; but Clarence always +held that the good woman had really done more for him than any one in +actually establishing a contact, so to say, between his spirit and +external truth, and he thought no mark of respect beyond her deserts. +She was a heavy loss to him, for no one else in town gave him the sense +of home kindness; and there was much more to depress him, for several of +his Sunday class were dead, and the school had been broken up for the +time, while the heats and the fruits of August contributed to raise the +mortality. + +His return had released a couple more clerks for their holiday; it was a +slack time of year, with less business in hand than usual, and the place +looked empty. Mr. Frith worked on as usual, but preserved an ungracious +attitude, as though he were either still incredulous or, if convinced +against his will, resolved that ‘that prig of a Winslow’ should not +presume upon his services. Altogether the poor fellow was quite +unhinged, and wrote such dismal bills of mortality, and meek, resigned +forebodings that my father was almost angry, declaring that he would +frighten himself into the sickness; yet I suppressed a good deal, and +never told them of the last will and testament in which he distributed +his possessions amongst us. Griff said he had a great mind to go and +shake old Bill up and row him well, but he never did. + +More than a week passed by, two of Clarence’s regular days for writing, +but no letter came. My mother grew uneasy, and talked of writing to Mrs. +Robson, or, as we still called her, Gooch; but it was doubtful whether +the answer would contain much information, and it was quite certain that +any ill tidings would be sent to us. + +At last we did hear, and found, as we had foreboded, that the letter had +not been written for fear of alarming us, or carrying infection, though +Clarence underlined the words ‘I am perfectly well.’ + +Having to take a message into the senior partner’s room, Clarence had +found the old man crouched over the table, writhing in the unmistakable +grip of the deadly enemy. No one else was available; Clarence had to +collect himself, send for the doctor, and manage the conveyance of the +patient to his rooms, which fortunately adjoined the office; for, through +all his influx of wealth, Mr. Frith had retained the habits and +expenditure of his early struggling days. His old housekeeper and her +drudge showed themselves terrified out of their senses, and as incapable +as unwilling. Naval experience, and waiting on me, had taught Clarence +helpfulness and handiness; and though this was the very thing that had +appalled his imagination, he seemed, as he said afterwards, ‘to have got +beyond his fright’ to the use of his commonsense. And when at last the +doctor came, and talked of finding a nurse, if possible, for they were +scarce articles, the sufferer only entreated between his paroxysms, +‘Stay, Winslow! Is Winslow there? Don’t go! Don’t leave me!’ + +No nurse was to be found, but to Clarence’s amazement Gooch arrived. He +had sent by the office boy to explain his absence; and before night the +faithful woman descended on him, intending, as in her old days of +authority, simply to put Master Clarry out of harm’s way, and take the +charge upon herself. Then, as he proved unmanageable and would not leave +his patient, neither would she leave him, and through the frightful night +that ensued, there was quite employment enough for them both. Gooch +fully thought the end would come before morning, and was murmuring +something about a clergyman, but was cut short by a sharp prohibition. +However, detecting Clarence’s lips moving, the old man said, ‘Eh! speak +it out!’ ‘And with difficulty, feeling as if I were somebody else,’ said +Clarence, ‘I did get out some short words of prayer. It seemed so awful +for him to die without any.’ + +When the doctor came in early morning, the watchers were astonished to +hear that their charge had taken a turn for the better, and might recover +if their admirable care were continued. The doctor had brought a nurse; +but Mr. Frith would not let her come into the room, and there was plenty +of need for her elsewhere. + +Several days of unremitting care followed, during which Clarence durst +not write to us, so little were the laws of infection understood. Good +Mrs. Robson stayed all the time, and probably saved Clarence from falling +a victim to his zeal, for she looked after him as anxiously as after the +sick man; and with a wondering and thankful heart, he found himself in +full health, when both were set free to return home. Clarence had +written at the beginning of the illness to the only relations of whose +existence or address he was aware, an old sister, Mrs. Stevens, and a +young great-nephew in the office at Liverpool; and the consequence was +the arrival of a sour-looking, old widow sister, who came to take charge +of the convalescence, and, as the indignant Gooch overheard her say, ‘to +prevent that young Winslow from getting round him.’ + +There were no signs of such a feat having been performed, when, the panic +being past, my father went up to London with Griffith, who was to begin +eating his terms at the Temple. He was to share Clarence’s lodgings, for +the Robsons had plenty of room, and Gooch was delighted to extend her +cares to her special favourite, as she already reigned over Clarence’s +wardrobe and table as entirely as in nursery days; and, to my great +exultation, my father said it would be good for Griffith to be with his +brother; and, moreover, we should hear of the latter. Nothing could be a +greater contrast than his rare notifications or requests, scrawled on a +single side of the quarto sheet, with Clarence’s regular weekly lines of +clerkly manuscript, telling all that could interest any of us, and +covering every available flap up to the blank circle left for the trim +red seal. + +Promotion had come to Clarence in the natural course of seniority, and a +small sum, due to him on his coming of age, was invested in the house of +business, so that the two brothers could take between them all the +Robsons’ available rooms. Clarence’s post was one of considerable trust; +but there were no tokens of special favour, except that Mr. Frith was +more civil to my father than usual, and when he heard of the arrangement +about the lodgings, he snarled out, ‘Hm! Law student indeed! Don’t let +him spoil his brother!’ + +Which was so far an expression of gratitude that it showed that he +considered that there was something to be spoilt. Mr. Castleford, +however, showed real satisfaction in the purchase of a share in the +concern for Clarence. His own eldest son inherited a good deal of his +mother’s Irish nature, and was evidently unfit to be anything but a +soldier, and the next was so young that he was glad to have a promising +and trustworthy young man, from whom a possible joint head of the firm +might be manufactured. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. +PETER’S THUNDERBOLT. + + + If you can separate yourself and your misdemeanours you are welcome + to the house; if not, an it would please you to take leave of her, + she is very willing to bid you farewell.’—_Twelfth Night_. + +IN the early summer of 1833, we had the opportunity of borrowing a +friend’s house in Portman Square for six weeks, and we were allowed to +take Ellen with us for introduction to the Admiral and other old friends, +while we were to make acquaintance with her connections—the family of Sir +Horace Lester, M.P. + +We were very civil; but there were a good many polite struggles for the +exclusive possession of Ellen, whom both parties viewed as their +individual right; and her unselfish good-humour and brightness must have +carried her over more worries than we guessed at the time. + +She had stayed with the Lesters before, but in schoolroom days. They +were indolent and uninterested, and had never shown her any of the +permanent wonders of London, despising these as only fit for country +cousins, whereas we had grown up to think of them with intelligent +affection. To me, however, much was as new as to Ellen. Country life +had done so much for me that I could venture on what I had never +attempted before. The Admiral said it was getting away from doctors and +their experiments, but I had also done with the afflictions of attempts +at growth in wrong directions. Old friends did not know me, and more +than once, as I sat in the carriage, addressed me for one of my +brothers—a compliment which, Griff said, turned my head. Happily I was +too much accustomed to my own appearance, and people were too kind, for +me to have much shyness on that score. Our small dinner parties were +great enjoyment to me, and the two girls were very happy in their little +gaieties. + +Braham and Catalani, Fanny Kemble, and Turner’s landscapes at his best, +rise in my memory as supreme delights and revelations in their different +lines, and awakening trains of thought; and then there was that +entertainment which Griffith and Clarence gave us in their rooms, when +they regaled us with all the delicacies of the season, and Peter and +Gooch looked all pride and hospitality! The dining-parlour, or what +served as such, was Griff’s property, as any one could see by the +pictures of horses, dogs, and ladies, the cups, whips, and boxing-gloves +that adorned it; the sitting-room had tokens of other occupation, in +Clarence’s piano, window-box of flowers, and his one extravagance in +engravings from Raffaelle, and a marine water-colour or two, besides all +my own attempts at family portraits, with a case of well-bound books. +Those two rooms were perfectly redolent of their masters—I say it +literally—for the scent of flowers was in Clarence’s room, and in +Griff’s, the odour of cigars had not wholly been destroyed even by much +airing. For in those days it was regarded by parents and guardians as an +objectionable thing. + +Peter was radiant on that occasion; but a few evenings later, when all +were gone to an evening party except my father and myself, Mr. Robson was +announced as wishing to speak to Mr. Winslow. After the civilities +proper to the visit of an old servant had passed, he entered with obvious +reluctance on the purpose of his visit, namely, his dissatisfaction with +Griff as a lodger. His wife, he said, would not have had him speak, she +was _that_ attached to Mr. Griffith, it couldn’t be more if he was her +own son; nor was it for want of liking for the young gentleman on his +part, as had known him from a boy, ‘but the wife of one’s bosom must come +first, sir, as stands to reason, and it’s for the good of the young +gentleman himself, and his family, as some one should speak. I never +said one word against it when she would not be satisfied without running +the risk of her life after Mr. Clarence; hattending of Mr. Frith in the +cholery. That was only her dooty, sir, and I have never a word to say +against dooty: but I cannot see her nearly wore out, and for no good to +nobody.’ + +It appeared that Mrs. Robson was ‘pretty nigh wore out, a setting up for +Mr. Griffith’s untimely hours.’ ‘He laughed and coaxed—what I calls +cajoling—did Mr. Griff, to get a latch-key; but we knows our dooty too +well for that, and Mrs. Winslow had made us faithfully promise, when +Master Clarence first came to us, that he should never have a +latch-key,—Mr. Clarence, as had only been five times later than eleven +o’clock, and then he was going to dine with Mr. Castleford, or to the +theayter, and spoke about it beforehand. If he was not reading to poor +Miss Newton, as was gone, or with some of his language-masters, he was +setting at home with his books and papers, not giving no trouble to +nobody, after he had had his bit of bread and cheese and glass of beer to +his supper.’ + +Ay, Peter knew what young gentlemen was. He did not expect to see them +all like poor Master Clarence, as had had his troubles; the very life +knocked out of him in his youth, as one might say. Indeed Peter would be +pleased to see him a bit more sprightly, and taking more to society and +hamusements of his hage. Nor would there be any objection if the late +’ours was only once a week or so, and things was done in a style fitting +the family; but when it came to mostly every night, often to two or three +o’clock, it was too much for Mrs. Robson, for she would never go to bed, +being mortal afraid of fire, and not always certain that Mr. Griffith +was—to say—fit to put out his candle. ‘What do you mean, Peter?’ +thundered my father, whose brow had been getting more and more furrowed +every moment. ‘Say it out!—Drunk?’ + +‘Well sir, no, no, not to say that exactly, but a little excited, sir, +and women is timid. No sir, not to call intoxicated.’ + +‘No, that’s to come,’ muttered my father. ‘Has this often happened?’ + +Peter did not think that it had been noticed more than three times at the +most; but he went on to offer his candid and sensible advice that Mr. +Griffith should be placed in a family where there was a gentleman or lady +who would have some hauthority, and could not be put aside with his +good-’umoured haffability—‘You’re an old fogy, Peter.’ ‘Never mind, +Nursey, I’ll be a good boy next time,’ and the like. ‘It is a +disadvantage you see, sir, to have been in his service, and ’tis for the +young gentleman’s own good as I speaks; but it would be better if he were +somewheres else—unless you would speak to him, sir.’ + +To the almost needless question whether Clarence had been with his +brother on these occasions, there was a most decided negative. He had +never gone out with Griffith except once to the theatre, and to dine at +the Castlefords, and at first he had sat up for his return, ‘but it led +to words between the young gentlemen,’ said Peter, whose confidences were +becoming reckless; and it appeared that when Clarence had found that +Gooch would not let him spare her vigil, he had obeyed her orders and +ceased to share it. + +Peter was thanked for the revelations, which had been a grievous effort +to him, and dismissed. My father sat still in great distress and +perplexity, asking me whether Clarence had ever told me anything of this, +and I had barely time to answer ‘No’ before Clarence himself came in, +from what Peter called his language-master. He was taking lessons in +French and Spanish, finding a knowledge of these useful in business. To +his extreme distress, my father fell on him at once, demanding what he +knew of the way Griffith was spending his time, ‘coming home at all sorts +of hours in a disreputable condition. No prevarication, sir,’ he added, +as the only too familiar look of consternation and bewilderment came over +Clarence’s face. ‘You are doing your brother no good by conniving at his +conduct. Speak truth, if you can,’ he added, with more cruelty than he +knew, in his own suffering. + +‘Sir,’ gasped Clarence, ‘I know Griff often comes home after I am in bed, +but I do not know the exact time, nor anything more.’ + +‘Is this all you can tell me? Really all?’ + +‘All I know—that is—of my own knowledge,’ said Clarence, recovering a +little, but still unable to answer without hesitation, which vexed my +father. + +‘What do you mean by that? Do you hear nothing?’ + +‘I am afraid,’ said Clarence, ‘that I do not see as much of him as I had +hoped. He is not up till after I have to be at our place, and he does +not often spend an evening at home. He is such a popular fellow, and has +so many friends and engagements.’ + +‘Ay, and of what sort? Can’t you tell? or will you not? I sent him up +to you, thinking you a steady fellow who might influence him for good.’ + +The colour rushed into Clarence’s face, as he answered, looking up and +speaking low, ‘Have I not forfeited all such hopes?’ + +‘Nonsense! You’ve lived down that old story long ago. You would make +your mark, if you only showed a little manliness and force of character. +Griffith was always fond of you. Can’t you do anything to hinder him +from ruining his own life and that sweet girl’s happiness?’ + +‘I would—I would give my life to do so!’ exclaimed Clarence, in warm, +eager tones. ‘I have tried, but he says I know nothing about it, and it +is very dull at our rooms for him. I have got used to it, but you can’t +expect a fellow like Griff to stay at home, with no better company than +me, and do nothing but read law.’ + +‘Then you _do_ know,’ began my father; but Clarence, with full +self-possession, said, ‘I think you had better ask me no more questions, +papa. I really know nothing, or hardly anything, personally of his +proceedings. I went to one supper with him, after going to the play, and +did not fancy it; besides, it almost unfitted me for my morning’s work; +nor does it answer for me to sit up for him—it only vexes him, as if I +were watching him.’ + +‘Did you ever see him come home showing traces of excess?’ + +‘No!’ said Clarence, ‘I never saw!’ and, under a stern, distressed look, +‘Once I heard tones that—that startled me, and Mrs. Robson has grumbled a +good deal—but I think Peter takes it for more than it is worth.’ + +‘I see,’ said my father more gently; ‘I will not press you farther. I +believe I ought to be glad that these habits are only hearsay to you.’ + +‘As far as I can see,’ said Clarence diffidently, but quite restored to +himself, ‘Griff is only like most of his set, young men who go into +society.’ + +‘Oh!’ said my father, in a ‘that’s your opinion’ kind of tone; and as at +that moment the yell of a newsboy was heard in the street, he exclaimed +that he must go and get an evening paper. Clarence made a step to go +instead, but was thrust back, as apparently my father merely wanted an +excuse for rushing into the open air to recover the shock or to think it +over. + +Clarence gave a kind of groan, and presently exclaimed, ‘If only untruth +were not such a sin!’ and, on my exclamation of dismay, he added, ‘I +don’t think a blowing up ever does good!’ + +‘But this state of things should not last.’ + +‘It will not. It would have come to an end without Peter’s springing +this mine. Griff says he can’t stand Gooch any longer! And really she +does worry him intolerably.’ + +‘Peter professed to come without her knowledge or consent.’ + +‘Exactly so. It will almost break the good old soul’s heart for Griff to +leave her; but she expects to have him in hand as if he was in the +nursery. She is ever so much worse than she was with me, and he is +really good-nature itself to laugh off her nagging as he does—about what +he chooses to put on, or eating, or smoking, or leaving his room untidy, +as well as other things.’ + +‘And those other things? Do you suspect more than you told papa?’ + +‘It amounts to no more. Griff likes amusement, and everybody likes +him—that’s all. Yes, I know my father read law ten hours a day, but his +whole nature and circumstances were different. I don’t believe Griff +could go on in that way.’ + +‘Not with such a hope before him? You would, Clarence.’ + +His face and not his tongue answered me, but he added, ‘Griff is sure of +_that_ without so much labour and trouble.’ + +‘And do you see so little of him?’ + +‘I can’t help it. I can’t keep his hours and do my work. Yes, I know we +are drifting apart; I wish I could help it, but being coupled up together +makes it rather worse than better. It aggravates him, and he will really +get on better without Gooch to worry him, and thrust my droning old ways +down his throat,—as if Prince Hal could bear to be twitted with “that +sober boy, Lord John of Lancaster.” Not,’ he added, catching himself up, +‘that I meant to compare him to the madcap Prince. He is the finest of +fellows, if they only would let him alone.’ + +And that was all I could get from Clarence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. +A SQUIRE OF DAMES. + + + ‘Spited with a fool— + Spited and angered both.’ + + _Cymbeline_. + +THIS long stay of Ellen’s in our family had made our fraternal relations +with her nearer and closer. Familiarity had been far from lessening our +strong feeling for her goodness and sweetness. Emily, who knew her best, +used to confide to me little instances of the spirit of devotion and +self-discipline that underlay all her sunny gaiety—how she never failed +in her morning’s devout readings; how she learnt a verse or two of +Scripture every day, and persuaded Emily to join with her in repeating it +ere they went downstairs for their evening’s pleasure; how she had set +herself a little task of plain work for the poor, which she did every day +in her own room; and the like dutiful habits, which seemed, as it were, +to help her to keep herself in hand, and not be carried away by what was +a whirl of pleasure to her, though a fashionable young lady would have +despised its mildness. + +Indeed Lady Peacock, with whom we exchanged calls, made no secret of her +compassion when she found how many parties the ladies were _not_ going +to; and Ellen’s own relations, the Lesters, would have taken her out +almost every night if she had not staunchly held to her promise to her +mother not to go out more than three evenings in the week, for Mrs. +Fordyce knew her to be delicate, and feared late hours for her. The +vexation her cousins manifested made her feel the more bound to give them +what time she could, at hours when Griffith was not at liberty. She did +not like them to be hurt, and jealous of us, or to feel forsaken, and she +tried to put her affection for us on a different footing by averring that +‘it was not the same kind of thing—Emily was her sister.’ + +One day she had gone to luncheon with the Lesters in Cavendish Square, +and was to be called for in the carriage by me, on the way to take up the +other two ladies, who were shopping in Regent Street. + +Ellen came running downstairs, with her cheeks in a glow under the pink +satin lining of her pretty bonnet, and her eyes sparkling with +indignation, which could not but break forth. + +‘I don’t know how I shall ever go there again!’ she exclaimed; ‘they have +no right to say such things!’ Then she explained. Mary and Louisa had +been saying horrid things about Griffith—her Griff! It was always their +way. Think how Horace had made her treat Clarence! It was their way and +habit to tease, and call it fun, and she had never minded it before; but +this was too bad. Would not I put it in her power to give a flat +contradiction, such as would make them ashamed of themselves? + +Contradict what? + +Then it appeared that the Misses Lester had laughed at her, who was so +very particular and scrupulous, for having taken up with a regular young +man about town. Oh no, _they_ did not think much of it—no doubt he was +only just like other people; only the funny thing was that it should be +Ellen, for whom it was always supposed that no saint in the calendar, no +knight in all the Waverley novels, would be good enough! And then, on +her hot desire to know what they meant, they quoted John, the brother in +the Guards, as having been so droll about poor Ellen’s perfect hero, and +especially at his straight-laced Aunt Fordyce having been taken in,—but +of course it was the convenience of joining the estates, and it was +agreeable to see that your very good folk could wink at things like other +people in such a case. Then, when Ellen fairly drove her inquiries home, +in her absolute trust of confuting all slanders, she was told that +Griffith did, what she called ‘all sorts of things—billiards and all +that.’ And even that he was always running after a horrid Lady Peacock, +a gay widow. + +‘They went on in fun,’ said Ellen, ‘and laughed the more when—yes, I am +afraid I did—I lost my temper. No, don’t say I well might, I know I +ought not; but I told them I knew all about Lady Peacock, and that you +were all old friends, even before he rescued her from the Bristol riots +and brought her home to Chantry House; and that only made Mary merrier +than ever, and say, “What, another distressed damsel? Take care, Ellen; +I would not trust such a squire of dames.” And then Louisa chimed in, +“Oh no, you see this Peacock dame was only conducted, like Princess +Micomicona and all the rest of them, to the feet of his peerless +Dulcinea!” And then I heard the knock, and I was never so glad in my +life!’ + +‘Well!’ I could not help remarking, ‘I have heard of women’s +spitefulness, but I never believed it till now.’ + +‘I really don’t think it was altogether what you call malice, so much as +the Lester idea of fun,’ said Ellen, recovering herself after her +outpouring. ‘A very odd notion I always thought it was; and Mary and +Louisa are not really ill-natured, and cannot wish to do the harm they +might have done, if I did not know Griff too well.’ + +Then, after considering a little, she said, blushing, ‘I believe I have +told you more than I ought, Edward—I couldn’t help having it out; but +please don’t tell any one, especially that shocking way of speaking of +mamma, which they could not really mean.’ + +‘No one could who knew her.’ + +‘Of course not. I’ll tell you what I mean to do. I will write to Mary +when we go in, and tell her that I know she really cares for me enough to +be glad that her nonsense has done no mischief, and, though I was so +foolish and wrong as to fly into a passion, of course I know it is only +her way, and I do not believe one word of it.’ + +Somehow, as she looked with those radiant eyes full of perfect trust, I +could not help longing not to have heard Peter Robson’s last night’s +complaint; but family feeling towards outsiders overcomes many a +misgiving, and my wrath against the malignity of the Lesters was quite as +strong as if I had been devoid of all doubts whether Griff wore to all +other eyes the same halo of pure glory with which Ellen invested him. + +Such doubts were very transient. Dear old Griff was too delightful, too +bright and too brave, too ardent and too affectionate, not to dispel all +clouds by the sunshine he carried about with him. If rest and reliance +came with Clarence, zest and animation came with Griffith. He managed to +take the initiative by declining to remain any longer with the Robsons, +saying they had been spoilt by such a model lodger as Clarence, who would +let Gooch feed him on bread and milk and boiled mutton, and put on his +clean pinafore if she chose to insist; whereas her indignation, when +Griff found fault with the folding of his white ties, amounted to ‘_Et tu +Brute_,’ and he really feared she would have had a fit when he ordered +devilled kidneys for breakfast. He was sure her determination to tuck +him up every night and put out his candle was shortening her life; and he +had made arrangements to share the chambers of a friend who had gone +through school and college with him. There was no objection to the +friend, who had stayed at Chantry House and was an agreeable, lively, +young man, well reported of, satisfactorily connected, fairly +industrious, and in good society, so that Griff was likely to be much +less exposed to temptation of the lower kinds than when left to his own +devices, or only with Clarence, who had neither time nor disposition to +share his amusements. + +There was a scene with my father, but in private; and all that came to +general knowledge was that Griff felt himself injured by any implication +that he was given to violent or excessive dissipation, such as could +wreck Ellen’s happiness or his own character. + +He declared with all his heart that immediate marriage would be the best +thing for both, and pleaded earnestly for it; but my father could not +have arranged for it even if the Fordyces would have consented, and there +were matters of business, as well as other reasons, which made it +inexpedient for them to revoke their decision that the wedding should not +take place before Ellen was of age and Griffith called to the bar. + +So we took our young ladies home, loaded with presents for their beloved +school children, of whom Emily said she dreamt, as the time for seeing +them again drew near. After all the London enjoyment, it was pretty to +see the girls’ delight in the fresh country sights and sounds in full +summer glory, and how Ellen proved to have been hungering after all her +dear ones at home. When we left her at her own door, our last sight of +her was in her father’s arms, little Anne clinging to her dress, mother +and grandfather as close to her as could be—a perfect tableau of a joyous +welcome. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. +LOVE AND OBEDIENCE. + + + ‘Unless he give me all in change + I forfeit all things by him; + The risk is terrible and strange.’ + + MRS. BROWNING. + +YOU will be weary of my lengthiness; and perhaps I am lingering too long +over the earlier portion of my narrative. Something is due to the +disproportion assumed in our memories by the first twenty years of +existence—something, perhaps, to reluctance to passing from comparative +sunshine to shadow. There was still a period of brightness, but it was +so uneventful that I have no excuse for dwelling on it further than to +say that Henderson, our excellent curate, had already made a great +difference in the parish, and it was beginning to be looked on as almost +equal to Hillside. The children were devoted to Emily, who was the +source of all the amenities of their poor little lives. The needlework +of the school was my mother’s pride; and our church and its services, +though you would shudder at them now, were then thought presumptuously +superior ‘for a country parish.’ They were a real delight and blessing +to us, as well as to many more of the flock, who still, in their old age, +remember and revere Parson Henderson as a sort of apostle. + +The dawning of the new Poor-Law led to investigations which revealed the +true conditions of the peasant’s life—its destitution, recklessness, and +dependence. We tried to mend matters by inducing families to emigrate, +but this renewed the distrust which had at first beheld in the schools an +attempt to enslave the children. Even accounts, sent home by the +exceptionally enterprising who did go to Canada, were, we found, scarcely +trusted. Amos Bell, who would have gone, if he had not been growing into +my special personal attendant, was letter-writer and reader to all his +relations, and revealed to us that it had been agreed that no letter +should be considered as genuine unless it bore a certain private mark. +To be sure, the accounts of prosperity might well sound fabulous to the +toilers and moilers at home. Harriet Martineau’s _Hamlets_, which we +lent to many of our neighbours, is a fair picture of the state of things. +We much enjoyed those tales, and Emily says they were the only political +economy she ever learnt. + +The model arrangements of our vestries led to a summons to my father and +the younger Mr. Fordyce to London, to be examined on the condition of the +pauper, and the working of the old Elizabethan Poor-Law. + +They were absent for about a fortnight of early spring, and Emily and I +could not help observing that our mother was unusually uncommunicative +about my father’s letters; and, moreover, there was a tremendous +revolution of the furniture, a far more ominous token in our household +than any comet. + +The truth came on us when the two fathers returned. Mine told me himself +that Frank Fordyce was so much displeased with Griffith’s conduct that he +had declared that the engagement could not continue with his consent. + +This from good-natured, tender-hearted Parson Frank! + +I cried out hotly that ‘those Lesters’ had done this. They had always +been set against us, and any one could talk over Mr. Frank. My father +shook his head. He said Frank Fordyce was not weak, but all the stronger +for his gentleness and charity; and, moreover, that he was quite right—to +our shame and grief be it spoken—quite right. + +It was true that the first information had been given by Sir Horace +Lester, Mrs. Fordyce’s brother, but it had not been lightly spoken like +the daughter’s chatter; and my father himself had found it only too true, +so that he could not conscientiously call Griffith worthy of such a +creature as Ellen Fordyce. + +Poor Griff, he had been idle and impracticable over his legal studies, +which no persuasion would make him view as otherwise than a sort of +nominal training for a country gentleman; nor had he ever believed or +acted upon the fact that the Earlscombe property was not an unlimited +fortune, such as would permit him to dispense with any profession, and +spend time and money like the youths with whom he associated. Still, +this might have been condoned as part of the effervescence which had +excited him ever since my father had succeeded to the estate, and +patience might still have waited for greater wisdom; but there had been +graver complaints of irregularities, which were forcing his friend to +dissolve partnership with him. There was evidence of gambling, which he +not only admitted, but defended; and, moreover, he was known at parties, +at races, and at the theatre, as one of the numerous satellites who +revolved about that gay and conspicuous young fashionable widow, Lady +Peacock. + +‘Yes, Frank has every right to be angry,’ said my father, pacing the +room. ‘I can’t wonder at him. I should do the same; but it is +destroying the best hope for my poor boy.’ + +Then he began to wish Clarence had more—he knew not what to call it—in +him; something that might keep his brother straight. For, of course, he +had talked to Clarence and discovered how very little the brothers saw of +one another. Clarence had been to look for Griff in vain more than once, +and they had only really met at a Castleford dinner-party. In fact, +Clarence’s youthful spirits, and the tastes which would have made him +companionable to Griff, had been crushed out of him; and he was what more +recent slang calls ‘such a muff,’ that he had perforce drifted out of our +elder brother’s daily life, as much as if he had been a grave senior of +fifty. It was, as he owned, a heavy penalty of his youthful fall that he +could not help his brother more effectually. + +It appeared that Frank Fordyce, thoroughly roused, had had it out with +Griffith, and had declared that his consent was withdrawn and the +engagement annulled. Griff, astounded at the resolute tone of one whom +he considered as the most good-natured of men, had answered hotly and +proudly that he should accept no dismissal except from Ellen herself, and +that he had done no more than was expected of any young man of position +and estate. On the other indictment he scorned any defence, and the two +had parted in mutual indignation. He had, however, shown himself so much +distressed at the threat of being deprived of Ellen, that neither my +father nor Clarence had the least doubt of his genuine attachment to her, +nor that his attentions to Lady Peacock were more than the effect of old +habit and love of amusement, and that they had been much exaggerated. He +scouted the bare idea of preferring her to Ellen; and, in his second +interview with my father, was ready to make any amount of promises of +reformation, provided his engagement were continued. + +This was on the last evening before leaving town, and he came to the +coach-office looking so pale, jaded, and unhappy that Parson Frank’s kind +heart was touched; and in answer to a muttered ‘I’ve been ten thousand +fools, sir, but if you will overlook it I will try to be worthy of her,’ +he made some reply that could be construed into, ‘If you keep to that, +all may yet be well. I’ll talk to her mother and grandfather.’ + +Perhaps this was cruel kindness, for, as we well knew, Mrs. Fordyce was +far less likely to be tolerant of a young man’s failings than was her +husband; and she was, besides, a Lester, and might take the same view. + +Abusing the Lesters was our great resource; for we did not believe either +the sailor or the guardsman to be immaculate, and we knew them to be +jealous. We had to remain in ignorance of what we most wished to know, +for Ellen was kept away from us, and my mother would not let Emily go in +search of her. Only Anne, who was a high-spirited, independent little +person, made a sudden rush upon me as I sat in the garden. She had no +business to be so far from home alone; but, said she, ‘I don’t care, it +is all so horrid. Please, Edward, is it true that Griff has been so very +wicked? I heard the maids talking, and they said papa had found out that +he was a bad lot, and that he was not to marry Ellen; but she would stick +to him through thick and thin, like poor Kitty Brown who would marry the +man that got transported for seven years.’ ‘Will he be transported, +Edward? and would Ellen go too, like the “nut-brown maid?” Is that what +she cries so about? Not by day, but all night. I know she does, for her +handkerchief is wet through, and there is a wet place on her pillow +always in the morning; but she only says, “Never mind,” and nobody _will_ +tell me. They only say little girls should not think about such things. +And I am not so very little. I am eight, and have read the _Lay of the +Last Minstrel_ and I know all about people in love. So you might tell +me.’ + +I relieved Anne’s mind as to the chances of transportation, and, after +considering how many confidences might be honourably exchanged with the +child, I explained that her father thought Griff had been idle and +careless, and not fit as yet to be trusted with Ellen. + +Her parish experience came into play. ‘Does papa think he would be like +Joe Sparks? But then gentlemen don’t beat their wives, nor go to the +public-house, nor let their children go about in rags.’ + +I durst not inquire much, but I gathered that there was a heavy shadow +over the house, and that Ellen was striving to do as usual, but breaking +down when alone. Just then Parson Frank appeared. Anne had run away +from him while on a farming inspection, when the debate over the turnips +with the factotum had become wearisome. He looked grave and sorrowful, +quite unlike his usual hearty self, and came to me, leaning over my +chair, and saying, ‘This is sad work, Edward’; and, on an anxious venture +of an inquiry for Ellen, ‘Poor little maid, it is very sore work with +her. She is a good child and obedient—wants to do her duty; but we +should never have let it go on so long. We have only ourselves to +thank—taking the family character, you see’—and he made a kindly gesture +towards me. ‘Your father sees how it is, and won’t let it make a split +between us. I believe that not seeing as much of your sister as usual is +one of my poor lassie’s troubles, but it may be best—it may be best.’ + +He lingered talking, unwilling to tear himself away, and ended by +disclosing, almost at unawares, that Ellen had held out for a long time, +would not understand nor take in what she was told, accepted nothing on +Lester authority, declared she understood all about Lady Peacock, and +showed a strength of resistance and independence of view that had quite +startled her parents, by proving how far their darling had gone from them +in heart. But they still held her by the bonds of obedience; and, by +dealing with her conscience, her mother had obtained from her a piteous +little note— + + ‘MY DEAR GRIFFITH—I am afraid it is true that you have not always + seemed to be doing right, and papa and mamma forbid our going on as + we are. You know I cannot be disobedient. It would not bring a + blessing on you. So I must break off, though—’ + +The ‘though’ could be read through an erasure, followed by the initials, +E. M. F.—as if the dismal conclusion had been felt to be only too +true—and there followed the postscript, ‘Forgive me, and, if we are +patient, it may come right.’ + +This letter was displayed, when, on the ensuing evening, it brought Griff +down in towering indignation, and trying to prove the coercion that must +have been exercised to extract even thus much from his darling. Over he +went headlong to Hillside to insist on seeing her, but to encounter a +succession of stormy scenes. Mrs. Fordyce was the most resolute, but was +ill for a week after. The old Rector was gentle, and somewhat overawed +Griff by his compassion, and by representations that were only too true; +and Parson Frank, with his tender heart torn to pieces, showed symptoms +of yielding another probation. + +The interview with Ellen was granted. She, however, was intrenched in +obedience. She had promised submission to the rupture of her engagement, +and she kept her word,—though she declared that nothing could hinder her +love, and that she would wait patiently till her lover had proved +himself, to everybody’s satisfaction, as good and noble as she knew him +to be. When he told her she did not love him she smiled. She was sure +that whatever mistakes there might have been, he would give no further +occasion against himself, and then every one would see that all had been +mere misunderstanding, and they should be happy again. + +Such trust humbled him, and he was ready to make all promises and +resolutions; but he could not obtain the renewal of the engagement, nor +permission to correspond. Only there was wrung out of Parson Frank a +promise that if he could come in two years with a perfectly unstained, +unblotted character, the betrothal might be renewed. + +We were very thankful for the hope and motive, and Griff had no doubts of +himself. + +‘One can’t look at the pretty creature and think of disappointing her,’ +he said. ‘She is altered, you know, Ted; they’ve bullied her till she is +more ethereal than ever, but it only makes her lovelier. I believe if +she saw me kill some one on the spot she would think it all my +generosity; or, if she could not, she would take and die. Oh no! I’ll +not fail her. No, I won’t; not if I have to spend seven years after the +model of old Bill, whose liveliest pastime is a good long sermon, when it +is not a ghost.’ + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. +UNA OR DUESSA. + + + ‘Soone as the Elfin knight in presence came + And false Duessa, seeming ladye fayre, + A gentle husher, Vanitie by name, + Made roome, and passage did for them prepare.’ + + SPENSER. + +THE two families were supposed to continue on unbroken terms of +friendship, and we men did so; but Mrs. Fordyce told my mother that she +had disapproved of the probation, and Mrs. Winslow was hurt. Though the +two girls were allowed to be together as usual, it was on condition of +silence about Griff; and though, as Emily said, they really had not been +always talking about him in former times, the prohibition seemed to weigh +upon all they said. + +Old Mr. Fordyce had long been talking of a round of visits among +relations whom he had not seen for many years; and it was decided to send +Ellen with him, chiefly, no doubt, to prevent difficulties about Griffith +in the long vacation. + +There was no embargo on the correspondence with my sister, and letters +full of description came regularly, but how unlike they were to our +journal. They were clear, intelligent, with a certain liveliness, but no +ring of youthful joy, no echo of the heart, always as if under restraint. +Griff was much disappointed. He had been on his good behaviour for two +months, and expected his reward, and I could not here repeat all that he +said about her parents when he found she was absent. Yet, after all, he +got more pity and sympathy from Parson Frank than from any one else. +That good man actually sent a message for him, when Emily was on honour +to do no such thing. Poor Emily suffered much in consequence, when she +would neither afford Griff a blank corner of her paper, nor write even a +veiled message; while as to the letters she received and gave to him, +‘what was the use,’ he said, ‘of giving him what might have been read +aloud by the town-crier?’ + +‘You don’t understand, Griff; it is all dear Ellen’s conscientiousness—’ + +‘Oh, deliver me from such con-sci-en-tious-ness,’ he answered, in a tone +of bitter mimicry, and flung out of the room leaving Emily in tears. + +He could not appreciate the nobleness of Ellen’s self-command and the +obedience which was the security of future happiness, but was hurt at +what he thought weak alienation. One note of sympathy would have done +much for Griff just then. I have often thought it over since, and come +to the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce was justified in the entire +separation she brought about. No one can judge of the strength with +which ‘true love’ has mastered any individual, nor how far change may be +possible; and, on the other hand, unless there were full appreciation of +Ellen’s character, she might only have been looked on as— + + ‘Puppet to a father’s threat, + Servile to a shrewish tongue.’ + +Yet, after all, Frank Fordyce was very kind to Griff, making himself as +much of a medium of communication as he could consistently with his +conscience, but of course not satisfying one who believed that the +strength of love was to be proved not by obedience but disobedience. + +Ellen’s letters showed increasing anxiety about her grandfather, who was +not favourably affected by the change of habits, consequent on a long +journey, and staying in different houses. His return was fixed two or +three times, and then delayed by slight attacks of illness, till at last +he became anxious to get home, and set off about the end of September; +but after sleeping a night at an inn at Warwick, he was too ill to +proceed any farther. His old man-servant was with him; but poor Ellen +went through a great deal of suspense and responsibility before her +parents reached her. The attack was paralysis, and he never recovered +the full powers of mind or body, though they managed to bring him back to +Hillside—as indeed his restlessness longed for his native home. When +once there he became calmer, but did not rally; and a second stroke +proved fatal just before Easter. He was mourned alike by rich and poor, +‘He _was_ a gentleman,’ said even Chapman, ‘always the same to rich or +poor, though he was one of they Fordys.’ + +My father wrote to summon both his elder sons to the funeral at Hillside, +and in due time Clarence appeared by the coach, but alone. He had gone +to Griffith’s chambers to arrange about coming down together, but found +my father’s letter lying unopened on the table, and learnt that his +brother was supposed to be staying at a villa in Surrey, where there were +to be private theatricals. He had forwarded the letter thither, and it +would still be possible to arrive in time by the night mail. + +So entirely was Griff expected that the gig was sent to meet him at seven +o’clock the next morning, but there was no sign of him. My father and +Clarence went without him to the gathering, which showed how deeply the +good old man was respected and loved. + +It was the only funeral Clarence had attended except Miss Newton’s +hurried one, and his sensitive spirit was greatly affected. He had +learnt reserve when amongst others, but I found that he had a strong +foreboding of evil; he tossed and muttered in his sleep, and confessed to +having had a wretched night of dreams, though he would not describe them +otherwise than that he had seen the lady whose face he always looked on +as a presage of evil. + +Two days later the _Morning Post_ gave a full account of the amateur +theatricals at Bella Vista, the seat of Benjamin Bullock, Esquire, and +the Lady Louisa Bullock; and in the list of _dramatis personæ_, there +figured Griffith Winslow, Esquire, as Captain Absolute, and the fair and +accomplished Lady Peacock as Lydia Languish. + +Amateur theatricals were much less common in those days than at present, +and were held as the _ne plus ultra_ of gaiety. Moreover, the Lady +Louisa Bullock was noted for fashionable extravagance of the +semi-reputable style; and there would have been vexation enough at +Griffith’s being her guest, even had not the performance taken place on +the very day of the funeral of Ellen’s grandfather, so as to be an +outrage on decorum. + +At the same time, there came a packet franked by a not very satisfactory +peer, brother to Lady Louisa. My father threw a note over to Clarence, +and proceeded to read a very properly expressed letter full of apologies +and condolences for the Fordyces. + +‘He could not have got the letter in time’ was my father’s comment. +‘When did you forward the letter? How was it addressed? Clarence, I +say, didn’t you hear?’ + +Clarence lifted up his face from his letter, so much flushed that my +mother broke in—‘What’s the matter? A mistake in the post-town would +account for the delay. Has he had the letter?’ + +‘Oh yes.’ + +‘Not in time—eh?’ + +‘I’m afraid,’ and he faltered, ‘he did.’ + +‘Did he or did he not?’ demanded my mother. + +‘What does he say?’ exclaimed my father. + +‘Sir’ (always an unpropitious beginning for poor Clarence), ‘I should +prefer not showing you.’ + +‘Nonsense!’ exclaimed my mother: ‘you do no good by concealing it!’ + +‘Let me see his letter,’ said my father, in the voice there was no +gainsaying, and absolutely taking it from Clarence. None of us will ever +forget the tone in which he read it aloud at the breakfast-table. + + ‘DEAR BILL—What possessed you to send a death’s-head to the feast? + The letter would have bitten no one in my chambers. A nice scrape I + shall be in if you let out that your officious precision forwarded + it. Of course at the last moment I could not upset the whole affair + and leave Lydia to languish in vain. The whole thing went off + magnificently. Keep counsel and no harm is done. You owe me that + for sending on the letter.—Yours, + + ‘J. G. W.’ + +Clarence had not read to the end when the letter was taken from him. +Indeed to inclose such a note in a dispatch sure to be opened _en +famille_ was one of Griffith’s haphazard proceedings, which arose from +the present being always much more to him than the absent. Clarence was +much shocked at hearing these last sentences, and exclaimed, ‘He meant it +in confidence, papa; I implore you to treat it as unread!’ + +My father was always scrupulous about private letters, and said, ‘I beg +your pardon, Clarence; I should not have forced it from you. I wish I +had not seen it.’ + +My mother gave something between a snort and a sigh. ‘It is right for us +to know the truth,’ she said, ‘but that is enough. There is no need that +they should know at Hillside what was Griffith’s alternative.’ + +‘I would not add a pang to that dear girl’s grief,’ said my father; ‘but +I see the Fordyces were right. I shall never do anything to bring these +two together again.’ + +My mother chimed in with something about preferring Lady Peacock and the +Bella Vista crew to Ellen and Hillside, which made us rush into the +breach with incoherent defence. + +‘I know how it was,’ said Clarence. ‘His acting is capital, and of +course these people could not spare him, nor understand how much it +signified that he should be here. They make so much of him.’ + +‘Who do?’ asked my mother. ‘Lady Peacock? How do you know? Have you +been with them?’ + +‘I have dined at Mr. Clarkson’s,’ Clarence avowed; and, on further +pressure, it was extracted that Griffith—handsome, and with talents such +as tell in society—was a general favourite, and much engrossed by people +who found him an enlivenment and ornament to their parties. There had +been little or nothing of late of the former noisy, boyish dissipation; +but that the more fashionable varieties were getting a hold on him became +evident under the cross-questioning to which Clarence had to submit. + +My father said he felt like a party to a falsehood when he sent Griff’s +letter up to Hillside, and he indemnified himself by writing a letter +more indignant—not than was just, but than was prudent, especially in the +case of one little accustomed to strong censure. Indeed Clarence could +not restrain a slight groan when he perceived that our mother was shut up +in the study to assist in the composition. Her denunciations always +outran my father’s, and her pain showed itself in bitterness. ‘I ought +to have had the presence of mind to refuse to show the letter,’ he said; +‘Griff will hardly forgive me.’ + +Ellen looked very thin, and with a transparent delicacy of complexion. +She had greatly grieved over her grandfather’s illness and the first +change in her happy home; and she must have been much disappointed at +Griffith’s absence. Emily dreaded her mention of the subject when they +first met. + +‘But,’ said my sister, ‘she said no word of him. All she cared to tell +me was of the talks she had with her grandfather, when he made her read +his favourite chapters in the Bible; and though he had no memory for +outside things, his thoughts were as beautiful as ever. Sometimes his +face grew so full of glad contemplation that she felt quite awestruck, as +if it were becoming like the face of an angel. It made her realise, she +said, “how little the ups and downs of this life matter, if there can be +such peace at the last.” And, after all, I could not help thinking that +it was better perhaps that Griff did not come. Any other sort of talk +would have jarred on her just now, and you know he would never stand much +of that.’ + +Much as we loved our Griff, we had come to the perception that Ellen was +a treasure he could not esteem properly. + +The Lester cousins, never remarkable for good taste, forced on her the +knowledge of his employment. Her father could not refrain from telling +us that her exclamation had been, ‘Poor Griff, how shocked he must be! +He was so fond of dear grandpapa. Pray, papa, get Mr. Winslow to let him +know that I am not hurt, for I know he could not help it. Or may I ask +Emily to tell him so?’ + +I wish Mrs. Fordyce would have absolved her from the promise not to +mention Griff to us. That innocent reliance might have touched him, as +Emily would have narrated it; but it only rendered my father more +indignant, and more resolved to reserve the message till a repentant +apology should come. And, alas! none ever came. Just wrath on a +voiceless paper has little effect. There is reason to believe that Griff +did not like the air of my father’s letter, and never even read it. He +diligently avoided Clarence, and the pain and shame his warm heart must +have felt only made him keep out of reach. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. +FACILIS DESCENSUS. + + + ‘The slippery verge her feet beguiled; + She tumbled headlong in.’ + + GRAY. + +ONE of Griffith’s briefest notes in his largest hand announced that he +had accepted various invitations to country houses, for cricket matches, +archery meetings, and the like; nor did he even make it clear where his +address would be, except that he would be with a friend in Scotland when +grouse-shooting began. + +Clarence, however, came home for a brief holiday. He was startled at the +first sight of Ellen. He said she was indeed lovelier than ever, with an +added sweetness in her clear eyes and the wild rose flush in her delicate +cheek; but that she looked as if she was being refined away to nothing, +and was more than ever like the vision with the lamp. + +Of course the Fordyces had not been going into society, though Ellen and +Emily were as much together as before, helping one another in practising +their school children in singing, and sharing in one another’s studies +and pursuits. There had been in the spring a change at Wattlesea; the +old incumbent died, and the new one was well reported of as a very +earnest hardworking man. He seemed to be provided with a large family, +and there was no driving into Wattlesea without seeing members of it +scattered about the place. + +The Fordyces being anxious to show them attention without a regular +dinner-party, decided on inviting all the family to keep Anne’s ninth +birthday, and Emily and Martyn were of course to come and assist at the +entertainment. + +It was on the morning of the day fixed that a letter came to me whose +contents seemed to burn themselves into my brain. Martyn called across +the breakfast-table, ‘Look at Edward! Has any one sent you a young +basilisk?’ + +‘I wish it was,’ I gasped out. + +‘Don’t look so,’ entreated Emily. ‘Tell us! Is it Griff?’ + +‘Not ill-hurt?’ cried my mother. ‘Oh no, no. Worse!’ and then somehow I +articulated that he was married; and Clarence exclaimed, ‘Not the +Peacock!’ and at my gesture my father broke out. ‘He has done for +himself, the unhappy boy. A disgraceful Scotch marriage. Eh?’ + +‘It was his sense of honour,’ I managed to utter. + +‘Sense of fiddlestick!’ said my poor father. ‘Don’t stop to excuse him. +We’ve had enough of that! Let us hear.’ + +I cannot give a copy of the letter. It was so painful that it was +destroyed; for there was a tone of bravado betraying his uneasiness, but +altogether unbecoming. All that it disclosed was, that some one staying +in the same house had paid insulting attentions to Lady Peacock; she had +thrown herself on our brother’s protection, and after interfering on her +behalf, he had found that there was no means of sheltering her but by +making her his wife. This had been effected by the assistance of the +lady of the house where they had been staying; and Griffith had written +to me two days later from Edinburgh, declaring that Selina had only to be +known to be loved, and to overcome all prejudices. + +‘Prejudices,’ said my father bitterly. ‘Prejudices in favour of truth +and honour.’ + +And my mother uttered the worst reproach of all, when in my agitation, I +slipped and almost fell in rising—‘Oh, my poor Edward! that I should have +lived to think yours the least misfortune that has befallen my sons!’ + +‘Nay, mother,’ said Clarence, putting Martyn toward her, ‘here is one to +make up for us all.’ + +‘Clarence,’ said my father, ‘your mother did not mean anything but that +you and Edward are the comfort of our lives. I wish there were a chance +of Griffith redeeming the past as you have done; but I see no hope of +that. A man is never ruined till he is married.’ + +At that moment there was a step in the hall, a knock at the door, and +there stood Mr. Frank Fordyce. He looked at us and said, ‘It is true +then.’ + +‘To our shame and sorrow it is,’ said my father. ‘Fordyce, how can we +look you in the face?’ + +‘As my dear good friend, and my father’s,’ said the kind man, shaking him +by the hand heartily. ‘Do you think we could blame you for this youth’s +conduct? Stay’—for we young ones were about to leave the room. ‘My poor +girl knows nothing yet. Her mother luckily got the letter in her +bedroom. We can’t put off the Reynoldses, you know, so I came to ask the +young people to come up as if nothing had happened, and then Ellen need +know nothing till the day is over.’ + +‘If I can,’ said Emily. + +‘You can be capable of self-command, I hope,’ said my mother severely, +‘or you do not deserve to be called a friend.’ + +Such speeches might not be pleasant, but they were bracing, and we all +withdrew to leave the elders to talk it over together, when, as I +believe, kind Parson Frank was chiefly concerned to argue my parents out +of their shame and humiliation. + +Clarence told us what he knew or guessed; and we afterwards understood +the matter to have come about chiefly through poor Griff’s weakness of +character, and love of amusement and flattery. The boyish flirtation +with Selina Clarkson had never entirely died away, though it had been +nothing more than the elder woman’s bantering patronage and easy +acceptance of the youth’s equally gay, jesting admiration. It had, +however, involved some raillery on his attachment to the little +Methodistical country girl, and this gradually grew into jealousy of +her—especially as Griff became more of a man, and a brilliant member of +society. The detention from the funeral had been a real victory on the +widow’s part, and the few times when Clarence had seen them together he +had been dismayed at the _cavaliere serviente_ terms on which Griff +seemed to stand; but his words of warning were laughed down. The rest +was easy to gather. He had gone about on the round of visits almost as +an appendage to Lady Peacock, till they came to a free and easy house, +where her coquetry and love of admiration brought on one of those +disputes which rendered his championship needful; and such defence could +only have one conclusion, especially in Scotland, where hasty private +marriages were still legal. What an exchange! Only had Griff ever +comprehended the worth of his treasure? + +Emily went as late as she could, that there might be the less chance of a +tête-à-tête, in which she might be surprised into a betrayal of her +secret: indeed she only started at last when Martyn’s impatience had +become intolerable. + +What was our amazement when, much earlier than we expected, we saw Mr. +Fordyce driving up in his phaeton, and heard the story he had to tell. + +Emily’s delay had succeeded in bringing her only just in time for the +luncheon that was to be the children’s dinner. There was a keen-looking, +active, sallow clergyman, grizzled, and with an air of having seen much +service; a pale, worn wife, with a gentle, sensible face; and a +bewildering flock of boys and girls, all apparently under the command of +a very brisk, effective-looking elder sister of fourteen or fifteen, who +seemed to be the readiest authority, and to decide what and how much each +might partake of, among delicacies, evidently rare novelties. + +The day was late in August. The summer had broken; there had been rain, +and, though fine, the temperature was fitter for active sports than +anything else. Croquet was not yet invented, and, besides, most of the +party were of the age for regular games at play. Ellen and Emily did +their part in starting these—finding, however, that the Reynolds boys +were rather rough, in spite of the objurgations of their sister, who +evidently thought herself quite beyond the age for romps. The sports led +them to the great home-field on the opposite slope of the ridge from our +own. The new farm-buildings were on the level ground at the bottom to +the right, where the declivity was much more gradual than to the left, +which was very steep, and ended in furze bushes and low copsewood. It +was voted a splendid place for hide-and-seek, and the game was soon in +such full career that Ellen, who had had quite running enough, could fall +out of it, and with her, the other two elder girls. Emily felt Fanny +Reynolds’ presence a sort of protection, ‘little guessing what she was up +to,’ to use her own expression. Perhaps the girl had not earlier made +out who Emily was, or she had been too much absorbed in her cares; but, +as the three sat resting on a stump overlooking the hill, she was +prompted by the singular inopportuneness of precocious fourteen to +observe, ‘I ought to have congratulated you, Miss Winslow.’ + +Emily gabbled out, ‘Thank you, never mind,’ hoping thus to put a stop to +whatever might be coming; but there was no such good fortune. ‘We saw it +in the paper. It is your brother, isn’t it?’ + +‘What?’ asked unsuspicious Ellen, thinking, no doubt, of some fresh glory +to Griffith. + +And before Emily could utter a word, if there were any she could have +uttered, out it came. ‘The marriage—John Griffith Winslow, Esquire, +eldest son of John Edward Winslow of Chantry House, to Selina, relict of +Sir Henry Peacock and daughter of George Clarkson, Esquire, Q.C. I +didn’t think it could be you at first, because you would have been at the +wedding.’ + +Emily had not even time to meet Ellen’s eyes before they were startled by +a shriek that was not the merry ‘whoop’ and ‘I spy’ of the game, and, +springing up, the girls saw little Anne Fordyce rushing headlong down the +very steepest part of the slope, just where it ended in an extremely +muddy pool, the watering-place of the cattle. The child was totally +unable to stop herself, and so was Martyn, who was dashing after her. +Not a word was said, though, perhaps, there was a shriek or two, but the +elder sisters flew with one accord towards the pond. They also were some +way above it, but at some distance off, so that the descent was not so +perpendicular, and they could guard against over-running themselves. +Ellen, perhaps from knowing the ground better, was far before the other +two; but already poor little Anne had gone straight down, and fallen flat +on her face in the water, Martyn after her, perhaps with a little more +free will, for, though he too fell, he was already struggling to lift +Anne up, and had her head above water, when Ellen arrived and dashed in +to assist. + +The pond began by being shallow, but the bottom sloped down into a deep +hollow, and was besides covered several feet deep with heavy +cattle-trodden mire and weeds, in which it was almost impossible to gain +a footing, or to move. By the time Emily and Miss Reynolds had come to +the brink, Ellen and Martyn were standing up in the water, leaning +against one another, and holding poor little Anne’s head up—all they +could do. Ellen called out, ‘Don’t! don’t come in! Call some one! The +farm! We are sinking in! You can’t help! Call—’ + +The danger was really terrible of their sinking in the mud and weeds, and +being sucked into the deep part of the pool, and they were too far in to +be reached from the bank. Emily perceived this, and ran as she had never +run before, happily meeting on the way with the gentlemen, who had been +inspecting the new model farm-buildings, and had already taken alarm from +the screams. + +They found the three still with their heads above water, but no more, for +every struggle to get up the slope only plunged them deeper in the +horrible mud. Moreover, Fanny Reynolds was up to her ankles in the mud, +holding by one of her brothers, but unable to reach Martyn. It seems she +had had some idea of forming a chain of hands to pull the others out. + +Even now the rescue was not too easy. Mr. Fordyce hurried in, and took +Anne in his arms; but, even with his height and strength, he found his +feet slipping away under him, and could only hand the little insensible +girl to Mr. Reynolds, bidding him carry her at once to the house, while +he lifted Martyn up only just in time, and Ellen clung to him. Thus +weighted, he could not get out, till the bailiff and another man had +brought some faggots and a gate that were happily near at hand, and +helped him to drag the two out, perfectly exhausted, and Martyn hardly +conscious. They both were carried to the Rectory,—Ellen by her father, +Martyn by the foreman,—and they were met at the door by the tidings that +little Anne was coming to herself. + +Indeed, by the time Mr. Fordyce had put on dry clothes, all three were +safe in warm beds, and quite themselves again, so that he trusted that no +mischief was done; though he decided upon fetching my mother to satisfy +herself about Martyn. However, a ducking was not much to a healthy +fellow like Martyn, and my mother found him quite fit to dress himself in +the clothes she brought, and to return home with her. Both the girls +were asleep, but Ellen had had a shivering fit, and her mother was with +her, and was anxious. Emily told her mother of Fanny Reynolds’ +unfortunate speech, and it was thought right to mention it. Mrs. Fordyce +listened kindly, kissed Emily, and told her not to be distressed, for +possibly it might turn out to have been the best thing for Ellen to have +learnt the fact at such a moment; and, at any rate, it had spared her +parents some doubt and difficulty as to the communication. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. +WALY, WALY. + + + ‘And am I then forgot, forgot? + It broke the heart of Ellen!’ + + CAMPBELL. + +CLARENCE and Martyn walked over to Hillside the first thing the next +morning to inquire for the two sisters. As to one, they were quickly +reassured, for Anne was in the porch feeding the doves, and no sooner did +she see them than out she flew, and was clinging round Martyn’s neck, her +hat falling back as she kissed him on both cheeks, with an eagerness that +made him, as Clarence reported, turn the colour of a lobster, and look +shy, not to say sheepish, while she exclaimed, ‘ Oh, Martyn! mamma says +she never thanked you, for you really and truly did save my life, and I +am so glad it was you—’ + +‘It was not I, it was Ellen,’ gruffly muttered Martyn. + +‘Oh yes! but papa says I should have been smothered in that horrid mud, +before Ellen could get to me if you had not pulled me up directly.’ + +The elders came out by this time, and Clarence was able to get in his +inquiry. Ellen had had a feverish night, and her chest seemed oppressed, +but her mother did not think her seriously ill. Once she had asked, ‘Is +it true, what Fanny Reynolds said?’ and on being answered, ‘Yes, my dear, +I am afraid it is,’ she had said no more; and as the Fordyce habit of +treating colds was with sedatives, her mother thought her scarcely awake +to the full meaning of the tidings, and hoped to prevent her dwelling on +them till she had recovered the physical shock. Having answered these +inquiries, the two parents turned upon Martyn, who, in an access of +shamefacedness, had crept behind Clarence and a great orange-tree, and +was thence pulled out by Anne’s vigorous efforts. The full story had +come to light. The Reynolds’ boys had grown boisterous as soon as the +restraint of the young ladies’ participation had been removed, and had, +whether intentionally or not, terrified little Anne in the chases of +hide-and-seek. Finally, one of them had probably been unable to +withstand the temptation of seeing her timid nervous way of peeping and +prying about; and had, without waiting to be properly found, leapt out of +his lair with a roar that scared the little girl nearly out of her wits, +and sent her flying, she knew not whither. Martyn was a few steps +behind, only not holding her hand, because the other children had derided +her for clinging to his protection. He had instantly seen where she was +going, and shouted to her to stop and take care; but she was past +attending to him, and he had no choice but to dart after her, seeing what +was inevitable; while George Reynolds had sense to stop in time, and seek +a safer descent. Had Martyn not been there to raise the child instantly +from the stifling mud, her sister could hardly have been in time to save +her. + +Mrs. Fordyce tearfully kissed him; her husband called him a little hero, +as if in joke, then gravely blessed him; and he looked, Clarence related, +as if he had been in the greatest possible disgrace. + +It was the second time that one of us had saved a life from drowning, but +there was none of the exultation we had felt that time before in London. +It was a much graver feeling, where the danger had really been greater, +and the rescue had been of one so dear to us. It was tempered likewise +by anxiety about our dear Ellen—ours, alas, no longer! She was laid up +for several days, and it was thought better that she should not see Emily +till she had recovered; but after a week had passed, her father drove +over to discuss some plans for the Poor-Law arrangements, and begged my +sister to go back in the carriage and spend the day with his daughter. + +We brothers could now look forward to some real intelligence; we became +restless; and in the afternoon Clarence and I set out with the +donkey-chair on the woodland path to meet Emily. We gained more than we +had hoped, for as we came round one of the turns in the winding path, up +the hanging beech-wood, we came on the two friends—Ellen, a truly +Una-like figure, in her white dress with her black scarf making a sable +stole. Perhaps we betrayed some confusion, for there was a bright flush +on her cheeks as she came towards us, and, standing straight up, said, +‘Clarence, Edward, I am so glad you are here; I wanted to see you. I +wanted—to say—I know he could not help it. It was his generosity—helping +those that need it; and—and—I’m not angry. And though that’s all over, +you’ll always be my brothers, won’t you?’ + +She held her outstretched hands to us both. I could not help it, I drew +her down, and kissed her brow; Clarence clasped her other hand and held +it to his lips, but neither of us could utter a word. + +She turned back and went quietly away through the wood, while Emily sank +down under the beech-tree in a paroxysm of grief. You may see which it +was, for Clarence cut out ‘E. M. F., 1835’ upon the bark. He soothed and +caressed poor Emily as in old nursery troubles; and presently she told us +that it would be long before we saw that dear one again, for Mrs. Fordyce +was going to take her away on the morrow. + +Mrs. Fordyce had seen Emily in private, before letting her go to Ellen. +There was evidently a great wish to be kind. Mrs. Fordyce said she could +never forget what she owed to us all, and could not think of blaming any +of us. ‘But,’ she said, ‘you are a sensible girl, Emily,’—‘how I hate +being called a sensible girl,’ observed the poor child, in +parenthesis,—‘and you must see that it is desirable not to encourage her +to indulge in needless discussion after she once understands the facts.’ +She added that she thought a cessation of present intercourse would be +wise till the sore was in some degree healed. She had not been satisfied +about her daughter’s health for some time, and meant to take her to Bath +the next day to consult a physician, and then decide what would be best. +‘And, my dear,’ she said, ‘if there should be a slackening of +correspondence, do not take it as unkindness, but as a token that my poor +child is recovering her tone. Do not discontinue writing to her, but be +guarded, and perhaps less rapid, in replying.’ + +It was for her friendship that poor Emily wept so bitterly—the first +friendship that had been an enthusiasm to her; looking at it as a cruel +injustice that Griff’s misdoing should separate them. The prediction +that all might be lived down and forgotten was too vague and distant to +be much consolation; indeed, we were too young to take it in. + +We had it all over again in a somewhat grotesque form when, at another +turn in the wood, we came upon Martyn and Anne, loaded with treasures +from their robbers’ cave, some of which were bestowed in my chair, the +others carried off between Anne and her not very willing nursery-maid. + +Anne kissed us all round, and augured cheerfully that she should lay up a +store of shells and rocks by the seaside to make ‘a perfect Robinson +Crusoe cavern,’ she said, ‘and then Clarence can come and be the +Spaniards and the savages. But that won’t be till next summer,’ she +added, shaking her head. ‘I shall get Ellen to tell Emily what shells I +find, and then she can tell Martyn; for mamma says girls never write to +boys unless they are their brothers! And now Martyn will never be my +brother,’ she added ruefully. + +‘You will always be our darling,’ I said. + +‘That’s not the same as your sister,’ she answered. However, amid +auguries of the combination of robbers and Robinson Crusoe, the parting +was effected, and Anne borne off by the maid; while we had Martyn on our +hands, stamping about and declaring that it was very hard that because +Griff chose to be a faithless, inconstant ruffian, all his pleasure and +comfort in life should be stopped! He said such outrageous things that, +between scolding him and laughing at him, Emily had been somewhat cheered +by the time we reached the house. + +My father had written to Griffith, in his first displeasure, curt wishes +that he might not have reason to repent of the step he had taken, though +he had not gone the right way to obtain a blessing. As it was not +suitable that a man should be totally dependent on his wife, his +allowance should be continued; but under present circumstances he must +perceive that he and Lady Peacock could not be received at Chantry House. +We were shown the letter, and thought it terribly brief and cold; but my +mother said it would be weak to offer forgiveness that was not sought, +and my father was specially exasperated at the absence of all contrition +as to the treatment of Ellen. All Griff had vouchsafed on that head +was—the rupture had been the Fordyces’ doing; he was not bound. As to +intercourse with him, Clarence and I might act as we saw fit. + +‘Only,’ said my father, as Clarence was leaving home, ‘I trust you not to +get yourself involved in this set.’ + +Clarence gave a queer smile, ‘They would not take me as a gift, papa.’ + +And as my father turned from the hall door, he laid his hand on his +wife’s arm, and said, ‘Who would have told us what that young fellow +would be to us.’ + +She sighed, and said, ‘He is not twenty-three; he has plenty of money, +and is very fond of Griff.’ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. +THE RIVER’S BANK. + + + ‘And my friend rose up in the shadows, + And turned to me, + “Be of good cheer,” I said faintly, + For He called thee.’ + + B. M. + +MR. FORDYCE waited at Hillside till after Sunday, and then went to Bath +to hear the verdict of the physician. He returned as much depressed as +it was in his sanguine nature to be, for great delicacy of the lungs had +been detected; and to prevent the recent chill from leaving permanent +injury, Ellen must have a winter abroad, and warm sea or mountain air at +once. Whether the disease were constitutional and would have come on at +all events no one could tell. + +Consumption was much less understood half a century ago; codliver oil was +unknown; and stethoscopes were new inventions, only used by the more +advanced of the faculty. The only escape poor Parson Frank had from +accepting the doom was in disbelieving that a thing like a trumpet could +really reveal the condition of the chest. Moreover, Mrs. Fordyce had had +a brother who had, under the famous cowhouse cure, recovered enough to +return home, and be killed by the upsetting of a stage coach. + +Mrs. Fordyce took her daughter to Lyme, and waited there till her husband +had found a curate and made all arrangements. It must have been very +inconvenient not to come home; but, no doubt, she wanted to prevent any +more partings. Then they went abroad, travelling slowly, and seeing all +the sights that came in their way, to distract Ellen’s thoughts. She was +not allowed to hear what ailed her; but believed her languor and want of +interest in everything to be the effect of the blow she had received, +struggling to exert herself, and to enter gratefully into the enjoyments +provided for her. She was not prevented from writing to Emily; indeed, +no one liked to hinder anything she wished, but they were guide-book +letters, describing all she saw as a kind of duty, but scarcely +concealing the trouble it was to look. Such sentences would slip out as +‘This is a nice quiet place, and I am happy to say there is nothing that +one ought to see.’ Or, ‘I sat in the cathedral at Lucerne while the +others were going round. The organ was playing, and it was such rest!’ +Or, again, after a day on the Lago di Como, ‘It was glorious, and if you +and Edward were here, perhaps the beauty would penetrate my sluggish +soul!’ + +Ellen’s sluggish soul!—when we remembered her keen ecstasy at the Valley +of Rocks. + +Those letters were our chief interest in an autumn which seemed dreary to +us, in spite of friendly visitors; for had not our family hope and joy +been extinguished? There was no direct communication with Griffith after +his unpleasant reply to my father’s letter; but Clarence saw the newly +married pair on their return to Lady Peacock’s house in London, and +reported that they were very kind and friendly to him, and gave him more +invitations than he could accept. Being cross-examined when he came home +for Christmas, he declared his conviction that Lady Peacock had married +Griff entirely from affection, and that he had been—well—flattered into +it. They seemed very fond of each other now, and were launching out into +all sorts of gaieties; but though he did not tell my father, he confided +to me that he feared that Griffith had been disappointed in the amount of +fortune at his wife’s disposal. + +It was at that Christmas time, one night, having found an intrusive cat +upon my bed, Clarence carried her out at the back door close to his room, +and came back in haste and rather pale. ‘It is quite true about the lady +and the light being seen out of doors,’ he said in an awe-stricken voice, +‘I have just seen her flit from the mullion room to the ruin.’ + +We only noted the fact in that ghost-diary of ours—we told nobody, and +looked no more. We already believed that these appearances on the lawn +must be the cause that every window, up to the attics on the garden side +of the house, were so heavily shuttered and barred that there was no +opening them without noise. Indeed, those on the ground floor had in +addition bells attached to them. No doubt the former inhabitants had +done their best to prevent any one from seeing or inquiring into what was +unacknowledged and unaccountable. It might be only a coincidence, but we +could not help remarking that we had seen and heard nothing of her during +the engagement which might have united the two families; though, of +course, it would be ridiculous to suppose her cognisant of it, like the +White Lady of Avenel, dancing for joy at Mary’s marriage with Halbert +Glendinning. + +The Fordyces had settled at Florence, where they suffered a great deal +more from cold than they would have done at Hillside; and there was such +a cessation of Ellen’s letters that Emily feared that Mrs. Fordyce had +attained her wish and separated the friends effectually. However, Frank +Fordyce beguiled his enforced leisure with long letters to my father on +home business, Austrian misgovernment, and the Italian Church and people, +full of shrewd observations and new lights; and one of these ended thus, +‘My poor lassie has been in bed for ten days with a severe cold. She +begs me to say that she has begun a letter to Emily, and hopes soon to +finish it. We had thought her gaining ground, but she is sadly pulled +down. _Fiat voluntas_.’ + +The letter, which had been begun, never came; but, after three long +weeks, there was one from the dear patient herself, mentioning her +illness, and declaring that it was so comfortable to be allowed to be +tired, and to go nowhere and see nothing except the fragment of beautiful +blue sky, and the corner of a campanile, and the flowers Anne brought in +daily. + +As soon as she could be moved, they took her to Genoa, where she revived +enough to believe that she should be well if she were at home again, and +to win from her parents a promise to take her to Hillside as soon as the +spring winds were over. So anxious was she that, as soon as there was +any safety in travelling, the party began moving northwards, going by sea +to Marseilles to avoid the Corniche, so early in the year. There were +many fluctuations, and it was only her earnest yearning for home and +strong resolution that could have made her parents persevere; but at last +they were at Hillside, just after Whitsuntide, in the last week of May. + +Frank Fordyce walked over to see us on the very evening after their +arrival. He was much altered, his kindly handsome face looked almost as +if he had gone through an illness; and, indeed, apart from all his +anxiety and sorrow, he had pined in foreign parts for his human flock, as +well as his bullocks and his turnips. He had also read, thought, and +observed a great deal, and had left his long boyhood behind him, during a +space for study and meditation such as he had never had before. + +He was quite hopeless of his daughter’s recovery, and made no secret of +it. In passing through London the best advice had been taken, but only +to obtain the verdict that the case was beyond all skill, and that it was +only a matter of weeks, when all that could be done was to give as much +gratification as possible. The one thing that Ellen did care about was +to be at home—to have Emily with her, and once more see her school +children, her church, and her garden. Tired as she was she had sprung up +in the carriage at the first glimpse of Hillside spire, and had leant +forward at the window, nodding and smiling her greetings to all the +villagers. + +She had been taken at once to her room and her bed, but her father had +promised to beg Emily to come up by noon on the morrow. Then he sat +talking of local matters, not able to help showing what infinite relief +it was to him to be at home, and what music to his ears was the +Somersetshire dialect and deep English voice ‘after all those thin, +shrill, screeching foreigners.’ + +Poor Emily! It was in mingled grief and gladness that she set off the +next day, with the trepidation of one to whom sickness and decay were +hitherto unknown. When she returned, it was in a different mood, unable +to believe the doctors could be right, and in the delight of having her +own bright, sweet Ellen back again, all herself. They had talked, but +more of home and village than of foreign experiences; and though Ellen +did not herself assist, she had much enjoyed watching the unpacking of +the numerous gifts which had cost a perfect fortune at the Custom House. +No one seemed forgotten—villagers, children, servants, friends. Some of +these tokens are before me still. The Florentine mosaic paper-weight she +brought me presses this very sheet; the antique lamp she gave my father +is on the mantelpiece; Clarence’s engraving of Raffaelle’s St. Michael +hangs opposite to me on the wall. Most precious in our eyes was the +collection of plants, dried and labelled by herself, which she brought to +Emily and me—poor mummies now, but redolent of undying affection. Her +desire was to bestow all her keepsakes with her own hands, and in most +cases she actually did so—a few daily, as her strength served her. The +little figures in costume, coloured prints, Swiss carvings, French +knicknacks, are preserved in many a Hillside cottage as treasured relics +of ‘our young lady.’ Many years later, Martyn recognised a Hillside +native in a back street in London by a little purple-blue picture of +Vesuvius, and thereby reached the soft spot in a nearly dried-up heart. + +So bright and playful was the dear girl over all her old familiar +interests that we inexperienced beings believed not only that the wound +to her affections was healed, but that she either did not know or did not +realise the sentence that had been pronounced on her; but when this was +repeated to her mother, it was met by a sad smile and the reply that we +only saw her in her best hours. Still, through the summer, it was +impossible to us to accept the truth; she looked so lovely, was so +cheerful, and took such delight in all that was about her. + +With the first cold, however, she seemed to shrivel up, and the bad +nights extended into the days. Emily ascribed the change to the lack of +going out into the air, and always found reasons for the increased +languor and weakness; till at last there came a day when my poor little +sister seemed as if the truth had broken upon her for the first time, +when Ellen talked plainly to her of their parting, and had asked us both, +‘her dear brother and sister,’ to be with her at her Communion on All +Saints’ Day. + +She had written a little letter to Clarence, begging his forgiveness for +having cut him, and treated him with the scorn which, I believe, was the +chief fault that weighed upon her conscience; and, hearing my father’s +voice in the house, she sent a message to beg him to come and see her in +her mother’s dressing-room—that very window where I had first heard her +voice, refusing to come down to ‘those Winslows.’ She had sent for him +to entreat him to forgive Griffith and recall the pair to Chantry House. +‘Not now,’ she said, ‘but when I am gone.’ + +My father could deny her nothing, though he showed that the sight of her +made the entreaty all the harder to him; and she pleaded, ‘But you know +this was not his doing. I never was strong, and it had begun before. +Only think how sad it would have been for him.’ + +My father would have promised anything with that wasted hand on his, +those fervent eyes gazing on him, and he told her he would have given his +pardon long ago, if it had been sought, as it never had been. + +‘Ah! perhaps he did not dare!’ she said. ‘Won’t you write when all this +is over, and then you will be one family again as you used to be?’ + +He promised, though he scarcely knew where Griffith was. Clarence, +however, did. He had answered Ellen’s letter, and it had made him ask +for a few days’ leave of absence. So he came down on the Saturday, and +was allowed a quarter of an hour beside Ellen’s sofa in the Sunday +evening twilight. He brought away the calm, rapt expression I had +sometimes seen on his face at church, and Ellen made a special entreaty +that he might share the morrow’s feast. + +There are some things that cannot be written of, and that was one. Still +we had not thought the end near at hand, though on Tuesday morning a +message was sent that Ellen was suffering and exhausted, and could not +see Emily. It was a wild, stormy day, with fierce showers of sleet, and +we clung to the hope that consideration for my sister had prompted the +message. In the afternoon Clarence battled with a severe gale, made his +way to Hillside, and heard that the weather affected the patient, and +that there was much bodily distress. For one moment he saw her father, +who said in broken accents that we could only pray that the spirit might +be freed without much more suffering, ‘though no doubt it is all right.’ + +Before daylight, before any one in the house was up, Clarence was +mounting the hill in the gusts that had done their work on the trees and +were subsiding with the darkness. And just as he was beginning the +descent, as the sun tipped the Hillside steeple with light, he heard the +knell, and counted the twenty-one for the years of our Ellen—for ours she +will always be. + +‘Somehow,’ he told me, ‘I could not help taking off my hat and giving +thanks for her, and then all the drops on all the boughs began sparkling, +and there was a hush on all around as if she were passing among the +angels, and a thrush broke out into a regular song of jubilee!’ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. +NOT IN VAIN. + + + ‘Then cheerly to your work again, + With hearts new braced and set + To run untired love’s blessed race, + As meet for those who face to face + Over the grave their Lord have met.’ + + KEBLE. + +THAT dying request could not but be held sacred, and overtures were made +to Griffith, who returned an odd sort of answer, friendly and +affectionate, but rather as if my father were the offending party in need +of forgiveness. He and his wife were obliged for the invitation, but +could not accept it, as they had taken a house near Melton-Mowbray for +the hunting season, and were entertaining friends. + +In some ways it was disappointing, in others it was a relief, not to have +the restraint of Lady Peacock’s presence during the last days we were to +have with the Fordyces. For a fresh loss came upon us. Beachharbour was +a fishing-village on the north-western coast, which, within the previous +decade, had sprung into importance, on the one hand as a fashionable +resort, on the other as a minor port for colliers. The living was +wretchedly poor, and had been held for many years by one of the old +inferior stamp of clergy, scarcely superior in habits or breeding to the +farmers, and only outliving the scandals of his youth to fall into a +state of indolent carelessness. It was in the gift of a child, for whom +Sir Horace Lester was trustee, and that gentleman had written, about a +fortnight before Ellen’s death, to consult Mr. Fordyce on its disposal, +declaring the great difficulties and deficiencies of the place, which +made it impossible to offer it to any one without considerable private +means, and also able to attract and improve the utterly demoralised +population. He ended, almost in joke, by saying, ‘In fact, I know no one +who could cope with the situation but yourself; I wish you could find me +your own counterpart, or come yourself in earnest. It is just the air +that suits my sister—bracing sea-breezes; the parsonage, though a +wretched place, is well situated, and she would be all the stronger; but +in poor Ellen’s state there is no use in talking of it, and besides I +know you are wedded to your fertile fields and Somersetshire clowns.’ + +That letter (afterwards shown to us) had worked on Mr. Fordyce’s mind +during those mournful days. He was still young enough to leave behind +him Parson Frank and the ‘squarson’ habits of Hillside in which he had +grown up; and the higher and more spiritual side of his nature had been +fostered by the impressions of the last year. He was conscious, as he +said, that his talk had been overmuch of bullocks, and that his farm had +engrossed him more than he wished should happen again, though a change +would be tearing himself up by the roots; and as to his own people at +Hillside, the curate, an active young man, had well supplied his place, +and, in his _truly_ humble opinion, though by no means in theirs, +introduced several improvements even in that model parish. + +What had moved him most, however, was a conversation he had had with +Ellen, with whom during this last year he had often held deep and serious +counsel, with a growing reverence on his side. He had read her uncle’s +letter to her, and to his great surprise found that she looked on it as a +call. Devotedly fond as she herself was of Hillside, she could see that +her father’s abilities were wasted on so small a field, in a manner +scarcely good for himself, and she had been struck with the greater force +of his sermons when preaching to educated congregations abroad. If no +one else could or would take efficient charge of these Beachharbour +souls, she could see that it would weigh on his conscience to take +comparative ease in his own beloved meadows, among a flock almost his +vassals. Moreover, she relieved his mind about her mother. She had +discovered, what the good wife kept out of sight, that the north-country +woman never could entirely have affinities with the south, and she had +come to the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce’s spirits would be heavily tried +by settling down at Hillside in the altered state of things. + +After this talk, Mr. Fordyce had suggested a possible incumbent to his +brother-in-law, but left the matter open; and when Sir Horace came down +to the funeral, it was more thoroughly discussed; and, as soon as Mrs. +Fordyce saw that departure would not break her husband’s heart, she made +no secret of the way that both her opinion and her inclinations lay. She +told my mother that she had always believed her own ill-health was caused +by the southern climate, and that she hoped that Anne would grow up +stronger than her sister in the northern breezes. + +Poor little Anne! Of all the family, to her the change was the greatest +grief. The tour on the Continent had been a dull affair to her; she was +of the age to weary of long confinement in the carriage and in strange +hotels, and too young to appreciate ‘grown-up’ sights. Picture-galleries +and cathedrals were only a drag to her, and if the experiences that were +put into Rosella’s mouth for the benefit of her untravelled sisters could +have been written down, they would have been as unconventional as Mark +Twain’s adventures. Rosella went through the whole tour, and left a leg +behind in the hinge of a door, but in compensation brought home a Paris +bonnet and mantle. She seemed to have been her young mistress’s chief +comfort, next to an occasional game of play with her father, or a walk, +looking in at the shop windows and watching marionettes, or, still +better, the wonderful sports of brown-legged street children, without +trying to make her speak French or Italian—in her eyes one of the +inflictions of the journey, in those of her elders the one benefit she +might gain. She had missed the petting to which she had been accustomed +from her grandfather and from all of us; and she had absolutely counted +the days till she could get home again, and had fallen into dire disgrace +for fits of crying when Ellen’s weakness caused delays. Martyn’s +holidays had been a time of rapture to her, for there was no one to +attend much to her at home, and she was too young to enter into the +weight of anxiety; so the two had run as wild together as a gracious +well-trained damsel of ten and a fourteen-year-old boy with tender +chivalry awake in him could well do. To be out of the way was all that +was asked of her for the time, and all old delights, such as the robbers’ +cave, were renewed with fresh zest. + + ‘It was the sweetest and the last.’ + +And though Martyn was gone back to school, the child felt the wrench from +home most severely. As she told me on one of those sorrowful days, ‘She +did think she had come back to live at dear, dear little Hillside all the +days of her life.’ Poor child, we became convinced that this vehement +attachment to Griffith’s brothers was one factor in Mrs. Fordyce’s desire +to make a change that should break off these habits of intimacy and +dependence. + +Pluralities had not become illegal, and Frank Fordyce, being still the +chief landholder in Hillside, and wishing to keep up his connection with +his people, did not resign the rectory, though he put the curate into the +house, and let the farm. Once or twice a year he came to fulfil some of +a landlord’s duties, and was as genial and affectionate as ever, but more +and more absorbed in the needs of Beachharbour, and unconsciously showing +his own growth in devotion and activity; while he brought his splendid +health and vigour, his talent, his wealth, and, above all, his winning +charm of manner and address, to that magnificent work at Beachharbour, +well known to all of you; though, perhaps, you never guessed that the +foundation of all those churches and their grand dependent works of +piety, mercy, and beneficence was laid in one young girl’s grave. I +never heard of a fresh achievement there without remembering how the +funeral psalm ends with— + + ‘Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us, + O prosper Thou our handiwork.’ + +And Emily? Her drooping after the loss of her friend was sad, but it +would have been sadder but for the spirit Ellen had infused. We found +the herbs to heal our woe round our pathway, though the first joyousness +of life had departed. The reports Mr. Henderson and the Hillside curate +brought from Oxford were great excitements to us, and we thought and +puzzled over church doctrine, and tried to impart it to our scholars. We +I say, for Henderson had made me take a lads’ class, which has been the +chief interest of my life. Even the roughest were good to their helpless +teacher, and some men, as gray-headed as myself, still come every Sunday +to read with Mr. Edward, and are among the most faithful friends of my +life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. +GRIFF’S BIRD. + + + ‘Shall such mean little creatures pretend to the fashion? + Cousin Turkey Cock, well may you be in a passion.’ + + _The Peacock at Home_. + +IT was not till the second Christmas after dear Ellen Fordyce’s death +that my eldest brother brought his wife and child to Chantry House, after +an urgent letter to Lady Peacock from my mother, who yearned for a sight +of Griffith’s boy. + +I do not wish to dwell on that visit. Selina, or Griff’s bird, as Martyn +chose to term her, was certainly handsome and stylish; but her complexion +had lost freshness and delicacy, and the ladies said her colour was +rouge, and her fine figure due to other female mysteries. She meant to +be very gracious, and patronised everybody, especially Emily, who, she +said, would be quite striking if not sacrificed by her dress, and whom +she much wished to take to London, engaging to provide her with a husband +before the season was over, not for a moment believing my mother’s +assurance that it would be a trial to us all whenever we had to resign +our Emily. Nay, she tried to condole with the poor moped family slave, +and was received with such hot indignation as made her laugh, for, to do +her justice, she was good-natured and easy-tempered. However, I saw less +of her than did the others, for I believe she thought the sight of me +made her ill. Griff, poor old fellow, was heartily glad to be with us +again, but quite under her dominion. He had lost his glow of youth and +grace of figure, his complexion had reddened, and no one would have +guessed him only a year older than Clarence, whose shoulders did indeed +reveal something of the desk, but whose features, though pale, were still +fair and youthful. The boy was another Clarence, not so much in +compliment to his godfather as because it was the most elegant name in +the family, and favoured an interesting belief, current among his +mother’s friends, that the king had actually stood sponsor to the uncle. +Poor little man, his grandmother shut herself into the bookroom and +cried, after her first sight of him. He was a wretched, pinched morsel +of humanity, though mamma and Emily detected wonderful resemblances; I +never saw them, but then he inherited his mother’s repulsion towards me, +and roared doubly at the sight of me. My mother held that he was the +victim of Selina’s dissipations and mismanagement of herself and him, and +gave many matronly groans at his treatment by the smart, flighty nurse, +who waged one continual warfare with the household. + +Accustomed to absolute supremacy in domestic matters, it was very hard +for my mother to have her counsels and experience set at naught, and, if +she appealed to Griff, to find her notions treated with the polite +deference he might have shown to a cottage dame. + +A course of dinner-parties could not hinder her ladyship from finding +Chantry House insufferably dull, ‘always like Sunday;’ and, when she +found that we were given to Saints’ Day services, her pity and +astonishment knew no bounds. ‘It was all very well for a poor object +like Edward,’ she held, ‘but as to Mr. Winslow and Clarence, did they go +for the sake of example? Though, to be sure, Clarence might be a Papist +any day.’ + +Popery, instead of Methodism, was just beginning to be the bugbear set up +for those whom the world held to be ultra-religious, and my mother was so +far disturbed at our interest in what was termed Oxford theology that the +warning would have alarmed her if it had come from any other quarter. +However, Lady Peacock was rather fond of Clarence, and entertained him +with schemes for improving Chantry House when it should have descended to +Griffith. The mullion rooms were her special aversion, and were all to +be swept away, together with the vaultings and the ruin—‘enough to give +one the blues, if there were nothing else,’ she averred. + +We really felt it to the credit of our country that Sir George Eastwood +sent an invitation to an early dance to please his young daughters; and +for this our visitors prolonged their stay. My mother made Clarence go, +that she might have some one to take care of her and Emily, since Griff +was sure to be absorbed by his lady. Emily had not been to a ball since +those gay days in London with Ellen. She shrank back from the contrast, +and would have begged off; but she was told that she must submit; and +though she said she felt immeasurably older than at that happy time, I +believe she was not above being pleased with the pale pink satin dress +and wreath of white jessamine, which my father presented to her, and in +which, according to Martyn, she beat ‘Griff’s bird all to shivers.’ + +Clarence had grown much less bashful and embarrassed since the Tooke +affair had given him a kind of position and a sense of not being a +general disgrace. He really was younger in some ways at five-and-twenty +than at eighteen; he enjoyed dancing, and especially enjoyed the +compliments upon our sister, whom in our usual fashion we viewed as the +belle of the ball. He was standing by my fire, telling me the various +humours of the night, when a succession of shrieks ran through the house. +He dashed away to see what was the matter, and returned, in a few +seconds, saying that Selina had seen some one in the garden, and neither +she nor mamma would be satisfied without examination—‘though, of course, +I know what it must be,’ he added, as he drew on his coat. + +‘Bill, are you coming?’ said Griff at the door. ‘You needn’t, if you +don’t like it. I bet it is your old friend.’ + +‘I’m coming! I’m coming! I’m sure it is,’ shouted Martyn from behind, +with the inconsistent addition, ‘I’ve got my gun.’ + +‘Enough to dispose of any amount of robbers or phantoms either,’ observed +Griff as they went forth by the back door, reinforced by Amos Bell with a +lantern in one hand and a poker in the other. + +My father was fortunately still asleep, and my mother came down to see +whether I was frightened. + +She said she had no patience with Selina, and had left her to Emily and +her maid; but, before many words had been spoken, they all came creeping +down after her, feeling safety in numbers, or perhaps in her entire +fearlessness. The report of a gun gave us all a shock, and elicited +another scream or two. My mother, hoping that no one was hurt, hastened +into the hall, but only to meet Griff, hurrying in laughing to reassure +us with the tidings that it was only Martyn, who had shot the old +sun-dial by way of a robber; and he was presently followed by the others, +Martyn rather crestfallen, but arguing with all his might that the +sun-dial was exactly like a man; and my mother hurried every one off +upstairs without further discussion. + +Clarence was rather white, and when Martyn demanded, ‘Do you really think +it was the ghost? Fancy her selection of the bird!’ he gravely answered, +‘Martyn, boy, if it were, it is not a thing to speak of in that tone. +You had better go to bed.’ + +Martyn went off, somewhat awed. Clarence was cold and shivering, and +stood warming himself. He was going to wind up his watch, but his hand +shook, and I did it for him, noting the hour—twenty minutes past one. + +It appeared that Selina, on going upstairs, recollected that she had left +her purse in Griff’s sitting-room before going to dress, and had gone in +quest of it. She heard strange shouts and screams outside, and, going to +one of the old windows, where the shutters were less unmanageable than +elsewhere, she beheld a woman rushing towards the house pursued by at +least a couple of men. Filled with terror she had called out, and nearly +fainted in Griff’s arms. + +‘It agrees with all we have heard before,’ said Clarence, ‘the very day +and hour!’ + +‘As Martyn said, the person is strange.’ + +‘Villagers, less concerned, have seen the like,’ he said; ‘and, indeed, +all unconsciously poor Selina has cut away the hope of redress,’ he +sighed. ‘Poor, restless spirit! would that I could do anything for her.’ + +‘Let me ask, do you ever see her now?’ + +‘N-no, I suppose not; but whenever I am anxious or worried, the trouble +takes her form in my dreams.’ + +Lady Peacock had soon extracted the ghost story from her husband, and, +though she professed to be above the vulgar folly of belief in it, her +nerves were so upset, she said, that nothing would have induced her to +sleep another night in the house. The rational theory on this occasion +was that one of the maids must have stolen out to join in the Christmas +entertainment at the Winslow Arms, and been pursued home by some tipsy +revellers; but this explanation was not productive of goodwill between +the mother and daughter-in-law, since mamma had from the first so +entirely suspected Selina’s smart nurse as actually to have gone straight +to the nursery on the plea of seeing whether the baby had been +frightened. The woman was found asleep—apparently so—said my mother, but +all her clothes were in an untidy heap on the floor, which to my mother +was proof conclusive that she had slipped into the house in the +confusion, and settled herself there. Had not my mother with her own +eyes watched from the window her flirtations with the gardener, and was +more evidence requisite to convict her? Mamma entertained the hope that +her proposal would be adopted of herself taking charge of her grandson, +and fattening his poor little cheeks on our cows’ milk, while the rest of +the party continued their round of visits. + +Lady Peacock, however, treated it as a personal imputation that _her_ +nurse should be accused instead of any servant of Mrs. Winslow’s own, +though, as Griff observed, not only character, but years and features +might alike acquit them of any such doings; but even he could not laugh +long, for it was no small vexation to him that such offence should have +arisen between his mother and wife. Of course there was no open +quarrel—my mother had far too much dignity to allow it to come to +that—but each said in private bitter things of the other, and my lady’s +manner of declining to leave her baby at Chantry House was almost +offensive. + +Poor Griffith, who had been growing more like himself every day, tried in +vain to smooth matters, and would have been very glad to leave his child +to my mother’s management, though, of course, he acquitted the nurse of +the midnight adventure. He privately owned to us that he had no opinion +of the woman, but he defended her to my mother, in whose eyes this was +tantamount to accusing her own respectable maids, since it was incredible +that any rational person could accept the phantom theory. + +Gladly would he have been on better terms, for he had had to confess that +his wife’s fortune had turned out to be much less than common report had +stated, or than her style of living justified, and that his marriage had +involved him in a sea of difficulties, so that he had to beg for a larger +allowance, and for assistance in paying off debts. + +The surrender of the London house and of some of the chief expenses were +made conditions of such favours, and Griffith had assented gratefully +when alone with his father; but after an interview with his wife, +demonstrations were made that it was highly economical to have a house in +town, and horses, carriages, and servants and that any change would be +highly derogatory to the heir of Earlscombe and the sacred wishes of the +late Sir Henry Peacock. + +In fact, it was impressed on us that we were mere homely, countrified +beings, who could not presume to dictate to her ladyship, but who had ill +requited her condescension in deigning to beam upon us. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. +SLACK WATER. + + + ‘O dinna look, ye prideful queen, on a’ aneath your ken, + For he wha seems the farthest _but_ aft wins the farthest _ben_, + And whiles the doubie of the schule tak’s lead of a’ the rest: + The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest. + + ‘The cauld, grey, misty morn aft brings a sunny summer day; + The tree wha’s buds are latest is longest to decay; + The heart sair tried wi’ sorrow still endures the sternest test: + The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest. + + ‘The wee wee stern that glints in heaven may be a lowin’ sun, + Though like a speck of light it seem amid the welkin dun; + The humblest sodger on the field may win a warrior’s crest: + The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.’ + + _Scotch Newspaper_. + +THE wickedness of the nurse was confirmed in my mother’s eyes when the +doom on the first-born of the Winslows was fulfilled, and the poor little +baby, Clarence, succumbed to a cold on the chest caught while his nurse +was gossiping with a guardsman. + +He was buried in London. ‘It was better for Selina to get those things +over as quickly as possible,’ said Griff; but Clarence saw that he +suffered much more than his wife would let him show to her. ‘It is so +bad for him to dwell on it,’ she said. ‘You see. I never let myself +give way.’ + +And she was soon going out, nearly as usual, till their one other infant +came to open its eyes only for a few hours on this troublesome world, and +owe its baptism to Clarence’s exertions. My mother, who was in London +just after, attending on the good old Admiral’s last illness, was greatly +grieved and disgusted with all she heard and saw of the young pair, and +that was not much. She felt their disregard of her uncle as heartless, +or rather as insulting, on Selina’s part, and weak on Griff’s; and on all +sides she heard of their reckless extravagance, which made her forebode +the worst. + +All these disappointments much diminished my father’s pleasure and +interest in his inheritance. He had little heart to build and improve, +when his eldest son’s wife made no secret of her hatred to the place, or +to begin undertakings only to be neglected by those who came after; and +thus several favourite schemes were dropped, or prevented by Griffith’s +applications for advances. + +At last there was a crisis. At the end of the second season after their +visit to us, Clarence sent a hasty note, begging my father to join him in +averting an execution in Griffith’s house. I cannot record the +particulars, for just at that time I had a long low fever, and did not +touch my diary for many weeks; nor indeed did I know much about the +circumstances, since my good nurses withheld as much as possible, and +would not let me talk about what they believed to make me worse. Nor can +I find any letters about it. I believe they were all made away with long +ago, and thus I only know that my father hurried up to town, remained for +a fortnight, and came back looking ten years older. The house in London +had been given up, and he had offered a vacant one of our own, near home, +to Griff to retrench in, but Selina would not hear of it, insisting on +going abroad. + +This was a great grief to him and to us all. There was only one side of +our lives that was not saddened. Our old incumbent had died about six +months after the Fordyces had gone, and Mr. Henderson had gladly accepted +the living where the parsonage had been built. The lady to whom he had +been so long engaged was a great acquisition. Her home had been at +Oxford; and she was as thoroughly imbued with the spirit that there +prevailed as was the Hillside curate. She talked to us of Littlemore, +and of the sermons there and at St. Mary’s, and Emily and I shared to the +full her hero-worship. It was the nearest compensation my sister had had +for the loss of Ellen, with this difference, that Mrs. Henderson was +older, had read more, and had conversed thoughtfully with some of the +leading spirits in religious thought, so that she opened a new world to +us. + +People would hardly believe in our eagerness and enthusiasm over the +revelations of church doctrine; how we debated, consulted our books, and +corresponded with Clarence over what now seems so trite; how we viewed +the _British Critic_ and _Tracts for the Times_ as our oracles, and +worried the poor Wattlesea bookseller to get them for us at the first +possible moment. + +Church restoration was setting in. Henderson had always objected to +christening from a slop-basin on the altar, and had routed out a +dilapidated font; and now one, which was termed by the country paper +chaste and elegant, was by united efforts, in which Clarence had the +lion’s share, presented in time for the christening of the first child at +the Parsonage. It is that which was sent off to the Mission Chapel as a +blot on the rest of Earlscombe Church. Yet what an achievement it was +deemed at the time! + +The same may be said of most of our doings at that era. We effected them +gradually, and have ever since been undoing them, as our architectural +and ecclesiastical perceptions have advanced. I wonder how the next +generation will deal with our alabaster reredos and our stained windows, +with which we are all as well pleased as we were fifty years ago with the +plain red cross with a target-like arrangement above and below it in the +east window, or as poor Margaret may have been with her livery +altar-cloth. Indeed, it seems to me that we got more delight out of our +very imperfect work, designed by ourselves and sent to Clarence to be +executed by men in back streets in London, costing an immensity of +trouble, than can be had now by simply choosing out of a book of figures +of cut and dried articles. + +What an enthusiastic description Clarence sent of the illuminated +commandments in the new Church of St. Katharine in the Regent’s Park! +How Emily and I gloated over the imitation of them when we replaced the +hideous old tables, and how exquisite we thought the initial I, which +irreverent youngsters have likened, with some justice, to an enormous +overfed caterpillar, enwreathed with red and green cabbage leaves! + +My mother was startled at these innovations; but my father, who had kept +abreast with the thought of the day, owned to the doctrines as chiming in +with his unbroken belief, and transferred to the improvements in the +church the interest which he had lost in the estate. The farmers had +given up their distrust of him, and accepted him loyally as friend and +landlord, submitting to the reseating of the church, and only growling +moderately at decorations that cost them nothing. Daily service began as +soon as Henderson was his own master, and was better attended than it is +now; for the old people to whom it was a novelty took up the habit more +freely than their successors, to whom the bell has been familiar through +their days of toil. We were too far off to be constant attendants; but +evensong made an object for our airings, and my father’s head, now quite +white, was often seen there. He felt it a great relief amid the cares of +his later years. + +Perhaps it was with a view to him that Mr. Castleford arranged that +Clarence should become manager for the firm at Bristol, with a good +salary. The Robsons would not take a fresh lodger—they were getting too +old for fresh beginnings; but they kept their rooms ready for him, +whenever he had to be in town, and Gooch found him a trustworthy widow as +housekeeper. He took a little cottage at Clifton, availing himself of +the coach to spend his Sundays with us; and it was an acknowledged joy to +every one that I should drive to meet him every Saturday afternoon at the +Carpenter’s Arms, and bring him home to be my father’s aid in all his +business, and a most valuable help in Sunday parish work, in which he had +an amount of experience which astonished us. + +What would have become of the singing without him? The first hint +against the remarkable anthems had long ago alienated our tuneful choir +placed on high, and they had deserted _en masse_. Then Emily and the +schoolmistress had toiled at the school children, whose thin little pipes +and provincialisms were a painful infliction, till Mrs. Henderson, backed +by Clarence, worked up a few promising men’s voices to support them. We +thought everything but the New and Old Versions smacked of dissent, +except the hymns at the end of the Prayer-book, though we did not go as +far as Chapman, who told Emily he understood as how all the tunes was +tried over in Doctor’s Commons afore they were sent out, and it was not +‘liable’ to change them. One of Clarence’s amusements in his lonely life +had been the acquisition of a knowledge of music, and he had a really +good voice; while his adherence to our choir encouraged other young men +of the farmer and artisan class to join us. Choir, however, did not mean +surplices and cassocks, but a collection of our best voices, male and +female, in the gallery. + +Martyn began to be a great help when at home, never having wavered in his +purpose of becoming a clergyman. On going to Oxford, he became imbued +with the influences that made Alma Mater the focus of the religious life +and progress of that generation which is now the elder one. There might +in some be unreality, in others extravagance, in others mere imitation; +but there was a truly great work on the minds of the young men of that +era—a work which has stood the test of time, made saints and martyrs, and +sown the seed whereof we have witnessed a goodly growth, in spite of +cruel shocks and disappointments, fightings within and fears without, +slanders and follies to provoke them, such as we can now afford to laugh +over. With Martyn, rubrical or extra-rubrical observances were the +outlet of the exuberance of youth, as chivalry and romance had been to +us; and on Frank Fordyce’s visits, it was delightful to find that he too +was in the full swing of these ideas and habits, partly from his own +convictions, partly from his parish needs, and partly carried along by +curates fresh from Oxford. + +In the first of his summer vacations Martyn joined a reading party, with +a tutor of the same calibre, and assured them that if they took up their +quarters in a farmhouse not many miles by the map from Beachharbour, they +would have access to unlimited services, with the extraordinary luxury of +a surpliced choir, and intercourse with congenial spirits, which to him +meant the Fordyces. + +On arriving, however, the bay proved to be so rocky and dangerous that +there was no boating across it, as he had confidently expected. The farm +depended on a market town in the opposite direction, and though the +lights of Beachharbour could be seen at night, there was no way thither +except by a six-miles walk along a cliff path, with a considerable détour +in order to reach a bridge and cross the rapid river which was an element +of danger in the bay, on the north side of the promontory which sheltered +the harbour to the south. + +So when Martyn started as pioneer on the morning before the others +arrived, he descended into Beachharbour later than he intended, but still +he was in time to meet Anne Fordyce, a tall, bright-faced girl of +fourteen, taking her after-lessons turn on the parade with a governess, +who looked amazed as the two met, holding out both hands to one another, +with eager joy and welcome. + +It was not the same when Anne flew into the Vicarage with the rapturous +announcement, ‘Here’s Martyn!’ The vicar was gone to a clerical meeting, +and Mrs. Fordyce said nothing about staying to see him. The luncheon was +a necessity, but with quiet courtesy Martyn was made to understand that +he was regarded as practically out of reach, and ‘Oh, mamma, he could +come and sleep,’ was nipped in the utterance by ‘Martyn is busy with his +studies; we must not disturb him.’ This was a sufficient intimation that +Mrs. Fordyce did not intend to have the pupils dropping in on her +continually, and making her house their resort; and while Martyn was +digesting the rebuff, the governess carried Anne off to prepare for a +music lesson, and her mother gave no encouragement to lingering or +repeating the visit. + +Still Martyn, on his way homewards, based many hopes on the return of Mr. +Fordyce; but all that ensued was, three weeks later, a note regretting +the not having been able to call, and inviting the whole party to a great +school-feast on the anniversary of the dedication of the first of the +numerous new churches of Beachharbour. There was no want of cordiality +on that occasion, but time was lacking for anything beyond greetings and +fleeting exchanges of words. Parson Frank tried to talk to Martyn, +bemoaned the not seeing more of him, declared his intentions of coming to +the farm, began an invitation, but was called off a hundred ways; and +Anne was rushing about with all the children of the place, gentle and +simple, on her hands. Whenever Martyn tried to help her, he was called +off some other way, and engaged at last in the hopeless task of teaching +cricket where these fisher boys had never heard of it. + +That was all he saw of our old friends, and he was much hurt by such +ingratitude. So were we all, and though we soon acquitted the head of +the family of more than the forgetfulness of over occupation, the +soreness at his wife’s coldness was not so soon passed over. Yet from +her own point of view, poor woman, she might be excused for a panic lest +her second daughter might go the way of the first. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. +OUTWARD BOUND. + + + ‘As slow our ship her foamy track + Against the wind was cleaving, + Her trembling pennant still looked back + To the dear isle ’twas leaving. + So loath we part from all we love, + From all the links that bind us, + So turn our hearts as on we rove + To those we’ve left behind us.’ + + T. MOORE. + +THE first time I saw Clarence’s _ménage_ was in that same summer of poor +Martyn’s repulse. My father had come in for a small property in his +original county of Shropshire, and this led to his setting forth with my +mother to make necessary arrangements, and then to pay visits to old +friends; leaving Emily and me to be guests to our brother at Clifton. + +We told them it was their harvest honeymoon, and it was funny to see how +they enjoyed the scheme when they had once made up their minds to it, and +our share in the project was equally new and charming, for Emily and I, +though both some way on in our twenties, were still in many respects home +children, nor had I ever been out on a visit on my own account. The +yellow chariot began by conveying Emily and me to our destination. + +Clifton has grown considerably since those days, and terraces have +swallowed up the site of what the post-office knew as Prospect Cottage, +but we were apt to term the doll’s house, for, as Emily said, our visit +there had something the same effect as a picnic or tea drinking at little +Anne’s famous baby house. In like manner, it was tiny, square, with one +sash-window on each side of the door, but it was nearly covered with +creepers, odds and ends which Clarence brought from home, and induced to +flourish and take root better than their parent stocks. In his nursery +days his precision had given him the name of ‘the old bachelor,’ and he +had all a sailor’s tidiness. Even his black cat and brown spaniel each +had its peculiar basket and mat, and had been taught never to transgress +their bounds or interfere with one another; and the effect of his +parlour, embellished as it was in our honour, was delightful. The +outlook was across the beautiful ravine, into the wooded slopes on the +further side, and, on the other side, down the widening cleft to that +giddy marvel, the suspension bridge, with vessels passing under it, and +the expanse beyond. + +Most entirely we enjoyed ourselves, making merry over Clarence’s +housekeeping, employing ourselves after our wonted semi-student, +semi-artist fashion in the morning; and, when our host came home from +business, starting on country expeditions, taking a carriage whenever the +distance exceeded Emily’s powers of walking beside my chair; sketching, +botanising, or investigating church architecture, our newest hobby. I +sketched, and the other two rambled about, measuring and filling up +archæological papers, with details of orientation, style, and all the +rest, deploring barbarisms and dilapidations, making curious and +delightful discoveries, pitying those who thought the Dun Cow’s rib and +Chatterton’s loft the most interesting features of St. Mary’s Redcliff, +and above all rubbing brasses with heel ball, and hanging up their grim +effigies wherever there was a vacant space on the walls of our doll’s +house. + +And though we grumbled when Clarence was detained at the office later +than we expected, this was qualified by pride at feeling his importance +there as a man in authority. It was, however, with much dismay and some +inhospitality that we learnt that a young man belonging to the office—in +fact, Mr. Frith’s great-nephew—was coming to sail for Canton in one of +the vessels belonging to the firm, and would have to be ‘looked after.’ +He could not be asked to sleep at Prospect Cottage, for Emily had the +only spare bedchamber, and Clarence had squeezed himself into a queer +little dressing closet to give me his room; but the housekeeper (a +treasure found by Gooch) secured an apartment in the next house, and we +were to act hosts, much against our will. Clarence had barely seen the +youth, who had been employed in the office at Liverpool, living with his +mother, who was in ill-health and had died in the last spring. The only +time of seeing him, he had seemed to be a very shy raw lad; but, ‘poor +fellow, we can make the best of him,’ was the sentiment; ‘it is only for +one night.’ However, we were dismayed when, as Emily was in the crisis +of washing-in a sky, it was announced that a gentleman was asking for Mr. +Winslow. Churlishness bade us despatch him to the office, but humanity +prevailed to invite him previously to share our luncheon. Yet we doubted +whether it had not been a cruel mercy when he entered, evidently +unprepared to stumble on a young lady and a deformed man, and stammering +piteously as he hoped there was no mistake—Mr. Winslow—Prospect, etc. + +Emily explained, frustrating his desire to flee at once to the office, +and pointing out his lodging, close at hand, whence he was invited to +return in a few minutes to the meal. + +We had time for some amiable exclamations, ‘The oaf!’ ‘What a bore!’ +‘He has spoilt my sky!’ ‘I shan’t finish this to-day!’ ‘Shall we order +a carriage and take him to the office; we can’t have him on our hands all +the afternoon?’ ‘And we might get the new number of _Nicholas +Nickleby_.’ + +N.B.—Perhaps it was _Oliver Twist_ or _The Old Curiosity Shop_—I am not +certain which was the current excitement just then; but I am quite sure +it was Mrs. Nickleby who first disclosed to us that our guest had a +splendid pair of dark eyes. Hitherto he had kept them averted in the +studious manner I have often noticed in persons who did not wish to +excite suspicion of staring at my peculiarities; but that lady’s feelings +when her neighbour’s legs came down her chimney were too much for his +self-consciousness, and he gave a glance that disclosed dark liquid +depths, sparkling with mirth. He was one number in advance of us, and +could enlighten us on the next stage in the coming story; and this went +far to reconcile us to the invasion, and to restore him to the proper use +of his legs and arms—and very shapely limbs they were, for he was a slim, +well-made fellow, with a dark gipsy complexion, and intelligent, honest +face, altogether better than we expected. + +Yet we could have groaned when in the evening, Clarence brought him back +with tidings that something had gone wrong with the ship. If I tried to +explain, I might be twitted with, + + ‘The bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.’ + +But of course Clarence knew all about it, and he thought it unlikely that +the vessel would be in sailing condition for a week at soonest. Great +was our dismay! Getting through one evening by the help of walking and +then singing was one thing, having the heart of our visit consumed by an +interloper was another; though Clarence undertook to take him to the +office and find some occupation for him that might keep him out of our +way. But it was Clarence’s leisure hours that we begrudged; though truly +no one could be meeker than this unlucky Lawrence Frith, nor more +conscious of being an insufferable burthen. I even detected a tear in +his eye when Clarence and Emily were singing ‘Sweet Home.’ + +‘Do you know,’ said Clarence, on the second evening, when his guest had +gone to dress for dinner, ‘I am very sorry for that poor lad. It is only +six weeks since he lost his mother, and he has not a soul to care for +him, either here or where he is going. I had fancied the family were +under a cloud, but I find it was only that old Frith quarrelled with the +father for taking Holy Orders instead of going into our house. Probably +there was some imprudence; for the poor man died a curate and left no +provision for his family. The only help the old man would give was to +take the boy into the office at Liverpool, stopping his education just as +he was old enough to care about it. There were a delicate mother and two +sisters then, but they are all gone now; scarlet fever carried off the +daughters, and Mrs. Frith never was well again. He seems to have spent +his time in waiting on her when off duty, and to have made no friends +except one or two contemporaries of hers; and his only belongings are old +Frith and Mrs. Stevens, who are packing him off to Canton without caring +a rap what becomes of him. I know what Mrs. Stevens is at; she comes up +to town much oftener now, and has got her husband’s nephew into the +office, and is trying to get everything for him; and that’s the reason +she wants to keep up the old feud, and send this poor Lawrence off to the +ends of the earth.’ + +‘Can’t you do anything for him?’ asked Emily. ‘I thought Mr. Frith did +attend to you.’ + +Clarence laughed. ‘I know that Mrs. Stevens hates me like poison; but +that is the only reason I have for supposing I might have any influence.’ + +‘And can’t you speak to Mr. Castleford?’ + +‘Set him to interfere about old Frith’s relations! He would know better! +Besides, the fellow is too old to get into any other line—four-and-twenty +he says, though he does not look it; and he is as innocent as a baby, +indifferent just now to what becomes of him, or whither he goes; it is +all the same to him, he says; there is no one to care for him anywhere, +and I think he is best pleased to go where it is all new. And there, you +see, the poor lad will be left to drift to destruction—mother’s darling +that he has been—just for want of some human being to care about him, and +hinder his getting heartless and reckless!’ + +Clarence’s voice trembled, and Emily had tears in her eyes as she asked +if absolutely nothing could be done for him. Clarence meant to write to +Mr. Castleford, who would no doubt beg the chaplain at the station to +show the young man some kindness; also, perhaps, to the resident partner, +whom Clarence had looked at once over his desk, but in his rawest and +most depressed days. The only clerk out there, whom he knew, would, he +thought, be no element of safety, and would not like the youth the better +either for bringing his recommendation or bearing old Frith’s name. + +We were considerably softened towards our guest, though the next time +Emily came on him he was standing in the hall, transfixed in +contemplation of her greatest achievement in brass-rubbing, a severe and +sable knight with the most curly of nostrils, the stiffest and +straightest of mouths, hair straight on his brows, pointed toes joined +together below, and fingers touching over his breast. There he hung in +triumph just within the front door, fluttering and swaying a little on +his pins whenever a draught came in; and there stood Lawrence Frith, +freshly aware of him, and unable to repress the exclamation, ‘I say! +isn’t he a guy?’ + +‘Sir Guy de Warrenne,’ began Emily composedly; ‘don’t you see his coat of +arms? “chequy argent and azure.”’ + +‘Does your brother keep him there to scare away the tramps?’ + +Emily’s countenance was a study. + +The subject of brasses was unfolded to Lawrence Frith, and before the end +of the week he had spent an entire day on his hands and knees, scrubbing +away with the waxy black compound at a figure in the Cathedral—the +office-work, as we declared, which Clarence gave him to do. In fact he +became so thoroughly infected that it was a pity that he was going where +there would be no exercise in ecclesiology—rather the reverse. +Embarrassment on his side, and hostility on ours, may be said to have +vanished under the influence of Sir Guy de Warrenne’s austere +countenance. The youth seemed to regard ‘Mr. Winslow’ in the light of a +father, and to accept us as kindly beings. He ceased to contort his +limbs in our awful presence, looked at me like as an ordinary person, and +even ventured on giving me an arm. He listened with unfeigned pleasure +to our music, perilled his neck on St. Vincent’s rocks in search of +plants, and by and by took to hanging back with Emily, while Clarence +walked on with me, to talk to her out of his full heart about his mother +and sisters. + +Three weeks elapsed before the _Hoang-ho_ was ready to sail, and by that +time Lawrence knew that there were some who would rejoice in his success, +or grieve if things went ill with him. Clarence and I had promised him +long home letters, and impressed on him that we should welcome his +intelligence of himself. For verily he had made his way into our hearts, +as a thoroughly good-hearted, affectionate being, yearning for something +to cling to; intelligent and refined, though his recent cultivation had +been restricted, soundly principled, and trained in religious feelings +and habits, but so utterly inexperienced that there was no guessing how +it might be with him when cast adrift, with no object save his own +maintenance, and no one to take an interest in him. + +Clarence talked to him paternally, and took him to second-hand shops to +provide a cheap library of substantial reading, engaging to cater for him +for the future, not omitting Dickens; and Emily worked at providing him +with the small conveniences and comforts for the voyage that called for a +woman’s hand. He was so grateful that it was like fitting out a dear +friend or younger brother. + +‘I wonder,’ said Clarence, as he walked by my chair on one of the last +days, ‘whether it was altogether wise to have this young Frith here so +much, though it could hardly have been helped.’ + +To which I rejoined that it could hardly have displeased the uncle, and +that if it did, the youth’s welfare was worth annoying him for. + +‘I meant something nearer home,’ said Clarence, and proceeded to ask if I +did not think Lawrence Frith a good deal smitten with Emily. + +To me it seemed an idea not worth consideration. Any youth, especially +one who had lived so secluded a life, would naturally be taken by the +first pleasing young woman who came in his way, and took a kindly +interest in him; but I did not think Emily very susceptible, being +entirely wrapped up in home and parish matters; and I reminded Clarence +that she had not been loverless. She had rejected the Curate of +Hillside; and we all saw, though she did not, that only her evident +indifference kept Sir George Eastwood’s second son from making further +advances. + +Clarence was not convinced. He said he had never seen our sister look at +either of these as she did when Lawrence came into the room; and there +was no denying that there was a soft and embellishing light on her whole +countenance, and a fresh sweetness in her voice. But then he seemed such +a boy as to make the notion ridiculous; and yet, on reckoning, it proved +that their years were equal. All that could be hoped was that the +sentiment, if it existed, would not discover itself before they parted, +so as to open their eyes to the dreariness of the prospect, and cause our +mother to think we had betrayed our trust in the care of our sister. As +we could do nothing, we were not sorry that this was the last day. +Clarence was to go on board with Frith, see him out of the river, and +come back with the pilot; and we all drove down to the wharf together; +nobody saying much by the way, except the few jerky remarks we brothers +felt bound to originate and reply to. + +Emily sat very still, her head bent under her shading bonnet—I think she +was trying to keep back tears for the solitary exile; and Lawrence, +opposite, was unable to help watching her with wistful eyes, which would +have revealed all, if we had not guessed it already. It might be +presumptuous, but it made us very sorry for him. + +When the moment of parting came, there was a wringing of hands, and, +‘Thank you, thank you,’ in a low, broken, heartfelt voice, and to Emily, +‘You have made life a new thing to me. I shall never forget,’ and the +showing of a tiny book in his waistcoat pocket. + +When the two had disappeared, Emily, no longer restraining her tears, +told me that she had exchanged Prayer-books with him, and they were to +read the Psalms at the same time every day. ‘I thought it might be a +help to him,’ she said simply. + +Nor was there any consciousness in her talk as she related to me what he +had told her about his mother and sisters, and his dreary sense of +piteous loneliness, till we had adopted him as a brother—in which +capacity I trusted that she viewed him. + +However, Clarence had been the recipient of all the poor lad’s fervent +feelings for Miss Winslow, how she had been a new revelation to his +desolate spirit, and was to be the guiding star of his life, etc., etc., +all from the bottom of his heart, though he durst not dream of requital, +and was to live, not on hope, but on memory of the angelic kindness of +these three weeks. + +It was impossible not to be touched, though we strove to be worldly wise +old bachelors, and assured one another that the best and most probable +thing that could happen to Lawrence Frith would be to have his dream +blown away by the Atlantic breezes, and be left open to the charms of +some Chinese merchant’s daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. +TOO LATE. + + + ‘Thus Esau-like, our Father’s blessing miss, + Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.’ + + KEBLE. + +AFTER such a rebuff as Martyn had experienced at Beachharbour, he no +longer haunted its neighbourhood, but devoted the long vacation of the +ensuing year to a walking tour in Germany, with one or two congenial +spirits, who shared his delight in scenery, pictures, and architecture. + +By and by he wrote to Clarence from Baden Baden— + +‘Whom do you think I should find here but Griffith and his bird? I first +spotted the old fellow smoking under a tree in the Grand Platz, but he +looked so seedy and altered altogether that I was not sure enough of him +to speak, especially as he showed no signs of knowing me. (He says it +was my whiskers that stumped him.) I made inquiries and found that they +figured as “Sir Peacock and lady,” but they were entered all right in the +book. He is taking the “Kür”—he looks as if he wanted it—and she is +taking _rouge et noir_. I saw her at the salon, with her neck grown as +long as her namesake’s, but not as pretty, claws to match, thin and +painted, as if the ruling passion was consuming her. Poor old Griff! he +was glad enough to see me, but he is wofully shaky, and nearly came to +tears when he asked after Ted and all at home. They had an upset of +their carriage in Vienna last winter, and he got some twist, or other +damage, which he thought nothing of, but it has never righted itself; I +am sure he is very ill, and ought to be looked after. He has had only +foreign doctoring, and you know he never was strong in languages. I +heard of the medico here inquiring what precise symptom _der Englander_ +meant by being “down in zie mout!” Poor Griff is that, whatever else he +is, and Selina does not see it, nor anything else but her _rouge et noir_ +table. I am afraid he plays too, when he is up to it, but he can’t stand +much of the stuffiness of the place, and he respects my innocence, poor +old beggar; so he has kept out of it, since we have been here. He seems +glad to have me to look after him, but afraid to let me stay, for fear of +my falling a victim to the place. I can’t well tell him that there is a +perpetual warning to youth in the persons of himself and his Peacock. +His mind might be vastly relieved if I were out of it, but scarcely his +body; and I shall not leave him till I hear from home. Thomson says I am +right. I should like to bring the poor old man home for advice, +especially if my lady could be left behind, and by all appearances she +would not object. Could not you come, or mamma? Speak to papa about it. +It is all so disgusting that I really could not write to him. It is +enough to break one’s heart to see Griff when he hears about home, and +Edward, and Emily. I told him how famously you were getting on, and he +said, “It has been all up, up with him, all down, down with me,” and then +he wanted me to fix my day for leaving Baden, as if it were a sink of +infection. I fancy he thinks me a mere infant still, for he won’t heed a +word of advice about taking care of himself and _will_ do the most +foolish things imaginable for a man in his state, though I can’t make out +what is the matter with him. I tried both French and Latin with his +doctor, equally in vain.’ + +There was a great consultation over this letter. Our parents would fain +have gone at once to Baden, but my father was far from well; in fact, it +was the beginning of the break-up of his constitution. He had been +ageing ever since his disappointment in Griffith, and though he had so +enjoyed his jaunt with my mother that he had seemed revived for the time, +he had been visibly failing ever since the winter, and my mother durst +not leave him. Indeed she was only too well aware that her presence was +apt to inspire Selina with the spirit of contradiction, and that Clarence +would have a better chance alone. He was to go up to London by the mail +train, see Mr. Castleford, and cross to Ostend. + +A valise from the lumber-room was wanted, and at bedtime he went in quest +of it. He came back white and shaken; and I said— + +‘You have not seen _her_?’ + +‘Yes, I have.’ + +‘It is not her time of year.’ + +‘No; I was not even thinking of her. There was none of the wailing, but +when I looked up from my rummaging, there was her face as if in a window +or mirror on the wall.’ + +‘Don’t dwell on it’ was all I could entreat, for the apparition at +unusual times had been mentioned as a note of doom, and not only did it +weigh on me, but it might send Clarence off in a desponding mood. +Tidings were less rapid when telegraphs were not, and railways +incomplete. Clarence did not reach Baden till ten days after the +despatch of Martyn’s letter, and Griffith’s condition had in the meantime +become much more serious. Low fever had set in, and he was confined to +his dreary lodgings, where Martyn was doing his best for him in an +inexperienced, helpless sort of way, while Lady Peacock was at the +_salle_, persisting in her belief that the ailment was a temporary +matter. Martyn afterwards declared that he had never seen anything more +touching than poor Griff’s look of intense rest and relief at Clarence’s +entrance. + +On the way through London, by the assistance of Mr. Castleford, Clarence +had ascertained how to procure the best medical advice attainable, and he +was linguist enough to be an adequate interpreter. Alas! all that was +achieved was the discovery that between difficulties of language, Griff’s +own indifference, and his wife’s carelessness, the injury had developed +into fatal disease. An operation _might_ yet save him, if he could rally +enough for it, but the fever was rapidly destroying his remaining +strength. Selina ascribed it to excitement at meeting Martyn, and indeed +he had been subject to such attacks every autumn. Any way, he had no +spirits nor wish for improvement. If his brothers told him he was +better, he smiled and said it was like a condemned criminal trying to +recover enough for the gallows. His only desire was to be let alone and +have Clarence with him. He had ceased to be uneasy as to Martyn’s +exposure to temptation, but he said he could hardly bear to watch that +bright, fresh young manhood, and recollect how few years had passed since +he had been such another, nor did he like to have any nurse save +Clarence. His wife at first acquiesced, holding fast to the theory of +the periodical autumnal fever, and then that the operation would restore +him to health; and as her presence fretted him, and he received her small +attentions peevishly, she persisted in her usual habits, and heard with +petulance his brothers’ assurances of his being in a critical condition, +declaring that it was always thus with these fevers—he was always cross +and low-spirited, and no one could tell what she had undergone with him. + +Then came days of positive pain, and nights of delirious, dreary +murmuring about home and all of us, more especially Ellen Fordyce. +Clarence had no time for letters, and Martyn’s became a call for mamma, +with the old childish trust in her healing and comforting powers, +declaring that he would meet her at Cologne, and steer her through the +difficulties of foreign travel. + +Hesitation was over now. My father was most anxious to send her, and she +set forth, secure that she could infuse life, energy, and resolution into +her son, when those two poor boys had failed. + +It was not, however, Martyn who met her, but his friend Thomson, with the +tidings that the suffering had become so severe as to prevent Martyn from +leaving Baden, not only on his brother’s account, but because Lady +Peacock had at last taken alarm, and was so uncontrollable in her +distress that he was needed to keep her out of the sickroom, where her +presence, poor thing, only did mischief. + +She evidently had a certain affection for her husband; and it was the +more piteous that in his present state he only regarded her as the +tempter who had ruined his life—his false Duessa, who had led him away +from Una. On one unhappy evening he had been almost maddened by her +insisting on arguing with him; he called her a hag, declared she had been +the death of his children, the death of that dear one—could she not let +him alone now she had been the death of himself? + +When Martyn took her away, she wept bitterly, and told enough to make the +misery of their life apparent, when the gaiety was over, and regrets and +recriminations set in. + +However, there came a calmer interval, when the suffering passed off, but +in the manner which made the German doctor intimate that hope was over. +Would life last till his mother came? + +His brothers had striven from the first to awaken thoughts of higher +things, and turn remorse into repentance; but every attempt resulted in +strange, sad wanderings about Esau, the birthright, and the blessing. +Indeed, these might not have been entirely wanderings, for once he said, +‘It is better this way, Bill. You don’t know what you wish in trying to +bring me round. Don’t be hard on me. She drove me to it. It is all +right now. The Jews will be disappointed.’ + +For even at the crisis in London, he had concealed that he had raised +money on _post obits_, so that, had he outlived my father, Chantry House +would have been lost. Lady Peacock’s fortune had been undermined when +she married him; extravagance and gambling had made short work of the +rest. + +Why should I speak of such things here, except to mourn over our +much-loved brother, with all his fine qualities and powers wasted and +overthrown? He clung to Clarence’s affection, and submitted to prayers +and psalms, but without response. He showed tender recollection of us +all, but scarcely durst think of his father, and hardly appeared to wish +to see his mother. Clarence’s object soon came to be to obtain +forgiveness for the wife, since bitterness against her seemed the great +obstacle to seeking pardon, peace, or hope; but each attempt only +produced such bitterness against her, and such regrets and mourning for +Ellen, as fearfully shook the failing frame, while he moaned forth +complaints of the blandishments and raillery with which his temptress had +beguiled him. Clarence tried in vain to turn away this idea, but nothing +had any effect till he bethought himself of Ellen’s message, that she +knew even this fatal act had been prompted by generosity of spirit. +There was truth enough in it to touch Griff, but only so far as to cry, +‘What might I not have been with her?’ Still, there was no real +softening till my mother came. He knew her at once, and all the old +childish relations were renewed between them. There was little time left +now, but he was wholly hers. Even Clarence was almost set aside, save +where strength was needed, and the mother seemed to have equal control of +spirit and body. It was she, who, scarcely aware of what had gone +before, caused him to admit Selina. + +‘Tell her not to talk,’ he said. ‘But we have each much to forgive one +another.’ + +She came in, awed and silent, and he let her kiss him, sit near at hand, +and wait on my mother, whose coming had, as it were, insensibly taken the +bitterness away and made him as a little child in her hands. He could +follow prayers in which she led him, as he could not, or did not seem to +do, with any one else, for he was never conscious of the presence of the +clergyman whom Thomson hunted up and brought, and who prayed aloud with +Martyn while the physical agony claimed both my mother and Clarence. + +Once Griff looked about him and called out for our father, then +recollecting, muttered, ‘No—the birthright gone—no blessing.’ + +It grieved us much, it grieves me now, that this was his last distinct +utterance. He _looked_ as if the comforting replies and the appeals to +the Source of all redemption did awaken a response, but he never spoke +articulately again; and only thirty-six hours after my mother’s arrival, +all was over. + +Poor Selina went into passions of hysterics and transports of grief, +needing all the firmness of so resolute a woman as my mother to deal with +her. She was wild in self-accusation, and became so ill that the care of +her was a not unwholesome occupation for my mother, who was one of those +with whom sorrow has little immediate outlet, and is therefore the more +enduring. + +She would not bring our brother’s coffin home, thinking the agitation +would be hurtful to my father, and anxious to get back to him as soon as +possible. So Griff was buried at Baden, and from time to time some of us +have visited his grave. Of course she proposed Selina’s return to +Chantry House with her; but Mr. Clarkson, the brother, had come out to +the funeral, and took his sister home with him, certainly much to our +relief, though all the sad party at Baden had drawn much nearer together +in these latter days. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. +A PURPOSE. + + + ‘It then draws near the season + Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.’ + + _Hamlet_. + +WE had really lost our Griffith long before—our bright, generous, +warm-hearted, promising Griff, the brilliance of our home; but his actual +death made the first breach in a hitherto unbroken family, and was a new +and strange shock. It made my father absolutely an old man; and it also +changed Martyn. His first contact with responsibility, suffering, and +death had demolished the light-hearted boyishness which had lasted in the +youngest of the family through all his high aspirations. Till his return +to Oxford, his chief solace was in getting some one of us alone, going +through all the scenes at Baden, discussing his new impressions of the +trials and perplexities of life, and seeking out passages in the books +that were becoming our oracles. What he had admired externally before, +he was grasping from within; nor can I describe what the _Lyra +Apostolica_, and the two first volumes of _Parochial Sermons preached at +Littlemore_, became to us. + +Mr. Clarkson had been rather dry with my brothers at Baden, evidently +considering that poor Griffith had been as fatal to his sister as we +thought Selina had been to our brother. It was hardly just, for there +had been much more to spoil in him than in her; and though she would +hardly have trod a much higher path, there is no saying what he might +have been but for her. + +Griffith had said nothing about providing for her, not having forgiven +her till he was past recollecting the need, but her brother had intimated +that something was due from the family, and Clarence had assented—not, +indeed, as to her deserts, poor woman, but her claims and her needs—well +knowing that my father would never suffer Griff’s widow to be in want. + +He judged rightly. My father was nervously anxious to arrange for giving +her £500 a year, in the manner most likely to prevent her from making +away with it, and leaving herself destitute. But there had already been +heavy pulls on his funded property, and ways and means had to be +considered, making Clarence realise that he had become the heir. +Somehow, there still remained, especially with my mother and himself, a +sense of his being a failure, and an inferior substitute, although my +father had long come to lean upon him, as never had been the case with +our poor Griff. + +The first idea of raising the amount required was by selling an outlying +bit of the estate near the Wattlesea Station, for which an enterprising +builder was making offers, either to purchase or take on a building +lease. My father had received several letters on the subject, and only +hesitated from a feeling against breaking up the estate, especially if +this were part of the original Chantry House property, and not a more +recent acquisition of the Winslows. Moreover, he would do nothing +without Clarence’s participation. + +The title-deeds were not in the house, for my father had had too much of +the law to meddle more than he could help with his own affairs, and had +left them in the hands of the family solicitor at Bristol, where Clarence +was to go and look over them. He rejoiced in the opportunity of being +able to see whether anything would throw light on the story of the +mullion chamber; and the certainty that the Wattlesea property had never +been part of the old endowment of the Chantry did not seem nearly so +interesting as a packet of yellow letters tied with faded red tape. Mr. +Ryder made no difficulty in entrusting these to him, and we read them by +our midnight lamp. + +Clarence had seen poor Margaret’s will, bequeathing her entire property +to her husband’s son, Philip Winslow, and had noted the date, 1705; also +the copy of the decision in the Court of Probate that there was no +sufficient evidence of entail on the Fordyce family to bar her power of +disposing of it. We eagerly opened the letters, but found them +disappointing, as they were mostly offerings of ‘Felicitations’ to Philip +Winslow on having established his ‘Just Claim,’ and ‘refuted the +malicious Accusations of Calumny.’ They only served to prove the fact +that he had been accused of something, and likewise that he had powerful +friends, and was thought worth being treated with adulation, according to +the fashion of his day. Perhaps it was hardly to be expected that he +should have preserved evidence against himself, but it was baffling to +sift so little out of such a mass of correspondence. If we could have +had access to the Fordyce papers, no doubt they would have given the +other phase of the transaction, but they were unattainable. The only +public record that Clarence could discover was much abbreviated, and +though there was some allusion to intimidation, the decision seemed to +have been fixed by the non-existence of any entail. + +Christmas was drawing on, and gathering together what was left of us. +Though Griffith had spent only one Christmas at home in nine years, it +was wonderful how few we seemed, even when Martyn returned. My father +liked to have us about him, and even spoke of Clarence’s giving up his +post as manager at Bristol, and living entirely at home to attend to the +estate; but my mother did not encourage the idea. She could not quite +bear to accept any one in Griff’s place, and rightly thought there was +not occupation enough to justify bringing Clarence home. I was competent +to assist my father through all the landlord’s business that came to him +within doors, and Emily had ridden and walked about enough with him to be +an efficient inspector of crops and repairs, besides that Clarence +himself was within reach. + +‘Indeed,’ he said to me, ‘I cannot loose my hold on Frith and Castleford +till I see my way into the future.’ + +I did not know what he intended either then or when he gave his voice +against dismembering the property by selling the Wattlesea estate, but +arranged for raising Selina’s income otherwise, persuading my father to +let him undertake the building of the required cottages out of his own +resources, on principles much more wholesome than were likely to be +employed by the speculator. Nor did grasp what was in his mind when he +made me look out my ‘ghost journal,’ as we called my record of each +apparition reported in the mullion chamber or the lawn, with marks to +those about which we had no reasonable doubt. Separately there might be +explanation, but conjointly and in connection with the date they had a +remarkable force. + +‘I am resolved,’ said Clarence, ‘to see whether that figure can have a +purpose. I have thought of it all those years. It has hitherto had no +fair play. I was too much upset by the sight, and beaten by the utter +incredulity of everybody else; but now I am determined to look into it.’ + +There was both awe and resolution in his countenance, and I only +stipulated that he should not be alone, or with no more locomotive +companion than myself. Martyn was as old as I had been at our former +vigil, and a person to be relied on. + +A few months ago he would have treated the matter as a curious +adventurous enterprise—a concession to superstition or imagination; but +now he took it up with much grave earnestness. He had been discussing +the evidence for such phenomena with friends at Oxford, and the +conclusion had been that they were at times permitted, sometimes as +warnings, sometimes to accomplish the redress of a wrong, sometimes to +teach us the reality of the spiritual world about us; and, likewise, that +some constitutions were more susceptible than others to these influences. +Of course he had adduced all that he knew of his domestic haunted +chamber, but had found himself uncertain as to the amount of direct or +trustworthy evidence. So he eagerly read our jottings, and was very +anxious to keep watch with Clarence, though there were greater +difficulties in the way than when the outer chamber was Griffith’s +sitting-room, and always had a fire lighted. + +To our disappointment, likewise, there came an invitation from the +Eastwoods for the evening of the 27th of December, the second of the +recurring days of the phantom’s appearance. My father could not, and my +mother would not go, but they so much wanted my brothers and sister to +accept it that it could not well be declined. It was partly a political +affair, and my father was anxious to put Clarence forward, and make him +take his place as the future squire; and my mother thought depression had +lasted long enough with her children, and did not like to see Martyn so +grave and preoccupied. ‘It was quite right and very nice in him, dear +boy, but it was not natural at his age, though he was to be a clergyman.’ + +As to Emily, her gentle cheerfulness had helped us all through our time +of sorrow, and just now we had been gratified by the tidings of young +Lawrence Frith. That youth was doing extremely well. There had been +golden reports from manager and chaplain, addressed to Mr. Castleford, +the latter adding that the young man evidently owed much to Mr. Winslow’s +influence. Moreover, Lawrence had turned out an excellent correspondent. +Long letters, worthy of forming a book of travels, came regularly to +Clarence and me, indeed they were thought worth being copied into that +fat clasped MS. book in the study. Writing them must have been a real +solace to the exile, in his island outside the town, whither all the +outer barbarians were relegated. So, no doubt, was the packing of the +gifts that were gradually making Prospect Cottage into a Chinese +exhibition of nodding mandarins, ivory balls, exquisite little cups, and +faggots of tea. Also, a Chinese walking doll was sent humbly as an +offering for the amusement of Miss Winslow’s school children, whom indeed +she astonished beyond measure; and though her wheels are out of order, +and her movements uncertain, she is still a stereotyped incident in the +Christmas entertainments. + +There was no question but that these letters and remembrances gave great +pleasure to Emily; but I believe she was not in the least conscious that +though greater in degree, it was not of the same quality as that she felt +when a runaway scholar who had gone to sea presented her in token of +gratitude with a couple of dried sea-horses. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. +THE MIDNIGHT CHASE. + + + ‘What human creature in the dead of night + Had coursed, like hunted hare, that cruel distance, + Had sought the door, the window in her flight + Striving for dear existence?’ + + HOOD. + +ON the night of the 26th of December, Clarence and Martyn, well wrapped +in greatcoats, stole into the outer mullion room; but though the usual +sounds were heard, and the mysterious light again appeared, Martyn +perceived nothing else, and even Clarence declared that if there were +anything besides, it was far less distinct to him than it had been +previously. Could it be that his spiritual perceptions were growing +dimmer as he became older, and outgrew the sensitiveness of nerves and +imagination? + +We came to the conclusion that it would be best to watch the outside of +the house, rather than within the chamber; and the dinner-party +facilitated this, since it accounted for being up and about nearer to the +hour when the ghost might be expected. Egress could be had through the +little garden door, and I undertook to sit up and keep up the fire. + +All three came to my room on their return home, for Emily had become +aware of our scheme, and entreated to be allowed to watch with us. +Clarence had unfastened the alarum bell from my shutters, and taken down +the bar after the curtains had been drawn by the housemaid, and he now +opened them. It was a frosty moonlight night, and the lawn lay white and +crisp, marked with fantastic shadows. The others looked grave and pale, +Emily was in a thick white shawl and hood, with a swan’s down boa over +her black dress, a somewhat ghostly figure herself, but we were in far +too serious a mood for light observations. + +There was something of a shudder about Clarence as he went to unbolt the +back door; Martyn kept close to him. We saw them outside, and then Emily +flew after them. From my window I could watch them advancing on the +central gravel walk, Emily standing still between her brothers, clasping +an arm of each. I saw the light near the ruin, and caught some sounds as +of shrieks and of threatening voices, the light flitted towards the gable +of the mullion rooms, and then was the concluding scream. All was over, +and the three came back much agitated, Emily sinking into an armchair, +panting, her hands over her face, and a nervous trembling through her +whole frame, Martyn’s eyes looking wide and scared, Clarence with the +well-known look of terror on his face. He hurried to fetch the tray of +wine and water that was always left on the table when anyone went to a +party at night, but he shivered too much to prevent the glasses from +jingling, and I had to pour out the sherry and administer it to Emily. +‘Oh! poor, poor thing,’ she gasped out. + +‘You saw?’ I exclaimed. + +‘They did,’ said Martyn; ‘I only saw the light, and heard! That was +enough!’ and he shuddered again. + +‘Then Emily did,’ I began, but Clarence cut me short. ‘Don’t ask her +to-night.’ + +‘Oh! let me tell,’ cried Emily; ‘I can’t go away to bed till I have had +it out.’ + +Then she gave the details, which were the more notable because she had +not, like Martyn, been studying our jottings, and had heard comparatively +little of the apparition. + +‘When I joined the boys,’ she said, ‘I looked toward the mullion rooms; I +saw the windows lighted up, and heard a sobbing and crying inside.’ + +‘So did I,’ put in Martyn, and Clarence bent his head. + +‘Then,’ added Emily, ‘by the moonlight I saw the gable end, not blank, +and covered by the magnolia as it is now, but with stone steps up to the +bricked-up doorway. The door opened, the light spread, and there came +out a lady in black, with a lamp in one hand, and a kind of parcel in the +other, and oh, when she turned her face this way, it was Ellen’s!’ + +‘So you called out,’ whispered Martyn. + +‘Dear Ellen, not as she used to be,’ added Emily, ‘but like what she was +when last I saw her; no, hardly that either, for this was sad, sad, +scared, terrified, with eyes all tears, as Ellen never, never was.’ + +‘I saw,’ added Clarence, ‘I saw the shape, but not the countenance and +expression as I used to do.’ + + [Picture: Lady Margaret’s ghost] + +‘She came down the steps,’ continued Emily, ‘looking about her as if +making her escape, but, just as she came opposite to us, there was a +sound of tipsy laughing and singing from the gate up by the wood.’ + +‘I thought it real,’ said Martyn. + +‘Then,’ continued Emily, ‘she wavered, then turned and went under an arch +in the ruin—I fancied she was hiding something—then came out and fled +across to the steps; but there were two dark men rushing after her, and +at the stone steps there was a frightful shriek, and then it was all +over, the steps gone, all quiet, and the magnolia leaves glistening in +the moonshine. Oh! what can it all mean?’ + +‘Went under the arch,’ repeated Clarence. ‘Is it what she hid there that +keeps her from resting?’ + +‘Then you believe it really happened?’ said Emily, ‘that some terrible +scene is being acted over again. Oh! but can it be the real spirits!’ + +‘That is one of the great mysteries,’ answered Martyn; ‘but I could tell +you of other instances.’ + +‘Don’t now,’ I interposed; ‘Emily has had quite enough.’ + +We reminded her that the ghastly tragedy was over and would not recur +again for another year; but she was greatly shaken, and we were very +sorry for her, when the clock warned her to go to her own room, whither +Martyn escorted her. He lighted every candle he could find, and revived +the fire; but she was sadly overcome by what she had witnessed, she lay +awake all the rest of the night, and in the morning, looked so unwell, +and had so little to tell about the party that my mother thought her +spirits had been too much broken for gaieties. + +The real cause could not be confessed, for it would have been ascribed to +some kind of delirium, and have made a commotion for which my father was +unfit. Besides, we had reached an age when, though we would not have +disobeyed, liberty of thought and action had become needful. All our +private confabulations were on this extraordinary scene. We looked for +the arch in the ruin, but there was, as our morning senses told us, +nothing of the kind. She tried to sketch her remembrance of both that +and the gable of the mullion chamber, and Martyn prowled about in search +of some hiding-place. Our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, had made a +conjectural drawing of the Chapel restored, and all the portfolios about +the house were searched for it, disquieting mamma, who suspected Martyn’s +Oxford notions of intending to rebuild it, nor would he say that it ought +not to be done. However, he with his more advanced ecclesiology, +pronounced Mr. Stafford’s reconstruction to be absolutely mistaken and +impossible, and set to work on a fresh plan, which, by the bye, he +derides at present. It afforded, however, an excuse for routing under +the ivy and among the stones, but without much profit. From the +mouldings on the materials and in the stables and the front porch, it was +evident that the chapel had been used as a quarry, and Emily’s arch was +very probably that of the entrance door. In a dry summer, the +foundations of the walls and piers could be traced on the turf, and the +stumps of one or two columns remained, but the rest was only a confused +heap of fragments within which no one could have entered as in that +strange vision. + +Another thing became clear. There had once been a wall between the beech +wood and the lawn, with a gate or door in it; Chapman could just remember +its being taken down, in James Winslow’s early married life, when +landscape gardening was the fashion. It must have been through this that +the Winslow brothers were returning, when poor Margaret perhaps expected +them to enter by the front. + +We wished we could have consulted Dame Dearlove, but she had died a few +years before, and her school was extinct. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. +WILLS OLD AND NEW. + + + ‘And that to-night thou must watch with me + To win the treasure of the tomb.’ + + SCOTT. + +SOME seasons seem to be peculiarly marked, as if Death did indeed walk +forth in them. + +Old Mr. Frith died in the spring of 1841, and it proved that he had shown +his gratitude to Clarence by a legacy of shares in the firm amounting to +about £2000. The rest of his interest therein went to Lawrence Frith, +and his funded property to his sister, Mrs. Stevens, a very fair and +upright disposition of his wealth. + +Only six weeks later, my father had a sudden seizure, and there was only +time to summon Clarence from London and Martyn from Oxford, before a +second attack closed his righteous and godly career upon earth. + +My mother was very still and calm, hardly shedding a tear, but her whole +demeanour was as if life were over for her, and she had nothing to do +save to wait. She seemed to care very little for tendernesses or +attentions on our part. No doubt she would have been more desolate +without them, but we always had a baffled feeling, as though our +affection were contrasted with her perfect union with her husband. Yet +they had been a singularly undemonstrative couple; I never saw a kiss +pass between them, except as greeting or farewell before or after a +journey; and if my mother could not use the terms papa or your father, +she always said, ‘Mr. Winslow.’ There was a large gathering at the +funeral, including Mr. Fordyce, but he slept at Hillside, and we scarcely +saw him—only for a few kind words and squeezes of the hand. Holy Week +was begun, and he had to hurry back to Beachharbour that very night. + +The will had been made on my father’s coming into the inheritance. It +provided a jointure of £800 per annum for my mother, and gave each of the +younger children £3000. A codicil had been added shortly after +Griffith’s death, written in my father’s hand, and witnessed by Mr. +Henderson and Amos Bell. This put Clarence in the position of heir; +secured £500 a year to Griffith’s widow, charged on the estate, and +likewise an additional £200 a year to Emily and to me, hers till +marriage, mine for life, £300 a year to Martyn, until Earlscombe Rectory +should be voided, when it was to be offered to him. The executors had +originally been Mr. Castleford and my mother, but by this codicil, +Clarence was substituted for the former. + +The legacies did not come out of the Chantry House property, for my +father had, of course, means of his own besides, and bequests had accrued +to both him and my mother; but Clarence was inheriting the estate much +more burthened than it had been in 1829, having £2000 a year to raise out +of its proceeds. + +My mother was quite equal to business, with a sort of outside sense, +which she applied to it when needful. Clarence made it at once evident +to her that she was still mistress of Chantry House, and that it was +still to be our home; and she immediately calculated what each ought to +contribute to the housekeeping. She looked rather blank when she found +that Clarence did not mean to give up business, nor even to become a +sleeping partner; but when she examined into ways and means, she allowed +that he was prudent, and that perhaps it was due to Mr. Castleford not to +deprive him of an efficient helper under present circumstances. Meantime +she was content to do her best for Earlscombe ‘for the present,’ by which +she meant till her son brought home a wife; but we knew that to him the +words bore a different meaning, though he was still in doubt and +uncertainty how to act, and what might be the wrong to be undone. + +He was anxious to persuade her to go from home for a short time, and +prevailed on her at last to take Emily and me to Dawlish, while the +repairs went on which had been deferred during my father’s feebleness; at +least that was the excuse. We two, going with great regret, knew that +his real reason was to have an opportunity for a search among the ruins. + +It was in June, just as Martyn came back from Oxford, eager to share in +the quest. Those two brothers would trust no one to help them, but one +by one, in the long summer evenings, they moved each of those stones; I +believe the servants thought they were crazed, but they could explain +with some truth that they wanted to clear up the disputed points as to +the architecture, as indeed they succeeded in doing. + +They had, however, nearly given up, having reached the original pavement +and disinterred the piscina of the side altar, also a beautiful coffin +lid with a floriated cross; when, in a kind of hollow, Martyn lit upon +the rotten remains of something silken, knotted together. It seemed to +have enclosed a bundle. There were some rags that might have been a +change of clothing, also a Prayer-book, decayed completely except the +leathern covering, inside which was the startling inscription, ‘Margaret +Winslow, her booke; Lord, have mercy on a miserable widow woman.’ There +was also a thick leathern roll, containing needles, pins, and scissors, +entirely corroded, and within these a paper, carefully folded, but almost +destroyed by the action of damp and the rust of the steel, so that only +thus much was visible. ‘I, Margaret Winslow, being of sound mind, do +hereby give and bequeath—’ + +Then came stains that defaced every line, till the extreme end, where a +seal remained; the date 1707 was legible, and there were some scrawls, +probably the poor lady’s signature, and perhaps that of witnesses. +Clarence and Martyn said very little to one another, but they set out for +Dawlish the next day. + +‘Found’ was indicated to us, but no more, for they arrived late, and had +to sleep at the hotel, after an evening when we were delighted to hear my +mother ask so many questions about household and parish affairs. In the +morning she was pleased to send all ‘the children’ out on the beach, then +free from the railway. It was a beautiful day, with the intensely blue +South Devon sea dancing in golden ripples, and breaking on the shore with +the sound Clarence loved so well, as, in the shade of the dark crimson +cliffs, Emily sat at my feet and my brothers unfolded their strange +discoveries into her lap. There was a kind of solemnity in the thing; we +scarcely spoke, except that Emily said, ‘Oh, will she come again,’ and, +as the tears gathered at sight of the pathetic petition in the old book, +‘Was that granted?’ + +We reconstructed our theory. The poor lady must have repented of the +unjust will forced from her by her stepsons, and contrived to make +another; but she must have been kept a captive until, during their +absence at some Christmas convivialities, she tried to escape; but +hearing sounds betokening their return, she had only time to hide the +bundle in the ruin before she was detected, and in the scuffle received a +fatal blow. + +‘But why,’ I objected, ‘did she not remain hidden till her enemies were +safe in the house?’ + +‘Terrified beyond the use of her senses,’ said Clarence. + +‘By all accounts,’ said Martyn, ‘the poor creature must have been rather +a silly woman.’ + +‘For shame, Martyn,’ cried Emily, ‘how can you tell? They might have +seen her go in, or she might have feared being missed.’ + +‘Or if you watch next Christmas you may see it all explained.’ + +To which Emily replied with a shiver that nothing would induce her to go +through it again, and indeed she hoped the spirit would rest since the +discovery had been made. + +‘And then?’—one of us said, and there was a silence, and another futile +attempt to read the will. + +‘I shall take it to London and see what an expert can do with it,’ said +Clarence. ‘I have heard of wonderful decipherings in the Record Office; +but you will remember that even if it can be made out, it will hardly +invalidate our possession after a hundred and thirty years.’ + +‘Clarence!’ cried Emily in a horrified voice; and I asked if the date +were not later than that by which we inherited. + +‘Three years,’ Clarence said, ‘yes; but as things stand, it is absolutely +impossible for me to make restitution at present.’ + +‘On account of the burthens on the estate?’ I said. + +‘Oh, but we could give up,’ said Emily. + +‘I dare say!’ said Clarence, smiling; ‘but to say nothing of poor Selina, +my mother would hardly see it in the same light, nor should I deal +rightly, even if I could make any alterations; I doubt whether my father +would have held himself bound—certainly not while no one can read this +document.’ + +‘It would simply outrage his legal mind,’ said Martyn. + +‘Then what is to be done? Is the injustice to be perpetual?’ asked +Emily. + +‘This is what I have thought of,’ said Clarence. ‘We must leave matters +as they are till I can realise enough either to pay off all these +bequests, or to offer Mr. Fordyce the value of the estate.’ + +‘It is not the whole,’ I said. + +‘Not the Wattlesea part. This means Chantry House and the three farms in +the village. £10,000 would cover it.’ + +‘Is it possible?’ asked Emily. + +‘Yes,’ returned Clarence, ‘God helping me. You know our concern is +bringing in good returns, and Mr. Castleford will put me in the way of +doing more with my available capital.’ + +‘We will save so as to help you!’ added Emily. At which he smiled. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. +ON A SPREE. + + + ‘Her eyes as stars of twilight fair, + Like twilight too, her dusky hair, + But all things else about her drawn + From May-time and the cheerful dawn, + A dancing shape, an image gay, + To haunt, to startle, and waylay.’ + + WORDSWORTH. + +CLARENCE went to London according to his determination, and as he had for +some time been urgent that I should try some newly-invented mechanical +appliances, he took me with him, this being the last expedition of the +ancient yellow chariot. One of his objects was that I should see St. +Paul’s, Knightsbridge, which was then the most distinguished church of +our school of thought, and where there was to be some special preaching. +The Castlefords had a seat there, and I was settled there in good time, +looking at the few bits of stained glass then in the east window, when, +as the clergy came in from the vestry, I beheld a familiar face, and +recognised the fine countenance and bearing of our dear old friend Frank +Fordyce. + +Then, looking at the row of ladies in front of me, I beheld for a moment +an outline of a profile recalling many things. No doubt, Anne Fordyce +was there, though instead of barely emulating my stunted stature, she +towered above her companions, looking to my mind most fresh and graceful +in her pretty summer dress; and I knew that Clarence saw her too. + +I had never heard Mr. Fordyce preach before, as in his flying visits his +ministrations were due at Hillside; and I certainly should have been +struck with the force and beauty of his sermon if I had never known him +before. It was curious that it was on the 49th Psalm, meant perhaps for +the fashionable congregation, but remarkably chiming in with the feelings +of us, who were conscious of an inheritance of evil from one who had +‘done well unto himself;’ though, no doubt, that was the last thing +honest Parson Frank was thinking of. + +When the service was over, and Anne turned, she became aware of us, and +her face beamed all over. It was a charming face, with a general +likeness to dear Ellen’s, but without the fragile ethereal look, and all +health, bloom, and enjoyment recalling her father’s. She was only moving +to let her pew-fellows pass out, and was waiting for him to come for her, +as he did in a few moments, and he too was all pleasure and cordiality. +He told us when we were outside that he had come up to preach, and ‘had +brought Miss Anne up for a spree.’ They were at a hotel, Mrs. Fordyce +was at home, and the Lesters were not in town this season—a matter of +rejoicing to us. Could we not come home and dine with them at once? We +were too much afraid of disappointing Gooch to do so, but they made an +appointment to meet us at the Royal Academy as soon as it was open the +next morning. + +There was a fortnight of enjoyment. Parson Frank was like a boy out for +a holiday. He had not spent more than a day or two in town for many +years; Anne had not been there since early childhood, and they adopted +Clarence as their lioniser, going through such a country-cousin course of +delights as in that memorable time with Ellen. They even went down to +Eton and Windsor, Frank Fordyce being an old Etonian. I doubt whether +Clarence ever had a more thoroughly happy time, not even in the north of +Devon, for there was no horse on his mind, and he was not suppressed as +in those days. Indeed, I believe, it is the experience of others besides +ourselves that there is often more unmixed pleasure on casual holidays +like this than in those of early youth; for even if spirits are less high +(which is not always the case), anticipations are less eager, there is +more readiness to accept whatever comes, more matured appreciation, and +less fret and friction at _contretemps_. + +I was not much of a drag, for when I could not be with the others, I had +old friends, and the museum was as dear to me as ever, in those recesses +that had been the paradise of my youth; but there was a good deal in +which we could all share, and as usual they were all kind consideration. + +Anne overflowed with minute remembrances of her old home, and Clarence so +basked in her sunshine that it began to strike me that here might be the +solution of all the perplexities especially after the first evening, when +he had shown his strange discovery to Mr. Fordyce, who simply laughed and +said we need not trouble ourselves about it. Illegible was it? He was +heartily glad to hear that it was. Even otherwise, forty years’ +possession was quite enough, and then he pointed to the grate, and said +that was the best place for such things. There was no fire, but Clarence +could hardly rescue the paper from being torn up. + +As to the ghost, he knew much less than his daughter Ellen had done. He +said his old aunt had some stories about Chantry House being haunted, and +had thought it incumbent on her to hate the Winslows, but he had thought +it all nonsense, and such stories were much better forgotten. ‘Would he +not see if there were any letters?’ + +There might be, perhaps in the solicitor’s office at Bath, but if he ever +got hold of them, he should certainly burn them. What was the use of +being Christians, if such quarrels were to be remembered? + +Anne knew nothing. Aunt Peggy had died before she could remember, and +even Martyn had been discreet. Clarence said no more after that one +conversation, and seemed to me engrossed between his necessary business +at the office, and the pleasant expeditions with the Fordyces. Only when +they were on the point of returning home, did he tell me that the will +had been pronounced utterly past deciphering, and that he thought he saw +a way of setting all straight. ‘So do I,’ was my rejoinder, and there +must have been a foolishly sagacious expression about me that made him +colour up, and say, ‘No such thing, Edward. Don’t put that into my +head.’ + +‘Isn’t it there already?’ + +‘It ought not to be. It would be mere treachery in these sweet, fresh, +young, innocent, days of hers, knowing too what her mother would think of +it and of me. Didn’t you observe in old Frank’s unguarded way of reading +letters aloud, and then trying to suppress bits, that Mrs. Fordyce was +not at all happy at our being so much about with them, poor woman. No +wonder! the child is too young,’ he added, showing how much, after all, +he was thinking of it. ‘It would be taking a base advantage of them +_now_.’ + +‘But by and by?’ + +‘If she should be still free when the great end is achieved and the evil +repaired, then I might dare.’ + +He broke off with a look of glad hope, and I could see it was forbearance +rather than constitutional diffidence that withheld him from awakening +the maiden’s feelings. He was a very fine looking man, in his +prime—tall, strong, and well made, with a singularly grave, thoughtful +expression, and a rare but most winning smile; and Anne was overflowing +with affectionate gladness at intercourse with one who belonged to the +golden age of her childhood. I could scarcely believe but that in the +friction of the parting the spark would be elicited, and I should even +have liked to kindle it for them myself, being tolerably certain that +warm-hearted, unguarded Parson Frank would forget all about his lady and +blow it with all his might. + +We dined with the Fordyces at their hotel, and sat in the twilight with +the windows open, and we made Anne and Clarence sing, as both could do +without notes, but he would not undertake to remember anything with an +atom of sentiment in it, and when Anne did sing, ‘Auld lang syne,’ with +all her heart, he went and got into a dark corner, and barely said, +‘Thank you.’ + +Not a definite answer could be extracted from him in reply to all the +warm invitations to Beachharbour that were lavished on us by the father, +while the daughter expatiated on its charms; the rocks I might sketch, +the waves and the delicious boating, and above all the fisher children +and the church. Nothing was wanting but to have us all there! Why had +we not brought Mrs. Winslow, and Emily, and Martyn, instead of going to +Dawlish? + +Good creatures, they little knew the chill that had been cast upon +Martyn. They even bemoaned the having seen so little of him. And we +knew all the time that they were mice at play in the absence of their +excellent and cautious cat. + +‘Now mind you do come!’ said Anne, as we were in the act of taking leave. +‘It would be as good as Hillside to have you by my Lion rock. He has a +nose just like old Chapman’s, and you must sketch it before it crumbles +off. Yes, and I want to show you all the dear old things you made for my +baby-house after the fire, your dear little wardrobe and all.’ + +She was coming out with us, oblivious that a London hotel was not like +her own free sea-side house. Her father was out at the carriage door, +prepared to help me in, Clarence halted a moment— + +‘Please, pray, go back, Anne,’ he said, and his voice trembled. ‘This is +not home you know.’ + +She started back, but paused. ‘You’ll not forget.’ + +‘Oh no; no fear of my forgetting.’ + +And when seated beside me, he leant back with a sigh. + +‘How could you help?’ I said. + +‘How? Why the perfect, innocent, childish, unconsciousness of the +thing,’ he said, and became silent except for one murmur on the way. + +‘Consequences must be borne—’ + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. +THE PRICE. + + + ‘With thee, my bark, I’ll swiftly go + Athwart the foaming brine.’ + + LORD BYRON. + +CLARENCE would not tell me his purpose, he said, till he had considered +it more fully; nor could we have much conversation on the way home, as my +mother had arranged that we should bring an old friend of hers back with +us to pay her a visit. So I had to sit inside and make myself agreeable +to Mrs. Wrightson, while Clarence had plenty of leisure for meditation +outside on the box seat. The good lady said much on the desirableness of +marriage for Clarence, and the comfort it would be to my mother to see +Emily settled. + +We had heard much in town of railway shares; and the fortunes of Hudson, +the railway king, were under discussion. I suspected Clarence of +cogitating the using his capital in this manner; and hoped that when he +saw his way, he might not think it dishonourable to come into further +contact with Anne, and reveal his hopes. He allowed that he was +considering of such investments, but would not say any more. + +My mother and Emily had, in the meantime, been escorted home by Martyn. +The first thing Clarence did was to bespeak Emily’s company in a turn in +the garden. What passed then I never knew nor guessed for years after. +He consulted her whether, in case he were absent from England for five, +seven, or ten years, she would be equal to the care of my mother and me. +Martyn, when ordained, would have duties elsewhere, and could only be +reckoned upon in emergencies. My mother, though vigorous and practical, +had shown symptoms of gout, and if she were ill, I could hardly have done +much for her; and on the other hand, though my health and powers of +moving were at their best, and I was capable of the headwork of the +estate, I was scarcely fit to be the representative member of the family. +Moreover, these good creatures took into consideration that poor mamma +and I would have been rather at a loss as each other’s sole companions. +I could sort shades for her Berlin work, and even solve problems of +intricate knitting, and I could read to her in the evening; but I could +not trot after her to her garden, poultry-yard, and cottages; nor could +she enter into the pursuits that Emily had shared with me for so many +years. Our connecting link, that dear sister, knew how sorely she would +be missed, and she told Clarence that she felt fully competent to +undertake, conjointly with us, all that would be incumbent on Chantry +House, if he really wanted to be absent. For the rest, Clarence believed +my mother would be the happier for being left regent over the estate; and +his scheme broke upon me that very forenoon, when my mother and he were +settling some executor’s business together, and he told her that Mr. +Castleford wished him to go out to Hong Kong, which was then newly ceded +to the English, and where the firm wished to establish a house of +business. + +‘You can’t think of it,’ she exclaimed, and the sound fell like a knell +on my ears. + +‘I think I must,’ was his answer. ‘We shall be cut out if we do not get +a footing there, and there is no one who can quite answer the purpose.’ + +‘Not that young Frith—’ + +‘Ten to one but he is on his way home. Besides, if not, he has his own +work at Canton. We see our way to very considerable advantages, if—’ + +‘Advantages!’ she interrupted. ‘I hate speculation. I should have +thought you might be contented with your station; but that is the worst +of merchants,—they never know when to stop. I suppose your ambition is +to make this a great overgrown mansion, so that your father would not +know it again.’ + +‘Certainly not that, mamma,’ said Clarence smiling; ‘it is the last thing +I should think of; but stopping would in this case mean going backward.’ + +‘Why can’t Mr. Castleford send one of his own sons?’ + +‘Probably Walter may come out by and by, but he has not experience enough +for this.’ + +Clarence had not in the least anticipated my mother’s opposition, for he +had come to underestimate her affection for and reliance on him. He had +us all against him, for not only could we not bear to part with him; but +the climate of Hong-Kong was in evil repute, and I had become persuaded +that, with his knowledge of business, railway shares and scrip might be +made to realise the amount needed, but he said, ‘That is what _I_ call +speculation. The other matter is trade in which, with Heaven’s blessing, +I can hope to prosper.’ + +He explained that Mr. Castleford had received him on his coming to London +with almost a request that he would undertake this expedition; but with +fears whether, in his new position, he could or would do so, although his +presence in China would be very important to the firm at this juncture; +and there would be opportunities which would probably result in very +considerable profits after a few years. If Clarence had been, as before, +a mere younger brother, it would have been thought an excellent chance; +and he would almost have felt bound by his obligations to Mr. Castleford +to undertake the first starting of the enterprise, if it had not been for +our recent loss, and the doubt whether he could he spared from home. + +He made light of the dangers of climate. He had never suffered in that +way in his naval days, and scarcely knew what serious illness meant. +Indeed, he had outgrown much of that sensibility of nerve which had made +him so curiously open to spiritual or semi-spiritual impressions. + +‘Any way,’ he said, ‘the thing is right to be done, provided my mother +does not make an absolute point of my giving it up; and whether she does +or not depends a good deal on how you others put it to her.’ + +‘Right on Mr. Castleford’s account?’ I asked. + +‘That is one side of it. To refuse would put him in a serious +difficulty; but I could perhaps come home sooner if it were not for this +other matter. I told him so far as that it was an object with me to +raise this sum in a few years, and he showed me how there is every +likelihood of my being able to do so out there. So now I feel in your +hands. If you all, and Edward chiefly, set to and persuade my mother +that this undertaking is a dangerous business, and that I can only be led +to it by inordinate love of riches—’ + +‘No, no—’ + +‘That’s what she thinks,’ pursued Clarence, ‘and that I want to be a +grander man than my father. That’s at the bottom of her mind, I see. +Well, if you deplore this, and let her think the place can’t do without +me, she will come out in her strength and make it my duty to stay at +home.’ + +‘It is very tempting,’ said Emily. + +‘We all undertook to give up something.’ + +‘We never thought it would come in this way!’ + +‘We never do,’ said Clarence. + +‘Tell me,’ said Martyn, ‘is this to content that ghost, poor thing? For +it is very hard to believe in her, except in the mullion room in +December.’ + +‘Exactly so, Martyn,’ he answered. ‘Impressions fade, and the intellect +fails to accept them. But I do not think that is my motive. We know +that a wicked deed was done by our ancestor, and we hardly have the right +to pray, “Remember not the sins of our forefathers,” unless, now that we +know the crime, we attempt what restitution in us lies.’ + +There was no resisting after this appeal, and after the first shock, my +mother was ready to admit that as Clarence owed everything to Mr. +Castleford, he could not well desert the firm, if it were really needful +for its welfare that he should go out. We got her to look on Mr. +Castleford as captain of the ship, and Clarence as first lieutenant; and +when she was once convinced that he did not want to aggrandise the +family, but to do his duty, she dropped her objections; and we soon saw +that the occupations that his absence would impose on her would be a +fresh interest in life. + +Just as the decision was thus ratified, a packet from Canton arrived for +Clarence from Bristol. It was the first reply of young Frith to the +tidings of the bequest which had changed the poor clerk to a wealthy man, +owning a large proportion of the shares of the prosperous house. + +I asked if he were coming home, and Clarence briefly replied that he did +not know,—‘it depended—’ + +‘Is he going to wed a fair Chinese with lily feet?’ asked Martyn, to +which the reply was an unusually discourteous ‘Bosh,’ as Clarence escaped +with his letter. He was so reticent about it that I required a solemn +assurance that poor Lawrence’s head had not been turned by his fortune, +and that there was nothing wrong with him. Indeed, there was great +stupidity in never guessing the purport of that thick letter, nor that it +contained one for Emily, where Lawrence Frith laid himself, and all that +he had, at her feet, ascribing to her all the resolution with which he +had kept from evil, and entreating permission to come home and endeavour +to win her heart. We lived so constantly together that it is surprising +that Clarence contrived to give the letter to Emily in private. She +implored him to say nothing to us, and brought him the next day her +letter of uncompromising refusal. + +He asked whether it would have been the same if he had intended to remain +at home. + +‘As if you were a woman, you conceited fellow,’ was all the answer she +vouchsafed him. + +Nor could he ascertain, nor perhaps would she herself examine, on which +side lay her heart of hearts. The proof had come whether she would abide +by her pledge to him to accept the care of us in his absence. When he +asked it, it had not occurred to him that it might be a renunciation of +marriage. Now he perceived that so it had been, but she kept her counsel +and so did he. We others never guessed at what was going on between +those two. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. +PAYING THE COST. + + + ‘But oh! the difference to me.’ + + WORDSWORTH. + +SO Clarence was gone, and our new life begun in its changed aspect. +Emily showed an almost feverish eagerness to make it busy and cheerful, +getting up a sewing class in the village, resuming the study of Greek, +grappling with the natural system in botany, all of which had been +fitfully proposed but hindered by interruptions and my father’s +feebleness. + +On a suggestion of Mr. Stafford’s, we set to work on that _History of +Letter Writing_ which, what with collecting materials, and making +translations, lasted us three years altogether, and was a great resource +and pleasure, besides ultimately bringing in a fraction towards the great +purpose. Emily has confessed that she worked away a good deal of vague, +weary depression, and sense of monotony into those Greek choruses: but to +us she was always a sunbeam, with her ever ready attention, and the +playfulness which resumed more of genuine mirth after the first effort +and strain of spirits were over. + +Then journal-letters on either side began to bridge the gulf of +separation,—those which, minus all the specially interesting portions, +are to be seen in the volume we culled from them, and which had +considerable success in its day. + +Martyn worked in the parish and read with Mr. Henderson till he was old +enough for Ordination, and then took the curacy of St. Wulstan’s, under a +hardworking London vicar, and thenceforth his holidays were our +festivals. Our old London friends pitied us for what they viewed as a +fearfully dull life, and in the visits they occasionally paid us thought +they were doing us a great favour by bringing us new ideas and shooting +our partridges. + +We hardly deserved their compassion: our lives were full of interest to +ourselves—that interest which comes of doing ever so feeble a stroke of +work in one great cause; and there was much keen participation in the +general life of the Church in the crisis through which she was passing. +We found that, what with drawing pictures, writing little books, +preparing lessons for teachers, and much besides which is now ready done +by the National Society and Sunday School Institute, we could do a good +deal to assist Martyn in his London work, and our own grew upon us. + +For the first year of her widowhood, my mother shrank from society, and +afterwards had only spasmodic fits of doubt whether it were not her duty +to make my sister go out more. So that now and then Emily did go to a +party, or to make a visit of some days or weeks from home, and then we +knew how valuable she was. It would be hard to say whether my mother +were relieved or disappointed when Emily refused James Eastwood, in spite +of many persuasions, not only from himself, but his family. I believe +mamma thought it selfish to be glad, and that it was a failure in duty +not to have performed that weighty matter of marrying her daughter; +feeling in some way inferior to ladies who had disposed of a whole flock +under five and twenty, whereas she had not been able to get rid of a +single one! + +Of Clarence’s doings in China I need not speak; you have read of them in +the book for yourselves, and you know how his work prospered, so that the +results more than fulfilled his expectations, and raised the firm to the +pitch of greatness and reputation which it has ever since preserved, and +this without soiling his hands with the miserable opium traffic. Some of +the subordinates were so set on the gains to be thus obtained, that he +and Lawrence Frith had a severe struggle with them to prevent it, and +were forced conjointly to use all their authority as principals to make +it impossible. Those two were the greatest of friends. Their chief +relaxation was one another’s company, and their earnest aim was to +support the Christian mission, and to keep up the tone of their English +dependants, a terribly difficult matter, and one that made the time of +their return somewhat doubtful, even when Walter Castleford was gone out +to relieve them. Their health had kept up so well that we had ceased to +be anxious on that point, and it was through the Castlefords that we +received the first hint that Clarence might not be as well as his absence +of complaint had led us to believe. + +In fact he had never been well since a terrible tempest, when he had +worked hard and exposed himself to save life. I never could hear the +particulars, for Lawrence was away, and Clarence could not write about it +himself, having been prostrated by one of those chills so perilous in hot +countries; but from all I have heard, no resident in Hong-Kong would have +believed that Mr. Winslow’s courage could ever have been called in +question. He ought to have come home immediately after that attack of +fever; for the five years were over, and his work nearly done; but there +was need to consolidate his achievements, and a strong man is only too +apt to trifle with his health. We might have guessed something by the +languor and brevity of his letters, but we thought the absence of detail +owing to his expectation of soon seeing us; and had gone on for months +expecting the announcement of a speedy return, when an unexpected shock +fell on us. Our dear mother was still an active woman, with few signs of +age about her, when, in her sixty-seventh year, she was almost suddenly +taken from us by an attack of gout in the stomach. + +I feel as if I had not done her justice, and as if she might seem stern, +unsympathising, and lacking in tenderness. Yet nothing could be further +from the truth. She was an old-fashioned mother, who held it her duty to +keep up her authority, and counted over-familiarity and indulgence as +sins. To her ‘the holy spirit of discipline was the beginning of +wisdom,’ and to make her children godly, truthful, and honourable was a +much greater object than to win their love. And their love she had, and +kept to a far higher degree than seems to be the case with those who +court affection by caresses and indulgence. We knew that her approval +was of a generous kind, we prized enthusiastically her rare betrayals of +her motherly tenderness, and we depended on her in a manner we only +realised in the desolation, dreariness, and helplessness that fell upon +us, when we knew that she was gone. She had not, nor had any of us, +understood that she was dying, and she had uttered only a few words that +could imply any such thought. On hearing that there was a letter from +Clarence, she said, ‘Poor Clarence! I should like to have seen him. He +is a good boy after all. I’ve been hard on him, but it will all be right +now. God Almighty bless him!’ + +That was the only formal blessing she left among us. Indeed, the last +time I saw her was with an ordinary good-night at the foot of the stairs. +Emily said she was glad that I had not to carry with me the remembrance +of those paroxysms of suffering. My dear Emily had alone the whole force +of that trial—or shall I call it privilege? Martyn did not reach home +till some hours after all was over, poor boy. + +And in the midst of our desolateness, just as we had let the daylight in +again upon our diminished numbers round the table, came a letter from +Hong-Kong, addressed to me in Lawrence Frith’s writing, and the first +thing I saw was a scrawl, as follows:— + + ‘DEAREST TED—All is in your hands. You can do _it_. God bless you + all. W. C. W.’ + +When I came to myself, and could see and hear, Martyn was impressing on +me that where there is life there is hope, though indeed, according to +poor Lawrence’s letter, there was little of either. He feared our +hearing indirectly, and therefore wrote to prepare us. + +He had been summoned to Hong-Kong to find Clarence lying desperately ill, +for the most part semi-delirious, holding converse with invisible forms, +or entreating some one to let him alone—he had done his best. In one of +his more lucid intervals he had made Lawrence find that note in a case +that lay near him, and promise to send it; and he had tried to send some +messages, but they had become confused, and he was too weak to speak +further. + +The next mail was sure to bring the last tidings of one who had given his +life for right and justice. It was only a reprieve that what it actually +brought was the intelligence that he was still alive, and more sensible, +and had been able to take much pleasure in seeing the friend of his +youth, Captain Coles, who was there with his ship, the _Douro_. Then +there had been a relapse. Captain Coles had brought his doctor to see +him, and it had been pronounced that the best chance of saving him was a +sea-voyage. The _Douro_ had just received orders to return to England, +and Coles had offered to take home both the friends as guests, though +there was evidently little hope that our brother would reach any earthly +home. As we knew afterwards, he had smiled and said it was like +rehabilitation to have the chance of dying on board one of H.M. ships. +And he was held in such respect, and was so entirely one of the leading +men of the little growing colony, and had been known as such a friend to +the naval men, and had so gallantly aided a Queen’s ship in that +hurricane, that his passage home in this manner only seemed a natural +tribute of respect. A few last words from Lawrence told us that he was +safely on board, all unconscious of the silent, almost weeping, +procession that had escorted his litter to the _Douro’s_ boat, only too +much as if it were his bier. In fact, Captain Coles actually promised +him that if he died at sea he should be buried with the old flag. + +We could not hope to hear more for at least six weeks, since our letter +had come by overland mail, and the _Douro_ would take her time. It was a +comfort in this waiting time that Martyn could be with us. His rector +had been promoted; there was a general change of curates; and as Martyn +had been working up to the utmost limits of his strength, we had no +scruple in inducing him to remain with us, and undertake nothing fresh +till this crisis was past. Though as to rest, not one Sunday passed +without requests for his assistance from one or more of the neighbouring +clergy. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. +ACHIEVED. + + + ‘And hopes and fears that kindle hope, + An undistinguishable throng, + And gentle wishes long subdued— + Subdued and cherished long.’ + + S. T. COLERIDGE. + +THE first that we did hear of our brother was a letter with a Falmouth +postmark, which we scarcely dared to open. There was not much in it, but +that was enough. ‘D. G.—I shall see you all again. We put in at +Portsmouth.’ + +There was no staying at home after that. We three lost no time in +starting, for railways had become available, and by the time we had +driven from the station at Portsmouth the _Douro_ had been signalled. + +Martyn took a boat and went on board alone, for besides that Emily did +not like to leave me, her dress would have been a revelation that _all_ +were no longer there to greet the arrival. The precaution was, however, +unnecessary. There stood Clarence on deck, and after the first greeting, +he laid his hand on Martyn’s arm and said, ‘My mother is gone?’ and on +the wondering assent, ‘I was quite sure of it.’ + +So they came ashore, Clarence lying in the man-of-war’s boat, in which +his friend insisted on sending him, able now to give a smiling response +and salute to the three cheers with which the crew took leave of him. He +was carried up to our hotel on a stretcher by half-a-dozen blue jackets. +Indeed he was grievously changed, looking so worn and weak, so +hollow-eyed and yellow, and so fearfully wasted, that the very memory is +painful; and able to do nothing but lie on the sofa holding Emily’s hand, +gazing at us with a face full of ineffable peace and gladness. There was +a misgiving upon me that he had only come back to finish his work and bid +us farewell. + +Kindly and considerately they had sent him on before with Martyn. In a +quarter of an hour’s time his good doctor came in with Lawrence Frith, a +considerable contrast to our poor Clarence, for the slim gypsy lad had +developed into a strikingly handsome man, still slender and lithe, but +with a fine bearing, and his bronzed complexion suiting well with his +dark shining hair and beautiful eyes. They had brought some of the +luggage, and the doctor insisted that his patient should go to bed +directly, and rest completely before trying to talk. + +Then we heard that his condition, though still anxious, was far from +being hopeless, and that after the tropics had been passed, he had been +gradually improving. The kind doctor had got leave to go up to London +with us, and talk over the case with L---, and he hoped Clarence might be +able to bear the journey by the next afternoon. + +Presently after came Captain Coles, whom we had not seen since the short +visit when we had idolised the big overgrown midshipman, whom Clarence +exhibited to our respectful and distant admiration nearly twenty years +ago. My mother used to call him a gentlemanly lad, and that was just +what he was still, with a singularly soft gentle manner, gallant officer +and post-captain as he was. He cheered me much, for he made no doubt of +Clarence’s ultimate recovery, and he added that he had found the dear +fellow so valued and valuable, so useful in all good works, and so much +respected by all the English residents, ‘that really,’ said the captain, +‘I did not know whether to deplore that the service should have lost such +a man, or whether to think it had been a good thing for him, though not +for us, that—that he got into such a scrape.’ + +I said something of our thanks. + +‘To tell you the truth,’ said Coles, ‘I had my doubts whether it had not +been a cruel act, for he had a terrible turn after we got him on board, +and all the sounds of a Queen’s ship revived the past associations, and +always of a painful kind in his delirium, till at last, just as I gave +him up, the whole character of his fancies seemed to change, and from +that time he has been gaining every day.’ + +We kept the captain to dinner, and gathered a good deal more +understanding of the important position to which Clarence had risen by +force of character and rectitude of purpose in that strange little +Anglo-Chinese colony; and afterwards, I was allowed to make a long visit +to Clarence, who, having eaten and slept, was quite ready to talk. + +It seemed that the great distress of his illness had been the +recurrence—nay, aggravation—of the strange susceptibility of brain and +nerve that had belonged to his earlier days, and with it either +imagination or perception of the spirit-world. Much that had seemed +delirium had belonged to that double consciousness, and he perfectly +recollected it. As Coles had said, the sights and sounds of the ship had +been a renewal of the saddest time in his life; he could not at night +divest himself of the impression that he was under arrest, and the sins +of his life gathered themselves in fearful and oppressive array, as if to +stifle him, and the phantom of poor Margaret with her lamp—which had +haunted him from the beginning of his illness—seemed to taunt him with +having been too fainthearted and tardy to be worthy to espouse her cause. +The faith to which he tried to cling _would_ seem to fail him in those +awful hours, when he could only cry out mechanical prayers for mercy. +Then there had come a night when he had heard my mother say, ‘All right +now; God Almighty bless him.’ And therewith the clouds cleared from his +mind. The power of _feeling_, as well as believing in, the blotting out +of sin, returned, the sense of pardon and peace calmed him, and from that +time he was fully himself again, ‘though,’ he said, ‘I knew I should not +see my mother here.’ + +If she could only have seen him come home under the Union Jack, cheered +by sailors, and carried ashore by them, it would have been to her like +restoration. Perhaps Clarence in his dreamy weakness had so felt it, for +certainly no other mode of return to Portsmouth, the very place of his +degradation, could so have soothed him and effaced those memories. The +English sounds were a perfect charm to him, as well as to Lawrence, the +commonest street cry, the very slices of bread and butter, anything that +was not Chinese, was as water to the thirsty! And wasted as was his +face, the quiet rest and joy were ineffable. + +Still Portsmouth was not the best place for him, and we were glad that he +was well enough to go up to London in the afternoon; intensely delighting +in the May beauty of the green meadows, and white blossoming hedgerows, +and the Church towers, especially the gray massiveness of Winchester +Cathedral. ‘Christian tokens,’ he said, instead of the gay, gilded +pagodas and quaint crumpled roofs he had left. The soft haze seemed to +be such a rest after the glare of perpetual clearness. + +We were all born Londoners, and looked at the blue fog, and the broad, +misty river, and the brooding smoke, with the affection of natives, to +the amazement of Lawrence, who had never been in town without being +browbeaten and miserable. That he hardly was now, as he sat beside Emily +all the way up, though they did not say much to one another. + +He told us it was quite a new sensation to walk into the office without +timidity, and to have no fears of a biting, crushing speech about his +parents or himself; but to have the clerks getting up deferentially as +soon as he was known for Mr. Frith. He had hardly ever been allowed by +his old uncle to come across Mr. Castleford, who was of course cordial +and delighted to receive him, and, without loss of time, set forth to see +Clarence. + +The consultation with the physician had taken place, and it was not +concealed from us that Clarence’s health was completely shattered, and +his state still very precarious, needing the utmost care to give him any +chance of recovering the effects of the last two years, when he had +persevered, in spite of warning, in his eagerness to complete his +undertaking, and then to secure what he had effected. The upshot of the +advice given him was to spend the summer by the seaside, and if he had by +that time gathered strength, and surmounted the symptoms of disease, to +go abroad, as he was not likely to be able as yet to bear English cold. +Business and cares were to be avoided, and if he had anything necessary +to be done, it had better be got over at once, so as to be off his mind. +Martyn and Frith gathered that the case was thought doubtful, and +entirely dependent on constitution and rallying power. Clarence himself +seemed almost passive, caring only for our presence and the +accomplishment of his task. + +We had a blessed thanksgiving for mercies received in the Margaret Street +Chapel, as we called what is now All Saints; but he and I were unfit for +crowds, and on Sunday morning availed ourselves of a friend’s seat in our +old church, which felt so natural and homelike to us elders that Martyn +was scandalised at our taste. But it was the church of our Confirmation +and first Communion, and Clarence rejoiced that it was that of his first +home-coming Eucharist. What a contrast was he now to the shrinking boy, +scarcely tolerated under his stigmatised name. Surely the Angel had led +him all his life through! + +How happy we two were in the afternoon, while the others conducted +Lawrence to some more noteworthy church. + +‘Now,’ said Clarence, ‘let us go down to Beachharbour. It must be done +at once. I have been trying to write, and I can’t do it,’ and his face +lighted with a quiet smile which I understood. + +So we wrote to the principal hotel to secure rooms, and set forth on +Tuesday, leaving Frith to finish with Mr. Castleford what could not be +settled in the one business interview that had been held with Clarence on +the Monday. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. +RESTITUTION. + + + ‘Ah! well for us all some sweet hope lies + Deeply buried from human eyes.’ + + WHITTIER. + +THINGS always happen in unexpected ways. During the little hesitation +and difficulty that always attend my transits at a station, a voice was +heard to say, ‘Oh! Papa, isn’t that Edward Winslow?’ Martyn gave a +violent start, and Mr. Fordyce was exclaiming, ‘Clarence, my dear fellow, +it isn’t you! I beg your pardon; you have strength enough left nearly to +wring one’s hand off!’ + +‘I—I wanted very much to see you, sir,’ said Clarence. ‘Could you be so +good as to appoint a time?’ + +‘See you! We must always be seeing you of course. Let me think. I’ve +got three weddings and a funeral to-morrow, and Simpson coming about the +meeting. Come to luncheon—all of you. Mrs. Fordyce will be delighted, +and so will somebody else.’ + +There was no doubt about the somebody else, for Anne’s feet were as +nearly dancing round Emily as public propriety allowed, and the radiance +of her face was something to rejoice in. Say what people will, +Englishwomen in a quiet cheerful life are apt to gain rather than lose in +looks up to the borders of middle age. Our Emily at two-and-thirty was +fair and pleasant to look on; while as for Anne Fordyce at twenty-three, +words will hardly tell how lovely were her delicate features, brown eyes, +and carnation cheeks, illuminated by that sunshine brightness of her +father’s, which made one feel better all day for having been beamed upon +by either of them. Clarence certainly did, when the good man turned back +to say, ‘Which hotel? Eh? That’s too far off. You must come nearer. I +would see you in, but I’ve got a woman to see before church time, and I’m +short of a curate, so I must be sharp to the hour.’ + +‘Can I be of any use?’ eagerly asked Martyn. ‘I’ll follow you as soon as +I have got these fellows to their quarters.’ + +We had Amos with us, and were soon able to release Martyn, after a few +compliments on my not being as usual _the_ invalid; and by and by he came +back to take Emily to inspect a lodging, recommended by our friends, +close to the beach, and not a stone’s throw from the Rectory built by Mr. +Fordyce. As we two useless beings sat opposite to each other, looking +over the roofs of houses at the blue expanse and feeling the salt breeze, +it was no fancy that Clarence’s cheek looked less wan, and his eyes +clearer, as a smile of content played on his lips. ‘Years sit well on +her,’ he said gaily; and I thought of rewards in store for him. + +Then he took this opportunity of consulting me on the chances for Frith, +telling of the original offer, and the quiet constancy of his friend, and +asking whether I thought Emily would relent. And I answered that I +suspected that she would,—‘But you must get well first.’ + +‘I begin to think that more possible,’ he answered, and my heart bounded +as he added, ‘she would be satisfied since you would always have a home +with _us_.’ + +Oh, how much was implied in that monosyllable. He knew it, for a little +faint colour came up, as he, shyly, laughed and hesitated, ‘That is—if—’ + +‘If’ included Mrs. Fordyce’s not being ungracious. Nor was she. Emily +had found her as kind as in the old days at Hillside, and perfectly ready +to bring us into close vicinity. It was not caprice that had made this +change, but all possible doubt and risk of character were over, the old +wound was in some measure healed, and the friendship had been brought +foremost by our recent sorrow and our present anxiety. Anne was in +ecstasies over Emily. ‘It is so odd,’ she said, ‘to have grown as old as +you, whom I used to think so very grown up,’ and she had all her pet +plans to display in the future. Moreover, Martyn had been permitted to +relieve the Rector from the funeral—a privilege which seemed to gratify +him as much as if it had been the liveliest of services. + +We were to lunch at the Rectory, and the move of our goods was to be +effected while we were there. We found Mrs. Fordyce looking much older, +but far less of an invalid than in old times, and there was something +more genial and less exclusive in her ways, owing perhaps to the +difference of her life among the many classes with whom she was called on +to associate. + +Somersetshire, Beachharbour, and China occupied our tongues by turns, and +we had to begin luncheon without the Rector, who had been hindered by +numerous calls; in fact, as Anne warned us, it was a wonder if he got the +length of the esplanade without being stopped half-a-dozen times. + +His welcome was like himself, but he needed a reminder of Clarence’s +request for an interview. Then we repaired to the study, for Clarence +begged that his brothers might be present, and then the beginning was +made. ‘Do you remember my showing you a will that I found in the ruins +at Chantry House?’ + +‘A horrid old scrap that you chose to call one. Yes; I told you to burn +it.’ + +‘Sir, we have proved that a great injustice was perpetrated by our +ancestor, Philip Winslow, and that the poor lady who made that will was +cruelly treated, if not murdered. This is no fancy; I have known it for +years past, but it is only now that restitution has become possible.’ + +‘Restitution? What are you talking about? I never wanted the place nor +coveted it.’ + +‘No, sir, but the act was our forefather’s. You cannot bid us sit down +under the consciousness of profiting by a crime. I could not do so +before, but I now implore you to let me restore you either Chantry House +and the three farms, or their purchase money, according to the valuation +made at my father’s death. I have it in hand.’ + +Frank Fordyce walked about the room quite overcome. ‘You foolish +fellow!’ he said, ‘Was it for this that you have been toiling and +throwing away your health in that pestiferous place? Edward, did you +know this?’ + +‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘Clarence has intended this ever since he found the +will.’ + +‘As if that was a will! You consented.’ + +‘We all thought it right.’ + +He made a gesture of dismay at such folly. + +‘I do not think you understand how it was, Mr. Fordyce,’ said Clarence, +who by this time was quivering and trembling as in his boyish days. + +‘No, nor ever wish to do so. Such matters ought to be forgotten, and you +don’t look fit to say another word.’ + +‘Edward will tell you,’ said Clarence, leaning back. + +I had the whole written out, and was about to begin, when the person, +with whom there was an appointment, was reported, and we knew that the +rest of the day was mapped out. + +‘Look here,’ said Mr. Fordyce, ‘leave that with me; I can’t give any +answer off-hand, except that Don Quixote is come alive again, only too +like himself.’ + +Which was true, for Clarence took long to rally from the effort, and had +to be kept quiet for some time in the study where we were left. He +examined me on the contents of my paper, and was vexed to hear that I had +mentioned the ghost, which he said would discredit the whole. Never was +the dear fellow so much inclined to be fretful, and when Martyn +restlessly observed that if we did not want him, he might as well go back +to the drawing-room, the reply was quite sharp—‘Oh yes, by all means.’ + +No wonder there was pain in the tone; for the next words, after some +interval, were, when two happy voices came ringing in from the garden +behind, ‘You see, Edward.’ + +Somehow I had never thought of Martyn. He had simply seemed to me a boy, +and I had decided that Anne would be the crown of Clarence’s labours. I +answered ‘Nonsense; they are both children together!’ + +‘The nonsense was elsewhere,’ he said. ‘They always were devoted to each +other. I saw how it was the moment he came into the room.’ + +‘Don’t give up,’ I said; ‘it is only the old habit. When she knows all, +she must prefer—’ + +‘Hush!’ he said. ‘An old scarecrow and that beautiful young creature!’ +and he laughed. + +‘You won’t be an old scarecrow long.’ + +‘No,’ he said in an ominous way, and cut short the discussion by going +back to Mrs. Fordyce. + +He was worn out, had a bad night, and did not get up to breakfast; I was +waiting for it in the sitting-room, when Mr. Fordyce came in after matins +with Emily and Martyn. + +‘I feel just like David when they brought him the water of Bethlehem,’ he +said. ‘You know I think this all nonsense, especially this—this ghost +business; and yet, such—such doings as your brother’s can’t go for +nothing.’ + +His face worked, and the tears were in his eyes; then, as he partook of +our breakfast, he cross-examined us on my statement, and even tried to +persuade us that the phantom in the ruin was Emily; and on her observing +that she could not have seen herself, he talked of the Brocken Spectre +and fog mirages; but we declared the night was clear, and I told him that +all the rational theories I had ever heard were far more improbable than +the appearance herself, at which he laughed. Then he scrupulously +demanded whether this—this (he failed to find a name for it) would be an +impoverishment of our family, and I showed how Clarence had provided that +we should be in as easy circumstances as before. In the midst came in +Clarence himself, having hastened to dress, on hearing that Mr. Fordyce +was in the house, and looking none the better for the exertion. + +‘Look here, my dear boy,’ said Frank, taking his hot trembling hand, ‘you +have put me in a great fix. You have done the noblest deed at a terrible +cost, and whatever I may think, it ought not to be thrown away, nor you +be hindered from freeing your soul from this sense of family guilt. But +here, my forefathers had as little right to the Chantry as yours, and +ever since I began to think about such things, I have been thankful it +was none of mine. Let us join in giving it or its value to some good +work for God—pour it out to the Lord, as we may say. Bless me! what have +I done now.’ + +For Clarence, muttering ‘thank you,’ sank out of his grasp on a chair, +and as nearly as possible fainted; but he was soon smiling and saying it +was all relief, and he felt as if a load he had been bearing had been +suddenly removed. + +Frank Fordyce durst stay no longer, but laid his hand on Clarence’s head +and blessed him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. +THE FORDYCE STORY. + + + ‘For soon as once the genial plain + Has drunk the life-blood of the slain, + Indelible the spots remain, + And aye for vengeance call.’ + + EURIPIDES—(_Anstice_). + +STILL all was not over, for by the next day our brother was as ill, or +worse, than ever. The doctor who came from London allowed that he had +expected something of the kind, but thought we must have let him exert +himself perilously. Poor innocent Martyn and Anne, they little suspected +that their bright eyes and happy voices had something to do with the +struggle and disappointment, which probably was one cause of the +collapse. As to poor Frank Fordyce, I never saw him so distressed; he +felt as if it were all his own fault, or that of his ancestors, and, +whenever he was not required by his duties, was lingering about for news. +I had little hope, though Clarence seemed to me the very light of my +eyes; it was to me as though, his task being accomplished, and the +earthly reward denied, he must be on his way to the higher one. + +His complete quiescence confirmed me in the assurance that he thought so +himself. He was too ill for speech, but Lawrence, who could not stay +away, was struck with the difference from former times. Not only were +there no delusions, but there was no anxiety or uneasiness, as there had +always been in the former attacks, when he was evidently eager to live, +and still more solicitous to be told if he were in a hopeless state. Now +he had plainly resigned himself— + + ‘Content to live, but not afraid to die;’ + +and perhaps, dear fellow, it was chiefly for my sake that he was willing +to live. At least, I know that when the worst was over, he announced it +by putting those wasted fingers into mine, and saying— + +‘Well, dear old fellow, I believe we shall jog on together, after all.’ + +That attack, though the most severe of all, brought, either owing to +skilful treatment or to his own calm, the removal of the mischief, and +the beginning of real recovery. Previously he had given himself no time, +but had hurried on to exertions which retarded his cure, so as very +nearly to be fatal; but he was now perfectly submissive to whatever +physicians or nurses desired, and did not seem to find his slow +convalescence in the least tedious, since he was amongst us all again. + +It was nearly a month before he was disposed to recur to the subject of +his old solicitude again, and then he asked what Mr. Fordyce had said or +done. Just nothing at all; but on the next visit paid to the sick-room, +Parson Frank yielded to his earnest request to send for any documents +that might throw light on the subject, and after a few days he brought us +a packet of letters from his deed-box. They were written from Hillside +Rectory to the son in the army in Flanders, chiefly by his mother, and +were full of hot, angry invective against our family, and pity for poor, +foolish ‘Madam,’ or ‘Cousin Winslow,’ as she was generally termed, for +having put herself in their power. + +The one most to the purpose was an account of the examination of Molly +Cox, the waiting-woman, who had been in attendance on the unfortunate +Margaret, and whose story tallied fairly with Aunt Peggy’s tradition. +She declared that she was sure that her mistress had met with foul play. +She had left her as usual at ten o’clock on the fatal 27th of December +1707, in the inner one of the old chambers; and in the night had heard +the tipsy return home of the gentlemen, followed by shrieks. In the +morning she (the maid) who usually was the first to go to her room, was +met by Mistress Betty Winslow, and told that Madam was ill, and +insensible. The old nurse of the Winslows was called in; and Molly was +never left alone in the sick-room, scarcely permitted to approach the +bed, and never to touch her lady. Once, when emptying out a cup at the +garden-door, she saw a mark of blood on the steps, but Mr. Philip came up +and swore at her for a prying fool. Doctor Tomkins was sent for, but he +barely walked through the room, and ‘all know that he is a mere creature +of Philip Winslow,’ wrote the Mrs. Fordyce of that date to her son. And +presently after, ‘Justice Eastwood declared there is no case for a Grand +Jury; but he is a known Friend and sworn Comrade of the Winslows, and +bound to suppress all evidence against them. Nay, James Dearlove swears +he saw Edward Winslow slip a golden Guinea into his Clerk’s Hand. But as +sure as there is a Heaven above us, Francis, poor Cousin Winslow was +trying to escape to us of her own Kindred, and met with cruel Usage. Her +Blood is on their Heads.’ + +‘There!’ said Frank Fordyce. ‘This Francis challenged Philip Winslow’s +eldest son, a mere boy, three days after he joined the army before Lille, +and shot him like a dog. I turned over the letter about it in searching +for these. I can’t boast of my ancestors more than you can. But may God +accept this work of yours, and take away the guilt of blood from both of +us.’ + +‘And have you thought what is best to be done?’ asked Clarence, raising +himself on his cushions. + +‘Have you?’ asked the Vicar. + +‘Oh yes; I have had my dreams.’ + +They put their castles together, and they turned out to be for an +orphanage, or rather asylum, not too much hampered with strict rules, +combined with a convalescent home. The battle of sisterhoods was not yet +fought out, and we were not quite prepared for them; but Frank Fordyce +had, as he said, ‘the two best women in the world in his eye’ to make a +beginning. + +There was full time to think and discuss the scheme, for our patient was +in no condition to move for many weeks, lying day after day on a couch +just within the window of our sitting-room, which was as nearly as +possible in the sea, so that he constantly had the freshness of its +breezes, the music of its ripple, and the sight of its waves, and seemed +to find endless pleasure in watching the red sails, the puffs of steam, +and the frolics of the children, simple or gentle, on the beach. + +Something else was sometimes to be watched. Martyn, all this time, was +doing the work of two curates, and was to be seen walking home with Anne +from church or school, carrying her baskets and bags, and, as we were +given to understand, discussing by turns ecclesiastical questions, +visionary sisterhoods, and naughty children. At first I wished it were +possible to remove Clarence from the perpetual spectacle, but we had one +last talk over the matter, and this was quite satisfactory. + +‘It does me no harm,’ he said; ‘I like to see it. Yes, it is quite true +that I do. What was personal and selfish in my fancies seems to have +been worn out in the great lull of my senses under the shadow of death; +and now I can revert with real joy and thankfulness to the old delight of +looking on our dear Ellen as our sister, and watch those two children as +we used when they talked of dolls’ fenders instead of the surplice war. +I have got you, Edward; and you know there is a love “passing the love of +women.”’ + +A lively young couple passed by the window just then, and with untamed +voices observed— + +‘There are those two poor miserable objects! It is enough to make one +melancholy only to look at them.’ + +Whereat we simultaneously burst out laughing; perhaps because a choking, +very far from misery, was in our throats. + +At any rate, Clarence was prepared to be the cordial, fatherly brother, +when Martyn came headlong in upon us with the tidings that utterly +indescribable, unimaginable joy had befallen him. A revelation seemed +simultaneously to have broken upon him and Anne while they were copying +out the Sunday School Registers, that what they had felt for each other +all their lives was love—‘real, true love,’ as Anne said to Emily, ‘that +never could have cared for anybody else.’ + +Mrs. Fordyce’s sharp eyes had seen what was coming, and accepted the +inevitable, quite as soon as Clarence had. She came and talked it over +with us, saying she was perfectly satisfied and happy. Martyn was all +that could be wished, and she was sincerely glad of the connection with +her old friends. So, in fact, was dear old Frank, but he had been +running about with his head full, and his eyes closed, so that it was +quite a shock to him to find that his little Anne, his boon companion and +playfellow, was actually grown up, and presuming to love and be loved; +and he could hardly believe that she was really seven years older than +her sister had been when the like had begun with her. But if Anne must +be at those tricks, he said, shaking his head at her, he had rather it +was with Martyn than anybody else. + +There was no difficulty as to money matters. In truth, Martyn was not so +good a match as an heiress, such as was Anne Fordyce, might have aspired +to, and her Lester kin were sure to be shocked; but even if Clarence +married, the Earlscombe living went for something (though, by the bye, he +has never held it), and the Fordyces only cared that there should be easy +circumstances. The living of Hillside would be resigned in favour of +Martyn in the spring, and meantime he would gain more experience at +Beachharbour, and this would break the separation to the Fordyces. + +After all, however, theirs was not to be our first wedding. I have said +little of Emily. The fact was, that after that week of Clarence’s +danger, we said she lived in a kind of dream. She fulfilled all that was +wanted of her, nursing Clarence, waiting on me, ordering dinner, making +the tea, and so forth; but it was quite evident that life began for her +on the Saturdays, when Lawrence came down, and ended on the Mondays, when +he went away. If, in the meantime, she sat down to work, she went off +into a trance; if she was sent out for fresh air, she walked quarter-deck +on the esplanade, neither seeing nor hearing anything, we averred, but +some imaginary Lawrence Frith. + +If she had any drawback, good girl, it was the idea of deserting me; but +then, as I could honestly tell her, nobody need fear for my happiness, +since Clarence was given back to me. And she believed, and was ready to +go to China with her Lawrence. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. +THE LAST DISCOVERY. + + + ‘Grief will be joy if on its edge + Fall soft that holiest ray, + Joy will be grief, if no faint pledge + Be there of heavenly day.’ + + KEBLE. + +WE did not move from Beachharbour till September, and by that time it had +been decided that Chantry House itself should be given up to the new +scheme. It was too large for us, and Clarence had never lived there +enough to have any strong home feeling for it; but he rather connected it +with disquiet and distress, and had a longing to make actual restitution +thereof, instead of only giving an equivalent, as he did in the case of +the farms. Our feelings about the desecrated chapel were also +considerably changed from the days when we regarded it merely as a +picturesque ruin, and it was to be at once restored both for the benefit +of the orphanage, and for that of the neighbouring households. For +ourselves, a cottage was to be built, suited to our idiosyncrasies; but +that could wait till after the yacht voyage, which we were to make +together for the winter. + +Thus it came to pass that the last time we inhabited Chantry House was +when we gave Emily to Lawrence Frith. We would fain have made it a +double wedding, but the Fordyces wished to wait for Easter, when Martyn +would have been inducted to Hillside. They came, however, that Mrs. +Fordyce might act lady of the house, and Anne be bridesmaid, as well as +lay the first stone of St. Cecily’s restored chapel. + +It was on the day on which they were expected, when the workmen were +digging foundations, and clearing away rubbish, that the foreman begged +Mr. Winslow to come out to see something they had found. Clarence came +back, very grave and awe-struck. It was an old oak chest, and within lay +a skeleton, together with a few fragments of female clothing, a wedding +ring, and some coins of the later Stewarts, in a rotten leathern purse. +This was ghastly confirmation, though there was nothing else to connect +the bones with poor Margaret. We had some curiosity as to the coffin in +the niche in the family vault which bore her name, but both Clarence and +Mr. Fordyce shrank from investigations which could not be carried out +without publicity, and might perhaps have disturbed other remains. + +So on the ensuing night there was a strange, quiet funeral service at +Earlscombe Church. Mr. Henderson officiated, and Chapman acted as clerk. +These, with Amos Bell, alone knew the tradition, or understood what the +discovery meant to the two Fordyces and three Winslows who stood at the +opening of the vault, and prayed that whatever guilt there might be +should be put away from the families so soon to be made one. The coins +were placed with those of Victoria, which the next day Anne laid beneath +the foundation-stone of St. Cecily’s. I need not say that no one has +ever again heard the wailings, nor seen the lady with the lamp. + +What more is there to tell? It was of this first half of our lives that +I intended to write, and though many years have since passed, they have +not had the same character of romance and would not interest you. Our +honeymoon, as Mr. Fordyce called the expedition we two brothers made in +the Mediterranean, was a perfect success; and Clarence regained health, +and better spirits than had ever been his; while contriving to show me +all that I was capable of being carried to see. It was complete +enjoyment, and he came home, not as strong as in old times, but with fair +comfort and capability for the work of life, so as to be able to take Mr. +Castleford’s place, when our dear old friend retired from active +direction of the firm. + +You all know how the two old bachelors have kept house together in London +and at Earlscombe cottage, and you are all proud of the honoured name +Clarence Winslow has made for himself, foremost in works for the glory of +God and the good of men—as one of those merchant princes of England whose +merchandise has indeed been Holiness unto the Lord. + +Thus you must all have felt a shock on finding that he always looked on +that name as blotted, and that one of the last sayings I heard from him +was, ‘O remember not the sins and offences of my youth, but according to +Thy mercy, think upon me, O Lord, for Thy goodness.’ + +Then he almost smiled, and said, ‘Yes, He has so looked on me, and I am +thankful.’ + +Thankful, and so am I, for those thirty-four peaceful years we spent +together, or rather for the seventy years of perfect brotherhood that we +have been granted, and though he has left me behind him, I am content to +wait. It cannot be for long. My brothers and sisters, their children, +and my faithful Amos Bell, are very good to me; and in writing up to that +_mezzo termine_ of our lives, I have been living it over again with my +brother of brothers, through the troubles that have become like joys. + + + +REMARKS. + + +Uncle Edward has not said half enough about his dear old self. I want to +know if he never was unhappy when he was young about being _like that_, +though mother says his face was always nearly as beautiful as it is now. +And it is not only goodness. It _is_ beautiful with his sweet smile and +snowy white hair. + + ELLEN WINSLOW. + +And I wonder, though perhaps he could not have told, what Aunt Anne would +have done if Uncle Clarence had not been so forbearing before he went to +China. + + CLARE FRITH. + +The others are highly impertinent questions, but we ought to know what +became of Lady Peacock. + + ED. G. W. + + + +REPLY. + + +Poor woman, she drifted back to London after about ten years, with an +incurable disease. Clarence put her into lodgings near us, and did his +best for her as long as she lived. He had a hard task, but she ended by +saying he was her only friend. + +To question No. 2 I have nothing to say; but as to No. 1, with its +extravagant compliment, Nature, or rather God, blessed me with even +spirits, a methodical nature that prefers monotony, and very little +morbid shyness; nor have I ever been devoid of tender care and love. So +that I can only remember three severe fits of depression. One, when I +had just begun to be taken out in the Square Gardens, and Selina Clarkson +was heard to say I was a hideous little monster. It was a revelation, +and must have given frightful pain, for I remember it acutely after +sixty-five years. + +The second fit was just after Clarence was gone to sea, and some very +painful experiments had been tried in vain for making me like other +people. For the first time I faced the fact that I was set aside from +all possible careers, and should be, as I remember saying, ‘no better +than a girl.’ I must have been a great trial to all my friends. My +father tried to reason on resignation, and tell me happiness could be +_in_ myself, till he broke down. My mother attempted bracing by reproof. +Miss Newton endeavoured to make me see that this was my cross. Every +word was true, and came round again, but they only made me for the time +more rebellious and wretched. That attack was ended, of all things in +the world, by heraldry. My attention somehow was drawn that way, and the +study filled up time and thought till my misfortunes passed into custom, +and haunted me no more. + +My last was a more serious access, after coming into the country, when +improved health and vigour inspired cravings that made me fully sensible +of my blighted existence. I had gone the length of my tether and +overdone myself; I missed London life and Clarence; and the more I blamed +myself, and tried to rouse myself, the more despondent and discontented I +grew. + +This time my physician was Mr. Stafford; I had deciphered a bit of old +French and Latin for him, and he was very much pleased. ‘Why, Edward,’ +he said, ‘you are a very clever fellow; you can be a distinguished—or +what is better—a useful man.’ + +Somehow that saying restored the spring of hope, and gave an impulse! I +have not been a distinguished man, but I think in my degree I have been a +fairly useful one, and I am sure I have been a happy one. + + E. W. + +‘Useful! that you have, dear old fellow. Even if you had done nothing +else, and never been an unconscious backbone to Clarence; your influence +on me and mine has been unspeakably blest. But pray, Mistress Anne, how +about that question of naughty little Clare’s?’ + + M. W. + +‘Don’t you think you had better let alone that question, reverend sir? +Youngest pets are apt to be saucy, especially in these days, but I didn’t +expect it of you! It might have been the worse for you if W. C. W. had +not held his tongue in those days. Just like himself, but I am heartily +glad that so he did. + + A. W.’ + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANTRY HOUSE*** + + +******* This file should be named 7378-0.txt or 7378-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/7/3/7/7378 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you + are located before using this ebook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/7378-0.zip b/7378-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d32adef --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-0.zip diff --git a/7378-h.zip b/7378-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8140840 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h.zip diff --git a/7378-h/7378-h.htm b/7378-h/7378-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fea5d72 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/7378-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11958 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge, +Illustrated by W. J. Hennessy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Chantry House + + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + + + +Release Date: November 14, 2014 [eBook #7378] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANTRY HOUSE*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"What I do remember, is my mother reading to me as I lay in my +crib. p. 3" +title= +"What I do remember, is my mother reading to me as I lay in my +crib. p. 3" + src="images/fps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>CHANTRY HOUSE</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br +/> +CHARLOTTE M. YONGE</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">AUTHOR OF +‘THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE,’ ‘UNKNOWN TO +HISTORY,’ ETC.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/tpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A feeble water-coloured drawing of the trio. p. 2" +title= +"A feeble water-coloured drawing of the trio. p. 2" + src="images/tps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">ILLUSTRATED +BY W. J. HENNESSY</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">London<br /> +MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br +/> +1905</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall"><i>All +rights reserved</i></span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER I.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">A Nursery Prose</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER II.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Schoolroom Days</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER III.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Win and Slow</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER IV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Ubi Lapsus, Quid Feci</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER V.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A <span class="smcap">Helping Hand</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Valley of Humiliation</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page43">43</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Inheritance</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page50">50</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Old House</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER IX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Rats</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page67">67</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER X.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Our Tuneful Choir</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>‘<span class="smcap">They Fordys</span>’</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Sophia’s Feud</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A <span class="smcap">Scrape</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Mullion Chamber</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Rational Theories</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Cat Language</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page126">126</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Siege of Hillside</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page136">136</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Portrait</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The White Feather</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page159">159</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Veni, Vidi, Vici</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page171">171</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Outside of the +Courtship</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Bristol Diamonds</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Quicksands</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page198">198</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">After the Tempest</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page208">208</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Holiday-making</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page217">217</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>C. <span class="smcap">Morbus, Esq</span>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page229">229</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Peter’s Thunderbolt</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page236">236</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A <span class="smcap">Squire of Dames</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page245">245</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXIX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Love and Obedience</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page251">251</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Una or Duessa</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page260">260</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Facilis Descensus</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page269">269</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Waly, Waly</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page278">278</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The River’s Bank</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page284">284</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Not in Vain</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page293">293</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Griff’s Bird</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page299">299</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Slack Water</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page307">307</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Outward Bound</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page316">316</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER +XXXVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Too Late</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page328">328</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XXXIX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A <span class="smcap">Purpose</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page337">337</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XL.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Midnight Chase</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page344">344</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Wills Old and New</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page350">350</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">On a Spree</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page357">357</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Price</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page364">364</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Paying the Cost</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page371">371</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Achieved</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page378">378</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Restitution</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page385">385</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Fordyce Story</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page392">392</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XLVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">The Last Discovery</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page399">399</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>‘What I do remember, is my mother reading to me as I +lay in my crib’</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Frontispiece</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A feeble water-coloured drawing of the trio</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Vignette</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>‘That is poor Margaret who married your +ancestor’</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Page</i> <span +class="imageref"><a href="#image154">154</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lady Margaret’s ghost</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image346">346</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CHAPTER +I.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A NURSERY PROSE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘And if it be the heart of man<br /> + Which our existence measures,<br /> +Far longer is our childhood’s span<br /> + Than that of manly pleasures.</p> +<p>‘For long each month and year is then,<br /> + Their thoughts and days extending,<br /> +But months and years pass swift with men<br /> + To time’s last goal descending.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Isaac +Williams</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> united force of the younger +generation has been brought upon me to record, with the aid of +diaries and letters, the circumstances connected with Chantry +House and my two dear elder brothers. Once this could not +have been done without more pain than I could brook, but the +lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when the +heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of +what once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and +thankfulness. Nor would it be well that some of those +mentioned in the coming narrative should be wholly forgotten, and +their place know them no more.</p> +<p>To explain all, I must go back to a time long before the +morning when my father astonished us all by exclaiming, +‘Poor old James Winslow! So Chantry House is came to +us after all!’ Previous to that event I do not think +we were aware of the existence of that place, far less of its +being a possible inheritance, for my parents would never have +permitted themselves or their family to be unsettled by the +notion of doubtful contingencies.</p> +<p>My father, John Edward Winslow, was a barrister, and held an +appointment in the Admiralty Office, which employed him for many +hours of the day at Somerset House. My mother, whose maiden +name was Mary Griffith, belonged to a naval family. Her +father had been lost in a West Indian hurricane at sea, and her +uncle, Admiral Sir John Griffith, was the hero of the family, +having been at Trafalgar and distinguished himself in cutting out +expeditions. My eldest brother bore his name. The +second was named after the Duke of Clarence, with whom my mother +had once danced at a ball on board ship at Portsmouth, and who +had been rather fond of my uncle. Indeed, I believe my +father’s appointment had been obtained through his +interest, just about the time of Clarence’s birth.</p> +<p>We three boys had come so fast upon each other’s heels +in the Novembers of 1809, 10, and 11, that any two of us used to +look like twins. There is still extant a feeble +water-coloured drawing of the trio, in nankeen frocks, and long +white trowsers, with bare necks and arms, the latter twined +together, and with the free hands, Griffith holding a bat, +Clarence a trap, and I a ball. I remember the emulation we +felt at Griffith’s privilege of eldest in holding the +bat.</p> +<p>The sitting for that picture is the only thing I clearly +remember during those earlier days. I have no recollection +of the disaster, which, at four years old, altered my life. +The catastrophe, as others have described it, was that we three +boys were riding cock-horse on the balusters of the second floor +of our house in Montagu Place, Russell Square, when we indulged +in a general <i>mêlée</i>, which resulted in all +tumbling over into the vestibule below. The others, to whom +I served as cushion, were not damaged beyond the power of +yelling, and were quite restored in half-an-hour, but I was +undermost, and the consequence has been a curved spine, dwarfed +stature, an elevated shoulder, and a shortened, nearly useless +leg.</p> +<p>What I do remember, is my mother reading to me Miss +Edgeworth’s <i>Frank and the little do Trusty</i>, as I lay +in my crib in her bedroom. I made one of my nieces hunt up +the book for me the other day, and the story brought back at once +the little crib, or the watered blue moreen canopy of the big +four-poster to which I was sometimes lifted for a change; even +the scrawly pattern of the paper, which my weary eyes made into +purple elves perpetually pursuing crimson ones, the foremost of +whom always turned upside down; and the knobs in the Marseilles +counterpane with which my fingers used to toy. I have heard +my mother tell that whenever I was most languid and suffering I +used to whine out, ‘O do read <i>Frank and the little dog +Trusty</i>,’ and never permitted a single word to be +varied, in the curious childish love of reiteration with its +soothing power.</p> +<p>I am afraid that any true picture of our parents, especially +of my mother, will not do them justice in the eyes of the young +people of the present day, who are accustomed to a far more +indulgent government, and yet seem to me to know little of the +loyal veneration and submission with which we have, through life, +regarded our father and mother. It would have been reckoned +disrespectful to address them by these names; they were through +life to us, in private, papa and mamma, and we never presumed to +take a liberty with them. I doubt whether the petting, +patronising equality of terms on which children now live with +their parents be equally wholesome. There was then, +however, strong love and self-sacrificing devotion; but not +manifested in softness or cultivation of sympathy. Nothing +was more dreaded than spoiling, which was viewed as idle and +unjustifiable self-gratification at the expense of the objects +thereof. There were an unlucky little pair in Russell +Square who were said to be ‘spoilt children,’ and who +used to be mentioned in our nursery with bated breath as a kind +of monsters or criminals. I believe our mother laboured +under a perpetual fear of spoiling Griff as the eldest, Clarence +as the beauty, me as the invalid, Emily (two years younger) as +the only girl, and Martyn as the after-thought, six years below +our sister. She was always performing little acts of +conscientiousness, little as we guessed it.</p> +<p>Thus though her unremitting care saved my life, and was such +that she finally brought on herself a severe and dangerous +illness, she kept me in order all the time, never wailed over me +nor weakly pitied me, never permitted resistance to medicine nor +rebellion against treatment, enforced little courtesies, insisted +on every required exertion, and hardly ever relaxed the rule of +Spartan fortitude in herself as in me. It is to this +resolution on her part, carried out consistently at whatever +present cost to us both, that I owe such powers of locomotion as +I possess, and the habits of exertion that have been even more +valuable to me.</p> +<p>When at last, after many weeks, nay months, of this +watchfulness, she broke down, so that her life was for a time in +danger, the lack of her bracing and tender care made my life very +trying, after I found myself transported to the nursery, scarcely +understanding why, accused of having by my naughtiness made ray +poor mamma so ill, and discovering for the first time that I was +a miserable, naughty little fretful being, and with nobody but +Clarence and the housemaid to take pity on me.</p> +<p>Nurse Gooch was a masterful, trustworthy woman, and was laid +under injunctions not to indulge Master Edward. She +certainly did not err in that respect, though she attended +faithfully to my material welfare; but woe to me if I gave way to +a little moaning; and what I felt still harder, she never said +‘good boy’ if I contrived to abstain.</p> +<p>I hear of carpets, curtains, and pictures in the existing +nurseries. They must be palaces compared with our great +bare attic, where nothing was allowed that could gather +dust. One bit of drugget by the fireside, where stood a +round table at which the maids talked and darned stockings, was +all that hid the bare boards; the walls were as plain as those of +a workhouse, and when the London sun did shine, it glared into my +eyes through the great unshaded windows. There was a deal +table for the meals (and very plain meals they were), and two or +three big presses painted white for our clothes, and one cupboard +for our toys. I must say that Gooch was strictly just, and +never permitted little Emily, nor Griff—though he was very +decidedly the favourite,—to bear off my beloved woolly dog +to be stabled in the houses of wooden bricks which the two were +continually constructing for their menagerie of maimed +animals.</p> +<p>Griff was deservedly the favourite with every one who was not, +like our parents, conscientiously bent on impartiality. He +was so bright and winning, he had such curly tight-rolled hair +with a tinge of auburn, such merry bold blue eyes, such glowing +dimpled cheeks, such a joyous smile all over his face, and such a +ringing laugh; he was so strong, brave, and sturdy, that he was a +boy to be proud of, and a perfect king in his own way, making +every one do as he pleased. All the maids, and Peter the +footman, were his slaves, every one except nurse and mamma, and +it was only by a strong effort of principle that they resisted +him; while he dragged Clarence about as his devoted though not +always happy follower.</p> +<p>Alas! for Clarence! Courage was not in him. The +fearless infant boy chiefly dwells in conventional fiction, and +valour seldom comes before strength. Moreover, I have come +to the opinion that though no one thought of it at the time, his +nerves must have had a terrible and lasting shock at the accident +and at the sight of my crushed and deathly condition, which +occupied every one too much for them to think of soothing or +shielding him. At any rate, fear was the misery of his +life. Darkness was his horror. He would scream till +he brought in some one, though he knew it would be only to scold +or slap him. The housemaid’s closet on the stairs was +to him an abode of wolves. Mrs. Gatty’s tale of +<i>The Tiger in the Coal-box</i> is a transcript of his feelings, +except that no one took the trouble to reassure him; something +undefined and horrible was thought to wag in the case of the +eight-day clock; and he could not bear to open the play cupboard +lest ‘something’ should jump out on him. The +first time he was taken to the Zoological Gardens, the monkeys so +terrified him that a bystander insisted on Gooch’s carrying +him away lest he should go into fits, though Griffith was +shouting with ecstasy, and could hardly forgive the curtailment +of his enjoyment.</p> +<p>Clarence used to aver that he really did see +‘things’ in the dark, but as he only shuddered and +sobbed instead of describing them, he was punished for +‘telling fibs,’ though the housemaid used to speak +under her breath of his being a ‘Sunday child.’ +And after long penance, tied to his stool in the corner, he would +creep up to me and whisper, ‘But, Eddy, I really +did!’</p> +<p>However, it was only too well established in the nursery that +Clarence’s veracity was on a par with his courage. +When taxed with any misdemeanour, he used to look round scared +and bewildered, and utter a flat demur. One scene in +particular comes before me. There were strict laws against +going into shops or buying dainties without express permission +from mamma or nurse; but one day when Clarence had by some chance +been sent out alone with the good natured housemaid, his fingers +were found sticky.</p> +<p>‘Now, Master Clarence, you’ve been a naughty boy, +eating of sweets,’ exclaimed stern Justice in a mob cap and +frills.</p> +<p>‘No—no—’ faltered the victim; but, +alas! Mrs. Gooch had only to thrust her hand into the +little pocket of his monkey suit to convict him on the spot.</p> +<p>The maid was dismissed with a month’s wages, and poor +Clarence underwent a strange punishment from my mother, who was +getting about again by that time, namely, a drop of hot +sealing-wax on his tongue, to teach him practically the doom of +the false tongue. It might have done him good if there had +been sufficient encouragement to him to make him try to win a new +character, but it only added a fresh terror to his mind; and +nurse grew fond of manifesting her incredulity of his assertions +by always referring to Griff or to me, or even to little +Emily. What was worse, she used to point him out to her +congeners in the Square or the Park as ‘such a false +child.’</p> +<p>He was a very pretty little fellow, with a delicately rosy +face, wistful blue eyes, and soft, light, wavy hair, and perhaps +Gooch was jealous of his attracting more notice than Griffith, +and thought he posed for admiration, for she used to tell people +that no one could guess what a child he was for slyness; so that +he could not bear going out with her, and sometimes bemoaned +himself to me.</p> +<p>There must be a good deal of sneaking in the undeveloped +nature, for in those days I was ashamed of my preference for +Clarence, the naughty one. But there was no helping it, he +was so much more gentle than Griff, and would always give up any +sport that incommoded me, instead of calling me a stupid little +ape, and becoming more boisterous after the fashion of +Griff. Moreover, he fetched and carried for me unweariedly, +and would play at spillekins, help to put up puzzles, and enact +little dramas with our wooden animals, such as Griff scorned as +only fit for babies. Even nurse allowed Clarence’s +merits towards me and little Emily, but always with the sigh: +‘If he was but as good in other respects, but them quiet +ones is always sly.’</p> +<p>Good Nurse Gooch! We all owe much to her staunch +fidelity, strong discipline, and unselfish devotion, but nature +had not fitted her to deal with a timid, sensitive child, of +highly nervous temperament. Indeed, persons of far more +insight might have been perplexed by the fact that Clarence was +exemplary at church and prayers, family and +private,—whenever Griff would let him, that is to +say,—and would add private petitions of his own, sometimes +of a startling nature. He never scandalised the nursery, +like Griff, by unseemly pranks on Sundays, nor by innovations in +the habits of Noah’s ark, but was as much shocked as nurse +when the lion was made to devour the elephant, or the lion and +wolf fought in an embrace fatal to their legs. Bible +stories and Watt’s hymns were more to Clarence than even to +me, and he used to ask questions for which Gooch’s theology +was quite insufficient, and which brought the invariable answers, +‘Now, Master Clarry, I never did! Little boys should +not ask such questions!’ ‘What’s the use +of your pretending, sir! It’s all falseness, +that’s what it is! I hates +hypercrīting!’ ‘Don’t worrit, Master +Clarence; you are a very naughty boy to say such things. I +shall put you in the corner!’</p> +<p>Even nurse was scared one night when Clarence had a frightful +screaming fit, declaring that he saw +‘her—her—all white,’ and even while being +slapped reiterated, ‘<i>her</i>, Lucy!’</p> +<p>Lucy was a kind elder girl in the Square gardens, a protector +of little timid ones. She was known to be at that time very +ill with measles, and in fact died that very night. Both my +brothers sickened the next day, and Emily and I soon followed +their example, but no one had it badly except Clarence, who had +high fever, and very much delirium each night, talking to people +whom he thought he saw, so as to make nurse regret her severity +on the vision of Lucy.</p> +<h2><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +11</span>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">SCHOOLROOM DAYS.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘In the loom of life-cloth pleasure,<br /> + Ere our childish days be told,<br /> +With the warp and woof enwoven,<br /> + Glitters like a thread of gold.’—<span +class="smcap">Jean Ingelow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Looking back, I think my mother was the leading spirit in our +household, though she never for a moment suspected it. +Indeed, the chess queen must be the most active on the home +board, and one of the objects of her life was to give her husband +a restful evening when he came home to the six o’clock +dinner. She also had to make both ends meet on an income +which would seem starvation at the present day; but she was +strong, spirited, and managing, and equal to all her tasks till +the long attendance upon me, and the consequent illness, forced +her to spare herself—a little—a very little.</p> +<p>Previously she had been our only teacher, except that my +father read a chapter of the Bible with us every morning before +breakfast, and heard the Catechism on a Sunday. For we +could all read long before young gentlefolks nowadays can say +their letters. It was well for me, since books with a small +quantity of type, and a good deal of frightful illustration, +beguiled many of my weary moments. You may see my special +favourites, bound up, on the shelf in my bedroom. +Crabbe’s <i>Tales</i>, <i>Frank</i>, <i>the Parent’s +Assistant</i>, and later, Croker’s <i>Tales from English +History</i>, Lamb’s <i>Tales from Shakespeare</i>, <i>Tales +of a Grandfather</i>, and the <i>Rival Crusoes</i> stand +pre-eminent—also <i>Mrs. Leicester’s School</i>, with +the ghost story cut out.</p> +<p>Fairies and ghosts were prohibited as unwholesome, and not +unwisely. The one would have been enervating to me, and the +other would have been a definite addition to Clarence’s +stock of horrors. Indeed, one story had been cut out of +Crabbe’s <i>Tales</i>, and another out of an Annual +presented to Emily, but not before Griff had read the latter, and +the version he related to us probably lost nothing in the +telling; indeed, to this day I recollect the man, wont to slay +the harmless cricket on the hearth, and in a storm at sea pursued +by a gigantic cockroach and thrown overboard. The night +after hearing this choice legend Clarence was found crouching +beside me in bed for fear of the cockroach. I am afraid the +vengeance was more than proportioned to the offence!</p> +<p>Even during my illness that brave mother struggled to teach my +brothers’ daily lessons, and my father heard them a short +bit of Latin grammar at his breakfast (five was thought in those +days to be the fit age to begin it, and fathers the fit teachers +thereof). And he continued to give this morning lesson +when, on our return from airing at Ramsgate after our recovery +from the measles, my mother found she must submit to transfer us +to a daily governess.</p> +<p>Old Miss Newton’s attainments could not have been great, +for her answers to my inquiries were decidedly funny, and +prefaced <i>sotto voce</i> with, ‘What a child it +is!’ But she was a good kindly lady, who had the +faculty of teaching, and of forestalling rebellion; and her +little thin corkscrew curls, touched with gray, her pale eyes, +prim black silk apron, and sandalled shoes, rise before me full +of happy associations of tender kindness and patience. She +was wise, too, in her own simple way. When nurse would have +forewarned her of Clarence’s failings in his own hearing, +she cut the words short by declaring that she should like never +to find out which was the naughty one. And when habit was +too strong, and he had denied the ink spot on the atlas, she +persuasively wiled out a confession not only to her but to mamma, +who hailed the avowal as the beginning of better things, and +kissed instead of punishing.</p> +<p>Clarence’s queries had been snubbed into reserve, and I +doubt whether Miss Newton’s theoretic theology was very +much more developed than that of Mrs. Gooch, but her practice and +devotion were admirable, and she fostered religious sentiment +among us, introducing little books which were welcome in the +restricted range of Sunday reading. Indeed, Mrs. +Sherwood’s have some literary merit, and her <i>Fairchild +Family</i> indulged in such delicious and eccentric acts of +naughtiness as quite atoned for all the religious teaching, and +fascinated Griff, though he was apt to be very impatient of +certain little affectionate lectures to which Clarence listened +meekly. My father and mother were both of the old-fashioned +orthodox school, with minds formed on Jeremy Taylor, Blair, +South, and Secker, who thought it their duty to go diligently to +church twice on Sunday, communicate four times a year (their only +opportunities), after grave and serious preparation, read a +sermon to their household on Sunday evenings, and watch over +their children’s religious instruction, though in a +reserved undemonstrative manner. My father always read one +daily chapter with us every morning, one Psalm at family prayers, +and my mother made us repeat a few verses of Scripture before our +other studies began; besides which there was special teaching on +Sunday, and an abstinence from amusements, such as would now be +called Sabbatarian, but a walk in the Park with papa was so much +esteemed that it made the day a happy and honoured one to those +who could walk.</p> +<p>There was little going into society, comparatively, for people +in our station,—solemn dinner-parties from time to +time—two a year, did we give, and then the house was turned +upside down,—and now and then my father dined out, or +brought a friend home to dinner; and there were so-called morning +calls in the afternoon, but no tea-drinking. For the most +part the heads of the family dined alone at six, and afterwards +my father read aloud some book of biography or travels, while we +children were expected to employ ourselves quietly, threading +beads, drawing, or putting up puzzles, and listen or not as we +chose, only not interrupt, as we sat at the big, central, round, +mahogany table. To this hour I remember portions of +Belzoni’s Researches and Franklin’s terrible American +adventures, and they bring back tones of my father’s +voice. As an authority ‘papa’ was seldom +invoked, except on very serious occasions, such as +Griffith’s audacity, Clarence’s falsehood, or my +obstinacy; and then the affair was formidable, he was judicial +and awful, and, though he would graciously forgive on signs of +repentance, he never was sympathetic. He had not married +young, and there were forty years or more between him and his +sons, so that he had left too far behind him the feelings of +boyhood to make himself one with us, even if he had thought it +right or dignified to do so,—yet I cannot describe the +depth of the respect and loyalty he inspired in us nor the +delight we felt in a word of commendation or a special attention +from him.</p> +<p>The early part of Miss Newton’s rule was unusually +fertile in such pleasures, and much might have been spared, could +Clarence have been longer under her influence; but Griff grew +beyond her management, and was taunted by ‘fellows in the +Square’ into assertions of manliness, such as kicking his +heels, stealing her odd little fringed parasol, pitching his +books into the area, keeping her in misery with his antics during +their walks, and finally leading Clarence off after Punch into +the Rookery of St. Giles’s, where she could not follow, +because Emily was in her charge.</p> +<p>This was the crisis. She had to come home without the +boys, and though they arrived long before any of the authorities +knew of their absence, she owned with tears that she could not +conscientiously be responsible any longer for Griffith,—who +not only openly defied her authority, but had found out how +little she knew, and laughed at her. I have reason to +believe also that my mother had discovered that she frequented +the preachings of Rowland Hill and Baptist Noel; and had +confiscated some unorthodox tracts presented to the servants, +thus being alarmed lest she should implant the seeds of +dissent.</p> +<p>Parting with her after four years under her was a real +grief. Even Griff was fond of her; when once emancipated, +he used to hug her and bring her remarkable presents, and she +heartily loved her tormentor. Everybody did. It +remained a great pleasure to get her to spend an evening with us +while the elders were gone out to dinner; nor do I think she ever +did us anything but good, though I am afraid we laughed at +‘Old Newton’ as we grew older and more +conceited. We never had another governess. My mother +read and enforced diligence on Emily and me, and we had masters +for different studies; the two boys went to school; and when +Martyn began to emerge from babyhood, Emily was his teacher.</p> +<h2><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +17</span>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">WIN AND SLOW.</span></h2> +<p class="poetry">‘The rude will shuffle through with ease +enough:<br /> +Great schools best suit the sturdy and the rough.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right" class="poetry"><span +class="smcap">Cowper</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> school Griffith was very happy, +and brilliantly successful, alike in study and sport, though +sports were not made prominent in those days, and triumphs in +them were regarded by the elders with doubtful pride, lest they +should denote a lack of attention to matters of greater +importance. All his achievements were, however, poured +forth by himself and Clarence to Emily and me, and we felt as +proud of them as if they had been our own.</p> +<p>Clarence was industrious, and did not fail in his school work, +but when he came home for the holidays there was a cowed look +about him, and private revelations were made over my sofa that +made my flesh creep. The scars were still visible, caused +by having been compelled to grasp the bars of the grate +bare-handed; and, what was worse, he had been suspended outside a +third story window by the wrists, held by a schoolfellow of +thirteen!</p> +<p>‘But what was Griff about?’ I demanded, with hot +tears of indignation.</p> +<p>‘Oh, Win!—that’s what they call him, and me +Slow—he said it would do me good. But I don’t +think it did, Eddy. It only makes my heart beat fit to +choke me whenever I go near the passage window.’</p> +<p>I could only utter a vain wish that I had been there and able +to fight for him, and I attacked Griff on the subject on the +first opportunity.</p> +<p>‘Oh!’ was his answer, ‘it is only what all +fellows have to bear if there’s no pluck in them. +They tried it on upon me, you know, but I soon showed them it +would not do’—with the cock of the nose, the flash of +the eyes, the clench of the fist, that were peculiarly +Griff’s own; and when I pleaded that he might have +protected Clarence, he laughed scornfully. ‘As to +Slow, wretched being, a fellow can’t help bullying +him. It comes as natural as to a cat with a +mouse.’ On further and reiterated pleadings, Griff +declared, first, that it was the only thing to do Slow any good, +or make a man of him; and next, that he heartily wished that +Winslow junior had been Miss Clara at once, as the fellows called +him—it was really hard on him (Griff) to have such a +sneaking little coward tied to him for a junior!</p> +<p>I particularly resented the term Slow, for Clarence had lately +been the foremost of us in his studies; but the idea that +learning had anything to do with the matter was derided, and as +time went on, there was vexation and displeasure at his progress +not being commensurate with his abilities. It would have +been treason to schoolboy honour to let the elders know that +though a strong, high-spirited popular boy like ‘Win’ +might venture to excel big bullying dunces, such fair game as +poor ‘Slow’ could be terrified into not only keeping +below them, but into doing their work for them. To him +Cowper’s ‘Tirocinium’ had only too much sad +truth.</p> +<p>As to his old failing, there were no special complaints, but +in those pre-Arnoldian times no lofty code of honour was even +ideal among schoolboys, or expected of them by masters; shuffling +was thought natural, and allowances made for faults in indolent +despair.</p> +<p>My mother thought the Navy the proper element of boyhood, and +her uncle the Admiral promised a nomination,—a simple +affair in those happy days, involving neither examination nor +competition. Griffith was, however, one of those +independent boys who take an aversion to whatever is forced on +them as their fate. He was ready and successful with his +studies, a hero among his comrades, and preferred continuing at +school to what he pronounced, on the authority of the nautical +tales freely thrown in our way, to be the life of a dog, only fit +for the fool of the family; besides, he had once been out in a +boat, tasted of sea-sickness, and been laughed at. My +father was gratified, thinking his brains too good for a +midshipman, and pleased that he should wish to tread in his own +steps at Harrow and Oxford, and thus my mother could not openly +regret his degeneracy when all the rest of us were crazy over +<i>Tom Cringle’s Log</i>, and ready to envy Clarence when +the offer was passed on to him, and he appeared in the full glory +of his naval uniform. Not much choice had been offered to +him. My mother would have thought it shameful and +ungrateful to have no son available, my father was glad to have +the boy’s profession fixed, and he himself was rejoiced to +escape from the miseries he knew only too well, and ready to +believe that uniform and dirk would make a man of him at once, +with all his terrors left behind. Perhaps the chief +drawback was that the ladies <i>would</i> say, ‘What a +darling!’ affording Griff endless opportunities for the +good-humoured mockery by which he concealed his own secret +regrets. Did not even Selina Clarkson, whose red cheeks, +dark blue eyes, and jetty profusion of shining curls, were our +notion of perfect beauty, select the little naval cadet for her +partner at the dancing master’s ball?</p> +<p>In the first voyage, a cruise in the Pacific, all went +well. The good Admiral had carefully chosen ship and +captain; there were an excellent set of officers, a good tone +among the midshipmen, and Clarence, who was only twelve years +old, was constituted the pet of the cockpit. One lad in +especial, Coles by name, attracted by Clarence’s pleasant +gentleness, and impelled by the generosity that shields the weak, +became his guardian friend, and protected him from all the +roughnesses in his power. If there were a fault in that +excellent Coles, it was that he made too much of a baby of his +<i>protégé</i>, and did not train him to shift for +himself: but wisdom and moderation are not characteristics of +early youth. At home we had great enjoyment of his long +descriptive letters, which came under cover to our father at the +Admiralty, but were chiefly intended for my benefit. All +were proud of them, and great was my elation when I heard papa +relate some fact out of them with the preface, ‘My boy +tells me, my boy Clarence, in the <i>Calypso</i>; he writes a +capital letter.’</p> +<p>How great was our ecstasy when after three years and a half we +had him at home again; handsome, vigorous, well-grown, +excellently reported of, fully justifying my mother’s +assurances that the sea would make a man of him. There was +Griffith in the fifth form and a splendid cricketer, but Clarence +could stand up to him now, and Harrovian exploits were tame +beside stories of sharks and negroes, monkeys and +alligators. There was one in particular, about a whole +boat’s crew sitting down on what they thought was a fallen +tree, but which suddenly swept them all over on their faces, and +turned out to be a boa-constrictor, and would have embraced one +of them if he had not had the sail of the boat coiled round the +mast, and palmed off upon him, when he gorged it contentedly, and +being found dead on the next landing, his skin was used to cover +the captain’s sea-chest. Clarence declined to repeat +this tale and many others before the elders, and was displeased +with Emily for referring to it in public. As to his +terrors, he took it for granted that an officer of H.M.S. +<i>Calypso</i>, had left them behind, and in fact, he naturally +forgot and passed over what he had not been shielded from, while +his hereditary love of the sea really made those incidental to +his profession much more endurable than the bullying he had +undergone at school.</p> +<p>We were very happy that Christmas, and very proud of our +boys. One evening we were treated to a box at the +pantomime, and even I was able to go to it. We put our +young sailor and our sister in the forefront, and believed that +every one was as much struck with them as with the wonderful +transformations of Goody-Two-Shoes under the wand of +Harlequin. Brother-like, we might tease our one girl, and +call her an affected little pussy cat, but our private opinion +was that she excelled all other damsels with her bright blue eyes +and pretty curling hair, which had the same chestnut shine as +Griff’s—enough to make us correct possible vanity by +terming it red, though we were ready to fight any one else who +presumed to do so. Indeed Griff had defended its hue in +single combat, and his eye was treated for it with beefsteak by +Peter in the pantry. We were immensely, though silently, +proud of her in her white embroidered cambric frock, red sash and +shoes, and coral necklace, almost an heirloom, for it had been +brought from Sicily in Nelson’s days by my mother’s +poor young father. How parents and doctors in these days +would have shuddered at her neck and arms, bare, not only in the +evening, but by day! When she was a little younger she +could so shrink up from her clothes that Griff, or little Martyn, +in a mischievous mood, would put things down her back, to +reappear below her petticoats. Once it was a dead wasp, +which descended harmlessly the length of her spine! She was +a good-humoured, affectionate, dear sister, my valued companion, +submitting patiently to be eclipsed when Clarence was present, +and everything to me in his absence. Sturdy little Martyn +too, was held by us to be the most promising of small boys. +He was a likeness of Clarence, only stouter, hardier, and without +the delicate, girlish, wistful look; imitating Griff in +everything, and rather a heavy handful to Emily and me when left +to our care, though we were all the more proud of his high +spirit, and were fast becoming a mutual admiration society.</p> +<p>What then were our feelings when Griff, always fearless, +dashed to the rescue of a boy under whom the ice had broken in +St. James’ Park, and held him up till assistance +came? Martyn, who was with him, was sent home to fetch dry +clothes and reassure my mother, which he did by dashing upstairs, +shouting, ‘Where’s mamma? Here’s Griff +been into the water and pulled out a boy, and they don’t +know if he is drowned; but he looks—oh!’</p> +<p>Even after my mother had elicited that Martyn’s +<i>he</i> meant the boy, and not Griff, she could not rest +without herself going to see that our eldest was unhurt, greet +him, and bring him home. What happy tears stood in her +eyes, how my father shook hands with him, how we drank his health +after dinner, and how ungrateful I was to think Clarence deserved +his name of Slow for having stayed at home to play chess with me +because my back was aching, when he might have been winning the +like honours! How red and gruff and shy the hero looked, +and how he entreated no one to say any more about it!</p> +<p>He would not even look publicly at the paragraph about it in +the paper, only vituperating it for having made him into ‘a +juvenile Etonian,’ and hoping no one from Harrow would +guess whom it meant.</p> +<p>I found that paragraph the other day in my mother’s +desk, folded over the case of the medal of the Royal Humane +Society, which Griff affected to despise, but which, when he was +well out of the way, used to be exhibited on high days and +holidays. It seems now like the boundary mark of the golden +days of our boyhood, and unmitigated hopes for one another.</p> +<h2><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +25</span>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Clarence is come—false, fleeting, +perjured Clarence.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>King Richard III</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was much stagnation in the +Navy in those days in the reaction after the great war; and +though our family had fair interest at the Admiralty, it was +seven months before my brother went to sea again. To me +they were very happy months, with my helper of helpers, companion +of companions, who made possible to me many a little enterprise +that could not be attempted without him. My father made him +share my studies, and thus they became doubly pleasant. And +oh, ye boys! who murmur at the Waverley Novels as a dry holiday +task, ye may envy us the zest and enthusiasm with which we +devoured them in their freshness. Strangely enough, the +last that we read together was the <i>Fair Maid of Perth</i>.</p> +<p>Clarence and his friend Coles longed to sail together again, +but Coles was shelved; and when Clarence’s appointment came +at last, it was to the brig <i>Clotho</i>, Commander Brydone, +going out in the Mediterranean Fleet, under Sir Edward +Codrington. My mother did not like brigs, and my father did +not like what he heard of the captain; but there had been jealous +murmurs about appointments being absorbed by sons of +officials—he durst not pick and choose; and the Admiral +pronounced that if the lad had been spoilt on board the +<i>Calypso</i>, it was time for him to rough it—a dictum +whence there was no appeal.</p> +<p>Half a year later the tidings of the victory of Navarino rang +through Europe, and were only half welcome to the conquerors; but +in our household it is connected with a terrible +recollection. Though more than half a century has rolled +by, I shrink from dwelling on the shock that fell on us when my +father returned from Somerset House with such a countenance that +we thought our sailor had fallen; but my mother could brook the +fact far less than if her son had died a gallant death. The +<i>Clotho</i> was on her way home, and Midshipman William +Clarence Winslow was to be tried by court-martial for +insubordination, disobedience, and drunkenness. My mother +was like one turned to stone. She would hardly go out of +doors; she could scarcely bring herself to go to church; she +would have had my father give up his situation if there had been +any other means of livelihood. She could not talk; only +when my father sighed, ‘We should never have put him into +the Navy,’ she hotly replied,</p> +<p>‘How was I to suppose that a son of mine would be like +that?’</p> +<p>Emily cried all day and all night. Some others would +have felt it a relief to have cried too. In more furious +language than parents in those days tolerated, Griff wrote to me +his utter disbelief, and how he had punched the heads of fellows +who presumed to doubt that it was not all a rascally, villainous +plot.</p> +<p>When the time came my father went down by the night mail to +Portsmouth. He could scarcely bear to face the matter; but, +as he said, he could not have it on his conscience if the boy did +anything desperate for want of some one to look after him. +Besides, there might be some explanation.</p> +<p>‘Explanation,’ said my mother bitterly. +‘That there always is!’</p> +<p>The ‘explanation’ was this—I have put +together what came out in evidence, what my father and the +Admiral heard from commiserating officers, and what at different +times I learned from Clarence himself. Captain Brydone was +one of the rough old description of naval men, good sailors and +stern disciplinarians, but wanting in any sense of moral duties +towards their ship’s company. His lieutenant was of +the same class, soured, moreover, by tardy promotion, and +prejudiced against a gentleman-like, fair-faced lad, understood +to have interest, and bearing a name that implied it. Of +the other two midshipmen, one was a dull lad of low stamp, the +other a youth of twenty, a born bully, with evil as well as +tyrannical propensities;—the crew conforming to severe +discipline on board, but otherwise wild and lawless. In +such a ship a youth with good habits, sensitive conscience, and +lack of moral or physical courage, could not but lead a life of +misery, losing every day more of his self-respect and spirit as +he was driven to the evil he loathed, dreading the consequences, +temporal and eternal, with all his soul, yet without resolution +or courage to resist.</p> +<p>As every one knows, the battle of Navarino came on suddenly, +almost by mistake; and though it is perhaps no excuse, the +hurly-burly and horror burst upon him at unawares. Though +the English loss was comparatively very small, the <i>Clotho</i> +was a good deal exposed, and two men were killed—one so +close to Clarence that his clothes were splashed with +blood. This entirely unnerved him; he did not even know +what he did, but he was not to be found when required to carry an +order, and was discovered hidden away below, shuddering, in his +berth, and then made some shallow excuse about misunderstanding +orders. Whether this would have been brought up against him +under other circumstances, or whether it would have been +remembered that great men, including Charles V. and Henri IV., +have had their <i>moment de peur</i>, I cannot tell; but there +were other charges. I cannot give date or details. +There is no record among the papers before me; and I can only +vaguely recall what could hardly be read for the sense of agony, +was never discussed, and was driven into the most oblivious +recesses of the soul fifty years ago. There was a story +about having let a boat’s crew, of which he was in charge, +get drunk and over-stay their time. One of them deserted; +and apparently prevarication ran to the bounds of perjury, if it +did not overpass them. (N.B.—Seeing seamen flogged +was one of the sickening horrors that haunted Clarence in the +<i>Clotho</i>.) Also, when on shore at Malta with the young +man whose name I will not record—his evil genius—he +was beguiled or bullied into a wine-shop, and while not himself +was made the cat’s-paw of some insolent practical joke on +the lieutenant; and when called to account, was so bewildered and +excited as to use unpardonable language.</p> +<p>Whatever it might have been in detail, so much was proved +against him that he was dismissed his ship, and his father was +recommended to withdraw him from the service, as being +disqualified by want of nerve. Also, it was added more +privately, that such vicious tendencies needed home +restraint. The big bully, his corrupter, bore witness +against him, but did not escape scot free, for one of the +captains spoke to him in scathing tones of censure.</p> +<p>Whenever my mother was in trouble, she always re-arranged the +furniture, and a family crisis was always heralded by a +revolution of chairs, tables, and sofas. She could not sit +still under suspense, and, during these terrible days the entire +house underwent a setting to rights. Emily attended upon +her, and I sat and dusted books. No doubt it was much +better for us than sitting still. My father’s letter +came by the morning mail, telling us of the sentence, and that he +and our poor culprit, as he said, would come home by the +Portsmouth coach in the evening.</p> +<p>One room was already in order when Sir John Griffith kindly +came to see whether he could bring any comfort to a spirit which +would infinitely have preferred death to dishonour, and was, +above all, shocked at the lack of physical courage. Never +had I liked our old Admiral so well as when I heard how his chief +anger was directed against the general mismanagement, and the +cruelty of blighting a poor lad’s life when not yet +seventeen. His father might have been warned to remove him +without the public scandal of a court-martial and dismissal.</p> +<p>‘The guilt and shame would have been all the same to +us,’ said my mother.</p> +<p>‘Come, Mary, don’t be hard on the poor +fellow. In quiet times like these a poor boy can’t +look over the wall where one might have stolen a horse, ay, or a +dozen horses, when there was something else to think +about!’</p> +<p>‘You would not have forgiven such a thing, +sir.’</p> +<p>‘It never would have happened under me, or in any +decently commanded ship!’ he thundered. ‘There +wasn’t a fault to be found with him in the +<i>Calypso</i>. What possessed Winslow to let him sail with +Brydone? But the service is going,’ etc. etc., he ran +on—forgetting that it was he himself who had been +unwilling, perhaps rightly, to press the Duke of Clarence for an +appointment to a crack frigate for his namesake. However, +when he took leave he repeated, as he kissed my mother, +‘Mind, Mary, don’t be set against the lad. +That’s the way to make ’em desperate, and he is a +mere boy, after all.’</p> +<p>Poor mother, it was not so much hardness as a wounded spirit +that made her look so rigid. It might have been better if +the return could have been delayed so as to make her yearn after +her son, but there was nowhere for him to go, and the coach was +already on its way. How strange it was to feel the wonted +glow at Clarence’s return coupled with a frightful sense of +disgrace and depression.</p> +<p>The time was far on in October, and it was thus quite dark +when the travellers arrived, having walked from Charing Cross, +where the coach set them down. My father came in first, and +my mother clung to him as if he had been absent for weeks, while +all the joy of contact with my brother swept over me, even though +his hand hung limp in mine, and was icy cold like his +cheeks. My father turned to him with one of the little set +speeches of those days. ‘Here is our son, Mary, who +has promised me to do his utmost to retrieve his character, as +far as may be possible, and happily he is still young.’</p> +<p>My mother’s embrace was in a sort of mechanical +obedience to her husband’s gesture, and her voice was not +perhaps meant to be so severe as it sounded when she said, +‘You are very cold—come and warm yourself.’</p> +<p>They made room for him by the fire, and my father stood up in +front of it, giving particulars of the journey. Emily and +Martyn were at tea in the nursery, in a certain awe that hindered +them from coming down; indeed, Martyn seems to have expected to +see some strange transformation in his brother. Indeed, +there was alteration in the absence of the blue and gold, and, +still more, in the loss of the lightsome, hopeful expression from +the young face.</p> +<p>There is a picture of Ary Scheffer’s of an old knight, +whose son had fled from the battle, cutting the tablecloth in two +between himself and the unhappy youth. Like that stern +baron’s countenance was that with which my mother sat at +the head of the dinner-table, and we conversed by jerks about +whatever we least cared for, as if we could hide our wretchedness +from Peter. When the children appeared each gave Clarence +the shyest of kisses, and they sat demurely on their chairs on +either side of my father to eat their almonds and raisins, after +which we went upstairs, and there was the usual reading. It +is curious, but though none of us could have told at the time +what it was about, on turning over not long ago a copy of +Head’s <i>Pampas and Andes</i>, one chapter struck me with +an intolerable sense of melancholy, such as the bull chases of +South America did not seem adequate to produce, and by and by I +remembered that it was the book in course of being read at that +unhappy period. My mother went on as diligently as ever +with some of those perpetual shirts which seemed to be always in +hand except before company, when she used to do tambour work for +Emily’s frocks. Clarence sat the whole time in a dark +corner, never stirring, except that he now and then nodded a +little. He had gone through many wakeful, and worse than +wakeful, nights of wretched suspense, and now the worst was +over.</p> +<p>Family prayers took place, chill good-nights were exchanged, +and nobody interfered with his helping me up to my bedroom as +usual; but there was something in his face to which I durst not +speak, though perhaps I looked, for he exclaimed, +‘Don’t, Ned!’ wrung my hand, and sped away to +his own quarters higher up. Then came a sound which made me +open my door to listen. Dear little Emily! She had +burst out of her own room in her dressing-gown, and flung herself +upon her brother as he was plodding wearily upstairs in the dark, +clinging round his neck sobbing, ‘Dear, dear Clarry! +I can’t bear it! I don’t care. +You’re my own dear brother, and they are all wicked, horrid +people.’</p> +<p>That was all I heard, except hushings on Clarence’s +part, as if the opening of my door and the thread of light from +it warned him that there was risk of interruption. He +seemed to be dragging her up to her own room, and I was left with +a pang at her being foremost in comforting him.</p> +<p>My father enacted that he should be treated as usual. +But how could that be when papa himself did not know how changed +were his own ways from his kindly paternal air of +confidence? All trust had been undermined, so that Clarence +could not cross the threshold without being required to state his +object, and, if he overstayed the time calculated, he was +cross-examined, and his replies received with a sigh of +doubt.</p> +<p>He hung about the house, not caring to do much, except taking +me out in my Bath chair or languidly reading the most exciting +books he could get;—but there was no great stock of +sensation then, except the Byronic, and from time to time one of +my parents would exclaim, ‘Clarence, I wonder you can find +nothing more profitable to occupy yourself with than trash like +that!’</p> +<p>He would lay down the book without a word, and take up +Smith’s <i>Wealth of Nations</i> or Smollett’s +<i>England</i>—the profitable studies recommended, and +speedily become lost in a dejected reverie, with fixed eyes and +drooping lips.</p> +<h2><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +34</span>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A HELPING HAND.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Though hawks can prey through storms and +winds,<br /> +The poor bee in her hive must dwell.’—<span +class="smcap">Henry Vaughan</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> imagination the piteous +dejection of our family seems to have lasted for ages, but on +comparison of dates it is plain that the first lightening of the +burthen came in about a fortnight’s time.</p> +<p>The firm of Frith and Castleford was coming to the front in +the Chinese trade. The junior partner was an old companion +of my father’s boyhood; his London abode was near at hand, +and he was a kind of semi-godfather to both Clarence and me, +having stood proxy for our nominal sponsors. He was as good +and open-hearted a man as ever lived, and had always been very +kind to us; but he was scarcely welcome when my father, finding +that he had come up alone to London to see about some repairs to +his house, while his family were still in the country, asked him +to dine and sleep—our first guest since our misfortune.</p> +<p>My mother could hardly endure to receive any one, but she +seemed glad to see my father become animated and like himself +while Roman Catholic Emancipation was vehemently discussed, and +the ruin of England hotly predicted. Clarence moped about +silently as usual, and tried to avoid notice, and it was not till +the next morning—after breakfast, when the two gentlemen +were in the dining-room, nearly ready to go their several ways, +and I was in the window awaiting my classical tutor—that +Mr. Castleford said,</p> +<p>‘May I ask, Winslow, if you have any plans for that poor +boy?’</p> +<p>‘Edward?’ said my father, almost wilfully +misunderstanding. ‘His ambition is to be curator of +something in the British Museum, isn’t it?’</p> +<p>Mr. Castleford explained that he meant the other, and my +father sadly answered that he hardly knew; he supposed the only +thing was to send him to a private tutor, but where to find a fit +one he did not know and besides, what could be his aim? Sir +John Griffith had said he was only fit for the Church, ‘But +one does not wish to dispose of a tarnished article +there.’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not,’ said Mr. Castleford; and then he +spoke words that rejoiced my heart, though they only made my +father groan, bidding him remember that it was not so much actual +guilt as the accident of Clarence’s being in the Navy that +had given so serious a character to his delinquencies. If +he had been at school, perhaps no one would ever have heard of +them, ‘Though I don’t say,’ added the good man, +casting a new light on the subject, ‘that it would have +been better for him in the end.’ Then, quite humbly, +for he knew my mother especially had a disdain for trade, he +asked what my father would think of letting him give Clarence +work in the office for the present. ‘I know,’ +he said, ‘it is not the line your family might prefer, but +it is present occupation; and I do not think you could well send +a youth who has seen so much of the world back to +schooling. Besides, this would keep him under your own +eye.’</p> +<p>My father was greatly touched by the kindness, but he thought +it right to set before Mr. Castleford the very worst side of poor +Clarence; declaring that he durst not answer for a boy who had +never, in spite of pains and punishments, learnt to speak truth +at home or abroad, repeating Captain Brydone’s dreadful +report, and even adding that, what was most grievous of all, +there was an affectation of piety about him that could scarcely +be anything but self-deceit and hypocrisy. +‘Now,’ he said, ‘my eldest son, Griffith, is +just a boy, makes no profession, is not—as I am afraid you +have seen—exemplary at church, when Clarence sits as meek +as a mouse, but then he is always above-board, frank and +straightforward. You know where to have a high-spirited +fellow, who will tame down, but you never know what will come +next with the other. I sometimes wonder for what error of +mine Providence has seen fit to give me such a son.’</p> +<p>Just then an important message came for Mr. Winslow, and he +had to hurry away, but Mr. Castleford still remained, and +presently said,</p> +<p>‘Edward, I should like to know what your eyes have been +trying to say all this time.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, sir,’ I burst out, ‘do give him a +chance. Indeed he never means to do wrong. The harm +is not in him. He would have been the best of us all if he +had only been let alone.’</p> +<p>Those were exactly my own foolish words, for which I could +have beaten myself afterwards; but Mr. Castleford only gave a +slight grave smile, and said, ‘You mean that your +brother’s real defect is in courage, moral and +physical.’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ I said, with a great effort at expressing +myself. ‘When he is frightened, or bullied, or +browbeaten, he does not know what he is doing or saying. He +is quite different when he is his own self; only nobody can +understand.’</p> +<p>Strange that though the favoured home son and nearly sixteen +years old, it would have been impossible to utter so much to one +of our parents. Indeed the last sentence felt so disloyal +that the colour burnt in my cheeks as the door opened; but it +only admitted Clarence, who, having heard the front door shut, +thought the coast was clear, and came in with a load of my books +and dictionaries.</p> +<p>‘Clarence,’ said Mr. Castleford, and the direct +address made him start and flush, ‘supposing your father +consents, should you be willing to turn your mind to a desk in my +counting-house?’</p> +<p>He flushed deeper red, and his fingers quivered as he held by +the table. ‘Thank you, sir. +Anything—anything,’ he said hesitatingly.</p> +<p>‘Well,’ said Mr. Castleford, with the kindest of +voices, ‘let us have it out. What is in your +mind? You know, I’m a sort of godfather to +you.’</p> +<p>‘Sir, if you would only let me have a berth on board one +of your vessels, and go right away.’</p> +<p>‘Aye, my poor boy, that’s what you would like +best, I’ve no doubt; but look at Edward’s face there, +and think what that would come to at the best!’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I know I have no right to choose,’ said +Clarence, drooping his head as before.</p> +<p>‘’Tis not that, my dear lad,’ said the good +man, ‘but that packing you off like that, among your +inferiors in breeding and everything else, would put an end to +all hope of your redeeming the past—outwardly I mean, of +course—and lodge you in a position of inequality to your +brothers and sister, and all—’</p> +<p>‘That’s done already,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘If you were a man grown it might be so,’ returned +Mr. Castleford, ‘but bless me, how old are you?’</p> +<p>‘Seventeen next 1st of November,’ said +Clarence.</p> +<p>‘Not a bit too old for a fresh beginning,’ said +Mr. Castleford cheerily. ‘God helping you, you will +be a brave and good man yet, my boy—’ then as my +master rang at the door—‘Come with me and look at the +old shop.’</p> +<p>Poor Clarence muttered something unintelligible, and I had to +own for him that he never went out without accounting for +himself. Whereupon our friend caused my mother to be hunted +up, and explained to her that he wanted to take Clarence out with +him—making some excuse about something they were to see +together.</p> +<p>That walk enabled him to say something which came nearer to +cheering Clarence than anything that had passed since that sad +return, and made him think that to be connected with Mr. +Castleford was the best thing that could befall him. Mr. +Castleford on his side told my father that he was sure that the +boy was good-hearted all the time, and thoroughly repentant; but +this had the less effect because plausibility, as my father +called it, was one of the qualities that specially annoyed him in +Clarence, and made him fear that his friend might be taken +in. However, the matter was discussed between the elders, +and it was determined that this most friendly offer should be +accepted experimentally. It was impressed on Clarence, with +unnecessary care, that the line of life was inferior; but that it +was his only chance of regaining anything like a position, and +that everything depended on his industry and integrity.</p> +<p>‘Integrity!’ commented Clarence, with a burning +spot on his cheek after one of these lectures; ‘I believe +they think me capable of robbing the office!’</p> +<p>We found out, too, that the senior partner, Mr. Frith, a very +crusty old bachelor, did not like the appointment, and that it +was made quite against his will. ‘You’ll be +getting your clerks next from Newgate!’ was what some +amiable friend reported him to have said. However, Mr. +Castleford had his way, and Clarence was to begin his work with +the New Year, being in the meantime cautioned and lectured on the +crime and danger of his evil propensities more than he could well +bear. ‘Oh!’ he groaned, ‘it serves me +right, I know that very well, but if my father only knew how I +hate and abhor all those things—and how I loathed them at +the very time I was dragged into them!’</p> +<p>‘Why don’t you tell him so?’ I asked.</p> +<p>‘That would make it no better.’</p> +<p>‘It is not so bad as if you had gone into it willingly, +and for your own pleasure.’</p> +<p>‘He would only think that another lie.’</p> +<p>No more could be said, for the idea of Clarence’s +untruthfulness and depravity had become so deeply rooted in our +father’s mind that there was little hope of displacing it, +and even at the best his manner was full of grave constrained +pity. Those few words were Clarence’s first approach +to confidence with me, but they led to more, and he knew there +was one person who did not believe the defect was in the bent of +his will so much as in its strength.</p> +<p>All the time the prospect of the counting-house in comparison +with the sea was so distasteful to him that I was anxious +whenever he went out alone, or even with Griffith, who despised +the notion of, as he said, sitting on a high stool, dealing in +tea, so much that he was quite capable of aiding and abetting in +an escape from it. Two considerations, however, held +Clarence back; one, the timidity of nature which shrank from so +violent a step, and the other, the strong affections that bound +him to his home, though his sojourn there was so painful. +He knew the misery his flight would have been to me; indeed I +took care to let him see it.</p> +<p>And Griffith’s return was like a fresh spring wind +dispersing vapours. He had gained an excellent scholarship +at Brazenose, and came home radiant with triumph, cheering us all +up, and making a generous use of his success. He was no +letter-writer, and after learning that the disaster and disgrace +were all too certain, he ignored the whole, and hailed Clarence +on his return as if nothing had happened. As eldest son, +and almost a University man, he could argue with our parents in a +manner we never presumed on. At least I cannot aver what he +actually uttered, but probably it was a revised version of what +he thundered forth to me. ‘Such nonsense! such a +shame to keep the poor beggar going about with that hang dog +look, as if he had done for himself for life! Why, +I’ve known fellows do ever so much worse of their own +accord, and nothing come of it. If it was found out, there +might be a row and a flogging, and there was an end of it. +As to going about mourning, and keeping the whole house in +doleful dumps, as if there was never to be any good again, it was +utter folly, and so I’ve told Bill, and papa and mamma, +both of them!’</p> +<p>How this was administered, or how they took it, there is no +knowing, but Griff would neither skate nor go to the theatre, nor +to any other diversion, without his brother; and used much kindly +force and banter to unearth him from his dismal den in the back +drawing-room. He was only let alone when there were +engagements with friends, and indeed, when meetings in the +streets took place, by tacit agreement, Clarence would shrink off +in the crowd as if not belonging to his companion; and these were +the moments that stung him into longing to flee to the river, and +lose the sense of shame among common sailors: but there was +always some good angel to hold him back from desperate +measures—chiefly just then, the love between us three +brothers, a love that never cooled throughout our lives, and +which dear old Griff made much more apparent at this critical +time than in the old Win and Slow days of school. That +return of his enlivened us all, and removed the terrible +constraint from our meals, bringing us back, as it were, to +ordinary life and natural intercourse among ourselves and with +our neighbours.</p> +<h2><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +43</span>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘But when I lay upon the shore,<br /> + Like some poor wounded thing,<br /> +I deemed I should not evermore<br /> + Refit my wounded wing.<br /> +Nailed to the ground and fastened there,<br /> +This was the thought of my despair.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Abp. +Trench</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Clarence’s</span> debut at the +office was not wholly unsuccessful. He wrote a good hand, +and had a good deal of method and regularity in his nature, +together with a real sense of gratitude to Mr. Castleford; and +this bore him through the weariness of his new employment, and, +what was worse, the cold reception he met with from the other +clerks. He was too quiet and reserved for the wilder +spirits, too much of a gentleman for others, and in the eyes of +the managers, and especially of the senior partner, a disgraced, +untrustworthy youth foisted on the office by Mr. +Castleford’s weak partiality. That old Mr. Frith had, +Clarence used to say, a perfectly venomous way of accepting his +salute, and seemed always surprised and disappointed if he came +in in time, or showed up correct work. Indeed, the old man +was disliked and feared by all his subordinates as much as his +partner was loved; and while Mr. Castleford, with his +good-natured Irish wife and merry family, lived a life as +cheerful as it was beneficent, Mr. Frith dwelt entirely alone, in +rooms over the office, preserving the habits formed when his +income had been narrow, and mistrusting everybody.</p> +<p>At the end of the first month of experiment, Mr. Castleford +declared himself contented with Clarence’s industry and +steadiness, and permanent arrangements were made, to which +Clarence submitted with an odd sort of passive gratitude, such as +almost angered my father, who little knew how trying the position +really was, nor how a certain home-sickness for the seafaring +life was tugging at the lad’s heart, and making each +morning’s entrance at the counting-house an +effort—each merchant-captain, redolent of the sea, an +object of envy. My mother would have sympathised here, but +Clarence feared her more than my father, and she was living in +continual dread of some explosion, so that her dark curls began +to show streaks of gray, and her face to lose its round +youthfulness.</p> +<p>Lent brought the question of Confirmation. Under the +influence of good Bishop Blomfield, and in the wave of +evangelical revival—then at its flood +height—Confirmation was becoming a more prominent subject +with religious people than it had probably ever been in our +Church, and it was recognised that some preparation was desirable +beyond the power of repeating the Church Catechism. This +was all that had been required of my father at Harrow. My +mother’s godfather, a dignified clergyman, had simply said, +‘I suppose, my dear, you know all about it;’ and as +for the Admiral, he remarked, ‘Confirmed! I never was +confirmed anything but a post-captain!’</p> +<p>Our incumbent was more attentive to his duties, or rather +recognised more duties, than his predecessor. He preached +on the subject, and formed classes, sixteen being then the limit +of age,—since the idea of the vow, having become far more +prominent than that of the blessing, it was held that full +development of the will and understanding was needful.</p> +<p>I was of the requisite age, and my father spoke to the +clergyman, who called, and, as I could not attend the classes, +gave me books to read and questions to answer. Clarence +read and discussed the questions with me, showing so much more +insight into them, and fuller knowledge of Scripture than I +possessed, that I exclaimed, ‘Why should you not go up for +Confirmation too?’</p> +<p>‘No,’ he answered mournfully. ‘I must +take no more vows if I can’t keep them. It would just +be profane.’</p> +<p>I had no more to say; indeed, my parents held the same +view. It was good Mr. Castleford who saw things +differently. He was a clergyman’s son, and had been +bred up in the old orthodoxy, which was just beginning to put +forth fresh shoots, and, as a quasi-godfather, he held himself +bound to take an interest in our religious life, while the +sponsors, whose names stood in the family Bible, and whose spoons +reposed in the plate-chest, never troubled themselves on the +matter. I remember Clarence leaning over me and saying, +‘Mr. Castleford thinks I might be confirmed. He says +it is not so much the promise we make as of coming to Almighty +God for strength to keep what we are bound by already! He +is going to speak to papa.’</p> +<p>Perhaps no one except Mr. Castleford could have prevailed over +the fear of profanation in the mind of my father, who was, in his +old-fashioned way, one of the most reverent of men, and could not +bear to think of holy things being approached by one under a +stigma, nor of exposing his son to add to his guilt by taking and +breaking further pledges. However, he was struck by his +friend’s arguments, and I heard him telling my mother that +when he had wished to wait till there had been time to prove +sincerity of repentance by a course of steadiness, the answer had +been that it was hard to require strength, while denying the +means of grace. My mother was scarcely convinced, but as he +had consented she yielded without a protest; and she was really +glad that I should have Clarence at my side to help me at the +ceremony. The clergyman was applied to, and consented to +let Clarence attend the classes, where his knowledge, +comprehension, and behaviour were exemplary, so that a letter was +written to my father expressive of perfect satisfaction with +him. ‘There,’ said my father, ‘I knew it +would be so! It is not <i>that</i> which I want.’</p> +<p>The Confirmation seemed at the time a very short and +perfunctory result of our preparation; and, as things were +conducted or misconducted then, involved so much crowding and +distress that I recollect very little but clinging to +Clarence’s arm under a strong sense of my +infirmities,—the painful attempt at kneeling, and the big +outstretched lawn sleeves while the blessing was pronounced over +six heads at once, and then the struggle back to the pew, while +the silver-pokered apparitor looked grim at us, as though the +maimed and halt had no business to get into the way. Yet +this was a great advance upon former Confirmations, and the +Bishop met my father afterwards, and inquired most kindly after +his lame son.</p> +<p>We were disappointed, and felt that we could not attain to the +feelings in the Confirmation poem in the <i>Christian +Year</i>—Mr. Castleford’s gift to me. Still, I +believe that, though encumbered with such a drag as myself, +Clarence, more than I did,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Felt Him how strong, our hearts how +frail,<br /> +And longed to own Him to the death.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But the evangelical belief that dejection ought to be followed +by a full sense of pardon and assurance of salvation somewhat +perplexed and dimmed our Easter Communion. For one short +moment, as Clarence turned to help my father lift me up from the +altar-rail, I saw his face and eyes radiant with a wonderful rapt +look; but it passed only too fast, and the more than ordinary +glimpse his spiritual nature had had made him all the more sad +afterwards, when he said, ‘I would give everything to know +that there was any steadfastness in my purpose to lead a new +life.’</p> +<p>‘But you are leading a new life.’</p> +<p>‘Only because there is no one to bully me,’ he +said. Still, there had been no reproach against him all the +time he had been at Frith and Castleford’s, when suddenly +we had a great shock.</p> +<p>Parties were running very high, and there were scurrilous +papers about, which my father perfectly abhorred; and one day at +dinner, when declaiming against something he had seen, he laid +down strict commands that none should be brought into the +house. Then, glancing at Clarence, something possessed him +to say, ‘You have not been buying any.’</p> +<p>‘No, sir,’ Clarence answered; but a few minutes +later, when we were alone together, the others having left him to +help me upstairs, he exclaimed, ‘Edward, what is to be +done? I didn’t buy it; but there is one of those +papers in my great-coat pocket. Pollard threw it on my +desk; and there was something in it that I thought would amuse +you.’</p> +<p>‘Oh! why didn’t you say so?’</p> +<p>‘There I am again! I simply could not, with his +eye on me! Miserable being that I am! Oh, where is +the spirit of ghostly strength?’</p> +<p>‘Helping you now to take it to papa in the study and +explain!’ I cried; but the struggle in that tall fellow was +as if he had been seven years old instead of seventeen, ere he +put his hand over his face and gave me his arm to come out into +the hall, fetch the paper, and make his confession. Alas! +we were too late. The coat had been moved, the paper had +fallen out; and there stood my mother with it in her hand, +looking at Clarence with an awful stony face of mute grief and +reproach, while he stammered forth what he had said before, and +that he was about to give it to my father. She turned away, +bitterly, contemptuously indignant and incredulous; and my +corroborations only served to give both her and my father a +certain dread of Clarence’s influence over me, as though I +had been either deceived or induced to back him in deceiving +them. The unlucky incident plunged him back into the +depths, just as he had begun to emerge. Slight as it was, +it was no trifle to him, in spite of Griffith’s +exclamation, ‘How absurd! Is a fellow to be bound to +give an account of everything he looks at as if he were six years +old? Catch me letting my mother pry into my pockets! +But you are too meek, Bill; you perfectly invite them to make a +row about nothing!’</p> +<h2><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE INHERITANCE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘For he that needs five thousand pound to +live<br /> +Is full as poor as he that needs but five.<br /> +But if thy son can make ten pound his measure,<br /> +Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Herbert</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was in the spring of 1829 that +my father received a lawyer’s letter announcing the death +of James Winslow, Esquire, of Chantry House, Earlscombe, and +inviting him, as heir-at-law, to be present at the funeral and +opening of the will. The surprise to us all was +great. Even my mother had hardly heard of Chantry House +itself, far less as a possible inheritance; and she had only once +seen James Winslow. He was the last of the elder branch of +the family, a third cousin, and older than my father, who had +known him in times long past. When they had last met, the +Squire of Chantry House was a married man, with more than one +child; my father a young barrister; and as one lived entirely in +the country and the other in town, without any special +congeniality, no intercourse had been kept up, and it was a +surprise to hear that he had left no surviving children. My +father greatly doubted whether being heir-at-law would prove to +avail him anything, since it was likely that so distant a +relation would have made a will in favour of some nearer +connection on his wife’s or mother’s side. He +was very vague about Chantry House, only knowing that it was +supposed to be a fair property, and he would hardly consent to +take Griffith with him by the Western Royal Mail, warning him and +all the rest of us that our expectations would be +disappointed.</p> +<p>Nevertheless we looked out the gentlemen’s seats in +<i>Paterson’s Road Book</i>, and after much research, for +Chantry House lay far off from the main road, we came +upon—‘Chantry House, Earlscombe, the seat of James +Winslow, Esquire, once a religious foundation; beautifully +situated on a rising ground, commanding an extensive +prospect—’</p> +<p>‘A religious foundation!’ cried Emily. +‘It will be a dear delicious old abbey, all Gothic +architecture, with cloisters and ruins and ghosts.’</p> +<p>‘Ghosts!’ said my mother severely, ‘what has +put such nonsense into your head?’</p> +<p>Nevertheless Emily made up her mind that Chantry House would +be another Melrose, and went about repeating the moonlight scene +in the <i>Lay of the Last Minstrel</i> whenever she thought no +one was there to laugh at her.</p> +<p>My father and Griffith returned with the good news that there +was no mistake. Chantry House was really his own, with the +estate belonging to it, reckoned at £5000 a year, exclusive +of a handsome provision to Miss Selby, the niece of the late Mrs. +Winslow, a spinster of a certain age, who had lived with her +uncle, and now proposed to remove to Bath. Mr. Winslow had, +it appeared, lost his only son as a schoolboy, and his daughters, +like their mother, had been consumptive. He had always been +resolved that the estate should continue in the family; but +reluctance to see any one take his son’s place had withheld +him from making any advances to my father; and for several years +past he had been in broken health with failing faculties.</p> +<p>Of course there was much elation. Griff described as +charming the place, perched on the southern slope of a wooded +hill, with a broad fertile valley lying spread out before it, and +the woods behind affording every promise of sport. The +house, my father said, was good, odd and irregular, built at +different times, but quite habitable, and with plenty of +furniture, though he opined that mamma would think it needed +modernising, to which she replied that our present chattels would +make a great difference; whereat my father, looking at the +effects of more than twenty years of London blacks, gave a little +whistle, for she was always the economical one of the pair.</p> +<p>Emily, with glowing cheeks and eager eyes, entreated to know +whether it was Gothic, and had a cloister! Papa nipped her +hopes of a cloister, but there were Gothic windows and doorway, +and a bit of ruin in the garden, a fragment of the old +chapel.</p> +<p>My father could not resign his office without notice, and, +besides, he wished Miss Selby to have leisure for leaving her +home of many years; after which there would be a few needful +repairs. The delay was not a great grievance to any of us +except little Martyn. We were much more Cockney than almost +any one is in these days of railways. We were unusually +devoid of kindred on both sides, my father’s holidays were +short, I was not a very movable commodity, and economy forbade +long journeys, so that we had never gone farther than Ramsgate, +where we claimed a certain lodging-house as a sort of right every +summer.</p> +<p>Real country was as much unknown to us as the backwoods. +My father alone had been born and bred to village life and +habits, for my mother had spent her youth in a succession of +seaport towns, frequented by men-of-war. We heard, too, +that Chantry House was very secluded, with only a few cottages +near at hand—a mile and a half from the church and village +of Earlscombe, three from the tiny country town of Wattlesea, +four from the place where the coach passed, connecting it with +the civilisation of Bath and Bristol, from each of which places +it was about half a day’s distance, according to the +measures of those times. It was a sort of banishment to +people accustomed to the stream of life in London; and though the +consequence and importance derived from being raised to the ranks +of the Squirearchy were agreeable, they were a dear purchase at +the cost of being out of reach of all our friends and +acquaintances, as well as of other advantages.</p> +<p>To my father, however, the retirement from his many years of +drudgery was really welcome, and he had preserved enough of +country tastes to rejoice that it was, as he said, a clear duty +to reside on his estate and look after his property. My +mother saw his relief in the prospect, and suppressed her sighs +at the dislocation of her life-long habits, and the loss of +intercourse with the acquaintance whom separation raised to the +rank of intimate friends, even her misgivings as to butchers, +bakers, and grocers in the wilderness, and still worse, as to +doctors for me.</p> +<p>‘Humph!’ said the Admiral, ‘the boy will be +all the better without them.’</p> +<p>And so I was; I can’t say they were the subject of much +regret, but I was really sorry to leave our big neighbour, the +British Museum, where there were good friends who always made me +welcome, and encouraged me in studies of coins and heraldry, +which were great resources to me, so that I used to spend hours +there, and was by no means willing to resign my ambition of +obtaining an appointment there, when I heard my father say that +he was especially thankful for his good fortune because it +enabled him to provide for me. There were lessons, too, +from masters in languages, music, and drawing, which Emily and I +shared, and which she had just begun to value thoroughly. +We had filled whole drawing-books with wriggling twists of +foliage in B B B marking pencil, and had just been promoted to +water-colours; and she was beginning to sing very prettily. +I feared, too, that I should no longer have a chance of rivalling +Griffith’s university studies. All this, with my +sister’s girl friends, and those kind people who used to +drop in to play chess, and otherwise amuse me, would all be left +behind; and, sorest of all, Clarence, who, whatever he was in the +eyes of others, had grown to be my mainstay during this last +year. He it was who fetched me from the Museum, took me +into the gardens, helped me up and down stairs, spared no pains +to rout out whatever my fanciful pursuits required from shops in +the City, and, in very truth, spoilt me through all his hours +that were free from business, besides being my most perfect +sympathising and understanding companion.</p> +<p>I feared, too, that he would be terribly lonesome, though of +late he had been less haunted by longings for the sea, had made +some way with his fellows, and had been commended by the managing +clerk; and it was painful to find the elders did not grieve on +their own account at parting with him. My mother told the +Admiral that she thought it would be good for Mr. Winslow’s +spirits not to be continually reminded of his trouble; and my +father might be heard confiding to Mr. Castleford that the +separation might be good for both her and her son, if only the +lad could be trusted. To which that good man replied by +giving him an excellent character; but was only met by a sigh, +and ‘Well, we shall see!’</p> +<p>Clarence was to be lodged with Peter, whose devotion would not +extend to following us into barbarism, where, as he told us, he +understood there was no such thing as a ‘harea,’ and +master would have to kill his own mutton.</p> +<p>Peter had been tranquilly engaged to Gooch for years +untold. They were to be transformed into Mr. and Mrs. +Robson, with some small appointment about the Law Courts for him, +and a lodging-house for her, where Clarence was to abide, my +mother feeling secure that neither his health, his morals, nor +his shirts could go much astray without her receiving warning +thereof.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, by the help of an antiquarian friend of my father, +Mr. Stafford, who was great in county history, I hunted up in the +Museum library all I could discover about our new possession.</p> +<p>The Chantry of St. Cecily at Earlscombe, in Somersetshire, +had, it appeared, been founded and endowed by Dame Isabel +d’Oyley, in the year of grace 1434, that constant prayers +might be offered for the souls of her husband and son, slain in +the French wars. The poor lady’s intentions, which to +our Protestant minds appeared rather shocking than otherwise, had +been frustrated at the break up of such establishments, when the +Chantry, and the estate that maintained its clerks and bedesmen, +was granted to Sir Harry Power, from whom, through two heiresses, +it had come to the Fordyces, the last of whom, by name Margaret, +had died childless, leaving the estate to her stepson, Philip +Winslow, our ancestor.</p> +<p>Moreover, we learnt that a portion of the building was of +ancient date, and that there was an ‘interesting +fragment’ of the old chapel in the grounds, which our good +friend promised himself the pleasure of investigating on his +first holiday.</p> +<p>To add to our newly-acquired sense of consideration and of +high pedigree, the family chariot, after taking Miss Selby to +Bath, came up post to London to be touched up at the +coachbuilder’s, have the escutcheon altered so as to impale +the Griffith coat instead of the Selby, and finally to convey us +to our new abode, in preparation for which all its boxes came to +be packed.</p> +<p>A chariot! You young ones have as little notion of one +as of a British war-chariot armed with scythes. Yet people +of a certain grade were as sure to keep their chariot as their +silver tea-pot; indeed we knew one young couple who started in +life with no other habitation, but spent their time as nomads, in +visits to their relations and friends, for visits <i>were</i> +visits then.</p> +<p>The capacities of a chariot were considerable. Within, +there was a good-sized seat for the principal occupants, and +outside a dickey behind, and a driving box before, though +sometimes there was only one of these, and that +transferable. The boxes were calculated to hold family +luggage on a six months’ tour. There they lay on the +spare-room floor, ready to be packed, the first earnest of our +new possessions—except perhaps the five-pound note my +father gave each of us four elder ones, on the day the balance at +the bank was made over to him. There was the imperial, a +grand roomy receptacle, which was placed on the top of the +carriage, and would not always go upstairs in small houses; the +capbox, which fitted into a curved place in front of the windows, +and could not stand alone, but had a frame to support it; two +long narrow boxes with the like infirmity of standing, which +fitted in below; square ones under each seat; and a drop box +fastened on behind. There were pockets beneath each window, +and, curious relic in name and nature of the time when every +gentleman carried his weapon, there was the sword case, an +excrescence behind the back of the best seat, accessible by +lifting a cushion, where weapons used to be carried, but where in +our peaceful times travellers bestowed their luncheon and their +books.</p> +<p>Our chariot was black above, canary yellow below, beautifully +varnished, and with our arms blazoned on each door. It was +lined with dark blue leather and cloth, picked out with blue and +yellow lace in accordance with our liveries, and was a gorgeous +spectacle. I am afraid Emily did not share in Mistress +Gilpin’s humility when</p> +<blockquote><p> ‘The +chaise was brought,<br /> + But yet was not allowed<br /> +To drive up to the door, lest all<br /> + Should say that she was proud!’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was then that Emily and I each started a diary to record +the events of our new life. Hers flourished by fits and +starts; but I having perforce more leisure than she, mine has +gone on with few interruptions till the present time, and is the +backbone of this narrative, which I compile and condense from it +and other sources before destroying it.</p> +<h2><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +59</span>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE OLD HOUSE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Your history whither are you spinning?<br +/> + Can you do nothing but describe?<br /> +A house there is, and that’s enough!’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Gray</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>How we did enjoy our journey, when the wrench from our old +home was once made. We did not even leave Clarence behind, +for Mr. Castleford had given him a holiday, so that he might not +appear to be kept at a distance, as if under a cloud, and might +help me through our travels.</p> +<p>My mother and I occupied the inside of the carriage, with +Emily between us at the outset; but when we were off the London +stones she was often allowed to make a third on the dickey with +Clarence and Martyn, whose ecstatic heels could be endured for +the sake of the free air and the view. Of course we posted, +and where there were severe hills we indulged in four +horses. The varieties of the jackets of our post-boys, blue +or yellow, as supposed to indicate the politics of their inns, +were interesting to us, as everything was interesting then. +Otherwise their equipment was exactly alike—neat drab +corduroy breeches and top-boots, and hats usually white, and they +were all boys, though the red faces and grizzled hair of some +looked as if they had faced the weather for at least fifty +years.</p> +<p>It was a beautiful August, and the harvest fields were a sight +perfectly new, filling us with rapture unspeakable. At +every hill which offered an excuse, our outsiders were on their +feet, thrusting in their heads and hands to us within with +exclamations of delight, and all sorts of +discoveries—really new to us three younger ones. Ears +of corn, bearded barley, graceful oats, poppies, corn-flowers, +were all delicious novelties to Emily and me, though Griff and my +father laughed at our ecstasies, and my mother occasionally +objected to the wonderful accumulation of curiosities thrust into +her lap or the door pockets, and tried to persuade Martyn that +rooks’ wings, dead hedgehogs, sticks and stones of various +merits, might be found at Earlscombe, until Clarence, by the +judicious purchase of a basket at Salisbury, contrived to satisfy +all parties and safely dispose of the treasures. The +objects that stand out in my memory on that journey were +Salisbury Spire, and a long hill where the hedgebank was one mass +of the exquisite rose-bay willow herb—a perfect revelation +to our city-bred eyes; but indeed, the whole route was like one +panorama to us of <i>L’Allegro</i> and other descriptions +on which we had fed. For in those days we were much more +devoted to poetry than is the present generation, which has a +good deal of false shame on that head.</p> +<p>Even dining and sleeping at an inn formed a pleasing novelty, +though we did not exactly sympathise with Martyn when he dashed +in at breakfast exulting in having witnessed the killing of a +pig. As my father observed, it was too like realising +Peter’s forebodings of our return to savage life.</p> +<p>Demonstrations were not the fashion of these times, and there +was a good deal of dull discontent and disaffection in the air, +so that no tokens of welcome were prepared for us—not even +a peal of bells; nor indeed should we have heard them if they had +been rung, for the church was a mile and a half beyond the house, +with a wood between cutting off the sound, except in certain +winds. We did not miss a reception, which would rather have +embarrassed us. We began to think it was time to arrive, +and my father believed we were climbing the last hill, when, just +as we had passed a remarkably pretty village and church, Griffith +called out to say that we were on our own ground. He had +made his researches with the game keeper while my father was busy +with the solicitor, and could point to our boundary wall, a +little below the top of the hill on the northern side. He +informed us that the place we had passed was +Hillside—Fordyce property,—but this was Earlscombe, +our own. It was a great stony bit of pasture with a few +scattered trees, but after the flat summit was past, the southern +side was all beechwood, where a gate admitted us into a drive cut +out in a slant down the otherwise steep descent, and coming out +into an open space. And there we were!</p> +<p>The old house was placed on the widest part of a kind of shelf +or natural terrace, of a sort of amphitheatre shape, with wood on +either hand, but leaving an interval clear in the midst broad +enough for house and gardens, with a gentle green slope behind, +and a much steeper one in front, closed in by the +beechwoods. The house stood as it were sideways, or had +been made to do so by later inhabitants. I know this is +very long-winded, but there have been such alterations that +without minute description this narrative will be +unintelligible.</p> +<p>The aspect was northwards so far as the lie of the ground was +concerned, but the house stood across. The main body was of +the big symmetrical Louis XIV. style—or, as it is now the +fashion to call it, Queen Anne—brick, with stone quoins, +big sash-windows, and a great square hall in the midst, with the +chief rooms opening into it. The principal entrance had +been on the north, with a huge front door and a flight of stone +steps, and just space enough for a gravel coach ring before the +rapid grassy descent. Later constitutions, however, must +have eschewed that northern front door, and later nerves that +narrow verge, and on the eastern front had been added that Gothic +porch of which Emily had heard,—and a flagrantly modern +Gothic porch it was, flanked by two comical little turrets, with +loopholes, from which a thread-paper or Tom Thumb might have +defended it. Otherwise it resembled a church porch, except +for the formidable points of a sham portcullis; but there was no +denying that it greatly increased the comfort of the house, with +its two sets of heavy doors, and the seats on either side. +The great hall door had been closed up, plastered over within, +and rendered inoffensive. Towards the west there was +another modern addition of drawing and dining rooms, and handsome +bedchambers above, in Gothic taste, <i>i.e.</i> with pointed +arches filled up with glass over the sash-windows. The +drawing-room was very pretty, with a glass door at the end +leading into an old-fashioned greenhouse, and two French windows +to the south opening upon the lawn, which soon began to slope +upwards, curving, as I said, like an amphitheatre, and was always +shady and sheltered, tilting its flower-beds towards the house as +if to display them. The dining-room had, in like manner, +one west and two north windows, the latter commanding a grand +view over the green meadow-land below, dotted with round knolls, +and rising into blue hills beyond. We became proud of +counting the villages and church towers we could see from +thence.</p> +<p>There was a still older portion, more ancient than the square +<i>corps de logis</i>, and built of the cream-coloured stone of +the country. It was at the south-eastern angle, where the +ground began sloping so near the house that this wing—if it +may so be called—containing two good-sized rooms nearly on +a level with the upper floor, had nothing below but some open +stone vaultings, under which it was only just possible for my +tall brothers to stand upright, at the innermost end. These +opened into the cellars which, no doubt, belonged to the +fifteenth-century structure. There seemed to have once been +a door and two or three steps to the ground, which rose very +close to the southern end; but this had been walled up. The +rooms had deep mullioned windows east and west, and very handsome +groined ceilings, and were entered by two steps down from the +gallery round the upper part of the hall. There was a very +handsome double staircase of polished oak, shaped like a Y, the +stem of which began just opposite the original front +door—making us wonder if people knew what draughts were in +the days of Queen Anne, and remember Madame de Maintenon’s +complaint that health was sacrificed to symmetry. Not far +from this oldest portion were some broken bits of wall and stumps +of columns, remnants of the chapel, and prettily wreathed with +ivy and clematis. We rejoiced in such a pretty and +distinctive ornament to our garden, and never troubled ourselves +about the desecration; and certainly ours was one of the most +delightful gardens that ever existed, what with green turf, +bright flowers, shapely shrubs, and the grand beech-trees +enclosing it with their stately white pillars, green foliage, and +the russet arcades beneath them. The stillness was +wonderful to ears accustomed to the London roar—almost a +new sensation. Emily was found, as she said, +‘listening to the silence;’ and my father declared +that no one could guess at the sense of rest that it gave +him.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p64b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Map of the house" +title= +"Map of the house" + src="images/p64s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Of space within there was plenty, though so much had been +sacrificed to the hall and staircase; and this was apparently the +cause of the modern additions, as the original sitting-rooms, +wainscotted and double-doored, were rather small for family +requirements. One of these, once the dining-room, became my +father’s study, where he read and wrote, saw his tenants, +and by and by acted as Justice of the Peace. The opposite +one, towards the garden, was termed the book-room. Here +Martyn was to do his lessons, and Emily and I carry on our +studies, and do what she called keeping up her +accomplishments. My couch and appurtenances abode there, +and it was to be my retreat from company,—or on occasion +could be made a supplementary drawing-room, as its fittings +showed it had been the parlour. It communicated with +another chamber, which became my own—sparing the +difficulties that stairs always presented; and beyond lay, niched +under the grand staircase, a tiny light closet, a passage-room, +where my mother put a bed for a man-servant, not liking to leave +me entirely alone on the ground floor. It led to a passage +to the garden door, also to my mother’s den, dedicated to +housewifely cares and stores, and ended at the back stairs, +descending to the servants’ region. This was very +old, handsomely vaulted with stone, and, owing to the fall of the +ground, had ample space for light on the north side,—where, +beyond the drive, the descent was so rapid as to afford Martyn +infinite delight in rolling down, to the horror of all beholders +and the detriment of his white duck trowsers.</p> +<p>I don’t know much about the upper story, so I spare you +that. Emily had a hankering for one of the pretty old +mullioned-windowed rooms—the mullion chambers, as she named +them; but Griff pounced on them at once, the inner for his +repose, the outer for his guns and his studies—not smoking, +for young men were never permitted to smoke within doors, nor +indeed in any home society. The choice of the son and heir +was undisputed, and he proceeded to settle his possessions in his +new domains, where they made an imposing appearance.</p> +<h2><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">RATS.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘As louder and louder, drawing near,<br /> +The gnawing of their teeth he could hear.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Southey</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘<span class="smcap">What</span> a ridiculous old fellow +that Chapman is,’ said Griff, coming in from a conference +with the gaunt old man who acted as keeper to our not very +extensive preserves. ‘I told him to get some gins for +the rats in my rooms, and he shook his absurd head like any +mandarin, and said, “There baint no trap as will rid you of +them kind of varmint, sir.”’</p> +<p>‘Of course,’ my father said, ‘rats are part +of the entail of an old house. You may reckon on +them.’</p> +<p>‘Those rooms of yours are the very place for +them,’ added my mother. ‘I only hope they will +not infest the rest of the house.’</p> +<p>To which Griff rejoined that they perpetrated the most +extraordinary noises he had ever heard from rats, and told Emily +she might be thankful to him for taking those rooms, for she +would have been frightened out of her little wits. He +meant, he said, to get a little terrier, and have a thorough good +rat hunt, at which Martyn capered about in irrepressible +ecstasy.</p> +<p>This, however, was deferred by the unwillingness of old +Chapman, of whom even Griff was somewhat in awe. His fame +as a sportsman had to be made, and he had had only such practice +as could be attained by shooting at a mark ever since he had been +aware of his coming greatness. So he was desirous of +conciliating Chapman, and not getting laughed at as the London +young gentleman who could not hit a hay-stack. My father, +who had been used to carrying a gun in his younger days, was much +amused, in his quiet way, at seeing Griff watch Chapman off on +his rounds, and then betake himself to the locality most remote +from the keeper’s ears to practise on the rook or +crow. Martyn always ran after him, having solemnly promised +not to touch the gun, and to keep behind. He was too +good-natured to send the little fellow back, though he often +tried to elude the pursuit, not wishing for a witness to his +attempts; and he never invited Clarence, who had had some +experience of curious game but never mentioned it.</p> +<p>Clarence devoted himself to Emily and me, tugging my +garden-chair along all the paths where it would go without too +much jolting, and when I had had enough, exploring those hanging +woods, either with her or on his own account. They used to +come home with their hands full of flowers, and this resulted in +a vehement attack of botany,—a taste that has lasted all +our lives, together with the <i>hortus siccus</i> to which we +still make additions, though there has been a revolution there as +well as everywhere else, and the Linnæan system we learnt +so eagerly from Martin’s <i>Letters</i> is altogether +exploded and antiquated. Still, my sister refuses to own +the scientific merits of the natural system, and can point to +school-bred and lectured young ladies who have no notion how to +discover the name or nature of a live plant.</p> +<p>On the Friday after our arrival the noises had been so fearful +that Griff had been exasperated into going off across the hills, +accompanied by his constant shadow, Martyn, in search of the +professional ratcatcher of the neighbourhood, in spite of +Chapman’s warning—that Tom Petty was the biggest +rascal in the neighbourhood, and a regular out and out poacher; +and as to the noises—he couldn’t ‘tackle the +like of they.’ After revelling in the beauty of the +beechwoods as long as was good for me or for Clarence, I was left +in the garden to sketch the ruin, while my two companions started +on one of their exploring expeditions.</p> +<p>It was getting late enough to think of going to prepare for +the six o’clock dinner when Emily came forth alone from the +path between the trees, announcing—‘An adventure, +Edward! We have had such an adventure.’</p> +<p>‘Where’s Clarence?’</p> +<p>‘Gone for the doctor! Oh, no; Griff hasn’t +shot anybody. He is gone for the ratcatcher, you +know. It is a poor little herdboy, who tumbled out of a +tree; and oh! such a sweet, beautiful, young lady—just like +a book!’</p> +<p>When Emily became less incoherent, it appeared that on coming +out on the bit of common above the wood, as she and Clarence were +halting on the brow of the hill to admire the view, they heard a +call for help, and hurrying down in the direction whence it +proceeded they saw a stunted ash-tree, beneath which were a young +lady and a little child bending over a village lad who lay +beneath moaning piteously. The girl, whom Emily described +as the most beautiful creature she ever saw, explained that the +boy, who had been herding the cattle scattered around, had been +climbing the tree, a limb of which had broken with him. She +had seen the fall from a distance, and hurried up; but she hardly +knew what to do, for her little sister was too young to be sent +in quest of assistance. Clarence thought one leg seriously +injured, and as the young lady seemed to know the boy, offered to +carry him home. School officers were yet in the future; +children were set to work almost as soon as they could walk, and +this little fellow was so light and thin as to shock Clarence +when he had been taken up on his back, for he weighed quite a +trifle. The young lady showed the way to a wretched little +cottage, where a bigger girl had just come in with a sheaf of +corn freshly gleaned poised on her head. They sent her to +fetch her mother, and Clarence undertook to go for a doctor, but +to the surprise and horror of Emily, there was a demur. +Something was said of old Molly and her ‘ile’ and +‘yarbs,’ or perhaps Madam could step round. +When Clarence, on this being translated to him, pronounced the +case beyond such treatment, it was explained outside the door +that this was a terribly poor family, and the doctor would not +come to parish patients for an indefinite time after his summons, +besides which, he lived at Wattlesea. ‘Indeed mamma +does almost all the doctoring with her medicine chest,’ +said the girl.</p> +<p>On which Clarence declared that he would let the doctor know +that he himself would be responsible for the cost of the +attendance, and set off for Wattlesea, a kind of town village in +the flat below. He could not get back till dinner was half +over, and came in alarmed and apologetic; but he had nothing +worse to encounter than Griff’s unmerciful banter (or, as +you would call it, chaff) about his knight errantry, and +Emily’s lovely heroine in the sweetest of cottage +bonnets.</p> +<p>Griff could be slightly tyrannous in his merry mockery, and +when he found that on the ensuing day Clarence proposed to go and +inquire after the patient, he made such wicked fun of the +expectations the pair entertained of hearing the sweet cottage +bonnet reading a tract in a silvery voice through the hovel +window, that he fairly teased and shamed Clarence out of starting +till the renowned Tom Petty arrived and absorbed all the three +brothers, and even their father, in delights as mysterious to me +as to Emily. How she shrieked when Martyn rushed +triumphantly into the room where we were arranging books with the +huge patriarch of all the rats dangling by his tail! Three +hopeful families were destroyed; rooms, vaults, and cellars +examined and cleared; and Petty declared the race to be +exterminated, picturesque ruffian that he was, in his shapeless +hat, rusty velveteen, long leggings, a live ferret in his pocket, +and festoons of dead rats over his shoulder.</p> +<p>Chapman, who regarded him much as the ferret did the rat, +declared that the rabbits and hares would suffer from letting +‘that there chap’ show his face here on any plea; +and, moreover, gave a grunt very like a scoff; at the idea of +slumbers in the mullion rooms (as they were called) being secured +by his good offices.</p> +<p>And Chapman was right. The unaccountable noises broke +out again—screaming, wailing, sobbing—sounds scarcely +within the power of cat or rat, but possibly the effect of the +wind in the old building. At any rate, Griff could not +stand them, and declared that sleep was impossible when the wind +was in that quarter, so that he must shift his bedroom elsewhere, +though he still wished to retain the outer apartment, which he +had taken pleasure in adorning with his special +possessions. My mother would scarcely have tolerated such +fancies in any one else, but Griff had his privileges.</p> +<h2><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>CHAPTER X.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OUR TUNEFUL CHOIR.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘The church has been whitewashed, but right +long ago,<br /> +As the cracks and the dinginess amply doth show;<br /> +About the same time that a strange petrifaction<br /> +Confined the incumbent to mere Sunday action.<br /> +So many abuses in this place are rife,<br /> +The only church things giving token of life<br /> +Are the singing within and the nettles without—<br /> +Both equally rampant without any doubt.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">F. R. <span +class="smcap">Havergal</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">All</span> Griff’s teasing could not +diminish—nay, rather increased—Emily’s +excitement in the hope of seeing and identifying the sweet +cottage bonnet at church on Sunday. The distance we had to +go was nearly two miles, and my mother and I drove thither in a +donkey chair, which had been hunted up in London for that purpose +because the ‘pheeāton’ (as the servants insisted +on calling it) was too high for me. My father had an +old-fashioned feeling about the Fourth Commandment, which made +him scrupulous as to using any animal on Sunday; and even when, +in bad weather, or for visitors, the larger carriage was used, he +always walked. He was really angry with Griff that morning +for mischievously maintaining that it was a greater breach of the +commandment to work an ass than a horse.</p> +<p>It was a pretty drive on a road slanting gradually through the +brushwood that clothed the steep face of the hillside, and +passing farms and meadows full of cattle—all things quieter +and stiller than ever in their Sunday repose. We knew that +the living was in Winslow patronage, but that it was in the hands +of one of the Selby connection, who held it, together with it is +not safe to say how many benefices, and found it necessary for +his health to reside at Bath. The vicarage had long since +been turned into a farmhouse, and the curate lived at +Wattlesea. All this we knew, but we had not realised that +he was likewise assistant curate there, and only favoured +Earlscombe with alternate morning and evening services on +Sundays.</p> +<p>Still less were we prepared for the interior of the +church. It had a picturesque square tower covered with ivy, +and a general air of fitness for a sketch; indeed, the photograph +of it in its present beautified state will not stand a comparison +with our drawings of it, in those days of dilapidation in the +middle of the untidy churchyard, with little boys astride on the +sloping, sunken lichen-grown headstones, mullein spikes and +burdock leaves, more graceful than the trim borders and zinc +crosses which are pleasanter to the mental eye.</p> +<p>The London church we had left would be a fearful shock to the +present generation, but we were accustomed to decency, order, and +reverence; and it was no wonder that my father was walking about +the churchyard, muttering that he never saw such a place, while +my brothers were full of amusement. Their spruce looks in +their tall hats, bright ties, dark coats, and white trowsers +strapped tight under their boots, looked incongruous with the +rest of the congregation, the most distinguished members of which +were farmers in drab coats with huge mother-of-pearl buttons, and +long gaiters buttoned up to their knees and strapped up to their +gay waistcoats over their white corduroys. Their wives and +daughters were in enormous bonnets, fluttering with ribbons; but +then what my mother and Emily wore were no trifles. The +rest of the congregation were—the male part of it—in +white or gray smock-frocks, the elderly women in black bonnets, +the younger in straw; but we had not long to make our +observations, for Chapman took possession of us. He was +parish clerk, and was in great glory in his mourning coat and +hat, and his object was to marshal us all into our pew before he +had to attend upon the clergyman; and of course I was glad enough +to get as soon as possible out of sight of all the eyes not yet +accustomed to my figure.</p> +<p>And hidden enough I was when we had been introduced through +the little north chancel door into a black-curtained, +black-cushioned, black-lined pew, well carpeted, with a table in +the midst, and a stove, whose pipe made its exit through the +floriated tracery of the window overhead. The chancel arch +was to the west of us, blocked up by a wooden parcel-gilt +erection, and to the east a decorated window that would have been +very handsome if two side-lights had not been obscured by the two +Tables of the Law, with the royal arms on the top of the first +table, and over the other our own, with the Fordyce in a +scutcheon of pretence; for, as an inscription recorded, they had +been erected by Margaret, daughter of Christopher Fordyce, +Esquire, of Chantry House, and relict of Sir James John Winslow, +Kt., sergeant-at-law, <span class="GutSmall">A.D.</span> +1700—the last date, I verily believe, at which anything had +been done to the church. And on the wall, stopping up the +southern chancel window, was a huge marble slab, supported by +angels blowing trumpets, with a very long inscription about the +Fordyce family, ending with this same Margaret, who had married +the Winslow, lost two or three infants, and died on 1st January +1708, three years later than her husband.</p> +<p>Thus far I could see; but Griff was standing lifting the +curtain, and showing by the working of his shoulders his +amazement and diversion, so that only the daggers in my +mother’s eyes kept Martyn from springing up after +him. What he beheld was an altar draped in black like a +coffin, and on the step up to the rail, boys and girls eating +apples and performing antics to beguile the waiting time, while a +row of white-smocked old men occupied the bench opposite to our +seat, conversing loud enough for us to hear them.</p> +<p>My father and Clarence came in; the bells stopped; there was a +sound of steps, and in the fabric in front of us there emerged a +grizzled head and the back of a very dirty surplice besprinkled +with iron moulds, while Chapman’s back appeared above our +curtain, his desk (full of dilapidated prayer-books) being wedged +in between us and the reading-desk.</p> +<p>The duet that then took place between him and the curate must +have been heard to be credible, especially as, being so close +behind the old man, we could not fail to be aware of all the +remarkable shots at long words which he bawled out at the top of +his voice, and I refrain from recording, lest they should haunt +others as they have done by me all my life. Now and then +Chapman caught up a long switch and dashed out at some +obstreperous child to give an audible whack; and towards the +close of the litany he stumped out—we heard his tramp the +whole length of the church, and by and by his voice issued from +an unknown height, proclaiming—‘Let us sing to the +praise and glory — in an anthem taken from the 42d chapter +of Genesis.’</p> +<p>There was an outburst of bassoon, clarionet, and fiddle, and +the performance that followed was the most marvellous we had ever +heard, especially when the big butcher—fiddling all the +time—declared in a mighty solo, ‘I am +Jo—Jo—Jo—Joseph!’ and having reiterated +this information four or five times, inquired with equal +pertinacity, ‘Doth—doth my fa-a-u-ther yet +live?’ Poor Emily was fairly ‘convulsed;’ +she stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth, and grew so crimson +that my mother was quite frightened, and very near putting her +out at the little door of excommunication. To our last hour +we shall never forget the shock of that first anthem.</p> +<p>The Commandments were read from the desk, Chapman’s +solitary response coming from the gallery; and while the second +singing—four verses from Tate and Brady—was going on, +we beheld the surplice stripped off,—like the slough of a +May-fly, as Griff said,—when a rusty black gown was +revealed, in which the curate ascended the pulpit and was lost to +our view before the concluding verse of the psalm, which we had +reason to believe was selected in compliment to us, as well as to +Earlscombe,—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘My lot is fall’n in that blest +land<br /> + Where God is truly know,<br /> +He fills my cup with liberal hand;<br /> + ’Tis He—’tis He—’tis +He—supports my throne.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We had great reason to doubt how far the second line could +justly be applied to the parish! but there was no judging of the +sermon, for only detached sentences reached us in a sort of +mumble. Griff afterwards declared churchgoing to be as good +as a comedy, and we all had to learn to avoid meeting each +other’s eyes, whatever we might hear. When the +scuffle and tramp of the departing congregation had ceased, we +came forth from our sable box, and beheld the remnants of a once +handsome church, mauled in every possible way, green stains on +the walls, windows bricked up, and a huge singing gallery. +Good bits of carved stall work were nailed anyhow into the pews; +the floor was uneven; no font was visible; there was a mouldy +uncared-for look about everything. The curate in +riding-boots came out of the vestry,—a pale, weary-looking +man, painfully meek and civil, with gray hair sleeked round his +face. He ‘louted low,’ and seemed hardly to +venture on taking the hand my father held out to him. There +was some attempt to enter into conversation with him, but he +begged to be excused, for he had to hurry back to Wattlesea to a +funeral. Poor man! he was as great a pluralist as his +vicar, for he kept a boys’ school, partially day, partially +boarding, and his eyes looked hungrily at Martyn.</p> +<p>If the ‘sweet cottage bonnet’ had been at church +there would have been little chance of discovering her, but we +found that we were the only ‘quality,’ as Chapman +called it, or things might not have been so bad. Old James +Winslow had been a mere fox-hunting squire till he became a +valetudinarian; nor had he ever cared for the church or for the +poor, so that the village was in a frightful state of +neglect. There was a dissenting chapel, old enough to be +overgrown with ivy and not too hideous, erected by the +Nonconformists in the reign of the Great Deliverer, but this +partook of the general decadence of the parish, and, as we found, +the chapel’s principal use was to serve as an excuse for +not going to church.</p> +<p>My father always went to church twice, so he and Clarence +walked to Wattlesea, where appearances were more respectable; but +they heard the same sermon over again, and, as my father drily +remarked, it was not a composition that would bear +repetition.</p> +<p>He was much distressed at the state of things, and intended to +write to the incumbent, though, as he said, whatever was done +would end by being at his own expense, and the move and other +calls left him so little in hand that he sighed over the +difficulties, and declared that he was better off in London, +except for the honour of the thing. Perhaps my mother was +of the same opinion after a dreary afternoon, when Griff and +Martyn had been wandering about aimlessly, and were at length +betrayed by the barking of a little terrier, purchased the day +before from Tom Petty, besieging the stable cat, who stood with +swollen tail, glaring eyes, and thunderous growls, on the top of +the tallest pillar of the ruins. Emily nearly cried at +their cruelty. Martyn was called off by my mother, and set +down, half sulky, half ashamed, to <i>Henry and his Bearer</i>; +and Griff, vowing that he believed it was that brute who made the +row at night, and that she ought to be exterminated, strolled off +to converse with Chapman, who was a quaint compound of clerk and +keeper—in the one capacity upholding his late master, in +the other bemoaning Mr. Mears’ unpunctualities, specially +as regarded weddings and funerals; one ‘corp’ having +been kept waiting till a messenger had been sent to Wattlesea, +who finding both clergy out for the day, had had to go to +Hillside, ‘where they was always ready, though the old +Squire would have been mad with him if he’d a-guessed one +of they Fordys had ever set foot in the parish.’</p> +<p>The only school in the place was close to the meeting-house, +‘a very dame’s school indeed,’ as Emily +described it after a peep on Monday. Dame Dearlove, the old +woman who presided, was a picture of Shenstone’s +schoolmistress,—black bonnet, horn spectacles, fearful +birch rod, three-cornered buff ’kerchief, checked apron and +all, but on meddling with her, she proved a very dragon, the +antipodes of her name. Tattered copies of the <i>Universal +Spelling-Book</i> served her aristocracy, ragged Testaments the +general herd, whence all appeared to be shouting aloud at +once. She looked sour as verjuice when my mother and Emily +entered, and gave them to understand that ‘she wasn’t +used to no strangers in her school, and didn’t want +’em.’ We found that in Chapman’s opinion +she ‘didn’t larn ’em nothing.’ She +had succeeded her aunt, who had taught him to read ‘right +off,’ but ‘her baint to be compared with +she.’ And now the farmers’ children, and the +little aristocracy, including his own grand-children,—all +indeed who, in his phrase, ‘cared for +eddication,’—went to Wattlesea.</p> +<h2><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +82</span>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">‘THEY FORDYS.’</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Of honourable reckoning are you both,<br /> +And pity ’tis, you lived at odds so long.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">My</span> father had a good deal of +business in hand, and was glad of Clarence’s help in +writing and accounts,—a great pleasure, though it prevented +his being Griff’s companion in his exploring and essays at +shooting. He had time, however, to make an expedition with +me in the donkey chair to inquire after the herdboy, Amos Bell, +and carry him some kitchen physic. To our horror we found +him quite alone in the wretched cottage, while everybody was out +harvesting; but he did not seem to pity himself, or think it +otherwise than quite natural, as he lay on a little bed in the +corner, disabled by what Clarence thought a dislocation. +Miss Ellen had brought him a pudding, and little Miss Anne a +picture-book.</p> +<p>He was not so dense and shy as the children of the hamlet near +us, and Emily extracted from him that Miss Ellen was ‘Our +passon’s young lady.’</p> +<p>‘Mr. Mears’!’ she exclaimed.</p> +<p>‘No: ourn be Passon Fordy.’</p> +<p>It turned out that this place was not in Earlscombe at all, +but in Hillside, a different parish; and the boy, Amos, further +communicated that there was old Passon Fordy, and Passon Frank, +and Madam, what was Mr. Frank’s lady. Yes, he could +read, he could; he went to Sunday School, and was in Miss +Ellen’s class; he had been to school worky days, only +father was dead, and Farmer Hartop gave him a job.</p> +<p>It was plain that Hillside was under a very different rule +from Earlscombe; and Emily was delighted to have discovered that +the sweet cottage bonnet’s owner was called Ellen, which +just then was the pet Christian name of romance, in honour of the +<i>Lady of the Lake</i>.</p> +<p>In the midst of her raptures, however, just as we were about +to turn in at our own gate into the wood, we heard horses’ +hoofs, and then came, careering by on ponies, a very pretty girl +and a youth of about the same age. Clarence’s hand +rose to his hat, and he made his eager bow; but the young lady +did not vouchsafe the slightest acknowledgment, turned her head +away, and urged her pony to speed.</p> +<p>Emily broke out with an angry disappointed exclamation. +Clarence’s face was scarlet, and he said low and hoarsely, +‘That’s Lester. He was in the <i>Argus</i> at +Portsmouth two years ago;’—and then, as our little +sister continued her indignant exclamations, he added, +‘Hush! Don’t on any account say a word about +it. I had better get back to my work. I am only doing +you harm by staying here.’</p> +<p>At which Emily shed tears, and together we persuaded him not +to curtail his holiday, which, indeed, he could not have done +without assigning the reason to the elders, and this was out of +the question. Nor did he venture to hang back when, as our +service was to be on Sunday afternoon, my father proposed to walk +to Hillside Church in the morning. They came back well +pleased. There was care and decency throughout. The +psalms were sung to a ‘grinder organ’—which was +an advanced state of things in those days—and very +nicely. Parson Frank read well and impressively, and the +old parson, a fine venerable man, had preached an excellent +sermon—really admirable, as my father repeated. Our +party had been scarcely in time, and had been disposed of in +seats close to the door, where Clarence was quite out of sight of +the disdainful young lady and her squire, of whom Emily begged to +hear no more.</p> +<p>She looked askance at the cards left on the hall table the +next day—‘The Rev. Christopher Fordyce,’ and +‘The Rev. F. C. Fordyce,’ also ‘Mrs. F. C. +Fordyce, Hillside Rectory.’</p> +<p>We had found out that Hillside was a family living, and that +there was much activity there on the part of the father and +son—rector and curate; and that the other clerical folk, +ladies especially, who called on us, spoke of Mrs. F. C. Fordyce +with a certain tone, as if they were afraid of her, as Sir Horace +Lester’s sister,—very superior, very active, very +strict in her notions,—as if these were so many +defects. They were an offshoot of the old Fordyces of +Chantry House, but so far back that all recollection of kindred +or connection must have worn out. Their property—all +in beautiful order—marched with ours, and Chapman was very +particular about the boundaries. ‘Old master he +wouldn’t have a bird picked up if it fell over on they +Fordys’ ground—not he! He couldn’t abide +passons, couldn’t the old Squire—not Miss Hannah +More, and all they Cheddar lot, and they Fordys least of +all. My son’s wife, she was for sending her little +maid to Hillside to Madam Fordys’ school, but, bless your +heart, ’twould have been as much as my place was worth if +master had known it.’</p> +<p>The visit was not returned till after Clarence had gone back +to his London work. Sore as was the loss of him from my +daily life, I could see that the new world and fresh +acquaintances were a trial to him, and especially since the +encounter with young Lester had driven him back into his shell, +so that he would be better where he was already known and had +nothing new to overcome. Emily, though not yet sixteen, was +emancipated from schoolroom habits, and the dear girl was my +devoted slave to an extent that perhaps I abused.</p> +<p>Not being ‘come out,’ she was left at home on the +day when we set out on a regular progress in the chariot with +post-horses. The britshka and pair, which were our +ambition, were to wait till my father’s next rents came +in. Morning calls in the country were a solemn and imposing +ceremony, and the head of the family had to be taken on the first +circuit; nor was there much scruple as to making them in the +forenoon, so several were to be disposed of before fulfilling an +engagement to luncheon at the farthest point, where some old +London friends had borrowed a house for the summer, and had +included me in their invitation.</p> +<p>Here alone did I leave the carriage, but I had Cooper’s +<i>Spy</i> and my sketch-book as companions while waiting at +doors where the inhabitants were at home. The last visit +was at Hillside Rectory, a house of architecture somewhat similar +to our own, but of the soft creamy stone which so well set off +the vine with purple clusters, the myrtles and fuchsias, that +covered it. I was wishing we had drawn up far enough off +for a sketch to be possible, when, from a window close above, I +heard the following words in a clear girlish voice—</p> +<p>‘No, indeed! I’m not going down. It is +only those horrid Earlscombe people. I can’t think +how they have the face to come near us!’</p> +<p>There was a reply, perhaps that the parents had made the first +visit, for the rejoinder was—‘Yes; grandpapa said it +was a Christian duty to make an advance; but they need not have +come so soon. Indeed, I wonder they show themselves at +all. I am sure I would not if I had such a dreadful +son.’ Presently, ‘I hate to think of it. +That I should have thanked him. Depend upon it, he will +never pay the doctor. A coward like that is capable of +anything.’</p> +<p>The proverb had been realised, but there could hardly have +been a more involuntary or helpless listener. Presently my +parents came back, escorted by both the gentlemen of the house, +tall fine-looking men, the elder with snowy hair, and the dignity +of men of the old school; the younger with a joyous, hearty, +out-of-door countenance, more like a squire than a clergyman.</p> +<p>The visit seemed to have been gratifying. Mrs. Fordyce +was declared to be of higher stamp than most of the neighbouring +ladies; and my father was much pleased with the two clergymen, +while as we drove along he kept on admiring the well-ordered +fields and fences, and contrasting the pretty cottages and trim +gardens with the dreary appearance of our own village. I +asked why Amos Bell’s home had been neglected, and was +answered with some annoyance, as I pointed down the lane, that it +was on our land, though in Hillside parish. ‘I am +glad to have such neighbours!’ observed my mother, and I +kept to myself the remarks I had heard, though I was still +tingling with the sting of them.</p> +<p>We heard no more of ‘they Fordys’ for some +time. The married pair went away to stay with friends, and +we only once met the old gentleman, when I was waiting in the +street at Wattlesea in the donkey chair, while my mother was +trying to match netting silk in the odd little shop that united +fancy work, toys, and tracts with the post office. Old Mr. +Fordyce met us as we drew up, handed her out with a grand +seigneur’s courtesy, and stood talking to me so +delightfully that I quite forgot it was from Christian duty.</p> +<p>My father corresponded with the old Rector about the state of +the parish, and at last went over to Bath for a personal +conference, but without much satisfaction. The Earlscombe +people were pronounced to be an ungrateful good-for-nothing set, +for whom it was of no use to do anything; and indeed my mother +made such discoveries in the cottages that she durst not let +Emily fulfil her cherished scheme of visiting them. The +only resemblance to the favourite heroines of religious tales +that could be permitted was assembling a tiny Sunday class in +Chapman’s lodge; and it must be confessed that her brothers +thought she made as much fuss about it as if there had been a +hundred scholars.</p> +<p>However, between remonstrances and offers of undertaking a +share of the expense, my father managed to get Mr. Mears’ +services dispensed with from the ensuing Lady Day, and that a +resident curate should be appointed, the choice of whom was to +rest with himself. It was then and there decided that +Martyn should be ‘brought up to the Church,’ as +people then used to term destination to Holy Orders. My +father said he should feel justified in building a good house +when he could afford it, if it was to be a provision for one of +his sons, and he also felt that as he had the charge of the +parish as patron, it was right and fitting to train one of his +sons up to take care of it. Nor did Martyn show any +distaste to the idea, as indeed there was less in it then than at +present to daunt the imagination of an honest, lively boy, not as +yet specially thoughtful or devout, but obedient, truthful, and +fairly reverent, and ready to grow as he was trained.</p> +<h2><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +89</span>CHAPTER XII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">MRS. SOPHIA’S FEUD.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘O’er all there hung the shadow of a +fear,<br /> + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,<br /> +And said as plain as whisper in the ear,<br /> + The place is haunted.’—<span +class="smcap">Hood</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> had a houseful at +Christmas. The Rev. Charles Henderson, a Fellow of Trinity +College, Oxford, lately ordained a deacon, had been recommended +to us by our London vicar, and was willing not only to take +charge of the parish, but to direct my studies, and to prepare +Martyn for school. He came to us for the Christmas vacation +to reconnoitre and engage lodgings at a farmhouse. We liked +him very much—my mother being all the better satisfied +after he had shown her a miniature, and confided to her that the +original was waiting till a college living should come to him in +the distant future.</p> +<p>Admiral Griffith could not tear himself from his warm rooms +and his club, but our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, came with +his wife, and revelled in the ceilings of the mullion room, where +he would much have liked to sleep, but that its accommodations +were only fit for a bachelor.</p> +<p>Our other visitor was Miss Selby, or rather Mrs. Sophia Selby, +as she designated herself, according to the becoming fashion of +elderly spinsters, which to my mind might be gracefully +resumed. It irked my father to think of the good +lady’s solitary Christmas at Bath, and he asked her to come +to us. She travelled half-way in a post-chaise, and then +was met by the carriage. A very nice old lady she was, with +a meek, delicate babyish face, which could not be spoilt by the +cap of the period, one of the most disfiguring articles of head +gear ever devised, though nobody thought so then. She was +full of kindness; indeed, if she had a fault it was the abundant +pity she lavished on me, and her determination to amuse me. +The weather was of the kind that only the healthy and hardy could +encounter, and when every one else was gone out, and I was just +settling in with a new book, or an old crabbed Latin document, +that Mr. Stafford had entrusted to me to copy out fairly and +translate, she would glide in with her worsted work on a +charitable mission to enliven poor Mr. Edward.</p> +<p>However, this was the means of my obtaining some curious +enlightenments. A dinner-party was in contemplation, and +she was dismayed at the choice of the fashionable London hour of +seven, and still more by finding that the Fordyces were to be +among the guests. She was too well-bred to manifest her +feelings to her hosts, but alone with me, she could not refrain +from expressing her astonishment to me, all the more when she +heard this was reciprocity for an invitation that it had not been +possible to accept. Her poor dear uncle would never hear of +intercourse with Hillside. On being asked why, she repeated +what Chapman had said, that he could not endure any one connected +with Mrs. Hannah More and her canting, humbugging set, as the +ungodly old man had chosen to call them, imbuing even this good +woman with evil prejudices against their noble work at +Cheddar.</p> +<p>‘Besides this, Fordyces and Winslows could never be +friends, since the Fordyces had taken on themselves to dispute +the will, and say it had been improperly obtained.’</p> +<p>‘What will?’</p> +<p>‘Mrs. Winslow’s—Margaret Fordyce that +was. She was the heiress, and had every right to dispose of +her property.’</p> +<p>‘But that was more than a hundred years ago!’</p> +<p>‘So it was, my dear; but though the law gave it to +us—to my uncle’s grandfather (or great-grandfather, +was it?)—those Fordyces never could rest content. +Why, one of them—a clergyman’s son too—shot +young Philip Winslow dead in a duel. They have always +grudged at us. Does your papa know it, my dear Mr. +Edward? He ought to be aware.’</p> +<p>‘I do not know,’ I said; ‘but he would +hardly care about what happened in the time of Queen +Anne.’</p> +<p>It was curious to see how the gentle little lady espoused the +family quarrel, which, after all, was none of hers.</p> +<p>‘Well, you are London people, and the other branch, and +may not feel as we do down here; but I shall always say that +Madam Winslow’s husband’s son had every right to come +before her cousin once removed.’</p> +<p>I asked if we were descended from her, for, having a turn for +heraldry and genealogy, I wanted to make out our family +tree. Mrs. Sophia was ready to hold up her hands at the +ignorance of the ‘other branch.’ This poor +heiress had lost all her children in their infancy, and +bequeathed the estate to her stepson, the Fordyce male heir +having been endowed by her father with the advowson of Hillside +and a handsome estate there, which Mrs. Selby thought ought to +have contented him, ‘but some people never know when they +have enough;’ and, on my observing that it might have been +a matter of justice, she waxed hotter, declaring that what the +Winslows felt so much was the accusation of violence against the +poor lady. She spoke as if it were a story of yesterday, +and added, ‘Indeed, they made the common people have all +sorts of superstitious fancies about the room where she +died—that old part of the house.’ Then she +added in a low mysterious voice, ‘I hear that your brother +Mr. Griffith Winslow could not sleep there;’ and when the +rats and the wind were mentioned—‘Yes, that was what +my poor dear uncle used to say. He always called it +nonsense; but we never had a servant who would sleep there. +You’ll not mention it, Mr. Edward, but I could not help +asking that very nice housemaid, Jane, whether the room was used, +and she said how Mr. Griffith had given it up, and none of the +servants could spend a night there when they are sleeping +round. Of course I said all in my power to dispel the idea, +and told her that there was no accounting for all the noises in +old houses; but you never can reason with that class of +people.’</p> +<p>‘Did you ever hear the noises, Mrs. Selby?’</p> +<p>‘Oh, no; I wouldn’t sleep there for +thousands! Not that I attach any importance to such +folly,—my poor dear uncle would never hear of such a thing; +but I am such a nervous creature, I should lie awake all night +expecting the rats to run over me. I never knew of any one +sleeping there, except in the gay times when I was a child, and +the house used to be as full as, or fuller than, it could hold, +for the hunt breakfast or a ball, and my poor aunt used to make +up ever so many beds in the two rooms, and then we never heard of +any disturbance, except what they made themselves.’</p> +<p>This chiefly concerned me, because home cosseting had made me +old woman enough to be uneasy about unaired beds; and I knew that +my mother meant to consign Clarence to the mullion chamber. +So, without betraying Jane, I spoke to her, and was answered, +‘Oh, sir, I’ll take care of that; I’ll light a +fire and air the mattresses well. I wish that was all, poor +young gentleman!’</p> +<p>To the reply that the rats were slaughtered and the wind +stopped out, Jane returned a look of compassion; but the subject +was dropped, as it was supposed to be the right thing to hush up, +instead of fostering, any popular superstition; but it surprised +me that, as all our servants were fresh importations, they should +so soon have become imbued with these undefined alarms.</p> +<p>My father was much amused at being successor to this family +feud, and said that when he had time he would look up the +documents.</p> +<p>Mrs. Sophia was a sight when Mr. Fordyce and his son and +daughter-in-law were announced; she was so comically stiff +between her deference to her hosts and her allegiance to her poor +dear uncle; but her coldness melted before the charms of old Mr. +Fordyce, who was one of the most delightful people in the +world. She even was his partner at whist, and won the game, +and that she <i>did</i> like.</p> +<p>Parson Frank, as we naughty young ones called him, was all +good-nature and geniality—a thorough clergyman after the +ideas of the time, and a thorough farmer too; and in each +capacity, as well as in politics, he suited my father or Mr. +Henderson. His lady, in a blonde cap, exactly like the last +equipment my mother had provided herself with in London, and a +black satin dress, had much more style than the more +gaily-dressed country dames, and far more conversation. Mr. +Stafford, who had dreaded the party, pronounced her a sensible, +agreeable woman, and she was particularly kind and pleasant to +me, coming and talking over the botany of the country, and then +speaking of my brother’s kindness to poor Amos Bell, who +was nearly recovered, but was a weakly child, for whom she +dreaded the toil of a ploughboy in thick clay with heavy +shoes.</p> +<p>I was sorry when, after Emily’s well-studied performance +on the piano, Mrs. Fordyce was summoned away from me to sing, but +her music and her voice were both of a very different order from +ordinary drawing-room music; and when our evening was over, we +congratulated ourselves upon our neighbours, and agreed that the +Fordyces were the gems of the party.</p> +<p>Only Mrs. Sophia sighed at us as degenerate Winslows, and +Emily reserved to herself the right of believing that the +daughter was ‘a horrid girl.’</p> +<h2><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +96</span>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A SCRAPE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Though bound with weakness’ heavy +chain<br /> +We in the dust of earth remain;<br /> +Not all remorseful be our tears,<br /> +No agony of shame or fears,<br /> +Need pierce its passion’s bitter tide.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Verses and Sonnets</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Perhaps</span> it was of set purpose that +our dinner-party had been given before Clarence’s +return. Griffith had been expected in time for it, but he +had preferred going by way of London to attend a ball given by +the daughter of a barrister friend of my father’s. +Selina Clarkson was a fine showy girl, with the sort of beauty to +inspire boyish admiration, and Griff’s had been a standing +family joke, even my father condescending to tease him when the +young lady married Sir Henry Peacock, a fat vulgar old man who +had made his fortune in the commissariat, and purchased a +baronetcy. He was allowing his young wife her full swing of +fashion and enjoyment. My mother did not think it a +desirable acquaintance, and was restless until both the brothers +came home together, long after dark on Christmas Eve, having been +met by the gig at the corner where the coach stopped. The +dinner-hour had been put off till half-past six, and we had to +wait for them, the coach having been delayed by setting down +Christmas guests and Christmas fare. They were a contrast; +Griffith looking very handsome and manly, all in a ruddy glow +from the frosty air, and Clarence, though equally tall, +well-made, and with more refined features, looked pale and +effaced, now that his sailor tan was worn off. The one +talked as eagerly as he ate, the other was shy, spiritless, and +with little appetite; but as he always shrank into himself among +strangers, it was the less wonder that he sat in his drooping way +behind my sofa, while Griffith kept us all merry with his account +of the humours of the ‘Peacock at home;’ the +lumbering efforts of old Sir Henry to be as young and gay as his +wife, in spite of gout and portliness; and the extreme delight of +his lady in her new splendours—a gold spotted muslin and +white plumes in a diamond agraffe. He mimicked Sir +Henry’s cockneyisms more than my father’s chivalry +approved towards his recent host, as he described the complaints +he had heard against ‘my Lady being refused the hentry at +Halmack’s, but treated like the wery canal;’ and how +the devoted husband ‘wowed he would get up a still more +hexclusive circle, and shut hout these himpertinent fashionables +who regarded Halmack’s as the seventh +’eaven.’</p> +<p>My mother shook her head at his audacious fun about Paradise +and the Peri, but he was so brilliant and good-humoured that no +one was ever long displeased with him. At night he followed +when Clarence helped me to my room, and carefully shutting the +door, Griff began. ‘Now, Teddy, you’re always +as rich as a Jew, and I told Bill you’d help him to set it +straight. I’d do it myself, but that I’m +cleaned out. I’d give ten times the cash rather than +see him with that hang-dog look again for just nothing at all, if +he would only believe so and be rational.’</p> +<p>Clarence did look indescribably miserable while it was +explained that he had been commissioned to receive about +£20 which was owing to my father, and to discharge +therewith some small debts to London tradesmen. All except +the last, for a little more than four pounds, had been paid, when +Clarence met in the street an old messmate, a good-natured +rattle-pated youth,—one of those who had thought him +harshly treated. There was a cordial greeting, and an +invitation to dine at once at a hotel, where they were joined by +some other young men, and by and by betook themselves to cards, +when my poor brother’s besetting enemy prevented him from +withdrawing when he found the points were guineas. Thus he +lost the remaining amount in his charge, and so much of his own +that barely enough was left for his journey. His salary was +not due till Lady Day; Mr. Castleford was in the country, and no +advances could be asked from Mr. Frith. Thus Griff had +found him in utter despair, and had ever since been trying to +cheer him and make light of his trouble. If I advanced the +amount, which was no serious matter to me, Clarence could easily +get Peter to pay the bill, and if my father should demand the +receipt too soon, it would be easy to put him off by saying there +had been a delay in getting the account sent in.</p> +<p>‘I couldn’t do that,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘Well, I should not have thought you would have stuck at +that,’ returned Griff.</p> +<p>‘There must be no untruth,’ I broke in; ‘but +if without <i>that</i>, he can avoid getting into a scrape with +papa—’</p> +<p>Clarence interrupted in the wavering voice we knew so well, +but growing clearer and stronger.</p> +<p>‘Thank you, Edward, but—but—no, I +can’t. There’s the Sacrament +to-morrow.’</p> +<p>‘Oh—h!’ said Griff, in an indescribable +tone. But he will never believe you, nor let you +go.’</p> +<p>‘Better so,’ said Clarence, half choked, +‘than go profanely—deceiving—or not knowing +whether I shall—’</p> +<p>Just then we heard our father wishing the other gentlemen +good-night, and to our surprise Clarence opened the door, though +he was deadly white and with dew starting on his forehead.</p> +<p>My father turned good-naturedly. ‘Boys, boys, you +are glad to be together, but mamma won’t have you talking +here all night, keeping her baby up.’</p> +<p>‘Sir,’ said Clarence, holding by the rail of the +bed, ‘I was waiting for you. I have something to tell +you—’</p> +<p>The words that followed were incoherent and wrong end +foremost; nor had many, indeed, been uttered before my father cut +them short with—</p> +<p>‘No false excuses, sir; I know you too well to +listen. Go. I have ceased to hope for anything +better.’</p> +<p>Clarence went without a word, but Griff and I burst out with +entreaties to be listened to. Our father thought at first +that ours were only the pleadings of partiality, and endeavours +to shield the brother we both so heartily loved; but when he +understood the circumstances, the real amount of the +transgression, and Clarence’s rejection of our united +advice and assistance to conceal it, he was greatly touched and +softened. ‘Poor lad! poor fellow!’ he muttered, +‘he is really doing his best. I need not have cut him +so short. I was afraid of more falsehoods if I let him open +his mouth. I’ll go and see.’</p> +<p>He went off, and we remained in suspense, Griff observing that +he had done his best, but poor Bill always would be a fool, and +that no one who had not always lived at home like me would have +let out that we had been for the suppression policy. As I +was rather shocked, he went off to bed, saying he should look in +to see what remained of Clarence after the pelting of the +pitiless storm he was sure to bring on himself by his ridiculous +faltering instead of speaking out like a man.</p> +<p>I longed to have been able to do the same, but my father +kindly came back to relieve my mind by telling me that he was +better satisfied about Clarence than ever he had been +before. When encouraged to speak out, the narrative of the +temptation had so entirely agreed with what we had said as to +show there had been no prevarication, and this had done more to +convince my father that he was on the right track than the having +found him on his knees. He had had a patient hearing, and +thus was able to command his nerves enough to explain himself, +and it had ended in my father giving entire forgiveness for what, +as Griff truly said, would have been a mere trifle but for the +past. The voluntary confession had much impressed my +father, and he could not help adding a word of gentle reproof to +me for having joined in aiding him to withhold it, but he +accepted my explanation and went away, observing, ‘By the +by, I don’t wonder at what Griffith says of that room; I +never heard such strange effects of currents of air.’</p> +<p>Clarence was in my room before I was drest, full of our +father’s ‘wonderful goodness’ to him. He +had never experienced anything like it, he said. +‘Why! he really seemed hopeful about me,’ were words +uttered with a gladness enough to go to one’s heart. +‘O Edward, I feel as if there was some chance of +“steadfastly purposing” this time.’</p> +<p>It was not the way of the family to say much of religious +feeling, and this was much for Clarence to utter. He looked +white and tired, but there was an air of rest and peace about +him, above all when my mother met him with a very real +kiss. Moreover, Mr. Castleford had taken care to brighten +our Christmas with a letter expressive of great satisfaction with +Clarence for steadiness and intelligence. Even Mr. Frith +allowed that he was the most punctual of all those young +dogs.</p> +<p>‘I do believe,’ said my father, ‘that his +piety is doing him some good after all.’</p> +<p>So our mutual wishes of a happy Christmas were verified, +though not much according to the notions of this half of the +century. People made their Christmas day either mere +merriment, or something little different from the grave Sunday of +that date. And ours, except for the Admiral’s dining +with us, had always been of the latter description, all the more +that when celebrations of the Holy Communion were so rare they +were treated with an awe and reverence which frequency has +perhaps diminished, and a feeling (possibly Puritanical) +prevailed which made it appear incongruous to end with festivity +a day so begun. That we had a Christmas Day Communion at +all at Earlscombe was an innovation only achieved by Mr. +Henderson going to assist the old Rector at Wattlesea; and there +were no communicants except from our house, besides Chapman, his +daughter-in-law, and five old creatures between whom the alms +were immediately divided. We afterwards learnt that our +best farmer and his wife were much disappointed at the change +from Sunday interfering with the family jollification; and Mrs. +Sophia Selby was annoyed at the contradiction to her habits under +the rule of her poor dear uncle.</p> +<p>Of the irregularities, irreverences, and squalor of the whole +I will not speak. They were not then such stumbling-blocks +as they would be now, and many passed unperceived by us, buried +as we were in our big pew, with our eyes riveted on our books; +yet even thus there was enough evident to make my mother rejoice +that Mr. Henderson would be with us before Easter. Still +this could not mar the thankful gladness that was with us all +that day, and which shone in Clarence’s eyes. His +countenance always had a remarkable expression in church, as if +somehow his spirit went farther than ours did, and things unseen +were more real to him.</p> +<p>Hillside, as usual, had two services, and my father and his +friend were going to walk thither in the afternoon, but it was a +raw cold day, threatening snow, and Emily was caught by my mother +in the hail and ordered back, as well as Clarence, who had shown +symptoms of having caught cold on his dismal journey. Emily +coaxed from her permission to have a fire in the bookroom, and +there we three had a memorably happy time. We read our +psalms and lessons, and our <i>Christian Year</i>, which was more +and more the lodestar of our feelings. We compared our +favourite passages, and discussed the obscurer ones, and Clarence +was led to talk out more of his heart than he had ever shown to +us before. Perhaps he had lost some of his reserve through +his intercourse with our good old governess, Miss Newton, who was +still grinding away at her daily mill, though with somewhat +failing eyesight, so that she could do nothing but knit in the +long evenings, and was most grateful to her former pupil for +coming, as often as he could, to talk or read to her.</p> +<p>She was a most excellent and devout woman, and when Emily, who +in youthful <i>gaieté de cœur</i> had got a little +tired of her, exclaimed at his taste, and asked if she made him +read nothing but Pike’s Early <i>Piety</i>, he replied +gravely, ‘She showed me where to lay my burthen +down,’ and turned to the two last verses of the poem for +‘Good Friday’ in the <i>Christian Year</i>, as well +as to the one we had just read on the Holy Communion.</p> +<p>My father’s kindness had seemed to him the pledge of the +Heavenly Father’s forgiveness; and he added, perhaps a +little childishly, that it had been his impulse to promise never +to touch a card again, but that he dreaded the only too familiar +reply, ‘What availed his promises?’</p> +<p>‘Do promise, Clarry!’ cried Emily, ‘and then +you won’t have to play with that tiresome old Mrs. +Sophia.’</p> +<p>‘That would rather deter me,’ said Clarence +good-humouredly.</p> +<p>‘A card-playing old age is despicable,’ pronounced +Miss Emily, much to our amusement.</p> +<p>After that we got into a bewilderment. We knew nothing +of the future question of temperance <i>versus</i> total +abstinence; but after it had been extracted that Miss Newton +regarded cards as the devil’s books, the inconsistent +little sister changed sides, and declared it narrow and +evangelical to renounce what was innocent. Clarence argued +that what might be harmless for others might be dangerous for +such as himself, and that his real difficulty in making even a +mental vow was that, if broken, there was an additional sin.</p> +<p>‘It is not oneself that one trusts,’ I said.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Clarence emphatically; ‘and +setting up a vow seems as if it might be sticking up the reed of +one’s own word, and leaning on <i>that</i>—when it +breaks, at least mine does. If I could always get the grasp +of Him that I felt to-day, there would be no more bewildered +heart and failing spirit, which are worse than the actual falls +they cause.’ And as Emily said she did not +understand, he replied in words I wrote down and thought over, +‘What we <i>are</i> is the point, more than even what we +<i>do</i>. We <i>do</i> as we <i>are</i>; and yet we form +ourselves by what we <i>do</i>.’</p> +<p>‘And,’ I put in, ‘I know somebody who won a +victory last night over himself and his two brothers. +Surely <i>doing</i> that is a sign that he <i>is</i> more than he +used to be.’</p> +<p>‘If he were, it would not have been an effort at +all,’ said Clarence, but with his rare sweet smile.</p> +<p>Just then Griff called him away, and Emily sat pondering and +impressed. ‘It did seem so odd,’ she said, +‘that Clarry should be so much the best, and yet so much +the worst of us.’</p> +<p>I agreed. His insight into spiritual things, and his +enjoyment of them, always humiliated us both, yet he fell so much +lower in practice,—‘But then we had not his +temptations.’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ said Emily; ‘but look at Griff! +He goes about like other young men, and keeps all right, and yet +he doesn’t care about religious things a bit more than he +can help.’</p> +<p>It was quite true. Religion was life to the one and an +insurance to the other, and this had been a mystery to us all our +young lives, as far as we had ever reflected on the contrast +between the practical failure and success of each. Our +mother, on the other hand, viewed Clarence’s tendencies as +part of an unreal, self-deceptive nature, and regretted his +intimacy with Miss Newton, who, she said, had fostered +‘that kind of thing’ in his childhood—made him +fancy talk, feeling, and preaching were more than truth and +honour—and might lead him to run after Irving, Rowland +Hill, or Baptist Noel, about whose tenets she was rather +confused. It would be an additional misfortune if he became +a fanatical Evangelical light, and he was just the character to +be worked upon.</p> +<p>My father held that she might be thankful for any good +influence or safe resort for a young man in lodgings in London, +and he merely bade Clarence never resort to any variety of +dissenting preacher. We were of the school called—a +little later—high and dry, but were strictly orthodox +according to our lights, and held it a prime duty to attend our +parish church, whatever it might be; nor, indeed, had Clarence +swerved from these traditions.</p> +<p>Poor Mrs. Sophia was baulked of the game at whist, which she +viewed as a legitimate part of the Christmas pleasures; and after +we had eaten our turkey, we found the evening long, except that +Martyn escaped to snapdragon with the servants; and, by and by, +Chapman, magnificent in patronage, ushered in the church singers +into the hall, and clarionet, bassoon, and fiddle astonished our +ears.</p> +<h2><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +107</span>CHAPTER XIV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE MULLION CHAMBER.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘A lady with a lamp I see,<br /> +Pass through the glimmering gloom,<br /> + And flit from room to room.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Longfellow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">For</span> want of being able to take +exercise, the first part of the night had always been sleepless +with me, though my dear mother thought it wrong to recognise the +habit or allow me a lamp. A fire, however, I had, and by +its light, on the second night after Christmas, I saw my door +noiselessly opened, and Clarence creeping in half-dressed and +barefooted. To my frightened interrogation the answer came, +through chattering teeth, ‘It’s I—only +I—Ted—no—nothing’s the matter, only I +can’t stand it any longer!’</p> +<p>His hands were cold as ice when he grasped mine, as if to get +hold of something substantial, and he trembled so as to shake the +bed. ‘That room,’ he faltered. +‘’Tis not only the moans! I’ve seen +her!’</p> +<p>‘Whom?’</p> +<p>‘I don’t know. There she stands with her +lamp, crying!’ I could scarcely distinguish the words +through the clashing of his teeth, and as I threw my arms round +him the shudder seemed to pass to me; but I did my best to warm +him by drawing the clothes over him, and he began to gather +himself together, and speak intelligibly. There had been +sounds the first night as of wailing, but he had been too much +preoccupied to attend to them till, soon after one o’clock, +they ended in a heavy fall and long shriek, after which all was +still. Christmas night had been undisturbed, but on this +the voices had begun again at eleven, and had a strangely human +sound; but as it was windy, sleety weather, and he had learnt at +sea to disregard noises in the rigging, he drew the sheet over +his head and went to sleep. ‘I was dreaming that I +was at sea,’ he said, ‘as I always do on a noisy +night, but this was not a dream. I was wakened by a light +in the room, and there stood a woman with a lamp, moaning and +sobbing. My first notion was that one of the maids had come +to call me, and I sat up; but I could not speak, and she gave +another awful suppressed cry, and moved towards that walled-up +door. Then I saw it was none of the servants, for it was an +antique dress like an old picture. So I knew what it must +be, and an unbearable horror came over me, and I rushed into the +outer room, where there was a little fire left; but I heard her +going on still, and I could endure it no longer. I knew you +would be awake and would bear with me, so I came down to +you.’</p> +<p>Then this was what Chapman and the maids had meant. This +was Mrs. Sophia Selby’s vulgar superstition! I found +that Clarence had heard none of the mysterious whispers afloat, +and only knew that Griff had deserted the room after his own +return to London. I related what I had learnt from the old +lady, and in that midnight hour we agreed that it could be no +mere fancy or rumour, but that cruel wrong must have been done in +that chamber. Our feeling was that all ought to be made +known, and in that impression we fell asleep, Clarence first.</p> +<p>By and by I found him moving. He had heard the clock +strike four, and thought it wiser to repair to his own quarters, +where he believed the disturbance was over. Lucifer matches +as yet were not, but he had always been a noiseless being, with a +sailor’s foot, so that, by the help of the moonlight +through the hall windows, he regained his room.</p> +<p>And when morning had come, the nocturnal visitation wore such +a different aspect to both our minds that we decided to say +nothing to our parents, who, said Clarence, would simply +disbelieve him; and, indeed, I inclined to suppose it had been an +uncommonly vivid dream, produced in that sensitive nature by the +uncanny sounds of the wind in the chinks and crannies of the +ancient chamber. Had not Scott’s <i>Demonology and +Witchcraft</i>, which we studied hard on that day, proved all +such phantoms to be explicable? The only person we told was +Griff, who was amused and incredulous. He had heard the +noises—oh yes! and objected to having his sleep broken by +them. It was too had to expose Clarence to them—poor +Bill—on whom they worked such fancies!</p> +<p>He interrogated Chapman, however, but probably in that +bantering way which is apt to produce reserve. Chapman +never ‘gave heed to them fictious tales,’ he said; +but, when hard pressed, he allowed that he had ‘heerd that +a lady do walk o’ winter nights,’ and that was why +the garden door of the old rooms was walled up. Griff asked +if this was done for fear she should catch cold, and this +somewhat affronted him, so that he averred that he knew nought +about it, and gave no thought to such like.</p> +<p>Just then they arrived at the Winslow Arms, and took each a +glass of ale, when Griff, partly to tease Chapman, asked the +landlady—an old Chantry House servant—whether she had +ever met the ghost. She turned rather pale, which seemed to +have impressed him, and demanded if he had seen it. +‘It always walked at Christmas time—between then and +the New Year.’ She had once seen a light in the +garden by the ruin in winter-time, and once last spring it came +along the passage, but that was just before the old Squire was +took for death,—folks said that was always the way before +any of the family died—‘if you’ll excuse it, +sir.’ Oh no, she thought nothing of such things, but +she had heard tell that the noises were such at all times of the +year that no one could sleep in the rooms, but the light +wasn’t to be seen except at Christmas.</p> +<p>Griff with the philosophy of a university man, was certain +that all was explained by Clarence having imbibed the impression +of the place being haunted; and going to sleep nervous at the +noises, his brain had shaped a phantom in accordance. Let +Clarence declare as he might that the legends were new to him, +Griff only smiled to think how easily people forgot, and he +talked earnestly about catching ideas without conscious +information.</p> +<p>However, he volunteered to sit up that night to ascertain the +exact causes of the strange noises and convince Clarence that +they were nothing but the effects of draughts. The fire in +his gunroom was surreptitiously kept up to serve for the vigil, +which I ardently desired to share. It was an enterprise; it +would gratify my curiosity; and besides, though Griffith was +good-natured and forbearing in a general way towards Clarence, I +detected a spirit of mockery about him which might break out +unpleasantly when poor Clarry was convicted of one of his +unreasonable panics.</p> +<p>Both brothers were willing to gratify me, the only difficulty +being that the tap of my crutches would warn the entire household +of the expedition. However, they had—all unknown to +my mother—several times carried me about queen’s +cushion fashion, as, being always much of a size, they could do +most handily; and as both were now fine, strong, well-made youths +of twenty and nineteen, they had no doubt of easily and silently +conveying me up the shallow-stepped staircase when all was quiet +for the night.</p> +<p>Emily, with her sharp ears, guessed that something was in +hand, but we promised her that she should know all in time. +I believe Griff, being a little afraid of her quickness, led her +to suppose he was going to hold what he called a symposium in his +rooms, and to think it a mystery of college life not intended for +young ladies.</p> +<p>He really had prepared a sort of supper for us when, after my +father’s resounding turn of the key of the drawing-room +door, my brothers, in their stocking soles, bore me upstairs, the +fun of the achievement for the moment overpowering all sense of +eeriness. Griff said he could not receive me in his +apartment without doing honour to the occasion, and that Dutch +courage was requisite for us both; but I suspect it was more in +accordance with Oxford habits that he had provided a bottle of +sherry and another of ale, some brandy cherries, bread, cheese, +and biscuits, by what means I do not know, for my mother always +locked up the wine. He was disappointed that Clarence would +touch nothing, and declared that inanition was the preparation +for ghost-seeing or imagining. I drank his health in a +glass of sherry as I looked round at the curious old room, with +its panelled roof, the heraldic devices and badges of the Power +family, and the trophy of swords, dirks, daggers, and pistols, +chiefly relics of our naval grandfather, but reinforced by the +sword, helmet, and spurs of the county Yeomanry which Griff had +joined.</p> +<p>Griff proposed cards to drive away fancies, especially as the +sounds were beginning; but though we generally yielded to him we +<i>could</i> not give our attention to anything but these. +There was first a low moan. ‘No great harm in +that,’ said Griff; ‘it comes through that crack in +the wainscot where there is a sham window. Some putty will +put a stop to that.’</p> +<p>Then came a more decided wail and sob much nearer to us. +Griff hastily swallowed the ale in his tumbler, and, striking a +theatrical attitude, exclaimed, ‘Angels and ministers of +grace defend us!’</p> +<p>Clarence held up his hand in deprecation. The door into +his bedroom was open, and Griff, taking up one of the flat +candlesticks, pursued his researches, holding the flame to all +chinks or cracks in the wainscotting to detect draughts which +might cause the dreary sounds, which were much more like +suppressed weeping than any senseless gust of wind. Of +draughts there were many, and he tried holding his hand against +each crevice to endeavour to silence the wails; but these became +more human and more distressful. Presently Clarence +exclaimed, ‘There!’ and on his face there was a +whiteness and an expression which always recurs to me on reading +those words of Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘Then a spirit passed +before my face, and the hair of my flesh stood up.’ +Even Griff was awestruck as we cried, ‘Where? +what?’</p> +<p>‘Don’t you see her? There! By the +press—look!’</p> +<p>‘I see a patch of moonlight on the wall,’ said +Griff.</p> +<p>‘Moonlight—her lamp. Edward, don’t you +see her?’</p> +<p>I could see nothing but a spot of light on the wall. +Griff (plainly putting a force on himself) came back and gave him +a good-natured shake. ‘Dreaming again, old +Bill. Wake up and come to your senses.’</p> +<p>‘I am as much in my senses as you are,’ said +Clarence. ‘I see her as plainly as I see +you.’</p> +<p>Nor could any one doubt either the reality of the awe in his +voice and countenance, nor of the light—a kind of hazy +ball—nor of the choking sobs.</p> +<p>‘What is she like?’ I asked, holding his hand, +for, though infected by his dread, my fears were chiefly for the +effect on him; but he was much calmer and less horror-struck than +on the previous night, though still he shuddered as he answered +in a low voice, as if loth to describe a lady in her presence, +‘A dark cloak with the hood fallen back, a kind of lace +headdress loosely fastened, brown hair, thin white face, +eyes—oh, poor thing!—staring with fright, +dark—oh, how swollen the lids! all red below with +crying—black dress with white about it—a widow kind +of look—a glove on the arm with the lamp. Is she +beckoning—looking at us? Oh, you poor thing, if I +could tell what you mean!’</p> +<p>I felt the motion of his muscles in act to rise, and grasped +him. Griff held him with a strong hand, hoarsely crying, +‘Don’t!—don’t—don’t follow +the thing, whatever you do!’</p> +<p>Clarence hid his face. It was very awful and +strange. Once the thought of conjuring her to speak by the +Holy Name crossed me, but then I saw no figure; and with +incredulous Griffith standing by, it would have been like +playing, nor perhaps could I have spoken. How long this +lasted there is no knowing; but presently the light moved towards +the walled-up door and seemed to pass into it. Clarence +raised his head and said she was gone. We breathed +freely.</p> +<p>‘The farce is over,’ said Griff. ‘Mr. +Edward Winslow’s carriage stops the way!’</p> +<p>I was hoisted up, candle in hand, between the two, and had +nearly reached the stairs when there came up on the garden side a +sound as of tipsy revellers in the garden. ‘The +scoundrels! how can they have got in?’ cried Griff, looking +towards the window; but all the windows on that side had +peculiarly heavy shutters and bars, with only a tiny heart-shaped +aperture very high up, so they somewhat hurried their steps +downstairs, intending to rush out on the intruders from the back +door. But suddenly, in the middle of the staircase, we +heard a terrible heartrending woman’s shriek, making us all +start and have a general fall. My brothers managed to seat +me safely on a step without much damage to themselves, but the +candle fell and was extinguished, and we made too heavy a weight +to fall without real noise enough to bring the household together +before we could pick ourselves up in the dark.</p> +<p>We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something about +pistols, impelling Griff to call out, ‘It’s nothing, +papa; but there are some drunken rascals in the +garden.’</p> +<p>A light had come by this time, and we were detected. +There was a general sally upon the enemy in the garden before any +one thought of me, except a ‘You here!’ when they +nearly fell over me. And there I was left sitting on the +stair, helpless without my crutches, till in a few minutes all +returned declaring there was nothing—no signs of anything; +and then as Clarence ran up to me with my crutches my father +demanded the meaning of my being there at that time of night.</p> +<p>‘Well, sir,’ said Griff, ‘it is only that we +have been sitting up to investigate the ghost.’</p> +<p>‘Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense! What +induced you to be dragging Edward about in this dangerous +way?’</p> +<p>‘I wished it,’ said I.</p> +<p>‘You are all mad together, I think. I won’t +have the house disturbed for this ridiculous folly. I shall +look into it to-morrow!’</p> +<h2><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +117</span>CHAPTER XV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">RATIONAL THEORIES.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">‘These are the +reasons, they are natural.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Julius Cæsar</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> anything could have made our +adventure more unpleasant to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow, it would have +been the presence of guests. However, inquiry was +suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my mother made +to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that Emily was +nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew more +about the popular version of the legend than any of us.</p> +<p>Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head was aching +from a bump against the edge of a step, and his cold was much +worse; no wonder, said my mother; but she was always softened by +any ailment, and feared that the phantoms were the effect of +coming illness. I have always thought that if Clarence +could have come home from his court-martial with a brain fever he +would have earned immediate forgiveness; but unluckily for him, +he was a very healthy person.</p> +<p>All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, +where my father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed +‘this preposterous business.’ In our morning +senses our impressions were much more vague than at midnight, and +we betrayed some confusion; but Griff and I had a strong instinct +of sheltering Clarence, and we stoutly declared the noises to be +beyond the capacities of wind, rats, or cats; that the light was +visible and inexplicable; and that though we had seen nothing +else, we could not doubt that Clarence did.</p> +<p>‘Thought he did,’ corrected my father.</p> +<p>‘Without discussing the word,’ said Griff, +‘I mean that the effect on his senses was the same as the +actual sight. You could not look at him without being +certain.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so,’ returned my mother. ‘I +wish Dr. Fellowes were near.’</p> +<p>Indeed nothing saved Clarence from being consigned to medical +treatment but the distance from Bath or Bristol, and the +contradictory advice that had been received from our county +neighbours as to our family doctor. However, she formed her +theory that his nervous imaginings—whether involuntary or +acted, she hoped the former, and wished she could be +sure—had infected us; and, as she was really uneasy about +him, she would not let him sleep in the mullion room, but having +nowhere else to bestow him, she turned out the man-servant and +put him into the little room beyond mine, and she also forbade +any mention of the subject to him that day.</p> +<p>This was a sore prohibition to Emily, who had been discussing +it with the other ladies, and was in a mingled state of elation +at the romance, and terror at the supernatural, which found vent +in excited giggle, and moved Griff to cram her with raw-head and +bloody-bone horrors, conventional enough to be suspicious, and +send her to me tearfully to entreat to know the truth. If +by day she exulted in a haunted chamber, in the evening she paid +for it by terrors at walking about the house alone, and, when +sent on an errand by my mother, looked piteous enough to be +laughed at or scolded on all sides.</p> +<p>The gentlemen had more serious colloquies, and the upshot was +a determination to sit up together and discover the origin of the +annoyance. Mr. Stafford’s antiquarian researches had +made him familiar with such mysteries, and enough of them had +been explained by natural causes to convince him that there was a +key to all the rest. Owls, coiners, and smugglers had all +been convicted of simulating ghosts. In one venerable +mansion, behind the wainscot, there had been discovered nine +skeletons of cats in different stages of decay, having trapped +themselves at various intervals of time, and during the gradual +extinction of their eighty-one lives having emitted cries enough +to establish the ghastly reputation of the place. Perhaps +Mr. Henderson was inclined to believe there were more things in +heaven and earth than were dreamt of in even an antiquary’s +philosophy. He owned himself perplexed, but reserved his +opinion.</p> +<p>At breakfast Clarence was quite well, except for the remains +of his sore throat, and the two seniors were gruff and brief as +to their watch. They had heard odd noises, and should +discover the cause; the carpenter had already been sent for, and +they had seen a light which was certainly due to reflection or +refraction. Mr. Henderson committed himself to nothing but +that ‘it was very extraordinary;’ and there was a +wicked look of diversion on Griff’s face, and an exchange +of glances. Afterwards, in our own domain, we extracted a +good deal more from them.</p> +<p>Griff told us how the two elders started on politics, and +denounced Brougham and O’Connell loud enough to terrify any +save the most undaunted ghost, till Henderson said +‘Hush!’ and they paused at the moan with which the +performance always commenced, making Mr. Stafford turn, as Griff +said, ‘white in the gills,’ though he talked of the +wind on the stillest of frosty nights. Then came the +sobbing and wailing, which certainly overawed them all; Henderson +called them ‘agonising,’ but Griff was in a manner +inured to this, and felt as if master of the ceremonies. +Let them say what they would by daylight about owls, cats, and +rats, they owned the human element then, and were far from +comfortable, though they would not compromise their good sense by +owning what both their younger companions had +perceived—their feeling of some undefinable presence. +Vain attempts had been made to account for the light or get rid +of it by changing the position of candles or bright objects in +the outer room; and Henderson had shut himself into the bedroom +with it; but there he still only saw the hazy light—though +all was otherwise pitch dark, except the keyhole and the small +gray patch of sky at the top of the window-shutters. +‘You saw nothing else?’ said Griff. ‘I +thought I heard you break out as Clarence did, just before my +father opened the door.’</p> +<p>‘Perhaps I did so. I had the sense strongly on me +of some being in grievous distress very near me.’</p> +<p>‘And you should have power over it,’ suggested +Emily.</p> +<p>‘I am afraid,’ he said, ‘that more thorough +conviction and comprehension are needed before I could address +the thing with authority. I should like to have stayed +longer and heard the conclusion.’</p> +<p>For Mr. Stafford had grown impatient and weary, and my father +having satisfied himself that there was something to be detected, +would not remain to the end, and not only carried his companions +off, but locked the doors, perhaps expecting to imprison some +agent in a trick, and find him in the morning.</p> +<p>Indeed Clarence had a dim remembrance of having been half +wakened by some one looking in on him in the night, when he was +sleeping heavily after his cold and the previous night’s +disturbance, and we suspected, though we would not say, that our +father might have wished to ascertain that he had no share in +producing these appearances. He was, however, fully +acquitted of all wilful deception in the case, and he was not +surprised, though he was disappointed, that his vision of the +lady was supposed to be the consequence of excited +imagination.</p> +<p>‘I can’t help it,’ he said to me in +private. ‘I have always seen or felt, or whatever you +may call it, things that others do not. Don’t you +remember how nobody would believe that I saw Lucy +Brooke?’</p> +<p>‘That was in the beginning of the measles.’</p> +<p>‘I know; and I will tell you something curious. +When I was at Gibraltar I met Mrs. Emmott—’</p> +<p>‘Mary Brooke?’</p> +<p>‘Yes; I spent a very happy Sunday with her. We +talked over old times, and she told me that Lucy had all through +her illness been very uneasy about having promised to bring me a +macaw’s feather the next time we played in the Square +gardens. It could not be sent to me for fear of carrying +the infection, but the dear girl was too light-headed to +understand, and kept on fretting and wandering about breaking her +word. I have no doubt the wish carried her spirit to me the +moment it was free,’ he added, with tears springing to his +eyes. He also said that before the court-martial he had, +night after night, dreams of sinking and drowning in huge waves, +and his friend Coles struggling to come to his aid, but being +forcibly withheld; and he had since learnt that Coles had +actually endeavoured to come from Plymouth to bear testimony to +his previous character, but had been refused leave, and told that +he could do no good.</p> +<p>There had been other instances of perception of a presence and +of a prescient foreboding. ‘It is like a sixth +sense,’ he said, ‘and a very uncomfortable one. +I would give much to be rid of it, for it is connected with all +that is worst in my life. I had it before Navarino, when no +one expected an engagement. It made me believe I should be +killed, and drove me to what was much worse—or at least I +used to think so.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t you now?’ I asked.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Clarence. ‘It was a great +mercy that I did not die then. There’s something to +conquer first. But you’ll never speak of this, +Ted. I have left off telling of such things—it only +gives another reason for disbelieving me.’</p> +<p>However, this time his veracity was not called in +question,—but he was supposed to be under a hallucination, +the creation of the noises acting on his imagination and memory +of the persecuted widow, which must have been somewhere dormant +in his mind, though he averred that he had never heard of +it. It had now, however, made a strong impression on him; +he was convinced that some crime or injustice had been +perpetrated, and thought it ought to be investigated; but +Griffith made us laugh at his championship of this shadow of a +shade, and even wrote some mock heroic verses about it,—nor +would it have been easy to stir my father to seek for the motives +of an apparition which no one in the family save Clarence +professed to have seen.</p> +<p>The noises were indisputable, but my mother began to suspect a +cause for them. To oblige a former cook we had brought down +with us as stable-boy her son, George Sims, an imp accustomed to +be the pet and jester of a mews. Martyn was only too fond +of his company, and he made no secret of his contempt for the +insufferable dulness of the country, enlivening it by various +acts of monkey-mischief, in some of which Martyn had been +implicated. That very afternoon, as Mrs. Sophia Selby was +walking home in the twilight from Chapman’s lodge, in +company with Mr. Henderson, an eldritch yell proceeding from the +vaults beneath the mullion chambers nearly frightened her into +fits. Henderson darted in and captured the two boys in the +fact. Martyn’s asseveration that he had taken the +pair for Griff and Emily would have pacified the good-natured +clergyman, but Mrs. Sophia was too much agitated, or too +spiteful, as we declared, not to make a scene.</p> +<p>Martyn spent the evening alone and in disgrace, and only his +unimpeachable character for truth caused the acceptance of his +affirmation that the yell was an impromptu fraternal compliment, +and that he had nothing to do with the noises in the mullion +chamber. He had been supposed to be perfectly unconscious +of anything of the kind, and to have never so much as heard of a +phantom, so my mother was taken somewhat aback when, in reply to +her demand whether he had ever been so naughty as to assist +George in making a noise in Clarence’s room, he said, +‘Why, that’s the ghost of the lady that was murdered +atop of the steps, and always walks every Christmas!’</p> +<p>‘Who told you such ridiculous nonsense?’</p> +<p>The answer ‘George’ was deemed conclusive that all +had been got up by that youth; and there was considerable +evidence of his talent for ventriloquism and taste for practical +jokes. My mother was certain that, having heard of the +popular superstition, he had acted ghost. She appealed to +<i>Woodstock</i> to prove the practicability of such feats; and +her absolute conviction persuaded the maids (who had given +warning <i>en masse</i>) that the enemy was exorcised when George +Sims had been sent off on the Royal Mail under Clarence’s +guardianship.</p> +<p>None of the junior part of the family believed him guilty, but +he had hunted the cows round the paddock, mounted on my donkey, +had nearly shot the kitchen-maid with Griff’s gun, and, if +not much maligned, knew the way to the apple-chamber only too +well,—so that he richly deserved his doom, rejoiced in it +himself, and was unregretted save by Martyn. Clarence +viewed him in the light of a victim, and tried to keep an eye on +him, but he developed his talent as a ventriloquist, made his +fortune, and retired on a public-house.</p> +<p>My mother would fain have had the vaults under the mullion +rooms bricked up, but Mr. Stafford cried out on the barbarism of +such a proceeding. The mystery was declared to be solved, +and was added to Mr. Stafford’s good stories of haunted +houses.</p> +<p>And at home my father forbade any further mention of such rank +folly and deception. The inner mullion chamber was turned +into a lumber-room, and as weeks passed by without hearing or +seeing any more of lady or of lamp, we began to credit the +wonderful freaks of the goblin page.</p> +<h2><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +126</span>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">CAT LANGUAGE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>Soon as she parted thence—the fearful +twayne,<br /> +That blind old woman and her daughter deare,<br /> +Came forth, and finding Kirkrapine there slayne,<br /> +For anguish greate they gan to rend their heare<br /> +And beate their breasts, and naked flesh to teare;<br /> +And when they both had wept and wayled their fill,<br /> +Then forth they ran, like two amazèd deere,<br /> +Half mad through malice and revenging will,<br /> +To follow her that was the causer of their +ill.’—<span class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Christmas vacation was not +without another breeze about Griffith’s expenses at +Oxford. He held his head high, and declared that people +expected something from the eldest son of a man of property, and +my father tried to convince him that a landed estate often left +less cash available than did the fixed salary of an office. +Griff treated all in his light, good-humoured way, promised to be +careful, and came to me to commiserate the poor old +gentleman’s ignorance of the ways of the new +generation.</p> +<p>There ensued some trying weeks of dark days, raw frost, and +black east wind, when the home party cast longing, lingering +recollections back to the social intercourse, lamp-lit streets, +and ready interchange of books and other amenities we had left +behind us. We were not accustomed to have our nearest +neighbours separated from us by two miles of dirty lane, or road +mended with excruciating stones, nor were they very congenial +when we did see them. The Fordyce family might be +interesting, but we younger ones could not forget the slight to +Clarence, and, besides, the girls seemed to be entirely in the +schoolroom, Mrs. Fordyce was delicate and was shut up all the +winter, and the only intercourse that took place was when my +father met the elder Mr. Fordyce at the magistrates’ bench; +also there was a conference about Amos Bell, who was preferred to +the post left vacant by George Sims, in right of his being our +tenant, but more civilised than Earlscombers, a widow’s +son, and not sufficiently recovered from his accident to be +exposed to the severe tasks of a ploughboy in the winter.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce was the manager of a book-club, which circulated +volumes covered in white cartridge paper, with a printed list of +the subscribers’ names. Two volumes at a time might +be kept for a month by each member in rotation, novels were +excluded, and the manager had a veto on all orders. We +found her more liberal than some of our other neighbours, who +looked on our wants and wishes with suspicion as savouring of +London notions. Happily we could read old books and +standard books over again, and we gloated over <i>Blackwood</i> +and the <i>Quarterly</i>, enjoying, too, every out-of-door +novelty of the coming spring, as each revealed itself. +Emily will never forget her first primroses, nor I the first +thrush in early morning.</p> +<p>Blankets, broth, and what were uncomfortably termed broken +victuals had been given away during the winter, and a bewildering +amount of begging women and children used to ask interviews with +‘the Lady Winslow,’ with stories that crumbled on +investigation so as to make us recollect the Rector’s +character of Earlscombe.</p> +<p>However, Mr. Henderson came in the second week of Lent, and +what our steps towards improvement introduced would have seemed +almost as shocking to you youngsters, as what they +displaced. For instance, a plain crimson cloth covered the +altar, instead of the rags in the colours of the Winslow livery, +presented, according to the queer old register, by the +unfortunate Margaret. There was talk of velvet and the gold +monogram, surrounded by rays, alternately straight and wavy, as +in our London church, but this was voted ‘unfit for a plain +village church.’ Still, the new hangings of pulpit, +desk, and altar were all good in quality and colour, and huge +square cushions were provided as essential to each. +Moreover, the altar vessels were made somewhat more +respectable,—all this being at my father’s +expense.</p> +<p>He also carried in the Vestry, though not without strong +opposition from a dissenting farmer, that new linen and a fresh +surplice should be provided by the parish, which surplice would +have made at least six of such as are at present worn. The +farmers were very jealous of the interference of the Squire in +the Vestry—‘what he had no call to,’ and of +church rates applied to any other object than the reward of +birdslayers, as thus, in the register—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Hairy Wills, 1 score sprows heds</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Jems Brown, 1 poulcat</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Jarge Bell, 2 howls</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>It was several years before this appropriation of the church +rates could be abolished. The year 1830, with a brand new +squire and parson, was too ticklish a time for many +innovations.</p> +<p>Hillside Church was the only one in the neighbourhood where +Holy Week or Ascension Day had been observed in the memory of +man. When we proposed going to church on the latter day the +gardener asked my mother ‘if it was her will to keep +Thursday holy,’ as if he expected its substitution for +Sunday. Monthly Communions and Baptisms after the Second +Lesson were viewed as ‘not fit for a country church,’ +and every attempt at even more secular improvements was treated +with the most disappointing distrust and aversion. When my +father laid out the allotment grounds, the labourers suspected +some occult design for his own profit, and the farmers objected +that the gardens would be used as an excuse for neglecting their +work and stealing their potatoes. Coal-club and +clothing-club were regarded in like manner, and while a few took +advantage of these offers in a grudging manner, the others viewed +everything except absolute gifts as ‘me-an’ on our +part, the principle of aid to self-help being an absolute +novelty. When I look back to the notes in our journals of +that date I see how much has been overcome.</p> +<p>Perhaps we listened more than was strictly wise to the +revelations of Amos Bell, when he attended Emily and me on our +expeditions with the donkey. Though living over the border +of Hillside, he had a family of relations at Earlscombe, and for +a time lodged with his grandmother there. When his shyness +and lumpishness gave way, he proved so bright that Emily +undertook to carry on his education. He soon had a +wonderful eye for a wild flower, and would climb after it with +the utmost agility; and when once his tongue was loosed, he +became almost too communicative, and made us acquainted with the +opinions of ‘they Earlscoom folk’ with a freedom not +to be found in an elder or a native.</p> +<p>Moreover, he was the brightest light of the Sunday school +which Mr. Henderson opened at once—for want of a more +fitting place—in the disused north transept of the +church. It was an uncouth, ill-clad crew which assembled on +those dilapidated paving tiles. Their own grandchildren +look almost as far removed from them in dress and civilisation as +did my sister in her white worked cambric dress, silk scarf, huge +Tuscan bonnet, and the little curls beyond the lace quilling +round her bright face, far rosier than ever it had been in +town. And what would the present generation say to the odd +little contrivances in the way of cotton sun-bonnets, check +pinafores, list tippets, and print capes, and other wonderful +manufactures from the rag-bag, which were then grand prizes and +stimulants?</p> +<p>Previous knowledge or intelligence scarcely existed, and then +was not due to Dame Dearlove’s tuition. Mr. Henderson +pronounced an authorised school a necessity. My father had +scruples as to vested rights, for the old woman was the last +survivor of a family who had had recourse to primer and hornbook +after their ejection on ‘black Bartholomew’s +Day;’ and when the meeting-house was built after the +Revolution, had combined preaching with teaching. Monopoly +had promoted degeneracy, and this last of the race was an +unfavourable specimen in all save outward picturesqueness. +However, much against Henderson’s liking, an accommodation +was proposed, by which books were to be supplied to her, and the +Church Catechism be taught in her school, with the assistance of +the curate and Miss Winslow.</p> +<p>The terms were rejected with scorn. No School Board +could be more determined against the Catechism, nor against +‘passons meddling wi’ she;’ and as to +assistance, ‘she had been a governess this thirty year, and +didn’t want no one trapesing in and out of her +school.’</p> +<p>She was warned, but probably did not believe in the +possibility of an opposition school; and really there were +children enough in the place to overfill both her room and that +which was fitted up after a very humble fashion in one of our +cottages. H.M. Inspector would hardly have thought it even +worth condemnation any more than the attainments of the mistress, +the young widow of a small Bristol skipper. Her +qualifications consisted in her piety and conscientiousness, good +temper and excellent needlework, together with her having been a +scholar in one of Mrs. Hannah More’s schools in the Cheddar +district. She could read and teach reading well; but as for +the dangerous accomplishments of writing and arithmetic, such as +desired to pass beyond the rudiments of them must go to +Wattlesea.</p> +<p>So nice did she look in her black that Earlscombe voted her a +mere town lady, and even at a penny a week hesitated to send its +children to her. Indeed it was currently reported that her +school was part of a deep and nefarious scheme of the gentlefolks +for reducing the poor-rates by enticing the children, and then +shipping them off to foreign parts from Bristol.</p> +<p>But the great crisis was one unlucky summer evening when Emily +and I were out with the donkey, and Griffith, just come home from +Oxford, was airing the new acquisition of a handsome black +retriever.</p> +<p>Close by the old chapel, a black cat was leisurely crossing +the road. At her dashed Nero, stimulated perhaps by an +almost involuntary scss—scss—from his master, if not +from Amos and me. The cat flew up a low wall, and stood at +bay on the top on tiptoe, with bristling tail, arched back, and +fiery eyes, while the dog danced round in agony on his hind legs, +barking furiously, and almost reaching her. Female sympathy +ever goes to the cat, and Emily screamed out in the fear that he +would seize her, or even that Griff might aid him. Perhaps +Amos would have done so, if left to himself; but Griff, who saw +the cat was safe, could not help egging on his dog’s +impotent rage, when in the midst, out flew pussy’s +mistress, Dame Dearlove herself, broomstick in hand, using +language as vituperative as the cat’s, and more +intelligible.</p> +<p>She was about to strike the dog—indeed I fancy she did, +for there was a howl, and Griff sprang to his defence +with—‘Don’t hurt my dog, I say! He +hasn’t touched the brute! She can take care of +herself. Here, there’s half-a-crown for the +fright,’ as the cat sprang down within the wall, and Nero +slunk behind him. But Dame Dearlove was not so easily +appeased. Her blood was up after our long series of +offences, and she broke into a regular tirade of abuse.</p> +<p>‘That’s the way with you fine folk, thinking you +can tread down poor people like the dirt under your feet, and +insult ’em when you’ve taken the bread out of the +mouths of them that were here before you. Passons and +ladies a meddin’ where no one ever set a foot before! +Ay, ay, but ye’ll all be down before long.’</p> +<p>Griff signed to us to go on, and thundered out on her to take +care what she was about and not be abusive; but this brought a +fresh volley on him, heralded by a derisive laugh. +‘Ha! ha! fine talking for the likes of you, Winslows that +you are. But there’s a curse on you all! The +poor lady as was murdered won’t let you be! Why, +there’s one of you, poor humpy object—’</p> +<p>At this savage attack on me, Griff waxed furious, and shouted +at her to hold her confounded tongue, but this only diverted the +attack on himself. ‘And as for you—fine chap as +ye think yourself, swaggering and swearing at poor folk, and +setting your dog at them—your time’s coming. +Look out for yourself. It’s well known as how the +curse is on the first-born. The Lady Margaret don’t +let none of ’em live to come after his father.’</p> +<p>Griff laughed and said, ‘There, we have had enough of +this;’ and in fact we had already moved on, so that he had +to make some long steps to overtake us, muttering, ‘So +we’ve started a Meg Merrilies! My father won’t +keep such a foul-mouthed hag in the parish long!’</p> +<p>To which I had to respond that her cottage belonged to the +trustees of the chapel, whereat he whistled. I don’t +think he knew that we had heard her final denunciation, and we +did not like to mention it to him, scarcely to each other, though +Emily looked very white and scared.</p> +<p>We talked it over afterwards in private, and with Henderson, +who confessed that he had heard of the old woman’s saying +something of the kind to other persons. We consulted the +registers in hopes of confuting it, but did not satisfy +ourselves. The last Squire had lost his only son at +school. He himself had been originally second in the +family, and in the generation before him there had been some +child-deaths, after which we came back to a young man, apparently +the eldest, who, according to Miss Selby’s story, had been +killed in a duel by one of the Fordyces. It was not +comfortable, till I remembered that our family Bible recorded the +birth, baptism, and death of a son who had preceded Griffith, and +only borne for a day the name afterwards bestowed on me.</p> +<p>And Henderson, who was so little our elder as to discuss +things on fairly equal grounds, had some very interesting talks +with us two over ancestral sin and its possible effects, dwelling +on the 18th of Ezekiel as a comment on the Second +Commandment. Indeed, we agreed that the uncomfortable state +of disaffection which, in 1830, was becoming only too manifest in +the populace, was the result of neglect in former ages, and that, +even in our own parish, the bitterness, distrust, and ingratitude +were due to the careless, riotous, and oppressive family whom we +represented.</p> +<h2><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>CHAPTER XVII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE SIEGE OF HILLSIDE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Ferments arise, imprisoned factions +roar,<br /> +Represt ambition struggles round the shore;<br /> +Till, overwrought, the general system feels<br /> +Its motion stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Goldsmith</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Griffith</span> had come straight home +this year. There were no Peacock gaieties to tempt him in +London, for old Sir Henry had died suddenly soon after the ball +in December; nor was there much of a season that year, owing to +the illness and death of George IV.</p> +<p>A regiment containing two old schoolmates of his was at +Bristol, and he spent a good deal of time there, and also in +Yeomanry drill. As autumn came on we rejoiced in having so +stalwart a protector, for the agricultural riots had begun, and +the forebodings of another French Revolution seemed about to be +realised. We stayed on at Chantry House. My father +thought his duty lay there as a magistrate, and my mother would +not leave him; nor indeed was any other place much safer, +certainly not London, whence Clarence wrote accounts of +formidable mobs who were expected to do more harm than they +accomplished; though their hatred of the hero of our country +filled us with direful prognostications, and made us think of the +guillotine, which was linked with revolution in our minds, before +we had I beheld the numerous changes that followed upon the +thirty years of peace in which we grew up.</p> +<p>The ladies did not much like losing so stalwart a defender +when Griff returned to Oxford; and Jane the housemaid went to bed +every night with the pepper-pot and a poker, the first wherewith +to blind the enemy, the second to charge them with. From +our height we could more than once see blazing ricks, and were +glad that the home farm was not in our own hands, and that our +only stack of hay was a good way from the house. When the +onset came at last, it was December, and the enemy only consisted +of about thirty dreary-looking men and boys in smock-frocks and +chalked or smutted faces, armed only with sticks and an old gun +diverted from its purpose of bird-scaring. They shouted for +food, money, and arms; but my father spoke to them from the hall +steps, told them they had better go home and learn that the +public-house was a worse enemy to them than any machine that had +ever been invented, and assured them that they would get no help +from him in breaking the laws and getting themselves into +trouble. A stone or two was picked up, whereupon he went +back and had the hall door shut and barred, the heavy shutters of +the windows having all been closed already, so that we could have +stood a much more severe siege than from these poor +fellows. One or two windows were broken, as well as the +glass of the conservatory, and the flower beds were trampled; but +finding our fortress impregnable they sneaked away before +dark. We fared better than our neighbours, some of whom +were seriously frightened, and suffered loss of property. +Old Mr. Fordyce had for many years past been an active +magistrate—that a clergyman should be on the bench having +been quite correct according to the notions of his younger days; +and in spite of his beneficence he incurred a good deal of +unpopularity for withstanding the lax good-nature which made his +brother magistrates give orders for parish relief refused to +able-bodied paupers by their own Vestries. This was a +mischievous abuse of the old poor-law times, which made people +dispose of every one’s money save their own. He had +also been a keen sportsman; and though his son had given up field +sports in deference to higher notions of clerical duty (his +wife’s, as people said), the old man’s feeling +prompted him to severity on poachers. Frank Fordyce, while +by far the most earnest, hardworking clergyman in the +neighbourhood, worked off his superfluous energy on scientific +farming, making the glebe and the hereditary estate as much the +model farm as Hillside was the model parish. He had lately +set up a threshing-machine worked by horses, which was as much +admired by the intelligent as it was vituperated by the +ignorant.</p> +<p>Neither paupers nor poachers abounded in Hillside; the natives +were chiefly tenants and employed on the property, and, between +good management and beneficence, there was little real want and +much friendly confidence and affection; and thus, in spite of +surrounding riots, Hillside seemed likely to be an exception, +proving what could he done by rightful care and attention. +Nor indeed did the attack come from thence; but the two parsons +were bitterly hated by outsiders beyond the reach of their +personal influence and benevolence.</p> +<p>It was on a Saturday evening, the day after Griff had come +back for the Christmas vacation, that, as Emily was giving Amos +his lesson, she saw that the boy was crying, and after +examination he let out that ‘folk should say that the lads +were agoing to break Parson Fordy’s machine and fire his +ricks that very night;’ but he would not give his +authority, and when he saw her about to give warning, entreated, +‘Now, dont’ze say nothing, Miss +Emily—’</p> +<p>‘What?’ she cried indignantly; ‘do you think +I could hear of such a thing without trying to stop +it?’</p> +<p>‘Us says,’ he blurted out, ‘as how Winslows +be always fain of ought as happens to the +Fordys—’</p> +<p>‘We are not such wicked Winslows as you have heard +of,’ returned Emily with dignity; and she rushed off in +quest of papa and Griff, but when she brought them to the +bookroom, Amos had decamped, and was nowhere to be found that +night. We afterwards learnt that he lay hidden in the +hay-loft, not daring to return to his granny’s, lest he +should be suspected of being a traitor to his kind; for our +lawless, untamed, discontented parish furnished a large quota to +the rioters, and he has since told me that though all seemed to +know what was about to be done, he did not hear it from any one +in particular.</p> +<p>It was no time to make light of a warning, but very difficult +to know what to do. Rural police were non-existent; there +were no soldiers nearer than Keynsham, and the Yeomanry were all +in their own homesteads. However, the captain of +Griff’s troop, Sir George Eastwood, lived about three miles +beyond Wattlesea, and had a good many dependants in the corps, so +it was resolved to send him a note by the gardener, good James +Ellis, a steady, resolute man, on Emily’s fast-trotting +pony, while my father and Griff should hasten to Hillside to warn +the Fordyces, who were not unlikely to be able to muster +trustworthy defenders among their own people, and might send the +ladies to take shelter at Chantry House.</p> +<p>My mother’s brave spirit disdained to detain an +effective man for her own protection, and the groom was to go to +Hillside; he was in the Yeomanry, and, like Griff, put on his +uniform, while my father had the Riot Act in his pocket. +All the horses were thus absorbed, but Chapman and the +man-servant followed on foot.</p> +<p>Never did I feel my incapacity more than on that strange +night, when Emily was flying about with Martyn to all the doors +and windows in a wild state of excitement, humming to +herself—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘When the dawn on the mountain was misty and +gray,<br /> +My true love has mounted his steed and away.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>My mother was equally restless, prolonging as much as possible +the preparation of rooms for possible guests; and when she did +come and sit down, she netted her purse with vehement jerks, and +scolded Emily for jumping up and leaving doors open.</p> +<p>At last, after an hour according to the clock, but far more by +our feelings, wheels were heard in the distance; Emily was off +like a shot to reconnoitre, and presently Martyn bounced in with +the tidings that a pair of carriage lamps were coming up the +drive. My mother hurried out into the hall; I made my best +speed after her, and found her hastily undoing the door-chain as +she recognised the measured, courteous voice of old Mr. +Fordyce. In a moment more they were all in the house, the +old gentleman giving his arm to his daughter-in-law, who was +quite overcome with distress and alarm; then came his tall, slim +granddaughter, carrying her little sister with arms full of +dolls, and sundry maid-servants completed the party of +fugitives.</p> +<p>‘We are taking advantage of Mr. Winslow’s +goodness,’ said the old Rector. ‘He assured us +that you would be kind enough to receive those who would only be +an encumbrance.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, but I must go back to Frank now that you and the +children are safe,’ cried the poor lady. +‘Don’t send away the carriage; I must go back to +Frank.’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense, my dear,’ returned Mr. Fordyce, +‘Frank is in no danger. He will get on much better +for knowing you are safe. Mrs. Winslow will tell you +so.’</p> +<p>My mother was enforcing this assurance, when the little +girl’s sobs burst out in spite of her sister, who had been +trying to console her. ‘It is Celestina Mary,’ +she cried, pointing to three dolls whom she had carried in +clasped to her breast. ‘Poor Celestina Mary! +She is left behind, and Ellen won’t let me go and see if +she is in the carriage.’</p> +<p>‘My dear, if she is in the carriage, she will be quite +safe in the morning.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, but she will be so cold. She had nothing on +but Rosella’s old petticoat.’</p> +<p>The distress was so real that I had my hand on the bell to +cause a search to be instituted for the missing damsel, when Mrs. +Fordyce begged me to do no such thing, as it was only a +doll. The child, while endeavouring to shelter with a shawl +the dolls, snatched in their night-gear from their beds, wept so +piteously at the rebuff that her grandfather had nearly gone in +quest of the lost one, but was stopped by a special entreaty that +he would not spoil the child. Martyn, however, who had been +standing in open-mouthed wonder at such feeling for a doll, +exclaimed, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry. +I’ll go and get it for you;’ and rushed off to the +stable-yard.</p> +<p>This episode had restored Mrs. Fordyce, and while providing +some of our guests with wine, and others with tea, we heard the +story, only interrupted by Martyn’s return from a vain +search, and Anne’s consequent tears, which, however, were +somehow hushed and smothered by fears of being sent to bed, +coupled with his promises to search every step of the way +to-morrow.</p> +<p>It appeared that while the Fordyce family were at dinner, +shouts, howls and yells had startled them. The rabble had +surrounded the Rectory, bawling out abuse of the parsons and +their machines, and occasionally throwing stones. There was +no help to be expected; the only hope was in the strength of the +doors and windows, and the knowledge that personal violence was +very uncommon; but those were terrible moments, and poor Mrs. +Fordyce was nearly dead with suppressed terror when her husband +tried haranguing from an upper window, and was received with +execrations and a volley of stones, while the glass crashed round +him.</p> +<p>At that instant the shouts turned to yells of dismay, +‘The so’diers! the so’diers!’</p> +<p>Our party had found everything still and dark in the village, +for in truth the men had hidden themselves. They were being +too much attached to their masters to join in the attack, but +were afraid of being compelled to assist the rioters, and not +resolute enough against their own class either to inform against +them or oppose them.</p> +<p>Through the midnight-like stillness of the street rose the +tumult around the Rectory; and by the light of a few lanterns, +and from the upper windows, they could see a mass of old hats, +smock-frocked shoulders, and the tops of bludgeons; while at +soonest, Sir George Eastwood’s troop could not be expected +for an hour or more.</p> +<p>‘We must get to them somehow,’ said my father and +Griff to one another; and Griff added, ‘These rascals are +arrant cowards, and they can’t see the number of +us.’</p> +<p>Then, before my father knew what he was about—certainly +before he could get hold of the Riot Act—he found the +stable lantern made over to him, and Griff’s sword flashing +in light, as, making all possible clatter and jingling with their +accoutrements, the two yeomen dashed among the throng, shouting +with all their might, and striking with the flat of their +swords. The rioters, ill-fed, dull-hearted men for the most +part—many dragged out by compulsion, and already +terrified—went tumbling over one another and running off +headlong, bearing off with them (as we afterwards learnt) their +leaders by their weight, taking the blows and pushes they gave +one another in their pell-mell rush for those of the soldiery, +and falling blindly against the low wall of the enclosure. +The only difficulty was in clearing them out at the two gates of +the drive.</p> +<p>When Mr. Fordyce opened the door to hail his rescuers he was +utterly amazed to behold only three, and asked in a bewildered +voice, ‘Where are the others?’</p> +<p>There were two prisoners, Petty the ratcatcher, who had +attempted some resistance and had been knocked down by +Griff’s horse, and a young lad in a smock-frock who had +fallen off the wall and hurt his knee, and who blubbered +piteously, declaring that them chaps had forced him to go with +them, or they would duck him in the horse-pond. They were +supposed to be given in charge to some one, but were lost sight +of, and no wonder! For just then it was discovered that the +machine shed was on fire. The rioters had apparently +detached one of their number to kindle the flame before +assaulting the house. The matter was specially serious, +because the stackyard was on a line with the Rectory, at some +distance indeed, but on lower ground; and what with barns, hay +and wheat ricks, sheds, cowhouses and stables, all thatched, a +big wood-pile, and a long old-fashioned greenhouse, there was +almost continuous communication. Clouds of smoke and an +ominous smell were already perceptible on the wind, generated by +the heat, and the loose straw in the centre of the farmyard was +beginning to be ignited by the flakes and sparks, carrying the +mischief everywhere, and rendering it exceedingly difficult to +release the animals and drive them to a place of safety. +Water was scarce. There were only two wells, besides the +pump in the house, and a shallow pond. The brook was a +quarter of a mile off in the valley, and the nearest engine, a +poor feeble thing, at Wattlesea. Moreover, the assailants +might discover how small was the force of rescuers, and return to +the attack. Thus, while Griff, who had given amateur +assistance at all the fires he could reach in London; was +striving to organise resistance to this new enemy, my father +induced the gentlemen to cause the horses to be put to the +various vehicles, and employ them in carrying the women and +children to Chantry House. The old Rector was persuaded to +go to take care of his daughter-in-law, and she only thought of +putting her girls in safety. She listened to reason, and +indeed was too much exhausted to move when once she was laid on +the sofa. She would not hear of going to bed, though her +little daughter Anne was sent off with her nurse, grandpapa +persuading her that Rosella and the others were very much +tired. When she was gone, he declared his fears that he had +sat down on Celestina’s head, and showed so much +compunction that we were much amused at his relief when Martyn +assured him of having searched the carriage with a stable +lantern, so that whatever had befallen the lady he was not the +guilty person. He really seemed more concerned about this +than at the loss of all his own barns and stores. And +little Anne was certainly as lovely and engaging a little +creature as ever I saw; while, as to her elder sister, in all the +trouble and anxiety of the night, I could not help enjoying the +sight of her beautiful eager face and form. She was tall +and very slight, sylph-like, as it was the fashion to call it, +but every limb was instinct with grace and animation. Her +face was, perhaps, rather too thin for robust health, though this +enhanced the idea of her being all spirit, as also did the +transparency of complexion, tinted with an exquisite varying +carnation. Her eyes were of a clear, bright, rather light +brown, and were sparkling with the lustre of excitement, her +delicate lips parted, showing the pretty pearly teeth, as she was +telling Emily, in a low voice of enthusiasm, scarcely designed +for my ears, how glorious a sight our brother had been, riding +there in his glancing silver, bearing down all before him with +his good sword, like the Captal de Buch dispersing the +Jacquerie.</p> +<p>To which Emily responded, ‘Oh, don’t you love the +Captal de Buch?’ And their friendship was +cemented.</p> +<p>Next I heard, ‘And that you should have been so good +after all my rudeness. But I thought you were like the old +Winslows; and instead of that you have come to the rescue of your +enemies. Isn’t it beautiful?’</p> +<p>‘Oh no, not enemies,’ said Emily. +‘That was all over a hundred years ago!’</p> +<p>‘So my papa and grandpapa say,’ returned Miss +Fordyce; ‘but the last Mr. Winslow was not a very nice man, +and never would be civil to us.’</p> +<p>A report was brought that the glare of the fire could be seen +over the hill from the top of the house, and off went the two +young ladies to the leads, after satisfying themselves that Anne +was asleep among her homeless dolls.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Fordyce devoted himself to keeping up the spirits of +his daughter-in-law as the night advanced without any tidings, +except that the girls, from time to time, rushed down to tell us +of fresh outbursts of red flame reflected in the sky, then that +the glow was diminishing; by which time they were tired out, and, +both sinking into a big armchair, they went to sleep in each +other’s arms. Indeed I believe we all dozed more or +less before any one returned from the scene of action—at +about three o’clock.</p> +<p>The struggle with the flames had been very unequal. The +long tongues soon reached the roof of the large barn, which was +filled with straw, nor could the flakes of burning thatch be kept +from the stable, while the water of the pond was soon reduced to +mud. Helpers began to flock in, but who could tell which +were trustworthy? and all were uncomprehending.</p> +<p>There was so little hope of saving the house that the removal +of everything valuable was begun under my father’s +superintendence. Frank Fordyce was here, there, and +everywhere; while Griffith, like a gallant general, fought the +foe with very helpless unmanageable forces. Villagers, male +and female, had emerged and stood gaping round; but, let him rage +and storm as he might, they would not go and collect pails and +buckets and form a line to the brook. Still less would they +assist in overthrowing and carrying away the faggots of a big +wood-pile so as to cut off the communication with the +offices. Only Chapman and one other man gave any help in +this; and presently the stack caught, and Griff, on the top, was +in great peril of the faggots rolling down with him into the +middle, and imprisoning him in the blazing pile. ‘I +never felt so like Dido,’ said Griff.</p> +<p>That woodstack gave fearful aliment to the roaring flame, +which came on so fast that the destruction of the adjoining +buildings quickly followed. The Wattlesea engine had come, +but the yard well was unattainable, and all that could be done +was to saturate the house with water from its own well, and cover +the side with wet blankets; but these reeked with steam, and then +shrivelled away in the intense glow of heat.</p> +<p>However, by this time the Eastwood Yeomanry, together with +some reasonable men, had arrived. A raid was made on the +cottages for buckets, a chain formed to the river, and at last +the fire was got under, having made a wreck of everything +out-of-doors, and consumed one whole wing of the house, though +the older and more esteemed portion was saved.</p> +<h2><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE PORTRAIT.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘When day was gone and night was come,<br /> + And all men fast asleep,<br /> +There came the spirit of fair Marg’ret<br /> + And stood at William’s feet.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Scotch Ballad</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I emerged from my room the +next morning the phaeton was at the door to take the two +clergymen to reconnoitre their abode before going to +church. Miss Fordyce went with them, and my father was for +once about to leave his parish church to give them his sympathy, +and join in their thanksgiving that neither life nor limb had +been injured. He afterwards said that nothing could have +been more touching than old Mr. Fordyce’s manner of +mentioning this special cause for gratitude before the General +Thanksgiving; and Frank Fordyce, having had all his sermons +burnt, gave a short address extempore (a very rare and almost +shocking thing at that date), reducing half the congregation to +tears, for they really loved ‘the fam’ly,’ +though they had not spirit enough to defend it; and their +passiveness always remained a subject of pride and pleasure to +the Fordyces. It was against the will of these good people +that Petty, the ratcatcher, was arrested, but he had been engaged +in other outrages, though this was the only one in which a +dwelling-house had suffered. And Chapman observed that +‘there was nothing to be done with such chaps but to string +’em up out of the way.’</p> +<p>Griff had toiled that night till he was as stiff as a +rheumatic old man when he came down only just in time for +luncheon. Mrs. Fordyce did not appear at all. She was +a fragile creature, and quite knocked up by the agitations of the +night. The gentlemen had visited the desolate rectory, and +found that though the fine ancient kitchen had escaped, the +pleasant living rooms had been injured by the water, and the +place could hardly be made habitable before the spring. +They proposed to take a house in Bath, whence Frank Fordyce could +go and come for Sunday duty and general superintendence, but my +parents were urgent that they should not leave us until after +Christmas, and they consented. Their larger possessions +were to be stored in the outhouses, their lesser in our house, +notably in the inner mullion chamber, which would thus be so +blocked that there would be no question of sleeping in it.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Fordyce had ascertained that he might acquit himself +of smashing Celestina Mary, for no remains appeared in the +carriage; but a miserable trunk was discovered in the ruins, +which he identified—though surely no one else save the +disconsolate parent could have done so. Poor little +Anne’s private possessions had suffered most severely of +all, for her whole nursery establishment had vanished. Her +surviving dolls were left homeless, and devoid of all save their +night-clothing, which concerned her much more than the loss of +almost all her own garments. For what dolls were to her +could never have been guessed by us, who had forced Emily to +disdain them; whereas they were children to the maternal heart of +this lonely child.</p> +<p>She was quite a new revelation to us. All the Fordyces +were handsome; and her chestnut curls and splendid eyes, her +pretty colour and unconscious grace, were very charming. +Emily was so near our own age that we had never known the +winsomeness of a little maid-child amongst us, and she was a +perpetual wonder and delight to us.</p> +<p>Indeed, from having always lived with her elders, she was an +odd little old-fashioned person, advanced in some ways, and +comically simple in others. Her doll-heart was kept in +abeyance all Sunday, and it was only on Monday that her anxiety +for Celestina manifested itself with considerable vehemence; but +her grandfather gravely informed her that the young lady was gone +to an excellent doctor, who would soon effect a cure. The +which was quite true, for he had sent her to a toy-shop by one of +the maids who had gone to restore the ravage on the wardrobes, +and who brought her back with a new head and arms, her identity +apparently not being thus interfered with. The hoards of +scraps were put under requisition to re-clothe the survivors; and +I won my first step in Miss Anne’s good graces by +undertaking a knitted suit for Rosella.</p> +<p>The good little girl had evidently been schooled to repress +her dread and repugnance at my unlucky appearance, and was +painfully polite, only shutting her eyes when she came to shake +hands with me; but after Rosella condescended to adopt me, we +became excellent friends. Indeed the following conversation +was overheard by Emily, and set down:</p> +<p>‘Do you know, Martyn, there’s a fairies’ +ring on Hillside Down?’</p> +<p>‘Mushrooms,’ quoth Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Yes, don’t you know? They are the +fairies’ tables. They come out and spread them with +lily tablecloths at night, and have acorn cups for dishes, with +honey in them. And they dance and play there. Well, +couldn’t Mr. Edward go and sit under the beech-tree at the +edge till they come?’</p> +<p>‘I don’t think he would like it at all,’ +said Martyn. ‘He never goes out at odd +times.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, but don’t you know? when they come they begin +to sing—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘“Sunday and Monday,<br /> +Monday and Tuesday.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And if he was to sing nicely,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘“Wednesday and Thursday,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>they would be so much pleased that they would make his back +straight again in a moment. At least, perhaps Wednesday and +Thursday would not do, because the little tailor taught them +those; but Friday makes them angry. But suppose he made +some nice verse—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘“Monday and Tuesday<br /> +The fairies are gay,<br /> +Tuesday and Wednesday<br /> +They dance away—”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I think that would do as well, perhaps. Do get him to do +so, Martyn. It would be so nice if he was tall and +straight.’</p> +<p>Dear little thing! Martyn, who was as much her slave as +was her grandfather, absolutely made her shed tears over his +history of our accident, and then caressed them off; but I +believe he persuaded her that such a case might be beyond the +fairies’ reach, and that I could hardly get to the spot in +secret, which, it seems, is an essential point. He had +imagination enough to be almost persuaded of fairyland by her +earnestness, and she certainly took him into doll-land. He +had a turn for carpentry and contrivance, and he undertook that +the Ladies Rosella, etc., should be better housed than +ever. A great packing-case was routed out, and much +ingenuity was expended, much delight obtained, in the process of +converting it into a doll’s mansion, and replenishing it +with furniture. Some was bought, but Martyn aspired to make +whatever he could; I did a good deal, and I believe most of our +achievements are still extant. Whatever we could not +manage, Clarence was to accomplish when he should come home.</p> +<p>His arrival was, as usual, late in the evening; and, as +before, he had the little room within mine. In the morning, +as we were crossing the hall to the bright wood fire, around +which the family were wont to assemble before prayers, he came to +a pause, asking under his breath, ‘What’s that? +Who’s that?’</p> +<p>‘It is one of the Hillside pictures. You know we +have a great many things here from thence.’</p> +<p>‘It is <i>she</i>,’ he said, in a low, +awe-stricken voice. No need to say who <i>she</i> +meant.</p> +<p>I had not paid much attention to the picture. It had +come with several more, such as are rife in country houses, and +was one of the worst of the lot, a poor imitation of Lely’s +style, with a certain air common to all the family; but +Clarence’s eyes were riveted on it. ‘She looks +younger,’ he said; ‘but it is the same. I could +swear to the lip and the whole shape of the brow and chin. +No—the dress is different.’</p> +<p>For in the portrait, there was nothing on the head, and one +long lock of hair fell on the shoulder of the low-cut white-satin +dress, done in very heavy gray shading. The three girls +came down together, and I asked who the lady was.</p> +<p>‘Don’t you know? You ought; for that is poor +Margaret who married your ancestor.’</p> +<p>No more was said then, for the rest of the world was +collecting, and then everybody went out their several ways. +Some tin tacks were wanted for the dolls’ house, and there +were reports that Wattlesea possessed a doll’s grate and +fire-irons. The children were wild to go in quest of them, +but they were not allowed to go alone, and it was pronounced too +far and too damp for the elder sister, so that they would have +been disappointed, if Clarence—stimulated by Martyn’s +kicks under the table—had not offered to be their +escort. When Mrs. Fordyce demurred, my mother replied, +‘You may perfectly trust her with Clarence.’</p> +<p>‘Yes; I don’t know a safer squire,’ rejoined +my father.</p> +<p>Commendation was so rare that Clarence quite blushed with +pleasure; and the pretty little thing was given into his charge, +prancing and dancing with pleasure, and expecting much more from +sixpence and from Wattlesea than was likely to be fulfilled.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image154" href="images/p154b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"‘That is poor Margaret who married your ancestor.’" +title= +"‘That is poor Margaret who married your ancestor.’" + src="images/p154s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Griff went out shooting, and the two young ladies and I +intended to spend a very rational morning in the bookroom, +reading aloud Mme. de La Rochejaquelein’s <i>Memoirs</i> by +turns. Our occupations were, on Emily’s part, +completing a reticule, in a mosaic of shaded coloured beads no +bigger than pins’ heads, for a Christmas gift to +mamma—a most wearisome business, of which she had grown +extremely tired. Miss Fordyce was elaborately copying our +Müller’s print of Raffaelle’s St. John in pencil +on cardboard, so as to be as near as possible a facsimile; and +she had trusted me to make a finished water-coloured drawing from +a rough sketch of hers of the Hillside barn and farm-buildings, +now no more.</p> +<p>In a pause Ellen Fordyce suddenly asked, ‘What did you +mean about that picture?’</p> +<p>‘Only Clarence said it was like—’ and here +Emily came to a dead stop.</p> +<p>‘Grandpapa says it is like me,’ said Miss +Fordyce. ‘What, you don’t mean +<i>that</i>? Oh! oh! oh! is it true? Does she +walk? Have you seen her? Mamma calls it all nonsense, +and would not have Anne hear of it for anything; but old Aunt +Peggy used to tell me, and I am sure grandpapa believes it, just +a little. Have you seen her?’</p> +<p>‘Only Clarence has, and he knew the picture +directly.’</p> +<p>She was much impressed, and on slight persuasion related the +story, which she had heard from an elder sister of her +grandfather’s, and which had perhaps been the more +impressed on her by her mother’s consternation at +‘such folly’ having been communicated to her. +Aunt Peggy, who was much older than her brother, had died only +four years ago, at eighty-eight, having kept her faculties to the +last, and handed down many traditions to her great-niece. +The old lady’s father had been contemporary with the +Margaret of ghostly fame, so that the stages had been few through +which it had come down from 1708 to 1830.</p> +<p>I wrote it down at once, as it here stands.</p> +<p>Margaret was the only daughter of the elder branch of the +Fordyces. Her father had intended her to marry her cousin, +the male heir on whom the Hillside estates and the advowson of +that living were entailed; but before the contract had been +formally made, the father was killed by accident, and through +some folly and ambition of her mother’s (such seemed to be +the Fordyce belief), the poor heiress was married to Sir James +Winslow, one of the successful intriguers of the days of the +later Stewarts, and with a family nearly as old, if not older, +than herself. Her own children died almost at their birth, +and she was left a young widow. Being meek and gentle, her +step-sons and daughters still ruled over Chantry House. +They prevented her Hillside relations from having access to her +whilst in a languishing state of health, and when she died +unexpectedly, she was found to have bequeathed all her property +to her step-son, Philip Winslow, instead of to her blood +relations, the Fordyces.</p> +<p>This was certain, but the Fordyce tradition was that she had +been kept shut up in the mullion chambers, where she had often +been heard weeping bitterly. One night in the winter, when +the gentlemen of the family had gone out to a Christmas carousal, +she had endeavoured to escape by the steps leading to the garden +from the door now bricked up, but had been met by them and +dragged back with violence, of which she died in the course of a +few days; and, what was very suspicious, she had been entirely +attended by her step-daughter and an old nurse, who never would +let her own woman come near her.</p> +<p>The Fordyces had thought of a prosecution, but the Winslows +had powerful interest at Court in those corrupt times, and +contrived to hush up the matter, as well as to win the suit in +which the Fordyces attempted to prove that there was no right to +will the property away. Bitter enmity remained between the +families; they were always opposed in politics, and their +animosity was fed by the belief which arose that at the +anniversaries of her death the poor lady haunted the rooms, lamp +in hand, wailing and lamenting. A duel had been fought on +the subject between the heirs of the two families, resulting in +the death of the young Winslow.</p> +<p>‘And now,’ cried Ellen Fordyce, ‘the feud is +so beautifully ended; the doom must be appeased, now that the +head of one hostile line has come to the rescue of the other, and +saved all our lives.’</p> +<p>My suggestion that these would hardly have been destroyed, +even without our interposition, fell very flat, for romance must +have its swing. Ellen told us how, on the news of our +kinsman’s death and our inheritance, the ancestral story +had been discussed, and her grandfather had said he believed +there were letters about it in the iron deed-box, and how he +hoped to be on better terms with the new heir.</p> +<p>The ghost story had always been hushed up in the family, +especially since the duel, and we all knew the resemblance of the +picture would be scouted by our elders; but perhaps this gave us +the more pleasure in dwelling upon it, while we agreed that poor +Margaret ought to be appeased by Griffith’s prowess on +behalf of the Fordyces.</p> +<p>The two young ladies went off to inspect the mullion chamber, +which they found so crammed with Hillside furniture that they +could scarcely enter, and returned disappointed, except for +having inspected and admired all Griff’s weapons, +especially what Miss Fordyce called the sword of her rescue.</p> +<p>She had been learning German—rather an unusual study in +those days, and she narrated to us most effectively the story of +<i>Die Weisse Frau</i>, working herself up to such a pitch that +she would have actually volunteered to spend a night in the room, +to see whether Margaret would hold any communication with a +descendant, after the example of the White Woman and Lady Bertha, +if there had been either fire or accommodation, and if the only +entrance had not been through Griff’s private +sitting-room.</p> +<h2><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +159</span>CHAPTER XIX.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE WHITE FEATHER.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘The white doe’s milk is not out of +his mouth.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Clarence</span> had come home free from +all blots. His summer holiday had been prevented by the +illness of one of the other clerks, whose place, Mr. Castleford +wrote, he had so well supplied that ere long he would be sure to +earn his promotion. That kind friend had several times +taken him to spend a Sunday in the country, and, as we afterwards +had reason to think, would have taken more notice of him but for +the rooted belief of Mr. Frith that it was a case of favouritism, +and that piety and strictness were assumed to throw dust in the +eyes of his patron.</p> +<p>Such distrust had tended to render Clarence more reserved than +ever, and it was quite by the accident of finding him studying +one of Mrs. Trimmer’s Manuals that I discovered that, at +the request of his good Rector, he had become a Sunday-school +teacher, and was as much interested as the enthusiastic girls; +but I was immediately forbidden to utter a word on the subject, +even to Emily, lest she should tell any one.</p> +<p>Such reserve was no doubt an outcome of his natural +timidity. He had to bear a certain amount of scorn and +derision among some of his fellow-clerks for the stricter habits +and observances that could not be concealed, and he dreaded any +fresh revelation of them, partly because of the cruel imputation +of hypocrisy, partly because he feared the bringing a scandal on +religion by his weakness and failures.</p> +<p>Nor did our lady visitors’ ways reassure him, though +they meant to be kind. They could not help being formal and +stiff, not as they were with Griff and me. The two +gentlemen were thoroughly friendly and hearty; Parson Frank could +hardly have helped being so towards any one in the same house +with himself; and as to little Anne, she found in the new-comer a +carpenter and upholsterer superior even to Martyn; but her +candour revealed a great deal which I overheard one afternoon, +when the two children were sitting together on the hearth-rug in +the bookroom in the twilight.</p> +<p>‘I want to see Mr. Clarence’s white +feather,’ observed Anne.</p> +<p>‘Griff has a white plume in his Yeomanry helmet,’ +replied Martyn; ‘Clarence hasn’t one.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, I saw Mr. Griffith’s!’ she answered; +‘but Cousin Horace said Mr. Clarence showed the white +feather.’</p> +<p>‘Cousin Horace is an ape!’ cried Martyn.</p> +<p>‘I don’t think he is so nice as an ape,’ +said Anne. ‘He is more like a monkey. He tries +the dolls by court-martial, and he shot Arabella with a +pea-shooter, and broke her eye; only grandpapa made him have it +put in again with his own money, and then he said I was a little +sneak, and if I ever did it again he would shoot me.’</p> +<p>‘Mind you don’t tell Clarence what he said,’ +said Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Oh, no! I think Mr. Clarence very nice indeed; +but Horace did tease so about that day when he carried poor Amos +Bell home. He said Ellen had gone and made friends with the +worst of all the wicked Winslows, who had shown the white feather +and disgraced his flag. No; I know you are not +wicked. And Mr. Griff came all glittering, like Richard +Cœur de Lion, and saved us all that night. But Ellen +cried to think what she had done, and mamma said it showed what +it was to speak to a strange young man; and she has never let +Ellen and me go out of the grounds by ourselves since that +day.’</p> +<p>‘It is a horrid shame,’ exclaimed Martyn, +‘that a fellow can’t get into a scrape without its +being for ever cast up to him.’</p> +<p>‘<i>I</i> like him,’ said Anne. ‘He +gave Mary Bell a nice pair of boots, and he made a new pair of +legs for poor old Arabella, and she can really sit down! +Oh, he is <i>very</i> nice; but’—in an awful +whisper—‘does he tell stories? I mean +fibs—falsehoods.’</p> +<p>‘Who told you that?’ exclaimed Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Mamma said it. Ellen was telling them something +about the picture of the white-satin lady, and mamma said, +“Oh, if it is only that young man, no doubt it is a mere +mystification;” and papa said, “Poor young fellow, he +seems very amiable and well disposed;” and mamma said, +“If he can invent such a story it shows that Horace was +right, and he is not to be believed.” Then they +stopped, but I asked Ellen who it was, and she said it was Mr. +Clarence, and it was a sad thing for Emily and all of you to have +such a brother.’</p> +<p>Martyn began to stammer with indignation, and I thought it +time to interfere; so I called the little maid, and gravely +explained the facts, adding that poor Clarence’s punishment +had been terrible, but that he was doing his best to make up for +what was past; and that, as to anything he might have told, +though he might be mistaken, he never said anything <i>now</i> +but what he believed to be true. She raised her brown eyes +to mine full of gravity, and said, ‘I <i>do</i> like +him.’ Moreover, I privately made Martyn understand +that if he told her what had been said about the white-satin +lady, he would never be forgiven; the others would be sure to +find it out, and it might shorten their stay.</p> +<p>That was a dreadful idea, for the presence of those two +creatures, to say nothing of their parents, was an unspeakable +charm and novelty to us all. We all worshipped the elder, +and the little one was like a new discovery and toy to us, who +had never been used to such a presence. She was not a +commonplace child; but even if she had been, she would have been +as charming a study as a kitten; and she had all the four of us +at her feet, though her mother was constantly protesting against +our spoiling her, and really kept up so much wholesome discipline +that the little maid never exceeded the bounds of being charming +to us. After that explanation there was the same sweet +wistful gentleness in her manner towards Clarence as she showed +to me; while he, who never dreamt of such a child knowing his +history was brighter and freer with her than with any one else, +played with her and Martyn, and could be heard laughing merrily +with them. Perhaps her mother and sister did not fully like +this, but they could not interfere before our faces. And +Parson Frank was really kind to him; took him out walking when +going to Hillside, and talked to him so as to draw him out; +certifying, perhaps, that he would do no harm, although, indeed, +the family looked on dear good Frank as a sort of boy, too +kind-hearted and genial for his approval to be worth as much as +that of the more severe.</p> +<p>These were our only Christmas visitors, for the state of the +country did not invite Londoners; but we did not want them. +The suppression of Clarence was the only flaw in a singularly +happy time; and, after all I believe I felt the pity of it more +than he did, who expected nothing, and was accustomed to being in +the background.</p> +<p>For instance, one afternoon in the course of one of the grave +discussions that used to grow up between Miss Fordyce, Emily, and +me, over subjects trite to the better-instructed younger +generation, we got quite out of our shallow depths. I think +it was on the meaning of the ‘Communion of Saints,’ +for the two girls were both reading in preparation for a +Confirmation at Bristol, and Miss Fordyce knew more than we did +on these subjects. All the time Clarence had sat in the +window, carving a bit of doll’s furniture, and quite +forgotten; but at night he showed me the exposition copied from +<i>Pearson on the Creed</i>, a bit of Hooker, and extracts from +one or two sermons. I found these were notes written out in +a blank book, which he had had in hand ever since his +Confirmation—his logbook as he called it; but he would not +hear of their being mentioned even to Emily, and only consented +to hunt up the books on condition I would not bring him forward +as the finder. It was of no use to urge that it was a +deprivation to us all that he should not aid us with his more +thorough knowledge and deeper thought. ‘He could not +do so,’ he said, in a quiet decisive manner; ‘it was +enough for him to watch and listen to Miss Fordyce, when she +could forget his presence.’</p> +<p>She often did forget it in her eagerness. She was by +nature one of the most ardent beings that I ever saw, yet with +enthusiasm kept in check by the self-control inculcated as a +primary duty. It would kindle in those wonderful light +brown eyes, glow in the clear delicate cheek, quiver in the voice +even when the words were only half adequate to the feeling. +She was not what is now called gushing. Oh, no! not in the +least! She was too reticent and had too much dignity for +anything of the kind. Emily had always been reckoned as our +romantic young lady, and teased accordingly, but her enthusiasm +beside Ellen’s was</p> +<blockquote><p>‘As moonlight is to sunlight, as water is to +wine,’—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>a mere reflection of the tone of the period, compared with a +real element in the character. At least so my sister tells +me, though at the time all the difference I saw was that Miss +Fordyce had the most originality, and unconsciously became the +leader. The bookroom was given up to us, and there in the +morning we drew, worked, read, copied and practised music, wrote +out extracts, and delivered our youthful minds to one another on +all imaginable topics from ‘slea silk to +predestination.’</p> +<p>Religious subjects occupied us more than might have been held +likely. A spirit of reflection and revival was silently +working in many a heart. Evangelicalism had stirred +old-fashioned orthodoxy, and we felt its action. The +<i>Christian Year</i> was Ellen’s guiding star—as it +was ours, nay, doubly so in proportion to the ardour of her +nature. Certain poems are dearer and more eloquent to me +still, because the verses recall to me the thrill of her sweet +tones as she repeated them. We were all very ignorant alike +of Church doctrine and history, but talking out and comparing our +discoveries and impressions was as useful as it was pleasant to +us.</p> +<p>What the <i>Christian Year</i> was in religion to us Scott was +in history. We read to verify or illustrate him, and we had +little raving fits over his characters, and jokes founded on +them. Indeed, Ellen saw life almost through that medium; +and the siege of Hillside, dispersed by the splendid prowess of +Griffith, the champion with silver helm and flashing sword, was +precious to her as a renewal of the days of Ivanhoe or Damian de +Lacy.</p> +<p>As may be believed, these quiet mornings were those when that +true knight was employed in field sports or yeomanry duties, such +as the state of the country called for. When he was at +home, all was fun and merriment and noise—walks and rides +on fine days, battledore and shuttlecock on wet ones, music, +singing, paper games, giggling and making giggle, and sometimes +dancing in the hall—Mr. Frank Fordyce joining with all his +heart and drollery in many of these, like the boy he was.</p> +<p>I could play quadrilles and country dances, and now and then a +reel—nobody thought of waltzes—and the three couples +changed and counterchanged partners. Clarence had the +sailor’s foot, and did his part when needed; Emily +generally fell to his share, and their silence and gravity +contrasted with the mirth of the other pairs. He knew very +well he was the <i>pis aller</i> of the party, and only danced +when Parson Frank was not dragged out, nothing loth, by his +little daughter. With Miss Fordyce, Clarence never had the +chance of dancing; she was always claimed by Griff, or pounced +upon by Martyn.</p> +<p>Miss Fordyce she always was to us in those days, and those +pretty lips scrupulously ‘Mistered’ and +‘Winslowed’ us. I don’t think she would +have been more to us, if we had called her Nell, and had been +Griff, Bill, and Ted to her, or if there had not been all the +little formalities of avoiding tête à têtes +and the like. They were essentials of propriety +then—natural, and never viewed as prudish. Nor did it +detract from the sweet dignity of maidenhood that there was none +of the familiarity which breeds something one would rather not +mention in conjunction with a lady.</p> +<p>Altogether there was a sunshine around Miss Fordyce by which +we all seemed illuminated, even the least favoured and least +demonstrative; we were all her willing slaves, and thought her +smile and thanks full reward.</p> +<p>One day, when Griff and Martyn were assisting at the turn out +of an isolated barn at Hillside, where Frank Fordyce declared, +all the burnt-out rats and mice had taken refuge, the young +ladies went out to cater for house decorations for Christmas +under Clarence’s escort. Nobody but the clerk ever +thought of touching the church, where there were holes in all the +pews to receive the holly boughs.</p> +<p>The girls came back, telling in eager scared voices how, while +gathering butcher’s broom in Farmer Hodges’ home +copse, a savage dog had flown out at them, but had been kept at +bay by Mr. Clarence Winslow with an umbrella, while they escaped +over the stile.</p> +<p>Clarence had not come into the drawing-room with them, and +while my mother, who had a great objection to people standing +about in out-door garments, sent them up to doff their bonnets +and furs, I repaired to our room, and was horrified to find him +on my bed, white and faint.</p> +<p>‘Bitten?’ I cried in dismay.</p> +<p>‘Yes; but not much. Only I’m such a +fool. I turned off when I began taking off my boots. +No, no—don’t! Don’t call any one. +It is nothing!’</p> +<p>He was springing up to stop me, but was forced to drop back, +and I made my way to the drawing-room, where my mother happened +to be alone. She was much alarmed, but a glass of wine +restored Clarence; and inspection showed that the thick trowser +and winter stocking had so protected him that little blood had +been drawn, and there was bruise rather than bite in the calf of +the leg, where the brute had caught him as he was getting over +the stile as the rear-guard. It was painful, though the +faintness was chiefly from tension of nerve, for he had kept +behind all the way home, and no one had guessed at the +hurt. My mother doctored it tenderly, and he begged that +nothing should be said about it; he wanted no fuss about such a +trifle. My mother agreed, with the proud feeling of not +enhancing the obligations of the Fordyce family; but she +absolutely kissed Clarence’s forehead as she bade him lie +quiet till dinner-time.</p> +<p>We kept silence at table while the girls described the horrors +of the monster. ‘A tawny creature, with a hideous +black muzzle,’ said Emily. ‘Like a bad +dream,’ said Miss Fordyce. The two fathers expressed +their intention of remonstrating with the farmer, and Griff +declared that it would be lucky if he did not shoot it. +Miss Fordyce generously took its part, saying the poor dog was +doing its duty, and Griff ejaculated, ‘If I had been +there!’</p> +<p>‘It would not have dared to show its teeth, eh?’ +said my father, when there was a good deal of banter.</p> +<p>My father, however, came at night with mamma to inspect the +hurt and ask details, and he ended with, ‘Well done, +Clarence, boy; I am gratified to see you are acquiring presence +of mind, and can act like a man.’</p> +<p>Clarence smiled when they were gone, saying, ‘That would +have been an insult to any one else.’</p> +<p>Emily perceived that he had not come off unscathed, and was +much aggrieved at being bound to silence. +‘Well,’ she broke out, ‘if the dog goes mad, +and Clarence has the hydrophobia, I suppose I may +tell.’</p> +<p>‘In that pleasing contingency,’ said Clarence +smiling. ‘Don’t you see, Emily, it is the worst +compliment you can pay me not to treat this as a matter of +course?’ Still, he was the happier for not having +failed. Whatever strengthened his self-respect and gave him +trust in himself was a stepping-stone.</p> +<p>As to rivalry or competition with Griff, the idea seemingly +never crossed his mind, and envy or jealousy were equally aloof +from it. One subject of thankfulness runs through these +recollections—namely, that nothing broke the tie of strong +affection between us three brothers. Griffith might figure +as the ‘vary parfite knight,’ the St. George of the +piece, glittering in the halo shed round him by the bright eyes +of the rescued damsel; while Clarence might drag himself along as +the poor recreant to be contemned and tolerated, and he would +accept the position meekly as only his desert, without a thought +of bitterness. Indeed, he himself seemed to have imbibed +Nurse Gooch’s original opinion, that his genuine love for +sacred things was a sort of impertinence and pretension in such +as he—a kind of hypocrisy even when they were the realities +and helps to which he clung with all his heart. Still, this +depression was only shown by reserve, and troubled no one save +myself, who knew him best guessed what was lost by his silence, +and burned in spirit at seeing him merely endured as one +unworthy.</p> +<p>In one of our varieties of Waverley discussions the crystal +hardness and inexperienced intolerance of youth made Miss Fordyce +declare that had she been Edith Plantagenet, she would never, +never have forgiven Sir Kenneth. ‘How could she, when +he had forsaken the king’s banner? +Unpardonable!’</p> +<p>Then came a sudden, awful silence, as she recollected her +audience, and blushed crimson with the misery of perceiving where +her random shaft had struck, nor did either of us know what to +say; but to our surprise it was Clarence who first spoke to +relieve the desperate embarrassment. ‘Is forgiven +quite the right word, when the offence was not personal? I +know that such things can neither be repaired nor overlooked, and +I think that is what Miss Fordyce meant.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, Mr. Winslow,’ she exclaimed, ‘I am very +sorry—I don’t think I quite meant’—and +then, as her eyes for one moment fell on his subdued face, she +added, ‘No, I said what I ought not. If there is +sorrow’—her voice trembled—‘and pardon +above, no one below has any right to say unpardonable.’</p> +<p>Clarence bowed his head, and his lips framed, but he did not +utter, ‘Thank you.’ Emily nervously began +reading aloud the page before her, full of the jingling recurring +rhymes about Sir Thomas of Kent; but I saw Ellen surreptitiously +wipe away a tear, and from that time she was more kind and +friendly with Clarence.</p> +<h2><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>CHAPTER XX.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">VENI, VIDI, VICI.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘None but the brave,<br /> +None but the brave,<br /> +None but the brave deserve the +fair.’—<i>Song</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Christmas</span> trees were not yet heard +of beyond the Fatherland, and both the mothers held that +Christmas parties were not good for little children, since Mrs. +Winslow’s strong common sense had arrived at the same +conclusion as Mrs. Fordyce had derived from Hannah More and +Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Besides, rick-burning and mobs +were far too recent for our neighbours to venture out at +night.</p> +<p>But as we were all resolved that little Anne should have a +memorable Christmas at Chantry House, we begged an innocent, +though iced cake, from the cook, painted a set of characters +ourselves, including all the dolls, and bespoke the presence of +Frank Fordyce at a feast in the outer mullion +room—Griff’s apartment, of course. The locality +was chosen as allowing more opportunity for high jinks than the +bookroom, and also because the swords and pistols in trophy over +the mantelpiece had a great fascination for the two sisters, and +to ‘drink tea with Mr. Griffith’ was always known to +be a great ambition of the little queen of the festival. As +to the mullion chamber legends, they had nearly gone out of our +heads, though Clarence did once observe, ‘You remember, it +will be the 26th of December;’ but we did not think this +worthy of consideration, especially as Anne’s +entertainment, at its latest, could not last beyond nine +o’clock; and the ghostly performances—now entirely +laid to the account of the departed stable-boy—never began +before eleven.</p> +<p>Nor did anything interfere with our merriment. The fun +of fifty years ago must be intrinsically exquisite to bear being +handed down to another generation, so I will attempt no +repetition, though some of those Twelfth Day characters still +remain, pasted into my diary. We anticipated Twelfth Day +because our guests meant to go to visit some other friends before +the New Year, and we knew Anne would have no chance there of +fulfilling her great ambition of drawing for king and +queen. These home-made characters were really +charming. Mrs. Fordyce had done several of them, and she +drew beautifully. A little manipulation contrived that the +exquisite Oberon and Titania should fall to Martyn and Anne, for +whom crowns and robes had been prepared, worn by her majesty with +complacent dignity, but barely tolerated by him! The others +took their chance. Parson Frank was Tom Thumb, and +convulsed us all the evening by acting as if no bigger than that +worthy, keeping us so merry that even Clarence laughed as I had +never seen him laugh before.</p> +<p>Cock Robin and Jenny Wren—the best drawn of +all—fell to Griff and Miss Fordyce. There was a +suspicion of a tint of real carnation on her cheek, as, on his +low, highly-delighted bow, she held up her impromptu fan of +folded paper; and drollery about currant wine and hopping upon +twigs went on more or less all the time, while somehow or other +the beauteous glow on her cheeks went on deepening, so that I +never saw her look so pretty as when thus playing at Jenny +Wren’s coyness, though neither she nor Griff had passed the +bounds of her gracious precise discretion.</p> +<p>The joyous evening ended at last. With the stroke of +nine, Jenny Wren bore away Queen Titania to put her to bed, for +the servants were having an entertainment of their own downstairs +for all the out-door retainers, etc. Oberon departed, after +an interval sufficient to prove his own dignity and advanced +age. Emily went down to report the success of the evening +to the elders in the drawing-room, but we lingered while Frank +Fordyce was telling good stories of Oxford life, and Griff +capping them with more recent ones.</p> +<p>We too broke up—I don’t remember how; but Clarence +was to help me down the stairs, and Mr. Fordyce, frowning with +anxiety at the process, was offering assistance, while we had +much rather he had gone out of the way; when suddenly, in the +gallery round the hall giving access to the bedrooms, there +dawned upon us the startled but scarcely displeased figure of +Jenny Wren in her white dress, not turning aside that blushing +face, while Cock Robin was clasping her hand and pressing it to +his lips. The tap of my crutches warned them. She +flew back within her door and shut it; Griff strode rapidly on, +caught hold of her father’s hand, exclaiming, ‘Sir, +sir, I must speak to you!’ and dragged him back into the +mullion room leaving Clarence and me to convey ourselves +downstairs as best we might.</p> +<p>‘Our sister, our sweet sister!’</p> +<p>We were immensely excited. All the three of us were so +far in love with Ellen Fordyce that her presence was an +enchantment to us, and at any rate none of us ever saw the woman +we could compare to her; and as we both felt ourselves +disqualified in different ways from any nearer approach, we were +content to bask in the reflected rays of our brother’s +happiness.</p> +<p>Not that he had gone that length as yet, as we knew before the +night was over, when he came down to us. Even with the dear +maiden herself, he had only made sure that she was not averse, +and that merely by her eyes and lips; and he had extracted +nothing from her father but that they were both very young, a +great deal too young, and had no business to think of such things +yet. It must be talked over, etc. etc.</p> +<p>But just then, Griff told us, Frank Fordyce jumped up and +turned round with the sudden exclamation, ‘Ellen!’ +looking towards the door behind him with blank astonishment, as +he found it had neither been opened nor shut. He thought +his daughter had recollected something left behind, and coming in +search of it, had retreated precipitately. He had seen her, +he said, in the mirror opposite. Griff told him there was +no mirror, and had to carry a candle across to convince him that +he had only been looking at the door into the inner room, which +though of shining dark oak, could hardly have made a reflection +as vivid as he declared that his had been. Indeed, he +ascertained that Ellen had never left her own room at all. +‘It must have been thinking about the dear child,’ he +said. ‘And after all, it was not quite like +her—somehow—she was paler, and had something over her +head.’ We had no doubt who it was. Griff had +not seen her, but he was certain that there had been none of the +moaning nor crying, ‘In fact, she has come to give her +consent,’ he said with earnest in his mocking tone.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ said Clarence gravely, and with glistening +eyes. ‘You are happy Griff. It is given to you +to right the wrong, and quiet that poor spirit.’</p> +<p>‘Happy! The happiest fellow in the world,’ +said Griff, ‘even without that latter clause—if only +Madam and the old man will have as much sense as she +has!’</p> +<p>The next day was a thoroughly uncomfortable one. Griff +was not half so near his goal as he had hoped last night when +with kindly Parson Frank.</p> +<p>The commotion was as if a thunderbolt had descended among the +elders. What they had been thinking of, I cannot tell, not +to have perceived how matters were tending; but their minds were +full of the Reform Bill and the state of the country, and, +besides, we were all looked on still as mere children. +Indeed, Griff was scarcely one-and-twenty, and Ellen wanted a +month of seventeen; and the crisis had really been a sudden +impulse, as he said, ‘She looked so sweet and lovely, he +could not help it.’</p> +<p>The first effect was a serious lecture upon maidenliness and +propriety to poor Ellen from her mother, who was sure that she +must have transgressed the bounds of discretion, or such ill-bred +presumption would have been spared her, and bitterly regretted +the having trusted her to take care of herself. There were +sufficient grains of truth in this to make the poor girl cry +herself out of all condition for appearing at breakfast or +luncheon, and Emily’s report of her despair made us much +more angry with Mrs. Fordyce than was perhaps quite due to that +good lady.</p> +<p>My parents were at first inclined to take the same line, and +be vexed with Griff for an act of impertinence towards a +guest. He had a great deal of difficulty in inducing the +elders to believe him in earnest, or treat him as a man capable +of knowing his own mind; and even thus they felt as if his +addresses to Miss Fordyce were, under present circumstances, +taking almost an unfair advantage of the other family—at +which our youthful spirits felt indignant.</p> +<p>Yet, after all, such a match was as obvious and suitable as if +it had been a family compact, and the only objection was the +youth of the parties. Mrs. Fordyce would fain have believed +her daughter’s heart to be not yet awake, and was grieved +to find childhood over, and the hero of romance become the lover; +and she was anxious that full time should be given to perceive +whether her daughter’s feelings were only the result of the +dazzling aureole which gratitude and excited fancy had cast +around the fine, handsome, winning youth. Her husband, +however, who had himself married very young, and was greatly +taken with Griff, besides being always tender-hearted, did not +enter into her scruples; but, as we had already found out, the +grand-looking and clever man of thirty-eight was, chiefly from +his impulsiveness and good-nature, treated as the boy of the +family. His old father, too, was greatly pleased with +Griff’s spirit, affection, and purpose, as well as with my +father’s conduct in the matter; and so, after a succession +of private interviews, very tantalising to us poor outsiders, it +was conceded that though an engagement for the present was +preposterous, it might possibly be permitted when Ellen was +eighteen if Griff had completed his university life with full +credit. He was fervently grateful to have such an object +set before him, and my father was warmly thankful for the +stimulus.</p> +<p>That last evening was very odd and constrained. We could +not help looking on the lovers as new specimens over which some +strange transformation had passed, though for the present it had +stiffened them in public into the strictest good behaviour. +They would have been awkward if it had been possible to either of +them, and, save for a certain look in their eyes, comported +themselves as perfect strangers.</p> +<p>The three elder gentlemen held discussions in the dining-room, +but we were not trusted in our playground adjoining. Mrs. +Fordyce nailed Griff down to an interminable game at chess, and +my mother kept the two girls playing duets, while Clarence turned +over the leaves; and I read over <i>The Lady of the Lake</i>, a +study which I always felt, and still feel, as an act of homage to +Ellen Fordyce, though there was not much in common between her +and the maid of Douglas. Indeed, it was a joke of her +father’s to tease her by criticising the famous passage +about the tears that old Douglas shed over his duteous +daughter’s head—‘What in the world should the +man go whining and crying for? He had much better have +laughed with her.’</p> +<p>Little did the elders know what was going on in the next room, +where there was a grand courtship among the dolls; the hero being +a small jointed Dutch one in Swiss costume, about an eighth part +of the size of the resuscitated Celestina Mary, but the only +available male character in doll-land! Anne was supposed to +be completely ignorant of what passed above her head; and her +mother would have been aghast had she heard the remarkable +discoveries and speculations that she and Martyn communicated to +one another.</p> +<h2><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +179</span>CHAPTER XXI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURTSHIP.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Or framing, as a fair excuse,<br /> +The book, the pencil, or the muse;<br /> +Something to give, to sing, to say,<br /> +Some modern tale, some ancient lay.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> seems to me on looking back that +I have hardly done justice to Mrs. Fordyce, and certainly +we—as Griffith’s eager partisans—often regarded +her in the light of an enemy and opponent; but after this lapse +of time, I can see that she was no more than a prudent mother, +unwilling to see her fair young daughter suddenly launched into +womanhood, and involved in an attachment to a young and untried +man.</p> +<p>The part of a drag is an invidious one; and this must have +been her part through most of her life. The Fordyces, +father and son, were of good family, gentlemen to their very +backbones, and thoroughly good, religious men; but she came of a +more aristocratic strain, had been in London society, and brought +with her a high-bred air which, implanted on the Fordyce good +looks, made her daughter especially fascinating. But that +air did not recommend Mrs. Fordyce to all her neighbours, any +more than did those stronger, stricter, more thorough-going +notions of religious obligation which had led her husband to make +the very real and painful sacrifice of his sporting tastes, and +attend to the parish in a manner only too rare in those +days. She was a very well-informed and highly accomplished +woman, and had made her daughter the same, keeping her children +up in a somewhat exclusive style, away from all gossip or +undesirable intimacies, as recommended by Miss Edgeworth and +other more religious authorities, and which gave great offence in +houses where there were girls of the same age. No one, +however, could look at Ellen, and doubt of the success of the +system, or of the young girl’s entire content and perfect +affection for her mother, though her father was her beloved +playfellow—yet always with respect. She never took +liberties with him, nor called him Pap or any other ridiculous +name inconsistent with the fifth Commandment, though she +certainly was more entirely at ease with him than ever we had +been with our elderly father. When once Mrs. Fordyce found +on what terms we were to be, she accepted them frankly and +fully. Already Emily had been the first girl, not a +relation, whose friendship she had fostered with Ellen; and she +had also become thoroughly affectionate and at home with my +mother, who suited her perfectly on the conscientious, and +likewise on the prudent and sensible, side of her nature.</p> +<p>To me she was always kindness itself, so kind that I never +felt, as I did on so many occasions, that she was very pitiful +and attentive to the deformed youth; but that she really enjoyed +my companionship, and I could help her in her pursuits. I +have a whole packet of charming notes of hers about books, +botany, drawings, little bits of antiquarianism, written with an +arch grace and finish of expression peculiarly her own, and in a +very pointed hand, yet too definite to be illegible. I owe +her more than I can say for the windows of wholesome hope and +ambition she opened to me, giving a fresh motive and zest even to +such a life as mine. I can hardly tell which was the most +delightful companion, she or her husband. In spite of ill +health, she knew every plant, and every bit of fair scenery in +the neighbourhood, and had fresh, amusing criticisms to utter on +each new book; while he, not neglecting the books, was equally +well acquainted with all beasts and birds, and shed his kindly +light over everything he approached. He was never +melancholy about anything but politics, and even there it was an +immense consolation to him to have the owner of Chantry House +staunch on the same side, instead of in chronic opposition.</p> +<p>The family party moved to a tall house at Bath, but there +still was close intercourse, for the younger clergyman rode over +every week for the Sunday duty, and almost always dined and slept +at Chantry House. He acted as bearer of long letters, +which, in spite of a reticulation of crossings, were too +expensive by post for young ladies’ pocket-money, often +exceeding the regular quarto sheet. It was a favourite joke +to ask Emily what Ellen reported about Bath fashions, and to see +her look of scorn. For they were a curious mixture, those +girlish letters, of village interests, discussion of books, and +thoughts beyond their age; Tommy Toogood and Prometheus; or Du +Guesclin in the closest juxtaposition with reports of progress in +Abercrombie on the <i>Intellectual Powers</i>. It was the +desire of Ellen to prove herself not unsettled but improved by +love, and to become worthy of her ideal Griffith, never guessing +that he would have been equally content with her if she had been +as frivolous as the idlest girl who lingered amid the waning +glories of Bath.</p> +<p>We all made them a visit there when Martyn was taken to a +preparatory school in the place. Mrs. Fordyce took me out +for drives on the beautiful hills; and Emily and I had a very +delightful time, undisturbed by the engrossing claims of +love-making. Very good, too, were our friends, after our +departure, in letting Martyn spend Sundays and holidays with +them, play with Anne as before, say his Catechism with her to +Mrs. Fordyce, and share her little Sunday lessons, which had, he +has since told, a force and attractiveness he had never known +before, and really did much, young as he was, in preparing the +way towards the fulfilment of my father’s design for +him.</p> +<p>When the Rectory was ready, and the family returned, it was +high summer, and there were constant meetings between the +households. No doubt there were the usual amount of trivial +disappointments and annoyances, but the whole season seems to me +to have been bathed in sunlight. The Reform Bill agitations +and the London mobs of which Clarence wrote to us were like waves +surging beyond an isle of peace. Clarence had some +unpleasant walks from the office. Once or twice the +shutters had to be put up at Frith and Castleford’s to +prevent the windows from being broken; and once Clarence actually +saw our nation’s hero, ‘the Duke,’ riding +quietly and slowly through a yelling, furious mob, who seemed +withheld from falling on him by the perfect impassiveness of the +eagle face and spare figure. Moreover a pretty little boy, +on his pony, suddenly pushed forward and rode by the Duke’s +side, as if proud and resolute to share his peril.</p> +<p>‘If Griffith had been there!’ said Ellen and +Emily, though they did not exactly know what they expected him to +have done.</p> +<p>The chief storms that drifted across our sky were caused by +Mrs. Fordyce’s resolution that Griffith should enjoy none +of the privileges of an accepted suitor before the engagement was +an actual fact. Ellen was obedient and conscientious; and +would neither transgress nor endure to have her mother railed at +by Griff’s hasty tongue, and this affronted him, and led to +little breezes.</p> +<p>When people overstay their usual time, tempers are apt to get +rather difficult. Griffith had kept all his terms at +Oxford, and was not to return thither after the long vacation, +but was to read with a tutor before taking his degree. +Moreover bills began to come from Oxford, not very serious, but +vexing my father and raising annoyances and frets, for Griff +resented their being complained of, and thought himself ill-used, +going off to see his own friends whenever he was put out.</p> +<p>One morning at breakfast, late in October, he announced that +Lady Peacock was in lodgings at Clifton, and asked my mother to +call on her. But mamma said it was too far for the +horse—she visited no one at that distance, and had never +thought much of Selina Clarkson before or after her marriage.</p> +<p>‘But now that she is a widow, it would be such a +kindness,’ pleaded Griff.</p> +<p>‘Depend upon it, a gay young widow needs no kindness +from me, and had better not have it from you,’ said my +mother, getting up from behind her urn and walking off, followed +by my father.</p> +<p>Griff drummed on the table. ‘I wonder what good +ladies of a certain age do with their charity,’ he +said.</p> +<p>And while we were still crying out at him, Ellen Fordyce and +her father appeared, like mirth bidding good-morrow, at the +window. All was well for the time, but Griff wanted Ellen +to set out alone with him, and take their leisurely way through +the wood-path, and she insisted on waiting for her father, who +had got into an endless discussion with mine on the Reform Bill, +thrown out in the last Session. Griff tried to wile her on +with him, but, though she consented to wander about the lawn +before the windows with him, she always resolutely turned at the +great beech tree. Emily and I watched them from the window, +at first amused, then vexed, as we could see, by his gestures, +that he was getting out of temper, and her straw bonnet drooped +at one moment, and was raised the next in eager remonstrance or +defence. At last he flung angrily away from her, and went +off to the stables, leaving her leaning against the gate in +tears. Emily, in an access of indignant sympathy, rushed +out to her, and they vanished together into the summer-house, +until her father called her, and they went home together.</p> +<p>Emily told me that Ellen had struggled hard to keep herself +from crying enough to show traces of tears which her father could +observe, and that she had excused Griff with all her might on the +plea of her own ‘tiresomeness.’</p> +<p>We were all the more angry with him for his selfishness and +want of consideration, for Ellen, in her torrent of grief, had +even disclosed that he had said she did not care for him—no +one really in love ever scrupled about a mother’s nonsense, +etc., etc.</p> +<p>We were resolved, like two sages, to give him a piece of our +minds, and convince him that such dutifulness was the pledge of +future happiness, and that it was absolute cruelty to the rare +creature he had won, to try to draw her in a direction contrary +to her conscience.</p> +<p>However, we saw him no more that day; and only learnt that he +had left a message at the stables that dinner was not to be kept +waiting for him. Such a message from Clarence would have +caused a great commotion; but it was quite natural and a matter +of course from him in the eyes of the elders, who knew nothing of +his parting with Ellen. However, there was annoyance +enough, when bedtime came, family prayers were over, and still +there was no sign of him. My father sat up till one +o’clock, to let him in, then gave it up, and I heard his +step heavily mounting the stairs.</p> +<h2><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +186</span>CHAPTER XXII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">BRISTOL DIAMONDS.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘<i>Stafford</i>. And you that are the +King’s friends, follow me.</p> +<p><i>Cade</i>. And you that love the Commons, follow +me;<br /> +We will not leave one lord, one gentleman,<br /> +Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Act I. <i>Henry VI</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> next day was Sunday, and no +Griff appeared in the morning. Vexation, perhaps, prevented +us from attending as much as we otherwise might have done to Mr. +Henderson when he told us that there were rumours of a serious +disturbance at Bristol; until Emily recollected that Griff had +been talking for some days past of riding over to see his friend +in the cavalry regiment there stationed, and we all agreed that +it was most likely that he was there; and our wrath began to +soften in the belief that he might have been detained to give his +aid in the cause of order, though his single arm could not be +expected to effect as much as at Hillside.</p> +<p>Long after dark we heard a horse’s feet, and in another +minute Griff, singed, splashed, and battered, had hurried into +the room—‘It has begun!’ he said. +‘The revolution! I have brought her—Lady +Peacock. She was at Clifton, dreadfully alarmed. She +is almost at the door now, in her carriage. I’ll just +take the pony, and ride over to tell Eastwood in case he will +call out the Yeomanry.’</p> +<p>The wheels were to be heard, and everybody hastened out to +receive Lady Peacock, who was there with her maid, full of +gratitude. I heard her broken sentences as she came across +the hall, about dreadful scenes—frightful mob—she +knew not what would have become of her but for Griffith—the +place was in flames when they left it—the military would +not act—Griffith had assured her that Mr. and Mrs. Winslow +would be so kind—as long as any place was a +refuge—</p> +<p>We really did believe we were at the outbreak of a revolution +or civil war, and, all little frets forgotten, listened appalled +to the tidings; how the appearance of Sir Charles Wetherall, the +Recorder of Bristol, a strong opponent to the Reform Bill, seemed +to have inspired the mob with fury. Griff and his friend +the dragoon, while walking in Broad Street, were astonished by a +violent rush of riotous men and boys, hooting and throwing stones +as the Recorder’s carriage tried to make its way to the +Guildhall. In the midst a piteous voice +exclaimed—</p> +<p>‘Oh, Griffith! Mr. Griffith Winslow! Is it +you?’ and Lady Peacock was seen retreating upon the stone +steps of a house either empty, or where the inhabitants were too +much alarmed to open the doors. She was terribly +frightened, and the two gentlemen stood in front of her till the +tumultuary procession had passed by. She was staying in +lodgings at Clifton, and had driven in to Bristol to shop, when +she thus found herself entangled in the mob. They then +escorted her to the place where she was to meet her carriage, and +found it for her with some difficulty. Then, while the +officer returned to his quarters, Griff accompanied her far +enough on the way to Clifton to see that everything was quiet +before her, and then returned to seek out his friend. The +court at the Guildhall had had to be adjourned, but the rioters +were hunting Sir Charles to the Mansion-House. Griff was +met by one of the Town Council, a tradesman with whom we dealt, +who, having perhaps heard of his prowess at Hillside, entreated +him to remain, offering him a bed, and saying that all friends of +order were needed in such a crisis as this. Griff wrote a +note to let us know what had become of him, but everything was +disorganised, and we did not get it till two days afterwards.</p> +<p>In the evening the mob became more violent, and in the midst +of dinner a summons came for Griff’s host to attend the +Mayor in endeavouring to disperse it. Getting into the +Mansion-House by private back ways, they were able to join the +Mayor when he came out, amid a shower of brickbats, sticks, and +stones, and read the Riot Act three times over, after warning +them of the consequences of persisting in their defiance.</p> +<p>‘But they were far past caring for that,’ said +Griff. ‘An iron rail from the square was thrown in +the midst of it, and if I had not caught it there would have been +an end of his Worship.’</p> +<p>The constables, with such help as Griff and a few others could +give them, defended the front of the Mansion-House, while the +Recorder, for whom they savagely roared, made his escape by the +roof to another house. A barricade was made with beds, +tables, and chairs, behind which the defenders sheltered +themselves, while volleys of stones smashed in the windows, and +straw was thrown after them. But at last the tramp of +horses’ feet was heard, and the Dragoons came up.</p> +<p>‘We thought all over then,’ said Griff; ‘but +Colonel Brereton would not have a blow struck, far less a shot +fired! He would have it that it was a good-humoured +mob! I heard him! When one of his own men was brought +up badly hurt with a brickbat, I heard Ludlow, the Town-Clerk, +ask him what he thought of their good humour, and he had nothing +to say but that it was an accident! And the rogues knew +it! He took care they should; he walked about among them +and shook hands with them!’</p> +<p>Griff waited at the Mansion-House all night, and helped to +board up the smashed windows; but at daylight Colonel Brereton +came and insisted on withdrawing the piquet on guard—not, +however, sending a relief for them, on the plea that they only +collected a crowd. The instant they were withdrawn, down +came the mob in fresh force, so desperate that all the defences +were torn down, and they swarmed in so that there was nothing for +it but to escape over the roofs.</p> +<p>Griffith was sent to rouse the inhabitants of College Green +and St. Augustine’s Back to come in the King’s name +to assist the Magistrates, and he had many good stories of the +various responses he met with. But the rioters, inflamed by +the wine they had found in sacking the Mansion-House, and +encouraged by the passiveness of the troops, had become entirely +masters of the situation. And Colonel Brereton seems to +have imagined that the presence of the soldiers acted as an +irritation; for in this crisis he actually sent them out of the +city to Keynsham, then came and informed the mob, who cheered +him, as well they might.</p> +<p>In the night the Recorder had left the city, and notices were +posted to that effect; also that the Riot Act had been read, and +any further disturbance would be capital felony. This +escape of their victim only had the effect of directing the rage +of the populace against Bishop Grey, who had likewise opposed the +Reform Bill.</p> +<p>Messages had been sent to advise the Bishop, who was to preach +that day at the Cathedral, to stay away and sanction the omission +of the service; but his answer to one of his clergy +was—‘These are times in which it is necessary not to +shrink from danger! Our duty is to be at our +post.’ And he also said, ‘Where can I die +better than in my own Cathedral?’</p> +<p>Since the bells were ringing, and it was understood that the +Bishop was actually going to dare the peril, Griff and others of +the defenders decided that it was better to attend the service +and fill up the nave so as to hinder outrage. He said it +was a most strange and wonderful service. Chants and Psalms +and Lessons and prayers going on their course as usual, but every +now and then in the pauses of the organ, a howl or yell of the +voice of the multitude would break on the ear through the thick +walls. Griff listened and hoped for a volley of +musketry. He was not tender-hearted! But none came, +and by the time the service was over, the mob had been greatly +reinforced and had broken into the prisons, set them on fire, and +released the prisoners. They were mustering on College +Green for an attack on the palace. Griff aided in guarding +the entrance to the cloisters till the Bishop and his family had +had time to drive away to Almondsbury, four miles off, and then +the rush became so strong that they had to give way. There +was another great struggle at the door of the palace, but it was +forced open with a crowbar, while shouts rang out ‘No King +and no Bishops!’ A fire was made in the dining-room +with chairs and tables, and live coals were put into the beds, +while the plunder went on.</p> +<p>Griff meantime had made his way to the party headed by the +magistrates, and accompanied by the dragoons, and the mob began +to flee; but Colonel Brereton had given strict orders that the +soldiers should not fire, and the plunderers rallied, made a fire +in the Chapter House, and burnt the whole of the library, +shouting with the maddest triumph.</p> +<p>They next attacked the Cathedral, intending to burn that +likewise, but two brave gentlemen, Mr. Ralph and Mr. Linne, +succeeded in saving this last outrage, at the head of the better +affected.</p> +<p>Griff had fought hard. He was all over bruises which he +really had never felt at the time, scarcely even now, though one +side of his face was turning purple, and his clothes were +singed. In a sort of council held at the repulse of the +attack on the Cathedral, it had been decided that the best thing +he could do would be to give notice to Sir George Eastwood, in +order that the Yeomanry might be called out, since the troops +were so strangely prevented from acting. As he rode through +Clifton, he had halted at Lady Peacock’s, and found her in +extreme alarm. Indeed, no one could guess what the temper +of the mob might be the next day, or whether they might not fall +upon private houses. The Mansion-House, the prisons, the +palace were all burning and were an astounding sight, which +terrified her exceedingly, and she was sending out right and left +to endeavour to get horses to take her away. In common +humanity, and for old acquaintance sake, it was impossible not to +help her, and Griff had delayed, to offer any amount of reward in +her name for posthorses, which he had at last secured. Her +own man-servant, whom she had sent in quest of some, had never +returned, and she had to set off without him, Griff acting as +outrider; but after the first there was no more difficulty about +horses, and she had been able to change them at the next +stage.</p> +<p>We all thought the days of civil war were really begun, as the +heads of this account were hastily gathered; but there was not +much said, only Mr. Frank Fordyce laid his hand on Griff’s +shoulder and said, ‘Well done, my boy; but you have had +enough for to-day. If you’ll lend me a horse, +Winslow, I’ll ride over to Eastwood. That’s +work for the clergy in these times, eh? Griffith should +rest. He may be wanted to-morrow. Only is there any +one to take a note home for me, to say where I’m +gone;’ and then he added with that sweet smile of his, +‘Some one will be more the true knight than ever, eh, you +Griffith you—’</p> +<p>Griffith coloured a little, and Lady Peacock’s eyes +looked interrogative. When the horse was announced, Griff +followed Mr. Fordyce into the hall, and came back announcing +that, unless summoned elsewhere, he should go to breakfast at +Hillside, and so hear what was decided on. He longed to be +back at the scene of action, but was so tired out that he could +not dispense with another night’s rest; though he took all +precautions for being called up, in case of need.</p> +<p>However, nothing came, and he rode to the Rectory in Yeomanry +equipment. Nor could any one doubt that in the ecstasy of +meeting such a hero, all the little misunderstanding and grief of +the night before was forgotten? Ellen looked as if she trod +on air, when she came down with her father to report that +Griffith had gone, according to the orders sent, to join the rest +of the Yeomanry, who were to advance upon Bristol. They had +seen, and tried to turn back, some of the villagers who were +starting with bludgeons to share in the spoil, and who looked +sullen, as if they were determined not to miss their share.</p> +<p>I do not think we were very much alarmed for Griff’s +safety or for our own, not even the ladies. My mother had +the lion-heart of her naval ancestors, and Ellen was in a state +of exaltation. Would that I could put her before other +eyes, as she stood with hands clasped and glowing cheek.</p> +<p>‘Oh!—think!—think of having one among us who +is as real and true knight as ever watched his armour—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">‘“For king, +for church, for lady fight!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It has all come gloriously true!’</p> +<p>‘Should not you like to bind on his spurs?’ I +asked somewhat mischievously; but she was serious as she said, +‘I am sure he has won them.’ All the rest of +the Fordyces came down afterwards, too anxious to stay at +home. Our elders felt the matter more gravely, thinking of +what civil war might mean to us all, and what an awful thing it +was for Englishmen to be enrolled against each other. +Nottingham Castle had just been burnt, and things looked only too +like revolution, especially considering the inaction of the +dragoons. After Griff had left Bristol, there had been some +terrible scenes at the Custom House, where the +ringleaders—unhappy men!—were caught in a trap of +their own and perished miserably.</p> +<p>However, by the morning, the order sent from Lord Hill, the +arrival of Major Beckwith from Gloucester, and the proceedings of +the good-humoured mob had put an end to poor Brereton’s +hesitations; a determined front had been shown; the mob had been +fairly broken up; troops from all quarters poured into the city, +and by dinner-time Griff came back with the news that all was +quiet and there was nothing more to fear. Ellen and Emily +both flew out to meet him at the first sound of the horse’s +feet, and they all came into the drawing-room together—each +young lady having hold of one of his hands—and +Ellen’s face in such a glow, that I rather suspect that he +had snatched a reward which certainly would not have been granted +save in such a moment of uplifted feeling, and when she was +thankful to her hero for forgetting how angry he had been with +her two days before.</p> +<p>Minor matters were forgotten in the details of his tidings, as +he stood before the fire, shining in his silver lace, and +relating the tragedy and the comedy of the scene.</p> +<p>It was curious, as the evening passed on, to see how Ellen and +Lady Peacock regarded each other, now that the tension of +suspense was over. To Ellen, the guest was primarily a +distressed and widowed dame, delivered by Griff, to whom she, as +his lady love, was bound to be gracious and kind; nor had they +seen much of one another, the elder ladies sitting in the +drawing-room, and we in our own regions; but we were all together +at dinner and afterwards, and Lady Peacock, who had been in a +very limp, nervous, and terrified state all day, began to be the +Selina Clarkson we remembered, and ‘more too.’ +She was still in mourning, but she came down to dinner in gray +satin sheen, and with her hair in a most astonishing erection of +bows and bands, on the very crown of her head, raising her height +at least four inches. Emily assures me that it was the mode +in use, and that she and Ellen wore their hair in the same style, +appealing to portraits to prove it. I can only say that +they never astonished my weak mind in the like manner; and that +their heads, however dressed, only appeared to me a portion of +the general woman, and part of the universal fitness of +things. Ellen was likewise amazed, most likely not at the +hair, but at the transformation of the disconsolate, frightened +widow, into the handsome, fashionable, stylish lady, talking over +London acquaintance and London news with my father and Griff +whenever they left the endless subject of the Bristol +adventures.</p> +<p>The widow had gained a good deal in beauty since her early +girlhood, having regular features, eyes of an uncommon deep blue, +very black brows, eye-lashes, and hair, and a form of the kind +that is better after early youth is over. ‘A fine +figure of a woman,’ Parson Frank pronounced her, and his +wife, with the fine edge of her lips replied, ‘exactly what +she is!’</p> +<p>She looked upon us younger ones as mere children +still—indeed she never looked at me at all if she could +help it—but she mortally offended Emily by penning her up +in a corner, and asking if Griff were engaged to that sentimental +little girl.</p> +<p>Emily coloured like a turkey cock between wrath and +embarrassment, and hotly protested against the word +sentimental.</p> +<p>‘Ah yes, I see!’ she said in a patronising tone, +‘she is your bosom friend, eh? That’s the way +those things always begin. You need not answer: I see it +all. And no doubt it is a capital thing for him; properties +joining and all. And she will get a little air and style +when he takes her to London.’ It was a tremendous +offence even to hint that Ellen’s style was capable of +improvement; perhaps an unprejudiced eye would have said that the +difference was between high-bred simplicity and the air of +fashion and society.</p> +<p>In our eyes Lady Peacock was the companion of the elders, and +as such was appreciated by the gentlemen; but neither of the two +mothers was equally delighted with her, nor was mine at all sorry +when, on Tuesday, the boxes were packed, posthorses sent for, and +my Lady departed, with great expressions of thankfulness to us +all.</p> +<p>‘A tulip to a jessamine,’ muttered Griff as she +drove off, and he looked up at his Ellen’s sweet refined +face.</p> +<p>The unfortunate Colonel Brereton put an end to himself when +the court-martial was half over. How Clarence was shocked +and how ardent was his pity! But Griffith received the +thanks of the Corporation of Bristol for his gallant conduct, +when the special assize was held in January. Mrs. Fordyce +was almost as proud of him as we were, and there was much less +attempt at restraining the terms on which he stood with +Ellen—though still the formal engagement was not +permitted.</p> +<h2><a name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +198</span>CHAPTER XXIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">QUICKSANDS.</span></h2> + +<blockquote><p> ‘Whither +shall I go?<br /> +Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Tennyson</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was in the May of the ensuing +year, 1832, that Clarence was sent down to Bristol for a few +weeks to take the place of one of the clerks in the office where +the cargoes of the incoming vessels of the firm were received and +overhauled.</p> +<p>This was a good-natured arrangement of Mr. Castleford’s +in order to give him change of work and a sight of home, where, +by the help of the coach, he could spend his Sundays. That +first spring day on his way down was a great delight and even +surprise to him, who had never seen our profusion of primroses, +cowslips, and bluebells, nor our splendid blossom of +trees—apple, lilac, laburnum—all vieing in beauty +with one another. Emily conducted him about in great +delight, taking him over to Hillside to see Mrs. Fordyce’s +American garden, blazing with azaleas, and glowing with +rhododendrons. He came back with a great bouquet given to +him by Ellen, who had been unusually friendly with him, and he +was more animated and full of life than for years before.</p> +<p>Next time he came he looked less happy. There was plenty +of room in our house, but he used, by preference, the little +chamber within mine, and there at night he asked me to lend him a +few pounds, since Griffith had written one of his off-hand +letters asking him to discharge a little bill or two at Bristol, +giving the addresses, but not sending the accounts. This +was no wonder, since any enclosure doubled the already heavy +postage. One of these bills was for some sporting +equipments from the gunsmith’s; another, much heavier, from +a tavern for breakfasts, or rather luncheons, to parties of +gentlemen, mostly bearing date in the summer and autumn of 1830, +before the friendship with the Fordyces had begun. On +Clarence’s defraying the first and applying for the second, +two more had come in, one from a jeweller for a pair of +drop-earrings, the other from a nurseryman for a bouquet of +exotics. Doubting of these two last, Clarence had written +to Griff, but had not yet received an answer. The whole +amount was so much beyond what he had been led to expect that he +had not brought enough money to meet it, and wanted an advance +from me, promising repayment, to which latter point I could not +assent, as both of us knew, but did not say, we should never see +the sum again, and to me it only meant stinting in new books and +curiosities. We were anxious to get the matter settled at +once, as Griffith spoke of being dunned; and it might be serious, +if the tradesmen applied to my father when he was still groaning +over revelations of college expenses.</p> +<p>On the ensuing Saturday, Clarence showed me Griff’s +answer—‘I had forgotten these items. The +earrings were a wedding present to the pretty little barmaid, who +had been very civil. The bouquet was for Lady Peacock; I +felt bound to do something to atone for mamma’s severe +virtue. It is all right, you best of brothers.’</p> +<p>It was consolatory that all the dates were prior to the +Hillside fire, except that of the bouquet. As to the +earrings, we all knew that Griff could not see a pretty girl +without talking nonsense to her. Anyway, if they were a +wedding present, there was an end of it; and we were only glad to +prevent any hint of them from reaching the ears of the +authorities.</p> +<p>Clarence had another trouble to confide to me. He had +strong reason to believe that Tooke, the managing clerk at +Bristol, was carrying on a course of peculation, and feathering +his nest at the expense of the firm. What a grand +discovery, thought I, for such a youth to have made. The +firm would be infinitely obliged to him, and his fortune would be +secured. He shook his head, and said that was all my +ignorance; the man, Tooke, was greatly trusted, especially by Mr. +Frith the senior partner, and was so clever and experienced that +it would be almost impossible to establish anything against +him. Indeed he had browbeaten Clarence, and convinced him +at the moment that his suspicions and perplexities were only due +to the ignorance of a foolish, scrupulous youth, who did not +understand the customs and perquisites of an agency. It was +only when Clarence was alone, and reflected on the matter by the +light of experience gained on a similar expedition to Liverpool, +that he had perceived that Mr. Tooke had been throwing dust in +his eyes.</p> +<p>‘I shall only get into a scrape myself,’ said +Clarence despondently. ‘I have felt it coming ever +since I have been at Bristol;’ and he pushed his hair back +with a weary hopeless gesture.</p> +<p>‘But you don’t mean to let it alone?’ I +cried indignantly.</p> +<p>He hesitated in a manner that painfully recalled his failing, +and said at last, ‘I don’t know; I suppose I ought +not.’</p> +<p>‘Suppose?’ I cried.</p> +<p>‘It is not so easy as you think,’ he answered, +‘especially for one who has forfeited the right to be +believed. I must wait till I have an opportunity of +speaking to Mr. Castleford, and then I can hardly do more than +privately give him a hint to be watchful. You don’t +know how things are in such houses as ours. One may only +ruin oneself without doing any good.’</p> +<p>‘You cannot write to him?’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not. He has taken his family to Mrs. +Castleford’s home in the north of Ireland for a month or +six weeks. I don’t know the address, and I cannot run +the risk of the letter being opened at the office.’</p> +<p>‘Can’t you speak to my father?’</p> +<p>‘Impossible! it would be a betrayal. He would do +things for which I should never be forgiven. And, after +all, remember, it is no business of mine. I know of agents +at the docks who do such things as a matter of course. It +is only that I happen to know that Harris at Liverpool does +not. Very possibly old Frith knows all about it. I +should only get scored down as a meddlesome prig, worse hypocrite +than they think me already.’</p> +<p>He said a good deal more to this effect, and I remember +exclaiming, ‘Oh, Clarence, the old story!’ and then +being frightened at the whiteness that came over his face.</p> +<p>Little did I know the suffering to which those words of mine +condemned him. For not only had he to make up his mind to +resistance, which to his nature was infinitely worse than it was +to Griffith to face a raging mob, but he knew very well that it +would almost inevitably produce his own ruin, and renew the +disgrace out of which he was beginning to emerge. I did +not—even while I prayed that he might do the +right—guess at his own agony of supplication, carried on +incessantly, day and night, sleeping and waking, that the Holy +Spirit of might should brace his will and govern his tongue, and +make him say the right thing at the right time, be the +consequences what they might. No one, not constituted as he +was, can guess at the anguish he endured. I knew no +more. Clarence did not come home the next Saturday, to my +mother’s great vexation; but on Tuesday a small parcel was +given to me, brought from our point of contact with the Bristol +coach. It contained some pencils I had asked him to get, +and a note marked <i>private</i>. Here it is—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘<span class="smcap">Dear +Edward</span>—I am summoned to town. Tooke has no +doubt forestalled me. We have had some curious interviews, +in which he first, as I told you, persuaded me out of my senses +that it was all right, and then, finding me still dissatisfied, +tried in a delicate fashion to apprise me that I had a claim to a +share of the plunder. When I refused to appropriate +anything without sanction from headquarters, he threatened me +with the consequences of presumptuous interference. It came +to bullying at last. I hardly know what I answered, but I +don’t think I gave in. Now, a sharp letter from old +Frith recalls me. Say nothing at home; and whatever you do, +do not betray Griff. He has more to lose than I. Help +me in the true way, as you know how.—Ever yours, W. C. +W.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I need not dwell on the misery of those days. It was +well that my father had ruled that our letters should not be +family property. Here were all the others discussing a +proposed tour in the north of Devon, to be taken conjointly with +the Fordyces, as soon as Griff should come home. My mother +said it would do me good; she saw I was flagging, but she little +guessed at the continual torment of anxiety, and my wonder at the +warning about Griff.</p> +<p>At the end of the week came another letter.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘You need not speak yet. Papa and +mamma will know soon enough. I brought down £150 in +specie, to be paid over to Tooke. He avers that only +£130 was received. What is my word worth against +his? I am told that if I am not prosecuted it will only be +out of respect to my father. I am not dismissed yet, but +shall get notice as soon as letters come from Ireland. I +have written, but it is not in the nature of things that Mr. +Castleford should not accept such proofs as have been sent +him. I have no hope, and shall be glad when it is +over. The part of black sheep is not a pleasant one. +Say not a word, and do not let my father come up. He could +do no good, and to see him believing it all would be the last +drop in the bucket.</p> +<p><i>N.B.</i>—In this pass, nothing would be saved by +bringing Griff into it, so be silent on your life. +Innocence does not seem to be much comfort at present. +Maybe it will come in time. I know you will not drop me, +dear Ted, wherever I may be.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Need I tell the distress of those days of suspense and +silence, when my only solace was in being left alone, and in +writing letters to Clarence which were mostly torn up again.</p> +<p>My horror was lest he should be driven to go off to the sea, +which he loved so well, knowing, as nobody else did, the longing +that sometimes seized him for it, a hereditary craving that +curiously conflicted with the rest of his disposition; and, +indeed, his lack was more of moral than of physical +courage. It haunted me constantly that his entreaty that my +father should not come to London was a bad sign, and that he +would never face such another return home. And was I +justified in keeping all this to myself, when my father’s +presence might save him from the flight that would indeed be the +surrender of his character, and to the life of a common +sailor? Never have I known such leaden days as these, yet +the misery was not a tithe of what Clarence was undergoing.</p> +<p>I was right in my forebodings. Prosecution and a second +return home in shame and disgrace were alike hideous to Clarence, +and the present was almost equally terrible, for nobody at the +office had any doubt of his guilt, and the young men who had +sneered at his strictness and religious habits regarded him as an +unmasked hypocrite, only waiting on sufferance till his greatly +deceived patron should write to decide on the steps to be taken +with him, while he knew he was thought to be brazening it out in +hopes of again deceiving Mr. Castleford.</p> +<p>The sea began to exert its power over him, and he thought with +longing of its freedom, as if the sails of the vessels were the +wings of a dove to flee away and be at rest. He had no +illusions as to the roughness of the life and companionship; but +in his present mood, the frank rudeness and profanity of the +sailors seemed preferable to his cramped life, and the scowls of +his fellows; and he knew himself to have seamanship enough to +rise quickly, even if he could not secure a mate’s berth at +first.</p> +<p>Mr. Castleford could not be heard from till the end of the +week. Friday, Saturday came and not a word. That was +the climax! When the consignment of cash, hitherto carried +by Clarence to the Bank of England, was committed to another +clerk, the very office boy sniggered, and the manager +demonstratively waited to see him depart.</p> +<p>Unable to bear it any longer, he walked towards Wapping, +bought a Southwester, examined the lists of shipping, and entered +into conversation with one or two sailors about the vessels +making up their crews; intending to go down after dark, to meet +the skipper of a craft bound for Lisbon, who, he heard, was so +much in want of a mate as perhaps to overlook the lack of +testimonials, and at any rate take him on board on Sunday.</p> +<p>Going home to pick up a few necessaries, a book lent to him by +Miss Newton came in his way, and he felt drawn to carry it home, +and see her face for the last time.</p> +<p>All unconscious of his trouble and of his intentions, the good +lady told him of her strong desire to hear a celebrated preacher +at a neighbouring church on the Sunday evening, but said that in +her partial blindness and weakness, she was afraid to venture, +unless he would have the extreme goodness, as she said, to take +care of her. He saw that she wished it so much that he had +not the heart to refuse, and he recollected likewise that very +early on Monday morning would answer his purpose equally +well.</p> +<p>It was the 7th of June. The Psalm was the 37th—the +supreme lesson of patience. ‘Hold thee still in the +Lord; and abide patiently on Him; and He shall bring it to +pass. He shall make thy righteousness as clear as the +light, and thy just dealing as the noonday.’</p> +<p>The awful sense of desolation seemed to pass away under those +words, with that gentle woman beside him. And the sermon +was on ‘Oh tarry thou the Lord’s leisure; be strong, +and He shall comfort thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the +Lord.’</p> +<p>Clarence remembered nothing but the text. But it was +borne in upon him that his purpose of flight was ‘the old +story,’—cowardice and virtual distrust of the Lord, +as well as absolute cruelty to us who loved him.</p> +<p>When he had deposited Miss Newton at her own door, he +whispered thanks, and an entreaty for her prayers.</p> +<p>And then he went home, and fought the battle of his life, with +his own horrible dread of Mr. Castleford’s disappointment; +of possible prosecution; of the shame at home; the misery of a +life a second time blighted. He fought it out on his knees, +many a time persuading himself that flight would not be a sin, +then returning to the sense that it was a temptation of his worse +self to be overcome. And by morning he knew that it would +be a surrender of himself to his lower nature, and the evil +spirit behind it; while, by facing the worst that could befall +him, he would be falling into the hand of the Lord.</p> +<h2><a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +208</span>CHAPTER XXIV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AFTER THE TEMPEST.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Nor deem the irrevocable past<br /> +As wholly wasted, wholly vain,<br /> +If rising on its wrecks at last<br /> +To something nobler we attain.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Longfellow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">All</span> the rest of the family were +out, and I was relieved by being alone with my distress, not +forced to hide it, when the door opened and ‘Mr. +Castleford’ was announced. After one moment’s +look at me, one touch of my hand, he must have seen that I was +faint with anxiety, and said, ‘It is all right, Edward; I +see you know all. I am come from Bristol to tell your +father that he may be proud of his son Clarence.’</p> +<p>I don’t know what I did. Perhaps I sobbed and +cried, but the first words I could get out were, ‘Does he +know? Oh! it may be too late. He may be gone off to +sea!’ I cried, breaking out with my chief fear. Mr. +Castleford looked astounded, then said, ‘I trust not. +I sent off a special messenger last night, as soon as I saw my +way—’</p> +<p>Then I breathed a little more freely, and could understand +what he was telling me, namely, that Tooke had accused Clarence +of abstracting £20 from the sum in his charge. The +fellow accounted for it by explaining that young Winslow had been +paying extravagant bills at a tavern, where the barmaid showed +his presents, and boasted of her conquest. All this had +been written to Mr. Castleford by his partner, and he was told +that it was out of deference to himself that his +<i>protégé</i> was not in custody, nor had received +notice of dismissal; but, no doubt, he would give his sanction to +immediate measures, and communicate with the family.</p> +<p>The effect had been to make the good man hurry at once from +the Giant’s Causeway to Bristol, where he had arrived on +Sunday, to investigate the books and examine the +underlings. In the midst Tooke attempted to abscond, but he +was brought back as he was embarking in an American vessel; and +he then confessed the whole,—how speculation had led to +dishonesty, and following evil customs not uncommon in other +firms. Then, when the fugitive found that young Winslow was +too acute to be blinded, and that it had been a still greater +mistake to try to overcome his integrity, self-defence required +his ruin, or at any rate his expulsion, before he could gain Mr. +Castleford’s ear.</p> +<p>Tooke really believed that the discreditable bills were the +young man’s own, and proofs of concealed habits of +dissipation; but this excellent man had gone into the matter, +repaired to the tradesfolk, learnt the date, and whose the +accounts really were, and had even hunted up the barmaid, who was +not married after all, and had no hesitation in avowing that her +beau had been the handsome young Yeomanry lieutenant. Mr. +Castleford had spent the greater part of Monday in this painful +task, but had not been clear enough till quite late in the +evening to despatch an express to his partner, and to Clarence, +whom he desired to meet him here.</p> +<p>‘He has acted nobly,’ said our kind friend. +‘His only error seems to have been in being too good a +brother.’</p> +<p>This made me implore that nothing should be said about +Griffith’s bills, showing those injunctions of +Clarence’s which had so puzzled me, and explaining the +circumstances.</p> +<p>Mr. Castleford hummed and hawed, and perhaps wished he had +seen my father before me; but I prevailed at last, and when the +others came in from their drive, there was nothing to alloy the +intelligence that Clarence had shown rare discernment, as well as +great uprightness, steadfastness, and moral courage.</p> +<p>My mother, when she had taken in the fact, actually shed tears +of joy. Emily stood by me, holding my hand. My father +said, ‘It is all owing to you, Castleford, and the helping +hand you gave the poor boy.’</p> +<p>‘Nay,’ was the answer, ‘it seems to me that +it was owing to his having the root of the matter in him to +overcome his natural failings.’</p> +<p>Still, in all the rejoicing, my heart failed me lest the +express should have come too late, and Clarence should be already +on the high seas, for there had been no letter from him on Sunday +morning. It was doubtful whether Mr. Castleford’s +messenger could reach London in time for tidings to come down by +the coach—far less did we expect Clarence—and we had +nearly finished the first course at dinner, when we heard the +front door open, and a voice speaking to the butler. Emily +screamed ‘It’s he! Oh mamma, may I?’ and +flew out into the hall, dragging in a pale, worn and weary wight, +all dust and heat, having travelled down outside the coach on a +broiling day, and walked the rest of the way. He looked +quite bewildered at the rush at him; my father’s +‘Well done, Clarence,’ and strong clasp; and my +mother’s fervent kiss, and muttered something about washing +his hands.</p> +<p>Formal folks, such as we were, had to sit in our chairs; and +when he came back apologising for not dressing, as he had left +his portmanteau for the carrier, he looked so white and ill that +we were quite shocked, and began to realise what he had +suffered. He could not eat the food that was brought back +for him, and allowed that his head was aching dreadfully; but, +after a glass of wine had been administered, it was extracted +that he had met Mr. Frith at the office door, and been gruffly +told that Mr. Castleford was satisfied, and he might consider +himself acquitted.</p> +<p>‘And then I had your letter, sir, thank you,’ said +Clarence, scarcely restraining his tears.</p> +<p>‘The thanks are on our side, my dear boy,’ said +Mr. Castleford. ‘I must talk it over with you, but +not till you have had a night’s rest. You look as if +you had not known one for a good while.’</p> +<p>Clarence gave a sort of trembling smile, not trusting himself +to speak. Approbation at home was so new and strange to him +that he could scarcely bear it, worn out as he was by nearly a +month of doubt, distress, apprehension, and self-debate.</p> +<p>My mother went herself to hasten the preparation of his room, +and after she had sent him to bed went again to satisfy herself +that he was comfortable and not feverish. She came back +wiping away a tear, and saying he had looked up at her just as +when she had the three of us in our nursery cribs. In truth +these two had seldom been so happy together since those days, +though the dear mother, while thankful that he had not failed, +was little aware of the conflict his resolution had cost him, and +the hot journey and long walk came in for more blame for his +exhaustion than they entirely deserved.</p> +<p>My father perhaps understood more of the trial; for when she +came back, declaring that all that was needed was sleep, and +forbidding me to go to my room before bedtime, he said he must +bid the boy good-night.</p> +<p>And he spoke as his reserve would have never let him speak at +any other time, telling Clarence how deeply thankful he felt for +the manifestation of such truthfulness and moral courage as he +said showed that the man had conquered the failings of the +boy.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, when I retired for the night, it was to find +Clarence asleep indeed, but most uneasily, tossing, moaning, and +muttering broken sentences about ‘disgracing his +pennant,’ ‘never bearing to see mamma’s +face’—and the like. I thought it a kindness to +wake him, and he started up. ‘Ted, is it you? I +thought I should never hear your dear old crutch again! Is +it really all right’—then, sitting up and passing his +hand over his face, ‘I always mix it up with the old +affair, and think the court-martial is coming again.’</p> +<p>‘There’s all the difference now.’</p> +<p>‘Thank God! yes—He has dragged me through! +But it did not seem so in one’s sleep, nor waking +neither—though sleep is worst, and happily there was not +much of that! Sit down, Ted; I want to look at you. I +can’t believe it is not three weeks since I saw you +last.’</p> +<p>We talked it all out, and I came to some perception of the +fearful ordeal it had been—first, in the decision neither +to shut his eyes, nor to conceal that they were open; and then in +the lack of presence of mind and the sense of confusion that +always beset him when browbeaten and talked down, so that, in the +critical contest with Tooke, he felt as if his feet were slipping +from under him, and what had once been clear to him was becoming +dim, so that he had only been assured that he had held his ground +by Tooke’s redoubled persuasions and increased anger. +And for a clerk, whose years were only twenty-one, to oppose a +manager, who had been in the service more than the whole of that +space, was preposterous insolence, and likely to result in the +utter ruin of his own prospects, and the character he had begun +to retrieve. It was just after this, the real crisis, that +he had the only dream which had not been misery and +distress. In it she—she yonder—yes, the lady +with the lamp, came and stood by him, and said, ‘Be +steadfast.’</p> +<p>‘It was a dream,’ said Clarence. ‘She +was not as she is in the mullion room, not crying, but with a +sweet, sad look, almost like Miss Fordyce—if Miss Fordyce +ever looked sad. It was only a dream.’</p> +<p>Yet it had so refreshed and comforted him that we have often +since discussed whether the spirit really visited him, or whether +this was the manner in which conscience and imagination acted on +his brain. Indeed, he always believed that the dream had +been either heaven-sent or heaven-permitted.</p> +<p>The die had been cast in that interview when he had let it be +seen that he was dangerous, and could not be bought over. +The after consequences had been the terrible distress and +temptation I have before described, only most inadequately. +‘But that,’ said Clarence, half smiling, ‘only +came of my being such a wretched creature as I am. There, +dear old Miss Newton saved me—yes, she did—most +unconsciously, dear old soul. Don’t you remember how +Griff used to say she maundered over the text. Well, she +did it all the way home in my ear, as she clung to my +arm—“Be strong, and He shall comfort thine +heart.” And then I knew my despair and determination +to leave it all behind were a temptation—“the old +story,” as you told me, and I prayed God to help me, and +just managed to fight it out. Thank God for her!’</p> +<p>If it had not been for that good woman, he would have been out +of reach—already out in the river—before Mr. +Castleford’s messenger had reached London! He might +call himself a poor creature—and certainly a man of harder, +bolder stuff would not have fared so badly in the strife; but it +always seemed to me in after years that much of what he called +the poor creature—the old, nervous, timid, diffident +self—had been shaken off in that desperate struggle, +perhaps because it had really given him more self-reliance, and +certainly inspired others with confidence in him.</p> +<p>We talked late enough to have horrified my mother, but I did +not leave him till he was sleeping like a child, nor did he wake +till I was leaving the room at the sound of the bell. It +was alleged that it was the first time in his life that he had +been late for prayers. Mr. Castleford said he was very +glad, and my mother, looking severely at me, said she knew we had +been talking all night, and then went off to satisfy herself +whether he ought to be getting up.</p> +<p>There was no doubt on that score, for he was quite himself +again, though he was, in looks and in weariness, just as if he +had recovered from a bad illness, or, as he put it himself, he +felt as tired and bruised as if he had been in a stiff +gale. Mr. Castleford was sorry to be obliged to ask him to +go through the whole matter with him in the study, and the result +was that he was pronounced to have an admirable head for +business, as well as the higher qualities that had been put to +the test. After that his good friend insisted that he +should have a long and complete holiday, at first proposing to +take him to Ireland, but giving the notion up on hearing of our +projected excursion to the north of Devon. Pending this, +Clarence was, for nearly a week, fit for nothing but lying on the +grass in the shade, playing with the cats and dogs, or with +little Anne, looking over our drawings, listening to Wordsworth, +our reigning idol,—and enjoying, with almost touching +gratitude, the first approach to petting that had ever fallen to +his share.</p> +<p>The only trouble on his mind was the Quarter-Session. +Mr. Castleford would hardly have prosecuted an old +employé, but Mr. Frith was furious, and resolved to make +an example. Tooke had, however, so carefully entrenched +himself that nothing could be actually made a subject of +prosecution but the abstraction of the £20 of which he had +accused Clarence, who had to prove the having received and +delivered it.</p> +<p>It was a very painful affair, and Tooke was sentenced to seven +years’ transportation. I believe he became a very +rich and prosperous man in New South Wales, and founded a +family. My father received warm compliments upon his sons, +and Clarence had the new sensation of being honourably coupled +with Griffith, though he laughed at the idea of mere honesty with +fierce struggles being placed beside heroism with no struggle at +all.</p> +<h2><a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +217</span>CHAPTER XXV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">HOLIDAY-MAKING.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘The child upon the mountain side<br /> + Plays fearless and at ease,<br /> +While the hush of purple evening<br /> + Spreads over earth and seas.<br /> +The valley lies in shadow,<br /> + But the valley lies afar;<br /> +And the mountain is a slope of light<br /> + Upreaching to a star.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Menella +Smedley</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">How</span> pleasant it was to hear +Griffith’s cheery voice, as he swung himself down, out of a +cloud of dust, from the top of the coach at the wayside +stage-house, whither Clarence and I had driven in the new +britshka to meet him. While the four fine coach-horses were +led off, and their successors harnessed in almost the twinkling +of an eye, Griff was with us; and we did nothing but laugh and +poke fun at each other all the way home, without a word of graver +matters.</p> +<p>I was resolved, however, that Griff should know how terribly +his commission had added to Clarence’s danger, and how +carefully the secret had been guarded; and the first time I could +get him alone, I told him the whole.</p> +<p>The effect was one of his most overwhelming fits of +laughter. ‘Poor old Bill! To think of his being +accused of gallanting about with barmaids!’ (an explosion +at every pause) ‘and revelling with officers! Poor +old Bill! it was as bad as Malvolio himself.’</p> +<p>When, indignant at the mirth excited by what had nearly cost +us so dear, I observed that these items had nearly turned the +scale against our brother, Griff demanded how we could have been +such idiots as not to have written to him; I might at least have +had the sense to do so. As to its doing him harm at +Hillside, Parson Frank was no fool, and knew what men were made +of! Griff would have taken the risk, come at once, and +thrust the story down the fellow’s throat (as indeed he +would have done). The idea of Betsy putting up with a pious +young man like Bill, whose only flame had ever been old Miss +Newton! And he roared again at the incongruous pair. +‘Oh, wasn’t she married after all, the hussy? +She always had a dozen beaux, and professed to be on the point of +putting up her banns; so if the earrings were not a wedding +present, they might have been, ought to have been, and would be +some time or other.’</p> +<p>Then he patted me, and declared there was no occasion for my +disgusted looks, for no one knew better than himself that he had +the best brace of brothers in existence, wanting in nothing but +common sense and knowledge of the world. As to +Betsy—faugh! I need not make myself uneasy about her; +she knew what a civil word was worth much better than I did.</p> +<p>He showed considerable affection for Clarence after a fashion +of his own, which we three perfectly understood, and preferred to +anything more conventional. Griff was always delightful, +and he was especially so on that vacation, when every one was in +high spirits; so that the journey is, as I look back on it, like +a spot of brilliant sunshine in the distant landscape.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce kept house with her father-in-law, little Anne, +and Martyn, whose holidays began a week after we had +started. The two children were allowed to make a desert +island and a robbers’ cave in the beech wood; and the +adventures which their imaginations underwent there completely +threw ours into the shade.</p> +<p>The three ladies and I started in the big Hillside open +carriage, with my brothers on the box and the two fathers on +horseback. Frank Fordyce was a splendid rider, as indeed +was the old rector, who had followed the hounds, made a leap over +a fearful chasm, still known as the Parson’s Stride, and +had been an excellent shot. The renunciation of field +sports had been a severe sacrifice to Frank Fordyce, and showed +of what excellent stuff he was made. He used to say that it +was his own fault that he had to give them up; another man would +have been less engrossed by them. Though he only read by +fits and starts when his enthusiasm was excited, he was thorough, +able, and acute, and his intelligence and sympathy were my +father’s best compensation for the loss of London +society.</p> +<p>The two riders were a great contrast. Mr. Winslow had +the thoroughly well-appointed, somewhat precise, and +highly-polished air of a barrister, and a thin, somewhat worn and +colourless face, with grizzled hair and white whiskers; and +though he rode well, with full command of his horse, he was old +enough to have chosen Chancery for her sterling qualities. +Parson Frank, on the other hand, though a thorough gentleman, was +as ruddy and weather-browned as any farmer, and—albeit his +features were handsome and refined, and his figure well poised +and athletic—he lost something of dignity by easiness of +gesture and carelessness of dress, except on state occasions, +when he discarded his beloved rusty old coat and Oxford mixture +trousers, and came out magnificent enough for an archdeacon, if +not an archbishop; while his magnificent horse, Cossack, was an +animal that a sporting duke might have envied.</p> +<p>Nothing ever tired that couple, but my father had stipulated +for exchanges with Griffith. On these occasions it almost +invariably happened that there was a fine view for Ellen to see, +so that she was exalted to the box with Griffith to show it to +her, and Chancery was consigned to Clarence. Griff was wont +to say that Chancery deserved her name, and that he would defy +the ninety-ninth part of a tailor to come to harm with her; but +Clarence was utterly unpractised in riding, did not like it, was +tormented lest Cossack’s antics should corrupt Chancery, +and was mortally afraid of breaking the knees of the precious +mare. Not all Parson Frank’s good advice and kindly +raillery would induce him to risk riding her on a descent; and as +our travels were entirely up and down hill, he was often left +leading her far behind, in hot sun or misty rain, and then would +come cantering hastily up, reckless of parallels with John +Gilpin, and only anxious to be in time to help me out at the +halting-place; but more than once only coming in when the +beefsteaks were losing their first charm, and then +good-humouredly serving as the general butt for his noble +horsemanship. Did any one fully comprehend how much +pleasanter our journey was through the presence of one person +entirely at the service of the others? For my own part, it +made an immense difference to have one pair of strong arms and +dextrous well-accustomed hands always at my service, enabling me +to accomplish what no one else, kind as all were, would have +ventured on letting me attempt. Primarily, he was my +devoted slave; but he was at the beck and call of every one, +making the inquiries, managing the bargains, going off in search +of whatever was wanting—taking in fact all the ‘must +be dones’ of the journal. The contemplation of +Cossack and Chancery being rubbed down, and devouring their oats +was so delightful to Frank Fordyce and Griffith that they seldom +wished to shirk it; but if there were any more pleasing +occupation, it was a matter of course that Clarence should watch +to see that the ostlers did their duty by the animals—an +obsolete ceremony, by the bye. He even succeeded in hunting +up and hiring a side saddle when the lovers, with the +masterfulness of their nature, devised appropriating the horses +at all the most beautiful places, in spite of Frank’s +murmur, ‘What will mamma say?’ But, as Griff +said, it was a real mercy, for Ellen was infinitely more at her +ease with Chancery than was Clarence. Then Emily had +Clarence to walk up the hills with her, and help her in +botany—her special department in our tour. Mine was +sketching, Ellen’s, keeping the journal, though we all +shared in each other’s work at times; and Griff, whose line +was decidedly love-making, interfered considerably with us all, +especially with our chronicler. I spare you the tour, young +people; it lies before me on the table, profusely illustrated and +written in many hands. As I turn it over, I see noble +Dunster on its rock; Clarence leading Chancery down Porlock Hill; +Parson Frank in vain pursuit of his favourite ancient hat over +that wild and windy waste, the sheep running away from him; a +boat tossing at lovely Minehead; a ‘native’ +bargaining over a crab with my mother; the wonderful Valley of +Rocks, and many another scene, ludicrous or grand; for, indeed, +we were for ever taking the one step between the sublime and the +ridiculous! I am inclined to believe it is as well worth +reading as many that have rushed into print, and it is full of +precious reminiscences to Emily and me; but the younger +generation may judge for itself, and it would be an interruption +here. The country we saw was of utterly unimagined beauty +to the untravelled eyes of most of us. I remember Ellen +standing on Hartland Point, with her face to the infinite expanse +of the Atlantic, and waving back Griff with ‘Oh, +don’t speak to me.’ Yet the sea was a delight +above all to my mother and Clarence. To them it was a +beloved friend; and magnificent as was Lynmouth, wonderful as was +Clovelly, and glorious as was Hartland, I believe they would +equally have welcomed the waves if they had been on the flattest +of muddy shores! The ripple, plash, and roar were as +familiar voices, the salt smell as native air; and my mother +never had thawed so entirely towards Clarence as when she found +him the only person who could thoroughly participate her +feeling.</p> +<p>At Minehead they stayed out, walking up and down together in +the summer twilight till long after every one else was tired out, +and had gone in; and when at last they appeared she was leaning +on Clarence’s arm, an unprecedented spectacle!</p> +<p>At Appledore, the only place on that rugged coast where +boating tempted them, there was what they called a pretty little +breeze, but quite enough to make all the rest of us decline +venturing out into Bideford bay. They, however, found a +boatman and made a trip, which was evidently such enjoyment to +them, that my father, who had been a little restless and uneasy +all the time, declared on their return that he felt quite jealous +of Neptune, and had never known what a cruelty he was committing +in asking a sea-nymph to marry a London lawyer.</p> +<p>Mr. Fordyce told him he was afraid of being like the fisherman +who wedded a mermaid, and made Ellen tell the story in her own +pretty way; but while we were laughing over it, I saw my mother +steal her hand into my father’s and give it a strong +grasp. Such gestures, which she denominated pawing, when +she witnessed them in Emily, were so alien to her in general that +no doubt this little action was infinitely expressive to her +husband. She was wonderfully softened, and Clarence implied +to me that it was the first time she had ever seemed to grieve +for him more than she despised him, or to recognise his +deprivation more than his disgrace,—implied, I say, for the +words he used were little more than—‘You can’t +think how nice she was to me.’</p> +<p>The regaining of esteem and self-respect was lessening +Clarence’s bashfulness, and bringing out his powers of +conversation, so that he began to be appreciated as a pleasant +companion, answering Griff’s raillery in like fashion, and +holding his own in good-natured repartee. Mr. Fordyce got +on excellently with him in their tête-à-têtes +(who would not with Parson Frank?), and held him in higher +estimation than did Ellen. To her, honesty was common, +tame, and uninteresting in comparison with heroism; and +Griff’s vague statement that Clarence was the best brother +in the world did not go for much. Emily and I longed to get +the two better acquainted, but it did not become possible while +Griff absorbed the maiden as his exclusive property.</p> +<p>The engagement was treated as an avowed and settled thing, +though I do not know that there had been a formal ratification by +the parents; but in truth Mrs. Fordyce must have tacitly yielded +her consent when she permitted her daughter to make the journey +under the guardianship of Parson Frank. After a walk in the +ravine of Lynton, we became aware of a ring upon Ellen’s +finger; and Emily was allowed at night to hear how and when it +had been put on.</p> +<p>Ellen only slightly deepened her lovely carnation tints when +her father indulged in a little tender teasing and lamentation +over himself. She was thoroughly happy and proud of her +hero, and not ashamed of owning it.</p> +<p>There was one evening when she and I were sitting with our +sketchbooks in the shade on the beech at Ilfracombe, while the +rest had gone, some to bathe, the others to make purchases in the +town. We had been condoling with one another over the +impossibility of finding anything among our water-colours that +would express the wondrous tints before our eyes.</p> +<p>‘No, nothing can do it,’ I said at last; ‘we +can only make a sort of blot to assist our memories.’</p> +<p>‘Sunshine outside and in!’ said Ellen. +‘The memory of such days as these can never fade +away,—no, nor thankfulness for them, I hope.’</p> +<p>Something then passed about the fact that it was quite +possible to go on in complete content in a quiet monotonous life, +in an oyster-like way, till suddenly there was an unveiling and +opening of unimagined capacities of enjoyment—as by a scene +like this before us, by a great poem, an oratorio, or, as I +supposed, by Niagara or the Alps. Ellen put +it—‘Oh! and by feelings for the great and +good!’ Dear girl, her colour deepened, and I am sure +she meant her bliss in her connection with her hero. +Presently, however, she passed on to saying how such revelations +of unsuspected powers of enjoyment helped one to enter into what +was meant by ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither +hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things +that God hath prepared for them that love him.’ Then +there was a silence, and an inevitable quoting of the +<i>Christian Year</i>, the guide to all our best +thoughts—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘But patience, there may come a +time.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And then a turning to the ‘Ode to Immortality,’ +for Wordsworth was our second leader, and we carried him on our +tour as our one secular book, as Keble was our one religious +book. We felt that the principal joy of all this beauty and +delight was because there was something beyond. Presently +Ellen said, prettily and shyly, ‘I am sure all this has +opened much more to me than I ever thought of. I always +used to be glad that we had no brothers, because our cousins were +not always pleasant with us; but now I have learnt what valuable +possessions they are,’ she added, with the sweetest, +prettiest glance of her bright eyes.</p> +<p>I ventured to say that I was glad she said they, and hoped it +was a sign that she was finding out Clarence.</p> +<p>‘I have found out that I behaved so ill to him that I +have been ashamed ever since to look at him or speak to +him,’ said Ellen; ‘I long to ask his pardon, but I +believe that would distress him more than anything.’</p> +<p>In which she was right; and I was able to tell her of the +excuses there had been for the poor boy, how he had suffered, and +how he had striven to conquer his failings; and she replied that +the words ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged,’ always +smote her with the remembrance of her disdainfully cantering past +him. There was a tear on her eye-lashes, and it drew from +me an apology for having brought a painful recollection into our +bright day.</p> +<p>‘There must be shade to throw up the lights,’ she +said, with her sparkling look.</p> +<p>Was it shade that we never fell into one of these grave talks +when Griffith was present, and that the slightest approach to +them was sure to be turned by him into jest?</p> +<p>We made our journey a little longer than we intended, crossing +the moors so as to spend a Sunday at Exeter; but Frank Fordyce +left us, not liking to give his father the entire duty of a third +Sunday.</p> +<p>Emily says she has come to have a superstition that extensions +of original plans never turn out well, and certainly some of the +charm of our journey departed with the merry, genial Parson +Frank. Our mother was more anxious about Ellen, and put +more restrictions on the lovers than when the father was present +to sanction their doings. Griffith absolutely broke out +against her in a way he had never ventured before, when she +forbade Ellen’s riding with him when he wanted to hire a +horse at Lydford and take an excursion on the moor before joining +us at Okehampton.</p> +<p>My father looked up, and said, ‘Griffith, I am surprised +at you.’ He was constrained to mutter some apology, +and I believe Ellen privately begged my mother’s pardon, +owning her to have been quite right; but, by the dear girl, the +wonderful cascade and narrow gorge were seen through swollen +eyes. And poor Clarence must have had a fine time of it +when Griffith had to ride off with him <i>faute de mieux</i>.</p> +<p>All was cleared off, however, when we met again, for +Griff’s storms were very fleeting, and Ellen treated him as +if she had to make her own peace with him. She sacrificed +her own enjoyment of Exeter Cathedral to go about with him when +he had had enough of it, but on Sunday afternoon she altogether +declined to walk with him till after the second service. He +laughed at her supposed passion for sacred music, and offered to +wait with her to hear the anthem from the nave. +‘No,’ she said, ‘that would be amusing +ourselves instead of worshipping.’</p> +<p>‘We’ve done our devoir in that way already,’ +said Griff. ‘Paid our dues.’</p> +<p>‘One can’t,’ cried Ellen, with an eager +look. ‘One longs to do all the more when He has just +let us have such a taste of His beautiful things.’</p> +<p>‘<i>One</i>, perhaps, when one is a little saint,’ +returned Griff.</p> +<p>‘Oh don’t, Griff! I’m not <i>that</i>; +but you know every one wants all the help and blessing that can +be got. And then it is so delightful!’</p> +<p>He gave a long whistle. ‘Every one to his +taste,’ he said; ‘especially you ladies.’</p> +<p>He did come to the Cathedral with us, but he had more than +half spoilt this last Sunday. Did he value her for what was +best in her, or was her influence raising him?</p> +<h2><a name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +229</span>CHAPTER XXVI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">C. MORBUS, ESQ.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears,<br +/> +The plaintive voice alone she hears,<br /> + Sees but the dying man.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>C. <span class="smcap">Morbus</span>, Esq. Such was the +card that some wicked wag, one of Clarence’s fellow-clerks +probably, left at his lodgings in the course of the epidemic +which was beginning its ravages even while we were upon our +pleasant journey—a shade indeed to throw out the light.</p> +<p>In these days, the tidings of a visitation of cholera are +heard with compassion for crowded towns, but without special +alarm for ourselves or our friends, since its conditions and the +mode of combating it have come to be fairly understood.</p> +<p>In 1832, however, it was a disease almost unknown and +unprecedented except in its Indian abode, whence it had advanced +city by city, seaport by seaport, sweeping down multitudes before +it; nor had science yet discovered how to encounter or forestall +it. We heard of it in a helpless sort of way, as if it had +been the plague or the Black Death, and thought of its victims as +doomed.</p> +<p>That terrible German engraving, ‘Death as a Foe,’ +which represents the grisly form as invading a ballroom in Paris, +is an expression of the feeling with which the scourge was +regarded on that first occasion. <i>Two Years Ago</i> gives +some notion of the condition of things in 1849, but by that time +there had been some experience, and means of prevention were +better understood. On the alarm in that year there was a +great inspection of cottages throughout Earlscombe and Hillside, +but in 1832 there was no notion of such precautions. +Nevertheless, on neither visitation, nor any subsequent one, has +the disease come nearer to us than Bristol.</p> +<p>As far as memory serves me, the idea was that wholesome food, +regular habits, and cleanliness were some protection, but one +locality might be as dangerous as another. There had been +cases in London all the spring, but no special anxiety was felt +when Clarence returned to his work in the end of July, much +refreshed and invigorated by his holiday, and with the +understanding that he was to have a rise in position and salary +on Mr. Castleford’s return from Ireland, where he was still +staying with his wife’s relations. Clarence was +received at the office with a kind of shamefaced cordiality, as +if every one would fain forget the way in which he had been +treated; and he was struck by finding that all the talk was of +the advances of the cholera, chiefly at Rotherhithe. And a +great shock awaited him. He went, as soon as business hours +were over, to thank good old Miss Newton for the comfort and aid +she had unwittingly given him, and to tell her from what she had +saved him. Alas! it was the last benefit she was ever to +confer on her old pupil. At the door he was told by a +weeping, terrified maid that she was very ill with cholera, and +that no hope was given. He tried to send up a message, but +she was in a state of collapse and insensible; and when he +inquired the next morning, the gentle spirit had passed away.</p> +<p>He attended her funeral that same evening. Griff said it +was a proof how your timid people will do the most foolhardy +things; but Clarence always held that the good woman had really +done more for him than any one in actually establishing a +contact, so to say, between his spirit and external truth, and he +thought no mark of respect beyond her deserts. She was a +heavy loss to him, for no one else in town gave him the sense of +home kindness; and there was much more to depress him, for +several of his Sunday class were dead, and the school had been +broken up for the time, while the heats and the fruits of August +contributed to raise the mortality.</p> +<p>His return had released a couple more clerks for their +holiday; it was a slack time of year, with less business in hand +than usual, and the place looked empty. Mr. Frith worked on +as usual, but preserved an ungracious attitude, as though he were +either still incredulous or, if convinced against his will, +resolved that ‘that prig of a Winslow’ should not +presume upon his services. Altogether the poor fellow was +quite unhinged, and wrote such dismal bills of mortality, and +meek, resigned forebodings that my father was almost angry, +declaring that he would frighten himself into the sickness; yet I +suppressed a good deal, and never told them of the last will and +testament in which he distributed his possessions amongst +us. Griff said he had a great mind to go and shake old Bill +up and row him well, but he never did.</p> +<p>More than a week passed by, two of Clarence’s regular +days for writing, but no letter came. My mother grew +uneasy, and talked of writing to Mrs. Robson, or, as we still +called her, Gooch; but it was doubtful whether the answer would +contain much information, and it was quite certain that any ill +tidings would be sent to us.</p> +<p>At last we did hear, and found, as we had foreboded, that the +letter had not been written for fear of alarming us, or carrying +infection, though Clarence underlined the words ‘I am +perfectly well.’</p> +<p>Having to take a message into the senior partner’s room, +Clarence had found the old man crouched over the table, writhing +in the unmistakable grip of the deadly enemy. No one else +was available; Clarence had to collect himself, send for the +doctor, and manage the conveyance of the patient to his rooms, +which fortunately adjoined the office; for, through all his +influx of wealth, Mr. Frith had retained the habits and +expenditure of his early struggling days. His old +housekeeper and her drudge showed themselves terrified out of +their senses, and as incapable as unwilling. Naval +experience, and waiting on me, had taught Clarence helpfulness +and handiness; and though this was the very thing that had +appalled his imagination, he seemed, as he said afterwards, +‘to have got beyond his fright’ to the use of his +commonsense. And when at last the doctor came, and talked +of finding a nurse, if possible, for they were scarce articles, +the sufferer only entreated between his paroxysms, ‘Stay, +Winslow! Is Winslow there? Don’t go! +Don’t leave me!’</p> +<p>No nurse was to be found, but to Clarence’s amazement +Gooch arrived. He had sent by the office boy to explain his +absence; and before night the faithful woman descended on him, +intending, as in her old days of authority, simply to put Master +Clarry out of harm’s way, and take the charge upon +herself. Then, as he proved unmanageable and would not +leave his patient, neither would she leave him, and through the +frightful night that ensued, there was quite employment enough +for them both. Gooch fully thought the end would come +before morning, and was murmuring something about a clergyman, +but was cut short by a sharp prohibition. However, +detecting Clarence’s lips moving, the old man said, +‘Eh! speak it out!’ ‘And with difficulty, +feeling as if I were somebody else,’ said Clarence, +‘I did get out some short words of prayer. It seemed +so awful for him to die without any.’</p> +<p>When the doctor came in early morning, the watchers were +astonished to hear that their charge had taken a turn for the +better, and might recover if their admirable care were +continued. The doctor had brought a nurse; but Mr. Frith +would not let her come into the room, and there was plenty of +need for her elsewhere.</p> +<p>Several days of unremitting care followed, during which +Clarence durst not write to us, so little were the laws of +infection understood. Good Mrs. Robson stayed all the time, +and probably saved Clarence from falling a victim to his zeal, +for she looked after him as anxiously as after the sick man; and +with a wondering and thankful heart, he found himself in full +health, when both were set free to return home. Clarence +had written at the beginning of the illness to the only relations +of whose existence or address he was aware, an old sister, Mrs. +Stevens, and a young great-nephew in the office at Liverpool; and +the consequence was the arrival of a sour-looking, old widow +sister, who came to take charge of the convalescence, and, as the +indignant Gooch overheard her say, ‘to prevent that young +Winslow from getting round him.’</p> +<p>There were no signs of such a feat having been performed, +when, the panic being past, my father went up to London with +Griffith, who was to begin eating his terms at the Temple. +He was to share Clarence’s lodgings, for the Robsons had +plenty of room, and Gooch was delighted to extend her cares to +her special favourite, as she already reigned over +Clarence’s wardrobe and table as entirely as in nursery +days; and, to my great exultation, my father said it would be +good for Griffith to be with his brother; and, moreover, we +should hear of the latter. Nothing could be a greater +contrast than his rare notifications or requests, scrawled on a +single side of the quarto sheet, with Clarence’s regular +weekly lines of clerkly manuscript, telling all that could +interest any of us, and covering every available flap up to the +blank circle left for the trim red seal.</p> +<p>Promotion had come to Clarence in the natural course of +seniority, and a small sum, due to him on his coming of age, was +invested in the house of business, so that the two brothers could +take between them all the Robsons’ available rooms. +Clarence’s post was one of considerable trust; but there +were no tokens of special favour, except that Mr. Frith was more +civil to my father than usual, and when he heard of the +arrangement about the lodgings, he snarled out, ‘Hm! +Law student indeed! Don’t let him spoil his +brother!’</p> +<p>Which was so far an expression of gratitude that it showed +that he considered that there was something to be spoilt. +Mr. Castleford, however, showed real satisfaction in the purchase +of a share in the concern for Clarence. His own eldest son +inherited a good deal of his mother’s Irish nature, and was +evidently unfit to be anything but a soldier, and the next was so +young that he was glad to have a promising and trustworthy young +man, from whom a possible joint head of the firm might be +manufactured.</p> +<h2><a name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +236</span>CHAPTER XXVII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">PETER’S THUNDERBOLT.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>If you can separate yourself and your +misdemeanours you are welcome to the house; if not, an it would +please you to take leave of her, she is very willing to bid you +farewell.’—<i>Twelfth Night</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the early summer of 1833, we had +the opportunity of borrowing a friend’s house in Portman +Square for six weeks, and we were allowed to take Ellen with us +for introduction to the Admiral and other old friends, while we +were to make acquaintance with her connections—the family +of Sir Horace Lester, M.P.</p> +<p>We were very civil; but there were a good many polite +struggles for the exclusive possession of Ellen, whom both +parties viewed as their individual right; and her unselfish +good-humour and brightness must have carried her over more +worries than we guessed at the time.</p> +<p>She had stayed with the Lesters before, but in schoolroom +days. They were indolent and uninterested, and had never +shown her any of the permanent wonders of London, despising these +as only fit for country cousins, whereas we had grown up to think +of them with intelligent affection. To me, however, much +was as new as to Ellen. Country life had done so much for +me that I could venture on what I had never attempted +before. The Admiral said it was getting away from doctors +and their experiments, but I had also done with the afflictions +of attempts at growth in wrong directions. Old friends did +not know me, and more than once, as I sat in the carriage, +addressed me for one of my brothers—a compliment which, +Griff said, turned my head. Happily I was too much +accustomed to my own appearance, and people were too kind, for me +to have much shyness on that score. Our small dinner +parties were great enjoyment to me, and the two girls were very +happy in their little gaieties.</p> +<p>Braham and Catalani, Fanny Kemble, and Turner’s +landscapes at his best, rise in my memory as supreme delights and +revelations in their different lines, and awakening trains of +thought; and then there was that entertainment which Griffith and +Clarence gave us in their rooms, when they regaled us with all +the delicacies of the season, and Peter and Gooch looked all +pride and hospitality! The dining-parlour, or what served +as such, was Griff’s property, as any one could see by the +pictures of horses, dogs, and ladies, the cups, whips, and +boxing-gloves that adorned it; the sitting-room had tokens of +other occupation, in Clarence’s piano, window-box of +flowers, and his one extravagance in engravings from Raffaelle, +and a marine water-colour or two, besides all my own attempts at +family portraits, with a case of well-bound books. Those +two rooms were perfectly redolent of their masters—I say it +literally—for the scent of flowers was in Clarence’s +room, and in Griff’s, the odour of cigars had not wholly +been destroyed even by much airing. For in those days it +was regarded by parents and guardians as an objectionable +thing.</p> +<p>Peter was radiant on that occasion; but a few evenings later, +when all were gone to an evening party except my father and +myself, Mr. Robson was announced as wishing to speak to Mr. +Winslow. After the civilities proper to the visit of an old +servant had passed, he entered with obvious reluctance on the +purpose of his visit, namely, his dissatisfaction with Griff as a +lodger. His wife, he said, would not have had him speak, +she was <i>that</i> attached to Mr. Griffith, it couldn’t +be more if he was her own son; nor was it for want of liking for +the young gentleman on his part, as had known him from a boy, +‘but the wife of one’s bosom must come first, sir, as +stands to reason, and it’s for the good of the young +gentleman himself, and his family, as some one should +speak. I never said one word against it when she would not +be satisfied without running the risk of her life after Mr. +Clarence; hattending of Mr. Frith in the cholery. That was +only her dooty, sir, and I have never a word to say against +dooty: but I cannot see her nearly wore out, and for no good to +nobody.’</p> +<p>It appeared that Mrs. Robson was ‘pretty nigh wore out, +a setting up for Mr. Griffith’s untimely +hours.’ ‘He laughed and coaxed—what I +calls cajoling—did Mr. Griff, to get a latch-key; but we +knows our dooty too well for that, and Mrs. Winslow had made us +faithfully promise, when Master Clarence first came to us, that +he should never have a latch-key,—Mr. Clarence, as had only +been five times later than eleven o’clock, and then he was +going to dine with Mr. Castleford, or to the theayter, and spoke +about it beforehand. If he was not reading to poor Miss +Newton, as was gone, or with some of his language-masters, he was +setting at home with his books and papers, not giving no trouble +to nobody, after he had had his bit of bread and cheese and glass +of beer to his supper.’</p> +<p>Ay, Peter knew what young gentlemen was. He did not +expect to see them all like poor Master Clarence, as had had his +troubles; the very life knocked out of him in his youth, as one +might say. Indeed Peter would be pleased to see him a bit +more sprightly, and taking more to society and hamusements of his +hage. Nor would there be any objection if the late +’ours was only once a week or so, and things was done in a +style fitting the family; but when it came to mostly every night, +often to two or three o’clock, it was too much for Mrs. +Robson, for she would never go to bed, being mortal afraid of +fire, and not always certain that Mr. Griffith was—to +say—fit to put out his candle. ‘What do you +mean, Peter?’ thundered my father, whose brow had been +getting more and more furrowed every moment. ‘Say it +out!—Drunk?’</p> +<p>‘Well sir, no, no, not to say that exactly, but a little +excited, sir, and women is timid. No sir, not to call +intoxicated.’</p> +<p>‘No, that’s to come,’ muttered my +father. ‘Has this often happened?’</p> +<p>Peter did not think that it had been noticed more than three +times at the most; but he went on to offer his candid and +sensible advice that Mr. Griffith should be placed in a family +where there was a gentleman or lady who would have some +hauthority, and could not be put aside with his +good-’umoured haffability—‘You’re an old +fogy, Peter.’ ‘Never mind, Nursey, I’ll +be a good boy next time,’ and the like. ‘It is +a disadvantage you see, sir, to have been in his service, and +’tis for the young gentleman’s own good as I speaks; +but it would be better if he were somewheres else—unless +you would speak to him, sir.’</p> +<p>To the almost needless question whether Clarence had been with +his brother on these occasions, there was a most decided +negative. He had never gone out with Griffith except once +to the theatre, and to dine at the Castlefords, and at first he +had sat up for his return, ‘but it led to words between the +young gentlemen,’ said Peter, whose confidences were +becoming reckless; and it appeared that when Clarence had found +that Gooch would not let him spare her vigil, he had obeyed her +orders and ceased to share it.</p> +<p>Peter was thanked for the revelations, which had been a +grievous effort to him, and dismissed. My father sat still +in great distress and perplexity, asking me whether Clarence had +ever told me anything of this, and I had barely time to answer +‘No’ before Clarence himself came in, from what Peter +called his language-master. He was taking lessons in French +and Spanish, finding a knowledge of these useful in +business. To his extreme distress, my father fell on him at +once, demanding what he knew of the way Griffith was spending his +time, ‘coming home at all sorts of hours in a disreputable +condition. No prevarication, sir,’ he added, as the +only too familiar look of consternation and bewilderment came +over Clarence’s face. ‘You are doing your +brother no good by conniving at his conduct. Speak truth, +if you can,’ he added, with more cruelty than he knew, in +his own suffering.</p> +<p>‘Sir,’ gasped Clarence, ‘I know Griff often +comes home after I am in bed, but I do not know the exact time, +nor anything more.’</p> +<p>‘Is this all you can tell me? Really +all?’</p> +<p>‘All I know—that is—of my own +knowledge,’ said Clarence, recovering a little, but still +unable to answer without hesitation, which vexed my father.</p> +<p>‘What do you mean by that? Do you hear +nothing?’</p> +<p>‘I am afraid,’ said Clarence, ‘that I do not +see as much of him as I had hoped. He is not up till after +I have to be at our place, and he does not often spend an evening +at home. He is such a popular fellow, and has so many +friends and engagements.’</p> +<p>‘Ay, and of what sort? Can’t you tell? or +will you not? I sent him up to you, thinking you a steady +fellow who might influence him for good.’</p> +<p>The colour rushed into Clarence’s face, as he answered, +looking up and speaking low, ‘Have I not forfeited all such +hopes?’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense! You’ve lived down that old story +long ago. You would make your mark, if you only showed a +little manliness and force of character. Griffith was +always fond of you. Can’t you do anything to hinder +him from ruining his own life and that sweet girl’s +happiness?’</p> +<p>‘I would—I would give my life to do so!’ +exclaimed Clarence, in warm, eager tones. ‘I have +tried, but he says I know nothing about it, and it is very dull +at our rooms for him. I have got used to it, but you +can’t expect a fellow like Griff to stay at home, with no +better company than me, and do nothing but read law.’</p> +<p>‘Then you <i>do</i> know,’ began my father; but +Clarence, with full self-possession, said, ‘I think you had +better ask me no more questions, papa. I really know +nothing, or hardly anything, personally of his proceedings. +I went to one supper with him, after going to the play, and did +not fancy it; besides, it almost unfitted me for my +morning’s work; nor does it answer for me to sit up for +him—it only vexes him, as if I were watching +him.’</p> +<p>‘Did you ever see him come home showing traces of +excess?’</p> +<p>‘No!’ said Clarence, ‘I never saw!’ +and, under a stern, distressed look, ‘Once I heard tones +that—that startled me, and Mrs. Robson has grumbled a good +deal—but I think Peter takes it for more than it is +worth.’</p> +<p>‘I see,’ said my father more gently; ‘I will +not press you farther. I believe I ought to be glad that +these habits are only hearsay to you.’</p> +<p>‘As far as I can see,’ said Clarence diffidently, +but quite restored to himself, ‘Griff is only like most of +his set, young men who go into society.’</p> +<p>‘Oh!’ said my father, in a ‘that’s +your opinion’ kind of tone; and as at that moment the yell +of a newsboy was heard in the street, he exclaimed that he must +go and get an evening paper. Clarence made a step to go +instead, but was thrust back, as apparently my father merely +wanted an excuse for rushing into the open air to recover the +shock or to think it over.</p> +<p>Clarence gave a kind of groan, and presently exclaimed, +‘If only untruth were not such a sin!’ and, on my +exclamation of dismay, he added, ‘I don’t think a +blowing up ever does good!’</p> +<p>‘But this state of things should not last.’</p> +<p>‘It will not. It would have come to an end without +Peter’s springing this mine. Griff says he +can’t stand Gooch any longer! And really she does +worry him intolerably.’</p> +<p>‘Peter professed to come without her knowledge or +consent.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so. It will almost break the good old +soul’s heart for Griff to leave her; but she expects to +have him in hand as if he was in the nursery. She is ever +so much worse than she was with me, and he is really good-nature +itself to laugh off her nagging as he does—about what he +chooses to put on, or eating, or smoking, or leaving his room +untidy, as well as other things.’</p> +<p>‘And those other things? Do you suspect more than +you told papa?’</p> +<p>‘It amounts to no more. Griff likes amusement, and +everybody likes him—that’s all. Yes, I know my +father read law ten hours a day, but his whole nature and +circumstances were different. I don’t believe Griff +could go on in that way.’</p> +<p>‘Not with such a hope before him? You would, +Clarence.’</p> +<p>His face and not his tongue answered me, but he added, +‘Griff is sure of <i>that</i> without so much labour and +trouble.’</p> +<p>‘And do you see so little of him?’</p> +<p>‘I can’t help it. I can’t keep his +hours and do my work. Yes, I know we are drifting apart; I +wish I could help it, but being coupled up together makes it +rather worse than better. It aggravates him, and he will +really get on better without Gooch to worry him, and thrust my +droning old ways down his throat,—as if Prince Hal could +bear to be twitted with “that sober boy, Lord John of +Lancaster.” Not,’ he added, catching himself +up, ‘that I meant to compare him to the madcap +Prince. He is the finest of fellows, if they only would let +him alone.’</p> +<p>And that was all I could get from Clarence.</p> +<h2><a name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +245</span>CHAPTER XXVIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A SQUIRE OF DAMES.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p> ‘Spited with a +fool—<br /> +Spited and angered both.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Cymbeline</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> long stay of Ellen’s in +our family had made our fraternal relations with her nearer and +closer. Familiarity had been far from lessening our strong +feeling for her goodness and sweetness. Emily, who knew her +best, used to confide to me little instances of the spirit of +devotion and self-discipline that underlay all her sunny +gaiety—how she never failed in her morning’s devout +readings; how she learnt a verse or two of Scripture every day, +and persuaded Emily to join with her in repeating it ere they +went downstairs for their evening’s pleasure; how she had +set herself a little task of plain work for the poor, which she +did every day in her own room; and the like dutiful habits, which +seemed, as it were, to help her to keep herself in hand, and not +be carried away by what was a whirl of pleasure to her, though a +fashionable young lady would have despised its mildness.</p> +<p>Indeed Lady Peacock, with whom we exchanged calls, made no +secret of her compassion when she found how many parties the +ladies were <i>not</i> going to; and Ellen’s own relations, +the Lesters, would have taken her out almost every night if she +had not staunchly held to her promise to her mother not to go out +more than three evenings in the week, for Mrs. Fordyce knew her +to be delicate, and feared late hours for her. The vexation +her cousins manifested made her feel the more bound to give them +what time she could, at hours when Griffith was not at +liberty. She did not like them to be hurt, and jealous of +us, or to feel forsaken, and she tried to put her affection for +us on a different footing by averring that ‘it was not the +same kind of thing—Emily was her sister.’</p> +<p>One day she had gone to luncheon with the Lesters in Cavendish +Square, and was to be called for in the carriage by me, on the +way to take up the other two ladies, who were shopping in Regent +Street.</p> +<p>Ellen came running downstairs, with her cheeks in a glow under +the pink satin lining of her pretty bonnet, and her eyes +sparkling with indignation, which could not but break forth.</p> +<p>‘I don’t know how I shall ever go there +again!’ she exclaimed; ‘they have no right to say +such things!’ Then she explained. Mary and +Louisa had been saying horrid things about Griffith—her +Griff! It was always their way. Think how Horace had +made her treat Clarence! It was their way and habit to +tease, and call it fun, and she had never minded it before; but +this was too bad. Would not I put it in her power to give a +flat contradiction, such as would make them ashamed of +themselves?</p> +<p>Contradict what?</p> +<p>Then it appeared that the Misses Lester had laughed at her, +who was so very particular and scrupulous, for having taken up +with a regular young man about town. Oh no, <i>they</i> did +not think much of it—no doubt he was only just like other +people; only the funny thing was that it should be Ellen, for +whom it was always supposed that no saint in the calendar, no +knight in all the Waverley novels, would be good enough! +And then, on her hot desire to know what they meant, they quoted +John, the brother in the Guards, as having been so droll about +poor Ellen’s perfect hero, and especially at his +straight-laced Aunt Fordyce having been taken in,—but of +course it was the convenience of joining the estates, and it was +agreeable to see that your very good folk could wink at things +like other people in such a case. Then, when Ellen fairly +drove her inquiries home, in her absolute trust of confuting all +slanders, she was told that Griffith did, what she called +‘all sorts of things—billiards and all +that.’ And even that he was always running after a +horrid Lady Peacock, a gay widow.</p> +<p>‘They went on in fun,’ said Ellen, ‘and +laughed the more when—yes, I am afraid I did—I lost +my temper. No, don’t say I well might, I know I ought +not; but I told them I knew all about Lady Peacock, and that you +were all old friends, even before he rescued her from the Bristol +riots and brought her home to Chantry House; and that only made +Mary merrier than ever, and say, “What, another distressed +damsel? Take care, Ellen; I would not trust such a squire +of dames.” And then Louisa chimed in, “Oh no, +you see this Peacock dame was only conducted, like Princess +Micomicona and all the rest of them, to the feet of his peerless +Dulcinea!” And then I heard the knock, and I was +never so glad in my life!’</p> +<p>‘Well!’ I could not help remarking, ‘I have +heard of women’s spitefulness, but I never believed it till +now.’</p> +<p>‘I really don’t think it was altogether what you +call malice, so much as the Lester idea of fun,’ said +Ellen, recovering herself after her outpouring. ‘A +very odd notion I always thought it was; and Mary and Louisa are +not really ill-natured, and cannot wish to do the harm they might +have done, if I did not know Griff too well.’</p> +<p>Then, after considering a little, she said, blushing, ‘I +believe I have told you more than I ought, Edward—I +couldn’t help having it out; but please don’t tell +any one, especially that shocking way of speaking of mamma, which +they could not really mean.’</p> +<p>‘No one could who knew her.’</p> +<p>‘Of course not. I’ll tell you what I mean to +do. I will write to Mary when we go in, and tell her that I +know she really cares for me enough to be glad that her nonsense +has done no mischief, and, though I was so foolish and wrong as +to fly into a passion, of course I know it is only her way, and I +do not believe one word of it.’</p> +<p>Somehow, as she looked with those radiant eyes full of perfect +trust, I could not help longing not to have heard Peter +Robson’s last night’s complaint; but family feeling +towards outsiders overcomes many a misgiving, and my wrath +against the malignity of the Lesters was quite as strong as if I +had been devoid of all doubts whether Griff wore to all other +eyes the same halo of pure glory with which Ellen invested +him.</p> +<p>Such doubts were very transient. Dear old Griff was too +delightful, too bright and too brave, too ardent and too +affectionate, not to dispel all clouds by the sunshine he carried +about with him. If rest and reliance came with Clarence, +zest and animation came with Griffith. He managed to take +the initiative by declining to remain any longer with the +Robsons, saying they had been spoilt by such a model lodger as +Clarence, who would let Gooch feed him on bread and milk and +boiled mutton, and put on his clean pinafore if she chose to +insist; whereas her indignation, when Griff found fault with the +folding of his white ties, amounted to ‘<i>Et tu +Brute</i>,’ and he really feared she would have had a fit +when he ordered devilled kidneys for breakfast. He was sure +her determination to tuck him up every night and put out his +candle was shortening her life; and he had made arrangements to +share the chambers of a friend who had gone through school and +college with him. There was no objection to the friend, who +had stayed at Chantry House and was an agreeable, lively, young +man, well reported of, satisfactorily connected, fairly +industrious, and in good society, so that Griff was likely to be +much less exposed to temptation of the lower kinds than when left +to his own devices, or only with Clarence, who had neither time +nor disposition to share his amusements.</p> +<p>There was a scene with my father, but in private; and all that +came to general knowledge was that Griff felt himself injured by +any implication that he was given to violent or excessive +dissipation, such as could wreck Ellen’s happiness or his +own character.</p> +<p>He declared with all his heart that immediate marriage would +be the best thing for both, and pleaded earnestly for it; but my +father could not have arranged for it even if the Fordyces would +have consented, and there were matters of business, as well as +other reasons, which made it inexpedient for them to revoke their +decision that the wedding should not take place before Ellen was +of age and Griffith called to the bar.</p> +<p>So we took our young ladies home, loaded with presents for +their beloved school children, of whom Emily said she dreamt, as +the time for seeing them again drew near. After all the +London enjoyment, it was pretty to see the girls’ delight +in the fresh country sights and sounds in full summer glory, and +how Ellen proved to have been hungering after all her dear ones +at home. When we left her at her own door, our last sight +of her was in her father’s arms, little Anne clinging to +her dress, mother and grandfather as close to her as could +be—a perfect tableau of a joyous welcome.</p> +<h2><a name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +251</span>CHAPTER XXIX.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">LOVE AND OBEDIENCE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Unless he give me all in change<br /> + I forfeit all things by him;<br /> +The risk is terrible and strange.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Mrs. +Browning</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">You</span> will be weary of my +lengthiness; and perhaps I am lingering too long over the earlier +portion of my narrative. Something is due to the +disproportion assumed in our memories by the first twenty years +of existence—something, perhaps, to reluctance to passing +from comparative sunshine to shadow. There was still a +period of brightness, but it was so uneventful that I have no +excuse for dwelling on it further than to say that Henderson, our +excellent curate, had already made a great difference in the +parish, and it was beginning to be looked on as almost equal to +Hillside. The children were devoted to Emily, who was the +source of all the amenities of their poor little lives. The +needlework of the school was my mother’s pride; and our +church and its services, though you would shudder at them now, +were then thought presumptuously superior ‘for a country +parish.’ They were a real delight and blessing to us, +as well as to many more of the flock, who still, in their old +age, remember and revere Parson Henderson as a sort of +apostle.</p> +<p>The dawning of the new Poor-Law led to investigations which +revealed the true conditions of the peasant’s +life—its destitution, recklessness, and dependence. +We tried to mend matters by inducing families to emigrate, but +this renewed the distrust which had at first beheld in the +schools an attempt to enslave the children. Even accounts, +sent home by the exceptionally enterprising who did go to Canada, +were, we found, scarcely trusted. Amos Bell, who would have +gone, if he had not been growing into my special personal +attendant, was letter-writer and reader to all his relations, and +revealed to us that it had been agreed that no letter should be +considered as genuine unless it bore a certain private +mark. To be sure, the accounts of prosperity might well +sound fabulous to the toilers and moilers at home. Harriet +Martineau’s <i>Hamlets</i>, which we lent to many of our +neighbours, is a fair picture of the state of things. We +much enjoyed those tales, and Emily says they were the only +political economy she ever learnt.</p> +<p>The model arrangements of our vestries led to a summons to my +father and the younger Mr. Fordyce to London, to be examined on +the condition of the pauper, and the working of the old +Elizabethan Poor-Law.</p> +<p>They were absent for about a fortnight of early spring, and +Emily and I could not help observing that our mother was +unusually uncommunicative about my father’s letters; and, +moreover, there was a tremendous revolution of the furniture, a +far more ominous token in our household than any comet.</p> +<p>The truth came on us when the two fathers returned. Mine +told me himself that Frank Fordyce was so much displeased with +Griffith’s conduct that he had declared that the engagement +could not continue with his consent.</p> +<p>This from good-natured, tender-hearted Parson Frank!</p> +<p>I cried out hotly that ‘those Lesters’ had done +this. They had always been set against us, and any one +could talk over Mr. Frank. My father shook his head. +He said Frank Fordyce was not weak, but all the stronger for his +gentleness and charity; and, moreover, that he was quite +right—to our shame and grief be it spoken—quite +right.</p> +<p>It was true that the first information had been given by Sir +Horace Lester, Mrs. Fordyce’s brother, but it had not been +lightly spoken like the daughter’s chatter; and my father +himself had found it only too true, so that he could not +conscientiously call Griffith worthy of such a creature as Ellen +Fordyce.</p> +<p>Poor Griff, he had been idle and impracticable over his legal +studies, which no persuasion would make him view as otherwise +than a sort of nominal training for a country gentleman; nor had +he ever believed or acted upon the fact that the Earlscombe +property was not an unlimited fortune, such as would permit him +to dispense with any profession, and spend time and money like +the youths with whom he associated. Still, this might have +been condoned as part of the effervescence which had excited him +ever since my father had succeeded to the estate, and patience +might still have waited for greater wisdom; but there had been +graver complaints of irregularities, which were forcing his +friend to dissolve partnership with him. There was evidence +of gambling, which he not only admitted, but defended; and, +moreover, he was known at parties, at races, and at the theatre, +as one of the numerous satellites who revolved about that gay and +conspicuous young fashionable widow, Lady Peacock.</p> +<p>‘Yes, Frank has every right to be angry,’ said my +father, pacing the room. ‘I can’t wonder at +him. I should do the same; but it is destroying the best +hope for my poor boy.’</p> +<p>Then he began to wish Clarence had more—he knew not what +to call it—in him; something that might keep his brother +straight. For, of course, he had talked to Clarence and +discovered how very little the brothers saw of one another. +Clarence had been to look for Griff in vain more than once, and +they had only really met at a Castleford dinner-party. In +fact, Clarence’s youthful spirits, and the tastes which +would have made him companionable to Griff, had been crushed out +of him; and he was what more recent slang calls ‘such a +muff,’ that he had perforce drifted out of our elder +brother’s daily life, as much as if he had been a grave +senior of fifty. It was, as he owned, a heavy penalty of +his youthful fall that he could not help his brother more +effectually.</p> +<p>It appeared that Frank Fordyce, thoroughly roused, had had it +out with Griffith, and had declared that his consent was +withdrawn and the engagement annulled. Griff, astounded at +the resolute tone of one whom he considered as the most +good-natured of men, had answered hotly and proudly that he +should accept no dismissal except from Ellen herself, and that he +had done no more than was expected of any young man of position +and estate. On the other indictment he scorned any defence, +and the two had parted in mutual indignation. He had, +however, shown himself so much distressed at the threat of being +deprived of Ellen, that neither my father nor Clarence had the +least doubt of his genuine attachment to her, nor that his +attentions to Lady Peacock were more than the effect of old habit +and love of amusement, and that they had been much +exaggerated. He scouted the bare idea of preferring her to +Ellen; and, in his second interview with my father, was ready to +make any amount of promises of reformation, provided his +engagement were continued.</p> +<p>This was on the last evening before leaving town, and he came +to the coach-office looking so pale, jaded, and unhappy that +Parson Frank’s kind heart was touched; and in answer to a +muttered ‘I’ve been ten thousand fools, sir, but if +you will overlook it I will try to be worthy of her,’ he +made some reply that could be construed into, ‘If you keep +to that, all may yet be well. I’ll talk to her mother +and grandfather.’</p> +<p>Perhaps this was cruel kindness, for, as we well knew, Mrs. +Fordyce was far less likely to be tolerant of a young man’s +failings than was her husband; and she was, besides, a Lester, +and might take the same view.</p> +<p>Abusing the Lesters was our great resource; for we did not +believe either the sailor or the guardsman to be immaculate, and +we knew them to be jealous. We had to remain in ignorance +of what we most wished to know, for Ellen was kept away from us, +and my mother would not let Emily go in search of her. Only +Anne, who was a high-spirited, independent little person, made a +sudden rush upon me as I sat in the garden. She had no +business to be so far from home alone; but, said she, ‘I +don’t care, it is all so horrid. Please, Edward, is +it true that Griff has been so very wicked? I heard the +maids talking, and they said papa had found out that he was a bad +lot, and that he was not to marry Ellen; but she would stick to +him through thick and thin, like poor Kitty Brown who would marry +the man that got transported for seven years.’ +‘Will he be transported, Edward? and would Ellen go too, +like the “nut-brown maid?” Is that what she +cries so about? Not by day, but all night. I know she +does, for her handkerchief is wet through, and there is a wet +place on her pillow always in the morning; but she only says, +“Never mind,” and nobody <i>will</i> tell me. +They only say little girls should not think about such +things. And I am not so very little. I am eight, and +have read the <i>Lay of the Last Minstrel</i> and I know all +about people in love. So you might tell me.’</p> +<p>I relieved Anne’s mind as to the chances of +transportation, and, after considering how many confidences might +be honourably exchanged with the child, I explained that her +father thought Griff had been idle and careless, and not fit as +yet to be trusted with Ellen.</p> +<p>Her parish experience came into play. ‘Does papa +think he would be like Joe Sparks? But then gentlemen +don’t beat their wives, nor go to the public-house, nor let +their children go about in rags.’</p> +<p>I durst not inquire much, but I gathered that there was a +heavy shadow over the house, and that Ellen was striving to do as +usual, but breaking down when alone. Just then Parson Frank +appeared. Anne had run away from him while on a farming +inspection, when the debate over the turnips with the factotum +had become wearisome. He looked grave and sorrowful, quite +unlike his usual hearty self, and came to me, leaning over my +chair, and saying, ‘This is sad work, Edward’; and, +on an anxious venture of an inquiry for Ellen, ‘Poor little +maid, it is very sore work with her. She is a good child +and obedient—wants to do her duty; but we should never have +let it go on so long. We have only ourselves to +thank—taking the family character, you see’—and +he made a kindly gesture towards me. ‘Your father +sees how it is, and won’t let it make a split between +us. I believe that not seeing as much of your sister as +usual is one of my poor lassie’s troubles, but it may be +best—it may be best.’</p> +<p>He lingered talking, unwilling to tear himself away, and ended +by disclosing, almost at unawares, that Ellen had held out for a +long time, would not understand nor take in what she was told, +accepted nothing on Lester authority, declared she understood all +about Lady Peacock, and showed a strength of resistance and +independence of view that had quite startled her parents, by +proving how far their darling had gone from them in heart. +But they still held her by the bonds of obedience; and, by +dealing with her conscience, her mother had obtained from her a +piteous little note—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘<span class="smcap">My dear +Griffith</span>—I am afraid it is true that you have not +always seemed to be doing right, and papa and mamma forbid our +going on as we are. You know I cannot be disobedient. +It would not bring a blessing on you. So I must break off, +though—’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The ‘though’ could be read through an erasure, +followed by the initials, E. M. F.—as if the dismal +conclusion had been felt to be only too true—and there +followed the postscript, ‘Forgive me, and, if we are +patient, it may come right.’</p> +<p>This letter was displayed, when, on the ensuing evening, it +brought Griff down in towering indignation, and trying to prove +the coercion that must have been exercised to extract even thus +much from his darling. Over he went headlong to Hillside to +insist on seeing her, but to encounter a succession of stormy +scenes. Mrs. Fordyce was the most resolute, but was ill for +a week after. The old Rector was gentle, and somewhat +overawed Griff by his compassion, and by representations that +were only too true; and Parson Frank, with his tender heart torn +to pieces, showed symptoms of yielding another probation.</p> +<p>The interview with Ellen was granted. She, however, was +intrenched in obedience. She had promised submission to the +rupture of her engagement, and she kept her word,—though +she declared that nothing could hinder her love, and that she +would wait patiently till her lover had proved himself, to +everybody’s satisfaction, as good and noble as she knew him +to be. When he told her she did not love him she +smiled. She was sure that whatever mistakes there might +have been, he would give no further occasion against himself, and +then every one would see that all had been mere misunderstanding, +and they should be happy again.</p> +<p>Such trust humbled him, and he was ready to make all promises +and resolutions; but he could not obtain the renewal of the +engagement, nor permission to correspond. Only there was +wrung out of Parson Frank a promise that if he could come in two +years with a perfectly unstained, unblotted character, the +betrothal might be renewed.</p> +<p>We were very thankful for the hope and motive, and Griff had +no doubts of himself.</p> +<p>‘One can’t look at the pretty creature and think +of disappointing her,’ he said. ‘She is +altered, you know, Ted; they’ve bullied her till she is +more ethereal than ever, but it only makes her lovelier. I +believe if she saw me kill some one on the spot she would think +it all my generosity; or, if she could not, she would take and +die. Oh no! I’ll not fail her. No, I +won’t; not if I have to spend seven years after the model +of old Bill, whose liveliest pastime is a good long sermon, when +it is not a ghost.’</p> +<h2><a name="page260"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +260</span>CHAPTER XXX.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">UNA OR DUESSA.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Soone as the Elfin knight in presence +came<br /> +And false Duessa, seeming ladye fayre,<br /> +A gentle husher, Vanitie by name,<br /> +Made roome, and passage did for them prepare.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> two families were supposed to +continue on unbroken terms of friendship, and we men did so; but +Mrs. Fordyce told my mother that she had disapproved of the +probation, and Mrs. Winslow was hurt. Though the two girls +were allowed to be together as usual, it was on condition of +silence about Griff; and though, as Emily said, they really had +not been always talking about him in former times, the +prohibition seemed to weigh upon all they said.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Fordyce had long been talking of a round of visits +among relations whom he had not seen for many years; and it was +decided to send Ellen with him, chiefly, no doubt, to prevent +difficulties about Griffith in the long vacation.</p> +<p>There was no embargo on the correspondence with my sister, and +letters full of description came regularly, but how unlike they +were to our journal. They were clear, intelligent, with a +certain liveliness, but no ring of youthful joy, no echo of the +heart, always as if under restraint. Griff was much +disappointed. He had been on his good behaviour for two +months, and expected his reward, and I could not here repeat all +that he said about her parents when he found she was +absent. Yet, after all, he got more pity and sympathy from +Parson Frank than from any one else. That good man actually +sent a message for him, when Emily was on honour to do no such +thing. Poor Emily suffered much in consequence, when she +would neither afford Griff a blank corner of her paper, nor write +even a veiled message; while as to the letters she received and +gave to him, ‘what was the use,’ he said, ‘of +giving him what might have been read aloud by the +town-crier?’</p> +<p>‘You don’t understand, Griff; it is all dear +Ellen’s conscientiousness—’</p> +<p>‘Oh, deliver me from such con-sci-en-tious-ness,’ +he answered, in a tone of bitter mimicry, and flung out of the +room leaving Emily in tears.</p> +<p>He could not appreciate the nobleness of Ellen’s +self-command and the obedience which was the security of future +happiness, but was hurt at what he thought weak alienation. +One note of sympathy would have done much for Griff just +then. I have often thought it over since, and come to the +conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce was justified in the entire +separation she brought about. No one can judge of the +strength with which ‘true love’ has mastered any +individual, nor how far change may be possible; and, on the other +hand, unless there were full appreciation of Ellen’s +character, she might only have been looked on as—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Puppet to a father’s threat,<br /> +Servile to a shrewish tongue.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Yet, after all, Frank Fordyce was very kind to Griff, making +himself as much of a medium of communication as he could +consistently with his conscience, but of course not satisfying +one who believed that the strength of love was to be proved not +by obedience but disobedience.</p> +<p>Ellen’s letters showed increasing anxiety about her +grandfather, who was not favourably affected by the change of +habits, consequent on a long journey, and staying in different +houses. His return was fixed two or three times, and then +delayed by slight attacks of illness, till at last he became +anxious to get home, and set off about the end of September; but +after sleeping a night at an inn at Warwick, he was too ill to +proceed any farther. His old man-servant was with him; but +poor Ellen went through a great deal of suspense and +responsibility before her parents reached her. The attack +was paralysis, and he never recovered the full powers of mind or +body, though they managed to bring him back to Hillside—as +indeed his restlessness longed for his native home. When +once there he became calmer, but did not rally; and a second +stroke proved fatal just before Easter. He was mourned +alike by rich and poor, ‘He <i>was</i> a gentleman,’ +said even Chapman, ‘always the same to rich or poor, though +he was one of they Fordys.’</p> +<p>My father wrote to summon both his elder sons to the funeral +at Hillside, and in due time Clarence appeared by the coach, but +alone. He had gone to Griffith’s chambers to arrange +about coming down together, but found my father’s letter +lying unopened on the table, and learnt that his brother was +supposed to be staying at a villa in Surrey, where there were to +be private theatricals. He had forwarded the letter +thither, and it would still be possible to arrive in time by the +night mail.</p> +<p>So entirely was Griff expected that the gig was sent to meet +him at seven o’clock the next morning, but there was no +sign of him. My father and Clarence went without him to the +gathering, which showed how deeply the good old man was respected +and loved.</p> +<p>It was the only funeral Clarence had attended except Miss +Newton’s hurried one, and his sensitive spirit was greatly +affected. He had learnt reserve when amongst others, but I +found that he had a strong foreboding of evil; he tossed and +muttered in his sleep, and confessed to having had a wretched +night of dreams, though he would not describe them otherwise than +that he had seen the lady whose face he always looked on as a +presage of evil.</p> +<p>Two days later the <i>Morning Post</i> gave a full account of +the amateur theatricals at Bella Vista, the seat of Benjamin +Bullock, Esquire, and the Lady Louisa Bullock; and in the list of +<i>dramatis personæ</i>, there figured Griffith Winslow, +Esquire, as Captain Absolute, and the fair and accomplished Lady +Peacock as Lydia Languish.</p> +<p>Amateur theatricals were much less common in those days than +at present, and were held as the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of +gaiety. Moreover, the Lady Louisa Bullock was noted for +fashionable extravagance of the semi-reputable style; and there +would have been vexation enough at Griffith’s being her +guest, even had not the performance taken place on the very day +of the funeral of Ellen’s grandfather, so as to be an +outrage on decorum.</p> +<p>At the same time, there came a packet franked by a not very +satisfactory peer, brother to Lady Louisa. My father threw +a note over to Clarence, and proceeded to read a very properly +expressed letter full of apologies and condolences for the +Fordyces.</p> +<p>‘He could not have got the letter in time’ was my +father’s comment. ‘When did you forward the +letter? How was it addressed? Clarence, I say, +didn’t you hear?’</p> +<p>Clarence lifted up his face from his letter, so much flushed +that my mother broke in—‘What’s the +matter? A mistake in the post-town would account for the +delay. Has he had the letter?’</p> +<p>‘Oh yes.’</p> +<p>‘Not in time—eh?’</p> +<p>‘I’m afraid,’ and he faltered, ‘he +did.’</p> +<p>‘Did he or did he not?’ demanded my mother.</p> +<p>‘What does he say?’ exclaimed my father.</p> +<p>‘Sir’ (always an unpropitious beginning for poor +Clarence), ‘I should prefer not showing you.’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense!’ exclaimed my mother: ‘you do no +good by concealing it!’</p> +<p>‘Let me see his letter,’ said my father, in the +voice there was no gainsaying, and absolutely taking it from +Clarence. None of us will ever forget the tone in which he +read it aloud at the breakfast-table.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘<span class="smcap">Dear +Bill</span>—What possessed you to send a death’s-head +to the feast? The letter would have bitten no one in my +chambers. A nice scrape I shall be in if you let out that +your officious precision forwarded it. Of course at the +last moment I could not upset the whole affair and leave Lydia to +languish in vain. The whole thing went off +magnificently. Keep counsel and no harm is done. You +owe me that for sending on the letter.—Yours,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">‘J. G. W.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Clarence had not read to the end when the letter was taken +from him. Indeed to inclose such a note in a dispatch sure +to be opened <i>en famille</i> was one of Griffith’s +haphazard proceedings, which arose from the present being always +much more to him than the absent. Clarence was much shocked +at hearing these last sentences, and exclaimed, ‘He meant +it in confidence, papa; I implore you to treat it as +unread!’</p> +<p>My father was always scrupulous about private letters, and +said, ‘I beg your pardon, Clarence; I should not have +forced it from you. I wish I had not seen it.’</p> +<p>My mother gave something between a snort and a sigh. +‘It is right for us to know the truth,’ she said, +‘but that is enough. There is no need that they +should know at Hillside what was Griffith’s +alternative.’</p> +<p>‘I would not add a pang to that dear girl’s +grief,’ said my father; ‘but I see the Fordyces were +right. I shall never do anything to bring these two +together again.’</p> +<p>My mother chimed in with something about preferring Lady +Peacock and the Bella Vista crew to Ellen and Hillside, which +made us rush into the breach with incoherent defence.</p> +<p>‘I know how it was,’ said Clarence. +‘His acting is capital, and of course these people could +not spare him, nor understand how much it signified that he +should be here. They make so much of him.’</p> +<p>‘Who do?’ asked my mother. ‘Lady +Peacock? How do you know? Have you been with +them?’</p> +<p>‘I have dined at Mr. Clarkson’s,’ Clarence +avowed; and, on further pressure, it was extracted that +Griffith—handsome, and with talents such as tell in +society—was a general favourite, and much engrossed by +people who found him an enlivenment and ornament to their +parties. There had been little or nothing of late of the +former noisy, boyish dissipation; but that the more fashionable +varieties were getting a hold on him became evident under the +cross-questioning to which Clarence had to submit.</p> +<p>My father said he felt like a party to a falsehood when he +sent Griff’s letter up to Hillside, and he indemnified +himself by writing a letter more indignant—not than was +just, but than was prudent, especially in the case of one little +accustomed to strong censure. Indeed Clarence could not +restrain a slight groan when he perceived that our mother was +shut up in the study to assist in the composition. Her +denunciations always outran my father’s, and her pain +showed itself in bitterness. ‘I ought to have had the +presence of mind to refuse to show the letter,’ he said; +‘Griff will hardly forgive me.’</p> +<p>Ellen looked very thin, and with a transparent delicacy of +complexion. She had greatly grieved over her +grandfather’s illness and the first change in her happy +home; and she must have been much disappointed at +Griffith’s absence. Emily dreaded her mention of the +subject when they first met.</p> +<p>‘But,’ said my sister, ‘she said no word of +him. All she cared to tell me was of the talks she had with +her grandfather, when he made her read his favourite chapters in +the Bible; and though he had no memory for outside things, his +thoughts were as beautiful as ever. Sometimes his face grew +so full of glad contemplation that she felt quite awestruck, as +if it were becoming like the face of an angel. It made her +realise, she said, “how little the ups and downs of this +life matter, if there can be such peace at the last.” +And, after all, I could not help thinking that it was better +perhaps that Griff did not come. Any other sort of talk +would have jarred on her just now, and you know he would never +stand much of that.’</p> +<p>Much as we loved our Griff, we had come to the perception that +Ellen was a treasure he could not esteem properly.</p> +<p>The Lester cousins, never remarkable for good taste, forced on +her the knowledge of his employment. Her father could not +refrain from telling us that her exclamation had been, +‘Poor Griff, how shocked he must be! He was so fond +of dear grandpapa. Pray, papa, get Mr. Winslow to let him +know that I am not hurt, for I know he could not help it. +Or may I ask Emily to tell him so?’</p> +<p>I wish Mrs. Fordyce would have absolved her from the promise +not to mention Griff to us. That innocent reliance might +have touched him, as Emily would have narrated it; but it only +rendered my father more indignant, and more resolved to reserve +the message till a repentant apology should come. And, +alas! none ever came. Just wrath on a voiceless paper has +little effect. There is reason to believe that Griff did +not like the air of my father’s letter, and never even read +it. He diligently avoided Clarence, and the pain and shame +his warm heart must have felt only made him keep out of +reach.</p> +<h2><a name="page269"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +269</span>CHAPTER XXXI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">FACILIS DESCENSUS.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘The slippery verge her feet beguiled;<br /> + She tumbled headlong in.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Gray</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> of Griffith’s briefest +notes in his largest hand announced that he had accepted various +invitations to country houses, for cricket matches, archery +meetings, and the like; nor did he even make it clear where his +address would be, except that he would be with a friend in +Scotland when grouse-shooting began.</p> +<p>Clarence, however, came home for a brief holiday. He was +startled at the first sight of Ellen. He said she was +indeed lovelier than ever, with an added sweetness in her clear +eyes and the wild rose flush in her delicate cheek; but that she +looked as if she was being refined away to nothing, and was more +than ever like the vision with the lamp.</p> +<p>Of course the Fordyces had not been going into society, though +Ellen and Emily were as much together as before, helping one +another in practising their school children in singing, and +sharing in one another’s studies and pursuits. There +had been in the spring a change at Wattlesea; the old incumbent +died, and the new one was well reported of as a very earnest +hardworking man. He seemed to be provided with a large +family, and there was no driving into Wattlesea without seeing +members of it scattered about the place.</p> +<p>The Fordyces being anxious to show them attention without a +regular dinner-party, decided on inviting all the family to keep +Anne’s ninth birthday, and Emily and Martyn were of course +to come and assist at the entertainment.</p> +<p>It was on the morning of the day fixed that a letter came to +me whose contents seemed to burn themselves into my brain. +Martyn called across the breakfast-table, ‘Look at +Edward! Has any one sent you a young basilisk?’</p> +<p>‘I wish it was,’ I gasped out.</p> +<p>‘Don’t look so,’ entreated Emily. +‘Tell us! Is it Griff?’</p> +<p>‘Not ill-hurt?’ cried my mother. ‘Oh +no, no. Worse!’ and then somehow I articulated that +he was married; and Clarence exclaimed, ‘Not the +Peacock!’ and at my gesture my father broke out. +‘He has done for himself, the unhappy boy. A +disgraceful Scotch marriage. Eh?’</p> +<p>‘It was his sense of honour,’ I managed to +utter.</p> +<p>‘Sense of fiddlestick!’ said my poor father. +‘Don’t stop to excuse him. We’ve had +enough of that! Let us hear.’</p> +<p>I cannot give a copy of the letter. It was so painful +that it was destroyed; for there was a tone of bravado betraying +his uneasiness, but altogether unbecoming. All that it +disclosed was, that some one staying in the same house had paid +insulting attentions to Lady Peacock; she had thrown herself on +our brother’s protection, and after interfering on her +behalf, he had found that there was no means of sheltering her +but by making her his wife. This had been effected by the +assistance of the lady of the house where they had been staying; +and Griffith had written to me two days later from Edinburgh, +declaring that Selina had only to be known to be loved, and to +overcome all prejudices.</p> +<p>‘Prejudices,’ said my father bitterly. +‘Prejudices in favour of truth and honour.’</p> +<p>And my mother uttered the worst reproach of all, when in my +agitation, I slipped and almost fell in rising—‘Oh, +my poor Edward! that I should have lived to think yours the least +misfortune that has befallen my sons!’</p> +<p>‘Nay, mother,’ said Clarence, putting Martyn +toward her, ‘here is one to make up for us all.’</p> +<p>‘Clarence,’ said my father, ‘your mother did +not mean anything but that you and Edward are the comfort of our +lives. I wish there were a chance of Griffith redeeming the +past as you have done; but I see no hope of that. A man is +never ruined till he is married.’</p> +<p>At that moment there was a step in the hall, a knock at the +door, and there stood Mr. Frank Fordyce. He looked at us +and said, ‘It is true then.’</p> +<p>‘To our shame and sorrow it is,’ said my +father. ‘Fordyce, how can we look you in the +face?’</p> +<p>‘As my dear good friend, and my father’s,’ +said the kind man, shaking him by the hand heartily. +‘Do you think we could blame you for this youth’s +conduct? Stay’—for we young ones were about to +leave the room. ‘My poor girl knows nothing +yet. Her mother luckily got the letter in her +bedroom. We can’t put off the Reynoldses, you know, +so I came to ask the young people to come up as if nothing had +happened, and then Ellen need know nothing till the day is +over.’</p> +<p>‘If I can,’ said Emily.</p> +<p>‘You can be capable of self-command, I hope,’ said +my mother severely, ‘or you do not deserve to be called a +friend.’</p> +<p>Such speeches might not be pleasant, but they were bracing, +and we all withdrew to leave the elders to talk it over together, +when, as I believe, kind Parson Frank was chiefly concerned to +argue my parents out of their shame and humiliation.</p> +<p>Clarence told us what he knew or guessed; and we afterwards +understood the matter to have come about chiefly through poor +Griff’s weakness of character, and love of amusement and +flattery. The boyish flirtation with Selina Clarkson had +never entirely died away, though it had been nothing more than +the elder woman’s bantering patronage and easy acceptance +of the youth’s equally gay, jesting admiration. It +had, however, involved some raillery on his attachment to the +little Methodistical country girl, and this gradually grew into +jealousy of her—especially as Griff became more of a man, +and a brilliant member of society. The detention from the +funeral had been a real victory on the widow’s part, and +the few times when Clarence had seen them together he had been +dismayed at the <i>cavaliere serviente</i> terms on which Griff +seemed to stand; but his words of warning were laughed +down. The rest was easy to gather. He had gone about +on the round of visits almost as an appendage to Lady Peacock, +till they came to a free and easy house, where her coquetry and +love of admiration brought on one of those disputes which +rendered his championship needful; and such defence could only +have one conclusion, especially in Scotland, where hasty private +marriages were still legal. What an exchange! Only +had Griff ever comprehended the worth of his treasure?</p> +<p>Emily went as late as she could, that there might be the less +chance of a tête-à-tête, in which she might be +surprised into a betrayal of her secret: indeed she only started +at last when Martyn’s impatience had become +intolerable.</p> +<p>What was our amazement when, much earlier than we expected, we +saw Mr. Fordyce driving up in his phaeton, and heard the story he +had to tell.</p> +<p>Emily’s delay had succeeded in bringing her only just in +time for the luncheon that was to be the children’s +dinner. There was a keen-looking, active, sallow clergyman, +grizzled, and with an air of having seen much service; a pale, +worn wife, with a gentle, sensible face; and a bewildering flock +of boys and girls, all apparently under the command of a very +brisk, effective-looking elder sister of fourteen or fifteen, who +seemed to be the readiest authority, and to decide what and how +much each might partake of, among delicacies, evidently rare +novelties.</p> +<p>The day was late in August. The summer had broken; there +had been rain, and, though fine, the temperature was fitter for +active sports than anything else. Croquet was not yet +invented, and, besides, most of the party were of the age for +regular games at play. Ellen and Emily did their part in +starting these—finding, however, that the Reynolds boys +were rather rough, in spite of the objurgations of their sister, +who evidently thought herself quite beyond the age for +romps. The sports led them to the great home-field on the +opposite slope of the ridge from our own. The new +farm-buildings were on the level ground at the bottom to the +right, where the declivity was much more gradual than to the +left, which was very steep, and ended in furze bushes and low +copsewood. It was voted a splendid place for hide-and-seek, +and the game was soon in such full career that Ellen, who had had +quite running enough, could fall out of it, and with her, the +other two elder girls. Emily felt Fanny Reynolds’ +presence a sort of protection, ‘little guessing what she +was up to,’ to use her own expression. Perhaps the +girl had not earlier made out who Emily was, or she had been too +much absorbed in her cares; but, as the three sat resting on a +stump overlooking the hill, she was prompted by the singular +inopportuneness of precocious fourteen to observe, ‘I ought +to have congratulated you, Miss Winslow.’</p> +<p>Emily gabbled out, ‘Thank you, never mind,’ hoping +thus to put a stop to whatever might be coming; but there was no +such good fortune. ‘We saw it in the paper. It +is your brother, isn’t it?’</p> +<p>‘What?’ asked unsuspicious Ellen, thinking, no +doubt, of some fresh glory to Griffith.</p> +<p>And before Emily could utter a word, if there were any she +could have uttered, out it came. ‘The +marriage—John Griffith Winslow, Esquire, eldest son of John +Edward Winslow of Chantry House, to Selina, relict of Sir Henry +Peacock and daughter of George Clarkson, Esquire, Q.C. I +didn’t think it could be you at first, because you would +have been at the wedding.’</p> +<p>Emily had not even time to meet Ellen’s eyes before they +were startled by a shriek that was not the merry +‘whoop’ and ‘I spy’ of the game, and, +springing up, the girls saw little Anne Fordyce rushing headlong +down the very steepest part of the slope, just where it ended in +an extremely muddy pool, the watering-place of the cattle. +The child was totally unable to stop herself, and so was Martyn, +who was dashing after her. Not a word was said, though, +perhaps, there was a shriek or two, but the elder sisters flew +with one accord towards the pond. They also were some way +above it, but at some distance off, so that the descent was not +so perpendicular, and they could guard against over-running +themselves. Ellen, perhaps from knowing the ground better, +was far before the other two; but already poor little Anne had +gone straight down, and fallen flat on her face in the water, +Martyn after her, perhaps with a little more free will, for, +though he too fell, he was already struggling to lift Anne up, +and had her head above water, when Ellen arrived and dashed in to +assist.</p> +<p>The pond began by being shallow, but the bottom sloped down +into a deep hollow, and was besides covered several feet deep +with heavy cattle-trodden mire and weeds, in which it was almost +impossible to gain a footing, or to move. By the time Emily +and Miss Reynolds had come to the brink, Ellen and Martyn were +standing up in the water, leaning against one another, and +holding poor little Anne’s head up—all they could +do. Ellen called out, ‘Don’t! don’t come +in! Call some one! The farm! We are sinking +in! You can’t help! Call—’</p> +<p>The danger was really terrible of their sinking in the mud and +weeds, and being sucked into the deep part of the pool, and they +were too far in to be reached from the bank. Emily +perceived this, and ran as she had never run before, happily +meeting on the way with the gentlemen, who had been inspecting +the new model farm-buildings, and had already taken alarm from +the screams.</p> +<p>They found the three still with their heads above water, but +no more, for every struggle to get up the slope only plunged them +deeper in the horrible mud. Moreover, Fanny Reynolds was up +to her ankles in the mud, holding by one of her brothers, but +unable to reach Martyn. It seems she had had some idea of +forming a chain of hands to pull the others out.</p> +<p>Even now the rescue was not too easy. Mr. Fordyce +hurried in, and took Anne in his arms; but, even with his height +and strength, he found his feet slipping away under him, and +could only hand the little insensible girl to Mr. Reynolds, +bidding him carry her at once to the house, while he lifted +Martyn up only just in time, and Ellen clung to him. Thus +weighted, he could not get out, till the bailiff and another man +had brought some faggots and a gate that were happily near at +hand, and helped him to drag the two out, perfectly exhausted, +and Martyn hardly conscious. They both were carried to the +Rectory,—Ellen by her father, Martyn by the +foreman,—and they were met at the door by the tidings that +little Anne was coming to herself.</p> +<p>Indeed, by the time Mr. Fordyce had put on dry clothes, all +three were safe in warm beds, and quite themselves again, so that +he trusted that no mischief was done; though he decided upon +fetching my mother to satisfy herself about Martyn. +However, a ducking was not much to a healthy fellow like Martyn, +and my mother found him quite fit to dress himself in the clothes +she brought, and to return home with her. Both the girls +were asleep, but Ellen had had a shivering fit, and her mother +was with her, and was anxious. Emily told her mother of +Fanny Reynolds’ unfortunate speech, and it was thought +right to mention it. Mrs. Fordyce listened kindly, kissed +Emily, and told her not to be distressed, for possibly it might +turn out to have been the best thing for Ellen to have learnt the +fact at such a moment; and, at any rate, it had spared her +parents some doubt and difficulty as to the communication.</p> +<h2><a name="page278"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +278</span>CHAPTER XXXII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">WALY, WALY.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘And am I then forgot, forgot?<br /> +It broke the heart of Ellen!’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Campbell</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Clarence</span> and Martyn walked over to +Hillside the first thing the next morning to inquire for the two +sisters. As to one, they were quickly reassured, for Anne +was in the porch feeding the doves, and no sooner did she see +them than out she flew, and was clinging round Martyn’s +neck, her hat falling back as she kissed him on both cheeks, with +an eagerness that made him, as Clarence reported, turn the colour +of a lobster, and look shy, not to say sheepish, while she +exclaimed, ‘ Oh, Martyn! mamma says she never thanked you, +for you really and truly did save my life, and I am so glad it +was you—’</p> +<p>‘It was not I, it was Ellen,’ gruffly muttered +Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Oh yes! but papa says I should have been smothered in +that horrid mud, before Ellen could get to me if you had not +pulled me up directly.’</p> +<p>The elders came out by this time, and Clarence was able to get +in his inquiry. Ellen had had a feverish night, and her +chest seemed oppressed, but her mother did not think her +seriously ill. Once she had asked, ‘Is it true, what +Fanny Reynolds said?’ and on being answered, ‘Yes, my +dear, I am afraid it is,’ she had said no more; and as the +Fordyce habit of treating colds was with sedatives, her mother +thought her scarcely awake to the full meaning of the tidings, +and hoped to prevent her dwelling on them till she had recovered +the physical shock. Having answered these inquiries, the +two parents turned upon Martyn, who, in an access of +shamefacedness, had crept behind Clarence and a great +orange-tree, and was thence pulled out by Anne’s vigorous +efforts. The full story had come to light. The +Reynolds’ boys had grown boisterous as soon as the +restraint of the young ladies’ participation had been +removed, and had, whether intentionally or not, terrified little +Anne in the chases of hide-and-seek. Finally, one of them +had probably been unable to withstand the temptation of seeing +her timid nervous way of peeping and prying about; and had, +without waiting to be properly found, leapt out of his lair with +a roar that scared the little girl nearly out of her wits, and +sent her flying, she knew not whither. Martyn was a few +steps behind, only not holding her hand, because the other +children had derided her for clinging to his protection. He +had instantly seen where she was going, and shouted to her to +stop and take care; but she was past attending to him, and he had +no choice but to dart after her, seeing what was inevitable; +while George Reynolds had sense to stop in time, and seek a safer +descent. Had Martyn not been there to raise the child +instantly from the stifling mud, her sister could hardly have +been in time to save her.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce tearfully kissed him; her husband called him a +little hero, as if in joke, then gravely blessed him; and he +looked, Clarence related, as if he had been in the greatest +possible disgrace.</p> +<p>It was the second time that one of us had saved a life from +drowning, but there was none of the exultation we had felt that +time before in London. It was a much graver feeling, where +the danger had really been greater, and the rescue had been of +one so dear to us. It was tempered likewise by anxiety +about our dear Ellen—ours, alas, no longer! She was +laid up for several days, and it was thought better that she +should not see Emily till she had recovered; but after a week had +passed, her father drove over to discuss some plans for the +Poor-Law arrangements, and begged my sister to go back in the +carriage and spend the day with his daughter.</p> +<p>We brothers could now look forward to some real intelligence; +we became restless; and in the afternoon Clarence and I set out +with the donkey-chair on the woodland path to meet Emily. +We gained more than we had hoped, for as we came round one of the +turns in the winding path, up the hanging beech-wood, we came on +the two friends—Ellen, a truly Una-like figure, in her +white dress with her black scarf making a sable stole. +Perhaps we betrayed some confusion, for there was a bright flush +on her cheeks as she came towards us, and, standing straight up, +said, ‘Clarence, Edward, I am so glad you are here; I +wanted to see you. I wanted—to say—I know he +could not help it. It was his generosity—helping +those that need it; and—and—I’m not +angry. And though that’s all over, you’ll +always be my brothers, won’t you?’</p> +<p>She held her outstretched hands to us both. I could not +help it, I drew her down, and kissed her brow; Clarence clasped +her other hand and held it to his lips, but neither of us could +utter a word.</p> +<p>She turned back and went quietly away through the wood, while +Emily sank down under the beech-tree in a paroxysm of +grief. You may see which it was, for Clarence cut out +‘E. M. F., 1835’ upon the bark. He soothed and +caressed poor Emily as in old nursery troubles; and presently she +told us that it would be long before we saw that dear one again, +for Mrs. Fordyce was going to take her away on the morrow.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce had seen Emily in private, before letting her go +to Ellen. There was evidently a great wish to be +kind. Mrs. Fordyce said she could never forget what she +owed to us all, and could not think of blaming any of us. +‘But,’ she said, ‘you are a sensible girl, +Emily,’—‘how I hate being called a sensible +girl,’ observed the poor child, in +parenthesis,—‘and you must see that it is desirable +not to encourage her to indulge in needless discussion after she +once understands the facts.’ She added that she +thought a cessation of present intercourse would be wise till the +sore was in some degree healed. She had not been satisfied +about her daughter’s health for some time, and meant to +take her to Bath the next day to consult a physician, and then +decide what would be best. ‘And, my dear,’ she +said, ‘if there should be a slackening of correspondence, +do not take it as unkindness, but as a token that my poor child +is recovering her tone. Do not discontinue writing to her, +but be guarded, and perhaps less rapid, in replying.’</p> +<p>It was for her friendship that poor Emily wept so +bitterly—the first friendship that had been an enthusiasm +to her; looking at it as a cruel injustice that Griff’s +misdoing should separate them. The prediction that all +might be lived down and forgotten was too vague and distant to be +much consolation; indeed, we were too young to take it in.</p> +<p>We had it all over again in a somewhat grotesque form when, at +another turn in the wood, we came upon Martyn and Anne, loaded +with treasures from their robbers’ cave, some of which were +bestowed in my chair, the others carried off between Anne and her +not very willing nursery-maid.</p> +<p>Anne kissed us all round, and augured cheerfully that she +should lay up a store of shells and rocks by the seaside to make +‘a perfect Robinson Crusoe cavern,’ she said, +‘and then Clarence can come and be the Spaniards and the +savages. But that won’t be till next summer,’ +she added, shaking her head. ‘I shall get Ellen to +tell Emily what shells I find, and then she can tell Martyn; for +mamma says girls never write to boys unless they are their +brothers! And now Martyn will never be my brother,’ +she added ruefully.</p> +<p>‘You will always be our darling,’ I said.</p> +<p>‘That’s not the same as your sister,’ she +answered. However, amid auguries of the combination of +robbers and Robinson Crusoe, the parting was effected, and Anne +borne off by the maid; while we had Martyn on our hands, stamping +about and declaring that it was very hard that because Griff +chose to be a faithless, inconstant ruffian, all his pleasure and +comfort in life should be stopped! He said such outrageous +things that, between scolding him and laughing at him, Emily had +been somewhat cheered by the time we reached the house.</p> +<p>My father had written to Griffith, in his first displeasure, +curt wishes that he might not have reason to repent of the step +he had taken, though he had not gone the right way to obtain a +blessing. As it was not suitable that a man should be +totally dependent on his wife, his allowance should be continued; +but under present circumstances he must perceive that he and Lady +Peacock could not be received at Chantry House. We were +shown the letter, and thought it terribly brief and cold; but my +mother said it would be weak to offer forgiveness that was not +sought, and my father was specially exasperated at the absence of +all contrition as to the treatment of Ellen. All Griff had +vouchsafed on that head was—the rupture had been the +Fordyces’ doing; he was not bound. As to intercourse +with him, Clarence and I might act as we saw fit.</p> +<p>‘Only,’ said my father, as Clarence was leaving +home, ‘I trust you not to get yourself involved in this +set.’</p> +<p>Clarence gave a queer smile, ‘They would not take me as +a gift, papa.’</p> +<p>And as my father turned from the hall door, he laid his hand +on his wife’s arm, and said, ‘Who would have told us +what that young fellow would be to us.’</p> +<p>She sighed, and said, ‘He is not twenty-three; he has +plenty of money, and is very fond of Griff.’</p> +<h2><a name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +284</span>CHAPTER XXXIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE RIVER’S BANK.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘And my friend rose up in the shadows,<br /> + And turned to me,<br /> +“Be of good cheer,” I said faintly,<br /> + For He called thee.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">B. M.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Fordyce</span> waited at Hillside till +after Sunday, and then went to Bath to hear the verdict of the +physician. He returned as much depressed as it was in his +sanguine nature to be, for great delicacy of the lungs had been +detected; and to prevent the recent chill from leaving permanent +injury, Ellen must have a winter abroad, and warm sea or mountain +air at once. Whether the disease were constitutional and +would have come on at all events no one could tell.</p> +<p>Consumption was much less understood half a century ago; +codliver oil was unknown; and stethoscopes were new inventions, +only used by the more advanced of the faculty. The only +escape poor Parson Frank had from accepting the doom was in +disbelieving that a thing like a trumpet could really reveal the +condition of the chest. Moreover, Mrs. Fordyce had had a +brother who had, under the famous cowhouse cure, recovered enough +to return home, and be killed by the upsetting of a stage +coach.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce took her daughter to Lyme, and waited there till +her husband had found a curate and made all arrangements. +It must have been very inconvenient not to come home; but, no +doubt, she wanted to prevent any more partings. Then they +went abroad, travelling slowly, and seeing all the sights that +came in their way, to distract Ellen’s thoughts. She +was not allowed to hear what ailed her; but believed her languor +and want of interest in everything to be the effect of the blow +she had received, struggling to exert herself, and to enter +gratefully into the enjoyments provided for her. She was +not prevented from writing to Emily; indeed, no one liked to +hinder anything she wished, but they were guide-book letters, +describing all she saw as a kind of duty, but scarcely concealing +the trouble it was to look. Such sentences would slip out +as ‘This is a nice quiet place, and I am happy to say there +is nothing that one ought to see.’ Or, ‘I sat +in the cathedral at Lucerne while the others were going +round. The organ was playing, and it was such +rest!’ Or, again, after a day on the Lago di Como, +‘It was glorious, and if you and Edward were here, perhaps +the beauty would penetrate my sluggish soul!’</p> +<p>Ellen’s sluggish soul!—when we remembered her keen +ecstasy at the Valley of Rocks.</p> +<p>Those letters were our chief interest in an autumn which +seemed dreary to us, in spite of friendly visitors; for had not +our family hope and joy been extinguished? There was no +direct communication with Griffith after his unpleasant reply to +my father’s letter; but Clarence saw the newly married pair +on their return to Lady Peacock’s house in London, and +reported that they were very kind and friendly to him, and gave +him more invitations than he could accept. Being +cross-examined when he came home for Christmas, he declared his +conviction that Lady Peacock had married Griff entirely from +affection, and that he had been—well—flattered into +it. They seemed very fond of each other now, and were +launching out into all sorts of gaieties; but though he did not +tell my father, he confided to me that he feared that Griffith +had been disappointed in the amount of fortune at his +wife’s disposal.</p> +<p>It was at that Christmas time, one night, having found an +intrusive cat upon my bed, Clarence carried her out at the back +door close to his room, and came back in haste and rather +pale. ‘It is quite true about the lady and the light +being seen out of doors,’ he said in an awe-stricken voice, +‘I have just seen her flit from the mullion room to the +ruin.’</p> +<p>We only noted the fact in that ghost-diary of ours—we +told nobody, and looked no more. We already believed that +these appearances on the lawn must be the cause that every +window, up to the attics on the garden side of the house, were so +heavily shuttered and barred that there was no opening them +without noise. Indeed, those on the ground floor had in +addition bells attached to them. No doubt the former +inhabitants had done their best to prevent any one from seeing or +inquiring into what was unacknowledged and unaccountable. +It might be only a coincidence, but we could not help remarking +that we had seen and heard nothing of her during the engagement +which might have united the two families; though, of course, it +would be ridiculous to suppose her cognisant of it, like the +White Lady of Avenel, dancing for joy at Mary’s marriage +with Halbert Glendinning.</p> +<p>The Fordyces had settled at Florence, where they suffered a +great deal more from cold than they would have done at Hillside; +and there was such a cessation of Ellen’s letters that +Emily feared that Mrs. Fordyce had attained her wish and +separated the friends effectually. However, Frank Fordyce +beguiled his enforced leisure with long letters to my father on +home business, Austrian misgovernment, and the Italian Church and +people, full of shrewd observations and new lights; and one of +these ended thus, ‘My poor lassie has been in bed for ten +days with a severe cold. She begs me to say that she has +begun a letter to Emily, and hopes soon to finish it. We +had thought her gaining ground, but she is sadly pulled +down. <i>Fiat voluntas</i>.’</p> +<p>The letter, which had been begun, never came; but, after three +long weeks, there was one from the dear patient herself, +mentioning her illness, and declaring that it was so comfortable +to be allowed to be tired, and to go nowhere and see nothing +except the fragment of beautiful blue sky, and the corner of a +campanile, and the flowers Anne brought in daily.</p> +<p>As soon as she could be moved, they took her to Genoa, where +she revived enough to believe that she should be well if she were +at home again, and to win from her parents a promise to take her +to Hillside as soon as the spring winds were over. So +anxious was she that, as soon as there was any safety in +travelling, the party began moving northwards, going by sea to +Marseilles to avoid the Corniche, so early in the year. +There were many fluctuations, and it was only her earnest +yearning for home and strong resolution that could have made her +parents persevere; but at last they were at Hillside, just after +Whitsuntide, in the last week of May.</p> +<p>Frank Fordyce walked over to see us on the very evening after +their arrival. He was much altered, his kindly handsome +face looked almost as if he had gone through an illness; and, +indeed, apart from all his anxiety and sorrow, he had pined in +foreign parts for his human flock, as well as his bullocks and +his turnips. He had also read, thought, and observed a +great deal, and had left his long boyhood behind him, during a +space for study and meditation such as he had never had +before.</p> +<p>He was quite hopeless of his daughter’s recovery, and +made no secret of it. In passing through London the best +advice had been taken, but only to obtain the verdict that the +case was beyond all skill, and that it was only a matter of +weeks, when all that could be done was to give as much +gratification as possible. The one thing that Ellen did +care about was to be at home—to have Emily with her, and +once more see her school children, her church, and her +garden. Tired as she was she had sprung up in the carriage +at the first glimpse of Hillside spire, and had leant forward at +the window, nodding and smiling her greetings to all the +villagers.</p> +<p>She had been taken at once to her room and her bed, but her +father had promised to beg Emily to come up by noon on the +morrow. Then he sat talking of local matters, not able to +help showing what infinite relief it was to him to be at home, +and what music to his ears was the Somersetshire dialect and deep +English voice ‘after all those thin, shrill, screeching +foreigners.’</p> +<p>Poor Emily! It was in mingled grief and gladness that +she set off the next day, with the trepidation of one to whom +sickness and decay were hitherto unknown. When she +returned, it was in a different mood, unable to believe the +doctors could be right, and in the delight of having her own +bright, sweet Ellen back again, all herself. They had +talked, but more of home and village than of foreign experiences; +and though Ellen did not herself assist, she had much enjoyed +watching the unpacking of the numerous gifts which had cost a +perfect fortune at the Custom House. No one seemed +forgotten—villagers, children, servants, friends. +Some of these tokens are before me still. The Florentine +mosaic paper-weight she brought me presses this very sheet; the +antique lamp she gave my father is on the mantelpiece; +Clarence’s engraving of Raffaelle’s St. Michael hangs +opposite to me on the wall. Most precious in our eyes was +the collection of plants, dried and labelled by herself, which +she brought to Emily and me—poor mummies now, but redolent +of undying affection. Her desire was to bestow all her +keepsakes with her own hands, and in most cases she actually did +so—a few daily, as her strength served her. The +little figures in costume, coloured prints, Swiss carvings, +French knicknacks, are preserved in many a Hillside cottage as +treasured relics of ‘our young lady.’ Many +years later, Martyn recognised a Hillside native in a back street +in London by a little purple-blue picture of Vesuvius, and +thereby reached the soft spot in a nearly dried-up heart.</p> +<p>So bright and playful was the dear girl over all her old +familiar interests that we inexperienced beings believed not only +that the wound to her affections was healed, but that she either +did not know or did not realise the sentence that had been +pronounced on her; but when this was repeated to her mother, it +was met by a sad smile and the reply that we only saw her in her +best hours. Still, through the summer, it was impossible to +us to accept the truth; she looked so lovely, was so cheerful, +and took such delight in all that was about her.</p> +<p>With the first cold, however, she seemed to shrivel up, and +the bad nights extended into the days. Emily ascribed the +change to the lack of going out into the air, and always found +reasons for the increased languor and weakness; till at last +there came a day when my poor little sister seemed as if the +truth had broken upon her for the first time, when Ellen talked +plainly to her of their parting, and had asked us both, +‘her dear brother and sister,’ to be with her at her +Communion on All Saints’ Day.</p> +<p>She had written a little letter to Clarence, begging his +forgiveness for having cut him, and treated him with the scorn +which, I believe, was the chief fault that weighed upon her +conscience; and, hearing my father’s voice in the house, +she sent a message to beg him to come and see her in her +mother’s dressing-room—that very window where I had +first heard her voice, refusing to come down to ‘those +Winslows.’ She had sent for him to entreat him to +forgive Griffith and recall the pair to Chantry House. +‘Not now,’ she said, ‘but when I am +gone.’</p> +<p>My father could deny her nothing, though he showed that the +sight of her made the entreaty all the harder to him; and she +pleaded, ‘But you know this was not his doing. I +never was strong, and it had begun before. Only think how +sad it would have been for him.’</p> +<p>My father would have promised anything with that wasted hand +on his, those fervent eyes gazing on him, and he told her he +would have given his pardon long ago, if it had been sought, as +it never had been.</p> +<p>‘Ah! perhaps he did not dare!’ she said. +‘Won’t you write when all this is over, and then you +will be one family again as you used to be?’</p> +<p>He promised, though he scarcely knew where Griffith was. +Clarence, however, did. He had answered Ellen’s +letter, and it had made him ask for a few days’ leave of +absence. So he came down on the Saturday, and was allowed a +quarter of an hour beside Ellen’s sofa in the Sunday +evening twilight. He brought away the calm, rapt expression +I had sometimes seen on his face at church, and Ellen made a +special entreaty that he might share the morrow’s +feast.</p> +<p>There are some things that cannot be written of, and that was +one. Still we had not thought the end near at hand, though +on Tuesday morning a message was sent that Ellen was suffering +and exhausted, and could not see Emily. It was a wild, +stormy day, with fierce showers of sleet, and we clung to the +hope that consideration for my sister had prompted the +message. In the afternoon Clarence battled with a severe +gale, made his way to Hillside, and heard that the weather +affected the patient, and that there was much bodily +distress. For one moment he saw her father, who said in +broken accents that we could only pray that the spirit might be +freed without much more suffering, ‘though no doubt it is +all right.’</p> +<p>Before daylight, before any one in the house was up, Clarence +was mounting the hill in the gusts that had done their work on +the trees and were subsiding with the darkness. And just as +he was beginning the descent, as the sun tipped the Hillside +steeple with light, he heard the knell, and counted the +twenty-one for the years of our Ellen—for ours she will +always be.</p> +<p>‘Somehow,’ he told me, ‘I could not help +taking off my hat and giving thanks for her, and then all the +drops on all the boughs began sparkling, and there was a hush on +all around as if she were passing among the angels, and a thrush +broke out into a regular song of jubilee!’</p> +<h2><a name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +293</span>CHAPTER XXXIV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">NOT IN VAIN.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Then cheerly to your work again,<br /> + With hearts new braced and set<br /> +To run untired love’s blessed race,<br /> +As meet for those who face to face<br /> + Over the grave their Lord have met.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Keble</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">That</span> dying request could not but be +held sacred, and overtures were made to Griffith, who returned an +odd sort of answer, friendly and affectionate, but rather as if +my father were the offending party in need of forgiveness. +He and his wife were obliged for the invitation, but could not +accept it, as they had taken a house near Melton-Mowbray for the +hunting season, and were entertaining friends.</p> +<p>In some ways it was disappointing, in others it was a relief, +not to have the restraint of Lady Peacock’s presence during +the last days we were to have with the Fordyces. For a +fresh loss came upon us. Beachharbour was a fishing-village +on the north-western coast, which, within the previous decade, +had sprung into importance, on the one hand as a fashionable +resort, on the other as a minor port for colliers. The +living was wretchedly poor, and had been held for many years by +one of the old inferior stamp of clergy, scarcely superior in +habits or breeding to the farmers, and only outliving the +scandals of his youth to fall into a state of indolent +carelessness. It was in the gift of a child, for whom Sir +Horace Lester was trustee, and that gentleman had written, about +a fortnight before Ellen’s death, to consult Mr. Fordyce on +its disposal, declaring the great difficulties and deficiencies +of the place, which made it impossible to offer it to any one +without considerable private means, and also able to attract and +improve the utterly demoralised population. He ended, +almost in joke, by saying, ‘In fact, I know no one who +could cope with the situation but yourself; I wish you could find +me your own counterpart, or come yourself in earnest. It is +just the air that suits my sister—bracing sea-breezes; the +parsonage, though a wretched place, is well situated, and she +would be all the stronger; but in poor Ellen’s state there +is no use in talking of it, and besides I know you are wedded to +your fertile fields and Somersetshire clowns.’</p> +<p>That letter (afterwards shown to us) had worked on Mr. +Fordyce’s mind during those mournful days. He was +still young enough to leave behind him Parson Frank and the +‘squarson’ habits of Hillside in which he had grown +up; and the higher and more spiritual side of his nature had been +fostered by the impressions of the last year. He was +conscious, as he said, that his talk had been overmuch of +bullocks, and that his farm had engrossed him more than he wished +should happen again, though a change would be tearing himself up +by the roots; and as to his own people at Hillside, the curate, +an active young man, had well supplied his place, and, in his +<i>truly</i> humble opinion, though by no means in theirs, +introduced several improvements even in that model parish.</p> +<p>What had moved him most, however, was a conversation he had +had with Ellen, with whom during this last year he had often held +deep and serious counsel, with a growing reverence on his +side. He had read her uncle’s letter to her, and to +his great surprise found that she looked on it as a call. +Devotedly fond as she herself was of Hillside, she could see that +her father’s abilities were wasted on so small a field, in +a manner scarcely good for himself, and she had been struck with +the greater force of his sermons when preaching to educated +congregations abroad. If no one else could or would take +efficient charge of these Beachharbour souls, she could see that +it would weigh on his conscience to take comparative ease in his +own beloved meadows, among a flock almost his vassals. +Moreover, she relieved his mind about her mother. She had +discovered, what the good wife kept out of sight, that the +north-country woman never could entirely have affinities with the +south, and she had come to the conclusion that Mrs. +Fordyce’s spirits would be heavily tried by settling down +at Hillside in the altered state of things.</p> +<p>After this talk, Mr. Fordyce had suggested a possible +incumbent to his brother-in-law, but left the matter open; and +when Sir Horace came down to the funeral, it was more thoroughly +discussed; and, as soon as Mrs. Fordyce saw that departure would +not break her husband’s heart, she made no secret of the +way that both her opinion and her inclinations lay. She +told my mother that she had always believed her own ill-health +was caused by the southern climate, and that she hoped that Anne +would grow up stronger than her sister in the northern +breezes.</p> +<p>Poor little Anne! Of all the family, to her the change +was the greatest grief. The tour on the Continent had been +a dull affair to her; she was of the age to weary of long +confinement in the carriage and in strange hotels, and too young +to appreciate ‘grown-up’ sights. +Picture-galleries and cathedrals were only a drag to her, and if +the experiences that were put into Rosella’s mouth for the +benefit of her untravelled sisters could have been written down, +they would have been as unconventional as Mark Twain’s +adventures. Rosella went through the whole tour, and left a +leg behind in the hinge of a door, but in compensation brought +home a Paris bonnet and mantle. She seemed to have been her +young mistress’s chief comfort, next to an occasional game +of play with her father, or a walk, looking in at the shop +windows and watching marionettes, or, still better, the wonderful +sports of brown-legged street children, without trying to make +her speak French or Italian—in her eyes one of the +inflictions of the journey, in those of her elders the one +benefit she might gain. She had missed the petting to which +she had been accustomed from her grandfather and from all of us; +and she had absolutely counted the days till she could get home +again, and had fallen into dire disgrace for fits of crying when +Ellen’s weakness caused delays. Martyn’s +holidays had been a time of rapture to her, for there was no one +to attend much to her at home, and she was too young to enter +into the weight of anxiety; so the two had run as wild together +as a gracious well-trained damsel of ten and a fourteen-year-old +boy with tender chivalry awake in him could well do. To be +out of the way was all that was asked of her for the time, and +all old delights, such as the robbers’ cave, were renewed +with fresh zest.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘It was the sweetest and the +last.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And though Martyn was gone back to school, the child felt the +wrench from home most severely. As she told me on one of +those sorrowful days, ‘She did think she had come back to +live at dear, dear little Hillside all the days of her +life.’ Poor child, we became convinced that this +vehement attachment to Griffith’s brothers was one factor +in Mrs. Fordyce’s desire to make a change that should break +off these habits of intimacy and dependence.</p> +<p>Pluralities had not become illegal, and Frank Fordyce, being +still the chief landholder in Hillside, and wishing to keep up +his connection with his people, did not resign the rectory, +though he put the curate into the house, and let the farm. +Once or twice a year he came to fulfil some of a landlord’s +duties, and was as genial and affectionate as ever, but more and +more absorbed in the needs of Beachharbour, and unconsciously +showing his own growth in devotion and activity; while he brought +his splendid health and vigour, his talent, his wealth, and, +above all, his winning charm of manner and address, to that +magnificent work at Beachharbour, well known to all of you; +though, perhaps, you never guessed that the foundation of all +those churches and their grand dependent works of piety, mercy, +and beneficence was laid in one young girl’s grave. I +never heard of a fresh achievement there without remembering how +the funeral psalm ends with—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon +us,<br /> +O prosper Thou our handiwork.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And Emily? Her drooping after the loss of her friend was +sad, but it would have been sadder but for the spirit Ellen had +infused. We found the herbs to heal our woe round our +pathway, though the first joyousness of life had departed. +The reports Mr. Henderson and the Hillside curate brought from +Oxford were great excitements to us, and we thought and puzzled +over church doctrine, and tried to impart it to our +scholars. We I say, for Henderson had made me take a +lads’ class, which has been the chief interest of my +life. Even the roughest were good to their helpless +teacher, and some men, as gray-headed as myself, still come every +Sunday to read with Mr. Edward, and are among the most faithful +friends of my life.</p> +<h2><a name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +299</span>CHAPTER XXXV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">GRIFF’S BIRD.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Shall such mean little creatures pretend to +the fashion?<br /> +Cousin Turkey Cock, well may you be in a passion.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Peacock at Home</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was not till the second +Christmas after dear Ellen Fordyce’s death that my eldest +brother brought his wife and child to Chantry House, after an +urgent letter to Lady Peacock from my mother, who yearned for a +sight of Griffith’s boy.</p> +<p>I do not wish to dwell on that visit. Selina, or +Griff’s bird, as Martyn chose to term her, was certainly +handsome and stylish; but her complexion had lost freshness and +delicacy, and the ladies said her colour was rouge, and her fine +figure due to other female mysteries. She meant to be very +gracious, and patronised everybody, especially Emily, who, she +said, would be quite striking if not sacrificed by her dress, and +whom she much wished to take to London, engaging to provide her +with a husband before the season was over, not for a moment +believing my mother’s assurance that it would be a trial to +us all whenever we had to resign our Emily. Nay, she tried +to condole with the poor moped family slave, and was received +with such hot indignation as made her laugh, for, to do her +justice, she was good-natured and easy-tempered. However, I +saw less of her than did the others, for I believe she thought +the sight of me made her ill. Griff, poor old fellow, was +heartily glad to be with us again, but quite under her +dominion. He had lost his glow of youth and grace of +figure, his complexion had reddened, and no one would have +guessed him only a year older than Clarence, whose shoulders did +indeed reveal something of the desk, but whose features, though +pale, were still fair and youthful. The boy was another +Clarence, not so much in compliment to his godfather as because +it was the most elegant name in the family, and favoured an +interesting belief, current among his mother’s friends, +that the king had actually stood sponsor to the uncle. Poor +little man, his grandmother shut herself into the bookroom and +cried, after her first sight of him. He was a wretched, +pinched morsel of humanity, though mamma and Emily detected +wonderful resemblances; I never saw them, but then he inherited +his mother’s repulsion towards me, and roared doubly at the +sight of me. My mother held that he was the victim of +Selina’s dissipations and mismanagement of herself and him, +and gave many matronly groans at his treatment by the smart, +flighty nurse, who waged one continual warfare with the +household.</p> +<p>Accustomed to absolute supremacy in domestic matters, it was +very hard for my mother to have her counsels and experience set +at naught, and, if she appealed to Griff, to find her notions +treated with the polite deference he might have shown to a +cottage dame.</p> +<p>A course of dinner-parties could not hinder her ladyship from +finding Chantry House insufferably dull, ‘always like +Sunday;’ and, when she found that we were given to +Saints’ Day services, her pity and astonishment knew no +bounds. ‘It was all very well for a poor object like +Edward,’ she held, ‘but as to Mr. Winslow and +Clarence, did they go for the sake of example? Though, to +be sure, Clarence might be a Papist any day.’</p> +<p>Popery, instead of Methodism, was just beginning to be the +bugbear set up for those whom the world held to be +ultra-religious, and my mother was so far disturbed at our +interest in what was termed Oxford theology that the warning +would have alarmed her if it had come from any other +quarter. However, Lady Peacock was rather fond of Clarence, +and entertained him with schemes for improving Chantry House when +it should have descended to Griffith. The mullion rooms +were her special aversion, and were all to be swept away, +together with the vaultings and the ruin—‘enough to +give one the blues, if there were nothing else,’ she +averred.</p> +<p>We really felt it to the credit of our country that Sir George +Eastwood sent an invitation to an early dance to please his young +daughters; and for this our visitors prolonged their stay. +My mother made Clarence go, that she might have some one to take +care of her and Emily, since Griff was sure to be absorbed by his +lady. Emily had not been to a ball since those gay days in +London with Ellen. She shrank back from the contrast, and +would have begged off; but she was told that she must submit; and +though she said she felt immeasurably older than at that happy +time, I believe she was not above being pleased with the pale +pink satin dress and wreath of white jessamine, which my father +presented to her, and in which, according to Martyn, she beat +‘Griff’s bird all to shivers.’</p> +<p>Clarence had grown much less bashful and embarrassed since the +Tooke affair had given him a kind of position and a sense of not +being a general disgrace. He really was younger in some +ways at five-and-twenty than at eighteen; he enjoyed dancing, and +especially enjoyed the compliments upon our sister, whom in our +usual fashion we viewed as the belle of the ball. He was +standing by my fire, telling me the various humours of the night, +when a succession of shrieks ran through the house. He +dashed away to see what was the matter, and returned, in a few +seconds, saying that Selina had seen some one in the garden, and +neither she nor mamma would be satisfied without +examination—‘though, of course, I know what it must +be,’ he added, as he drew on his coat.</p> +<p>‘Bill, are you coming?’ said Griff at the +door. ‘You needn’t, if you don’t like +it. I bet it is your old friend.’</p> +<p>‘I’m coming! I’m coming! +I’m sure it is,’ shouted Martyn from behind, with the +inconsistent addition, ‘I’ve got my gun.’</p> +<p>‘Enough to dispose of any amount of robbers or phantoms +either,’ observed Griff as they went forth by the back +door, reinforced by Amos Bell with a lantern in one hand and a +poker in the other.</p> +<p>My father was fortunately still asleep, and my mother came +down to see whether I was frightened.</p> +<p>She said she had no patience with Selina, and had left her to +Emily and her maid; but, before many words had been spoken, they +all came creeping down after her, feeling safety in numbers, or +perhaps in her entire fearlessness. The report of a gun +gave us all a shock, and elicited another scream or two. My +mother, hoping that no one was hurt, hastened into the hall, but +only to meet Griff, hurrying in laughing to reassure us with the +tidings that it was only Martyn, who had shot the old sun-dial by +way of a robber; and he was presently followed by the others, +Martyn rather crestfallen, but arguing with all his might that +the sun-dial was exactly like a man; and my mother hurried every +one off upstairs without further discussion.</p> +<p>Clarence was rather white, and when Martyn demanded, ‘Do +you really think it was the ghost? Fancy her selection of +the bird!’ he gravely answered, ‘Martyn, boy, if it +were, it is not a thing to speak of in that tone. You had +better go to bed.’</p> +<p>Martyn went off, somewhat awed. Clarence was cold and +shivering, and stood warming himself. He was going to wind +up his watch, but his hand shook, and I did it for him, noting +the hour—twenty minutes past one.</p> +<p>It appeared that Selina, on going upstairs, recollected that +she had left her purse in Griff’s sitting-room before going +to dress, and had gone in quest of it. She heard strange +shouts and screams outside, and, going to one of the old windows, +where the shutters were less unmanageable than elsewhere, she +beheld a woman rushing towards the house pursued by at least a +couple of men. Filled with terror she had called out, and +nearly fainted in Griff’s arms.</p> +<p>‘It agrees with all we have heard before,’ said +Clarence, ‘the very day and hour!’</p> +<p>‘As Martyn said, the person is strange.’</p> +<p>‘Villagers, less concerned, have seen the like,’ +he said; ‘and, indeed, all unconsciously poor Selina has +cut away the hope of redress,’ he sighed. +‘Poor, restless spirit! would that I could do anything for +her.’</p> +<p>‘Let me ask, do you ever see her now?’</p> +<p>‘N-no, I suppose not; but whenever I am anxious or +worried, the trouble takes her form in my dreams.’</p> +<p>Lady Peacock had soon extracted the ghost story from her +husband, and, though she professed to be above the vulgar folly +of belief in it, her nerves were so upset, she said, that nothing +would have induced her to sleep another night in the house. +The rational theory on this occasion was that one of the maids +must have stolen out to join in the Christmas entertainment at +the Winslow Arms, and been pursued home by some tipsy revellers; +but this explanation was not productive of goodwill between the +mother and daughter-in-law, since mamma had from the first so +entirely suspected Selina’s smart nurse as actually to have +gone straight to the nursery on the plea of seeing whether the +baby had been frightened. The woman was found +asleep—apparently so—said my mother, but all her +clothes were in an untidy heap on the floor, which to my mother +was proof conclusive that she had slipped into the house in the +confusion, and settled herself there. Had not my mother +with her own eyes watched from the window her flirtations with +the gardener, and was more evidence requisite to convict +her? Mamma entertained the hope that her proposal would be +adopted of herself taking charge of her grandson, and fattening +his poor little cheeks on our cows’ milk, while the rest of +the party continued their round of visits.</p> +<p>Lady Peacock, however, treated it as a personal imputation +that <i>her</i> nurse should be accused instead of any servant of +Mrs. Winslow’s own, though, as Griff observed, not only +character, but years and features might alike acquit them of any +such doings; but even he could not laugh long, for it was no +small vexation to him that such offence should have arisen +between his mother and wife. Of course there was no open +quarrel—my mother had far too much dignity to allow it to +come to that—but each said in private bitter things of the +other, and my lady’s manner of declining to leave her baby +at Chantry House was almost offensive.</p> +<p>Poor Griffith, who had been growing more like himself every +day, tried in vain to smooth matters, and would have been very +glad to leave his child to my mother’s management, though, +of course, he acquitted the nurse of the midnight +adventure. He privately owned to us that he had no opinion +of the woman, but he defended her to my mother, in whose eyes +this was tantamount to accusing her own respectable maids, since +it was incredible that any rational person could accept the +phantom theory.</p> +<p>Gladly would he have been on better terms, for he had had to +confess that his wife’s fortune had turned out to be much +less than common report had stated, or than her style of living +justified, and that his marriage had involved him in a sea of +difficulties, so that he had to beg for a larger allowance, and +for assistance in paying off debts.</p> +<p>The surrender of the London house and of some of the chief +expenses were made conditions of such favours, and Griffith had +assented gratefully when alone with his father; but after an +interview with his wife, demonstrations were made that it was +highly economical to have a house in town, and horses, carriages, +and servants and that any change would be highly derogatory to +the heir of Earlscombe and the sacred wishes of the late Sir +Henry Peacock.</p> +<p>In fact, it was impressed on us that we were mere homely, +countrified beings, who could not presume to dictate to her +ladyship, but who had ill requited her condescension in deigning +to beam upon us.</p> +<h2><a name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +307</span>CHAPTER XXXVI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">SLACK WATER.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘O dinna look, ye prideful queen, on +a’ aneath your ken,<br /> +For he wha seems the farthest <i>but</i> aft wins the farthest +<i>ben</i>,<br /> +And whiles the doubie of the schule tak’s lead of a’ +the rest:<br /> +The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.</p> +<p>‘The cauld, grey, misty morn aft brings a sunny summer +day;<br /> +The tree wha’s buds are latest is longest to decay;<br /> +The heart sair tried wi’ sorrow still endures the sternest +test:<br /> +The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.</p> +<p>‘The wee wee stern that glints in heaven may be a +lowin’ sun,<br /> +Though like a speck of light it seem amid the welkin dun;<br /> +The humblest sodger on the field may win a warrior’s +crest:<br /> +The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Scotch Newspaper</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> wickedness of the nurse was +confirmed in my mother’s eyes when the doom on the +first-born of the Winslows was fulfilled, and the poor little +baby, Clarence, succumbed to a cold on the chest caught while his +nurse was gossiping with a guardsman.</p> +<p>He was buried in London. ‘It was better for Selina +to get those things over as quickly as possible,’ said +Griff; but Clarence saw that he suffered much more than his wife +would let him show to her. ‘It is so bad for him to +dwell on it,’ she said. ‘You see. I never +let myself give way.’</p> +<p>And she was soon going out, nearly as usual, till their one +other infant came to open its eyes only for a few hours on this +troublesome world, and owe its baptism to Clarence’s +exertions. My mother, who was in London just after, +attending on the good old Admiral’s last illness, was +greatly grieved and disgusted with all she heard and saw of the +young pair, and that was not much. She felt their disregard +of her uncle as heartless, or rather as insulting, on +Selina’s part, and weak on Griff’s; and on all sides +she heard of their reckless extravagance, which made her forebode +the worst.</p> +<p>All these disappointments much diminished my father’s +pleasure and interest in his inheritance. He had little +heart to build and improve, when his eldest son’s wife made +no secret of her hatred to the place, or to begin undertakings +only to be neglected by those who came after; and thus several +favourite schemes were dropped, or prevented by Griffith’s +applications for advances.</p> +<p>At last there was a crisis. At the end of the second +season after their visit to us, Clarence sent a hasty note, +begging my father to join him in averting an execution in +Griffith’s house. I cannot record the particulars, +for just at that time I had a long low fever, and did not touch +my diary for many weeks; nor indeed did I know much about the +circumstances, since my good nurses withheld as much as possible, +and would not let me talk about what they believed to make me +worse. Nor can I find any letters about it. I believe +they were all made away with long ago, and thus I only know that +my father hurried up to town, remained for a fortnight, and came +back looking ten years older. The house in London had been +given up, and he had offered a vacant one of our own, near home, +to Griff to retrench in, but Selina would not hear of it, +insisting on going abroad.</p> +<p>This was a great grief to him and to us all. There was +only one side of our lives that was not saddened. Our old +incumbent had died about six months after the Fordyces had gone, +and Mr. Henderson had gladly accepted the living where the +parsonage had been built. The lady to whom he had been so +long engaged was a great acquisition. Her home had been at +Oxford; and she was as thoroughly imbued with the spirit that +there prevailed as was the Hillside curate. She talked to +us of Littlemore, and of the sermons there and at St. +Mary’s, and Emily and I shared to the full her +hero-worship. It was the nearest compensation my sister had +had for the loss of Ellen, with this difference, that Mrs. +Henderson was older, had read more, and had conversed +thoughtfully with some of the leading spirits in religious +thought, so that she opened a new world to us.</p> +<p>People would hardly believe in our eagerness and enthusiasm +over the revelations of church doctrine; how we debated, +consulted our books, and corresponded with Clarence over what now +seems so trite; how we viewed the <i>British Critic</i> and +<i>Tracts for the Times</i> as our oracles, and worried the poor +Wattlesea bookseller to get them for us at the first possible +moment.</p> +<p>Church restoration was setting in. Henderson had always +objected to christening from a slop-basin on the altar, and had +routed out a dilapidated font; and now one, which was termed by +the country paper chaste and elegant, was by united efforts, in +which Clarence had the lion’s share, presented in time for +the christening of the first child at the Parsonage. It is +that which was sent off to the Mission Chapel as a blot on the +rest of Earlscombe Church. Yet what an achievement it was +deemed at the time!</p> +<p>The same may be said of most of our doings at that era. +We effected them gradually, and have ever since been undoing +them, as our architectural and ecclesiastical perceptions have +advanced. I wonder how the next generation will deal with +our alabaster reredos and our stained windows, with which we are +all as well pleased as we were fifty years ago with the plain red +cross with a target-like arrangement above and below it in the +east window, or as poor Margaret may have been with her livery +altar-cloth. Indeed, it seems to me that we got more +delight out of our very imperfect work, designed by ourselves and +sent to Clarence to be executed by men in back streets in London, +costing an immensity of trouble, than can be had now by simply +choosing out of a book of figures of cut and dried articles.</p> +<p>What an enthusiastic description Clarence sent of the +illuminated commandments in the new Church of St. Katharine in +the Regent’s Park! How Emily and I gloated over the +imitation of them when we replaced the hideous old tables, and +how exquisite we thought the initial I, which irreverent +youngsters have likened, with some justice, to an enormous +overfed caterpillar, enwreathed with red and green cabbage +leaves!</p> +<p>My mother was startled at these innovations; but my father, +who had kept abreast with the thought of the day, owned to the +doctrines as chiming in with his unbroken belief, and transferred +to the improvements in the church the interest which he had lost +in the estate. The farmers had given up their distrust of +him, and accepted him loyally as friend and landlord, submitting +to the reseating of the church, and only growling moderately at +decorations that cost them nothing. Daily service began as +soon as Henderson was his own master, and was better attended +than it is now; for the old people to whom it was a novelty took +up the habit more freely than their successors, to whom the bell +has been familiar through their days of toil. We were too +far off to be constant attendants; but evensong made an object +for our airings, and my father’s head, now quite white, was +often seen there. He felt it a great relief amid the cares +of his later years.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was with a view to him that Mr. Castleford arranged +that Clarence should become manager for the firm at Bristol, with +a good salary. The Robsons would not take a fresh +lodger—they were getting too old for fresh beginnings; but +they kept their rooms ready for him, whenever he had to be in +town, and Gooch found him a trustworthy widow as +housekeeper. He took a little cottage at Clifton, availing +himself of the coach to spend his Sundays with us; and it was an +acknowledged joy to every one that I should drive to meet him +every Saturday afternoon at the Carpenter’s Arms, and bring +him home to be my father’s aid in all his business, and a +most valuable help in Sunday parish work, in which he had an +amount of experience which astonished us.</p> +<p>What would have become of the singing without him? The +first hint against the remarkable anthems had long ago alienated +our tuneful choir placed on high, and they had deserted <i>en +masse</i>. Then Emily and the schoolmistress had toiled at +the school children, whose thin little pipes and provincialisms +were a painful infliction, till Mrs. Henderson, backed by +Clarence, worked up a few promising men’s voices to support +them. We thought everything but the New and Old Versions +smacked of dissent, except the hymns at the end of the +Prayer-book, though we did not go as far as Chapman, who told +Emily he understood as how all the tunes was tried over in +Doctor’s Commons afore they were sent out, and it was not +‘liable’ to change them. One of +Clarence’s amusements in his lonely life had been the +acquisition of a knowledge of music, and he had a really good +voice; while his adherence to our choir encouraged other young +men of the farmer and artisan class to join us. Choir, +however, did not mean surplices and cassocks, but a collection of +our best voices, male and female, in the gallery.</p> +<p>Martyn began to be a great help when at home, never having +wavered in his purpose of becoming a clergyman. On going to +Oxford, he became imbued with the influences that made Alma Mater +the focus of the religious life and progress of that generation +which is now the elder one. There might in some be +unreality, in others extravagance, in others mere imitation; but +there was a truly great work on the minds of the young men of +that era—a work which has stood the test of time, made +saints and martyrs, and sown the seed whereof we have witnessed a +goodly growth, in spite of cruel shocks and disappointments, +fightings within and fears without, slanders and follies to +provoke them, such as we can now afford to laugh over. With +Martyn, rubrical or extra-rubrical observances were the outlet of +the exuberance of youth, as chivalry and romance had been to us; +and on Frank Fordyce’s visits, it was delightful to find +that he too was in the full swing of these ideas and habits, +partly from his own convictions, partly from his parish needs, +and partly carried along by curates fresh from Oxford.</p> +<p>In the first of his summer vacations Martyn joined a reading +party, with a tutor of the same calibre, and assured them that if +they took up their quarters in a farmhouse not many miles by the +map from Beachharbour, they would have access to unlimited +services, with the extraordinary luxury of a surpliced choir, and +intercourse with congenial spirits, which to him meant the +Fordyces.</p> +<p>On arriving, however, the bay proved to be so rocky and +dangerous that there was no boating across it, as he had +confidently expected. The farm depended on a market town in +the opposite direction, and though the lights of Beachharbour +could be seen at night, there was no way thither except by a +six-miles walk along a cliff path, with a considerable +détour in order to reach a bridge and cross the rapid +river which was an element of danger in the bay, on the north +side of the promontory which sheltered the harbour to the +south.</p> +<p>So when Martyn started as pioneer on the morning before the +others arrived, he descended into Beachharbour later than he +intended, but still he was in time to meet Anne Fordyce, a tall, +bright-faced girl of fourteen, taking her after-lessons turn on +the parade with a governess, who looked amazed as the two met, +holding out both hands to one another, with eager joy and +welcome.</p> +<p>It was not the same when Anne flew into the Vicarage with the +rapturous announcement, ‘Here’s Martyn!’ +The vicar was gone to a clerical meeting, and Mrs. Fordyce said +nothing about staying to see him. The luncheon was a +necessity, but with quiet courtesy Martyn was made to understand +that he was regarded as practically out of reach, and ‘Oh, +mamma, he could come and sleep,’ was nipped in the +utterance by ‘Martyn is busy with his studies; we must not +disturb him.’ This was a sufficient intimation that +Mrs. Fordyce did not intend to have the pupils dropping in on her +continually, and making her house their resort; and while Martyn +was digesting the rebuff, the governess carried Anne off to +prepare for a music lesson, and her mother gave no encouragement +to lingering or repeating the visit.</p> +<p>Still Martyn, on his way homewards, based many hopes on the +return of Mr. Fordyce; but all that ensued was, three weeks +later, a note regretting the not having been able to call, and +inviting the whole party to a great school-feast on the +anniversary of the dedication of the first of the numerous new +churches of Beachharbour. There was no want of cordiality +on that occasion, but time was lacking for anything beyond +greetings and fleeting exchanges of words. Parson Frank +tried to talk to Martyn, bemoaned the not seeing more of him, +declared his intentions of coming to the farm, began an +invitation, but was called off a hundred ways; and Anne was +rushing about with all the children of the place, gentle and +simple, on her hands. Whenever Martyn tried to help her, he +was called off some other way, and engaged at last in the +hopeless task of teaching cricket where these fisher boys had +never heard of it.</p> +<p>That was all he saw of our old friends, and he was much hurt +by such ingratitude. So were we all, and though we soon +acquitted the head of the family of more than the forgetfulness +of over occupation, the soreness at his wife’s coldness was +not so soon passed over. Yet from her own point of view, +poor woman, she might be excused for a panic lest her second +daughter might go the way of the first.</p> +<h2><a name="page316"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +316</span>CHAPTER XXXVII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OUTWARD BOUND.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘As slow our ship her foamy track<br /> + Against the wind was cleaving,<br /> +Her trembling pennant still looked back<br /> + To the dear isle ’twas leaving.<br /> +So loath we part from all we love,<br /> + From all the links that bind us,<br /> +So turn our hearts as on we rove<br /> + To those we’ve left behind us.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">T. <span +class="smcap">Moore</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> first time I saw +Clarence’s <i>ménage</i> was in that same summer of +poor Martyn’s repulse. My father had come in for a +small property in his original county of Shropshire, and this led +to his setting forth with my mother to make necessary +arrangements, and then to pay visits to old friends; leaving +Emily and me to be guests to our brother at Clifton.</p> +<p>We told them it was their harvest honeymoon, and it was funny +to see how they enjoyed the scheme when they had once made up +their minds to it, and our share in the project was equally new +and charming, for Emily and I, though both some way on in our +twenties, were still in many respects home children, nor had I +ever been out on a visit on my own account. The yellow +chariot began by conveying Emily and me to our destination.</p> +<p>Clifton has grown considerably since those days, and terraces +have swallowed up the site of what the post-office knew as +Prospect Cottage, but we were apt to term the doll’s house, +for, as Emily said, our visit there had something the same effect +as a picnic or tea drinking at little Anne’s famous baby +house. In like manner, it was tiny, square, with one +sash-window on each side of the door, but it was nearly covered +with creepers, odds and ends which Clarence brought from home, +and induced to flourish and take root better than their parent +stocks. In his nursery days his precision had given him the +name of ‘the old bachelor,’ and he had all a +sailor’s tidiness. Even his black cat and brown +spaniel each had its peculiar basket and mat, and had been taught +never to transgress their bounds or interfere with one another; +and the effect of his parlour, embellished as it was in our +honour, was delightful. The outlook was across the +beautiful ravine, into the wooded slopes on the further side, +and, on the other side, down the widening cleft to that giddy +marvel, the suspension bridge, with vessels passing under it, and +the expanse beyond.</p> +<p>Most entirely we enjoyed ourselves, making merry over +Clarence’s housekeeping, employing ourselves after our +wonted semi-student, semi-artist fashion in the morning; and, +when our host came home from business, starting on country +expeditions, taking a carriage whenever the distance exceeded +Emily’s powers of walking beside my chair; sketching, +botanising, or investigating church architecture, our newest +hobby. I sketched, and the other two rambled about, +measuring and filling up archæological papers, with details +of orientation, style, and all the rest, deploring barbarisms and +dilapidations, making curious and delightful discoveries, pitying +those who thought the Dun Cow’s rib and Chatterton’s +loft the most interesting features of St. Mary’s Redcliff, +and above all rubbing brasses with heel ball, and hanging up +their grim effigies wherever there was a vacant space on the +walls of our doll’s house.</p> +<p>And though we grumbled when Clarence was detained at the +office later than we expected, this was qualified by pride at +feeling his importance there as a man in authority. It was, +however, with much dismay and some inhospitality that we learnt +that a young man belonging to the office—in fact, Mr. +Frith’s great-nephew—was coming to sail for Canton in +one of the vessels belonging to the firm, and would have to be +‘looked after.’ He could not be asked to sleep +at Prospect Cottage, for Emily had the only spare bedchamber, and +Clarence had squeezed himself into a queer little dressing closet +to give me his room; but the housekeeper (a treasure found by +Gooch) secured an apartment in the next house, and we were to act +hosts, much against our will. Clarence had barely seen the +youth, who had been employed in the office at Liverpool, living +with his mother, who was in ill-health and had died in the last +spring. The only time of seeing him, he had seemed to be a +very shy raw lad; but, ‘poor fellow, we can make the best +of him,’ was the sentiment; ‘it is only for one +night.’ However, we were dismayed when, as Emily was +in the crisis of washing-in a sky, it was announced that a +gentleman was asking for Mr. Winslow. Churlishness bade us +despatch him to the office, but humanity prevailed to invite him +previously to share our luncheon. Yet we doubted whether it +had not been a cruel mercy when he entered, evidently unprepared +to stumble on a young lady and a deformed man, and stammering +piteously as he hoped there was no mistake—Mr. +Winslow—Prospect, etc.</p> +<p>Emily explained, frustrating his desire to flee at once to the +office, and pointing out his lodging, close at hand, whence he +was invited to return in a few minutes to the meal.</p> +<p>We had time for some amiable exclamations, ‘The +oaf!’ ‘What a bore!’ ‘He has +spoilt my sky!’ ‘I shan’t finish this +to-day!’ ‘Shall we order a carriage and take +him to the office; we can’t have him on our hands all the +afternoon?’ ‘And we might get the new number of +<i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>.’</p> +<p>N.B.—Perhaps it was <i>Oliver Twist</i> or <i>The Old +Curiosity Shop</i>—I am not certain which was the current +excitement just then; but I am quite sure it was Mrs. Nickleby +who first disclosed to us that our guest had a splendid pair of +dark eyes. Hitherto he had kept them averted in the +studious manner I have often noticed in persons who did not wish +to excite suspicion of staring at my peculiarities; but that +lady’s feelings when her neighbour’s legs came down +her chimney were too much for his self-consciousness, and he gave +a glance that disclosed dark liquid depths, sparkling with +mirth. He was one number in advance of us, and could +enlighten us on the next stage in the coming story; and this went +far to reconcile us to the invasion, and to restore him to the +proper use of his legs and arms—and very shapely limbs they +were, for he was a slim, well-made fellow, with a dark gipsy +complexion, and intelligent, honest face, altogether better than +we expected.</p> +<p>Yet we could have groaned when in the evening, Clarence +brought him back with tidings that something had gone wrong with +the ship. If I tried to explain, I might be twitted +with,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘The bowsprit got mixed with the rudder +sometimes.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But of course Clarence knew all about it, and he thought it +unlikely that the vessel would be in sailing condition for a week +at soonest. Great was our dismay! Getting through one +evening by the help of walking and then singing was one thing, +having the heart of our visit consumed by an interloper was +another; though Clarence undertook to take him to the office and +find some occupation for him that might keep him out of our +way. But it was Clarence’s leisure hours that we +begrudged; though truly no one could be meeker than this unlucky +Lawrence Frith, nor more conscious of being an insufferable +burthen. I even detected a tear in his eye when Clarence +and Emily were singing ‘Sweet Home.’</p> +<p>‘Do you know,’ said Clarence, on the second +evening, when his guest had gone to dress for dinner, ‘I am +very sorry for that poor lad. It is only six weeks since he +lost his mother, and he has not a soul to care for him, either +here or where he is going. I had fancied the family were +under a cloud, but I find it was only that old Frith quarrelled +with the father for taking Holy Orders instead of going into our +house. Probably there was some imprudence; for the poor man +died a curate and left no provision for his family. The +only help the old man would give was to take the boy into the +office at Liverpool, stopping his education just as he was old +enough to care about it. There were a delicate mother and +two sisters then, but they are all gone now; scarlet fever +carried off the daughters, and Mrs. Frith never was well +again. He seems to have spent his time in waiting on her +when off duty, and to have made no friends except one or two +contemporaries of hers; and his only belongings are old Frith and +Mrs. Stevens, who are packing him off to Canton without caring a +rap what becomes of him. I know what Mrs. Stevens is at; +she comes up to town much oftener now, and has got her +husband’s nephew into the office, and is trying to get +everything for him; and that’s the reason she wants to keep +up the old feud, and send this poor Lawrence off to the ends of +the earth.’</p> +<p>‘Can’t you do anything for him?’ asked +Emily. ‘I thought Mr. Frith did attend to +you.’</p> +<p>Clarence laughed. ‘I know that Mrs. Stevens hates +me like poison; but that is the only reason I have for supposing +I might have any influence.’</p> +<p>‘And can’t you speak to Mr. Castleford?’</p> +<p>‘Set him to interfere about old Frith’s +relations! He would know better! Besides, the fellow +is too old to get into any other line—four-and-twenty he +says, though he does not look it; and he is as innocent as a +baby, indifferent just now to what becomes of him, or whither he +goes; it is all the same to him, he says; there is no one to care +for him anywhere, and I think he is best pleased to go where it +is all new. And there, you see, the poor lad will be left +to drift to destruction—mother’s darling that he has +been—just for want of some human being to care about him, +and hinder his getting heartless and reckless!’</p> +<p>Clarence’s voice trembled, and Emily had tears in her +eyes as she asked if absolutely nothing could be done for +him. Clarence meant to write to Mr. Castleford, who would +no doubt beg the chaplain at the station to show the young man +some kindness; also, perhaps, to the resident partner, whom +Clarence had looked at once over his desk, but in his rawest and +most depressed days. The only clerk out there, whom he +knew, would, he thought, be no element of safety, and would not +like the youth the better either for bringing his recommendation +or bearing old Frith’s name.</p> +<p>We were considerably softened towards our guest, though the +next time Emily came on him he was standing in the hall, +transfixed in contemplation of her greatest achievement in +brass-rubbing, a severe and sable knight with the most curly of +nostrils, the stiffest and straightest of mouths, hair straight +on his brows, pointed toes joined together below, and fingers +touching over his breast. There he hung in triumph just +within the front door, fluttering and swaying a little on his +pins whenever a draught came in; and there stood Lawrence Frith, +freshly aware of him, and unable to repress the exclamation, +‘I say! isn’t he a guy?’</p> +<p>‘Sir Guy de Warrenne,’ began Emily composedly; +‘don’t you see his coat of arms? “chequy argent +and azure.”’</p> +<p>‘Does your brother keep him there to scare away the +tramps?’</p> +<p>Emily’s countenance was a study.</p> +<p>The subject of brasses was unfolded to Lawrence Frith, and +before the end of the week he had spent an entire day on his +hands and knees, scrubbing away with the waxy black compound at a +figure in the Cathedral—the office-work, as we declared, +which Clarence gave him to do. In fact he became so +thoroughly infected that it was a pity that he was going where +there would be no exercise in ecclesiology—rather the +reverse. Embarrassment on his side, and hostility on ours, +may be said to have vanished under the influence of Sir Guy de +Warrenne’s austere countenance. The youth seemed to +regard ‘Mr. Winslow’ in the light of a father, and to +accept us as kindly beings. He ceased to contort his limbs +in our awful presence, looked at me like as an ordinary person, +and even ventured on giving me an arm. He listened with +unfeigned pleasure to our music, perilled his neck on St. +Vincent’s rocks in search of plants, and by and by took to +hanging back with Emily, while Clarence walked on with me, to +talk to her out of his full heart about his mother and +sisters.</p> +<p>Three weeks elapsed before the <i>Hoang-ho</i> was ready to +sail, and by that time Lawrence knew that there were some who +would rejoice in his success, or grieve if things went ill with +him. Clarence and I had promised him long home letters, and +impressed on him that we should welcome his intelligence of +himself. For verily he had made his way into our hearts, as +a thoroughly good-hearted, affectionate being, yearning for +something to cling to; intelligent and refined, though his recent +cultivation had been restricted, soundly principled, and trained +in religious feelings and habits, but so utterly inexperienced +that there was no guessing how it might be with him when cast +adrift, with no object save his own maintenance, and no one to +take an interest in him.</p> +<p>Clarence talked to him paternally, and took him to second-hand +shops to provide a cheap library of substantial reading, engaging +to cater for him for the future, not omitting Dickens; and Emily +worked at providing him with the small conveniences and comforts +for the voyage that called for a woman’s hand. He was +so grateful that it was like fitting out a dear friend or younger +brother.</p> +<p>‘I wonder,’ said Clarence, as he walked by my +chair on one of the last days, ‘whether it was altogether +wise to have this young Frith here so much, though it could +hardly have been helped.’</p> +<p>To which I rejoined that it could hardly have displeased the +uncle, and that if it did, the youth’s welfare was worth +annoying him for.</p> +<p>‘I meant something nearer home,’ said Clarence, +and proceeded to ask if I did not think Lawrence Frith a good +deal smitten with Emily.</p> +<p>To me it seemed an idea not worth consideration. Any +youth, especially one who had lived so secluded a life, would +naturally be taken by the first pleasing young woman who came in +his way, and took a kindly interest in him; but I did not think +Emily very susceptible, being entirely wrapped up in home and +parish matters; and I reminded Clarence that she had not been +loverless. She had rejected the Curate of Hillside; and we +all saw, though she did not, that only her evident indifference +kept Sir George Eastwood’s second son from making further +advances.</p> +<p>Clarence was not convinced. He said he had never seen +our sister look at either of these as she did when Lawrence came +into the room; and there was no denying that there was a soft and +embellishing light on her whole countenance, and a fresh +sweetness in her voice. But then he seemed such a boy as to +make the notion ridiculous; and yet, on reckoning, it proved that +their years were equal. All that could be hoped was that +the sentiment, if it existed, would not discover itself before +they parted, so as to open their eyes to the dreariness of the +prospect, and cause our mother to think we had betrayed our trust +in the care of our sister. As we could do nothing, we were +not sorry that this was the last day. Clarence was to go on +board with Frith, see him out of the river, and come back with +the pilot; and we all drove down to the wharf together; nobody +saying much by the way, except the few jerky remarks we brothers +felt bound to originate and reply to.</p> +<p>Emily sat very still, her head bent under her shading +bonnet—I think she was trying to keep back tears for the +solitary exile; and Lawrence, opposite, was unable to help +watching her with wistful eyes, which would have revealed all, if +we had not guessed it already. It might be presumptuous, +but it made us very sorry for him.</p> +<p>When the moment of parting came, there was a wringing of +hands, and, ‘Thank you, thank you,’ in a low, broken, +heartfelt voice, and to Emily, ‘You have made life a new +thing to me. I shall never forget,’ and the showing +of a tiny book in his waistcoat pocket.</p> +<p>When the two had disappeared, Emily, no longer restraining her +tears, told me that she had exchanged Prayer-books with him, and +they were to read the Psalms at the same time every day. +‘I thought it might be a help to him,’ she said +simply.</p> +<p>Nor was there any consciousness in her talk as she related to +me what he had told her about his mother and sisters, and his +dreary sense of piteous loneliness, till we had adopted him as a +brother—in which capacity I trusted that she viewed +him.</p> +<p>However, Clarence had been the recipient of all the poor +lad’s fervent feelings for Miss Winslow, how she had been a +new revelation to his desolate spirit, and was to be the guiding +star of his life, etc., etc., all from the bottom of his heart, +though he durst not dream of requital, and was to live, not on +hope, but on memory of the angelic kindness of these three +weeks.</p> +<p>It was impossible not to be touched, though we strove to be +worldly wise old bachelors, and assured one another that the best +and most probable thing that could happen to Lawrence Frith would +be to have his dream blown away by the Atlantic breezes, and be +left open to the charms of some Chinese merchant’s +daughter.</p> +<h2><a name="page328"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +328</span>CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">TOO LATE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Thus Esau-like, our Father’s blessing +miss,<br /> +Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Keble</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> such a rebuff as Martyn had +experienced at Beachharbour, he no longer haunted its +neighbourhood, but devoted the long vacation of the ensuing year +to a walking tour in Germany, with one or two congenial spirits, +who shared his delight in scenery, pictures, and +architecture.</p> +<p>By and by he wrote to Clarence from Baden Baden—</p> +<p>‘Whom do you think I should find here but Griffith and +his bird? I first spotted the old fellow smoking under a +tree in the Grand Platz, but he looked so seedy and altered +altogether that I was not sure enough of him to speak, especially +as he showed no signs of knowing me. (He says it was my +whiskers that stumped him.) I made inquiries and found that +they figured as “Sir Peacock and lady,” but they were +entered all right in the book. He is taking the +“Kür”—he looks as if he wanted +it—and she is taking <i>rouge et noir</i>. I saw her +at the salon, with her neck grown as long as her +namesake’s, but not as pretty, claws to match, thin and +painted, as if the ruling passion was consuming her. Poor +old Griff! he was glad enough to see me, but he is wofully shaky, +and nearly came to tears when he asked after Ted and all at +home. They had an upset of their carriage in Vienna last +winter, and he got some twist, or other damage, which he thought +nothing of, but it has never righted itself; I am sure he is very +ill, and ought to be looked after. He has had only foreign +doctoring, and you know he never was strong in languages. I +heard of the medico here inquiring what precise symptom <i>der +Englander</i> meant by being “down in zie +mout!” Poor Griff is that, whatever else he is, and +Selina does not see it, nor anything else but her <i>rouge et +noir</i> table. I am afraid he plays too, when he is up to +it, but he can’t stand much of the stuffiness of the place, +and he respects my innocence, poor old beggar; so he has kept out +of it, since we have been here. He seems glad to have me to +look after him, but afraid to let me stay, for fear of my falling +a victim to the place. I can’t well tell him that +there is a perpetual warning to youth in the persons of himself +and his Peacock. His mind might be vastly relieved if I +were out of it, but scarcely his body; and I shall not leave him +till I hear from home. Thomson says I am right. I +should like to bring the poor old man home for advice, especially +if my lady could be left behind, and by all appearances she would +not object. Could not you come, or mamma? Speak to +papa about it. It is all so disgusting that I really could +not write to him. It is enough to break one’s heart +to see Griff when he hears about home, and Edward, and +Emily. I told him how famously you were getting on, and he +said, “It has been all up, up with him, all down, down with +me,” and then he wanted me to fix my day for leaving Baden, +as if it were a sink of infection. I fancy he thinks me a +mere infant still, for he won’t heed a word of advice about +taking care of himself and <i>will</i> do the most foolish things +imaginable for a man in his state, though I can’t make out +what is the matter with him. I tried both French and Latin +with his doctor, equally in vain.’</p> +<p>There was a great consultation over this letter. Our +parents would fain have gone at once to Baden, but my father was +far from well; in fact, it was the beginning of the break-up of +his constitution. He had been ageing ever since his +disappointment in Griffith, and though he had so enjoyed his +jaunt with my mother that he had seemed revived for the time, he +had been visibly failing ever since the winter, and my mother +durst not leave him. Indeed she was only too well aware +that her presence was apt to inspire Selina with the spirit of +contradiction, and that Clarence would have a better chance +alone. He was to go up to London by the mail train, see Mr. +Castleford, and cross to Ostend.</p> +<p>A valise from the lumber-room was wanted, and at bedtime he +went in quest of it. He came back white and shaken; and I +said—</p> +<p>‘You have not seen <i>her</i>?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I have.’</p> +<p>‘It is not her time of year.’</p> +<p>‘No; I was not even thinking of her. There was +none of the wailing, but when I looked up from my rummaging, +there was her face as if in a window or mirror on the +wall.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t dwell on it’ was all I could entreat, +for the apparition at unusual times had been mentioned as a note +of doom, and not only did it weigh on me, but it might send +Clarence off in a desponding mood. Tidings were less rapid +when telegraphs were not, and railways incomplete. Clarence +did not reach Baden till ten days after the despatch of +Martyn’s letter, and Griffith’s condition had in the +meantime become much more serious. Low fever had set in, +and he was confined to his dreary lodgings, where Martyn was +doing his best for him in an inexperienced, helpless sort of way, +while Lady Peacock was at the <i>salle</i>, persisting in her +belief that the ailment was a temporary matter. Martyn +afterwards declared that he had never seen anything more touching +than poor Griff’s look of intense rest and relief at +Clarence’s entrance.</p> +<p>On the way through London, by the assistance of Mr. +Castleford, Clarence had ascertained how to procure the best +medical advice attainable, and he was linguist enough to be an +adequate interpreter. Alas! all that was achieved was the +discovery that between difficulties of language, Griff’s +own indifference, and his wife’s carelessness, the injury +had developed into fatal disease. An operation <i>might</i> +yet save him, if he could rally enough for it, but the fever was +rapidly destroying his remaining strength. Selina ascribed +it to excitement at meeting Martyn, and indeed he had been +subject to such attacks every autumn. Any way, he had no +spirits nor wish for improvement. If his brothers told him +he was better, he smiled and said it was like a condemned +criminal trying to recover enough for the gallows. His only +desire was to be let alone and have Clarence with him. He +had ceased to be uneasy as to Martyn’s exposure to +temptation, but he said he could hardly bear to watch that +bright, fresh young manhood, and recollect how few years had +passed since he had been such another, nor did he like to have +any nurse save Clarence. His wife at first acquiesced, +holding fast to the theory of the periodical autumnal fever, and +then that the operation would restore him to health; and as her +presence fretted him, and he received her small attentions +peevishly, she persisted in her usual habits, and heard with +petulance his brothers’ assurances of his being in a +critical condition, declaring that it was always thus with these +fevers—he was always cross and low-spirited, and no one +could tell what she had undergone with him.</p> +<p>Then came days of positive pain, and nights of delirious, +dreary murmuring about home and all of us, more especially Ellen +Fordyce. Clarence had no time for letters, and +Martyn’s became a call for mamma, with the old childish +trust in her healing and comforting powers, declaring that he +would meet her at Cologne, and steer her through the difficulties +of foreign travel.</p> +<p>Hesitation was over now. My father was most anxious to +send her, and she set forth, secure that she could infuse life, +energy, and resolution into her son, when those two poor boys had +failed.</p> +<p>It was not, however, Martyn who met her, but his friend +Thomson, with the tidings that the suffering had become so severe +as to prevent Martyn from leaving Baden, not only on his +brother’s account, but because Lady Peacock had at last +taken alarm, and was so uncontrollable in her distress that he +was needed to keep her out of the sickroom, where her presence, +poor thing, only did mischief.</p> +<p>She evidently had a certain affection for her husband; and it +was the more piteous that in his present state he only regarded +her as the tempter who had ruined his life—his false +Duessa, who had led him away from Una. On one unhappy +evening he had been almost maddened by her insisting on arguing +with him; he called her a hag, declared she had been the death of +his children, the death of that dear one—could she not let +him alone now she had been the death of himself?</p> +<p>When Martyn took her away, she wept bitterly, and told enough +to make the misery of their life apparent, when the gaiety was +over, and regrets and recriminations set in.</p> +<p>However, there came a calmer interval, when the suffering +passed off, but in the manner which made the German doctor +intimate that hope was over. Would life last till his +mother came?</p> +<p>His brothers had striven from the first to awaken thoughts of +higher things, and turn remorse into repentance; but every +attempt resulted in strange, sad wanderings about Esau, the +birthright, and the blessing. Indeed, these might not have +been entirely wanderings, for once he said, ‘It is better +this way, Bill. You don’t know what you wish in +trying to bring me round. Don’t be hard on me. +She drove me to it. It is all right now. The Jews +will be disappointed.’</p> +<p>For even at the crisis in London, he had concealed that he had +raised money on <i>post obits</i>, so that, had he outlived my +father, Chantry House would have been lost. Lady +Peacock’s fortune had been undermined when she married him; +extravagance and gambling had made short work of the rest.</p> +<p>Why should I speak of such things here, except to mourn over +our much-loved brother, with all his fine qualities and powers +wasted and overthrown? He clung to Clarence’s +affection, and submitted to prayers and psalms, but without +response. He showed tender recollection of us all, but +scarcely durst think of his father, and hardly appeared to wish +to see his mother. Clarence’s object soon came to be +to obtain forgiveness for the wife, since bitterness against her +seemed the great obstacle to seeking pardon, peace, or hope; but +each attempt only produced such bitterness against her, and such +regrets and mourning for Ellen, as fearfully shook the failing +frame, while he moaned forth complaints of the blandishments and +raillery with which his temptress had beguiled him. +Clarence tried in vain to turn away this idea, but nothing had +any effect till he bethought himself of Ellen’s message, +that she knew even this fatal act had been prompted by generosity +of spirit. There was truth enough in it to touch Griff, but +only so far as to cry, ‘What might I not have been with +her?’ Still, there was no real softening till my +mother came. He knew her at once, and all the old childish +relations were renewed between them. There was little time +left now, but he was wholly hers. Even Clarence was almost +set aside, save where strength was needed, and the mother seemed +to have equal control of spirit and body. It was she, who, +scarcely aware of what had gone before, caused him to admit +Selina.</p> +<p>‘Tell her not to talk,’ he said. ‘But +we have each much to forgive one another.’</p> +<p>She came in, awed and silent, and he let her kiss him, sit +near at hand, and wait on my mother, whose coming had, as it +were, insensibly taken the bitterness away and made him as a +little child in her hands. He could follow prayers in which +she led him, as he could not, or did not seem to do, with any one +else, for he was never conscious of the presence of the clergyman +whom Thomson hunted up and brought, and who prayed aloud with +Martyn while the physical agony claimed both my mother and +Clarence.</p> +<p>Once Griff looked about him and called out for our father, +then recollecting, muttered, ‘No—the birthright +gone—no blessing.’</p> +<p>It grieved us much, it grieves me now, that this was his last +distinct utterance. He <i>looked</i> as if the comforting +replies and the appeals to the Source of all redemption did +awaken a response, but he never spoke articulately again; and +only thirty-six hours after my mother’s arrival, all was +over.</p> +<p>Poor Selina went into passions of hysterics and transports of +grief, needing all the firmness of so resolute a woman as my +mother to deal with her. She was wild in self-accusation, +and became so ill that the care of her was a not unwholesome +occupation for my mother, who was one of those with whom sorrow +has little immediate outlet, and is therefore the more +enduring.</p> +<p>She would not bring our brother’s coffin home, thinking +the agitation would be hurtful to my father, and anxious to get +back to him as soon as possible. So Griff was buried at +Baden, and from time to time some of us have visited his +grave. Of course she proposed Selina’s return to +Chantry House with her; but Mr. Clarkson, the brother, had come +out to the funeral, and took his sister home with him, certainly +much to our relief, though all the sad party at Baden had drawn +much nearer together in these latter days.</p> +<h2><a name="page337"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +337</span>CHAPTER XXXIX.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A PURPOSE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p> ‘It then draws near the +season<br /> +Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Hamlet</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> had really lost our Griffith +long before—our bright, generous, warm-hearted, promising +Griff, the brilliance of our home; but his actual death made the +first breach in a hitherto unbroken family, and was a new and +strange shock. It made my father absolutely an old man; and +it also changed Martyn. His first contact with +responsibility, suffering, and death had demolished the +light-hearted boyishness which had lasted in the youngest of the +family through all his high aspirations. Till his return to +Oxford, his chief solace was in getting some one of us alone, +going through all the scenes at Baden, discussing his new +impressions of the trials and perplexities of life, and seeking +out passages in the books that were becoming our oracles. +What he had admired externally before, he was grasping from +within; nor can I describe what the <i>Lyra Apostolica</i>, and +the two first volumes of <i>Parochial Sermons preached at +Littlemore</i>, became to us.</p> +<p>Mr. Clarkson had been rather dry with my brothers at Baden, +evidently considering that poor Griffith had been as fatal to his +sister as we thought Selina had been to our brother. It was +hardly just, for there had been much more to spoil in him than in +her; and though she would hardly have trod a much higher path, +there is no saying what he might have been but for her.</p> +<p>Griffith had said nothing about providing for her, not having +forgiven her till he was past recollecting the need, but her +brother had intimated that something was due from the family, and +Clarence had assented—not, indeed, as to her deserts, poor +woman, but her claims and her needs—well knowing that my +father would never suffer Griff’s widow to be in want.</p> +<p>He judged rightly. My father was nervously anxious to +arrange for giving her £500 a year, in the manner most +likely to prevent her from making away with it, and leaving +herself destitute. But there had already been heavy pulls +on his funded property, and ways and means had to be considered, +making Clarence realise that he had become the heir. +Somehow, there still remained, especially with my mother and +himself, a sense of his being a failure, and an inferior +substitute, although my father had long come to lean upon him, as +never had been the case with our poor Griff.</p> +<p>The first idea of raising the amount required was by selling +an outlying bit of the estate near the Wattlesea Station, for +which an enterprising builder was making offers, either to +purchase or take on a building lease. My father had +received several letters on the subject, and only hesitated from +a feeling against breaking up the estate, especially if this were +part of the original Chantry House property, and not a more +recent acquisition of the Winslows. Moreover, he would do +nothing without Clarence’s participation.</p> +<p>The title-deeds were not in the house, for my father had had +too much of the law to meddle more than he could help with his +own affairs, and had left them in the hands of the family +solicitor at Bristol, where Clarence was to go and look over +them. He rejoiced in the opportunity of being able to see +whether anything would throw light on the story of the mullion +chamber; and the certainty that the Wattlesea property had never +been part of the old endowment of the Chantry did not seem nearly +so interesting as a packet of yellow letters tied with faded red +tape. Mr. Ryder made no difficulty in entrusting these to +him, and we read them by our midnight lamp.</p> +<p>Clarence had seen poor Margaret’s will, bequeathing her +entire property to her husband’s son, Philip Winslow, and +had noted the date, 1705; also the copy of the decision in the +Court of Probate that there was no sufficient evidence of entail +on the Fordyce family to bar her power of disposing of it. +We eagerly opened the letters, but found them disappointing, as +they were mostly offerings of ‘Felicitations’ to +Philip Winslow on having established his ‘Just +Claim,’ and ‘refuted the malicious Accusations of +Calumny.’ They only served to prove the fact that he +had been accused of something, and likewise that he had powerful +friends, and was thought worth being treated with adulation, +according to the fashion of his day. Perhaps it was hardly +to be expected that he should have preserved evidence against +himself, but it was baffling to sift so little out of such a mass +of correspondence. If we could have had access to the +Fordyce papers, no doubt they would have given the other phase of +the transaction, but they were unattainable. The only +public record that Clarence could discover was much abbreviated, +and though there was some allusion to intimidation, the decision +seemed to have been fixed by the non-existence of any entail.</p> +<p>Christmas was drawing on, and gathering together what was left +of us. Though Griffith had spent only one Christmas at home +in nine years, it was wonderful how few we seemed, even when +Martyn returned. My father liked to have us about him, and +even spoke of Clarence’s giving up his post as manager at +Bristol, and living entirely at home to attend to the estate; but +my mother did not encourage the idea. She could not quite +bear to accept any one in Griff’s place, and rightly +thought there was not occupation enough to justify bringing +Clarence home. I was competent to assist my father through +all the landlord’s business that came to him within doors, +and Emily had ridden and walked about enough with him to be an +efficient inspector of crops and repairs, besides that Clarence +himself was within reach.</p> +<p>‘Indeed,’ he said to me, ‘I cannot loose my +hold on Frith and Castleford till I see my way into the +future.’</p> +<p>I did not know what he intended either then or when he gave +his voice against dismembering the property by selling the +Wattlesea estate, but arranged for raising Selina’s income +otherwise, persuading my father to let him undertake the building +of the required cottages out of his own resources, on principles +much more wholesome than were likely to be employed by the +speculator. Nor did grasp what was in his mind when he made +me look out my ‘ghost journal,’ as we called my +record of each apparition reported in the mullion chamber or the +lawn, with marks to those about which we had no reasonable +doubt. Separately there might be explanation, but +conjointly and in connection with the date they had a remarkable +force.</p> +<p>‘I am resolved,’ said Clarence, ‘to see +whether that figure can have a purpose. I have thought of +it all those years. It has hitherto had no fair play. +I was too much upset by the sight, and beaten by the utter +incredulity of everybody else; but now I am determined to look +into it.’</p> +<p>There was both awe and resolution in his countenance, and I +only stipulated that he should not be alone, or with no more +locomotive companion than myself. Martyn was as old as I +had been at our former vigil, and a person to be relied on.</p> +<p>A few months ago he would have treated the matter as a curious +adventurous enterprise—a concession to superstition or +imagination; but now he took it up with much grave +earnestness. He had been discussing the evidence for such +phenomena with friends at Oxford, and the conclusion had been +that they were at times permitted, sometimes as warnings, +sometimes to accomplish the redress of a wrong, sometimes to +teach us the reality of the spiritual world about us; and, +likewise, that some constitutions were more susceptible than +others to these influences. Of course he had adduced all +that he knew of his domestic haunted chamber, but had found +himself uncertain as to the amount of direct or trustworthy +evidence. So he eagerly read our jottings, and was very +anxious to keep watch with Clarence, though there were greater +difficulties in the way than when the outer chamber was +Griffith’s sitting-room, and always had a fire lighted.</p> +<p>To our disappointment, likewise, there came an invitation from +the Eastwoods for the evening of the 27th of December, the second +of the recurring days of the phantom’s appearance. My +father could not, and my mother would not go, but they so much +wanted my brothers and sister to accept it that it could not well +be declined. It was partly a political affair, and my +father was anxious to put Clarence forward, and make him take his +place as the future squire; and my mother thought depression had +lasted long enough with her children, and did not like to see +Martyn so grave and preoccupied. ‘It was quite right +and very nice in him, dear boy, but it was not natural at his +age, though he was to be a clergyman.’</p> +<p>As to Emily, her gentle cheerfulness had helped us all through +our time of sorrow, and just now we had been gratified by the +tidings of young Lawrence Frith. That youth was doing +extremely well. There had been golden reports from manager +and chaplain, addressed to Mr. Castleford, the latter adding that +the young man evidently owed much to Mr. Winslow’s +influence. Moreover, Lawrence had turned out an excellent +correspondent. Long letters, worthy of forming a book of +travels, came regularly to Clarence and me, indeed they were +thought worth being copied into that fat clasped MS. book in the +study. Writing them must have been a real solace to the +exile, in his island outside the town, whither all the outer +barbarians were relegated. So, no doubt, was the packing of +the gifts that were gradually making Prospect Cottage into a +Chinese exhibition of nodding mandarins, ivory balls, exquisite +little cups, and faggots of tea. Also, a Chinese walking +doll was sent humbly as an offering for the amusement of Miss +Winslow’s school children, whom indeed she astonished +beyond measure; and though her wheels are out of order, and her +movements uncertain, she is still a stereotyped incident in the +Christmas entertainments.</p> +<p>There was no question but that these letters and remembrances +gave great pleasure to Emily; but I believe she was not in the +least conscious that though greater in degree, it was not of the +same quality as that she felt when a runaway scholar who had gone +to sea presented her in token of gratitude with a couple of dried +sea-horses.</p> +<h2><a name="page344"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +344</span>CHAPTER XL.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE MIDNIGHT CHASE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘What human creature in the dead of night<br +/> + Had coursed, like hunted hare, that cruel +distance,<br /> +Had sought the door, the window in her flight<br /> + Striving for dear existence?’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Hood</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> the night of the 26th of +December, Clarence and Martyn, well wrapped in greatcoats, stole +into the outer mullion room; but though the usual sounds were +heard, and the mysterious light again appeared, Martyn perceived +nothing else, and even Clarence declared that if there were +anything besides, it was far less distinct to him than it had +been previously. Could it be that his spiritual perceptions +were growing dimmer as he became older, and outgrew the +sensitiveness of nerves and imagination?</p> +<p>We came to the conclusion that it would be best to watch the +outside of the house, rather than within the chamber; and the +dinner-party facilitated this, since it accounted for being up +and about nearer to the hour when the ghost might be +expected. Egress could be had through the little garden +door, and I undertook to sit up and keep up the fire.</p> +<p>All three came to my room on their return home, for Emily had +become aware of our scheme, and entreated to be allowed to watch +with us. Clarence had unfastened the alarum bell from my +shutters, and taken down the bar after the curtains had been +drawn by the housemaid, and he now opened them. It was a +frosty moonlight night, and the lawn lay white and crisp, marked +with fantastic shadows. The others looked grave and pale, +Emily was in a thick white shawl and hood, with a swan’s +down boa over her black dress, a somewhat ghostly figure herself, +but we were in far too serious a mood for light observations.</p> +<p>There was something of a shudder about Clarence as he went to +unbolt the back door; Martyn kept close to him. We saw them +outside, and then Emily flew after them. From my window I +could watch them advancing on the central gravel walk, Emily +standing still between her brothers, clasping an arm of +each. I saw the light near the ruin, and caught some sounds +as of shrieks and of threatening voices, the light flitted +towards the gable of the mullion rooms, and then was the +concluding scream. All was over, and the three came back +much agitated, Emily sinking into an armchair, panting, her hands +over her face, and a nervous trembling through her whole frame, +Martyn’s eyes looking wide and scared, Clarence with the +well-known look of terror on his face. He hurried to fetch +the tray of wine and water that was always left on the table when +anyone went to a party at night, but he shivered too much to +prevent the glasses from jingling, and I had to pour out the +sherry and administer it to Emily. ‘Oh! poor, poor +thing,’ she gasped out.</p> +<p>‘You saw?’ I exclaimed.</p> +<p>‘They did,’ said Martyn; ‘I only saw the +light, and heard! That was enough!’ and he shuddered +again.</p> +<p>‘Then Emily did,’ I began, but Clarence cut me +short. ‘Don’t ask her to-night.’</p> +<p>‘Oh! let me tell,’ cried Emily; ‘I +can’t go away to bed till I have had it out.’</p> +<p>Then she gave the details, which were the more notable because +she had not, like Martyn, been studying our jottings, and had +heard comparatively little of the apparition.</p> +<p>‘When I joined the boys,’ she said, ‘I +looked toward the mullion rooms; I saw the windows lighted up, +and heard a sobbing and crying inside.’</p> +<p>‘So did I,’ put in Martyn, and Clarence bent his +head.</p> +<p>‘Then,’ added Emily, ‘by the moonlight I saw +the gable end, not blank, and covered by the magnolia as it is +now, but with stone steps up to the bricked-up doorway. The +door opened, the light spread, and there came out a lady in +black, with a lamp in one hand, and a kind of parcel in the +other, and oh, when she turned her face this way, it was +Ellen’s!’</p> +<p>‘So you called out,’ whispered Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Dear Ellen, not as she used to be,’ added Emily, +‘but like what she was when last I saw her; no, hardly that +either, for this was sad, sad, scared, terrified, with eyes all +tears, as Ellen never, never was.’</p> +<p>‘I saw,’ added Clarence, ‘I saw the shape, +but not the countenance and expression as I used to +do.’</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image346" href="images/p346b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lady Margaret’s ghost" +title= +"Lady Margaret’s ghost" + src="images/p346s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>‘She came down the steps,’ continued Emily, +‘looking about her as if making her escape, but, just as +she came opposite to us, there was a sound of tipsy laughing and +singing from the gate up by the wood.’</p> +<p>‘I thought it real,’ said Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Then,’ continued Emily, ‘she wavered, then +turned and went under an arch in the ruin—I fancied she was +hiding something—then came out and fled across to the +steps; but there were two dark men rushing after her, and at the +stone steps there was a frightful shriek, and then it was all +over, the steps gone, all quiet, and the magnolia leaves +glistening in the moonshine. Oh! what can it all +mean?’</p> +<p>‘Went under the arch,’ repeated Clarence. +‘Is it what she hid there that keeps her from +resting?’</p> +<p>‘Then you believe it really happened?’ said Emily, +‘that some terrible scene is being acted over again. +Oh! but can it be the real spirits!’</p> +<p>‘That is one of the great mysteries,’ answered +Martyn; ‘but I could tell you of other +instances.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t now,’ I interposed; ‘Emily has +had quite enough.’</p> +<p>We reminded her that the ghastly tragedy was over and would +not recur again for another year; but she was greatly shaken, and +we were very sorry for her, when the clock warned her to go to +her own room, whither Martyn escorted her. He lighted every +candle he could find, and revived the fire; but she was sadly +overcome by what she had witnessed, she lay awake all the rest of +the night, and in the morning, looked so unwell, and had so +little to tell about the party that my mother thought her spirits +had been too much broken for gaieties.</p> +<p>The real cause could not be confessed, for it would have been +ascribed to some kind of delirium, and have made a commotion for +which my father was unfit. Besides, we had reached an age +when, though we would not have disobeyed, liberty of thought and +action had become needful. All our private confabulations +were on this extraordinary scene. We looked for the arch in +the ruin, but there was, as our morning senses told us, nothing +of the kind. She tried to sketch her remembrance of both +that and the gable of the mullion chamber, and Martyn prowled +about in search of some hiding-place. Our antiquarian +friend, Mr. Stafford, had made a conjectural drawing of the +Chapel restored, and all the portfolios about the house were +searched for it, disquieting mamma, who suspected Martyn’s +Oxford notions of intending to rebuild it, nor would he say that +it ought not to be done. However, he with his more advanced +ecclesiology, pronounced Mr. Stafford’s reconstruction to +be absolutely mistaken and impossible, and set to work on a fresh +plan, which, by the bye, he derides at present. It +afforded, however, an excuse for routing under the ivy and among +the stones, but without much profit. From the mouldings on +the materials and in the stables and the front porch, it was +evident that the chapel had been used as a quarry, and +Emily’s arch was very probably that of the entrance +door. In a dry summer, the foundations of the walls and +piers could be traced on the turf, and the stumps of one or two +columns remained, but the rest was only a confused heap of +fragments within which no one could have entered as in that +strange vision.</p> +<p>Another thing became clear. There had once been a wall +between the beech wood and the lawn, with a gate or door in it; +Chapman could just remember its being taken down, in James +Winslow’s early married life, when landscape gardening was +the fashion. It must have been through this that the +Winslow brothers were returning, when poor Margaret perhaps +expected them to enter by the front.</p> +<p>We wished we could have consulted Dame Dearlove, but she had +died a few years before, and her school was extinct.</p> +<h2><a name="page350"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +350</span>CHAPTER XLI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">WILLS OLD AND NEW.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘And that to-night thou must watch with +me<br /> + To win the treasure of the tomb.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Scott</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Some</span> seasons seem to be peculiarly +marked, as if Death did indeed walk forth in them.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Frith died in the spring of 1841, and it proved that +he had shown his gratitude to Clarence by a legacy of shares in +the firm amounting to about £2000. The rest of his +interest therein went to Lawrence Frith, and his funded property +to his sister, Mrs. Stevens, a very fair and upright disposition +of his wealth.</p> +<p>Only six weeks later, my father had a sudden seizure, and +there was only time to summon Clarence from London and Martyn +from Oxford, before a second attack closed his righteous and +godly career upon earth.</p> +<p>My mother was very still and calm, hardly shedding a tear, but +her whole demeanour was as if life were over for her, and she had +nothing to do save to wait. She seemed to care very little +for tendernesses or attentions on our part. No doubt she +would have been more desolate without them, but we always had a +baffled feeling, as though our affection were contrasted with her +perfect union with her husband. Yet they had been a +singularly undemonstrative couple; I never saw a kiss pass +between them, except as greeting or farewell before or after a +journey; and if my mother could not use the terms papa or your +father, she always said, ‘Mr. Winslow.’ There +was a large gathering at the funeral, including Mr. Fordyce, but +he slept at Hillside, and we scarcely saw him—only for a +few kind words and squeezes of the hand. Holy Week was +begun, and he had to hurry back to Beachharbour that very +night.</p> +<p>The will had been made on my father’s coming into the +inheritance. It provided a jointure of £800 per annum +for my mother, and gave each of the younger children +£3000. A codicil had been added shortly after +Griffith’s death, written in my father’s hand, and +witnessed by Mr. Henderson and Amos Bell. This put Clarence +in the position of heir; secured £500 a year to +Griffith’s widow, charged on the estate, and likewise an +additional £200 a year to Emily and to me, hers till +marriage, mine for life, £300 a year to Martyn, until +Earlscombe Rectory should be voided, when it was to be offered to +him. The executors had originally been Mr. Castleford and +my mother, but by this codicil, Clarence was substituted for the +former.</p> +<p>The legacies did not come out of the Chantry House property, +for my father had, of course, means of his own besides, and +bequests had accrued to both him and my mother; but Clarence was +inheriting the estate much more burthened than it had been in +1829, having £2000 a year to raise out of its proceeds.</p> +<p>My mother was quite equal to business, with a sort of outside +sense, which she applied to it when needful. Clarence made +it at once evident to her that she was still mistress of Chantry +House, and that it was still to be our home; and she immediately +calculated what each ought to contribute to the +housekeeping. She looked rather blank when she found that +Clarence did not mean to give up business, nor even to become a +sleeping partner; but when she examined into ways and means, she +allowed that he was prudent, and that perhaps it was due to Mr. +Castleford not to deprive him of an efficient helper under +present circumstances. Meantime she was content to do her +best for Earlscombe ‘for the present,’ by which she +meant till her son brought home a wife; but we knew that to him +the words bore a different meaning, though he was still in doubt +and uncertainty how to act, and what might be the wrong to be +undone.</p> +<p>He was anxious to persuade her to go from home for a short +time, and prevailed on her at last to take Emily and me to +Dawlish, while the repairs went on which had been deferred during +my father’s feebleness; at least that was the excuse. +We two, going with great regret, knew that his real reason was to +have an opportunity for a search among the ruins.</p> +<p>It was in June, just as Martyn came back from Oxford, eager to +share in the quest. Those two brothers would trust no one +to help them, but one by one, in the long summer evenings, they +moved each of those stones; I believe the servants thought they +were crazed, but they could explain with some truth that they +wanted to clear up the disputed points as to the architecture, as +indeed they succeeded in doing.</p> +<p>They had, however, nearly given up, having reached the +original pavement and disinterred the piscina of the side altar, +also a beautiful coffin lid with a floriated cross; when, in a +kind of hollow, Martyn lit upon the rotten remains of something +silken, knotted together. It seemed to have enclosed a +bundle. There were some rags that might have been a change +of clothing, also a Prayer-book, decayed completely except the +leathern covering, inside which was the startling inscription, +‘Margaret Winslow, her booke; Lord, have mercy on a +miserable widow woman.’ There was also a thick +leathern roll, containing needles, pins, and scissors, entirely +corroded, and within these a paper, carefully folded, but almost +destroyed by the action of damp and the rust of the steel, so +that only thus much was visible. ‘I, Margaret +Winslow, being of sound mind, do hereby give and +bequeath—’</p> +<p>Then came stains that defaced every line, till the extreme +end, where a seal remained; the date 1707 was legible, and there +were some scrawls, probably the poor lady’s signature, and +perhaps that of witnesses. Clarence and Martyn said very +little to one another, but they set out for Dawlish the next +day.</p> +<p>‘Found’ was indicated to us, but no more, for they +arrived late, and had to sleep at the hotel, after an evening +when we were delighted to hear my mother ask so many questions +about household and parish affairs. In the morning she was +pleased to send all ‘the children’ out on the beach, +then free from the railway. It was a beautiful day, with +the intensely blue South Devon sea dancing in golden ripples, and +breaking on the shore with the sound Clarence loved so well, as, +in the shade of the dark crimson cliffs, Emily sat at my feet and +my brothers unfolded their strange discoveries into her +lap. There was a kind of solemnity in the thing; we +scarcely spoke, except that Emily said, ‘Oh, will she come +again,’ and, as the tears gathered at sight of the pathetic +petition in the old book, ‘Was that granted?’</p> +<p>We reconstructed our theory. The poor lady must have +repented of the unjust will forced from her by her stepsons, and +contrived to make another; but she must have been kept a captive +until, during their absence at some Christmas convivialities, she +tried to escape; but hearing sounds betokening their return, she +had only time to hide the bundle in the ruin before she was +detected, and in the scuffle received a fatal blow.</p> +<p>‘But why,’ I objected, ‘did she not remain +hidden till her enemies were safe in the house?’</p> +<p>‘Terrified beyond the use of her senses,’ said +Clarence.</p> +<p>‘By all accounts,’ said Martyn, ‘the poor +creature must have been rather a silly woman.’</p> +<p>‘For shame, Martyn,’ cried Emily, ‘how can +you tell? They might have seen her go in, or she might have +feared being missed.’</p> +<p>‘Or if you watch next Christmas you may see it all +explained.’</p> +<p>To which Emily replied with a shiver that nothing would induce +her to go through it again, and indeed she hoped the spirit would +rest since the discovery had been made.</p> +<p>‘And then?’—one of us said, and there was a +silence, and another futile attempt to read the will.</p> +<p>‘I shall take it to London and see what an expert can do +with it,’ said Clarence. ‘I have heard of +wonderful decipherings in the Record Office; but you will +remember that even if it can be made out, it will hardly +invalidate our possession after a hundred and thirty +years.’</p> +<p>‘Clarence!’ cried Emily in a horrified voice; and +I asked if the date were not later than that by which we +inherited.</p> +<p>‘Three years,’ Clarence said, ‘yes; but as +things stand, it is absolutely impossible for me to make +restitution at present.’</p> +<p>‘On account of the burthens on the estate?’ I +said.</p> +<p>‘Oh, but we could give up,’ said Emily.</p> +<p>‘I dare say!’ said Clarence, smiling; ‘but +to say nothing of poor Selina, my mother would hardly see it in +the same light, nor should I deal rightly, even if I could make +any alterations; I doubt whether my father would have held +himself bound—certainly not while no one can read this +document.’</p> +<p>‘It would simply outrage his legal mind,’ said +Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Then what is to be done? Is the injustice to be +perpetual?’ asked Emily.</p> +<p>‘This is what I have thought of,’ said +Clarence. ‘We must leave matters as they are till I +can realise enough either to pay off all these bequests, or to +offer Mr. Fordyce the value of the estate.’</p> +<p>‘It is not the whole,’ I said.</p> +<p>‘Not the Wattlesea part. This means Chantry House +and the three farms in the village. £10,000 would +cover it.’</p> +<p>‘Is it possible?’ asked Emily.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ returned Clarence, ‘God helping +me. You know our concern is bringing in good returns, and +Mr. Castleford will put me in the way of doing more with my +available capital.’</p> +<p>‘We will save so as to help you!’ added +Emily. At which he smiled.</p> +<h2><a name="page357"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +357</span>CHAPTER XLII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">ON A SPREE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,<br /> +Like twilight too, her dusky hair,<br /> +But all things else about her drawn<br /> +From May-time and the cheerful dawn,<br /> +A dancing shape, an image gay,<br /> +To haunt, to startle, and waylay.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Wordsworth</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Clarence</span> went to London according +to his determination, and as he had for some time been urgent +that I should try some newly-invented mechanical appliances, he +took me with him, this being the last expedition of the ancient +yellow chariot. One of his objects was that I should see +St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, which was then the most +distinguished church of our school of thought, and where there +was to be some special preaching. The Castlefords had a +seat there, and I was settled there in good time, looking at the +few bits of stained glass then in the east window, when, as the +clergy came in from the vestry, I beheld a familiar face, and +recognised the fine countenance and bearing of our dear old +friend Frank Fordyce.</p> +<p>Then, looking at the row of ladies in front of me, I beheld +for a moment an outline of a profile recalling many things. +No doubt, Anne Fordyce was there, though instead of barely +emulating my stunted stature, she towered above her companions, +looking to my mind most fresh and graceful in her pretty summer +dress; and I knew that Clarence saw her too.</p> +<p>I had never heard Mr. Fordyce preach before, as in his flying +visits his ministrations were due at Hillside; and I certainly +should have been struck with the force and beauty of his sermon +if I had never known him before. It was curious that it was +on the 49th Psalm, meant perhaps for the fashionable +congregation, but remarkably chiming in with the feelings of us, +who were conscious of an inheritance of evil from one who had +‘done well unto himself;’ though, no doubt, that was +the last thing honest Parson Frank was thinking of.</p> +<p>When the service was over, and Anne turned, she became aware +of us, and her face beamed all over. It was a charming +face, with a general likeness to dear Ellen’s, but without +the fragile ethereal look, and all health, bloom, and enjoyment +recalling her father’s. She was only moving to let +her pew-fellows pass out, and was waiting for him to come for +her, as he did in a few moments, and he too was all pleasure and +cordiality. He told us when we were outside that he had +come up to preach, and ‘had brought Miss Anne up for a +spree.’ They were at a hotel, Mrs. Fordyce was at +home, and the Lesters were not in town this season—a matter +of rejoicing to us. Could we not come home and dine with +them at once? We were too much afraid of disappointing +Gooch to do so, but they made an appointment to meet us at the +Royal Academy as soon as it was open the next morning.</p> +<p>There was a fortnight of enjoyment. Parson Frank was +like a boy out for a holiday. He had not spent more than a +day or two in town for many years; Anne had not been there since +early childhood, and they adopted Clarence as their lioniser, +going through such a country-cousin course of delights as in that +memorable time with Ellen. They even went down to Eton and +Windsor, Frank Fordyce being an old Etonian. I doubt +whether Clarence ever had a more thoroughly happy time, not even +in the north of Devon, for there was no horse on his mind, and he +was not suppressed as in those days. Indeed, I believe, it +is the experience of others besides ourselves that there is often +more unmixed pleasure on casual holidays like this than in those +of early youth; for even if spirits are less high (which is not +always the case), anticipations are less eager, there is more +readiness to accept whatever comes, more matured appreciation, +and less fret and friction at <i>contretemps</i>.</p> +<p>I was not much of a drag, for when I could not be with the +others, I had old friends, and the museum was as dear to me as +ever, in those recesses that had been the paradise of my youth; +but there was a good deal in which we could all share, and as +usual they were all kind consideration.</p> +<p>Anne overflowed with minute remembrances of her old home, and +Clarence so basked in her sunshine that it began to strike me +that here might be the solution of all the perplexities +especially after the first evening, when he had shown his strange +discovery to Mr. Fordyce, who simply laughed and said we need not +trouble ourselves about it. Illegible was it? He was +heartily glad to hear that it was. Even otherwise, forty +years’ possession was quite enough, and then he pointed to +the grate, and said that was the best place for such +things. There was no fire, but Clarence could hardly rescue +the paper from being torn up.</p> +<p>As to the ghost, he knew much less than his daughter Ellen had +done. He said his old aunt had some stories about Chantry +House being haunted, and had thought it incumbent on her to hate +the Winslows, but he had thought it all nonsense, and such +stories were much better forgotten. ‘Would he not see +if there were any letters?’</p> +<p>There might be, perhaps in the solicitor’s office at +Bath, but if he ever got hold of them, he should certainly burn +them. What was the use of being Christians, if such +quarrels were to be remembered?</p> +<p>Anne knew nothing. Aunt Peggy had died before she could +remember, and even Martyn had been discreet. Clarence said +no more after that one conversation, and seemed to me engrossed +between his necessary business at the office, and the pleasant +expeditions with the Fordyces. Only when they were on the +point of returning home, did he tell me that the will had been +pronounced utterly past deciphering, and that he thought he saw a +way of setting all straight. ‘So do I,’ was my +rejoinder, and there must have been a foolishly sagacious +expression about me that made him colour up, and say, ‘No +such thing, Edward. Don’t put that into my +head.’</p> +<p>‘Isn’t it there already?’</p> +<p>‘It ought not to be. It would be mere treachery in +these sweet, fresh, young, innocent, days of hers, knowing too +what her mother would think of it and of me. Didn’t +you observe in old Frank’s unguarded way of reading letters +aloud, and then trying to suppress bits, that Mrs. Fordyce was +not at all happy at our being so much about with them, poor +woman. No wonder! the child is too young,’ he added, +showing how much, after all, he was thinking of it. +‘It would be taking a base advantage of them +<i>now</i>.’</p> +<p>‘But by and by?’</p> +<p>‘If she should be still free when the great end is +achieved and the evil repaired, then I might dare.’</p> +<p>He broke off with a look of glad hope, and I could see it was +forbearance rather than constitutional diffidence that withheld +him from awakening the maiden’s feelings. He was a +very fine looking man, in his prime—tall, strong, and well +made, with a singularly grave, thoughtful expression, and a rare +but most winning smile; and Anne was overflowing with +affectionate gladness at intercourse with one who belonged to the +golden age of her childhood. I could scarcely believe but +that in the friction of the parting the spark would be elicited, +and I should even have liked to kindle it for them myself, being +tolerably certain that warm-hearted, unguarded Parson Frank would +forget all about his lady and blow it with all his might.</p> +<p>We dined with the Fordyces at their hotel, and sat in the +twilight with the windows open, and we made Anne and Clarence +sing, as both could do without notes, but he would not undertake +to remember anything with an atom of sentiment in it, and when +Anne did sing, ‘Auld lang syne,’ with all her heart, +he went and got into a dark corner, and barely said, ‘Thank +you.’</p> +<p>Not a definite answer could be extracted from him in reply to +all the warm invitations to Beachharbour that were lavished on us +by the father, while the daughter expatiated on its charms; the +rocks I might sketch, the waves and the delicious boating, and +above all the fisher children and the church. Nothing was +wanting but to have us all there! Why had we not brought +Mrs. Winslow, and Emily, and Martyn, instead of going to +Dawlish?</p> +<p>Good creatures, they little knew the chill that had been cast +upon Martyn. They even bemoaned the having seen so little +of him. And we knew all the time that they were mice at +play in the absence of their excellent and cautious cat.</p> +<p>‘Now mind you do come!’ said Anne, as we were in +the act of taking leave. ‘It would be as good as +Hillside to have you by my Lion rock. He has a nose just +like old Chapman’s, and you must sketch it before it +crumbles off. Yes, and I want to show you all the dear old +things you made for my baby-house after the fire, your dear +little wardrobe and all.’</p> +<p>She was coming out with us, oblivious that a London hotel was +not like her own free sea-side house. Her father was out at +the carriage door, prepared to help me in, Clarence halted a +moment—</p> +<p>‘Please, pray, go back, Anne,’ he said, and his +voice trembled. ‘This is not home you +know.’</p> +<p>She started back, but paused. ‘You’ll not +forget.’</p> +<p>‘Oh no; no fear of my forgetting.’</p> +<p>And when seated beside me, he leant back with a sigh.</p> +<p>‘How could you help?’ I said.</p> +<p>‘How? Why the perfect, innocent, childish, +unconsciousness of the thing,’ he said, and became silent +except for one murmur on the way.</p> +<p>‘Consequences must be borne—’</p> +<h2><a name="page364"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +364</span>CHAPTER XLIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE PRICE.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘With thee, my bark, I’ll swiftly +go<br /> + Athwart the foaming brine.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Lord +Byron</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Clarence</span> would not tell me his +purpose, he said, till he had considered it more fully; nor could +we have much conversation on the way home, as my mother had +arranged that we should bring an old friend of hers back with us +to pay her a visit. So I had to sit inside and make myself +agreeable to Mrs. Wrightson, while Clarence had plenty of leisure +for meditation outside on the box seat. The good lady said +much on the desirableness of marriage for Clarence, and the +comfort it would be to my mother to see Emily settled.</p> +<p>We had heard much in town of railway shares; and the fortunes +of Hudson, the railway king, were under discussion. I +suspected Clarence of cogitating the using his capital in this +manner; and hoped that when he saw his way, he might not think it +dishonourable to come into further contact with Anne, and reveal +his hopes. He allowed that he was considering of such +investments, but would not say any more.</p> +<p>My mother and Emily had, in the meantime, been escorted home +by Martyn. The first thing Clarence did was to bespeak +Emily’s company in a turn in the garden. What passed +then I never knew nor guessed for years after. He consulted +her whether, in case he were absent from England for five, seven, +or ten years, she would be equal to the care of my mother and +me. Martyn, when ordained, would have duties elsewhere, and +could only be reckoned upon in emergencies. My mother, +though vigorous and practical, had shown symptoms of gout, and if +she were ill, I could hardly have done much for her; and on the +other hand, though my health and powers of moving were at their +best, and I was capable of the headwork of the estate, I was +scarcely fit to be the representative member of the family. +Moreover, these good creatures took into consideration that poor +mamma and I would have been rather at a loss as each +other’s sole companions. I could sort shades for her +Berlin work, and even solve problems of intricate knitting, and I +could read to her in the evening; but I could not trot after her +to her garden, poultry-yard, and cottages; nor could she enter +into the pursuits that Emily had shared with me for so many +years. Our connecting link, that dear sister, knew how +sorely she would be missed, and she told Clarence that she felt +fully competent to undertake, conjointly with us, all that would +be incumbent on Chantry House, if he really wanted to be +absent. For the rest, Clarence believed my mother would be +the happier for being left regent over the estate; and his scheme +broke upon me that very forenoon, when my mother and he were +settling some executor’s business together, and he told her +that Mr. Castleford wished him to go out to Hong Kong, which was +then newly ceded to the English, and where the firm wished to +establish a house of business.</p> +<p>‘You can’t think of it,’ she exclaimed, and +the sound fell like a knell on my ears.</p> +<p>‘I think I must,’ was his answer. ‘We +shall be cut out if we do not get a footing there, and there is +no one who can quite answer the purpose.’</p> +<p>‘Not that young Frith—’</p> +<p>‘Ten to one but he is on his way home. Besides, if +not, he has his own work at Canton. We see our way to very +considerable advantages, if—’</p> +<p>‘Advantages!’ she interrupted. ‘I hate +speculation. I should have thought you might be contented +with your station; but that is the worst of merchants,—they +never know when to stop. I suppose your ambition is to make +this a great overgrown mansion, so that your father would not +know it again.’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not that, mamma,’ said Clarence +smiling; ‘it is the last thing I should think of; but +stopping would in this case mean going backward.’</p> +<p>‘Why can’t Mr. Castleford send one of his own +sons?’</p> +<p>‘Probably Walter may come out by and by, but he has not +experience enough for this.’</p> +<p>Clarence had not in the least anticipated my mother’s +opposition, for he had come to underestimate her affection for +and reliance on him. He had us all against him, for not +only could we not bear to part with him; but the climate of +Hong-Kong was in evil repute, and I had become persuaded that, +with his knowledge of business, railway shares and scrip might be +made to realise the amount needed, but he said, ‘That is +what <i>I</i> call speculation. The other matter is trade +in which, with Heaven’s blessing, I can hope to +prosper.’</p> +<p>He explained that Mr. Castleford had received him on his +coming to London with almost a request that he would undertake +this expedition; but with fears whether, in his new position, he +could or would do so, although his presence in China would be +very important to the firm at this juncture; and there would be +opportunities which would probably result in very considerable +profits after a few years. If Clarence had been, as before, +a mere younger brother, it would have been thought an excellent +chance; and he would almost have felt bound by his obligations to +Mr. Castleford to undertake the first starting of the enterprise, +if it had not been for our recent loss, and the doubt whether he +could he spared from home.</p> +<p>He made light of the dangers of climate. He had never +suffered in that way in his naval days, and scarcely knew what +serious illness meant. Indeed, he had outgrown much of that +sensibility of nerve which had made him so curiously open to +spiritual or semi-spiritual impressions.</p> +<p>‘Any way,’ he said, ‘the thing is right to +be done, provided my mother does not make an absolute point of my +giving it up; and whether she does or not depends a good deal on +how you others put it to her.’</p> +<p>‘Right on Mr. Castleford’s account?’ I +asked.</p> +<p>‘That is one side of it. To refuse would put him +in a serious difficulty; but I could perhaps come home sooner if +it were not for this other matter. I told him so far as +that it was an object with me to raise this sum in a few years, +and he showed me how there is every likelihood of my being able +to do so out there. So now I feel in your hands. If +you all, and Edward chiefly, set to and persuade my mother that +this undertaking is a dangerous business, and that I can only be +led to it by inordinate love of riches—’</p> +<p>‘No, no—’</p> +<p>‘That’s what she thinks,’ pursued Clarence, +‘and that I want to be a grander man than my father. +That’s at the bottom of her mind, I see. Well, if you +deplore this, and let her think the place can’t do without +me, she will come out in her strength and make it my duty to stay +at home.’</p> +<p>‘It is very tempting,’ said Emily.</p> +<p>‘We all undertook to give up something.’</p> +<p>‘We never thought it would come in this way!’</p> +<p>‘We never do,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘Tell me,’ said Martyn, ‘is this to content +that ghost, poor thing? For it is very hard to believe in +her, except in the mullion room in December.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so, Martyn,’ he answered. +‘Impressions fade, and the intellect fails to accept +them. But I do not think that is my motive. We know +that a wicked deed was done by our ancestor, and we hardly have +the right to pray, “Remember not the sins of our +forefathers,” unless, now that we know the crime, we +attempt what restitution in us lies.’</p> +<p>There was no resisting after this appeal, and after the first +shock, my mother was ready to admit that as Clarence owed +everything to Mr. Castleford, he could not well desert the firm, +if it were really needful for its welfare that he should go +out. We got her to look on Mr. Castleford as captain of the +ship, and Clarence as first lieutenant; and when she was once +convinced that he did not want to aggrandise the family, but to +do his duty, she dropped her objections; and we soon saw that the +occupations that his absence would impose on her would be a fresh +interest in life.</p> +<p>Just as the decision was thus ratified, a packet from Canton +arrived for Clarence from Bristol. It was the first reply +of young Frith to the tidings of the bequest which had changed +the poor clerk to a wealthy man, owning a large proportion of the +shares of the prosperous house.</p> +<p>I asked if he were coming home, and Clarence briefly replied +that he did not know,—‘it depended—’</p> +<p>‘Is he going to wed a fair Chinese with lily +feet?’ asked Martyn, to which the reply was an unusually +discourteous ‘Bosh,’ as Clarence escaped with his +letter. He was so reticent about it that I required a +solemn assurance that poor Lawrence’s head had not been +turned by his fortune, and that there was nothing wrong with +him. Indeed, there was great stupidity in never guessing +the purport of that thick letter, nor that it contained one for +Emily, where Lawrence Frith laid himself, and all that he had, at +her feet, ascribing to her all the resolution with which he had +kept from evil, and entreating permission to come home and +endeavour to win her heart. We lived so constantly together +that it is surprising that Clarence contrived to give the letter +to Emily in private. She implored him to say nothing to us, +and brought him the next day her letter of uncompromising +refusal.</p> +<p>He asked whether it would have been the same if he had +intended to remain at home.</p> +<p>‘As if you were a woman, you conceited fellow,’ +was all the answer she vouchsafed him.</p> +<p>Nor could he ascertain, nor perhaps would she herself examine, +on which side lay her heart of hearts. The proof had come +whether she would abide by her pledge to him to accept the care +of us in his absence. When he asked it, it had not occurred +to him that it might be a renunciation of marriage. Now he +perceived that so it had been, but she kept her counsel and so +did he. We others never guessed at what was going on +between those two.</p> +<h2><a name="page371"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +371</span>CHAPTER XLIV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">PAYING THE COST.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘But oh! the difference to me.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Wordsworth</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">So</span> Clarence was gone, and our new +life begun in its changed aspect. Emily showed an almost +feverish eagerness to make it busy and cheerful, getting up a +sewing class in the village, resuming the study of Greek, +grappling with the natural system in botany, all of which had +been fitfully proposed but hindered by interruptions and my +father’s feebleness.</p> +<p>On a suggestion of Mr. Stafford’s, we set to work on +that <i>History of Letter Writing</i> which, what with collecting +materials, and making translations, lasted us three years +altogether, and was a great resource and pleasure, besides +ultimately bringing in a fraction towards the great +purpose. Emily has confessed that she worked away a good +deal of vague, weary depression, and sense of monotony into those +Greek choruses: but to us she was always a sunbeam, with her ever +ready attention, and the playfulness which resumed more of +genuine mirth after the first effort and strain of spirits were +over.</p> +<p>Then journal-letters on either side began to bridge the gulf +of separation,—those which, minus all the specially +interesting portions, are to be seen in the volume we culled from +them, and which had considerable success in its day.</p> +<p>Martyn worked in the parish and read with Mr. Henderson till +he was old enough for Ordination, and then took the curacy of St. +Wulstan’s, under a hardworking London vicar, and +thenceforth his holidays were our festivals. Our old London +friends pitied us for what they viewed as a fearfully dull life, +and in the visits they occasionally paid us thought they were +doing us a great favour by bringing us new ideas and shooting our +partridges.</p> +<p>We hardly deserved their compassion: our lives were full of +interest to ourselves—that interest which comes of doing +ever so feeble a stroke of work in one great cause; and there was +much keen participation in the general life of the Church in the +crisis through which she was passing. We found that, what +with drawing pictures, writing little books, preparing lessons +for teachers, and much besides which is now ready done by the +National Society and Sunday School Institute, we could do a good +deal to assist Martyn in his London work, and our own grew upon +us.</p> +<p>For the first year of her widowhood, my mother shrank from +society, and afterwards had only spasmodic fits of doubt whether +it were not her duty to make my sister go out more. So that +now and then Emily did go to a party, or to make a visit of some +days or weeks from home, and then we knew how valuable she +was. It would be hard to say whether my mother were +relieved or disappointed when Emily refused James Eastwood, in +spite of many persuasions, not only from himself, but his +family. I believe mamma thought it selfish to be glad, and +that it was a failure in duty not to have performed that weighty +matter of marrying her daughter; feeling in some way inferior to +ladies who had disposed of a whole flock under five and twenty, +whereas she had not been able to get rid of a single one!</p> +<p>Of Clarence’s doings in China I need not speak; you have +read of them in the book for yourselves, and you know how his +work prospered, so that the results more than fulfilled his +expectations, and raised the firm to the pitch of greatness and +reputation which it has ever since preserved, and this without +soiling his hands with the miserable opium traffic. Some of +the subordinates were so set on the gains to be thus obtained, +that he and Lawrence Frith had a severe struggle with them to +prevent it, and were forced conjointly to use all their authority +as principals to make it impossible. Those two were the +greatest of friends. Their chief relaxation was one +another’s company, and their earnest aim was to support the +Christian mission, and to keep up the tone of their English +dependants, a terribly difficult matter, and one that made the +time of their return somewhat doubtful, even when Walter +Castleford was gone out to relieve them. Their health had +kept up so well that we had ceased to be anxious on that point, +and it was through the Castlefords that we received the first +hint that Clarence might not be as well as his absence of +complaint had led us to believe.</p> +<p>In fact he had never been well since a terrible tempest, when +he had worked hard and exposed himself to save life. I +never could hear the particulars, for Lawrence was away, and +Clarence could not write about it himself, having been prostrated +by one of those chills so perilous in hot countries; but from all +I have heard, no resident in Hong-Kong would have believed that +Mr. Winslow’s courage could ever have been called in +question. He ought to have come home immediately after that +attack of fever; for the five years were over, and his work +nearly done; but there was need to consolidate his achievements, +and a strong man is only too apt to trifle with his health. +We might have guessed something by the languor and brevity of his +letters, but we thought the absence of detail owing to his +expectation of soon seeing us; and had gone on for months +expecting the announcement of a speedy return, when an unexpected +shock fell on us. Our dear mother was still an active +woman, with few signs of age about her, when, in her +sixty-seventh year, she was almost suddenly taken from us by an +attack of gout in the stomach.</p> +<p>I feel as if I had not done her justice, and as if she might +seem stern, unsympathising, and lacking in tenderness. Yet +nothing could be further from the truth. She was an +old-fashioned mother, who held it her duty to keep up her +authority, and counted over-familiarity and indulgence as +sins. To her ‘the holy spirit of discipline was the +beginning of wisdom,’ and to make her children godly, +truthful, and honourable was a much greater object than to win +their love. And their love she had, and kept to a far +higher degree than seems to be the case with those who court +affection by caresses and indulgence. We knew that her +approval was of a generous kind, we prized enthusiastically her +rare betrayals of her motherly tenderness, and we depended on her +in a manner we only realised in the desolation, dreariness, and +helplessness that fell upon us, when we knew that she was +gone. She had not, nor had any of us, understood that she +was dying, and she had uttered only a few words that could imply +any such thought. On hearing that there was a letter from +Clarence, she said, ‘Poor Clarence! I should like to +have seen him. He is a good boy after all. I’ve +been hard on him, but it will all be right now. God +Almighty bless him!’</p> +<p>That was the only formal blessing she left among us. +Indeed, the last time I saw her was with an ordinary good-night +at the foot of the stairs. Emily said she was glad that I +had not to carry with me the remembrance of those paroxysms of +suffering. My dear Emily had alone the whole force of that +trial—or shall I call it privilege? Martyn did not +reach home till some hours after all was over, poor boy.</p> +<p>And in the midst of our desolateness, just as we had let the +daylight in again upon our diminished numbers round the table, +came a letter from Hong-Kong, addressed to me in Lawrence +Frith’s writing, and the first thing I saw was a scrawl, as +follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘<span class="smcap">Dearest +Ted</span>—All is in your hands. You can do +<i>it</i>. God bless you all. W. C. W.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>When I came to myself, and could see and hear, Martyn was +impressing on me that where there is life there is hope, though +indeed, according to poor Lawrence’s letter, there was +little of either. He feared our hearing indirectly, and +therefore wrote to prepare us.</p> +<p>He had been summoned to Hong-Kong to find Clarence lying +desperately ill, for the most part semi-delirious, holding +converse with invisible forms, or entreating some one to let him +alone—he had done his best. In one of his more lucid +intervals he had made Lawrence find that note in a case that lay +near him, and promise to send it; and he had tried to send some +messages, but they had become confused, and he was too weak to +speak further.</p> +<p>The next mail was sure to bring the last tidings of one who +had given his life for right and justice. It was only a +reprieve that what it actually brought was the intelligence that +he was still alive, and more sensible, and had been able to take +much pleasure in seeing the friend of his youth, Captain Coles, +who was there with his ship, the <i>Douro</i>. Then there +had been a relapse. Captain Coles had brought his doctor to +see him, and it had been pronounced that the best chance of +saving him was a sea-voyage. The <i>Douro</i> had just +received orders to return to England, and Coles had offered to +take home both the friends as guests, though there was evidently +little hope that our brother would reach any earthly home. +As we knew afterwards, he had smiled and said it was like +rehabilitation to have the chance of dying on board one of H.M. +ships. And he was held in such respect, and was so entirely +one of the leading men of the little growing colony, and had been +known as such a friend to the naval men, and had so gallantly +aided a Queen’s ship in that hurricane, that his passage +home in this manner only seemed a natural tribute of +respect. A few last words from Lawrence told us that he was +safely on board, all unconscious of the silent, almost weeping, +procession that had escorted his litter to the +<i>Douro’s</i> boat, only too much as if it were his +bier. In fact, Captain Coles actually promised him that if +he died at sea he should be buried with the old flag.</p> +<p>We could not hope to hear more for at least six weeks, since +our letter had come by overland mail, and the <i>Douro</i> would +take her time. It was a comfort in this waiting time that +Martyn could be with us. His rector had been promoted; +there was a general change of curates; and as Martyn had been +working up to the utmost limits of his strength, we had no +scruple in inducing him to remain with us, and undertake nothing +fresh till this crisis was past. Though as to rest, not one +Sunday passed without requests for his assistance from one or +more of the neighbouring clergy.</p> +<h2><a name="page378"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +378</span>CHAPTER XLV.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">ACHIEVED.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘And hopes and fears that kindle hope,<br /> +An undistinguishable throng,<br /> +And gentle wishes long subdued—<br /> +Subdued and cherished long.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">S. T. <span +class="smcap">Coleridge</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> first that we did hear of our +brother was a letter with a Falmouth postmark, which we scarcely +dared to open. There was not much in it, but that was +enough. ‘D. G.—I shall see you all again. +We put in at Portsmouth.’</p> +<p>There was no staying at home after that. We three lost +no time in starting, for railways had become available, and by +the time we had driven from the station at Portsmouth the +<i>Douro</i> had been signalled.</p> +<p>Martyn took a boat and went on board alone, for besides that +Emily did not like to leave me, her dress would have been a +revelation that <i>all</i> were no longer there to greet the +arrival. The precaution was, however, unnecessary. +There stood Clarence on deck, and after the first greeting, he +laid his hand on Martyn’s arm and said, ‘My mother is +gone?’ and on the wondering assent, ‘I was quite sure +of it.’</p> +<p>So they came ashore, Clarence lying in the man-of-war’s +boat, in which his friend insisted on sending him, able now to +give a smiling response and salute to the three cheers with which +the crew took leave of him. He was carried up to our hotel +on a stretcher by half-a-dozen blue jackets. Indeed he was +grievously changed, looking so worn and weak, so hollow-eyed and +yellow, and so fearfully wasted, that the very memory is painful; +and able to do nothing but lie on the sofa holding Emily’s +hand, gazing at us with a face full of ineffable peace and +gladness. There was a misgiving upon me that he had only +come back to finish his work and bid us farewell.</p> +<p>Kindly and considerately they had sent him on before with +Martyn. In a quarter of an hour’s time his good +doctor came in with Lawrence Frith, a considerable contrast to +our poor Clarence, for the slim gypsy lad had developed into a +strikingly handsome man, still slender and lithe, but with a fine +bearing, and his bronzed complexion suiting well with his dark +shining hair and beautiful eyes. They had brought some of +the luggage, and the doctor insisted that his patient should go +to bed directly, and rest completely before trying to talk.</p> +<p>Then we heard that his condition, though still anxious, was +far from being hopeless, and that after the tropics had been +passed, he had been gradually improving. The kind doctor +had got leave to go up to London with us, and talk over the case +with L---, and he hoped Clarence might be able to bear the +journey by the next afternoon.</p> +<p>Presently after came Captain Coles, whom we had not seen since +the short visit when we had idolised the big overgrown +midshipman, whom Clarence exhibited to our respectful and distant +admiration nearly twenty years ago. My mother used to call +him a gentlemanly lad, and that was just what he was still, with +a singularly soft gentle manner, gallant officer and post-captain +as he was. He cheered me much, for he made no doubt of +Clarence’s ultimate recovery, and he added that he had +found the dear fellow so valued and valuable, so useful in all +good works, and so much respected by all the English residents, +‘that really,’ said the captain, ‘I did not +know whether to deplore that the service should have lost such a +man, or whether to think it had been a good thing for him, though +not for us, that—that he got into such a scrape.’</p> +<p>I said something of our thanks.</p> +<p>‘To tell you the truth,’ said Coles, ‘I had +my doubts whether it had not been a cruel act, for he had a +terrible turn after we got him on board, and all the sounds of a +Queen’s ship revived the past associations, and always of a +painful kind in his delirium, till at last, just as I gave him +up, the whole character of his fancies seemed to change, and from +that time he has been gaining every day.’</p> +<p>We kept the captain to dinner, and gathered a good deal more +understanding of the important position to which Clarence had +risen by force of character and rectitude of purpose in that +strange little Anglo-Chinese colony; and afterwards, I was +allowed to make a long visit to Clarence, who, having eaten and +slept, was quite ready to talk.</p> +<p>It seemed that the great distress of his illness had been the +recurrence—nay, aggravation—of the strange +susceptibility of brain and nerve that had belonged to his +earlier days, and with it either imagination or perception of the +spirit-world. Much that had seemed delirium had belonged to +that double consciousness, and he perfectly recollected it. +As Coles had said, the sights and sounds of the ship had been a +renewal of the saddest time in his life; he could not at night +divest himself of the impression that he was under arrest, and +the sins of his life gathered themselves in fearful and +oppressive array, as if to stifle him, and the phantom of poor +Margaret with her lamp—which had haunted him from the +beginning of his illness—seemed to taunt him with having +been too fainthearted and tardy to be worthy to espouse her +cause. The faith to which he tried to cling <i>would</i> +seem to fail him in those awful hours, when he could only cry out +mechanical prayers for mercy. Then there had come a night +when he had heard my mother say, ‘All right now; God +Almighty bless him.’ And therewith the clouds cleared +from his mind. The power of <i>feeling</i>, as well as +believing in, the blotting out of sin, returned, the sense of +pardon and peace calmed him, and from that time he was fully +himself again, ‘though,’ he said, ‘I knew I +should not see my mother here.’</p> +<p>If she could only have seen him come home under the Union +Jack, cheered by sailors, and carried ashore by them, it would +have been to her like restoration. Perhaps Clarence in his +dreamy weakness had so felt it, for certainly no other mode of +return to Portsmouth, the very place of his degradation, could so +have soothed him and effaced those memories. The English +sounds were a perfect charm to him, as well as to Lawrence, the +commonest street cry, the very slices of bread and butter, +anything that was not Chinese, was as water to the thirsty! +And wasted as was his face, the quiet rest and joy were +ineffable.</p> +<p>Still Portsmouth was not the best place for him, and we were +glad that he was well enough to go up to London in the afternoon; +intensely delighting in the May beauty of the green meadows, and +white blossoming hedgerows, and the Church towers, especially the +gray massiveness of Winchester Cathedral. ‘Christian +tokens,’ he said, instead of the gay, gilded pagodas and +quaint crumpled roofs he had left. The soft haze seemed to +be such a rest after the glare of perpetual clearness.</p> +<p>We were all born Londoners, and looked at the blue fog, and +the broad, misty river, and the brooding smoke, with the +affection of natives, to the amazement of Lawrence, who had never +been in town without being browbeaten and miserable. That +he hardly was now, as he sat beside Emily all the way up, though +they did not say much to one another.</p> +<p>He told us it was quite a new sensation to walk into the +office without timidity, and to have no fears of a biting, +crushing speech about his parents or himself; but to have the +clerks getting up deferentially as soon as he was known for Mr. +Frith. He had hardly ever been allowed by his old uncle to +come across Mr. Castleford, who was of course cordial and +delighted to receive him, and, without loss of time, set forth to +see Clarence.</p> +<p>The consultation with the physician had taken place, and it +was not concealed from us that Clarence’s health was +completely shattered, and his state still very precarious, +needing the utmost care to give him any chance of recovering the +effects of the last two years, when he had persevered, in spite +of warning, in his eagerness to complete his undertaking, and +then to secure what he had effected. The upshot of the +advice given him was to spend the summer by the seaside, and if +he had by that time gathered strength, and surmounted the +symptoms of disease, to go abroad, as he was not likely to be +able as yet to bear English cold. Business and cares were +to be avoided, and if he had anything necessary to be done, it +had better be got over at once, so as to be off his mind. +Martyn and Frith gathered that the case was thought doubtful, and +entirely dependent on constitution and rallying power. +Clarence himself seemed almost passive, caring only for our +presence and the accomplishment of his task.</p> +<p>We had a blessed thanksgiving for mercies received in the +Margaret Street Chapel, as we called what is now All Saints; but +he and I were unfit for crowds, and on Sunday morning availed +ourselves of a friend’s seat in our old church, which felt +so natural and homelike to us elders that Martyn was scandalised +at our taste. But it was the church of our Confirmation and +first Communion, and Clarence rejoiced that it was that of his +first home-coming Eucharist. What a contrast was he now to +the shrinking boy, scarcely tolerated under his stigmatised +name. Surely the Angel had led him all his life +through!</p> +<p>How happy we two were in the afternoon, while the others +conducted Lawrence to some more noteworthy church.</p> +<p>‘Now,’ said Clarence, ‘let us go down to +Beachharbour. It must be done at once. I have been +trying to write, and I can’t do it,’ and his face +lighted with a quiet smile which I understood.</p> +<p>So we wrote to the principal hotel to secure rooms, and set +forth on Tuesday, leaving Frith to finish with Mr. Castleford +what could not be settled in the one business interview that had +been held with Clarence on the Monday.</p> +<h2><a name="page385"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +385</span>CHAPTER XLVI.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">RESTITUTION.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Ah! well for us all some sweet hope lies<br +/> +Deeply buried from human eyes.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Whittier</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Things</span> always happen in unexpected +ways. During the little hesitation and difficulty that +always attend my transits at a station, a voice was heard to say, +‘Oh! Papa, isn’t that Edward +Winslow?’ Martyn gave a violent start, and Mr. +Fordyce was exclaiming, ‘Clarence, my dear fellow, it +isn’t you! I beg your pardon; you have strength +enough left nearly to wring one’s hand off!’</p> +<p>‘I—I wanted very much to see you, sir,’ said +Clarence. ‘Could you be so good as to appoint a +time?’</p> +<p>‘See you! We must always be seeing you of +course. Let me think. I’ve got three weddings +and a funeral to-morrow, and Simpson coming about the +meeting. Come to luncheon—all of you. Mrs. +Fordyce will be delighted, and so will somebody else.’</p> +<p>There was no doubt about the somebody else, for Anne’s +feet were as nearly dancing round Emily as public propriety +allowed, and the radiance of her face was something to rejoice +in. Say what people will, Englishwomen in a quiet cheerful +life are apt to gain rather than lose in looks up to the borders +of middle age. Our Emily at two-and-thirty was fair and +pleasant to look on; while as for Anne Fordyce at twenty-three, +words will hardly tell how lovely were her delicate features, +brown eyes, and carnation cheeks, illuminated by that sunshine +brightness of her father’s, which made one feel better all +day for having been beamed upon by either of them. Clarence +certainly did, when the good man turned back to say, ‘Which +hotel? Eh? That’s too far off. You must +come nearer. I would see you in, but I’ve got a woman +to see before church time, and I’m short of a curate, so I +must be sharp to the hour.’</p> +<p>‘Can I be of any use?’ eagerly asked Martyn. +‘I’ll follow you as soon as I have got these fellows +to their quarters.’</p> +<p>We had Amos with us, and were soon able to release Martyn, +after a few compliments on my not being as usual <i>the</i> +invalid; and by and by he came back to take Emily to inspect a +lodging, recommended by our friends, close to the beach, and not +a stone’s throw from the Rectory built by Mr. +Fordyce. As we two useless beings sat opposite to each +other, looking over the roofs of houses at the blue expanse and +feeling the salt breeze, it was no fancy that Clarence’s +cheek looked less wan, and his eyes clearer, as a smile of +content played on his lips. ‘Years sit well on +her,’ he said gaily; and I thought of rewards in store for +him.</p> +<p>Then he took this opportunity of consulting me on the chances +for Frith, telling of the original offer, and the quiet constancy +of his friend, and asking whether I thought Emily would +relent. And I answered that I suspected that she +would,—‘But you must get well first.’</p> +<p>‘I begin to think that more possible,’ he +answered, and my heart bounded as he added, ‘she would be +satisfied since you would always have a home with +<i>us</i>.’</p> +<p>Oh, how much was implied in that monosyllable. He knew +it, for a little faint colour came up, as he, shyly, laughed and +hesitated, ‘That is—if—’</p> +<p>‘If’ included Mrs. Fordyce’s not being +ungracious. Nor was she. Emily had found her as kind +as in the old days at Hillside, and perfectly ready to bring us +into close vicinity. It was not caprice that had made this +change, but all possible doubt and risk of character were over, +the old wound was in some measure healed, and the friendship had +been brought foremost by our recent sorrow and our present +anxiety. Anne was in ecstasies over Emily. ‘It +is so odd,’ she said, ‘to have grown as old as you, +whom I used to think so very grown up,’ and she had all her +pet plans to display in the future. Moreover, Martyn had +been permitted to relieve the Rector from the funeral—a +privilege which seemed to gratify him as much as if it had been +the liveliest of services.</p> +<p>We were to lunch at the Rectory, and the move of our goods was +to be effected while we were there. We found Mrs. Fordyce +looking much older, but far less of an invalid than in old times, +and there was something more genial and less exclusive in her +ways, owing perhaps to the difference of her life among the many +classes with whom she was called on to associate.</p> +<p>Somersetshire, Beachharbour, and China occupied our tongues by +turns, and we had to begin luncheon without the Rector, who had +been hindered by numerous calls; in fact, as Anne warned us, it +was a wonder if he got the length of the esplanade without being +stopped half-a-dozen times.</p> +<p>His welcome was like himself, but he needed a reminder of +Clarence’s request for an interview. Then we repaired +to the study, for Clarence begged that his brothers might be +present, and then the beginning was made. ‘Do you +remember my showing you a will that I found in the ruins at +Chantry House?’</p> +<p>‘A horrid old scrap that you chose to call one. +Yes; I told you to burn it.’</p> +<p>‘Sir, we have proved that a great injustice was +perpetrated by our ancestor, Philip Winslow, and that the poor +lady who made that will was cruelly treated, if not +murdered. This is no fancy; I have known it for years past, +but it is only now that restitution has become +possible.’</p> +<p>‘Restitution? What are you talking about? I +never wanted the place nor coveted it.’</p> +<p>‘No, sir, but the act was our forefather’s. +You cannot bid us sit down under the consciousness of profiting +by a crime. I could not do so before, but I now implore you +to let me restore you either Chantry House and the three farms, +or their purchase money, according to the valuation made at my +father’s death. I have it in hand.’</p> +<p>Frank Fordyce walked about the room quite overcome. +‘You foolish fellow!’ he said, ‘Was it for this +that you have been toiling and throwing away your health in that +pestiferous place? Edward, did you know this?’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘Clarence has +intended this ever since he found the will.’</p> +<p>‘As if that was a will! You consented.’</p> +<p>‘We all thought it right.’</p> +<p>He made a gesture of dismay at such folly.</p> +<p>‘I do not think you understand how it was, Mr. +Fordyce,’ said Clarence, who by this time was quivering and +trembling as in his boyish days.</p> +<p>‘No, nor ever wish to do so. Such matters ought to +be forgotten, and you don’t look fit to say another +word.’</p> +<p>‘Edward will tell you,’ said Clarence, leaning +back.</p> +<p>I had the whole written out, and was about to begin, when the +person, with whom there was an appointment, was reported, and we +knew that the rest of the day was mapped out.</p> +<p>‘Look here,’ said Mr. Fordyce, ‘leave that +with me; I can’t give any answer off-hand, except that Don +Quixote is come alive again, only too like himself.’</p> +<p>Which was true, for Clarence took long to rally from the +effort, and had to be kept quiet for some time in the study where +we were left. He examined me on the contents of my paper, +and was vexed to hear that I had mentioned the ghost, which he +said would discredit the whole. Never was the dear fellow +so much inclined to be fretful, and when Martyn restlessly +observed that if we did not want him, he might as well go back to +the drawing-room, the reply was quite sharp—‘Oh yes, +by all means.’</p> +<p>No wonder there was pain in the tone; for the next words, +after some interval, were, when two happy voices came ringing in +from the garden behind, ‘You see, Edward.’</p> +<p>Somehow I had never thought of Martyn. He had simply +seemed to me a boy, and I had decided that Anne would be the +crown of Clarence’s labours. I answered +‘Nonsense; they are both children together!’</p> +<p>‘The nonsense was elsewhere,’ he said. +‘They always were devoted to each other. I saw how it +was the moment he came into the room.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t give up,’ I said; ‘it is only +the old habit. When she knows all, she must +prefer—’</p> +<p>‘Hush!’ he said. ‘An old scarecrow and +that beautiful young creature!’ and he laughed.</p> +<p>‘You won’t be an old scarecrow long.’</p> +<p>‘No,’ he said in an ominous way, and cut short the +discussion by going back to Mrs. Fordyce.</p> +<p>He was worn out, had a bad night, and did not get up to +breakfast; I was waiting for it in the sitting-room, when Mr. +Fordyce came in after matins with Emily and Martyn.</p> +<p>‘I feel just like David when they brought him the water +of Bethlehem,’ he said. ‘You know I think this +all nonsense, especially this—this ghost business; and yet, +such—such doings as your brother’s can’t go for +nothing.’</p> +<p>His face worked, and the tears were in his eyes; then, as he +partook of our breakfast, he cross-examined us on my statement, +and even tried to persuade us that the phantom in the ruin was +Emily; and on her observing that she could not have seen herself, +he talked of the Brocken Spectre and fog mirages; but we declared +the night was clear, and I told him that all the rational +theories I had ever heard were far more improbable than the +appearance herself, at which he laughed. Then he +scrupulously demanded whether this—this (he failed to find +a name for it) would be an impoverishment of our family, and I +showed how Clarence had provided that we should be in as easy +circumstances as before. In the midst came in Clarence +himself, having hastened to dress, on hearing that Mr. Fordyce +was in the house, and looking none the better for the +exertion.</p> +<p>‘Look here, my dear boy,’ said Frank, taking his +hot trembling hand, ‘you have put me in a great fix. +You have done the noblest deed at a terrible cost, and whatever I +may think, it ought not to be thrown away, nor you be hindered +from freeing your soul from this sense of family guilt. But +here, my forefathers had as little right to the Chantry as yours, +and ever since I began to think about such things, I have been +thankful it was none of mine. Let us join in giving it or +its value to some good work for God—pour it out to the +Lord, as we may say. Bless me! what have I done +now.’</p> +<p>For Clarence, muttering ‘thank you,’ sank out of +his grasp on a chair, and as nearly as possible fainted; but he +was soon smiling and saying it was all relief, and he felt as if +a load he had been bearing had been suddenly removed.</p> +<p>Frank Fordyce durst stay no longer, but laid his hand on +Clarence’s head and blessed him.</p> +<h2><a name="page392"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +392</span>CHAPTER XLVII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE FORDYCE STORY.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘For soon as once the genial plain<br /> +Has drunk the life-blood of the slain,<br /> +Indelible the spots remain,<br /> +And aye for vengeance call.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Euripides</span>—(<i>Anstice</i>).</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Still</span> all was not over, for by the +next day our brother was as ill, or worse, than ever. The +doctor who came from London allowed that he had expected +something of the kind, but thought we must have let him exert +himself perilously. Poor innocent Martyn and Anne, they +little suspected that their bright eyes and happy voices had +something to do with the struggle and disappointment, which +probably was one cause of the collapse. As to poor Frank +Fordyce, I never saw him so distressed; he felt as if it were all +his own fault, or that of his ancestors, and, whenever he was not +required by his duties, was lingering about for news. I had +little hope, though Clarence seemed to me the very light of my +eyes; it was to me as though, his task being accomplished, and +the earthly reward denied, he must be on his way to the higher +one.</p> +<p>His complete quiescence confirmed me in the assurance that he +thought so himself. He was too ill for speech, but +Lawrence, who could not stay away, was struck with the difference +from former times. Not only were there no delusions, but +there was no anxiety or uneasiness, as there had always been in +the former attacks, when he was evidently eager to live, and +still more solicitous to be told if he were in a hopeless +state. Now he had plainly resigned himself—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Content to live, but not afraid to +die;’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and perhaps, dear fellow, it was chiefly for my sake that he +was willing to live. At least, I know that when the worst +was over, he announced it by putting those wasted fingers into +mine, and saying—</p> +<p>‘Well, dear old fellow, I believe we shall jog on +together, after all.’</p> +<p>That attack, though the most severe of all, brought, either +owing to skilful treatment or to his own calm, the removal of the +mischief, and the beginning of real recovery. Previously he +had given himself no time, but had hurried on to exertions which +retarded his cure, so as very nearly to be fatal; but he was now +perfectly submissive to whatever physicians or nurses desired, +and did not seem to find his slow convalescence in the least +tedious, since he was amongst us all again.</p> +<p>It was nearly a month before he was disposed to recur to the +subject of his old solicitude again, and then he asked what Mr. +Fordyce had said or done. Just nothing at all; but on the +next visit paid to the sick-room, Parson Frank yielded to his +earnest request to send for any documents that might throw light +on the subject, and after a few days he brought us a packet of +letters from his deed-box. They were written from Hillside +Rectory to the son in the army in Flanders, chiefly by his +mother, and were full of hot, angry invective against our family, +and pity for poor, foolish ‘Madam,’ or ‘Cousin +Winslow,’ as she was generally termed, for having put +herself in their power.</p> +<p>The one most to the purpose was an account of the examination +of Molly Cox, the waiting-woman, who had been in attendance on +the unfortunate Margaret, and whose story tallied fairly with +Aunt Peggy’s tradition. She declared that she was +sure that her mistress had met with foul play. She had left +her as usual at ten o’clock on the fatal 27th of December +1707, in the inner one of the old chambers; and in the night had +heard the tipsy return home of the gentlemen, followed by +shrieks. In the morning she (the maid) who usually was the +first to go to her room, was met by Mistress Betty Winslow, and +told that Madam was ill, and insensible. The old nurse of +the Winslows was called in; and Molly was never left alone in the +sick-room, scarcely permitted to approach the bed, and never to +touch her lady. Once, when emptying out a cup at the +garden-door, she saw a mark of blood on the steps, but Mr. Philip +came up and swore at her for a prying fool. Doctor Tomkins +was sent for, but he barely walked through the room, and +‘all know that he is a mere creature of Philip +Winslow,’ wrote the Mrs. Fordyce of that date to her +son. And presently after, ‘Justice Eastwood declared +there is no case for a Grand Jury; but he is a known Friend and +sworn Comrade of the Winslows, and bound to suppress all evidence +against them. Nay, James Dearlove swears he saw Edward +Winslow slip a golden Guinea into his Clerk’s Hand. +But as sure as there is a Heaven above us, Francis, poor Cousin +Winslow was trying to escape to us of her own Kindred, and met +with cruel Usage. Her Blood is on their Heads.’</p> +<p>‘There!’ said Frank Fordyce. ‘This +Francis challenged Philip Winslow’s eldest son, a mere boy, +three days after he joined the army before Lille, and shot him +like a dog. I turned over the letter about it in searching +for these. I can’t boast of my ancestors more than +you can. But may God accept this work of yours, and take +away the guilt of blood from both of us.’</p> +<p>‘And have you thought what is best to be done?’ +asked Clarence, raising himself on his cushions.</p> +<p>‘Have you?’ asked the Vicar.</p> +<p>‘Oh yes; I have had my dreams.’</p> +<p>They put their castles together, and they turned out to be for +an orphanage, or rather asylum, not too much hampered with strict +rules, combined with a convalescent home. The battle of +sisterhoods was not yet fought out, and we were not quite +prepared for them; but Frank Fordyce had, as he said, ‘the +two best women in the world in his eye’ to make a +beginning.</p> +<p>There was full time to think and discuss the scheme, for our +patient was in no condition to move for many weeks, lying day +after day on a couch just within the window of our sitting-room, +which was as nearly as possible in the sea, so that he constantly +had the freshness of its breezes, the music of its ripple, and +the sight of its waves, and seemed to find endless pleasure in +watching the red sails, the puffs of steam, and the frolics of +the children, simple or gentle, on the beach.</p> +<p>Something else was sometimes to be watched. Martyn, all +this time, was doing the work of two curates, and was to be seen +walking home with Anne from church or school, carrying her +baskets and bags, and, as we were given to understand, discussing +by turns ecclesiastical questions, visionary sisterhoods, and +naughty children. At first I wished it were possible to +remove Clarence from the perpetual spectacle, but we had one last +talk over the matter, and this was quite satisfactory.</p> +<p>‘It does me no harm,’ he said; ‘I like to +see it. Yes, it is quite true that I do. What was +personal and selfish in my fancies seems to have been worn out in +the great lull of my senses under the shadow of death; and now I +can revert with real joy and thankfulness to the old delight of +looking on our dear Ellen as our sister, and watch those two +children as we used when they talked of dolls’ fenders +instead of the surplice war. I have got you, Edward; and +you know there is a love “passing the love of +women.”’</p> +<p>A lively young couple passed by the window just then, and with +untamed voices observed—</p> +<p>‘There are those two poor miserable objects! It is +enough to make one melancholy only to look at them.’</p> +<p>Whereat we simultaneously burst out laughing; perhaps because +a choking, very far from misery, was in our throats.</p> +<p>At any rate, Clarence was prepared to be the cordial, fatherly +brother, when Martyn came headlong in upon us with the tidings +that utterly indescribable, unimaginable joy had befallen +him. A revelation seemed simultaneously to have broken upon +him and Anne while they were copying out the Sunday School +Registers, that what they had felt for each other all their lives +was love—‘real, true love,’ as Anne said to +Emily, ‘that never could have cared for anybody +else.’</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce’s sharp eyes had seen what was coming, and +accepted the inevitable, quite as soon as Clarence had. She +came and talked it over with us, saying she was perfectly +satisfied and happy. Martyn was all that could be wished, +and she was sincerely glad of the connection with her old +friends. So, in fact, was dear old Frank, but he had been +running about with his head full, and his eyes closed, so that it +was quite a shock to him to find that his little Anne, his boon +companion and playfellow, was actually grown up, and presuming to +love and be loved; and he could hardly believe that she was +really seven years older than her sister had been when the like +had begun with her. But if Anne must be at those tricks, he +said, shaking his head at her, he had rather it was with Martyn +than anybody else.</p> +<p>There was no difficulty as to money matters. In truth, +Martyn was not so good a match as an heiress, such as was Anne +Fordyce, might have aspired to, and her Lester kin were sure to +be shocked; but even if Clarence married, the Earlscombe living +went for something (though, by the bye, he has never held it), +and the Fordyces only cared that there should be easy +circumstances. The living of Hillside would be resigned in +favour of Martyn in the spring, and meantime he would gain more +experience at Beachharbour, and this would break the separation +to the Fordyces.</p> +<p>After all, however, theirs was not to be our first +wedding. I have said little of Emily. The fact was, +that after that week of Clarence’s danger, we said she +lived in a kind of dream. She fulfilled all that was wanted +of her, nursing Clarence, waiting on me, ordering dinner, making +the tea, and so forth; but it was quite evident that life began +for her on the Saturdays, when Lawrence came down, and ended on +the Mondays, when he went away. If, in the meantime, she +sat down to work, she went off into a trance; if she was sent out +for fresh air, she walked quarter-deck on the esplanade, neither +seeing nor hearing anything, we averred, but some imaginary +Lawrence Frith.</p> +<p>If she had any drawback, good girl, it was the idea of +deserting me; but then, as I could honestly tell her, nobody need +fear for my happiness, since Clarence was given back to me. +And she believed, and was ready to go to China with her +Lawrence.</p> +<h2><a name="page399"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +399</span>CHAPTER XLVIII.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE LAST DISCOVERY.</span></h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Grief will be joy if on its edge<br /> +Fall soft that holiest ray,<br /> +Joy will be grief, if no faint pledge<br /> +Be there of heavenly day.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Keble</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> did not move from Beachharbour +till September, and by that time it had been decided that Chantry +House itself should be given up to the new scheme. It was +too large for us, and Clarence had never lived there enough to +have any strong home feeling for it; but he rather connected it +with disquiet and distress, and had a longing to make actual +restitution thereof, instead of only giving an equivalent, as he +did in the case of the farms. Our feelings about the +desecrated chapel were also considerably changed from the days +when we regarded it merely as a picturesque ruin, and it was to +be at once restored both for the benefit of the orphanage, and +for that of the neighbouring households. For ourselves, a +cottage was to be built, suited to our idiosyncrasies; but that +could wait till after the yacht voyage, which we were to make +together for the winter.</p> +<p>Thus it came to pass that the last time we inhabited Chantry +House was when we gave Emily to Lawrence Frith. We would +fain have made it a double wedding, but the Fordyces wished to +wait for Easter, when Martyn would have been inducted to +Hillside. They came, however, that Mrs. Fordyce might act +lady of the house, and Anne be bridesmaid, as well as lay the +first stone of St. Cecily’s restored chapel.</p> +<p>It was on the day on which they were expected, when the +workmen were digging foundations, and clearing away rubbish, that +the foreman begged Mr. Winslow to come out to see something they +had found. Clarence came back, very grave and +awe-struck. It was an old oak chest, and within lay a +skeleton, together with a few fragments of female clothing, a +wedding ring, and some coins of the later Stewarts, in a rotten +leathern purse. This was ghastly confirmation, though there +was nothing else to connect the bones with poor Margaret. +We had some curiosity as to the coffin in the niche in the family +vault which bore her name, but both Clarence and Mr. Fordyce +shrank from investigations which could not be carried out without +publicity, and might perhaps have disturbed other remains.</p> +<p>So on the ensuing night there was a strange, quiet funeral +service at Earlscombe Church. Mr. Henderson officiated, and +Chapman acted as clerk. These, with Amos Bell, alone knew +the tradition, or understood what the discovery meant to the two +Fordyces and three Winslows who stood at the opening of the +vault, and prayed that whatever guilt there might be should be +put away from the families so soon to be made one. The +coins were placed with those of Victoria, which the next day Anne +laid beneath the foundation-stone of St. Cecily’s. I +need not say that no one has ever again heard the wailings, nor +seen the lady with the lamp.</p> +<p>What more is there to tell? It was of this first half of +our lives that I intended to write, and though many years have +since passed, they have not had the same character of romance and +would not interest you. Our honeymoon, as Mr. Fordyce +called the expedition we two brothers made in the Mediterranean, +was a perfect success; and Clarence regained health, and better +spirits than had ever been his; while contriving to show me all +that I was capable of being carried to see. It was complete +enjoyment, and he came home, not as strong as in old times, but +with fair comfort and capability for the work of life, so as to +be able to take Mr. Castleford’s place, when our dear old +friend retired from active direction of the firm.</p> +<p>You all know how the two old bachelors have kept house +together in London and at Earlscombe cottage, and you are all +proud of the honoured name Clarence Winslow has made for himself, +foremost in works for the glory of God and the good of +men—as one of those merchant princes of England whose +merchandise has indeed been Holiness unto the Lord.</p> +<p>Thus you must all have felt a shock on finding that he always +looked on that name as blotted, and that one of the last sayings +I heard from him was, ‘O remember not the sins and offences +of my youth, but according to Thy mercy, think upon me, O Lord, +for Thy goodness.’</p> +<p>Then he almost smiled, and said, ‘Yes, He has so looked +on me, and I am thankful.’</p> +<p>Thankful, and so am I, for those thirty-four peaceful years we +spent together, or rather for the seventy years of perfect +brotherhood that we have been granted, and though he has left me +behind him, I am content to wait. It cannot be for +long. My brothers and sisters, their children, and my +faithful Amos Bell, are very good to me; and in writing up to +that <i>mezzo termine</i> of our lives, I have been living it +over again with my brother of brothers, through the troubles that +have become like joys.</p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Remarks</span>.</h3> +<p>Uncle Edward has not said half enough about his dear old +self. I want to know if he never was unhappy when he was +young about being <i>like that</i>, though mother says his face +was always nearly as beautiful as it is now. And it is not +only goodness. It <i>is</i> beautiful with his sweet smile +and snowy white hair.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Ellen +Winslow</span>.</p> +<p>And I wonder, though perhaps he could not have told, what Aunt +Anne would have done if Uncle Clarence had not been so forbearing +before he went to China.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Clare +Frith</span>.</p> +<p>The others are highly impertinent questions, but we ought to +know what became of Lady Peacock.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Ed</span>. G. +W.</p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Reply</span>.</h3> +<p>Poor woman, she drifted back to London after about ten years, +with an incurable disease. Clarence put her into lodgings +near us, and did his best for her as long as she lived. He +had a hard task, but she ended by saying he was her only +friend.</p> +<p>To question No. 2 I have nothing to say; but as to No. 1, with +its extravagant compliment, Nature, or rather God, blessed me +with even spirits, a methodical nature that prefers monotony, and +very little morbid shyness; nor have I ever been devoid of tender +care and love. So that I can only remember three severe +fits of depression. One, when I had just begun to be taken +out in the Square Gardens, and Selina Clarkson was heard to say I +was a hideous little monster. It was a revelation, and must +have given frightful pain, for I remember it acutely after +sixty-five years.</p> +<p>The second fit was just after Clarence was gone to sea, and +some very painful experiments had been tried in vain for making +me like other people. For the first time I faced the fact +that I was set aside from all possible careers, and should be, as +I remember saying, ‘no better than a girl.’ I +must have been a great trial to all my friends. My father +tried to reason on resignation, and tell me happiness could be +<i>in</i> myself, till he broke down. My mother attempted +bracing by reproof. Miss Newton endeavoured to make me see +that this was my cross. Every word was true, and came round +again, but they only made me for the time more rebellious and +wretched. That attack was ended, of all things in the +world, by heraldry. My attention somehow was drawn that +way, and the study filled up time and thought till my misfortunes +passed into custom, and haunted me no more.</p> +<p>My last was a more serious access, after coming into the +country, when improved health and vigour inspired cravings that +made me fully sensible of my blighted existence. I had gone +the length of my tether and overdone myself; I missed London life +and Clarence; and the more I blamed myself, and tried to rouse +myself, the more despondent and discontented I grew.</p> +<p>This time my physician was Mr. Stafford; I had deciphered a +bit of old French and Latin for him, and he was very much +pleased. ‘Why, Edward,’ he said, ‘you are +a very clever fellow; you can be a distinguished—or what is +better—a useful man.’</p> +<p>Somehow that saying restored the spring of hope, and gave an +impulse! I have not been a distinguished man, but I think +in my degree I have been a fairly useful one, and I am sure I +have been a happy one.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">E. W.</p> +<p>‘Useful! that you have, dear old fellow. Even if +you had done nothing else, and never been an unconscious backbone +to Clarence; your influence on me and mine has been unspeakably +blest. But pray, Mistress Anne, how about that question of +naughty little Clare’s?’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">M. W.</p> +<p>‘Don’t you think you had better let alone that +question, reverend sir? Youngest pets are apt to be saucy, +especially in these days, but I didn’t expect it of +you! It might have been the worse for you if W. C. W. had +not held his tongue in those days. Just like himself, but I +am heartily glad that so he did.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">A. W.’</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANTRY HOUSE***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 7378-h.htm or 7378-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/7/3/7/7378 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you + are located before using this ebook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/7378-h/images/coverb.jpg b/7378-h/images/coverb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbbf771 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/coverb.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/covers.jpg b/7378-h/images/covers.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..748d010 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/covers.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/fpb.jpg b/7378-h/images/fpb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f4f6ef --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/fpb.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/fps.jpg b/7378-h/images/fps.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb84465 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/fps.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/p154b.jpg b/7378-h/images/p154b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..df8f6d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/p154b.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/p154s.jpg b/7378-h/images/p154s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea6215c --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/p154s.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/p346b.jpg b/7378-h/images/p346b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..890994f --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/p346b.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/p346s.jpg b/7378-h/images/p346s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5b6ad8 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/p346s.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/p64b.jpg b/7378-h/images/p64b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5575d3f --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/p64b.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/p64s.jpg b/7378-h/images/p64s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..956ee77 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/p64s.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/tpb.jpg b/7378-h/images/tpb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dfd523 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/tpb.jpg diff --git a/7378-h/images/tps.jpg b/7378-h/images/tps.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcb5726 --- /dev/null +++ b/7378-h/images/tps.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b2a8c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #7378 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7378) diff --git a/old/chhs10.txt b/old/chhs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b412aec --- /dev/null +++ b/old/chhs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11474 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Chantry House + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7378] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHANTRY HOUSE *** + + + + +Credit + + + +Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +CHANTRY HOUSE + + + + +CHAPTER I--A NURSERY PROSE + + + +'And if it be the heart of man + Which our existence measures, +Far longer is our childhood's span + Than that of manly pleasures. + +'For long each month and year is then, + Their thoughts and days extending, +But months and years pass swift with men + To time's last goal descending.' + +ISAAC WILLIAMS. + +The united force of the younger generation has been brought upon me +to record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances +connected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers. Once +this could not have been done without more pain than I could brook, +but the lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when +the heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of +what once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and +thankfulness. Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned in +the coming narrative should be wholly forgotten, and their place +know them no more. + +To explain all, I must go back to a time long before the morning +when my father astonished us all by exclaiming, 'Poor old James +Winslow! So Chantry House is came to us after all!' Previous to +that event I do not think we were aware of the existence of that +place, far less of its being a possible inheritance, for my parents +would never have permitted themselves or their family to be +unsettled by the notion of doubtful contingencies. + +My father, John Edward Winslow, was a barrister, and held an +appointment in the Admiralty Office, which employed him for many +hours of the day at Somerset House. My mother, whose maiden name +was Mary Griffith, belonged to a naval family. Her father had been +lost in a West Indian hurricane at sea, and her uncle, Admiral Sir +John Griffith, was the hero of the family, having been at Trafalgar +and distinguished himself in cutting out expeditions. My eldest +brother bore his name. The second was named after the Duke of +Clarence, with whom my mother had once danced at a ball on board +ship at Portsmouth, and who had been rather fond of my uncle. +Indeed, I believe my father's appointment had been obtained through +his interest, just about the time of Clarence's birth. + +We three boys had come so fast upon each other's heels in the +Novembers of 1809, 10, and 11, that any two of us used to look like +twins. There is still extant a feeble water-coloured drawing of the +trio, in nankeen frocks, and long white trowsers, with bare necks +and arms, the latter twined together, and with the free hands, +Griffith holding a bat, Clarence a trap, and I a ball. I remember +the emulation we felt at Griffith's privilege of eldest in holding +the bat. + +The sitting for that picture is the only thing I clearly remember +during those earlier days. I have no recollection of the disaster, +which, at four years old, altered my life. The catastrophe, as +others have described it, was that we three boys were riding cock- +horse on the balusters of the second floor of our house in Montagu +Place, Russell Square, when we indulged in a general melee, which +resulted in all tumbling over into the vestibule below. The others, +to whom I served as cushion, were not damaged beyond the power of +yelling, and were quite restored in half-an-hour, but I was +undermost, and the consequence has been a curved spine, dwarfed +stature, an elevated shoulder, and a shortened, nearly useless leg. + +What I do remember, is my mother reading to me Miss Edgeworth's +Frank and the little do Trusty, as I lay in my crib in her bedroom. +I made one of my nieces hunt up the book for me the other day, and +the story brought back at once the little crib, or the watered blue +moreen canopy of the big four-poster to which I was sometimes lifted +for a change; even the scrawly pattern of the paper, which my weary +eyes made into purple elves perpetually pursuing crimson ones, the +foremost of whom always turned upside down; and the knobs in the +Marseilles counterpane with which my fingers used to toy. I have +heard my mother tell that whenever I was most languid and suffering +I used to whine out, 'O do read Frank and the little dog Trusty,' +and never permitted a single word to be varied, in the curious +childish love of reiteration with its soothing power. + +I am afraid that any true picture of our parents, especially of my +mother, will not do them justice in the eyes of the young people of +the present day, who are accustomed to a far more indulgent +government, and yet seem to me to know little of the loyal +veneration and submission with which we have, through life, regarded +our father and mother. It would have been reckoned disrespectful to +address them by these names; they were through life to us, in +private, papa and mamma, and we never presumed to take a liberty +with them. I doubt whether the petting, patronising equality of +terms on which children now live with their parents be equally +wholesome. There was then, however, strong love and self- +sacrificing devotion; but not manifested in softness or cultivation +of sympathy. Nothing was more dreaded than spoiling, which was +viewed as idle and unjustifiable self-gratification at the expense +of the objects thereof. There were an unlucky little pair in +Russell Square who were said to be 'spoilt children,' and who used +to be mentioned in our nursery with bated breath as a kind of +monsters or criminals. I believe our mother laboured under a +perpetual fear of spoiling Griff as the eldest, Clarence as the +beauty, me as the invalid, Emily (two years younger) as the only +girl, and Martyn as the after-thought, six years below our sister. +She was always performing little acts of conscientiousness, little +as we guessed it. + +Thus though her unremitting care saved my life, and was such that +she finally brought on herself a severe and dangerous illness, she +kept me in order all the time, never wailed over me nor weakly +pitied me, never permitted resistance to medicine nor rebellion +against treatment, enforced little courtesies, insisted on every +required exertion, and hardly ever relaxed the rule of Spartan +fortitude in herself as in me. It is to this resolution on her +part, carried out consistently at whatever present cost to us both, +that I owe such powers of locomotion as I possess, and the habits of +exertion that have been even more valuable to me. + +When at last, after many weeks, nay months, of this watchfulness, +she broke down, so that her life was for a time in danger, the lack +of her bracing and tender care made my life very trying, after I +found myself transported to the nursery, scarcely understanding why, +accused of having by my naughtiness made ray poor mamma so ill, and +discovering for the first time that I was a miserable, naughty +little fretful being, and with nobody but Clarence and the housemaid +to take pity on me. + +Nurse Gooch was a masterful, trustworthy woman, and was laid under +injunctions not to indulge Master Edward. She certainly did not err +in that respect, though she attended faithfully to my material +welfare; but woe to me if I gave way to a little moaning; and what I +felt still harder, she never said 'good boy' if I contrived to +abstain. + +I hear of carpets, curtains, and pictures in the existing nurseries. +They must be palaces compared with our great bare attic, where +nothing was allowed that could gather dust. One bit of drugget by +the fireside, where stood a round table at which the maids talked +and darned stockings, was all that hid the bare boards; the walls +were as plain as those of a workhouse, and when the London sun did +shine, it glared into my eyes through the great unshaded windows. +There was a deal table for the meals (and very plain meals they +were), and two or three big presses painted white for our clothes, +and one cupboard for our toys. I must say that Gooch was strictly +just, and never permitted little Emily, nor Griff--though he was +very decidedly the favourite,--to bear off my beloved woolly dog to +be stabled in the houses of wooden bricks which the two were +continually constructing for their menagerie of maimed animals. + +Griff was deservedly the favourite with every one who was not, like +our parents, conscientiously bent on impartiality. He was so bright +and winning, he had such curly tight-rolled hair with a tinge of +auburn, such merry bold blue eyes, such glowing dimpled cheeks, such +a joyous smile all over his face, and such a ringing laugh; he was +so strong, brave, and sturdy, that he was a boy to be proud of, and +a perfect king in his own way, making every one do as he pleased. +All the maids, and Peter the footman, were his slaves, every one +except nurse and mamma, and it was only by a strong effort of +principle that they resisted him; while he dragged Clarence about as +his devoted though not always happy follower. + +Alas! for Clarence! Courage was not in him. The fearless infant +boy chiefly dwells in conventional fiction, and valour seldom comes +before strength. Moreover, I have come to the opinion that though +no one thought of it at the time, his nerves must have had a +terrible and lasting shock at the accident and at the sight of my +crushed and deathly condition, which occupied every one too much for +them to think of soothing or shielding him. At any rate, fear was +the misery of his life. Darkness was his horror. He would scream +till he brought in some one, though he knew it would be only to +scold or slap him. The housemaid's closet on the stairs was to him +an abode of wolves. Mrs. Gatty's tale of The Tiger in the Coal-box +is a transcript of his feelings, except that no one took the trouble +to reassure him; something undefined and horrible was thought to wag +in the case of the eight-day clock; and he could not bear to open +the play cupboard lest 'something' should jump out on him. The +first time he was taken to the Zoological Gardens, the monkeys so +terrified him that a bystander insisted on Gooch's carrying him away +lest he should go into fits, though Griffith was shouting with +ecstasy, and could hardly forgive the curtailment of his enjoyment. + +Clarence used to aver that he really did see 'things' in the dark, +but as he only shuddered and sobbed instead of describing them, he +was punished for 'telling fibs,' though the housemaid used to speak +under her breath of his being a 'Sunday child.' And after long +penance, tied to his stool in the corner, he would creep up to me +and whisper, 'But, Eddy, I really did!' + +However, it was only too well established in the nursery that +Clarence's veracity was on a par with his courage. When taxed with +any misdemeanour, he used to look round scared and bewildered, and +utter a flat demur. One scene in particular comes before me. There +were strict laws against going into shops or buying dainties without +express permission from mamma or nurse; but one day when Clarence +had by some chance been sent out alone with the good natured +housemaid, his fingers were found sticky. + +'Now, Master Clarence, you've been a naughty boy, eating of sweets,' +exclaimed stern Justice in a mob cap and frills. + +'No--no--' faltered the victim; but, alas! Mrs. Gooch had only to +thrust her hand into the little pocket of his monkey suit to convict +him on the spot. + +The maid was dismissed with a month's wages, and poor Clarence +underwent a strange punishment from my mother, who was getting about +again by that time, namely, a drop of hot sealing-wax on his tongue, +to teach him practically the doom of the false tongue. It might +have done him good if there had been sufficient encouragement to him +to make him try to win a new character, but it only added a fresh +terror to his mind; and nurse grew fond of manifesting her +incredulity of his assertions by always referring to Griff or to me, +or even to little Emily. What was worse, she used to point him out +to her congeners in the Square or the Park as 'such a false child.' + +He was a very pretty little fellow, with a delicately rosy face, +wistful blue eyes, and soft, light, wavy hair, and perhaps Gooch was +jealous of his attracting more notice than Griffith, and thought he +posed for admiration, for she used to tell people that no one could +guess what a child he was for slyness; so that he could not bear +going out with her, and sometimes bemoaned himself to me. + +There must be a good deal of sneaking in the undeveloped nature, for +in those days I was ashamed of my preference for Clarence, the +naughty one. But there was no helping it, he was so much more +gentle than Griff, and would always give up any sport that +incommoded me, instead of calling me a stupid little ape, and +becoming more boisterous after the fashion of Griff. Moreover, he +fetched and carried for me unweariedly, and would play at +spillekins, help to put up puzzles, and enact little dramas with our +wooden animals, such as Griff scorned as only fit for babies. Even +nurse allowed Clarence's merits towards me and little Emily, but +always with the sigh: 'If he was but as good in other respects, but +them quiet ones is always sly.' + +Good Nurse Gooch! We all owe much to her staunch fidelity, strong +discipline, and unselfish devotion, but nature had not fitted her to +deal with a timid, sensitive child, of highly nervous temperament. +Indeed, persons of far more insight might have been perplexed by the +fact that Clarence was exemplary at church and prayers, family and +private,--whenever Griff would let him, that is to say,--and would +add private petitions of his own, sometimes of a startling nature. +He never scandalised the nursery, like Griff, by unseemly pranks on +Sundays, nor by innovations in the habits of Noah's ark, but was as +much shocked as nurse when the lion was made to devour the elephant, +or the lion and wolf fought in an embrace fatal to their legs. +Bible stories and Watt's hymns were more to Clarence than even to +me, and he used to ask questions for which Gooch's theology was +quite insufficient, and which brought the invariable answers, 'Now, +Master Clarry, I never did! Little boys should not ask such +questions!' 'What's the use of your pretending, sir! It's all +falseness, that's what it is! I hates hypercriting!' 'Don't +worrit, Master Clarence; you are a very naughty boy to say such +things. I shall put you in the corner!' + +Even nurse was scared one night when Clarence had a frightful +screaming fit, declaring that he saw 'her--her--all white,' and even +while being slapped reiterated, 'HER, Lucy!' + +Lucy was a kind elder girl in the Square gardens, a protector of +little timid ones. She was known to be at that time very ill with +measles, and in fact died that very night. Both my brothers +sickened the next day, and Emily and I soon followed their example, +but no one had it badly except Clarence, who had high fever, and +very much delirium each night, talking to people whom he thought he +saw, so as to make nurse regret her severity on the vision of Lucy. + + + +CHAPTER II--SCHOOLROOM DAYS + + + +'In the loom of life-cloth pleasure, + Ere our childish days be told, +With the warp and woof enwoven, + Glitters like a thread of gold.' + +JEAN INGELOW. + +Looking back, I think my mother was the leading spirit in our +household, though she never for a moment suspected it. Indeed, the +chess queen must be the most active on the home board, and one of +the objects of her life was to give her husband a restful evening +when he came home to the six o'clock dinner. She also had to make +both ends meet on an income which would seem starvation at the +present day; but she was strong, spirited, and managing, and equal +to all her tasks till the long attendance upon me, and the +consequent illness, forced her to spare herself--a little--a very +little. + +Previously she had been our only teacher, except that my father read +a chapter of the Bible with us every morning before breakfast, and +heard the Catechism on a Sunday. For we could all read long before +young gentlefolks nowadays can say their letters. It was well for +me, since books with a small quantity of type, and a good deal of +frightful illustration, beguiled many of my weary moments. You may +see my special favourites, bound up, on the shelf in my bedroom. +Crabbe's Tales, Frank, the Parent's Assistant, and later, Croker's +Tales from English History, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Tales of +a Grandfather, and the Rival Crusoes stand pre-eminent--also Mrs. +Leicester's School, with the ghost story cut out. + +Fairies and ghosts were prohibited as unwholesome, and not unwisely. +The one would have been enervating to me, and the other would have +been a definite addition to Clarence's stock of horrors. Indeed, +one story had been cut out of Crabbe's Tales, and another out of an +Annual presented to Emily, but not before Griff had read the latter, +and the version he related to us probably lost nothing in the +telling; indeed, to this day I recollect the man, wont to slay the +harmless cricket on the hearth, and in a storm at sea pursued by a +gigantic cockroach and thrown overboard. The night after hearing +this choice legend Clarence was found crouching beside me in bed for +fear of the cockroach. I am afraid the vengeance was more than +proportioned to the offence! + +Even during my illness that brave mother struggled to teach my +brothers' daily lessons, and my father heard them a short bit of +Latin grammar at his breakfast (five was thought in those days to be +the fit age to begin it, and fathers the fit teachers thereof). And +he continued to give this morning lesson when, on our return from +airing at Ramsgate after our recovery from the measles, my mother +found she must submit to transfer us to a daily governess. + +Old Miss Newton's attainments could not have been great, for her +answers to my inquiries were decidedly funny, and prefaced sotto +voce with, 'What a child it is!' But she was a good kindly lady, +who had the faculty of teaching, and of forestalling rebellion; and +her little thin corkscrew curls, touched with gray, her pale eyes, +prim black silk apron, and sandalled shoes, rise before me full of +happy associations of tender kindness and patience. She was wise, +too, in her own simple way. When nurse would have forewarned her of +Clarence's failings in his own hearing, she cut the words short by +declaring that she should like never to find out which was the +naughty one. And when habit was too strong, and he had denied the +ink spot on the atlas, she persuasively wiled out a confession not +only to her but to mamma, who hailed the avowal as the beginning of +better things, and kissed instead of punishing. + +Clarence's queries had been snubbed into reserve, and I doubt +whether Miss Newton's theoretic theology was very much more +developed than that of Mrs. Gooch, but her practice and devotion +were admirable, and she fostered religious sentiment among us, +introducing little books which were welcome in the restricted range +of Sunday reading. Indeed, Mrs. Sherwood's have some literary +merit, and her Fairchild Family indulged in such delicious and +eccentric acts of naughtiness as quite atoned for all the religious +teaching, and fascinated Griff, though he was apt to be very +impatient of certain little affectionate lectures to which Clarence +listened meekly. My father and mother were both of the old- +fashioned orthodox school, with minds formed on Jeremy Taylor, +Blair, South, and Secker, who thought it their duty to go diligently +to church twice on Sunday, communicate four times a year (their only +opportunities), after grave and serious preparation, read a sermon +to their household on Sunday evenings, and watch over their +children's religious instruction, though in a reserved +undemonstrative manner. My father always read one daily chapter +with us every morning, one Psalm at family prayers, and my mother +made us repeat a few verses of Scripture before our other studies +began; besides which there was special teaching on Sunday, and an +abstinence from amusements, such as would now be called Sabbatarian, +but a walk in the Park with papa was so much esteemed that it made +the day a happy and honoured one to those who could walk. + +There was little going into society, comparatively, for people in +our station,--solemn dinner-parties from time to time--two a year, +did we give, and then the house was turned upside down,--and now and +then my father dined out, or brought a friend home to dinner; and +there were so-called morning calls in the afternoon, but no tea- +drinking. For the most part the heads of the family dined alone at +six, and afterwards my father read aloud some book of biography or +travels, while we children were expected to employ ourselves +quietly, threading beads, drawing, or putting up puzzles, and listen +or not as we chose, only not interrupt, as we sat at the big, +central, round, mahogany table. To this hour I remember portions of +Belzoni's Researches and Franklin's terrible American adventures, +and they bring back tones of my father's voice. As an authority +'papa' was seldom invoked, except on very serious occasions, such as +Griffith's audacity, Clarence's falsehood, or my obstinacy; and then +the affair was formidable, he was judicial and awful, and, though he +would graciously forgive on signs of repentance, he never was +sympathetic. He had not married young, and there were forty years +or more between him and his sons, so that he had left too far behind +him the feelings of boyhood to make himself one with us, even if he +had thought it right or dignified to do so,--yet I cannot describe +the depth of the respect and loyalty he inspired in us nor the +delight we felt in a word of commendation or a special attention +from him. + +The early part of Miss Newton's rule was unusually fertile in such +pleasures, and much might have been spared, could Clarence have been +longer under her influence; but Griff grew beyond her management, +and was taunted by 'fellows in the Square' into assertions of +manliness, such as kicking his heels, stealing her odd little +fringed parasol, pitching his books into the area, keeping her in +misery with his antics during their walks, and finally leading +Clarence off after Punch into the Rookery of St. Giles's, where she +could not follow, because Emily was in her charge. + +This was the crisis. She had to come home without the boys, and +though they arrived long before any of the authorities knew of their +absence, she owned with tears that she could not conscientiously be +responsible any longer for Griffith,--who not only openly defied her +authority, but had found out how little she knew, and laughed at +her. I have reason to believe also that my mother had discovered +that she frequented the preachings of Rowland Hill and Baptist Noel; +and had confiscated some unorthodox tracts presented to the +servants, thus being alarmed lest she should implant the seeds of +dissent. + +Parting with her after four years under her was a real grief. Even +Griff was fond of her; when once emancipated, he used to hug her and +bring her remarkable presents, and she heartily loved her tormentor. +Everybody did. It remained a great pleasure to get her to spend an +evening with us while the elders were gone out to dinner; nor do I +think she ever did us anything but good, though I am afraid we +laughed at 'Old Newton' as we grew older and more conceited. We +never had another governess. My mother read and enforced diligence +on Emily and me, and we had masters for different studies; the two +boys went to school; and when Martyn began to emerge from babyhood, +Emily was his teacher. + + + +CHAPTER III--WIN AND SLOW + + + +'The rude will shuffle through with ease enough: +Great schools best suit the sturdy and the rough.' + +COWPER. + +At school Griffith was very happy, and brilliantly successful, alike +in study and sport, though sports were not made prominent in those +days, and triumphs in them were regarded by the elders with doubtful +pride, lest they should denote a lack of attention to matters of +greater importance. All his achievements were, however, poured +forth by himself and Clarence to Emily and me, and we felt as proud +of them as if they had been our own. + +Clarence was industrious, and did not fail in his school work, but +when he came home for the holidays there was a cowed look about him, +and private revelations were made over my sofa that made my flesh +creep. The scars were still visible, caused by having been +compelled to grasp the bars of the grate bare-handed; and, what was +worse, he had been suspended outside a third story window by the +wrists, held by a schoolfellow of thirteen! + +'But what was Griff about?' I demanded, with hot tears of +indignation. + +'Oh, Win!--that's what they call him, and me Slow--he said it would +do me good. But I don't think it did, Eddy. It only makes my heart +beat fit to choke me whenever I go near the passage window.' + +I could only utter a vain wish that I had been there and able to +fight for him, and I attacked Griff on the subject on the first +opportunity. + +'Oh!' was his answer, 'it is only what all fellows have to bear if +there's no pluck in them. They tried it on upon me, you know, but I +soon showed them it would not do'--with the cock of the nose, the +flash of the eyes, the clench of the fist, that were peculiarly +Griff's own; and when I pleaded that he might have protected +Clarence, he laughed scornfully. 'As to Slow, wretched being, a +fellow can't help bullying him. It comes as natural as to a cat +with a mouse.' On further and reiterated pleadings, Griff declared, +first, that it was the only thing to do Slow any good, or make a man +of him; and next, that he heartily wished that Winslow junior had +been Miss Clara at once, as the fellows called him--it was really +hard on him (Griff) to have such a sneaking little coward tied to +him for a junior! + +I particularly resented the term Slow, for Clarence had lately been +the foremost of us in his studies; but the idea that learning had +anything to do with the matter was derided, and as time went on, +there was vexation and displeasure at his progress not being +commensurate with his abilities. It would have been treason to +schoolboy honour to let the elders know that though a strong, high- +spirited popular boy like 'Win' might venture to excel big bullying +dunces, such fair game as poor 'Slow' could be terrified into not +only keeping below them, but into doing their work for them. To him +Cowper's 'Tirocinium' had only too much sad truth. + +As to his old failing, there were no special complaints, but in +those pre-Arnoldian times no lofty code of honour was even ideal +among schoolboys, or expected of them by masters; shuffling was +thought natural, and allowances made for faults in indolent despair. + +My mother thought the Navy the proper element of boyhood, and her +uncle the Admiral promised a nomination,--a simple affair in those +happy days, involving neither examination nor competition. Griffith +was, however, one of those independent boys who take an aversion to +whatever is forced on them as their fate. He was ready and +successful with his studies, a hero among his comrades, and +preferred continuing at school to what he pronounced, on the +authority of the nautical tales freely thrown in our way, to be the +life of a dog, only fit for the fool of the family; besides, he had +once been out in a boat, tasted of sea-sickness, and been laughed +at. My father was gratified, thinking his brains too good for a +midshipman, and pleased that he should wish to tread in his own +steps at Harrow and Oxford, and thus my mother could not openly +regret his degeneracy when all the rest of us were crazy over Tom +Cringle's Log, and ready to envy Clarence when the offer was passed +on to him, and he appeared in the full glory of his naval uniform. +Not much choice had been offered to him. My mother would have +thought it shameful and ungrateful to have no son available, my +father was glad to have the boy's profession fixed, and he himself +was rejoiced to escape from the miseries he knew only too well, and +ready to believe that uniform and dirk would make a man of him at +once, with all his terrors left behind. Perhaps the chief drawback +was that the ladies WOULD say, 'What a darling!' affording Griff +endless opportunities for the good-humoured mockery by which he +concealed his own secret regrets. Did not even Selina Clarkson, +whose red cheeks, dark blue eyes, and jetty profusion of shining +curls, were our notion of perfect beauty, select the little naval +cadet for her partner at the dancing master's ball? + +In the first voyage, a cruise in the Pacific, all went well. The +good Admiral had carefully chosen ship and captain; there were an +excellent set of officers, a good tone among the midshipmen, and +Clarence, who was only twelve years old, was constituted the pet of +the cockpit. One lad in especial, Coles by name, attracted by +Clarence's pleasant gentleness, and impelled by the generosity that +shields the weak, became his guardian friend, and protected him from +all the roughnesses in his power. If there were a fault in that +excellent Coles, it was that he made too much of a baby of his +protege, and did not train him to shift for himself: but wisdom and +moderation are not characteristics of early youth. At home we had +great enjoyment of his long descriptive letters, which came under +cover to our father at the Admiralty, but were chiefly intended for +my benefit. All were proud of them, and great was my elation when I +heard papa relate some fact out of them with the preface, 'My boy +tells me, my boy Clarence, in the Calypso; he writes a capital +letter.' + +How great was our ecstasy when after three years and a half we had +him at home again; handsome, vigorous, well-grown, excellently +reported of, fully justifying my mother's assurances that the sea +would make a man of him. There was Griffith in the fifth form and a +splendid cricketer, but Clarence could stand up to him now, and +Harrovian exploits were tame beside stories of sharks and negroes, +monkeys and alligators. There was one in particular, about a whole +boat's crew sitting down on what they thought was a fallen tree, but +which suddenly swept them all over on their faces, and turned out to +be a boa-constrictor, and would have embraced one of them if he had +not had the sail of the boat coiled round the mast, and palmed off +upon him, when he gorged it contentedly, and being found dead on the +next landing, his skin was used to cover the captain's sea-chest. +Clarence declined to repeat this tale and many others before the +elders, and was displeased with Emily for referring to it in public. +As to his terrors, he took it for granted that an officer of H.M.S. +Calypso, had left them behind, and in fact, he naturally forgot and +passed over what he had not been shielded from, while his hereditary +love of the sea really made those incidental to his profession much +more endurable than the bullying he had undergone at school. + +We were very happy that Christmas, and very proud of our boys. One +evening we were treated to a box at the pantomime, and even I was +able to go to it. We put our young sailor and our sister in the +forefront, and believed that every one was as much struck with them +as with the wonderful transformations of Goody-Two-Shoes under the +wand of Harlequin. Brother-like, we might tease our one girl, and +call her an affected little pussy cat, but our private opinion was +that she excelled all other damsels with her bright blue eyes and +pretty curling hair, which had the same chestnut shine as Griff's-- +enough to make us correct possible vanity by terming it red, though +we were ready to fight any one else who presumed to do so. Indeed +Griff had defended its hue in single combat, and his eye was treated +for it with beefsteak by Peter in the pantry. We were immensely, +though silently, proud of her in her white embroidered cambric +frock, red sash and shoes, and coral necklace, almost an heirloom, +for it had been brought from Sicily in Nelson's days by my mother's +poor young father. How parents and doctors in these days would have +shuddered at her neck and arms, bare, not only in the evening, but +by day! When she was a little younger she could so shrink up from +her clothes that Griff, or little Martyn, in a mischievous mood, +would put things down her back, to reappear below her petticoats. +Once it was a dead wasp, which descended harmlessly the length of +her spine! She was a good-humoured, affectionate, dear sister, my +valued companion, submitting patiently to be eclipsed when Clarence +was present, and everything to me in his absence. Sturdy little +Martyn too, was held by us to be the most promising of small boys. +He was a likeness of Clarence, only stouter, hardier, and without +the delicate, girlish, wistful look; imitating Griff in everything, +and rather a heavy handful to Emily and me when left to our care, +though we were all the more proud of his high spirit, and were fast +becoming a mutual admiration society. + +What then were our feelings when Griff, always fearless, dashed to +the rescue of a boy under whom the ice had broken in St. James' +Park, and held him up till assistance came? Martyn, who was with +him, was sent home to fetch dry clothes and reassure my mother, +which he did by dashing upstairs, shouting, 'Where's mamma? Here's +Griff been into the water and pulled out a boy, and they don't know +if he is drowned; but he looks--oh!' + +Even after my mother had elicited that Martyn's HE meant the boy, +and not Griff, she could not rest without herself going to see that +our eldest was unhurt, greet him, and bring him home. What happy +tears stood in her eyes, how my father shook hands with him, how we +drank his health after dinner, and how ungrateful I was to think +Clarence deserved his name of Slow for having stayed at home to play +chess with me because my back was aching, when he might have been +winning the like honours! How red and gruff and shy the hero +looked, and how he entreated no one to say any more about it! + +He would not even look publicly at the paragraph about it in the +paper, only vituperating it for having made him into 'a juvenile +Etonian,' and hoping no one from Harrow would guess whom it meant. + +I found that paragraph the other day in my mother's desk, folded +over the case of the medal of the Royal Humane Society, which Griff +affected to despise, but which, when he was well out of the way, +used to be exhibited on high days and holidays. It seems now like +the boundary mark of the golden days of our boyhood, and unmitigated +hopes for one another. + + + +CHAPTER IV--UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI + + + +'Clarence is come--false, fleeting, perjured Clarence.' + +King Richard III. + +There was much stagnation in the Navy in those days in the reaction +after the great war; and though our family had fair interest at the +Admiralty, it was seven months before my brother went to sea again. +To me they were very happy months, with my helper of helpers, +companion of companions, who made possible to me many a little +enterprise that could not be attempted without him. My father made +him share my studies, and thus they became doubly pleasant. And oh, +ye boys! who murmur at the Waverley Novels as a dry holiday task, ye +may envy us the zest and enthusiasm with which we devoured them in +their freshness. Strangely enough, the last that we read together +was the Fair Maid of Perth. + +Clarence and his friend Coles longed to sail together again, but +Coles was shelved; and when Clarence's appointment came at last, it +was to the brig Clotho, Commander Brydone, going out in the +Mediterranean Fleet, under Sir Edward Codrington. My mother did not +like brigs, and my father did not like what he heard of the captain; +but there had been jealous murmurs about appointments being absorbed +by sons of officials--he durst not pick and choose; and the Admiral +pronounced that if the lad had been spoilt on board the Calypso, it +was time for him to rough it--a dictum whence there was no appeal. + +Half a year later the tidings of the victory of Navarino rang +through Europe, and were only half welcome to the conquerors; but in +our household it is connected with a terrible recollection. Though +more than half a century has rolled by, I shrink from dwelling on +the shock that fell on us when my father returned from Somerset +House with such a countenance that we thought our sailor had fallen; +but my mother could brook the fact far less than if her son had died +a gallant death. The Clotho was on her way home, and Midshipman +William Clarence Winslow was to be tried by court-martial for +insubordination, disobedience, and drunkenness. My mother was like +one turned to stone. She would hardly go out of doors; she could +scarcely bring herself to go to church; she would have had my father +give up his situation if there had been any other means of +livelihood. She could not talk; only when my father sighed, 'We +should never have put him into the Navy,' she hotly replied, + +'How was I to suppose that a son of mine would be like that?' + +Emily cried all day and all night. Some others would have felt it a +relief to have cried too. In more furious language than parents in +those days tolerated, Griff wrote to me his utter disbelief, and how +he had punched the heads of fellows who presumed to doubt that it +was not all a rascally, villainous plot. + +When the time came my father went down by the night mail to +Portsmouth. He could scarcely bear to face the matter; but, as he +said, he could not have it on his conscience if the boy did anything +desperate for want of some one to look after him. Besides, there +might be some explanation. + +'Explanation,' said my mother bitterly. 'That there always is!' + +The 'explanation' was this--I have put together what came out in +evidence, what my father and the Admiral heard from commiserating +officers, and what at different times I learned from Clarence +himself. Captain Brydone was one of the rough old description of +naval men, good sailors and stern disciplinarians, but wanting in +any sense of moral duties towards their ship's company. His +lieutenant was of the same class, soured, moreover, by tardy +promotion, and prejudiced against a gentleman-like, fair-faced lad, +understood to have interest, and bearing a name that implied it. Of +the other two midshipmen, one was a dull lad of low stamp, the other +a youth of twenty, a born bully, with evil as well as tyrannical +propensities;--the crew conforming to severe discipline on board, +but otherwise wild and lawless. In such a ship a youth with good +habits, sensitive conscience, and lack of moral or physical courage, +could not but lead a life of misery, losing every day more of his +self-respect and spirit as he was driven to the evil he loathed, +dreading the consequences, temporal and eternal, with all his soul, +yet without resolution or courage to resist. + +As every one knows, the battle of Navarino came on suddenly, almost +by mistake; and though it is perhaps no excuse, the hurly-burly and +horror burst upon him at unawares. Though the English loss was +comparatively very small, the Clotho was a good deal exposed, and +two men were killed--one so close to Clarence that his clothes were +splashed with blood. This entirely unnerved him; he did not even +know what he did, but he was not to be found when required to carry +an order, and was discovered hidden away below, shuddering, in his +berth, and then made some shallow excuse about misunderstanding +orders. Whether this would have been brought up against him under +other circumstances, or whether it would have been remembered that +great men, including Charles V. and Henri IV., have had their moment +de peur, I cannot tell; but there were other charges. I cannot give +date or details. There is no record among the papers before me; and +I can only vaguely recall what could hardly be read for the sense of +agony, was never discussed, and was driven into the most oblivious +recesses of the soul fifty years ago. There was a story about +having let a boat's crew, of which he was in charge, get drunk and +over-stay their time. One of them deserted; and apparently +prevarication ran to the bounds of perjury, if it did not overpass +them. (N.B.--Seeing seamen flogged was one of the sickening horrors +that haunted Clarence in the Clotho.) Also, when on shore at Malta +with the young man whose name I will not record--his evil genius--he +was beguiled or bullied into a wine-shop, and while not himself was +made the cat's-paw of some insolent practical joke on the +lieutenant; and when called to account, was so bewildered and +excited as to use unpardonable language. + +Whatever it might have been in detail, so much was proved against +him that he was dismissed his ship, and his father was recommended +to withdraw him from the service, as being disqualified by want of +nerve. Also, it was added more privately, that such vicious +tendencies needed home restraint. The big bully, his corrupter, +bore witness against him, but did not escape scot free, for one of +the captains spoke to him in scathing tones of censure. + +Whenever my mother was in trouble, she always re-arranged the +furniture, and a family crisis was always heralded by a revolution +of chairs, tables, and sofas. She could not sit still under +suspense, and, during these terrible days the entire house underwent +a setting to rights. Emily attended upon her, and I sat and dusted +books. No doubt it was much better for us than sitting still. My +father's letter came by the morning mail, telling us of the +sentence, and that he and our poor culprit, as he said, would come +home by the Portsmouth coach in the evening. + +One room was already in order when Sir John Griffith kindly came to +see whether he could bring any comfort to a spirit which would +infinitely have preferred death to dishonour, and was, above all, +shocked at the lack of physical courage. Never had I liked our old +Admiral so well as when I heard how his chief anger was directed +against the general mismanagement, and the cruelty of blighting a +poor lad's life when not yet seventeen. His father might have been +warned to remove him without the public scandal of a court-martial +and dismissal. + +'The guilt and shame would have been all the same to us,' said my +mother. + +'Come, Mary, don't be hard on the poor fellow. In quiet times like +these a poor boy can't look over the wall where one might have +stolen a horse, ay, or a dozen horses, when there was something else +to think about!' + +'You would not have forgiven such a thing, sir.' + +'It never would have happened under me, or in any decently commanded +ship!' he thundered. 'There wasn't a fault to be found with him in +the Calypso. What possessed Winslow to let him sail with Brydone? +But the service is going,' etc. etc., he ran on--forgetting that it +was he himself who had been unwilling, perhaps rightly, to press the +Duke of Clarence for an appointment to a crack frigate for his +namesake. However, when he took leave he repeated, as he kissed my +mother, 'Mind, Mary, don't be set against the lad. That's the way +to make 'em desperate, and he is a mere boy, after all.' + +Poor mother, it was not so much hardness as a wounded spirit that +made her look so rigid. It might have been better if the return +could have been delayed so as to make her yearn after her son, but +there was nowhere for him to go, and the coach was already on its +way. How strange it was to feel the wonted glow at Clarence's +return coupled with a frightful sense of disgrace and depression. + +The time was far on in October, and it was thus quite dark when the +travellers arrived, having walked from Charing Cross, where the +coach set them down. My father came in first, and my mother clung +to him as if he had been absent for weeks, while all the joy of +contact with my brother swept over me, even though his hand hung +limp in mine, and was icy cold like his cheeks. My father turned to +him with one of the little set speeches of those days. 'Here is our +son, Mary, who has promised me to do his utmost to retrieve his +character, as far as may be possible, and happily he is still +young.' + +My mother's embrace was in a sort of mechanical obedience to her +husband's gesture, and her voice was not perhaps meant to be so +severe as it sounded when she said, 'You are very cold--come and +warm yourself.' + +They made room for him by the fire, and my father stood up in front +of it, giving particulars of the journey. Emily and Martyn were at +tea in the nursery, in a certain awe that hindered them from coming +down; indeed, Martyn seems to have expected to see some strange +transformation in his brother. Indeed, there was alteration in the +absence of the blue and gold, and, still more, in the loss of the +lightsome, hopeful expression from the young face. + +There is a picture of Ary Scheffer's of an old knight, whose son had +fled from the battle, cutting the tablecloth in two between himself +and the unhappy youth. Like that stern baron's countenance was that +with which my mother sat at the head of the dinner-table, and we +conversed by jerks about whatever we least cared for, as if we could +hide our wretchedness from Peter. When the children appeared each +gave Clarence the shyest of kisses, and they sat demurely on their +chairs on either side of my father to eat their almonds and raisins, +after which we went upstairs, and there was the usual reading. It +is curious, but though none of us could have told at the time what +it was about, on turning over not long ago a copy of Head's Pampas +and Andes, one chapter struck me with an intolerable sense of +melancholy, such as the bull chases of South America did not seem +adequate to produce, and by and by I remembered that it was the book +in course of being read at that unhappy period. My mother went on +as diligently as ever with some of those perpetual shirts which +seemed to be always in hand except before company, when she used to +do tambour work for Emily's frocks. Clarence sat the whole time in +a dark corner, never stirring, except that he now and then nodded a +little. He had gone through many wakeful, and worse than wakeful, +nights of wretched suspense, and now the worst was over. + +Family prayers took place, chill good-nights were exchanged, and +nobody interfered with his helping me up to my bedroom as usual; but +there was something in his face to which I durst not speak, though +perhaps I looked, for he exclaimed, 'Don't, Ned!' wrung my hand, and +sped away to his own quarters higher up. Then came a sound which +made me open my door to listen. Dear little Emily! She had burst +out of her own room in her dressing-gown, and flung herself upon her +brother as he was plodding wearily upstairs in the dark, clinging +round his neck sobbing, 'Dear, dear Clarry! I can't bear it! I +don't care. You're my own dear brother, and they are all wicked, +horrid people.' + +That was all I heard, except hushings on Clarence's part, as if the +opening of my door and the thread of light from it warned him that +there was risk of interruption. He seemed to be dragging her up to +her own room, and I was left with a pang at her being foremost in +comforting him. + +My father enacted that he should be treated as usual. But how could +that be when papa himself did not know how changed were his own ways +from his kindly paternal air of confidence? All trust had been +undermined, so that Clarence could not cross the threshold without +being required to state his object, and, if he overstayed the time +calculated, he was cross-examined, and his replies received with a +sigh of doubt. + +He hung about the house, not caring to do much, except taking me out +in my Bath chair or languidly reading the most exciting books he +could get;--but there was no great stock of sensation then, except +the Byronic, and from time to time one of my parents would exclaim, +'Clarence, I wonder you can find nothing more profitable to occupy +yourself with than trash like that!' + +He would lay down the book without a word, and take up Smith's +Wealth of Nations or Smollett's England--the profitable studies +recommended, and speedily become lost in a dejected reverie, with +fixed eyes and drooping lips. + + + +CHAPTER V--A HELPING HAND + + + +'Though hawks can prey through storms and winds, +The poor bee in her hive must dwell.' + +HENRY VAUGHAN. + +In imagination the piteous dejection of our family seems to have +lasted for ages, but on comparison of dates it is plain that the +first lightening of the burthen came in about a fortnight's time. + +The firm of Frith and Castleford was coming to the front in the +Chinese trade. The junior partner was an old companion of my +father's boyhood; his London abode was near at hand, and he was a +kind of semi-godfather to both Clarence and me, having stood proxy +for our nominal sponsors. He was as good and open-hearted a man as +ever lived, and had always been very kind to us; but he was scarcely +welcome when my father, finding that he had come up alone to London +to see about some repairs to his house, while his family were still +in the country, asked him to dine and sleep--our first guest since +our misfortune. + +My mother could hardly endure to receive any one, but she seemed +glad to see my father become animated and like himself while Roman +Catholic Emancipation was vehemently discussed, and the ruin of +England hotly predicted. Clarence moped about silently as usual, +and tried to avoid notice, and it was not till the next morning-- +after breakfast, when the two gentlemen were in the dining-room, +nearly ready to go their several ways, and I was in the window +awaiting my classical tutor--that Mr. Castleford said, + +'May I ask, Winslow, if you have any plans for that poor boy?' + +'Edward?' said my father, almost wilfully misunderstanding. 'His +ambition is to be curator of something in the British Museum, isn't +it?' + +Mr. Castleford explained that he meant the other, and my father +sadly answered that he hardly knew; he supposed the only thing was +to send him to a private tutor, but where to find a fit one he did +not know and besides, what could be his aim? Sir John Griffith had +said he was only fit for the Church, 'But one does not wish to +dispose of a tarnished article there.' + +'Certainly not,' said Mr. Castleford; and then he spoke words that +rejoiced my heart, though they only made my father groan, bidding +him remember that it was not so much actual guilt as the accident of +Clarence's being in the Navy that had given so serious a character +to his delinquencies. If he had been at school, perhaps no one +would ever have heard of them, 'Though I don't say,' added the good +man, casting a new light on the subject, 'that it would have been +better for him in the end.' Then, quite humbly, for he knew my +mother especially had a disdain for trade, he asked what my father +would think of letting him give Clarence work in the office for the +present. 'I know,' he said, 'it is not the line your family might +prefer, but it is present occupation; and I do not think you could +well send a youth who has seen so much of the world back to +schooling. Besides, this would keep him under your own eye.' + +My father was greatly touched by the kindness, but he thought it +right to set before Mr. Castleford the very worst side of poor +Clarence; declaring that he durst not answer for a boy who had +never, in spite of pains and punishments, learnt to speak truth at +home or abroad, repeating Captain Brydone's dreadful report, and +even adding that, what was most grievous of all, there was an +affectation of piety about him that could scarcely be anything but +self-deceit and hypocrisy. 'Now,' he said, 'my eldest son, +Griffith, is just a boy, makes no profession, is not--as I am afraid +you have seen--exemplary at church, when Clarence sits as meek as a +mouse, but then he is always above-board, frank and straightforward. +You know where to have a high-spirited fellow, who will tame down, +but you never know what will come next with the other. I sometimes +wonder for what error of mine Providence has seen fit to give me +such a son.' + +Just then an important message came for Mr. Winslow, and he had to +hurry away, but Mr. Castleford still remained, and presently said, + +'Edward, I should like to know what your eyes have been trying to +say all this time.' + +'Oh, sir,' I burst out, 'do give him a chance. Indeed he never +means to do wrong. The harm is not in him. He would have been the +best of us all if he had only been let alone.' + +Those were exactly my own foolish words, for which I could have +beaten myself afterwards; but Mr. Castleford only gave a slight +grave smile, and said, 'You mean that your brother's real defect is +in courage, moral and physical.' + +'Yes,' I said, with a great effort at expressing myself. 'When he +is frightened, or bullied, or browbeaten, he does not know what he +is doing or saying. He is quite different when he is his own self; +only nobody can understand.' + +Strange that though the favoured home son and nearly sixteen years +old, it would have been impossible to utter so much to one of our +parents. Indeed the last sentence felt so disloyal that the colour +burnt in my cheeks as the door opened; but it only admitted +Clarence, who, having heard the front door shut, thought the coast +was clear, and came in with a load of my books and dictionaries. + +'Clarence,' said Mr. Castleford, and the direct address made him +start and flush, 'supposing your father consents, should you be +willing to turn your mind to a desk in my counting-house?' + +He flushed deeper red, and his fingers quivered as he held by the +table. 'Thank you, sir. Anything--anything,' he said hesitatingly. + +'Well,' said Mr. Castleford, with the kindest of voices, 'let us +have it out. What is in your mind? You know, I'm a sort of +godfather to you.' + +'Sir, if you would only let me have a berth on board one of your +vessels, and go right away.' + +'Aye, my poor boy, that's what you would like best, I've no doubt; +but look at Edward's face there, and think what that would come to +at the best!' + +'Yes, I know I have no right to choose,' said Clarence, drooping his +head as before. + +''Tis not that, my dear lad,' said the good man, 'but that packing +you off like that, among your inferiors in breeding and everything +else, would put an end to all hope of your redeeming the past-- +outwardly I mean, of course--and lodge you in a position of +inequality to your brothers and sister, and all--' + +'That's done already,' said Clarence. + +'If you were a man grown it might be so,' returned Mr. Castleford, +'but bless me, how old are you?' + +'Seventeen next 1st of November,' said Clarence. + +'Not a bit too old for a fresh beginning,' said Mr. Castleford +cheerily. 'God helping you, you will be a brave and good man yet, +my boy--' then as my master rang at the door--'Come with me and look +at the old shop.' + +Poor Clarence muttered something unintelligible, and I had to own +for him that he never went out without accounting for himself. +Whereupon our friend caused my mother to be hunted up, and explained +to her that he wanted to take Clarence out with him--making some +excuse about something they were to see together. + +That walk enabled him to say something which came nearer to cheering +Clarence than anything that had passed since that sad return, and +made him think that to be connected with Mr. Castleford was the best +thing that could befall him. Mr. Castleford on his side told my +father that he was sure that the boy was good-hearted all the time, +and thoroughly repentant; but this had the less effect because +plausibility, as my father called it, was one of the qualities that +specially annoyed him in Clarence, and made him fear that his friend +might be taken in. However, the matter was discussed between the +elders, and it was determined that this most friendly offer should +be accepted experimentally. It was impressed on Clarence, with +unnecessary care, that the line of life was inferior; but that it +was his only chance of regaining anything like a position, and that +everything depended on his industry and integrity. + +'Integrity!' commented Clarence, with a burning spot on his cheek +after one of these lectures; 'I believe they think me capable of +robbing the office!' + +We found out, too, that the senior partner, Mr. Frith, a very crusty +old bachelor, did not like the appointment, and that it was made +quite against his will. 'You'll be getting your clerks next from +Newgate!' was what some amiable friend reported him to have said. +However, Mr. Castleford had his way, and Clarence was to begin his +work with the New Year, being in the meantime cautioned and lectured +on the crime and danger of his evil propensities more than he could +well bear. 'Oh!' he groaned, 'it serves me right, I know that very +well, but if my father only knew how I hate and abhor all those +things--and how I loathed them at the very time I was dragged into +them!' + +'Why don't you tell him so?' I asked. + +'That would make it no better.' + +'It is not so bad as if you had gone into it willingly, and for your +own pleasure.' + +'He would only think that another lie.' + +No more could be said, for the idea of Clarence's untruthfulness and +depravity had become so deeply rooted in our father's mind that +there was little hope of displacing it, and even at the best his +manner was full of grave constrained pity. Those few words were +Clarence's first approach to confidence with me, but they led to +more, and he knew there was one person who did not believe the +defect was in the bent of his will so much as in its strength. + +All the time the prospect of the counting-house in comparison with +the sea was so distasteful to him that I was anxious whenever he +went out alone, or even with Griffith, who despised the notion of, +as he said, sitting on a high stool, dealing in tea, so much that he +was quite capable of aiding and abetting in an escape from it. Two +considerations, however, held Clarence back; one, the timidity of +nature which shrank from so violent a step, and the other, the +strong affections that bound him to his home, though his sojourn +there was so painful. He knew the misery his flight would have been +to me; indeed I took care to let him see it. + +And Griffith's return was like a fresh spring wind dispersing +vapours. He had gained an excellent scholarship at Brazenose, and +came home radiant with triumph, cheering us all up, and making a +generous use of his success. He was no letter-writer, and after +learning that the disaster and disgrace were all too certain, he +ignored the whole, and hailed Clarence on his return as if nothing +had happened. As eldest son, and almost a University man, he could +argue with our parents in a manner we never presumed on. At least I +cannot aver what he actually uttered, but probably it was a revised +version of what he thundered forth to me. 'Such nonsense! such a +shame to keep the poor beggar going about with that hang dog look, +as if he had done for himself for life! Why, I've known fellows do +ever so much worse of their own accord, and nothing come of it. If +it was found out, there might be a row and a flogging, and there was +an end of it. As to going about mourning, and keeping the whole +house in doleful dumps, as if there was never to be any good again, +it was utter folly, and so I've told Bill, and papa and mamma, both +of them!' + +How this was administered, or how they took it, there is no knowing, +but Griff would neither skate nor go to the theatre, nor to any +other diversion, without his brother; and used much kindly force and +banter to unearth him from his dismal den in the back drawing-room. +He was only let alone when there were engagements with friends, and +indeed, when meetings in the streets took place, by tacit agreement, +Clarence would shrink off in the crowd as if not belonging to his +companion; and these were the moments that stung him into longing to +flee to the river, and lose the sense of shame among common sailors: +but there was always some good angel to hold him back from desperate +measures--chiefly just then, the love between us three brothers, a +love that never cooled throughout our lives, and which dear old +Griff made much more apparent at this critical time than in the old +Win and Slow days of school. That return of his enlivened us all, +and removed the terrible constraint from our meals, bringing us +back, as it were, to ordinary life and natural intercourse among +ourselves and with our neighbours. + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION + + + +'But when I lay upon the shore, + Like some poor wounded thing, +I deemed I should not evermore + Refit my wounded wing. +Nailed to the ground and fastened there, +This was the thought of my despair.' + +ABP. TRENCH. + +Clarence's debut at the office was not wholly unsuccessful. He +wrote a good hand, and had a good deal of method and regularity in +his nature, together with a real sense of gratitude to Mr. +Castleford; and this bore him through the weariness of his new +employment, and, what was worse, the cold reception he met with from +the other clerks. He was too quiet and reserved for the wilder +spirits, too much of a gentleman for others, and in the eyes of the +managers, and especially of the senior partner, a disgraced, +untrustworthy youth foisted on the office by Mr. Castleford's weak +partiality. That old Mr. Frith had, Clarence used to say, a +perfectly venomous way of accepting his salute, and seemed always +surprised and disappointed if he came in in time, or showed up +correct work. Indeed, the old man was disliked and feared by all +his subordinates as much as his partner was loved; and while Mr. +Castleford, with his good-natured Irish wife and merry family, lived +a life as cheerful as it was beneficent, Mr. Frith dwelt entirely +alone, in rooms over the office, preserving the habits formed when +his income had been narrow, and mistrusting everybody. + +At the end of the first month of experiment, Mr. Castleford declared +himself contented with Clarence's industry and steadiness, and +permanent arrangements were made, to which Clarence submitted with +an odd sort of passive gratitude, such as almost angered my father, +who little knew how trying the position really was, nor how a +certain home-sickness for the seafaring life was tugging at the +lad's heart, and making each morning's entrance at the counting- +house an effort--each merchant-captain, redolent of the sea, an +object of envy. My mother would have sympathised here, but Clarence +feared her more than my father, and she was living in continual +dread of some explosion, so that her dark curls began to show +streaks of gray, and her face to lose its round youthfulness. + +Lent brought the question of Confirmation. Under the influence of +good Bishop Blomfield, and in the wave of evangelical revival--then +at its flood height--Confirmation was becoming a more prominent +subject with religious people than it had probably ever been in our +Church, and it was recognised that some preparation was desirable +beyond the power of repeating the Church Catechism. This was all +that had been required of my father at Harrow. My mother's +godfather, a dignified clergyman, had simply said, 'I suppose, my +dear, you know all about it;' and as for the Admiral, he remarked, +'Confirmed! I never was confirmed anything but a post-captain!' + +Our incumbent was more attentive to his duties, or rather recognised +more duties, than his predecessor. He preached on the subject, and +formed classes, sixteen being then the limit of age,--since the idea +of the vow, having become far more prominent than that of the +blessing, it was held that full development of the will and +understanding was needful. + +I was of the requisite age, and my father spoke to the clergyman, +who called, and, as I could not attend the classes, gave me books to +read and questions to answer. Clarence read and discussed the +questions with me, showing so much more insight into them, and +fuller knowledge of Scripture than I possessed, that I exclaimed, +'Why should you not go up for Confirmation too?' + +'No,' he answered mournfully. 'I must take no more vows if I can't +keep them. It would just be profane.' + +I had no more to say; indeed, my parents held the same view. It was +good Mr. Castleford who saw things differently. He was a +clergyman's son, and had been bred up in the old orthodoxy, which +was just beginning to put forth fresh shoots, and, as a quasi- +godfather, he held himself bound to take an interest in our +religious life, while the sponsors, whose names stood in the family +Bible, and whose spoons reposed in the plate-chest, never troubled +themselves on the matter. I remember Clarence leaning over me and +saying, 'Mr. Castleford thinks I might be confirmed. He says it is +not so much the promise we make as of coming to Almighty God for +strength to keep what we are bound by already! He is going to speak +to papa.' + +Perhaps no one except Mr. Castleford could have prevailed over the +fear of profanation in the mind of my father, who was, in his old- +fashioned way, one of the most reverent of men, and could not bear +to think of holy things being approached by one under a stigma, nor +of exposing his son to add to his guilt by taking and breaking +further pledges. However, he was struck by his friend's arguments, +and I heard him telling my mother that when he had wished to wait +till there had been time to prove sincerity of repentance by a +course of steadiness, the answer had been that it was hard to +require strength, while denying the means of grace. My mother was +scarcely convinced, but as he had consented she yielded without a +protest; and she was really glad that I should have Clarence at my +side to help me at the ceremony. The clergyman was applied to, and +consented to let Clarence attend the classes, where his knowledge, +comprehension, and behaviour were exemplary, so that a letter was +written to my father expressive of perfect satisfaction with him. +'There,' said my father, 'I knew it would be so! It is not THAT +which I want.' + +The Confirmation seemed at the time a very short and perfunctory +result of our preparation; and, as things were conducted or +misconducted then, involved so much crowding and distress that I +recollect very little but clinging to Clarence's arm under a strong +sense of my infirmities,--the painful attempt at kneeling, and the +big outstretched lawn sleeves while the blessing was pronounced over +six heads at once, and then the struggle back to the pew, while the +silver-pokered apparitor looked grim at us, as though the maimed and +halt had no business to get into the way. Yet this was a great +advance upon former Confirmations, and the Bishop met my father +afterwards, and inquired most kindly after his lame son. + +We were disappointed, and felt that we could not attain to the +feelings in the Confirmation poem in the Christian Year--Mr. +Castleford's gift to me. Still, I believe that, though encumbered +with such a drag as myself, Clarence, more than I did, + + +'Felt Him how strong, our hearts how frail, +And longed to own Him to the death.' + + +But the evangelical belief that dejection ought to be followed by a +full sense of pardon and assurance of salvation somewhat perplexed +and dimmed our Easter Communion. For one short moment, as Clarence +turned to help my father lift me up from the altar-rail, I saw his +face and eyes radiant with a wonderful rapt look; but it passed only +too fast, and the more than ordinary glimpse his spiritual nature +had had made him all the more sad afterwards, when he said, 'I would +give everything to know that there was any steadfastness in my +purpose to lead a new life.' + +'But you are leading a new life.' + +'Only because there is no one to bully me,' he said. Still, there +had been no reproach against him all the time he had been at Frith +and Castleford's, when suddenly we had a great shock. + +Parties were running very high, and there were scurrilous papers +about, which my father perfectly abhorred; and one day at dinner, +when declaiming against something he had seen, he laid down strict +commands that none should be brought into the house. Then, glancing +at Clarence, something possessed him to say, 'You have not been +buying any.' + +'No, sir,' Clarence answered; but a few minutes later, when we were +alone together, the others having left him to help me upstairs, he +exclaimed, 'Edward, what is to be done? I didn't buy it; but there +is one of those papers in my great-coat pocket. Pollard threw it on +my desk; and there was something in it that I thought would amuse +you.' + +'Oh! why didn't you say so?' + +'There I am again! I simply could not, with his eye on me! +Miserable being that I am! Oh, where is the spirit of ghostly +strength?' + +'Helping you now to take it to papa in the study and explain!' I +cried; but the struggle in that tall fellow was as if he had been +seven years old instead of seventeen, ere he put his hand over his +face and gave me his arm to come out into the hall, fetch the paper, +and make his confession. Alas! we were too late. The coat had been +moved, the paper had fallen out; and there stood my mother with it +in her hand, looking at Clarence with an awful stony face of mute +grief and reproach, while he stammered forth what he had said +before, and that he was about to give it to my father. She turned +away, bitterly, contemptuously indignant and incredulous; and my +corroborations only served to give both her and my father a certain +dread of Clarence's influence over me, as though I had been either +deceived or induced to back him in deceiving them. The unlucky +incident plunged him back into the depths, just as he had begun to +emerge. Slight as it was, it was no trifle to him, in spite of +Griffith's exclamation, 'How absurd! Is a fellow to be bound to +give an account of everything he looks at as if he were six years +old? Catch me letting my mother pry into my pockets! But you are +too meek, Bill; you perfectly invite them to make a row about +nothing!' + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE INHERITANCE + + + +'For he that needs five thousand pound to live +Is full as poor as he that needs but five. +But if thy son can make ten pound his measure, +Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.' + +GEORGE HERBERT. + +It was in the spring of 1829 that my father received a lawyer's +letter announcing the death of James Winslow, Esquire, of Chantry +House, Earlscombe, and inviting him, as heir-at-law, to be present +at the funeral and opening of the will. The surprise to us all was +great. Even my mother had hardly heard of Chantry House itself, far +less as a possible inheritance; and she had only once seen James +Winslow. He was the last of the elder branch of the family, a third +cousin, and older than my father, who had known him in times long +past. When they had last met, the Squire of Chantry House was a +married man, with more than one child; my father a young barrister; +and as one lived entirely in the country and the other in town, +without any special congeniality, no intercourse had been kept up, +and it was a surprise to hear that he had left no surviving +children. My father greatly doubted whether being heir-at-law would +prove to avail him anything, since it was likely that so distant a +relation would have made a will in favour of some nearer connection +on his wife's or mother's side. He was very vague about Chantry +House, only knowing that it was supposed to be a fair property, and +he would hardly consent to take Griffith with him by the Western +Royal Mail, warning him and all the rest of us that our expectations +would be disappointed. + +Nevertheless we looked out the gentlemen's seats in Paterson's Road +Book, and after much research, for Chantry House lay far off from +the main road, we came upon--'Chantry House, Earlscombe, the seat of +James Winslow, Esquire, once a religious foundation; beautifully +situated on a rising ground, commanding an extensive prospect--' + +'A religious foundation!' cried Emily. 'It will be a dear delicious +old abbey, all Gothic architecture, with cloisters and ruins and +ghosts.' + +'Ghosts!' said my mother severely, 'what has put such nonsense into +your head?' + +Nevertheless Emily made up her mind that Chantry House would be +another Melrose, and went about repeating the moonlight scene in the +Lay of the Last Minstrel whenever she thought no one was there to +laugh at her. + +My father and Griffith returned with the good news that there was no +mistake. Chantry House was really his own, with the estate +belonging to it, reckoned at 5000 pounds a year, exclusive of a +handsome provision to Miss Selby, the niece of the late Mrs. +Winslow, a spinster of a certain age, who had lived with her uncle, +and now proposed to remove to Bath. Mr. Winslow had, it appeared, +lost his only son as a schoolboy, and his daughters, like their +mother, had been consumptive. He had always been resolved that the +estate should continue in the family; but reluctance to see any one +take his son's place had withheld him from making any advances to my +father; and for several years past he had been in broken health with +failing faculties. + +Of course there was much elation. Griff described as charming the +place, perched on the southern slope of a wooded hill, with a broad +fertile valley lying spread out before it, and the woods behind +affording every promise of sport. The house, my father said, was +good, odd and irregular, built at different times, but quite +habitable, and with plenty of furniture, though he opined that mamma +would think it needed modernising, to which she replied that our +present chattels would make a great difference; whereat my father, +looking at the effects of more than twenty years of London blacks, +gave a little whistle, for she was always the economical one of the +pair. + +Emily, with glowing cheeks and eager eyes, entreated to know whether +it was Gothic, and had a cloister! Papa nipped her hopes of a +cloister, but there were Gothic windows and doorway, and a bit of +ruin in the garden, a fragment of the old chapel. + +My father could not resign his office without notice, and, besides, +he wished Miss Selby to have leisure for leaving her home of many +years; after which there would be a few needful repairs. The delay +was not a great grievance to any of us except little Martyn. We +were much more Cockney than almost any one is in these days of +railways. We were unusually devoid of kindred on both sides, my +father's holidays were short, I was not a very movable commodity, +and economy forbade long journeys, so that we had never gone farther +than Ramsgate, where we claimed a certain lodging-house as a sort of +right every summer. + +Real country was as much unknown to us as the backwoods. My father +alone had been born and bred to village life and habits, for my +mother had spent her youth in a succession of seaport towns, +frequented by men-of-war. We heard, too, that Chantry House was +very secluded, with only a few cottages near at hand--a mile and a +half from the church and village of Earlscombe, three from the tiny +country town of Wattlesea, four from the place where the coach +passed, connecting it with the civilisation of Bath and Bristol, +from each of which places it was about half a day's distance, +according to the measures of those times. It was a sort of +banishment to people accustomed to the stream of life in London; and +though the consequence and importance derived from being raised to +the ranks of the Squirearchy were agreeable, they were a dear +purchase at the cost of being out of reach of all our friends and +acquaintances, as well as of other advantages. + +To my father, however, the retirement from his many years of +drudgery was really welcome, and he had preserved enough of country +tastes to rejoice that it was, as he said, a clear duty to reside on +his estate and look after his property. My mother saw his relief in +the prospect, and suppressed her sighs at the dislocation of her +life-long habits, and the loss of intercourse with the acquaintance +whom separation raised to the rank of intimate friends, even her +misgivings as to butchers, bakers, and grocers in the wilderness, +and still worse, as to doctors for me. + +'Humph!' said the Admiral, 'the boy will be all the better without +them.' + +And so I was; I can't say they were the subject of much regret, but +I was really sorry to leave our big neighbour, the British Museum, +where there were good friends who always made me welcome, and +encouraged me in studies of coins and heraldry, which were great +resources to me, so that I used to spend hours there, and was by no +means willing to resign my ambition of obtaining an appointment +there, when I heard my father say that he was especially thankful +for his good fortune because it enabled him to provide for me. +There were lessons, too, from masters in languages, music, and +drawing, which Emily and I shared, and which she had just begun to +value thoroughly. We had filled whole drawing-books with wriggling +twists of foliage in B B B marking pencil, and had just been +promoted to water-colours; and she was beginning to sing very +prettily. I feared, too, that I should no longer have a chance of +rivalling Griffith's university studies. All this, with my sister's +girl friends, and those kind people who used to drop in to play +chess, and otherwise amuse me, would all be left behind; and, sorest +of all, Clarence, who, whatever he was in the eyes of others, had +grown to be my mainstay during this last year. He it was who +fetched me from the Museum, took me into the gardens, helped me up +and down stairs, spared no pains to rout out whatever my fanciful +pursuits required from shops in the City, and, in very truth, spoilt +me through all his hours that were free from business, besides being +my most perfect sympathising and understanding companion. + +I feared, too, that he would be terribly lonesome, though of late he +had been less haunted by longings for the sea, had made some way +with his fellows, and had been commended by the managing clerk; and +it was painful to find the elders did not grieve on their own +account at parting with him. My mother told the Admiral that she +thought it would be good for Mr. Winslow's spirits not to be +continually reminded of his trouble; and my father might be heard +confiding to Mr. Castleford that the separation might be good for +both her and her son, if only the lad could be trusted. To which +that good man replied by giving him an excellent character; but was +only met by a sigh, and 'Well, we shall see!' + +Clarence was to be lodged with Peter, whose devotion would not +extend to following us into barbarism, where, as he told us, he +understood there was no such thing as a 'harea,' and master would +have to kill his own mutton. + +Peter had been tranquilly engaged to Gooch for years untold. They +were to be transformed into Mr. and Mrs. Robson, with some small +appointment about the Law Courts for him, and a lodging-house for +her, where Clarence was to abide, my mother feeling secure that +neither his health, his morals, nor his shirts could go much astray +without her receiving warning thereof. + +Meanwhile, by the help of an antiquarian friend of my father, Mr. +Stafford, who was great in county history, I hunted up in the Museum +library all I could discover about our new possession. + +The Chantry of St. Cecily at Earlscombe, in Somersetshire, had, it +appeared, been founded and endowed by Dame Isabel d'Oyley, in the +year of grace 1434, that constant prayers might be offered for the +souls of her husband and son, slain in the French wars. The poor +lady's intentions, which to our Protestant minds appeared rather +shocking than otherwise, had been frustrated at the break up of such +establishments, when the Chantry, and the estate that maintained its +clerks and bedesmen, was granted to Sir Harry Power, from whom, +through two heiresses, it had come to the Fordyces, the last of +whom, by name Margaret, had died childless, leaving the estate to +her stepson, Philip Winslow, our ancestor. + +Moreover, we learnt that a portion of the building was of ancient +date, and that there was an 'interesting fragment' of the old chapel +in the grounds, which our good friend promised himself the pleasure +of investigating on his first holiday. + +To add to our newly-acquired sense of consideration and of high +pedigree, the family chariot, after taking Miss Selby to Bath, came +up post to London to be touched up at the coachbuilder's, have the +escutcheon altered so as to impale the Griffith coat instead of the +Selby, and finally to convey us to our new abode, in preparation for +which all its boxes came to be packed. + +A chariot! You young ones have as little notion of one as of a +British war-chariot armed with scythes. Yet people of a certain +grade were as sure to keep their chariot as their silver tea-pot; +indeed we knew one young couple who started in life with no other +habitation, but spent their time as nomads, in visits to their +relations and friends, for visits WERE visits then. + +The capacities of a chariot were considerable. Within, there was a +good-sized seat for the principal occupants, and outside a dickey +behind, and a driving box before, though sometimes there was only +one of these, and that transferable. The boxes were calculated to +hold family luggage on a six months' tour. There they lay on the +spare-room floor, ready to be packed, the first earnest of our new +possessions--except perhaps the five-pound note my father gave each +of us four elder ones, on the day the balance at the bank was made +over to him. There was the imperial, a grand roomy receptacle, +which was placed on the top of the carriage, and would not always go +upstairs in small houses; the capbox, which fitted into a curved +place in front of the windows, and could not stand alone, but had a +frame to support it; two long narrow boxes with the like infirmity +of standing, which fitted in below; square ones under each seat; and +a drop box fastened on behind. There were pockets beneath each +window, and, curious relic in name and nature of the time when every +gentleman carried his weapon, there was the sword case, an +excrescence behind the back of the best seat, accessible by lifting +a cushion, where weapons used to be carried, but where in our +peaceful times travellers bestowed their luncheon and their books. + +Our chariot was black above, canary yellow below, beautifully +varnished, and with our arms blazoned on each door. It was lined +with dark blue leather and cloth, picked out with blue and yellow +lace in accordance with our liveries, and was a gorgeous spectacle. +I am afraid Emily did not share in Mistress Gilpin's humility when + + + 'The chaise was brought, + But yet was not allowed +To drive up to the door, lest all + Should say that she was proud!' + + +It was then that Emily and I each started a diary to record the +events of our new life. Hers flourished by fits and starts; but I +having perforce more leisure than she, mine has gone on with few +interruptions till the present time, and is the backbone of this +narrative, which I compile and condense from it and other sources +before destroying it. + + + +CHAPTER VIII--THE OLD HOUSE + + + +'Your history whither are you spinning? + Can you do nothing but describe? +A house there is, and that's enough!' + +GRAY. + +How we did enjoy our journey, when the wrench from our old home was +once made. We did not even leave Clarence behind, for Mr. +Castleford had given him a holiday, so that he might not appear to +be kept at a distance, as if under a cloud, and might help me +through our travels. + +My mother and I occupied the inside of the carriage, with Emily +between us at the outset; but when we were off the London stones she +was often allowed to make a third on the dickey with Clarence and +Martyn, whose ecstatic heels could be endured for the sake of the +free air and the view. Of course we posted, and where there were +severe hills we indulged in four horses. The varieties of the +jackets of our post-boys, blue or yellow, as supposed to indicate +the politics of their inns, were interesting to us, as everything +was interesting then. Otherwise their equipment was exactly alike-- +neat drab corduroy breeches and top-boots, and hats usually white, +and they were all boys, though the red faces and grizzled hair of +some looked as if they had faced the weather for at least fifty +years. + +It was a beautiful August, and the harvest fields were a sight +perfectly new, filling us with rapture unspeakable. At every hill +which offered an excuse, our outsiders were on their feet, thrusting +in their heads and hands to us within with exclamations of delight, +and all sorts of discoveries--really new to us three younger ones. +Ears of corn, bearded barley, graceful oats, poppies, corn-flowers, +were all delicious novelties to Emily and me, though Griff and my +father laughed at our ecstasies, and my mother occasionally objected +to the wonderful accumulation of curiosities thrust into her lap or +the door pockets, and tried to persuade Martyn that rooks' wings, +dead hedgehogs, sticks and stones of various merits, might be found +at Earlscombe, until Clarence, by the judicious purchase of a basket +at Salisbury, contrived to satisfy all parties and safely dispose of +the treasures. The objects that stand out in my memory on that +journey were Salisbury Spire, and a long hill where the hedgebank +was one mass of the exquisite rose-bay willow herb--a perfect +revelation to our city-bred eyes; but indeed, the whole route was +like one panorama to us of L'Allegro and other descriptions on which +we had fed. For in those days we were much more devoted to poetry +than is the present generation, which has a good deal of false shame +on that head. + +Even dining and sleeping at an inn formed a pleasing novelty, though +we did not exactly sympathise with Martyn when he dashed in at +breakfast exulting in having witnessed the killing of a pig. As my +father observed, it was too like realising Peter's forebodings of +our return to savage life. + +Demonstrations were not the fashion of these times, and there was a +good deal of dull discontent and disaffection in the air, so that no +tokens of welcome were prepared for us--not even a peal of bells; +nor indeed should we have heard them if they had been rung, for the +church was a mile and a half beyond the house, with a wood between +cutting off the sound, except in certain winds. We did not miss a +reception, which would rather have embarrassed us. We began to +think it was time to arrive, and my father believed we were climbing +the last hill, when, just as we had passed a remarkably pretty +village and church, Griffith called out to say that we were on our +own ground. He had made his researches with the game keeper while +my father was busy with the solicitor, and could point to our +boundary wall, a little below the top of the hill on the northern +side. He informed us that the place we had passed was Hillside-- +Fordyce property,--but this was Earlscombe, our own. It was a great +stony bit of pasture with a few scattered trees, but after the flat +summit was past, the southern side was all beechwood, where a gate +admitted us into a drive cut out in a slant down the otherwise steep +descent, and coming out into an open space. And there we were! + +The old house was placed on the widest part of a kind of shelf or +natural terrace, of a sort of amphitheatre shape, with wood on +either hand, but leaving an interval clear in the midst broad enough +for house and gardens, with a gentle green slope behind, and a much +steeper one in front, closed in by the beechwoods. The house stood +as it were sideways, or had been made to do so by later inhabitants. +I know this is very long-winded, but there have been such +alterations that without minute description this narrative will be +unintelligible. + +The aspect was northwards so far as the lie of the ground was +concerned, but the house stood across. The main body was of the big +symmetrical Louis XIV. style--or, as it is now the fashion to call +it, Queen Anne--brick, with stone quoins, big sash-windows, and a +great square hall in the midst, with the chief rooms opening into +it. The principal entrance had been on the north, with a huge front +door and a flight of stone steps, and just space enough for a gravel +coach ring before the rapid grassy descent. Later constitutions, +however, must have eschewed that northern front door, and later +nerves that narrow verge, and on the eastern front had been added +that Gothic porch of which Emily had heard,--and a flagrantly modern +Gothic porch it was, flanked by two comical little turrets, with +loopholes, from which a thread-paper or Tom Thumb might have +defended it. Otherwise it resembled a church porch, except for the +formidable points of a sham portcullis; but there was no denying +that it greatly increased the comfort of the house, with its two +sets of heavy doors, and the seats on either side. The great hall +door had been closed up, plastered over within, and rendered +inoffensive. Towards the west there was another modern addition of +drawing and dining rooms, and handsome bedchambers above, in Gothic +taste, i.e. with pointed arches filled up with glass over the sash- +windows. The drawing-room was very pretty, with a glass door at the +end leading into an old-fashioned greenhouse, and two French windows +to the south opening upon the lawn, which soon began to slope +upwards, curving, as I said, like an amphitheatre, and was always +shady and sheltered, tilting its flower-beds towards the house as if +to display them. The dining-room had, in like manner, one west and +two north windows, the latter commanding a grand view over the green +meadow-land below, dotted with round knolls, and rising into blue +hills beyond. We became proud of counting the villages and church +towers we could see from thence. + +There was a still older portion, more ancient than the square corps +de logis, and built of the cream-coloured stone of the country. It +was at the south-eastern angle, where the ground began sloping so +near the house that this wing--if it may so be called--containing +two good-sized rooms nearly on a level with the upper floor, had +nothing below but some open stone vaultings, under which it was only +just possible for my tall brothers to stand upright, at the +innermost end. These opened into the cellars which, no doubt, +belonged to the fifteenth-century structure. There seemed to have +once been a door and two or three steps to the ground, which rose +very close to the southern end; but this had been walled up. The +rooms had deep mullioned windows east and west, and very handsome +groined ceilings, and were entered by two steps down from the +gallery round the upper part of the hall. There was a very handsome +double staircase of polished oak, shaped like a Y, the stem of which +began just opposite the original front door--making us wonder if +people knew what draughts were in the days of Queen Anne, and +remember Madame de Maintenon's complaint that health was sacrificed +to symmetry. Not far from this oldest portion were some broken bits +of wall and stumps of columns, remnants of the chapel, and prettily +wreathed with ivy and clematis. We rejoiced in such a pretty and +distinctive ornament to our garden, and never troubled ourselves +about the desecration; and certainly ours was one of the most +delightful gardens that ever existed, what with green turf, bright +flowers, shapely shrubs, and the grand beech-trees enclosing it with +their stately white pillars, green foliage, and the russet arcades +beneath them. The stillness was wonderful to ears accustomed to the +London roar--almost a new sensation. Emily was found, as she said, +'listening to the silence;' and my father declared that no one could +guess at the sense of rest that it gave him. + +Of space within there was plenty, though so much had been sacrificed +to the hall and staircase; and this was apparently the cause of the +modern additions, as the original sitting-rooms, wainscotted and +double-doored, were rather small for family requirements. One of +these, once the dining-room, became my father's study, where he read +and wrote, saw his tenants, and by and by acted as Justice of the +Peace. The opposite one, towards the garden, was termed the book- +room. Here Martyn was to do his lessons, and Emily and I carry on +our studies, and do what she called keeping up her accomplishments. +My couch and appurtenances abode there, and it was to be my retreat +from company,--or on occasion could be made a supplementary drawing- +room, as its fittings showed it had been the parlour. It +communicated with another chamber, which became my own--sparing the +difficulties that stairs always presented; and beyond lay, niched +under the grand staircase, a tiny light closet, a passage-room, +where my mother put a bed for a man-servant, not liking to leave me +entirely alone on the ground floor. It led to a passage to the +garden door, also to my mother's den, dedicated to housewifely cares +and stores, and ended at the back stairs, descending to the +servants' region. This was very old, handsomely vaulted with stone, +and, owing to the fall of the ground, had ample space for light on +the north side,--where, beyond the drive, the descent was so rapid +as to afford Martyn infinite delight in rolling down, to the horror +of all beholders and the detriment of his white duck trowsers. + +I don't know much about the upper story, so I spare you that. Emily +had a hankering for one of the pretty old mullioned-windowed rooms-- +the mullion chambers, as she named them; but Griff pounced on them +at once, the inner for his repose, the outer for his guns and his +studies--not smoking, for young men were never permitted to smoke +within doors, nor indeed in any home society. The choice of the son +and heir was undisputed, and he proceeded to settle his possessions +in his new domains, where they made an imposing appearance. + + + +CHAPTER IX--RATS + + + +'As louder and louder, drawing near, +The gnawing of their teeth he could hear.' + +SOUTHEY. + +'What a ridiculous old fellow that Chapman is,' said Griff, coming +in from a conference with the gaunt old man who acted as keeper to +our not very extensive preserves. 'I told him to get some gins for +the rats in my rooms, and he shook his absurd head like any +mandarin, and said, "There baint no trap as will rid you of them +kind of varmint, sir."' + +'Of course,' my father said, 'rats are part of the entail of an old +house. You may reckon on them.' + +'Those rooms of yours are the very place for them,' added my mother. +'I only hope they will not infest the rest of the house.' + +To which Griff rejoined that they perpetrated the most extraordinary +noises he had ever heard from rats, and told Emily she might be +thankful to him for taking those rooms, for she would have been +frightened out of her little wits. He meant, he said, to get a +little terrier, and have a thorough good rat hunt, at which Martyn +capered about in irrepressible ecstasy. + +This, however, was deferred by the unwillingness of old Chapman, of +whom even Griff was somewhat in awe. His fame as a sportsman had to +be made, and he had had only such practice as could be attained by +shooting at a mark ever since he had been aware of his coming +greatness. So he was desirous of conciliating Chapman, and not +getting laughed at as the London young gentleman who could not hit a +hay-stack. My father, who had been used to carrying a gun in his +younger days, was much amused, in his quiet way, at seeing Griff +watch Chapman off on his rounds, and then betake himself to the +locality most remote from the keeper's ears to practise on the rook +or crow. Martyn always ran after him, having solemnly promised not +to touch the gun, and to keep behind. He was too good-natured to +send the little fellow back, though he often tried to elude the +pursuit, not wishing for a witness to his attempts; and he never +invited Clarence, who had had some experience of curious game but +never mentioned it. + +Clarence devoted himself to Emily and me, tugging my garden-chair +along all the paths where it would go without too much jolting, and +when I had had enough, exploring those hanging woods, either with +her or on his own account. They used to come home with their hands +full of flowers, and this resulted in a vehement attack of botany,-- +a taste that has lasted all our lives, together with the hortus +siccus to which we still make additions, though there has been a +revolution there as well as everywhere else, and the Linnaean system +we learnt so eagerly from Martin's Letters is altogether exploded +and antiquated. Still, my sister refuses to own the scientific +merits of the natural system, and can point to school-bred and +lectured young ladies who have no notion how to discover the name or +nature of a live plant. + +On the Friday after our arrival the noises had been so fearful that +Griff had been exasperated into going off across the hills, +accompanied by his constant shadow, Martyn, in search of the +professional ratcatcher of the neighbourhood, in spite of Chapman's +warning--that Tom Petty was the biggest rascal in the neighbourhood, +and a regular out and out poacher; and as to the noises--he couldn't +'tackle the like of they.' After revelling in the beauty of the +beechwoods as long as was good for me or for Clarence, I was left in +the garden to sketch the ruin, while my two companions started on +one of their exploring expeditions. + +It was getting late enough to think of going to prepare for the six +o'clock dinner when Emily came forth alone from the path between the +trees, announcing--'An adventure, Edward! We have had such an +adventure.' + +'Where's Clarence?' + +'Gone for the doctor! Oh, no; Griff hasn't shot anybody. He is +gone for the ratcatcher, you know. It is a poor little herdboy, who +tumbled out of a tree; and oh! such a sweet, beautiful, young lady-- +just like a book!' + +When Emily became less incoherent, it appeared that on coming out on +the bit of common above the wood, as she and Clarence were halting +on the brow of the hill to admire the view, they heard a call for +help, and hurrying down in the direction whence it proceeded they +saw a stunted ash-tree, beneath which were a young lady and a little +child bending over a village lad who lay beneath moaning piteously. +The girl, whom Emily described as the most beautiful creature she +ever saw, explained that the boy, who had been herding the cattle +scattered around, had been climbing the tree, a limb of which had +broken with him. She had seen the fall from a distance, and hurried +up; but she hardly knew what to do, for her little sister was too +young to be sent in quest of assistance. Clarence thought one leg +seriously injured, and as the young lady seemed to know the boy, +offered to carry him home. School officers were yet in the future; +children were set to work almost as soon as they could walk, and +this little fellow was so light and thin as to shock Clarence when +he had been taken up on his back, for he weighed quite a trifle. +The young lady showed the way to a wretched little cottage, where a +bigger girl had just come in with a sheaf of corn freshly gleaned +poised on her head. They sent her to fetch her mother, and Clarence +undertook to go for a doctor, but to the surprise and horror of +Emily, there was a demur. Something was said of old Molly and her +'ile' and 'yarbs,' or perhaps Madam could step round. When +Clarence, on this being translated to him, pronounced the case +beyond such treatment, it was explained outside the door that this +was a terribly poor family, and the doctor would not come to parish +patients for an indefinite time after his summons, besides which, he +lived at Wattlesea. 'Indeed mamma does almost all the doctoring +with her medicine chest,' said the girl. + +On which Clarence declared that he would let the doctor know that he +himself would be responsible for the cost of the attendance, and set +off for Wattlesea, a kind of town village in the flat below. He +could not get back till dinner was half over, and came in alarmed +and apologetic; but he had nothing worse to encounter than Griff's +unmerciful banter (or, as you would call it, chaff) about his knight +errantry, and Emily's lovely heroine in the sweetest of cottage +bonnets. + +Griff could be slightly tyrannous in his merry mockery, and when he +found that on the ensuing day Clarence proposed to go and inquire +after the patient, he made such wicked fun of the expectations the +pair entertained of hearing the sweet cottage bonnet reading a tract +in a silvery voice through the hovel window, that he fairly teased +and shamed Clarence out of starting till the renowned Tom Petty +arrived and absorbed all the three brothers, and even their father, +in delights as mysterious to me as to Emily. How she shrieked when +Martyn rushed triumphantly into the room where we were arranging +books with the huge patriarch of all the rats dangling by his tail! +Three hopeful families were destroyed; rooms, vaults, and cellars +examined and cleared; and Petty declared the race to be +exterminated, picturesque ruffian that he was, in his shapeless hat, +rusty velveteen, long leggings, a live ferret in his pocket, and +festoons of dead rats over his shoulder. + +Chapman, who regarded him much as the ferret did the rat, declared +that the rabbits and hares would suffer from letting 'that there +chap' show his face here on any plea; and, moreover, gave a grunt +very like a scoff; at the idea of slumbers in the mullion rooms (as +they were called) being secured by his good offices. + +And Chapman was right. The unaccountable noises broke out again-- +screaming, wailing, sobbing--sounds scarcely within the power of cat +or rat, but possibly the effect of the wind in the old building. At +any rate, Griff could not stand them, and declared that sleep was +impossible when the wind was in that quarter, so that he must shift +his bedroom elsewhere, though he still wished to retain the outer +apartment, which he had taken pleasure in adorning with his special +possessions. My mother would scarcely have tolerated such fancies +in any one else, but Griff had his privileges. + + + +CHAPTER X--OUR TUNEFUL CHOIR + + + +'The church has been whitewashed, but right long ago, +As the cracks and the dinginess amply doth show; +About the same time that a strange petrifaction +Confined the incumbent to mere Sunday action. +So many abuses in this place are rife, +The only church things giving token of life +Are the singing within and the nettles without - +Both equally rampant without any doubt.' + +F. R. HAVERGAL. + +All Griff's teasing could not diminish--nay, rather increased-- +Emily's excitement in the hope of seeing and identifying the sweet +cottage bonnet at church on Sunday. The distance we had to go was +nearly two miles, and my mother and I drove thither in a donkey +chair, which had been hunted up in London for that purpose because +the 'pheeaton' (as the servants insisted on calling it) was too high +for me. My father had an old-fashioned feeling about the Fourth +Commandment, which made him scrupulous as to using any animal on +Sunday; and even when, in bad weather, or for visitors, the larger +carriage was used, he always walked. He was really angry with Griff +that morning for mischievously maintaining that it was a greater +breach of the commandment to work an ass than a horse. + +It was a pretty drive on a road slanting gradually through the +brushwood that clothed the steep face of the hillside, and passing +farms and meadows full of cattle--all things quieter and stiller +than ever in their Sunday repose. We knew that the living was in +Winslow patronage, but that it was in the hands of one of the Selby +connection, who held it, together with it is not safe to say how +many benefices, and found it necessary for his health to reside at +Bath. The vicarage had long since been turned into a farmhouse, and +the curate lived at Wattlesea. All this we knew, but we had not +realised that he was likewise assistant curate there, and only +favoured Earlscombe with alternate morning and evening services on +Sundays. + +Still less were we prepared for the interior of the church. It had +a picturesque square tower covered with ivy, and a general air of +fitness for a sketch; indeed, the photograph of it in its present +beautified state will not stand a comparison with our drawings of +it, in those days of dilapidation in the middle of the untidy +churchyard, with little boys astride on the sloping, sunken lichen- +grown headstones, mullein spikes and burdock leaves, more graceful +than the trim borders and zinc crosses which are pleasanter to the +mental eye. + +The London church we had left would be a fearful shock to the +present generation, but we were accustomed to decency, order, and +reverence; and it was no wonder that my father was walking about the +churchyard, muttering that he never saw such a place, while my +brothers were full of amusement. Their spruce looks in their tall +hats, bright ties, dark coats, and white trowsers strapped tight +under their boots, looked incongruous with the rest of the +congregation, the most distinguished members of which were farmers +in drab coats with huge mother-of-pearl buttons, and long gaiters +buttoned up to their knees and strapped up to their gay waistcoats +over their white corduroys. Their wives and daughters were in +enormous bonnets, fluttering with ribbons; but then what my mother +and Emily wore were no trifles. The rest of the congregation were-- +the male part of it--in white or gray smock-frocks, the elderly +women in black bonnets, the younger in straw; but we had not long to +make our observations, for Chapman took possession of us. He was +parish clerk, and was in great glory in his mourning coat and hat, +and his object was to marshal us all into our pew before he had to +attend upon the clergyman; and of course I was glad enough to get as +soon as possible out of sight of all the eyes not yet accustomed to +my figure. + +And hidden enough I was when we had been introduced through the +little north chancel door into a black-curtained, black-cushioned, +black-lined pew, well carpeted, with a table in the midst, and a +stove, whose pipe made its exit through the floriated tracery of the +window overhead. The chancel arch was to the west of us, blocked up +by a wooden parcel-gilt erection, and to the east a decorated window +that would have been very handsome if two side-lights had not been +obscured by the two Tables of the Law, with the royal arms on the +top of the first table, and over the other our own, with the Fordyce +in a scutcheon of pretence; for, as an inscription recorded, they +had been erected by Margaret, daughter of Christopher Fordyce, +Esquire, of Chantry House, and relict of Sir James John Winslow, +Kt., sergeant-at-law, A.D. 1700--the last date, I verily believe, at +which anything had been done to the church. And on the wall, +stopping up the southern chancel window, was a huge marble slab, +supported by angels blowing trumpets, with a very long inscription +about the Fordyce family, ending with this same Margaret, who had +married the Winslow, lost two or three infants, and died on 1st +January 1708, three years later than her husband. + +Thus far I could see; but Griff was standing lifting the curtain, +and showing by the working of his shoulders his amazement and +diversion, so that only the daggers in my mother's eyes kept Martyn +from springing up after him. What he beheld was an altar draped in +black like a coffin, and on the step up to the rail, boys and girls +eating apples and performing antics to beguile the waiting time, +while a row of white-smocked old men occupied the bench opposite to +our seat, conversing loud enough for us to hear them. + +My father and Clarence came in; the bells stopped; there was a sound +of steps, and in the fabric in front of us there emerged a grizzled +head and the back of a very dirty surplice besprinkled with iron +moulds, while Chapman's back appeared above our curtain, his desk +(full of dilapidated prayer-books) being wedged in between us and +the reading-desk. + +The duet that then took place between him and the curate must have +been heard to be credible, especially as, being so close behind the +old man, we could not fail to be aware of all the remarkable shots +at long words which he bawled out at the top of his voice, and I +refrain from recording, lest they should haunt others as they have +done by me all my life. Now and then Chapman caught up a long +switch and dashed out at some obstreperous child to give an audible +whack; and towards the close of the litany he stumped out--we heard +his tramp the whole length of the church, and by and by his voice +issued from an unknown height, proclaiming--'Let us sing to the +praise and glory in an anthem taken from the 42d chapter of +Genesis.' + +There was an outburst of bassoon, clarionet, and fiddle, and the +performance that followed was the most marvellous we had ever heard, +especially when the big butcher--fiddling all the time--declared in +a mighty solo, 'I am Jo--Jo--Jo--Joseph!' and having reiterated this +information four or five times, inquired with equal pertinacity, +'Doth--doth my fa-a-u-ther yet live?' Poor Emily was fairly +'convulsed;' she stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth, and grew +so crimson that my mother was quite frightened, and very near +putting her out at the little door of excommunication. To our last +hour we shall never forget the shock of that first anthem. + +The Commandments were read from the desk, Chapman's solitary +response coming from the gallery; and while the second singing--four +verses from Tate and Brady--was going on, we beheld the surplice +stripped off,--like the slough of a May-fly, as Griff said,--when a +rusty black gown was revealed, in which the curate ascended the +pulpit and was lost to our view before the concluding verse of the +psalm, which we had reason to believe was selected in compliment to +us, as well as to Earlscombe, - + + +'My lot is fall'n in that blest land + Where God is truly know, +He fills my cup with liberal hand; + 'Tis He--'tis He--'tis He--supports my throne.' + + +We had great reason to doubt how far the second line could justly be +applied to the parish! but there was no judging of the sermon, for +only detached sentences reached us in a sort of mumble. Griff +afterwards declared churchgoing to be as good as a comedy, and we +all had to learn to avoid meeting each other's eyes, whatever we +might hear. When the scuffle and tramp of the departing +congregation had ceased, we came forth from our sable box, and +beheld the remnants of a once handsome church, mauled in every +possible way, green stains on the walls, windows bricked up, and a +huge singing gallery. Good bits of carved stall work were nailed +anyhow into the pews; the floor was uneven; no font was visible; +there was a mouldy uncared-for look about everything. The curate in +riding-boots came out of the vestry,--a pale, weary-looking man, +painfully meek and civil, with gray hair sleeked round his face. He +'louted low,' and seemed hardly to venture on taking the hand my +father held out to him. There was some attempt to enter into +conversation with him, but he begged to be excused, for he had to +hurry back to Wattlesea to a funeral. Poor man! he was as great a +pluralist as his vicar, for he kept a boys' school, partially day, +partially boarding, and his eyes looked hungrily at Martyn. + +If the 'sweet cottage bonnet' had been at church there would have +been little chance of discovering her, but we found that we were the +only 'quality,' as Chapman called it, or things might not have been +so bad. Old James Winslow had been a mere fox-hunting squire till +he became a valetudinarian; nor had he ever cared for the church or +for the poor, so that the village was in a frightful state of +neglect. There was a dissenting chapel, old enough to be overgrown +with ivy and not too hideous, erected by the Nonconformists in the +reign of the Great Deliverer, but this partook of the general +decadence of the parish, and, as we found, the chapel's principal +use was to serve as an excuse for not going to church. + +My father always went to church twice, so he and Clarence walked to +Wattlesea, where appearances were more respectable; but they heard +the same sermon over again, and, as my father drily remarked, it was +not a composition that would bear repetition. + +He was much distressed at the state of things, and intended to write +to the incumbent, though, as he said, whatever was done would end by +being at his own expense, and the move and other calls left him so +little in hand that he sighed over the difficulties, and declared +that he was better off in London, except for the honour of the +thing. Perhaps my mother was of the same opinion after a dreary +afternoon, when Griff and Martyn had been wandering about aimlessly, +and were at length betrayed by the barking of a little terrier, +purchased the day before from Tom Petty, besieging the stable cat, +who stood with swollen tail, glaring eyes, and thunderous growls, on +the top of the tallest pillar of the ruins. Emily nearly cried at +their cruelty. Martyn was called off by my mother, and set down, +half sulky, half ashamed, to Henry and his Bearer; and Griff, vowing +that he believed it was that brute who made the row at night, and +that she ought to be exterminated, strolled off to converse with +Chapman, who was a quaint compound of clerk and keeper--in the one +capacity upholding his late master, in the other bemoaning Mr. +Mears' unpunctualities, specially as regarded weddings and funerals; +one 'corp' having been kept waiting till a messenger had been sent +to Wattlesea, who finding both clergy out for the day, had had to go +to Hillside, 'where they was always ready, though the old Squire +would have been mad with him if he'd a-guessed one of they Fordys +had ever set foot in the parish.' + +The only school in the place was close to the meeting-house, 'a very +dame's school indeed,' as Emily described it after a peep on Monday. +Dame Dearlove, the old woman who presided, was a picture of +Shenstone's schoolmistress,--black bonnet, horn spectacles, fearful +birch rod, three-cornered buff 'kerchief, checked apron and all, but +on meddling with her, she proved a very dragon, the antipodes of her +name. Tattered copies of the Universal Spelling-Book served her +aristocracy, ragged Testaments the general herd, whence all appeared +to be shouting aloud at once. She looked sour as verjuice when my +mother and Emily entered, and gave them to understand that 'she +wasn't used to no strangers in her school, and didn't want 'em.' We +found that in Chapman's opinion she 'didn't larn 'em nothing.' She +had succeeded her aunt, who had taught him to read 'right off,' but +'her baint to be compared with she.' And now the farmers' children, +and the little aristocracy, including his own grand-children,--all +indeed who, in his phrase, 'cared for eddication,'--went to +Wattlesea. + + + +CHAPTER XI--'THEY FORDYS.' + + + +'Of honourable reckoning are you both, +And pity 'tis, you lived at odds so long.' + +SHAKESPEARE. + +My father had a good deal of business in hand, and was glad of +Clarence's help in writing and accounts,--a great pleasure, though +it prevented his being Griff's companion in his exploring and essays +at shooting. He had time, however, to make an expedition with me in +the donkey chair to inquire after the herdboy, Amos Bell, and carry +him some kitchen physic. To our horror we found him quite alone in +the wretched cottage, while everybody was out harvesting; but he did +not seem to pity himself, or think it otherwise than quite natural, +as he lay on a little bed in the corner, disabled by what Clarence +thought a dislocation. Miss Ellen had brought him a pudding, and +little Miss Anne a picture-book. + +He was not so dense and shy as the children of the hamlet near us, +and Emily extracted from him that Miss Ellen was 'Our passon's young +lady.' + +'Mr. Mears'!' she exclaimed. + +'No: ourn be Passon Fordy.' + +It turned out that this place was not in Earlscombe at all, but in +Hillside, a different parish; and the boy, Amos, further +communicated that there was old Passon Fordy, and Passon Frank, and +Madam, what was Mr. Frank's lady. Yes, he could read, he could; he +went to Sunday School, and was in Miss Ellen's class; he had been to +school worky days, only father was dead, and Farmer Hartop gave him +a job. + +It was plain that Hillside was under a very different rule from +Earlscombe; and Emily was delighted to have discovered that the +sweet cottage bonnet's owner was called Ellen, which just then was +the pet Christian name of romance, in honour of the Lady of the +Lake. + +In the midst of her raptures, however, just as we were about to turn +in at our own gate into the wood, we heard horses' hoofs, and then +came, careering by on ponies, a very pretty girl and a youth of +about the same age. Clarence's hand rose to his hat, and he made +his eager bow; but the young lady did not vouchsafe the slightest +acknowledgment, turned her head away, and urged her pony to speed. + +Emily broke out with an angry disappointed exclamation. Clarence's +face was scarlet, and he said low and hoarsely, 'That's Lester. He +was in the Argus at Portsmouth two years ago;'--and then, as our +little sister continued her indignant exclamations, he added, 'Hush! +Don't on any account say a word about it. I had better get back to +my work. I am only doing you harm by staying here.' + +At which Emily shed tears, and together we persuaded him not to +curtail his holiday, which, indeed, he could not have done without +assigning the reason to the elders, and this was out of the +question. Nor did he venture to hang back when, as our service was +to be on Sunday afternoon, my father proposed to walk to Hillside +Church in the morning. They came back well pleased. There was care +and decency throughout. The psalms were sung to a 'grinder organ'-- +which was an advanced state of things in those days--and very +nicely. Parson Frank read well and impressively, and the old +parson, a fine venerable man, had preached an excellent sermon-- +really admirable, as my father repeated. Our party had been +scarcely in time, and had been disposed of in seats close to the +door, where Clarence was quite out of sight of the disdainful young +lady and her squire, of whom Emily begged to hear no more. + +She looked askance at the cards left on the hall table the next day- +-'The Rev. Christopher Fordyce,' and 'The Rev. F. C. Fordyce,' also +'Mrs. F. C. Fordyce, Hillside Rectory.' + +We had found out that Hillside was a family living, and that there +was much activity there on the part of the father and son--rector +and curate; and that the other clerical folk, ladies especially, who +called on us, spoke of Mrs. F. C. Fordyce with a certain tone, as if +they were afraid of her, as Sir Horace Lester's sister,--very +superior, very active, very strict in her notions,--as if these were +so many defects. They were an offshoot of the old Fordyces of +Chantry House, but so far back that all recollection of kindred or +connection must have worn out. Their property--all in beautiful +order--marched with ours, and Chapman was very particular about the +boundaries. 'Old master he wouldn't have a bird picked up if it +fell over on they Fordys' ground--not he! He couldn't abide +passons, couldn't the old Squire--not Miss Hannah More, and all they +Cheddar lot, and they Fordys least of all. My son's wife, she was +for sending her little maid to Hillside to Madam Fordys' school, +but, bless your heart, 'twould have been as much as my place was +worth if master had known it.' + +The visit was not returned till after Clarence had gone back to his +London work. Sore as was the loss of him from my daily life, I +could see that the new world and fresh acquaintances were a trial to +him, and especially since the encounter with young Lester had driven +him back into his shell, so that he would be better where he was +already known and had nothing new to overcome. Emily, though not +yet sixteen, was emancipated from schoolroom habits, and the dear +girl was my devoted slave to an extent that perhaps I abused. + +Not being 'come out,' she was left at home on the day when we set +out on a regular progress in the chariot with post-horses. The +britshka and pair, which were our ambition, were to wait till my +father's next rents came in. Morning calls in the country were a +solemn and imposing ceremony, and the head of the family had to be +taken on the first circuit; nor was there much scruple as to making +them in the forenoon, so several were to be disposed of before +fulfilling an engagement to luncheon at the farthest point, where +some old London friends had borrowed a house for the summer, and had +included me in their invitation. + +Here alone did I leave the carriage, but I had Cooper's Spy and my +sketch-book as companions while waiting at doors where the +inhabitants were at home. The last visit was at Hillside Rectory, a +house of architecture somewhat similar to our own, but of the soft +creamy stone which so well set off the vine with purple clusters, +the myrtles and fuchsias, that covered it. I was wishing we had +drawn up far enough off for a sketch to be possible, when, from a +window close above, I heard the following words in a clear girlish +voice - + +'No, indeed! I'm not going down. It is only those horrid +Earlscombe people. I can't think how they have the face to come +near us!' + +There was a reply, perhaps that the parents had made the first +visit, for the rejoinder was--'Yes; grandpapa said it was a +Christian duty to make an advance; but they need not have come so +soon. Indeed, I wonder they show themselves at all. I am sure I +would not if I had such a dreadful son.' Presently, 'I hate to +think of it. That I should have thanked him. Depend upon it, he +will never pay the doctor. A coward like that is capable of +anything.' + +The proverb had been realised, but there could hardly have been a +more involuntary or helpless listener. Presently my parents came +back, escorted by both the gentlemen of the house, tall fine-looking +men, the elder with snowy hair, and the dignity of men of the old +school; the younger with a joyous, hearty, out-of-door countenance, +more like a squire than a clergyman. + +The visit seemed to have been gratifying. Mrs. Fordyce was declared +to be of higher stamp than most of the neighbouring ladies; and my +father was much pleased with the two clergymen, while as we drove +along he kept on admiring the well-ordered fields and fences, and +contrasting the pretty cottages and trim gardens with the dreary +appearance of our own village. I asked why Amos Bell's home had +been neglected, and was answered with some annoyance, as I pointed +down the lane, that it was on our land, though in Hillside parish. +'I am glad to have such neighbours!' observed my mother, and I kept +to myself the remarks I had heard, though I was still tingling with +the sting of them. + +We heard no more of 'they Fordys' for some time. The married pair +went away to stay with friends, and we only once met the old +gentleman, when I was waiting in the street at Wattlesea in the +donkey chair, while my mother was trying to match netting silk in +the odd little shop that united fancy work, toys, and tracts with +the post office. Old Mr. Fordyce met us as we drew up, handed her +out with a grand seigneur's courtesy, and stood talking to me so +delightfully that I quite forgot it was from Christian duty. + +My father corresponded with the old Rector about the state of the +parish, and at last went over to Bath for a personal conference, but +without much satisfaction. The Earlscombe people were pronounced to +be an ungrateful good-for-nothing set, for whom it was of no use to +do anything; and indeed my mother made such discoveries in the +cottages that she durst not let Emily fulfil her cherished scheme of +visiting them. The only resemblance to the favourite heroines of +religious tales that could be permitted was assembling a tiny Sunday +class in Chapman's lodge; and it must be confessed that her brothers +thought she made as much fuss about it as if there had been a +hundred scholars. + +However, between remonstrances and offers of undertaking a share of +the expense, my father managed to get Mr. Mears' services dispensed +with from the ensuing Lady Day, and that a resident curate should be +appointed, the choice of whom was to rest with himself. It was then +and there decided that Martyn should be 'brought up to the Church,' +as people then used to term destination to Holy Orders. My father +said he should feel justified in building a good house when he could +afford it, if it was to be a provision for one of his sons, and he +also felt that as he had the charge of the parish as patron, it was +right and fitting to train one of his sons up to take care of it. +Nor did Martyn show any distaste to the idea, as indeed there was +less in it then than at present to daunt the imagination of an +honest, lively boy, not as yet specially thoughtful or devout, but +obedient, truthful, and fairly reverent, and ready to grow as he was +trained. + + + +CHAPTER XII--MRS. SOPHIA'S FEUD + + + +'O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear, + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, +And said as plain as whisper in the ear, + The place is haunted.' + +HOOD. + +We had a houseful at Christmas. The Rev. Charles Henderson, a +Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, lately ordained a deacon, had +been recommended to us by our London vicar, and was willing not only +to take charge of the parish, but to direct my studies, and to +prepare Martyn for school. He came to us for the Christmas vacation +to reconnoitre and engage lodgings at a farmhouse. We liked him +very much--my mother being all the better satisfied after he had +shown her a miniature, and confided to her that the original was +waiting till a college living should come to him in the distant +future. + +Admiral Griffith could not tear himself from his warm rooms and his +club, but our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, came with his wife, +and revelled in the ceilings of the mullion room, where he would +much have liked to sleep, but that its accommodations were only fit +for a bachelor. + +Our other visitor was Miss Selby, or rather Mrs. Sophia Selby, as +she designated herself, according to the becoming fashion of elderly +spinsters, which to my mind might be gracefully resumed. It irked +my father to think of the good lady's solitary Christmas at Bath, +and he asked her to come to us. She travelled half-way in a post- +chaise, and then was met by the carriage. A very nice old lady she +was, with a meek, delicate babyish face, which could not be spoilt +by the cap of the period, one of the most disfiguring articles of +head gear ever devised, though nobody thought so then. She was full +of kindness; indeed, if she had a fault it was the abundant pity she +lavished on me, and her determination to amuse me. The weather was +of the kind that only the healthy and hardy could encounter, and +when every one else was gone out, and I was just settling in with a +new book, or an old crabbed Latin document, that Mr. Stafford had +entrusted to me to copy out fairly and translate, she would glide in +with her worsted work on a charitable mission to enliven poor Mr. +Edward. + +However, this was the means of my obtaining some curious +enlightenments. A dinner-party was in contemplation, and she was +dismayed at the choice of the fashionable London hour of seven, and +still more by finding that the Fordyces were to be among the guests. +She was too well-bred to manifest her feelings to her hosts, but +alone with me, she could not refrain from expressing her +astonishment to me, all the more when she heard this was reciprocity +for an invitation that it had not been possible to accept. Her poor +dear uncle would never hear of intercourse with Hillside. On being +asked why, she repeated what Chapman had said, that he could not +endure any one connected with Mrs. Hannah More and her canting, +humbugging set, as the ungodly old man had chosen to call them, +imbuing even this good woman with evil prejudices against their +noble work at Cheddar. + +'Besides this, Fordyces and Winslows could never be friends, since +the Fordyces had taken on themselves to dispute the will, and say it +had been improperly obtained.' + +'What will?' + +'Mrs. Winslow's--Margaret Fordyce that was. She was the heiress, +and had every right to dispose of her property.' + +'But that was more than a hundred years ago!' + +'So it was, my dear; but though the law gave it to us--to my uncle's +grandfather (or great-grandfather, was it?)--those Fordyces never +could rest content. Why, one of them--a clergyman's son too--shot +young Philip Winslow dead in a duel. They have always grudged at +us. Does your papa know it, my dear Mr. Edward? He ought to be +aware.' + +'I do not know,' I said; 'but he would hardly care about what +happened in the time of Queen Anne.' + +It was curious to see how the gentle little lady espoused the family +quarrel, which, after all, was none of hers. + +'Well, you are London people, and the other branch, and may not feel +as we do down here; but I shall always say that Madam Winslow's +husband's son had every right to come before her cousin once +removed.' + +I asked if we were descended from her, for, having a turn for +heraldry and genealogy, I wanted to make out our family tree. Mrs. +Sophia was ready to hold up her hands at the ignorance of the 'other +branch.' This poor heiress had lost all her children in their +infancy, and bequeathed the estate to her stepson, the Fordyce male +heir having been endowed by her father with the advowson of Hillside +and a handsome estate there, which Mrs. Selby thought ought to have +contented him, 'but some people never know when they have enough;' +and, on my observing that it might have been a matter of justice, +she waxed hotter, declaring that what the Winslows felt so much was +the accusation of violence against the poor lady. She spoke as if +it were a story of yesterday, and added, 'Indeed, they made the +common people have all sorts of superstitious fancies about the room +where she died--that old part of the house.' Then she added in a +low mysterious voice, 'I hear that your brother Mr. Griffith Winslow +could not sleep there;' and when the rats and the wind were +mentioned--'Yes, that was what my poor dear uncle used to say. He +always called it nonsense; but we never had a servant who would +sleep there. You'll not mention it, Mr. Edward, but I could not +help asking that very nice housemaid, Jane, whether the room was +used, and she said how Mr. Griffith had given it up, and none of the +servants could spend a night there when they are sleeping round. Of +course I said all in my power to dispel the idea, and told her that +there was no accounting for all the noises in old houses; but you +never can reason with that class of people.' + +'Did you ever hear the noises, Mrs. Selby?' + +'Oh, no; I wouldn't sleep there for thousands! Not that I attach +any importance to such folly,--my poor dear uncle would never hear +of such a thing; but I am such a nervous creature, I should lie +awake all night expecting the rats to run over me. I never knew of +any one sleeping there, except in the gay times when I was a child, +and the house used to be as full as, or fuller than, it could hold, +for the hunt breakfast or a ball, and my poor aunt used to make up +ever so many beds in the two rooms, and then we never heard of any +disturbance, except what they made themselves.' + +This chiefly concerned me, because home cosseting had made me old +woman enough to be uneasy about unaired beds; and I knew that my +mother meant to consign Clarence to the mullion chamber. So, +without betraying Jane, I spoke to her, and was answered, 'Oh, sir, +I'll take care of that; I'll light a fire and air the mattresses +well. I wish that was all, poor young gentleman!' + +To the reply that the rats were slaughtered and the wind stopped +out, Jane returned a look of compassion; but the subject was +dropped, as it was supposed to be the right thing to hush up, +instead of fostering, any popular superstition; but it surprised me +that, as all our servants were fresh importations, they should so +soon have become imbued with these undefined alarms. + +My father was much amused at being successor to this family feud, +and said that when he had time he would look up the documents. + +Mrs. Sophia was a sight when Mr. Fordyce and his son and daughter- +in-law were announced; she was so comically stiff between her +deference to her hosts and her allegiance to her poor dear uncle; +but her coldness melted before the charms of old Mr. Fordyce, who +was one of the most delightful people in the world. She even was +his partner at whist, and won the game, and that she DID like. + +Parson Frank, as we naughty young ones called him, was all good- +nature and geniality--a thorough clergyman after the ideas of the +time, and a thorough farmer too; and in each capacity, as well as in +politics, he suited my father or Mr. Henderson. His lady, in a +blonde cap, exactly like the last equipment my mother had provided +herself with in London, and a black satin dress, had much more style +than the more gaily-dressed country dames, and far more +conversation. Mr. Stafford, who had dreaded the party, pronounced +her a sensible, agreeable woman, and she was particularly kind and +pleasant to me, coming and talking over the botany of the country, +and then speaking of my brother's kindness to poor Amos Bell, who +was nearly recovered, but was a weakly child, for whom she dreaded +the toil of a ploughboy in thick clay with heavy shoes. + +I was sorry when, after Emily's well-studied performance on the +piano, Mrs. Fordyce was summoned away from me to sing, but her music +and her voice were both of a very different order from ordinary +drawing-room music; and when our evening was over, we congratulated +ourselves upon our neighbours, and agreed that the Fordyces were the +gems of the party. + +Only Mrs. Sophia sighed at us as degenerate Winslows, and Emily +reserved to herself the right of believing that the daughter was 'a +horrid girl.' + + + +CHAPTER XIII--A SCRAPE + + + +'Though bound with weakness' heavy chain +We in the dust of earth remain; +Not all remorseful be our tears, +No agony of shame or fears, +Need pierce its passion's bitter tide.' + +Verses and Sonnets. + +Perhaps it was of set purpose that our dinner. party had been given +before Clarence's return. Griffith had been expected in time for +it, but he had preferred going by way of London to attend a ball +given by the daughter of a barrister friend of my father's. Selina +Clarkson was a fine showy girl, with the sort of beauty to inspire +boyish admiration, and Griff's had been a standing family joke, even +my father condescending to tease him when the young lady married Sir +Henry Peacock, a fat vulgar old man who had made his fortune in the +commissariat, and purchased a baronetcy. He was allowing his young +wife her full swing of fashion and enjoyment. My mother did not +think it a desirable acquaintance, and was restless until both the +brothers came home together, long after dark on Christmas Eve, +having been met by the gig at the corner where the coach stopped. +The dinner-hour had been put off till half-past six, and we had to +wait for them, the coach having been delayed by setting down +Christmas guests and Christmas fare. They were a contrast; Griffith +looking very handsome and manly, all in a ruddy glow from the frosty +air, and Clarence, though equally tall, well-made, and with more +refined features, looked pale and effaced, now that his sailor tan +was worn off. The one talked as eagerly as he ate, the other was +shy, spiritless, and with little appetite; but as he always shrank +into himself among strangers, it was the less wonder that he sat in +his drooping way behind my sofa, while Griffith kept us all merry +with his account of the humours of the 'Peacock at home;' the +lumbering efforts of old Sir Henry to be as young and gay as his +wife, in spite of gout and portliness; and the extreme delight of +his lady in her new splendours--a gold spotted muslin and white +plumes in a diamond agraffe. He mimicked Sir Henry's cockneyisms +more than my father's chivalry approved towards his recent host, as +he described the complaints he had heard against 'my Lady being +refused the hentry at Halmack's, but treated like the wery canal;' +and how the devoted husband 'wowed he would get up a still more +hexclusive circle, and shut hout these himpertinent fashionables who +regarded Halmack's as the seventh 'eaven.' + +My mother shook her head at his audacious fun about Paradise and the +Peri, but he was so brilliant and good-humoured that no one was ever +long displeased with him. At night he followed when Clarence helped +me to my room, and carefully shutting the door, Griff began. 'Now, +Teddy, you're always as rich as a Jew, and I told Bill you'd help +him to set it straight. I'd do it myself, but that I'm cleaned out. +I'd give ten times the cash rather than see him with that hang-dog +look again for just nothing at all, if he would only believe so and +be rational.' + +Clarence did look indescribably miserable while it was explained +that he had been commissioned to receive about 20 pounds which was +owing to my father, and to discharge therewith some small debts to +London tradesmen. All except the last, for a little more than four +pounds, had been paid, when Clarence met in the street an old +messmate, a good-natured rattle-pated youth,--one of those who had +thought him harshly treated. There was a cordial greeting, and an +invitation to dine at once at a hotel, where they were joined by +some other young men, and by and by betook themselves to cards, when +my poor brother's besetting enemy prevented him from withdrawing +when he found the points were guineas. Thus he lost the remaining +amount in his charge, and so much of his own that barely enough was +left for his journey. His salary was not due till Lady Day; Mr. +Castleford was in the country, and no advances could be asked from +Mr. Frith. Thus Griff had found him in utter despair, and had ever +since been trying to cheer him and make light of his trouble. If I +advanced the amount, which was no serious matter to me, Clarence +could easily get Peter to pay the bill, and if my father should +demand the receipt too soon, it would be easy to put him off by +saying there had been a delay in getting the account sent in. + +'I couldn't do that,' said Clarence. + +'Well, I should not have thought you would have stuck at that,' +returned Griff. + +'There must be no untruth,' I broke in; 'but if without THAT, he can +avoid getting into a scrape with papa--' + +Clarence interrupted in the wavering voice we knew so well, but +growing clearer and stronger. + +'Thank you, Edward, but--but--no, I can't. There's the Sacrament +to-morrow.' + +'Oh--h!' said Griff, in an indescribable tone. But he will never +believe you, nor let you go.' + +'Better so,' said Clarence, half choked, 'than go profanely-- +deceiving--or not knowing whether I shall--' + +Just then we heard our father wishing the other gentlemen good- +night, and to our surprise Clarence opened the door, though he was +deadly white and with dew starting on his forehead. + +My father turned good-naturedly. 'Boys, boys, you are glad to be +together, but mamma won't have you talking here all night, keeping +her baby up.' + +'Sir,' said Clarence, holding by the rail of the bed, 'I was waiting +for you. I have something to tell you--' + +The words that followed were incoherent and wrong end foremost; nor +had many, indeed, been uttered before my father cut them short with +- + +'No false excuses, sir; I know you too well to listen. Go. I have +ceased to hope for anything better.' + +Clarence went without a word, but Griff and I burst out with +entreaties to be listened to. Our father thought at first that ours +were only the pleadings of partiality, and endeavours to shield the +brother we both so heartily loved; but when he understood the +circumstances, the real amount of the transgression, and Clarence's +rejection of our united advice and assistance to conceal it, he was +greatly touched and softened. 'Poor lad! poor fellow!' he muttered, +'he is really doing his best. I need not have cut him so short. I +was afraid of more falsehoods if I let him open his mouth. I'll go +and see.' + +He went off, and we remained in suspense, Griff observing that he +had done his best, but poor Bill always would be a fool, and that no +one who had not always lived at home like me would have let out that +we had been for the suppression policy. As I was rather shocked, he +went off to bed, saying he should look in to see what remained of +Clarence after the pelting of the pitiless storm he was sure to +bring on himself by his ridiculous faltering instead of speaking out +like a man. + +I longed to have been able to do the same, but my father kindly came +back to relieve my mind by telling me that he was better satisfied +about Clarence than ever he had been before. When encouraged to +speak out, the narrative of the temptation had so entirely agreed +with what we had said as to show there had been no prevarication, +and this had done more to convince my father that he was on the +right track than the having found him on his knees. He had had a +patient hearing, and thus was able to command his nerves enough to +explain himself, and it had ended in my father giving entire +forgiveness for what, as Griff truly said, would have been a mere +trifle but for the past. The voluntary confession had much +impressed my father, and he could not help adding a word of gentle +reproof to me for having joined in aiding him to withhold it, but he +accepted my explanation and went away, observing, 'By the by, I +don't wonder at what Griffith says of that room; I never heard such +strange effects of currents of air.' + +Clarence was in my room before I was drest, full of our father's +'wonderful goodness' to him. He had never experienced anything like +it, he said. 'Why! he really seemed hopeful about me,' were words +uttered with a gladness enough to go to one's heart. 'O Edward, I +feel as if there was some chance of "steadfastly purposing" this +time.' + +It was not the way of the family to say much of religious feeling, +and this was much for Clarence to utter. He looked white and tired, +but there was an air of rest and peace about him, above all when my +mother met him with a very real kiss. Moreover, Mr. Castleford had +taken care to brighten our Christmas with a letter expressive of +great satisfaction with Clarence for steadiness and intelligence. +Even Mr. Frith allowed that he was the most punctual of all those +young dogs. + +'I do believe,' said my father, 'that his piety is doing him some +good after all.' + +So our mutual wishes of a happy Christmas were verified, though not +much according to the notions of this half of the century. People +made their Christmas day either mere merriment, or something little +different from the grave Sunday of that date. And ours, except for +the Admiral's dining with us, had always been of the latter +description, all the more that when celebrations of the Holy +Communion were so rare they were treated with an awe and reverence +which frequency has perhaps diminished, and a feeling (possibly +Puritanical) prevailed which made it appear incongruous to end with +festivity a day so begun. That we had a Christmas Day Communion at +all at Earlscombe was an innovation only achieved by Mr. Henderson +going to assist the old Rector at Wattlesea; and there were no +communicants except from our house, besides Chapman, his daughter- +in-law, and five old creatures between whom the alms were +immediately divided. We afterwards learnt that our best farmer and +his wife were much disappointed at the change from Sunday +interfering with the family jollification; and Mrs. Sophia Selby was +annoyed at the contradiction to her habits under the rule of her +poor dear uncle. + +Of the irregularities, irreverences, and squalor of the whole I will +not speak. They were not then such stumbling-blocks as they would +be now, and many passed unperceived by us, buried as we were in our +big pew, with our eyes riveted on our books; yet even thus there was +enough evident to make my mother rejoice that Mr. Henderson would be +with us before Easter. Still this could not mar the thankful +gladness that was with us all that day, and which shone in +Clarence's eyes. His countenance always had a remarkable expression +in church, as if somehow his spirit went farther than ours did, and +things unseen were more real to him. + +Hillside, as usual, had two services, and my father and his friend +were going to walk thither in the afternoon, but it was a raw cold +day, threatening snow, and Emily was caught by my mother in the hail +and ordered back, as well as Clarence, who had shown symptoms of +having caught cold on his dismal journey. Emily coaxed from her +permission to have a fire in the bookroom, and there we three had a +memorably happy time. We read our psalms and lessons, and our +Christian Year, which was more and more the lodestar of our +feelings. We compared our favourite passages, and discussed the +obscurer ones, and Clarence was led to talk out more of his heart +than he had ever shown to us before. Perhaps he had lost some of +his reserve through his intercourse with our good old governess, +Miss Newton, who was still grinding away at her daily mill, though +with somewhat failing eyesight, so that she could do nothing but +knit in the long evenings, and was most grateful to her former pupil +for coming, as often as he could, to talk or read to her. + +She was a most excellent and devout woman, and when Emily, who in +youthful gaiete de coeur had got a little tired of her, exclaimed at +his taste, and asked if she made him read nothing but Pike's Early +Piety, he replied gravely, 'She showed me where to lay my burthen +down,' and turned to the two last verses of the poem for 'Good +Friday' in the Christian Year, as well as to the one we had just +read on the Holy Communion. + +My father's kindness had seemed to him the pledge of the Heavenly +Father's forgiveness; and he added, perhaps a little childishly, +that it had been his impulse to promise never to touch a card again, +but that he dreaded the only too familiar reply, 'What availed his +promises?' + +'Do promise, Clarry!' cried Emily, 'and then you won't have to play +with that tiresome old Mrs. Sophia.' + +'That would rather deter me,' said Clarence good-humouredly. + +'A card-playing old age is despicable,' pronounced Miss Emily, much +to our amusement. + +After that we got into a bewilderment. We knew nothing of the +future question of temperance versus total abstinence; but after it +had been extracted that Miss Newton regarded cards as the devil's +books, the inconsistent little sister changed sides, and declared it +narrow and evangelical to renounce what was innocent. Clarence +argued that what might be harmless for others might be dangerous for +such as himself, and that his real difficulty in making even a +mental vow was that, if broken, there was an additional sin. + +'It is not oneself that one trusts,' I said. + +'No,' said Clarence emphatically; 'and setting up a vow seems as if +it might be sticking up the reed of one's own word, and leaning on +THAT--when it breaks, at least mine does. If I could always get the +grasp of Him that I felt to-day, there would be no more bewildered +heart and failing spirit, which are worse than the actual falls they +cause.' And as Emily said she did not understand, he replied in +words I wrote down and thought over, 'What we ARE is the point, more +than even what we DO. We DO as we ARE; and yet we form ourselves by +what we DO.' + +'And,' I put in, 'I know somebody who won a victory last night over +himself and his two brothers. Surely DOING that is a sign that he +IS more than he used to be.' + +'If he were, it would not have been an effort at all,' said +Clarence, but with his rare sweet smile. + +Just then Griff called him away, and Emily sat pondering and +impressed. 'It did seem so odd,' she said, 'that Clarry should be +so much the best, and yet so much the worst of us.' + +I agreed. His insight into spiritual things, and his enjoyment of +them, always humiliated us both, yet he fell so much lower in +practice,--'But then we had not his temptations.' + +'Yes,' said Emily; 'but look at Griff! He goes about like other +young men, and keeps all right, and yet he doesn't care about +religious things a bit more than he can help.' + +It was quite true. Religion was life to the one and an insurance to +the other, and this had been a mystery to us all our young lives, as +far as we had ever reflected on the contrast between the practical +failure and success of each. Our mother, on the other hand, viewed +Clarence's tendencies as part of an unreal, self-deceptive nature, +and regretted his intimacy with Miss Newton, who, she said, had +fostered 'that kind of thing' in his childhood--made him fancy talk, +feeling, and preaching were more than truth and honour--and might +lead him to run after Irving, Rowland Hill, or Baptist Noel, about +whose tenets she was rather confused. It would be an additional +misfortune if he became a fanatical Evangelical light, and he was +just the character to be worked upon. + +My father held that she might be thankful for any good influence or +safe resort for a young man in lodgings in London, and he merely +bade Clarence never resort to any variety of dissenting preacher. +We were of the school called--a little later--high and dry, but were +strictly orthodox according to our lights, and held it a prime duty +to attend our parish church, whatever it might be; nor, indeed, had +Clarence swerved from these traditions. + +Poor Mrs. Sophia was baulked of the game at whist, which she viewed +as a legitimate part of the Christmas pleasures; and after we had +eaten our turkey, we found the evening long, except that Martyn +escaped to snapdragon with the servants; and, by and by, Chapman, +magnificent in patronage, ushered in the church singers into the +hall, and clarionet, bassoon, and fiddle astonished our ears. + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE MULLION CHAMBER + + + +'A lady with a lamp I see, +Pass through the glimmering gloom, + And flit from room to room.' + +LONGFELLOW. + +For want of being able to take exercise, the first part of the night +had always been sleepless with me, though my dear mother thought it +wrong to recognise the habit or allow me a lamp. A fire, however, I +had, and by its light, on the second night after Christmas, I saw my +door noiselessly opened, and Clarence creeping in half-dressed and +barefooted. To my frightened interrogation the answer came, through +chattering teeth, 'It's I--only I--Ted--no--nothing's the matter, +only I can't stand it any longer!' + +His hands were cold as ice when he grasped mine, as if to get hold +of something substantial, and he trembled so as to shake the bed. +'That room,' he faltered. ''Tis not only the moans! I've seen +her!' + +'Whom?' + +'I don't know. There she stands with her lamp, crying!' I could +scarcely distinguish the words through the clashing of his teeth, +and as I threw my arms round him the shudder seemed to pass to me; +but I did my best to warm him by drawing the clothes over him, and +he began to gather himself together, and speak intelligibly. There +had been sounds the first night as of wailing, but he had been too +much preoccupied to attend to them till, soon after one o'clock, +they ended in a heavy fall and long shriek, after which all was +still. Christmas night had been undisturbed, but on this the voices +had begun again at eleven, and had a strangely human sound; but as +it was windy, sleety weather, and he had learnt at sea to disregard +noises in the rigging, he drew the sheet over his head and went to +sleep. 'I was dreaming that I was at sea,' he said, 'as I always do +on a noisy night, but this was not a dream. I was wakened by a +light in the room, and there stood a woman with a lamp, moaning and +sobbing. My first notion was that one of the maids had come to call +me, and I sat up; but I could not speak, and she gave another awful +suppressed cry, and moved towards that walled-up door. Then I saw +it was none of the servants, for it was an antique dress like an old +picture. So I knew what it must be, and an unbearable horror came +over me, and I rushed into the outer room, where there was a little +fire left; but I heard her going on still, and I could endure it no +longer. I knew you would be awake and would bear with me, so I came +down to you.' + +Then this was what Chapman and the maids had meant. This was Mrs. +Sophia Selby's vulgar superstition! I found that Clarence had heard +none of the mysterious whispers afloat, and only knew that Griff had +deserted the room after his own return to London. I related what I +had learnt from the old lady, and in that midnight hour we agreed +that it could be no mere fancy or rumour, but that cruel wrong must +have been done in that chamber. Our feeling was that all ought to +be made known, and in that impression we fell asleep, Clarence +first. + +By and by I found him moving. He had heard the clock strike four, +and thought it wiser to repair to his own quarters, where he +believed the disturbance was over. Lucifer matches as yet were not, +but he had always been a noiseless being, with a sailor's foot, so +that, by the help of the moonlight through the hall windows, he +regained his room. + +And when morning had come, the nocturnal visitation wore such a +different aspect to both our minds that we decided to say nothing to +our parents, who, said Clarence, would simply disbelieve him; and, +indeed, I inclined to suppose it had been an uncommonly vivid dream, +produced in that sensitive nature by the uncanny sounds of the wind +in the chinks and crannies of the ancient chamber. Had not Scott's +Demonology and Witchcraft, which we studied hard on that day, proved +all such phantoms to be explicable? The only person we told was +Griff, who was amused and incredulous. He had heard the noises--oh +yes! and objected to having his sleep broken by them. It was too +had to expose Clarence to them--poor Bill--on whom they worked such +fancies! + +He interrogated Chapman, however, but probably in that bantering way +which is apt to produce reserve. Chapman never 'gave heed to them +fictious tales,' he said; but, when hard pressed, he allowed that he +had 'heerd that a lady do walk o' winter nights,' and that was why +the garden door of the old rooms was walled up. Griff asked if this +was done for fear she should catch cold, and this somewhat affronted +him, so that he averred that he knew nought about it, and gave no +thought to such like. + +Just then they arrived at the Winslow Arms, and took each a glass of +ale, when Griff, partly to tease Chapman, asked the landlady--an old +Chantry House servant--whether she had ever met the ghost. She +turned rather pale, which seemed to have impressed him, and demanded +if he had seen it. 'It always walked at Christmas time--between +then and the New Year.' She had once seen a light in the garden by +the ruin in winter-time, and once last spring it came along the +passage, but that was just before the old Squire was took for +death,--folks said that was always the way before any of the family +died--'if you'll excuse it, sir.' Oh no, she thought nothing of +such things, but she had heard tell that the noises were such at all +times of the year that no one could sleep in the rooms, but the +light wasn't to be seen except at Christmas. + +Griff with the philosophy of a university man, was certain that all +was explained by Clarence having imbibed the impression of the place +being haunted; and going to sleep nervous at the noises, his brain +had shaped a phantom in accordance. Let Clarence declare as he +might that the legends were new to him, Griff only smiled to think +how easily people forgot, and he talked earnestly about catching +ideas without conscious information. + +However, he volunteered to sit up that night to ascertain the exact +causes of the strange noises and convince Clarence that they were +nothing but the effects of draughts. The fire in his gunroom was +surreptitiously kept up to serve for the vigil, which I ardently +desired to share. It was an enterprise; it would gratify my +curiosity; and besides, though Griffith was good-natured and +forbearing in a general way towards Clarence, I detected a spirit of +mockery about him which might break out unpleasantly when poor +Clarry was convicted of one of his unreasonable panics. + +Both brothers were willing to gratify me, the only difficulty being +that the tap of my crutches would warn the entire household of the +expedition. However, they had--all unknown to my mother--several +times carried me about queen's cushion fashion, as, being always +much of a size, they could do most handily; and as both were now +fine, strong, well-made youths of twenty and nineteen, they had no +doubt of easily and silently conveying me up the shallow-stepped +staircase when all was quiet for the night. + +Emily, with her sharp ears, guessed that something was in hand, but +we promised her that she should know all in time. I believe Griff, +being a little afraid of her quickness, led her to suppose he was +going to hold what he called a symposium in his rooms, and to think +it a mystery of college life not intended for young ladies. + +He really had prepared a sort of supper for us when, after my +father's resounding turn of the key of the drawing-room door, my +brothers, in their stocking soles, bore me upstairs, the fun of the +achievement for the moment overpowering all sense of eeriness. +Griff said he could not receive me in his apartment without doing +honour to the occasion, and that Dutch courage was requisite for us +both; but I suspect it was more in accordance with Oxford habits +that he had provided a bottle of sherry and another of ale, some +brandy cherries, bread, cheese, and biscuits, by what means I do not +know, for my mother always locked up the wine. He was disappointed +that Clarence would touch nothing, and declared that inanition was +the preparation for ghost-seeing or imagining. I drank his health +in a glass of sherry as I looked round at the curious old room, with +its panelled roof, the heraldic devices and badges of the Power +family, and the trophy of swords, dirks, daggers, and pistols, +chiefly relics of our naval grandfather, but reinforced by the +sword, helmet, and spurs of the county Yeomanry which Griff had +joined. + +Griff proposed cards to drive away fancies, especially as the sounds +were beginning; but though we generally yielded to him we COULD not +give our attention to anything but these. There was first a low +moan. 'No great harm in that,' said Griff; 'it comes through that +crack in the wainscot where there is a sham window. Some putty will +put a stop to that.' + +Then came a more decided wail and sob much nearer to us. Griff +hastily swallowed the ale in his tumbler, and, striking a theatrical +attitude, exclaimed, 'Angels and ministers of grace defend us!' + +Clarence held up his hand in deprecation. The door into his bedroom +was open, and Griff, taking up one of the flat candlesticks, pursued +his researches, holding the flame to all chinks or cracks in the +wainscotting to detect draughts which might cause the dreary sounds, +which were much more like suppressed weeping than any senseless gust +of wind. Of draughts there were many, and he tried holding his hand +against each crevice to endeavour to silence the wails; but these +became more human and more distressful. Presently Clarence +exclaimed, 'There!' and on his face there was a whiteness and an +expression which always recurs to me on reading those words of +Eliphaz the Temanite, 'Then a spirit passed before my face, and the +hair of my flesh stood up.' Even Griff was awestruck as we cried, +'Where? what?' + +'Don't you see her? There! By the press--look!' + +'I see a patch of moonlight on the wall,' said Griff. + +'Moonlight--her lamp. Edward, don't you see her?' + +I could see nothing but a spot of light on the wall. Griff (plainly +putting a force on himself) came back and gave him a good-natured +shake. 'Dreaming again, old Bill. Wake up and come to your +senses.' + +'I am as much in my senses as you are,' said Clarence. 'I see her +as plainly as I see you.' + +Nor could any one doubt either the reality of the awe in his voice +and countenance, nor of the light--a kind of hazy ball--nor of the +choking sobs. + +'What is she like?' I asked, holding his hand, for, though infected +by his dread, my fears were chiefly for the effect on him; but he +was much calmer and less horror-struck than on the previous night, +though still he shuddered as he answered in a low voice, as if loth +to describe a lady in her presence, 'A dark cloak with the hood +fallen back, a kind of lace headdress loosely fastened, brown hair, +thin white face, eyes--oh, poor thing!--staring with fright, dark-- +oh, how swollen the lids! all red below with crying--black dress +with white about it--a widow kind of look--a glove on the arm with +the lamp. Is she beckoning--looking at us? Oh, you poor thing, if +I could tell what you mean!' + +I felt the motion of his muscles in act to rise, and grasped him. +Griff held him with a strong hand, hoarsely crying, 'Don't!--don't-- +don't follow the thing, whatever you do!' + +Clarence hid his face. It was very awful and strange. Once the +thought of conjuring her to speak by the Holy Name crossed me, but +then I saw no figure; and with incredulous Griffith standing by, it +would have been like playing, nor perhaps could I have spoken. How +long this lasted there is no knowing; but presently the light moved +towards the walled-up door and seemed to pass into it. Clarence +raised his head and said she was gone. We breathed freely. + +'The farce is over,' said Griff. 'Mr. Edward Winslow's carriage +stops the way!' + +I was hoisted up, candle in hand, between the two, and had nearly +reached the stairs when there came up on the garden side a sound as +of tipsy revellers in the garden. 'The scoundrels! how can they +have got in?' cried Griff, looking towards the window; but all the +windows on that side had peculiarly heavy shutters and bars, with +only a tiny heart-shaped aperture very high up, so they somewhat +hurried their steps downstairs, intending to rush out on the +intruders from the back door. But suddenly, in the middle of the +staircase, we heard a terrible heartrending woman's shriek, making +us all start and have a general fall. My brothers managed to seat +me safely on a step without much damage to themselves, but the +candle fell and was extinguished, and we made too heavy a weight to +fall without real noise enough to bring the household together +before we could pick ourselves up in the dark. + +We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something about +pistols, impelling Griff to call out, 'It's nothing, papa; but there +are some drunken rascals in the garden.' + +A light had come by this time, and we were detected. There was a +general sally upon the enemy in the garden before any one thought of +me, except a 'You here!' when they nearly fell over me. And there I +was left sitting on the stair, helpless without my crutches, till in +a few minutes all returned declaring there was nothing--no signs of +anything; and then as Clarence ran up to me with my crutches my +father demanded the meaning of my being there at that time of night. + +'Well, sir,' said Griff, 'it is only that we have been sitting up to +investigate the ghost.' + +'Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense! What induced you to be dragging +Edward about in this dangerous way?' + +'I wished it,' said I. + +'You are all mad together, I think. I won't have the house +disturbed for this ridiculous folly. I shall look into it to- +morrow!' + + + +CHAPTER XV--RATIONAL THEORIES + + + +'These are the reasons, they are natural.' + +Julius Caesar. + +If anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant to Mr. and +Mrs. Winslow, it would have been the presence of guests. However, +inquiry was suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my +mother made to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that +Emily was nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew +more about the popular version of the legend than any of us. + +Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head was aching from a bump +against the edge of a step, and his cold was much worse; no wonder, +said my mother; but she was always softened by any ailment, and +feared that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness. I have +always thought that if Clarence could have come home from his court- +martial with a brain fever he would have earned immediate +forgiveness; but unluckily for him, he was a very healthy person. + +All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, where my +father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed 'this +preposterous business.' In our morning senses our impressions were +much more vague than at midnight, and we betrayed some confusion; +but Griff and I had a strong instinct of sheltering Clarence, and we +stoutly declared the noises to be beyond the capacities of wind, +rats, or cats; that the light was visible and inexplicable; and that +though we had seen nothing else, we could not doubt that Clarence +did. + +'Thought he did,' corrected my father. + +'Without discussing the word,' said Griff, 'I mean that the effect +on his senses was the same as the actual sight. You could not look +at him without being certain.' + +'Exactly so,' returned my mother. 'I wish Dr. Fellowes were near.' + +Indeed nothing saved Clarence from being consigned to medical +treatment but the distance from Bath or Bristol, and the +contradictory advice that had been received from our county +neighbours as to our family doctor. However, she formed her theory +that his nervous imaginings--whether involuntary or acted, she hoped +the former, and wished she could be sure--had infected us; and, as +she was really uneasy about him, she would not let him sleep in the +mullion room, but having nowhere else to bestow him, she turned out +the man-servant and put him into the little room beyond mine, and +she also forbade any mention of the subject to him that day. + +This was a sore prohibition to Emily, who had been discussing it +with the other ladies, and was in a mingled state of elation at the +romance, and terror at the supernatural, which found vent in excited +giggle, and moved Griff to cram her with raw-head and bloody-bone +horrors, conventional enough to be suspicious, and send her to me +tearfully to entreat to know the truth. If by day she exulted in a +haunted chamber, in the evening she paid for it by terrors at +walking about the house alone, and, when sent on an errand by my +mother, looked piteous enough to be laughed at or scolded on all +sides. + +The gentlemen had more serious colloquies, and the upshot was a +determination to sit up together and discover the origin of the +annoyance. Mr. Stafford's antiquarian researches had made him +familiar with such mysteries, and enough of them had been explained +by natural causes to convince him that there was a key to all the +rest. Owls, coiners, and smugglers had all been convicted of +simulating ghosts. In one venerable mansion, behind the wainscot, +there had been discovered nine skeletons of cats in different stages +of decay, having trapped themselves at various intervals of time, +and during the gradual extinction of their eighty-one lives having +emitted cries enough to establish the ghastly reputation of the +place. Perhaps Mr. Henderson was inclined to believe there were +more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in even an +antiquary's philosophy. He owned himself perplexed, but reserved +his opinion. + +At breakfast Clarence was quite well, except for the remains of his +sore throat, and the two seniors were gruff and brief as to their +watch. They had heard odd noises, and should discover the cause; +the carpenter had already been sent for, and they had seen a light +which was certainly due to reflection or refraction. Mr. Henderson +committed himself to nothing but that 'it was very extraordinary;' +and there was a wicked look of diversion on Griff's face, and an +exchange of glances. Afterwards, in our own domain, we extracted a +good deal more from them. + +Griff told us how the two elders started on politics, and denounced +Brougham and O'Connell loud enough to terrify any save the most +undaunted ghost, till Henderson said 'Hush!' and they paused at the +moan with which the performance always commenced, making Mr. +Stafford turn, as Griff said, 'white in the gills,' though he talked +of the wind on the stillest of frosty nights. Then came the sobbing +and wailing, which certainly overawed them all; Henderson called +them 'agonising,' but Griff was in a manner inured to this, and felt +as if master of the ceremonies. Let them say what they would by +daylight about owls, cats, and rats, they owned the human element +then, and were far from comfortable, though they would not +compromise their good sense by owning what both their younger +companions had perceived--their feeling of some undefinable +presence. Vain attempts had been made to account for the light or +get rid of it by changing the position of candles or bright objects +in the outer room; and Henderson had shut himself into the bedroom +with it; but there he still only saw the hazy light--though all was +otherwise pitch dark, except the keyhole and the small gray patch of +sky at the top of the window-shutters. 'You saw nothing else?' said +Griff. 'I thought I heard you break out as Clarence did, just +before my father opened the door.' + +'Perhaps I did so. I had the sense strongly on me of some being in +grievous distress very near me.' + +'And you should have power over it,' suggested Emily. + +'I am afraid,' he said, 'that more thorough conviction and +comprehension are needed before I could address the thing with +authority. I should like to have stayed longer and heard the +conclusion.' + +For Mr. Stafford had grown impatient and weary, and my father having +satisfied himself that there was something to be detected, would not +remain to the end, and not only carried his companions off, but +locked the doors, perhaps expecting to imprison some agent in a +trick, and find him in the morning. + +Indeed Clarence had a dim remembrance of having been half wakened by +some one looking in on him in the night, when he was sleeping +heavily after his cold and the previous night's disturbance, and we +suspected, though we would not say, that our father might have +wished to ascertain that he had no share in producing these +appearances. He was, however, fully acquitted of all wilful +deception in the case, and he was not surprised, though he was +disappointed, that his vision of the lady was supposed to be the +consequence of excited imagination. + +'I can't help it,' he said to me in private. 'I have always seen or +felt, or whatever you may call it, things that others do not. Don't +you remember how nobody would believe that I saw Lucy Brooke?' + +'That was in the beginning of the measles.' + +' I know; and I will tell you something curious. When I was at +Gibraltar I met Mrs. Emmott--' + +'Mary Brooke?' + +'Yes; I spent a very happy Sunday with her. We talked over old +times, and she told me that Lucy had all through her illness been +very uneasy about having promised to bring me a macaw's feather the +next time we played in the Square gardens. It could not be sent to +me for fear of carrying the infection, but the dear girl was too +light-headed to understand, and kept on fretting and wandering about +breaking her word. I have no doubt the wish carried her spirit to +me the moment it was free,' he added, with tears springing to his +eyes. He also said that before the court-martial he had, night +after night, dreams of sinking and drowning in huge waves, and his +friend Coles struggling to come to his aid, but being forcibly +withheld; and he had since learnt that Coles had actually +endeavoured to come from Plymouth to bear testimony to his previous +character, but had been refused leave, and told that he could do no +good. + +There had been other instances of perception of a presence and of a +prescient foreboding. 'It is like a sixth sense,' he said, 'and a +very uncomfortable one. I would give much to be rid of it, for it +is connected with all that is worst in my life. I had it before +Navarino, when no one expected an engagement. It made me believe I +should be killed, and drove me to what was much worse--or at least I +used to think so.' + +'Don't you now?' I asked. + +'No,' said Clarence. 'It was a great mercy that I did not die then. +There's something to conquer first. But you'll never speak of this, +Ted. I have left off telling of such things--it only gives another +reason for disbelieving me.' + +However, this time his veracity was not called in question,--but he +was supposed to be under a hallucination, the creation of the noises +acting on his imagination and memory of the persecuted widow, which +must have been somewhere dormant in his mind, though he averred that +he had never heard of it. It had now, however, made a strong +impression on him; he was convinced that some crime or injustice had +been perpetrated, and thought it ought to be investigated; but +Griffith made us laugh at his championship of this shadow of a +shade, and even wrote some mock heroic verses about it,--nor would +it have been easy to stir my father to seek for the motives of an +apparition which no one in the family save Clarence professed to +have seen. + +The noises were indisputable, but my mother began to suspect a cause +for them. To oblige a former cook we had brought down with us as +stable-boy her son, George Sims, an imp accustomed to be the pet and +jester of a mews. Martyn was only too fond of his company, and he +made no secret of his contempt for the insufferable dulness of the +country, enlivening it by various acts of monkey-mischief, in some +of which Martyn had been implicated. That very afternoon, as Mrs. +Sophia Selby was walking home in the twilight from Chapman's lodge, +in company with Mr. Henderson, an eldritch yell proceeding from the +vaults beneath the mullion chambers nearly frightened her into fits. +Henderson darted in and captured the two boys in the fact. Martyn's +asseveration that he had taken the pair for Griff and Emily would +have pacified the good-natured clergyman, but Mrs. Sophia was too +much agitated, or too spiteful, as we declared, not to make a scene. + +Martyn spent the evening alone and in disgrace, and only his +unimpeachable character for truth caused the acceptance of his +affirmation that the yell was an impromptu fraternal compliment, and +that he had nothing to do with the noises in the mullion chamber. +He had been supposed to be perfectly unconscious of anything of the +kind, and to have never so much as heard of a phantom, so my mother +was taken somewhat aback when, in reply to her demand whether he had +ever been so naughty as to assist George in making a noise in +Clarence's room, he said, 'Why, that's the ghost of the lady that +was murdered atop of the steps, and always walks every Christmas!' + +'Who told you such ridiculous nonsense?' + +The answer 'George' was deemed conclusive that all had been got up +by that youth; and there was considerable evidence of his talent for +ventriloquism and taste for practical jokes. My mother was certain +that, having heard of the popular superstition, he had acted ghost. +She appealed to Woodstock to prove the practicability of such feats; +and her absolute conviction persuaded the maids (who had given +warning en masse) that the enemy was exorcised when George Sims had +been sent off on the Royal Mail under Clarence's guardianship. + +None of the junior part of the family believed him guilty, but he +had hunted the cows round the paddock, mounted on my donkey, had +nearly shot the kitchen-maid with Griff's gun, and, if not much +maligned, knew the way to the apple-chamber only too well,--so that +he richly deserved his doom, rejoiced in it himself, and was +unregretted save by Martyn. Clarence viewed him in the light of a +victim, and tried to keep an eye on him, but he developed his talent +as a ventriloquist, made his fortune, and retired on a public-house. + +My mother would fain have had the vaults under the mullion rooms +bricked up, but Mr. Stafford cried out on the barbarism of such a +proceeding. The mystery was declared to be solved, and was added to +Mr. Stafford's good stories of haunted houses. + +And at home my father forbade any further mention of such rank folly +and deception. The inner mullion chamber was turned into a lumber- +room, and as weeks passed by without hearing or seeing any more of +lady or of lamp, we began to credit the wonderful freaks of the +goblin page. + + + +CHAPTER XVI--CAT LANGUAGE + + + +Soon as she parted thence--the fearful twayne, +That blind old woman and her daughter deare, +Came forth, and finding Kirkrapine there slayne, +For anguish greate they gan to rend their heare +And beate their breasts, and naked flesh to teare; +And when they both had wept and wayled their fill, +Then forth they ran, like two amazed deere, +Half mad through malice and revenging will, +To follow her that was the causer of their ill.' + +SPENSER. + +The Christmas vacation was not without another breeze about +Griffith's expenses at Oxford. He held his head high, and declared +that people expected something from the eldest son of a man of +property, and my father tried to convince him that a landed estate +often left less cash available than did the fixed salary of an +office. Griff treated all in his light, good-humoured way, promised +to be careful, and came to me to commiserate the poor old +gentleman's ignorance of the ways of the new generation. + +There ensued some trying weeks of dark days, raw frost, and black +east wind, when the home party cast longing, lingering recollections +back to the social intercourse, lamp-lit streets, and ready +interchange of books and other amenities we had left behind us. We +were not accustomed to have our nearest neighbours separated from us +by two miles of dirty lane, or road mended with excruciating stones, +nor were they very congenial when we did see them. The Fordyce +family might be interesting, but we younger ones could not forget +the slight to Clarence, and, besides, the girls seemed to be +entirely in the schoolroom, Mrs. Fordyce was delicate and was shut +up all the winter, and the only intercourse that took place was when +my father met the elder Mr. Fordyce at the magistrates' bench; also +there was a conference about Amos Bell, who was preferred to the +post left vacant by George Sims, in right of his being our tenant, +but more civilised than Earlscombers, a widow's son, and not +sufficiently recovered from his accident to be exposed to the severe +tasks of a ploughboy in the winter. + +Mrs. Fordyce was the manager of a book-club, which circulated +volumes covered in white cartridge paper, with a printed list of the +subscribers' names. Two volumes at a time might be kept for a month +by each member in rotation, novels were excluded, and the manager +had a veto on all orders. We found her more liberal than some of +our other neighbours, who looked on our wants and wishes with +suspicion as savouring of London notions. Happily we could read old +books and standard books over again, and we gloated over Blackwood +and the Quarterly, enjoying, too, every out-of-door novelty of the +coming spring, as each revealed itself. Emily will never forget her +first primroses, nor I the first thrush in early morning. + +Blankets, broth, and what were uncomfortably termed broken victuals +had been given away during the winter, and a bewildering amount of +begging women and children used to ask interviews with 'the Lady +Winslow,' with stories that crumbled on investigation so as to make +us recollect the Rector's character of Earlscombe. + +However, Mr. Henderson came in the second week of Lent, and what our +steps towards improvement introduced would have seemed almost as +shocking to you youngsters, as what they displaced. For instance, a +plain crimson cloth covered the altar, instead of the rags in the +colours of the Winslow livery, presented, according to the queer old +register, by the unfortunate Margaret. There was talk of velvet and +the gold monogram, surrounded by rays, alternately straight and +wavy, as in our London church, but this was voted 'unfit for a plain +village church.' Still, the new hangings of pulpit, desk, and altar +were all good in quality and colour, and huge square cushions were +provided as essential to each. Moreover, the altar vessels were +made somewhat more respectable,--all this being at my father's +expense. + +He also carried in the Vestry, though not without strong opposition +from a dissenting farmer, that new linen and a fresh surplice should +be provided by the parish, which surplice would have made at least +six of such as are at present worn. The farmers were very jealous +of the interference of the Squire in the Vestry--'what he had no +call to,' and of church rates applied to any other object than the +reward of birdslayers, as thus, in the register - + + +Hairy Wills, 1 score sprows heds 2d. +Jems Brown, 1 poulcat 6d. +Jarge Bell, 2 howls 6d. + + +It was several years before this appropriation of the church rates +could be abolished. The year 1830, with a brand new squire and +parson, was too ticklish a time for many innovations. + +Hillside Church was the only one in the neighbourhood where Holy +Week or Ascension Day had been observed in the memory of man. When +we proposed going to church on the latter day the gardener asked my +mother 'if it was her will to keep Thursday holy,' as if he expected +its substitution for Sunday. Monthly Communions and Baptisms after +the Second Lesson were viewed as 'not fit for a country church,' and +every attempt at even more secular improvements was treated with the +most disappointing distrust and aversion. When my father laid out +the allotment grounds, the labourers suspected some occult design +for his own profit, and the farmers objected that the gardens would +be used as an excuse for neglecting their work and stealing their +potatoes. Coal-club and clothing-club were regarded in like manner, +and while a few took advantage of these offers in a grudging manner, +the others viewed everything except absolute gifts as 'me-an' on our +part, the principle of aid to self-help being an absolute novelty. +When I look back to the notes in our journals of that date I see how +much has been overcome. + +Perhaps we listened more than was strictly wise to the revelations +of Amos Bell, when he attended Emily and me on our expeditions with +the donkey. Though living over the border of Hillside, he had a +family of relations at Earlscombe, and for a time lodged with his +grandmother there. When his shyness and lumpishness gave way, he +proved so bright that Emily undertook to carry on his education. He +soon had a wonderful eye for a wild flower, and would climb after it +with the utmost agility; and when once his tongue was loosed, he +became almost too communicative, and made us acquainted with the +opinions of 'they Earlscoom folk' with a freedom not to be found in +an elder or a native. + +Moreover, he was the brightest light of the Sunday school which Mr. +Henderson opened at once--for want of a more fitting place--in the +disused north transept of the church. It was an uncouth, ill-clad +crew which assembled on those dilapidated paving tiles. Their own +grandchildren look almost as far removed from them in dress and +civilisation as did my sister in her white worked cambric dress, +silk scarf, huge Tuscan bonnet, and the little curls beyond the lace +quilling round her bright face, far rosier than ever it had been in +town. And what would the present generation say to the odd little +contrivances in the way of cotton sun-bonnets, check pinafores, list +tippets, and print capes, and other wonderful manufactures from the +rag-bag, which were then grand prizes and stimulants? + +Previous knowledge or intelligence scarcely existed, and then was +not due to Dame Dearlove's tuition. Mr. Henderson pronounced an +authorised school a necessity. My father had scruples as to vested +rights, for the old woman was the last survivor of a family who had +had recourse to primer and hornbook after their ejection on 'black +Bartholomew's Day;' and when the meeting-house was built after the +Revolution, had combined preaching with teaching. Monopoly had +promoted degeneracy, and this last of the race was an unfavourable +specimen in all save outward picturesqueness. However, much against +Henderson's liking, an accommodation was proposed, by which books +were to be supplied to her, and the Church Catechism be taught in +her school, with the assistance of the curate and Miss Winslow. + +The terms were rejected with scorn. No School Board could be more +determined against the Catechism, nor against 'passons meddling wi' +she;' and as to assistance, 'she had been a governess this thirty +year, and didn't want no one trapesing in and out of her school.' + +She was warned, but probably did not believe in the possibility of +an opposition school; and really there were children enough in the +place to overfill both her room and that which was fitted up after a +very humble fashion in one of our cottages. H.M. Inspector would +hardly have thought it even worth condemnation any more than the +attainments of the mistress, the young widow of a small Bristol +skipper. Her qualifications consisted in her piety and +conscientiousness, good temper and excellent needlework, together +with her having been a scholar in one of Mrs. Hannah More's schools +in the Cheddar district. She could read and teach reading well; but +as for the dangerous accomplishments of writing and arithmetic, such +as desired to pass beyond the rudiments of them must go to +Wattlesea. + +So nice did she look in her black that Earlscombe voted her a mere +town lady, and even at a penny a week hesitated to send its children +to her. Indeed it was currently reported that her school was part +of a deep and nefarious scheme of the gentlefolks for reducing the +poor-rates by enticing the children, and then shipping them off to +foreign parts from Bristol. + +But the great crisis was one unlucky summer evening when Emily and I +were out with the donkey, and Griffith, just come home from Oxford, +was airing the new acquisition of a handsome black retriever. + +Close by the old chapel, a black cat was leisurely crossing the +road. At her dashed Nero, stimulated perhaps by an almost +involuntary scss--scss--from his master, if not from Amos and me. +The cat flew up a low wall, and stood at bay on the top on tiptoe, +with bristling tail, arched back, and fiery eyes, while the dog +danced round in agony on his hind legs, barking furiously, and +almost reaching her. Female sympathy ever goes to the cat, and +Emily screamed out in the fear that he would seize her, or even that +Griff might aid him. Perhaps Amos would have done so, if left to +himself; but Griff, who saw the cat was safe, could not help egging +on his dog's impotent rage, when in the midst, out flew pussy's +mistress, Dame Dearlove herself, broomstick in hand, using language +as vituperative as the cat's, and more intelligible. + +She was about to strike the dog--indeed I fancy she did, for there +was a howl, and Griff sprang to his defence with--'Don't hurt my +dog, I say! He hasn't touched the brute! She can take care of +herself. Here, there's half-a-crown for the fright,' as the cat +sprang down within the wall, and Nero slunk behind him. But Dame +Dearlove was not so easily appeased. Her blood was up after our +long series of offences, and she broke into a regular tirade of +abuse. + +'That's the way with you fine folk, thinking you can tread down poor +people like the dirt under your feet, and insult 'em when you've +taken the bread out of the mouths of them that were here before you. +Passons and ladies a meddin' where no one ever set a foot before! +Ay, ay, but ye'll all be down before long.' + +Griff signed to us to go on, and thundered out on her to take care +what she was about and not be abusive; but this brought a fresh +volley on him, heralded by a derisive laugh. 'Ha! ha! fine talking +for the likes of you, Winslows that you are. But there's a curse on +you all! The poor lady as was murdered won't let you be! Why, +there's one of you, poor humpy object--' + +At this savage attack on me, Griff waxed furious, and shouted at her +to hold her confounded tongue, but this only diverted the attack on +himself. 'And as for you--fine chap as ye think yourself, +swaggering and swearing at poor folk, and setting your dog at them-- +your time's coming. Look out for yourself. It's well known as how +the curse is on the first-born. The Lady Margaret don't let none of +'em live to come after his father.' + +Griff laughed and said, 'There, we have had enough of this;' and in +fact we had already moved on, so that he had to make some long steps +to overtake us, muttering, 'So we've started a Meg Merrilies! My +father won't keep such a foul-mouthed hag in the parish long!' + +To which I had to respond that her cottage belonged to the trustees +of the chapel, whereat he whistled. I don't think he knew that we +had heard her final denunciation, and we did not like to mention it +to him, scarcely to each other, though Emily looked very white and +scared. + +We talked it over afterwards in private, and with Henderson, who +confessed that he had heard of the old woman's saying something of +the kind to other persons. We consulted the registers in hopes of +confuting it, but did not satisfy ourselves. The last Squire had +lost his only son at school. He himself had been originally second +in the family, and in the generation before him there had been some +child-deaths, after which we came back to a young man, apparently +the eldest, who, according to Miss Selby's story, had been killed in +a duel by one of the Fordyces. It was not comfortable, till I +remembered that our family Bible recorded the birth, baptism, and +death of a son who had preceded Griffith, and only borne for a day +the name afterwards bestowed on me. + +And Henderson, who was so little our elder as to discuss things on +fairly equal grounds, had some very interesting talks with us two +over ancestral sin and its possible effects, dwelling on the 18th of +Ezekiel as a comment on the Second Commandment. Indeed, we agreed +that the uncomfortable state of disaffection which, in 1830, was +becoming only too manifest in the populace, was the result of +neglect in former ages, and that, even in our own parish, the +bitterness, distrust, and ingratitude were due to the careless, +riotous, and oppressive family whom we represented. + + + +CHAPTER XVII--THE SIEGE OF HILLSIDE + + + +'Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar, +Represt ambition struggles round the shore; +Till, overwrought, the general system feels +Its motion stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.' + +GOLDSMITH. + +Griffith had come straight home this year. There were no Peacock +gaieties to tempt him in London, for old Sir Henry had died suddenly +soon after the ball in December; nor was there much of a season that +year, owing to the illness and death of George IV. + +A regiment containing two old schoolmates of his was at Bristol, and +he spent a good deal of time there, and also in Yeomanry drill. As +autumn came on we rejoiced in having so stalwart a protector, for +the agricultural riots had begun, and the forebodings of another +French Revolution seemed about to be realised. We stayed on at +Chantry House. My father thought his duty lay there as a +magistrate, and my mother would not leave him; nor indeed was any +other place much safer, certainly not London, whence Clarence wrote +accounts of formidable mobs who were expected to do more harm than +they accomplished; though their hatred of the hero of our country +filled us with direful prognostications, and made us think of the +guillotine, which was linked with revolution in our minds, before we +had I beheld the numerous changes that followed upon the thirty +years of peace in which we grew up. + +The ladies did not much like losing so stalwart a defender when +Griff returned to Oxford; and Jane the housemaid went to bed every +night with the pepper-pot and a poker, the first wherewith to blind +the enemy, the second to charge them with. From our height we could +more than once see blazing ricks, and were glad that the home farm +was not in our own hands, and that our only stack of hay was a good +way from the house. When the onset came at last, it was December, +and the enemy only consisted of about thirty dreary-looking men and +boys in smock-frocks and chalked or smutted faces, armed only with +sticks and an old gun diverted from its purpose of bird-scaring. +They shouted for food, money, and arms; but my father spoke to them +from the hall steps, told them they had better go home and learn +that the public-house was a worse enemy to them than any machine +that had ever been invented, and assured them that they would get no +help from him in breaking the laws and getting themselves into +trouble. A stone or two was picked up, whereupon he went back and +had the hall door shut and barred, the heavy shutters of the windows +having all been closed already, so that we could have stood a much +more severe siege than from these poor fellows. One or two windows +were broken, as well as the glass of the conservatory, and the +flower beds were trampled; but finding our fortress impregnable they +sneaked away before dark. We fared better than our neighbours, some +of whom were seriously frightened, and suffered loss of property. +Old Mr. Fordyce had for many years past been an active magistrate-- +that a clergyman should be on the bench having been quite correct +according to the notions of his younger days; and in spite of his +beneficence he incurred a good deal of unpopularity for withstanding +the lax good-nature which made his brother magistrates give orders +for parish relief refused to able-bodied paupers by their own +Vestries. This was a mischievous abuse of the old poor-law times, +which made people dispose of every one's money save their own. He +had also been a keen sportsman; and though his son had given up +field sports in deference to higher notions of clerical duty (his +wife's, as people said), the old man's feeling prompted him to +severity on poachers. Frank Fordyce, while by far the most earnest, +hardworking clergyman in the neighbourhood, worked off his +superfluous energy on scientific farming, making the glebe and the +hereditary estate as much the model farm as Hillside was the model +parish. He had lately set up a threshing-machine worked by horses, +which was as much admired by the intelligent as it was vituperated +by the ignorant. + +Neither paupers nor poachers abounded in Hillside; the natives were +chiefly tenants and employed on the property, and, between good +management and beneficence, there was little real want and much +friendly confidence and affection; and thus, in spite of surrounding +riots, Hillside seemed likely to be an exception, proving what could +he done by rightful care and attention. Nor indeed did the attack +come from thence; but the two parsons were bitterly hated by +outsiders beyond the reach of their personal influence and +benevolence. + +It was on a Saturday evening, the day after Griff had come back for +the Christmas vacation, that, as Emily was giving Amos his lesson, +she saw that the boy was crying, and after examination he let out +that 'folk should say that the lads were agoing to break Parson +Fordy's machine and fire his ricks that very night;' but he would +not give his authority, and when he saw her about to give warning, +entreated, 'Now, dont'ze say nothing, Miss Emily--' + +'What?' she cried indignantly; 'do you think I could hear of such a +thing without trying to stop it?' + +'Us says,' he blurted out, 'as how Winslows be always fain of ought +as happens to the Fordys--' + +'We are not such wicked Winslows as you have heard of,' returned +Emily with dignity; and she rushed off in quest of papa and Griff, +but when she brought them to the bookroom, Amos had decamped, and +was nowhere to be found that night. We afterwards learnt that he +lay hidden in the hay-loft, not daring to return to his granny's, +lest he should be suspected of being a traitor to his kind; for our +lawless, untamed, discontented parish furnished a large quota to the +rioters, and he has since told me that though all seemed to know +what was about to be done, he did not hear it from any one in +particular. + +It was no time to make light of a warning, but very difficult to +know what to do. Rural police were non-existent; there were no +soldiers nearer than Keynsham, and the Yeomanry were all in their +own homesteads. However, the captain of Griff's troop, Sir George +Eastwood, lived about three miles beyond Wattlesea, and had a good +many dependants in the corps, so it was resolved to send him a note +by the gardener, good James Ellis, a steady, resolute man, on +Emily's fast-trotting pony, while my father and Griff should hasten +to Hillside to warn the Fordyces, who were not unlikely to be able +to muster trustworthy defenders among their own people, and might +send the ladies to take shelter at Chantry House. + +My mother's brave spirit disdained to detain an effective man for +her own protection, and the groom was to go to Hillside; he was in +the Yeomanry, and, like Griff, put on his uniform, while my father +had the Riot Act in his pocket. All the horses were thus absorbed, +but Chapman and the man-servant followed on foot. + +Never did I feel my incapacity more than on that strange night, when +Emily was flying about with Martyn to all the doors and windows in a +wild state of excitement, humming to herself - + + +'When the dawn on the mountain was misty and gray, +My true love has mounted his steed and away.' + + +My mother was equally restless, prolonging as much as possible the +preparation of rooms for possible guests; and when she did come and +sit down, she netted her purse with vehement jerks, and scolded +Emily for jumping up and leaving doors open. + +At last, after an hour according to the clock, but far more by our +feelings, wheels were heard in the distance; Emily was off like a +shot to reconnoitre, and presently Martyn bounced in with the +tidings that a pair of carriage lamps were coming up the drive. My +mother hurried out into the hall; I made my best speed after her, +and found her hastily undoing the door-chain as she recognised the +measured, courteous voice of old Mr. Fordyce. In a moment more they +were all in the house, the old gentleman giving his arm to his +daughter-in-law, who was quite overcome with distress and alarm; +then came his tall, slim granddaughter, carrying her little sister +with arms full of dolls, and sundry maid-servants completed the +party of fugitives. + +'We are taking advantage of Mr. Winslow's goodness,' said the old +Rector. 'He assured us that you would be kind enough to receive +those who would only be an encumbrance.' + +'Oh, but I must go back to Frank now that you and the children are +safe,' cried the poor lady. 'Don't send away the carriage; I must +go back to Frank.' + +'Nonsense, my dear,' returned Mr. Fordyce, 'Frank is in no danger. +He will get on much better for knowing you are safe. Mrs. Winslow +will tell you so.' + +My mother was enforcing this assurance, when the little girl's sobs +burst out in spite of her sister, who had been trying to console +her. 'It is Celestina Mary,' she cried, pointing to three dolls +whom she had carried in clasped to her breast. 'Poor Celestina +Mary! She is left behind, and Ellen won't let me go and see if she +is in the carriage.' + +'My dear, if she is in the carriage, she will be quite safe in the +morning.' + +'Oh, but she will be so cold. She had nothing on but Rosella's old +petticoat.' + +The distress was so real that I had my hand on the bell to cause a +search to be instituted for the missing damsel, when Mrs. Fordyce +begged me to do no such thing, as it was only a doll. The child, +while endeavouring to shelter with a shawl the dolls, snatched in +their night-gear from their beds, wept so piteously at the rebuff +that her grandfather had nearly gone in quest of the lost one, but +was stopped by a special entreaty that he would not spoil the child. +Martyn, however, who had been standing in open-mouthed wonder at +such feeling for a doll, exclaimed, 'Don't cry, don't cry. I'll go +and get it for you;' and rushed off to the stable-yard. + +This episode had restored Mrs. Fordyce, and while providing some of +our guests with wine, and others with tea, we heard the story, only +interrupted by Martyn's return from a vain search, and Anne's +consequent tears, which, however, were somehow hushed and smothered +by fears of being sent to bed, coupled with his promises to search +every step of the way to-morrow. + +It appeared that while the Fordyce family were at dinner, shouts, +howls and yells had startled them. The rabble had surrounded the +Rectory, bawling out abuse of the parsons and their machines, and +occasionally throwing stones. There was no help to be expected; the +only hope was in the strength of the doors and windows, and the +knowledge that personal violence was very uncommon; but those were +terrible moments, and poor Mrs. Fordyce was nearly dead with +suppressed terror when her husband tried haranguing from an upper +window, and was received with execrations and a volley of stones, +while the glass crashed round him. + +At that instant the shouts turned to yells of dismay, 'The so'diers! +the so'diers!' + +Our party had found everything still and dark in the village, for in +truth the men had hidden themselves. They were being too much +attached to their masters to join in the attack, but were afraid of +being compelled to assist the rioters, and not resolute enough +against their own class either to inform against them or oppose +them. + +Through the midnight-like stillness of the street rose the tumult +around the Rectory; and by the light of a few lanterns, and from the +upper windows, they could see a mass of old hats, smock-frocked +shoulders, and the tops of bludgeons; while at soonest, Sir George +Eastwood's troop could not be expected for an hour or more. + +'We must get to them somehow,' said my father and Griff to one +another; and Griff added, 'These rascals are arrant cowards, and +they can't see the number of us.' + +Then, before my father knew what he was about--certainly before he +could get hold of the Riot Act--he found the stable lantern made +over to him, and Griff's sword flashing in light, as, making all +possible clatter and jingling with their accoutrements, the two +yeomen dashed among the throng, shouting with all their might, and +striking with the flat of their swords. The rioters, ill-fed, dull- +hearted men for the most part--many dragged out by compulsion, and +already terrified--went tumbling over one another and running off +headlong, bearing off with them (as we afterwards learnt) their +leaders by their weight, taking the blows and pushes they gave one +another in their pell-mell rush for those of the soldiery, and +falling blindly against the low wall of the enclosure. The only +difficulty was in clearing them out at the two gates of the drive. + +When Mr. Fordyce opened the door to hail his rescuers he was utterly +amazed to behold only three, and asked in a bewildered voice, 'Where +are the others?' + +There were two prisoners, Petty the ratcatcher, who had attempted +some resistance and had been knocked down by Griff's horse, and a +young lad in a smock-frock who had fallen off the wall and hurt his +knee, and who blubbered piteously, declaring that them chaps had +forced him to go with them, or they would duck him in the horse- +pond. They were supposed to be given in charge to some one, but +were lost sight of, and no wonder! For just then it was discovered +that the machine shed was on fire. The rioters had apparently +detached one of their number to kindle the flame before assaulting +the house. The matter was specially serious, because the stackyard +was on a line with the Rectory, at some distance indeed, but on +lower ground; and what with barns, hay and wheat ricks, sheds, +cowhouses and stables, all thatched, a big wood-pile, and a long +old-fashioned greenhouse, there was almost continuous communication. +Clouds of smoke and an ominous smell were already perceptible on the +wind, generated by the heat, and the loose straw in the centre of +the farmyard was beginning to be ignited by the flakes and sparks, +carrying the mischief everywhere, and rendering it exceedingly +difficult to release the animals and drive them to a place of +safety. Water was scarce. There were only two wells, besides the +pump in the house, and a shallow pond. The brook was a quarter of a +mile off in the valley, and the nearest engine, a poor feeble thing, +at Wattlesea. Moreover, the assailants might discover how small was +the force of rescuers, and return to the attack. Thus, while Griff, +who had given amateur assistance at all the fires he could reach in +London; was striving to organise resistance to this new enemy, my +father induced the gentlemen to cause the horses to be put to the +various vehicles, and employ them in carrying the women and children +to Chantry House. The old Rector was persuaded to go to take care +of his daughter-in-law, and she only thought of putting her girls in +safety. She listened to reason, and indeed was too much exhausted +to move when once she was laid on the sofa. She would not hear of +going to bed, though her little daughter Anne was sent off with her +nurse, grandpapa persuading her that Rosella and the others were +very much tired. When she was gone, he declared his fears that he +had sat down on Celestina's head, and showed so much compunction +that we were much amused at his relief when Martyn assured him of +having searched the carriage with a stable lantern, so that whatever +had befallen the lady he was not the guilty person. He really +seemed more concerned about this than at the loss of all his own +barns and stores. And little Anne was certainly as lovely and +engaging a little creature as ever I saw; while, as to her elder +sister, in all the trouble and anxiety of the night, I could not +help enjoying the sight of her beautiful eager face and form. She +was tall and very slight, sylph-like, as it was the fashion to call +it, but every limb was instinct with grace and animation. Her face +was, perhaps, rather too thin for robust health, though this +enhanced the idea of her being all spirit, as also did the +transparency of complexion, tinted with an exquisite varying +carnation. Her eyes were of a clear, bright, rather light brown, +and were sparkling with the lustre of excitement, her delicate lips +parted, showing the pretty pearly teeth, as she was telling Emily, +in a low voice of enthusiasm, scarcely designed for my ears, how +glorious a sight our brother had been, riding there in his glancing +silver, bearing down all before him with his good sword, like the +Captal de Buch dispersing the Jacquerie. + +To which Emily responded, 'Oh, don't you love the Captal de Buch?' +And their friendship was cemented. + +Next I heard, 'And that you should have been so good after all my +rudeness. But I thought you were like the old Winslows; and instead +of that you have come to the rescue of your enemies. Isn't it +beautiful?' + +'Oh no, not enemies,' said Emily. 'That was all over a hundred +years ago!' + +'So my papa and grandpapa say,' returned Miss Fordyce; 'but the last +Mr. Winslow was not a very nice man, and never would be civil to +us.' + +A report was brought that the glare of the fire could be seen over +the hill from the top of the house, and off went the two young +ladies to the leads, after satisfying themselves that Anne was +asleep among her homeless dolls. + +Old Mr. Fordyce devoted himself to keeping up the spirits of his +daughter-in-law as the night advanced without any tidings, except +that the girls, from time to time, rushed down to tell us of fresh +outbursts of red flame reflected in the sky, then that the glow was +diminishing; by which time they were tired out, and, both sinking +into a big armchair, they went to sleep in each other's arms. +Indeed I believe we all dozed more or less before any one returned +from the scene of action--at about three o'clock. + +The struggle with the flames had been very unequal. The long +tongues soon reached the roof of the large barn, which was filled +with straw, nor could the flakes of burning thatch be kept from the +stable, while the water of the pond was soon reduced to mud. +Helpers began to flock in, but who could tell which were +trustworthy? and all were uncomprehending. + +There was so little hope of saving the house that the removal of +everything valuable was begun under my father's superintendence. +Frank Fordyce was here, there, and everywhere; while Griffith, like +a gallant general, fought the foe with very helpless unmanageable +forces. Villagers, male and female, had emerged and stood gaping +round; but, let him rage and storm as he might, they would not go +and collect pails and buckets and form a line to the brook. Still +less would they assist in overthrowing and carrying away the faggots +of a big wood-pile so as to cut off the communication with the +offices. Only Chapman and one other man gave any help in this; and +presently the stack caught, and Griff, on the top, was in great +peril of the faggots rolling down with him into the middle, and +imprisoning him in the blazing pile. 'I never felt so like Dido,' +said Griff. + +That woodstack gave fearful aliment to the roaring flame, which came +on so fast that the destruction of the adjoining buildings quickly +followed. The Wattlesea engine had come, but the yard well was +unattainable, and all that could be done was to saturate the house +with water from its own well, and cover the side with wet blankets; +but these reeked with steam, and then shrivelled away in the intense +glow of heat. + +However, by this time the Eastwood Yeomanry, together with some +reasonable men, had arrived. A raid was made on the cottages for +buckets, a chain formed to the river, and at last the fire was got +under, having made a wreck of everything out-of-doors, and consumed +one whole wing of the house, though the older and more esteemed +portion was saved. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--THE PORTRAIT + + + +'When day was gone and night was come, + And all men fast asleep, +There came the spirit of fair Marg'ret + And stood at William's feet.' + +Scotch Ballad. + +When I emerged from my room the next morning the phaeton was at the +door to take the two clergymen to reconnoitre their abode before +going to church. Miss Fordyce went with them, and my father was for +once about to leave his parish church to give them his sympathy, and +join in their thanksgiving that neither life nor limb had been +injured. He afterwards said that nothing could have been more +touching than old Mr. Fordyce's manner of mentioning this special +cause for gratitude before the General Thanksgiving; and Frank +Fordyce, having had all his sermons burnt, gave a short address +extempore (a very rare and almost shocking thing at that date), +reducing half the congregation to tears, for they really loved 'the +fam'ly,' though they had not spirit enough to defend it; and their +passiveness always remained a subject of pride and pleasure to the +Fordyces. It was against the will of these good people that Petty, +the ratcatcher, was arrested, but he had been engaged in other +outrages, though this was the only one in which a dwelling-house had +suffered. And Chapman observed that 'there was nothing to be done +with such chaps but to string 'em up out of the way.' + +Griff had toiled that night till he was as stiff as a rheumatic old +man when he came down only just in time for luncheon. Mrs. Fordyce +did not appear at all. She was a fragile creature, and quite +knocked up by the agitations of the night. The gentlemen had +visited the desolate rectory, and found that though the fine ancient +kitchen had escaped, the pleasant living rooms had been injured by +the water, and the place could hardly be made habitable before the +spring. They proposed to take a house in Bath, whence Frank Fordyce +could go and come for Sunday duty and general superintendence, but +my parents were urgent that they should not leave us until after +Christmas, and they consented. Their larger possessions were to be +stored in the outhouses, their lesser in our house, notably in the +inner mullion chamber, which would thus be so blocked that there +would be no question of sleeping in it. + +Old Mr. Fordyce had ascertained that he might acquit himself of +smashing Celestina Mary, for no remains appeared in the carriage; +but a miserable trunk was discovered in the ruins, which he +identified--though surely no one else save the disconsolate parent +could have done so. Poor little Anne's private possessions had +suffered most severely of all, for her whole nursery establishment +had vanished. Her surviving dolls were left homeless, and devoid of +all save their night-clothing, which concerned her much more than +the loss of almost all her own garments. For what dolls were to her +could never have been guessed by us, who had forced Emily to disdain +them; whereas they were children to the maternal heart of this +lonely child. + +She was quite a new revelation to us. All the Fordyces were +handsome; and her chestnut curls and splendid eyes, her pretty +colour and unconscious grace, were very charming. Emily was so near +our own age that we had never known the winsomeness of a little +maid-child amongst us, and she was a perpetual wonder and delight to +us. + +Indeed, from having always lived with her elders, she was an odd +little old-fashioned person, advanced in some ways, and comically +simple in others. Her doll-heart was kept in abeyance all Sunday, +and it was only on Monday that her anxiety for Celestina manifested +itself with considerable vehemence; but her grandfather gravely +informed her that the young lady was gone to an excellent doctor, +who would soon effect a cure. The which was quite true, for he had +sent her to a toy-shop by one of the maids who had gone to restore +the ravage on the wardrobes, and who brought her back with a new +head and arms, her identity apparently not being thus interfered +with. The hoards of scraps were put under requisition to re-clothe +the survivors; and I won my first step in Miss Anne's good graces by +undertaking a knitted suit for Rosella. + +The good little girl had evidently been schooled to repress her +dread and repugnance at my unlucky appearance, and was painfully +polite, only shutting her eyes when she came to shake hands with me; +but after Rosella condescended to adopt me, we became excellent +friends. Indeed the following conversation was overheard by Emily, +and set down: + +'Do you know, Martyn, there's a fairies' ring on Hillside Down?' + +'Mushrooms,' quoth Martyn. + +'Yes, don't you know? They are the fairies' tables. They come out +and spread them with lily tablecloths at night, and have acorn cups +for dishes, with honey in them. And they dance and play there. +Well, couldn't Mr. Edward go and sit under the beech-tree at the +edge till they come?' + +'I don't think he would like it at all,' said Martyn. 'He never +goes out at odd times.' + +'Oh, but don't you know? when they come they begin to sing - + + +'"Sunday and Monday, +Monday and Tuesday." + + +And if he was to sing nicely, + + +'"Wednesday and Thursday," + + +they would be so much pleased that they would make his back straight +again in a moment. At least, perhaps Wednesday and Thursday would +not do, because the little tailor taught them those; but Friday +makes them angry. But suppose he made some nice verse - + + +'"Monday and Tuesday +The fairies are gay, +Tuesday and Wednesday +They dance away--" + + +I think that would do as well, perhaps. Do get him to do so, +Martyn. It would be so nice if he was tall and straight.' + +Dear little thing! Martyn, who was as much her slave as was her +grandfather, absolutely made her shed tears over his history of our +accident, and then caressed them off; but I believe he persuaded her +that such a case might be beyond the fairies' reach, and that I +could hardly get to the spot in secret, which, it seems, is an +essential point. He had imagination enough to be almost persuaded +of fairyland by her earnestness, and she certainly took him into +doll-land. He had a turn for carpentry and contrivance, and he +undertook that the Ladies Rosella, etc., should be better housed +than ever. A great packing-case was routed out, and much ingenuity +was expended, much delight obtained, in the process of converting it +into a doll's mansion, and replenishing it with furniture. Some was +bought, but Martyn aspired to make whatever he could; I did a good +deal, and I believe most of our achievements are still extant. +Whatever we could not manage, Clarence was to accomplish when he +should come home. + +His arrival was, as usual, late in the evening; and, as before, he +had the little room within mine. In the morning, as we were +crossing the hall to the bright wood fire, around which the family +were wont to assemble before prayers, he came to a pause, asking +under his breath, 'What's that? Who's that?' + +'It is one of the Hillside pictures. You know we have a great many +things here from thence.' + +'It is SHE,' he said, in a low, awe-stricken voice. No need to say +who SHE meant. + +I had not paid much attention to the picture. It had come with +several more, such as are rife in country houses, and was one of the +worst of the lot, a poor imitation of Lely's style, with a certain +air common to all the family; but Clarence's eyes were riveted on +it. 'She looks younger,' he said; 'but it is the same. I could +swear to the lip and the whole shape of the brow and chin. No--the +dress is different.' + +For in the portrait, there was nothing on the head, and one long +lock of hair fell on the shoulder of the low-cut white-satin dress, +done in very heavy gray shading. The three girls came down +together, and I asked who the lady was. + +'Don't you know? You ought; for that is poor Margaret who married +your ancestor.' + +No more was said then, for the rest of the world was collecting, and +then everybody went out their several ways. Some tin tacks were +wanted for the dolls' house, and there were reports that Wattlesea +possessed a doll's grate and fire-irons. The children were wild to +go in quest of them, but they were not allowed to go alone, and it +was pronounced too far and too damp for the elder sister, so that +they would have been disappointed, if Clarence--stimulated by +Martyn's kicks under the table--had not offered to be their escort. +When Mrs. Fordyce demurred, my mother replied, 'You may perfectly +trust her with Clarence.' + +'Yes; I don't know a safer squire,' rejoined my father. + +Commendation was so rare that Clarence quite blushed with pleasure; +and the pretty little thing was given into his charge, prancing and +dancing with pleasure, and expecting much more from sixpence and +from Wattlesea than was likely to be fulfilled. + +Griff went out shooting, and the two young ladies and I intended to +spend a very rational morning in the bookroom, reading aloud Mme. de +La Rochejaquelein's Memoirs by turns. Our occupations were, on +Emily's part, completing a reticule, in a mosaic of shaded coloured +beads no bigger than pins' heads, for a Christmas gift to mamma--a +most wearisome business, of which she had grown extremely tired. +Miss Fordyce was elaborately copying our Muller's print of +Raffaelle's St. John in pencil on cardboard, so as to be as near as +possible a facsimile; and she had trusted me to make a finished +water-coloured drawing from a rough sketch of hers of the Hillside +barn and farm-buildings, now no more. + +In a pause Ellen Fordyce suddenly asked, 'What did you mean about +that picture?' + +'Only Clarence said it was like--' and here Emily came to a dead +stop. + +'Grandpapa says it is like me,' said Miss Fordyce. 'What, you don't +mean THAT? Oh! oh! oh! is it true? Does she walk? Have you seen +her? Mamma calls it all nonsense, and would not have Anne hear of +it for anything; but old Aunt Peggy used to tell me, and I am sure +grandpapa believes it, just a little. Have you seen her?' + +'Only Clarence has, and he knew the picture directly.' + +She was much impressed, and on slight persuasion related the story, +which she had heard from an elder sister of her grandfather's, and +which had perhaps been the more impressed on her by her mother's +consternation at 'such folly' having been communicated to her. Aunt +Peggy, who was much older than her brother, had died only four years +ago, at eighty-eight, having kept her faculties to the last, and +handed down many traditions to her great-niece. The old lady's +father had been contemporary with the Margaret of ghostly fame, so +that the stages had been few through which it had come down from +1708 to 1830. + +I wrote it down at once, as it here stands. + +Margaret was the only daughter of the elder branch of the Fordyces. +Her father had intended her to marry her cousin, the male heir on +whom the Hillside estates and the advowson of that living were +entailed; but before the contract had been formally made, the father +was killed by accident, and through some folly and ambition of her +mother's (such seemed to be the Fordyce belief), the poor heiress +was married to Sir James Winslow, one of the successful intriguers +of the days of the later Stewarts, and with a family nearly as old, +if not older, than herself. Her own children died almost at their +birth, and she was left a young widow. Being meek and gentle, her +step-sons and daughters still ruled over Chantry House. They +prevented her Hillside relations from having access to her whilst in +a languishing state of health, and when she died unexpectedly, she +was found to have bequeathed all her property to her step-son, +Philip Winslow, instead of to her blood relations, the Fordyces. + +This was certain, but the Fordyce tradition was that she had been +kept shut up in the mullion chambers, where she had often been heard +weeping bitterly. One night in the winter, when the gentlemen of +the family had gone out to a Christmas carousal, she had endeavoured +to escape by the steps leading to the garden from the door now +bricked up, but had been met by them and dragged back with violence, +of which she died in the course of a few days; and, what was very +suspicious, she had been entirely attended by her step-daughter and +an old nurse, who never would let her own woman come near her. + +The Fordyces had thought of a prosecution, but the Winslows had +powerful interest at Court in those corrupt times, and contrived to +hush up the matter, as well as to win the suit in which the Fordyces +attempted to prove that there was no right to will the property +away. Bitter enmity remained between the families; they were always +opposed in politics, and their animosity was fed by the belief which +arose that at the anniversaries of her death the poor lady haunted +the rooms, lamp in hand, wailing and lamenting. A duel had been +fought on the subject between the heirs of the two families, +resulting in the death of the young Winslow. + +'And now,' cried Ellen Fordyce, 'the feud is so beautifully ended; +the doom must be appeased, now that the head of one hostile line has +come to the rescue of the other, and saved all our lives.' + +My suggestion that these would hardly have been destroyed, even +without our interposition, fell very flat, for romance must have its +swing. Ellen told us how, on the news of our kinsman's death and +our inheritance, the ancestral story had been discussed, and her +grandfather had said he believed there were letters about it in the +iron deed-box, and how he hoped to be on better terms with the new +heir. + +The ghost story had always been hushed up in the family, especially +since the duel, and we all knew the resemblance of the picture would +be scouted by our elders; but perhaps this gave us the more pleasure +in dwelling upon it, while we agreed that poor Margaret ought to be +appeased by Griffith's prowess on behalf of the Fordyces. + +The two young ladies went off to inspect the mullion chamber, which +they found so crammed with Hillside furniture that they could +scarcely enter, and returned disappointed, except for having +inspected and admired all Griff's weapons, especially what Miss +Fordyce called the sword of her rescue. + +She had been learning German--rather an unusual study in those days, +and she narrated to us most effectively the story of Die Weisse +Frau, working herself up to such a pitch that she would have +actually volunteered to spend a night in the room, to see whether +Margaret would hold any communication with a descendant, after the +example of the White Woman and Lady Bertha, if there had been either +fire or accommodation, and if the only entrance had not been through +Griff's private sitting-room. + + + +CHAPTER XIX--THE WHITE FEATHER + + + +'The white doe's milk is not out of his mouth.' + +SCOTT. + +Clarence had come home free from all blots. His summer holiday had +been prevented by the illness of one of the other clerks, whose +place, Mr. Castleford wrote, he had so well supplied that ere long +he would be sure to earn his promotion. That kind friend had +several times taken him to spend a Sunday in the country, and, as we +afterwards had reason to think, would have taken more notice of him +but for the rooted belief of Mr. Frith that it was a case of +favouritism, and that piety and strictness were assumed to throw +dust in the eyes of his patron. + +Such distrust had tended to render Clarence more reserved than ever, +and it was quite by the accident of finding him studying one of Mrs. +Trimmer's Manuals that I discovered that, at the request of his good +Rector, he had become a Sunday-school teacher, and was as much +interested as the enthusiastic girls; but I was immediately +forbidden to utter a word on the subject, even to Emily, lest she +should tell any one. + +Such reserve was no doubt an outcome of his natural timidity. He +had to bear a certain amount of scorn and derision among some of his +fellow-clerks for the stricter habits and observances that could not +be concealed, and he dreaded any fresh revelation of them, partly +because of the cruel imputation of hypocrisy, partly because he +feared the bringing a scandal on religion by his weakness and +failures. + +Nor did our lady visitors' ways reassure him, though they meant to +be kind. They could not help being formal and stiff, not as they +were with Griff and me. The two gentlemen were thoroughly friendly +and hearty; Parson Frank could hardly have helped being so towards +any one in the same house with himself; and as to little Anne, she +found in the new-comer a carpenter and upholsterer superior even to +Martyn; but her candour revealed a great deal which I overheard one +afternoon, when the two children were sitting together on the +hearth-rug in the bookroom in the twilight. + +'I want to see Mr. Clarence's white feather,' observed Anne. + +'Griff has a white plume in his Yeomanry helmet,' replied Martyn; +'Clarence hasn't one.' + +'Oh, I saw Mr. Griffith's!' she answered; 'but Cousin Horace said +Mr. Clarence showed the white feather.' + +'Cousin Horace is an ape!' cried Martyn. + +'I don't think he is so nice as an ape,' said Anne. 'He is more +like a monkey. He tries the dolls by court-martial, and he shot +Arabella with a pea-shooter, and broke her eye; only grandpapa made +him have it put in again with his own money, and then he said I was +a little sneak, and if I ever did it again he would shoot me.' + +'Mind you don't tell Clarence what he said,' said Martyn. + +'Oh, no! I think Mr. Clarence very nice indeed; but Horace did +tease so about that day when he carried poor Amos Bell home. He +said Ellen had gone and made friends with the worst of all the +wicked Winslows, who had shown the white feather and disgraced his +flag. No; I know you are not wicked. And Mr. Griff came all +glittering, like Richard Coeur de Lion, and saved us all that night. +But Ellen cried to think what she had done, and mamma said it showed +what it was to speak to a strange young man; and she has never let +Ellen and me go out of the grounds by ourselves since that day.' + +'It is a horrid shame,' exclaimed Martyn, 'that a fellow can't get +into a scrape without its being for ever cast up to him.' + +'_I_ like him,' said Anne. 'He gave Mary Bell a nice pair of boots, +and he made a new pair of legs for poor old Arabella, and she can +really sit down! Oh, he is VERY nice; but'--in an awful whisper-- +'does he tell stories? I mean fibs--falsehoods.' + +'Who told you that?' exclaimed Martyn. + +'Mamma said it. Ellen was telling them something about the picture +of the white-satin lady, and mamma said, "Oh, if it is only that +young man, no doubt it is a mere mystification;" and papa said, +"Poor young fellow, he seems very amiable and well disposed;" and +mamma said, "If he can invent such a story it shows that Horace was +right, and he is not to be believed." Then they stopped, but I +asked Ellen who it was, and she said it was Mr. Clarence, and it was +a sad thing for Emily and all of you to have such a brother.' + +Martyn began to stammer with indignation, and I thought it time to +interfere; so I called the little maid, and gravely explained the +facts, adding that poor Clarence's punishment had been terrible, but +that he was doing his best to make up for what was past; and that, +as to anything he might have told, though he might be mistaken, he +never said anything NOW but what he believed to be true. She raised +her brown eyes to mine full of gravity, and said, 'I DO like him.' +Moreover, I privately made Martyn understand that if he told her +what had been said about the white-satin lady, he would never be +forgiven; the others would be sure to find it out, and it might +shorten their stay. + +That was a dreadful idea, for the presence of those two creatures, +to say nothing of their parents, was an unspeakable charm and +novelty to us all. We all worshipped the elder, and the little one +was like a new discovery and toy to us, who had never been used to +such a presence. She was not a commonplace child; but even if she +had been, she would have been as charming a study as a kitten; and +she had all the four of us at her feet, though her mother was +constantly protesting against our spoiling her, and really kept up +so much wholesome discipline that the little maid never exceeded the +bounds of being charming to us. After that explanation there was +the same sweet wistful gentleness in her manner towards Clarence as +she showed to me; while he, who never dreamt of such a child knowing +his history was brighter and freer with her than with any one else, +played with her and Martyn, and could be heard laughing merrily with +them. Perhaps her mother and sister did not fully like this, but +they could not interfere before our faces. And Parson Frank was +really kind to him; took him out walking when going to Hillside, and +talked to him so as to draw him out; certifying, perhaps, that he +would do no harm, although, indeed, the family looked on dear good +Frank as a sort of boy, too kind-hearted and genial for his approval +to be worth as much as that of the more severe. + +These were our only Christmas visitors, for the state of the country +did not invite Londoners; but we did not want them. The suppression +of Clarence was the only flaw in a singularly happy time; and, after +all I believe I felt the pity of it more than he did, who expected +nothing, and was accustomed to being in the background. + +For instance, one afternoon in the course of one of the grave +discussions that used to grow up between Miss Fordyce, Emily, and +me, over subjects trite to the better-instructed younger generation, +we got quite out of our shallow depths. I think it was on the +meaning of the 'Communion of Saints,' for the two girls were both +reading in preparation for a Confirmation at Bristol, and Miss +Fordyce knew more than we did on these subjects. All the time +Clarence had sat in the window, carving a bit of doll's furniture, +and quite forgotten; but at night he showed me the exposition copied +from Pearson on the Creed, a bit of Hooker, and extracts from one or +two sermons. I found these were notes written out in a blank book, +which he had had in hand ever since his Confirmation--his logbook as +he called it; but he would not hear of their being mentioned even to +Emily, and only consented to hunt up the books on condition I would +not bring him forward as the finder. It was of no use to urge that +it was a deprivation to us all that he should not aid us with his +more thorough knowledge and deeper thought. 'He could not do so,' +he said, in a quiet decisive manner; 'it was enough for him to watch +and listen to Miss Fordyce, when she could forget his presence.' + +She often did forget it in her eagerness. She was by nature one of +the most ardent beings that I ever saw, yet with enthusiasm kept in +check by the self-control inculcated as a primary duty. It would +kindle in those wonderful light brown eyes, glow in the clear +delicate cheek, quiver in the voice even when the words were only +half adequate to the feeling. She was not what is now called +gushing. Oh, no! not in the least! She was too reticent and had +too much dignity for anything of the kind. Emily had always been +reckoned as our romantic young lady, and teased accordingly, but her +enthusiasm beside Ellen's was + + +'As moonlight is to sunlight, as water is to wine,' - + + +a mere reflection of the tone of the period, compared with a real +element in the character. At least so my sister tells me, though at +the time all the difference I saw was that Miss Fordyce had the most +originality, and unconsciously became the leader. The bookroom was +given up to us, and there in the morning we drew, worked, read, +copied and practised music, wrote out extracts, and delivered our +youthful minds to one another on all imaginable topics from 'slea +silk to predestination.' + +Religious subjects occupied us more than might have been held +likely. A spirit of reflection and revival was silently working in +many a heart. Evangelicalism had stirred old-fashioned orthodoxy, +and we felt its action. The Christian Year was Ellen's guiding +star--as it was ours, nay, doubly so in proportion to the ardour of +her nature. Certain poems are dearer and more eloquent to me still, +because the verses recall to me the thrill of her sweet tones as she +repeated them. We were all very ignorant alike of Church doctrine +and history, but talking out and comparing our discoveries and +impressions was as useful as it was pleasant to us. + +What the Christian Year was in religion to us Scott was in history. +We read to verify or illustrate him, and we had little raving fits +over his characters, and jokes founded on them. Indeed, Ellen saw +life almost through that medium; and the siege of Hillside, +dispersed by the splendid prowess of Griffith, the champion with +silver helm and flashing sword, was precious to her as a renewal of +the days of Ivanhoe or Damian de Lacy. + +As may be believed, these quiet mornings were those when that true +knight was employed in field sports or yeomanry duties, such as the +state of the country called for. When he was at home, all was fun +and merriment and noise--walks and rides on fine days, battledore +and shuttlecock on wet ones, music, singing, paper games, giggling +and making giggle, and sometimes dancing in the hall--Mr. Frank +Fordyce joining with all his heart and drollery in many of these, +like the boy he was. + +I could play quadrilles and country dances, and now and then a reel- +-nobody thought of waltzes--and the three couples changed and +counterchanged partners. Clarence had the sailor's foot, and did +his part when needed; Emily generally fell to his share, and their +silence and gravity contrasted with the mirth of the other pairs. +He knew very well he was the pis aller of the party, and only danced +when Parson Frank was not dragged out, nothing loth, by his little +daughter. With Miss Fordyce, Clarence never had the chance of +dancing; she was always claimed by Griff, or pounced upon by Martyn. + +Miss Fordyce she always was to us in those days, and those pretty +lips scrupulously 'Mistered' and 'Winslowed' us. I don't think she +would have been more to us, if we had called her Nell, and had been +Griff, Bill, and Ted to her, or if there had not been all the little +formalities of avoiding tete a tetes and the like. They were +essentials of propriety then--natural, and never viewed as prudish. +Nor did it detract from the sweet dignity of maidenhood that there +was none of the familiarity which breeds something one would rather +not mention in conjunction with a lady. + +Altogether there was a sunshine around Miss Fordyce by which we all +seemed illuminated, even the least favoured and least demonstrative; +we were all her willing slaves, and thought her smile and thanks +full reward. + +One day, when Griff and Martyn were assisting at the turn out of an +isolated barn at Hillside, where Frank Fordyce declared, all the +burnt-out rats and mice had taken refuge, the young ladies went out +to cater for house decorations for Christmas under Clarence's +escort. Nobody but the clerk ever thought of touching the church, +where there were holes in all the pews to receive the holly boughs. + +The girls came back, telling in eager scared voices how, while +gathering butcher's broom in Farmer Hodges' home copse, a savage dog +had flown out at them, but had been kept at bay by Mr. Clarence +Winslow with an umbrella, while they escaped over the stile. + +Clarence had not come into the drawing-room with them, and while my +mother, who had a great objection to people standing about in out- +door garments, sent them up to doff their bonnets and furs, I +repaired to our room, and was horrified to find him on my bed, white +and faint. + +'Bitten?' I cried in dismay. + +'Yes; but not much. Only I'm such a fool. I turned off when I +began taking off my boots. No, no--don't! Don't call any one. It +is nothing!' + +He was springing up to stop me, but was forced to drop back, and I +made my way to the drawing-room, where my mother happened to be +alone. She was much alarmed, but a glass of wine restored Clarence; +and inspection showed that the thick trowser and winter stocking had +so protected him that little blood had been drawn, and there was +bruise rather than bite in the calf of the leg, where the brute had +caught him as he was getting over the stile as the rear-guard. It +was painful, though the faintness was chiefly from tension of nerve, +for he had kept behind all the way home, and no one had guessed at +the hurt. My mother doctored it tenderly, and he begged that +nothing should be said about it; he wanted no fuss about such a +trifle. My mother agreed, with the proud feeling of not enhancing +the obligations of the Fordyce family; but she absolutely kissed +Clarence's forehead as she bade him lie quiet till dinner-time. + +We kept silence at table while the girls described the horrors of +the monster. 'A tawny creature, with a hideous black muzzle,' said +Emily. 'Like a bad dream,' said Miss Fordyce. The two fathers +expressed their intention of remonstrating with the farmer, and +Griff declared that it would be lucky if he did not shoot it. Miss +Fordyce generously took its part, saying the poor dog was doing its +duty, and Griff ejaculated, 'If I had been there!' + +'It would not have dared to show its teeth, eh?' said my father, +when there was a good deal of banter. + +My father, however, came at night with mamma to inspect the hurt and +ask details, and he ended with, 'Well done, Clarence, boy; I am +gratified to see you are acquiring presence of mind, and can act +like a man.' + +Clarence smiled when they were gone, saying, 'That would have been +an insult to any one else.' + +Emily perceived that he had not come off unscathed, and was much +aggrieved at being bound to silence. 'Well,' she broke out, 'if the +dog goes mad, and Clarence has the hydrophobia, I suppose I may +tell.' + +'In that pleasing contingency,' said Clarence smiling. 'Don't you +see, Emily, it is the worst compliment you can pay me not to treat +this as a matter of course?' Still, he was the happier for not +having failed. Whatever strengthened his self-respect and gave him +trust in himself was a stepping-stone. + +As to rivalry or competition with Griff, the idea seemingly never +crossed his mind, and envy or jealousy were equally aloof from it. +One subject of thankfulness runs through these recollections-- +namely, that nothing broke the tie of strong affection between us +three brothers. Griffith might figure as the 'vary parfite knight,' +the St. George of the piece, glittering in the halo shed round him +by the bright eyes of the rescued damsel; while Clarence might drag +himself along as the poor recreant to be contemned and tolerated, +and he would accept the position meekly as only his desert, without +a thought of bitterness. Indeed, he himself seemed to have imbibed +Nurse Gooch's original opinion, that his genuine love for sacred +things was a sort of impertinence and pretension in such as he--a +kind of hypocrisy even when they were the realities and helps to +which he clung with all his heart. Still, this depression was only +shown by reserve, and troubled no one save myself, who knew him best +guessed what was lost by his silence, and burned in spirit at seeing +him merely endured as one unworthy. + +In one of our varieties of Waverley discussions the crystal hardness +and inexperienced intolerance of youth made Miss Fordyce declare +that had she been Edith Plantagenet, she would never, never have +forgiven Sir Kenneth. 'How could she, when he had forsaken the +king's banner? Unpardonable!' + +Then came a sudden, awful silence, as she recollected her audience, +and blushed crimson with the misery of perceiving where her random +shaft had struck, nor did either of us know what to say; but to our +surprise it was Clarence who first spoke to relieve the desperate +embarrassment. 'Is forgiven quite the right word, when the offence +was not personal? I know that such things can neither be repaired +nor overlooked, and I think that is what Miss Fordyce meant.' + +'Oh, Mr. Winslow,' she exclaimed, 'I am very sorry--I don't think I +quite meant'--and then, as her eyes for one moment fell on his +subdued face, she added, 'No, I said what I ought not. If there is +sorrow'--her voice trembled--'and pardon above, no one below has any +right to say unpardonable.' + +Clarence bowed his head, and his lips framed, but he did not utter, +'Thank you.' Emily nervously began reading aloud the page before +her, full of the jingling recurring rhymes about Sir Thomas of Kent; +but I saw Ellen surreptitiously wipe away a tear, and from that time +she was more kind and friendly with Clarence. + + + +CHAPTER XX--VENI, VIDI, VICI + + + +'None but the brave, +None but the brave, +None but the brave deserve the fair.' + +Song. + +Christmas trees were not yet heard of beyond the Fatherland, and +both the mothers held that Christmas parties were not good for +little children, since Mrs. Winslow's strong common sense had +arrived at the same conclusion as Mrs. Fordyce had derived from +Hannah More and Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Besides, rick-burning and +mobs were far too recent for our neighbours to venture out at night. + +But as we were all resolved that little Anne should have a memorable +Christmas at Chantry House, we begged an innocent, though iced cake, +from the cook, painted a set of characters ourselves, including all +the dolls, and bespoke the presence of Frank Fordyce at a feast in +the outer mullion room--Griff's apartment, of course. The locality +was chosen as allowing more opportunity for high jinks than the +bookroom, and also because the swords and pistols in trophy over the +mantelpiece had a great fascination for the two sisters, and to +'drink tea with Mr. Griffith' was always known to be a great +ambition of the little queen of the festival. As to the mullion +chamber legends, they had nearly gone out of our heads, though +Clarence did once observe, 'You remember, it will be the 26th of +December;' but we did not think this worthy of consideration, +especially as Anne's entertainment, at its latest, could not last +beyond nine o'clock; and the ghostly performances--now entirely laid +to the account of the departed stable-boy--never began before +eleven. + +Nor did anything interfere with our merriment. The fun of fifty +years ago must be intrinsically exquisite to bear being handed down +to another generation, so I will attempt no repetition, though some +of those Twelfth Day characters still remain, pasted into my diary. +We anticipated Twelfth Day because our guests meant to go to visit +some other friends before the New Year, and we knew Anne would have +no chance there of fulfilling her great ambition of drawing for king +and queen. These home-made characters were really charming. Mrs. +Fordyce had done several of them, and she drew beautifully. A +little manipulation contrived that the exquisite Oberon and Titania +should fall to Martyn and Anne, for whom crowns and robes had been +prepared, worn by her majesty with complacent dignity, but barely +tolerated by him! The others took their chance. Parson Frank was +Tom Thumb, and convulsed us all the evening by acting as if no +bigger than that worthy, keeping us so merry that even Clarence +laughed as I had never seen him laugh before. + +Cock Robin and Jenny Wren--the best drawn of all--fell to Griff and +Miss Fordyce. There was a suspicion of a tint of real carnation on +her cheek, as, on his low, highly-delighted bow, she held up her +impromptu fan of folded paper; and drollery about currant wine and +hopping upon twigs went on more or less all the time, while somehow +or other the beauteous glow on her cheeks went on deepening, so that +I never saw her look so pretty as when thus playing at Jenny Wren's +coyness, though neither she nor Griff had passed the bounds of her +gracious precise discretion. + +The joyous evening ended at last. With the stroke of nine, Jenny +Wren bore away Queen Titania to put her to bed, for the servants +were having an entertainment of their own downstairs for all the +out-door retainers, etc. Oberon departed, after an interval +sufficient to prove his own dignity and advanced age. Emily went +down to report the success of the evening to the elders in the +drawing-room, but we lingered while Frank Fordyce was telling good +stories of Oxford life, and Griff capping them with more recent +ones. + +We too broke up--I don't remember how; but Clarence was to help me +down the stairs, and Mr. Fordyce, frowning with anxiety at the +process, was offering assistance, while we had much rather he had +gone out of the way; when suddenly, in the gallery round the hall +giving access to the bedrooms, there dawned upon us the startled but +scarcely displeased figure of Jenny Wren in her white dress, not +turning aside that blushing face, while Cock Robin was clasping her +hand and pressing it to his lips. The tap of my crutches warned +them. She flew back within her door and shut it; Griff strode +rapidly on, caught hold of her father's hand, exclaiming, 'Sir, sir, +I must speak to you!' and dragged him back into the mullion room +leaving Clarence and me to convey ourselves downstairs as best we +might. + +'Our sister, our sweet sister!' + +We were immensely excited. All the three of us were so far in love +with Ellen Fordyce that her presence was an enchantment to us, and +at any rate none of us ever saw the woman we could compare to her; +and as we both felt ourselves disqualified in different ways from +any nearer approach, we were content to bask in the reflected rays +of our brother's happiness. + +Not that he had gone that length as yet, as we knew before the night +was over, when he came down to us. Even with the dear maiden +herself, he had only made sure that she was not averse, and that +merely by her eyes and lips; and he had extracted nothing from her +father but that they were both very young, a great deal too young, +and had no business to think of such things yet. It must be talked +over, etc. etc. + +But just then, Griff told us, Frank Fordyce jumped up and turned +round with the sudden exclamation, 'Ellen!' looking towards the door +behind him with blank astonishment, as he found it had neither been +opened nor shut. He thought his daughter had recollected something +left behind, and coming in search of it, had retreated +precipitately. He had seen her, he said, in the mirror opposite. +Griff told him there was no mirror, and had to carry a candle across +to convince him that he had only been looking at the door into the +inner room, which though of shining dark oak, could hardly have made +a reflection as vivid as he declared that his had been. Indeed, he +ascertained that Ellen had never left her own room at all. 'It must +have been thinking about the dear child,' he said. 'And after all, +it was not quite like her--somehow--she was paler, and had something +over her head.' We had no doubt who it was. Griff had not seen +her, but he was certain that there had been none of the moaning nor +crying, 'In fact, she has come to give her consent,' he said with +earnest in his mocking tone. + +'Yes,' said Clarence gravely, and with glistening eyes. 'You are +happy Griff. It is given to you to right the wrong, and quiet that +poor spirit.' + +'Happy! The happiest fellow in the world,' said Griff, 'even +without that latter clause--if only Madam and the old man will have +as much sense as she has!' + +The next day was a thoroughly uncomfortable one. Griff was not half +so near his goal as he had hoped last night when with kindly Parson +Frank. + +The commotion was as if a thunderbolt had descended among the +elders. What they had been thinking of, I cannot tell, not to have +perceived how matters were tending; but their minds were full of the +Reform Bill and the state of the country, and, besides, we were all +looked on still as mere children. Indeed, Griff was scarcely one- +and-twenty, and Ellen wanted a month of seventeen; and the crisis +had really been a sudden impulse, as he said, 'She looked so sweet +and lovely, he could not help it.' + +The first effect was a serious lecture upon maidenliness and +propriety to poor Ellen from her mother, who was sure that she must +have transgressed the bounds of discretion, or such ill-bred +presumption would have been spared her, and bitterly regretted the +having trusted her to take care of herself. There were sufficient +grains of truth in this to make the poor girl cry herself out of all +condition for appearing at breakfast or luncheon, and Emily's report +of her despair made us much more angry with Mrs. Fordyce than was +perhaps quite due to that good lady. + +My parents were at first inclined to take the same line, and be +vexed with Griff for an act of impertinence towards a guest. He had +a great deal of difficulty in inducing the elders to believe him in +earnest, or treat him as a man capable of knowing his own mind; and +even thus they felt as if his addresses to Miss Fordyce were, under +present circumstances, taking almost an unfair advantage of the +other family--at which our youthful spirits felt indignant. + +Yet, after all, such a match was as obvious and suitable as if it +had been a family compact, and the only objection was the youth of +the parties. Mrs. Fordyce would fain have believed her daughter's +heart to be not yet awake, and was grieved to find childhood over, +and the hero of romance become the lover; and she was anxious that +full time should be given to perceive whether her daughter's +feelings were only the result of the dazzling aureole which +gratitude and excited fancy had cast around the fine, handsome, +winning youth. Her husband, however, who had himself married very +young, and was greatly taken with Griff, besides being always +tender-hearted, did not enter into her scruples; but, as we had +already found out, the grand-looking and clever man of thirty-eight +was, chiefly from his impulsiveness and good-nature, treated as the +boy of the family. His old father, too, was greatly pleased with +Griff's spirit, affection, and purpose, as well as with my father's +conduct in the matter; and so, after a succession of private +interviews, very tantalising to us poor outsiders, it was conceded +that though an engagement for the present was preposterous, it might +possibly be permitted when Ellen was eighteen if Griff had completed +his university life with full credit. He was fervently grateful to +have such an object set before him, and my father was warmly +thankful for the stimulus. + +That last evening was very odd and constrained. We could not help +looking on the lovers as new specimens over which some strange +transformation had passed, though for the present it had stiffened +them in public into the strictest good behaviour. They would have +been awkward if it had been possible to either of them, and, save +for a certain look in their eyes, comported themselves as perfect +strangers. + +The three elder gentlemen held discussions in the dining-room, but +we were not trusted in our playground adjoining. Mrs. Fordyce +nailed Griff down to an interminable game at chess, and my mother +kept the two girls playing duets, while Clarence turned over the +leaves; and I read over The Lady of the Lake, a study which I always +felt, and still feel, as an act of homage to Ellen Fordyce, though +there was not much in common between her and the maid of Douglas. +Indeed, it was a joke of her father's to tease her by criticising +the famous passage about the tears that old Douglas shed over his +duteous daughter's head--'What in the world should the man go +whining and crying for? He had much better have laughed with her.' + +Little did the elders know what was going on in the next room, where +there was a grand courtship among the dolls; the hero being a small +jointed Dutch one in Swiss costume, about an eighth part of the size +of the resuscitated Celestina Mary, but the only available male +character in doll-land! Anne was supposed to be completely ignorant +of what passed above her head; and her mother would have been aghast +had she heard the remarkable discoveries and speculations that she +and Martyn communicated to one another. + + + +CHAPTER XXI--THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURTSHIP + + + +'Or framing, as a fair excuse, +The book, the pencil, or the muse; +Something to give, to sing, to say, +Some modern tale, some ancient lay.' + +SCOTT. + +It seems to me on looking back that I have hardly done justice to +Mrs. Fordyce, and certainly we--as Griffith's eager partisans--often +regarded her in the light of an enemy and opponent; but after this +lapse of time, I can see that she was no more than a prudent mother, +unwilling to see her fair young daughter suddenly launched into +womanhood, and involved in an attachment to a young and untried man. + +The part of a drag is an invidious one; and this must have been her +part through most of her life. The Fordyces, father and son, were +of good family, gentlemen to their very backbones, and thoroughly +good, religious men; but she came of a more aristocratic strain, had +been in London society, and brought with her a high-bred air which, +implanted on the Fordyce good looks, made her daughter especially +fascinating. But that air did not recommend Mrs. Fordyce to all her +neighbours, any more than did those stronger, stricter, more +thorough-going notions of religious obligation which had led her +husband to make the very real and painful sacrifice of his sporting +tastes, and attend to the parish in a manner only too rare in those +days. She was a very well-informed and highly accomplished woman, +and had made her daughter the same, keeping her children up in a +somewhat exclusive style, away from all gossip or undesirable +intimacies, as recommended by Miss Edgeworth and other more +religious authorities, and which gave great offence in houses where +there were girls of the same age. No one, however, could look at +Ellen, and doubt of the success of the system, or of the young +girl's entire content and perfect affection for her mother, though +her father was her beloved playfellow--yet always with respect. She +never took liberties with him, nor called him Pap or any other +ridiculous name inconsistent with the fifth Commandment, though she +certainly was more entirely at ease with him than ever we had been +with our elderly father. When once Mrs. Fordyce found on what terms +we were to be, she accepted them frankly and fully. Already Emily +had been the first girl, not a relation, whose friendship she had +fostered with Ellen; and she had also become thoroughly affectionate +and at home with my mother, who suited her perfectly on the +conscientious, and likewise on the prudent and sensible, side of her +nature. + +To me she was always kindness itself, so kind that I never felt, as +I did on so many occasions, that she was very pitiful and attentive +to the deformed youth; but that she really enjoyed my companionship, +and I could help her in her pursuits. I have a whole packet of +charming notes of hers about books, botany, drawings, little bits of +antiquarianism, written with an arch grace and finish of expression +peculiarly her own, and in a very pointed hand, yet too definite to +be illegible. I owe her more than I can say for the windows of +wholesome hope and ambition she opened to me, giving a fresh motive +and zest even to such a life as mine. I can hardly tell which was +the most delightful companion, she or her husband. In spite of ill +health, she knew every plant, and every bit of fair scenery in the +neighbourhood, and had fresh, amusing criticisms to utter on each +new book; while he, not neglecting the books, was equally well +acquainted with all beasts and birds, and shed his kindly light over +everything he approached. He was never melancholy about anything +but politics, and even there it was an immense consolation to him to +have the owner of Chantry House staunch on the same side, instead of +in chronic opposition. + +The family party moved to a tall house at Bath, but there still was +close intercourse, for the younger clergyman rode over every week +for the Sunday duty, and almost always dined and slept at Chantry +House. He acted as bearer of long letters, which, in spite of a +reticulation of crossings, were too expensive by post for young +ladies' pocket-money, often exceeding the regular quarto sheet. It +was a favourite joke to ask Emily what Ellen reported about Bath +fashions, and to see her look of scorn. For they were a curious +mixture, those girlish letters, of village interests, discussion of +books, and thoughts beyond their age; Tommy Toogood and Prometheus; +or Du Guesclin in the closest juxtaposition with reports of progress +in Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers. It was the desire of +Ellen to prove herself not unsettled but improved by love, and to +become worthy of her ideal Griffith, never guessing that he would +have been equally content with her if she had been as frivolous as +the idlest girl who lingered amid the waning glories of Bath. + +We all made them a visit there when Martyn was taken to a +preparatory school in the place. Mrs. Fordyce took me out for +drives on the beautiful hills; and Emily and I had a very delightful +time, undisturbed by the engrossing claims of love-making. Very +good, too, were our friends, after our departure, in letting Martyn +spend Sundays and holidays with them, play with Anne as before, say +his Catechism with her to Mrs. Fordyce, and share her little Sunday +lessons, which had, he has since told, a force and attractiveness he +had never known before, and really did much, young as he was, in +preparing the way towards the fulfilment of my father's design for +him. + +When the Rectory was ready, and the family returned, it was high +summer, and there were constant meetings between the households. No +doubt there were the usual amount of trivial disappointments and +annoyances, but the whole season seems to me to have been bathed in +sunlight. The Reform Bill agitations and the London mobs of which +Clarence wrote to us were like waves surging beyond an isle of +peace. Clarence had some unpleasant walks from the office. Once or +twice the shutters had to be put up at Frith and Castleford's to +prevent the windows from being broken; and once Clarence actually +saw our nation's hero, 'the Duke,' riding quietly and slowly through +a yelling, furious mob, who seemed withheld from falling on him by +the perfect impassiveness of the eagle face and spare figure. +Moreover a pretty little boy, on his pony, suddenly pushed forward +and rode by the Duke's side, as if proud and resolute to share his +peril. + +'If Griffith had been there!' said Ellen and Emily, though they did +not exactly know what they expected him to have done. + +The chief storms that drifted across our sky were caused by Mrs. +Fordyce's resolution that Griffith should enjoy none of the +privileges of an accepted suitor before the engagement was an actual +fact. Ellen was obedient and conscientious; and would neither +transgress nor endure to have her mother railed at by Griff's hasty +tongue, and this affronted him, and led to little breezes. + +When people overstay their usual time, tempers are apt to get rather +difficult. Griffith had kept all his terms at Oxford, and was not +to return thither after the long vacation, but was to read with a +tutor before taking his degree. Moreover bills began to come from +Oxford, not very serious, but vexing my father and raising +annoyances and frets, for Griff resented their being complained of, +and thought himself ill-used, going off to see his own friends +whenever he was put out. + +One morning at breakfast, late in October, he announced that Lady +Peacock was in lodgings at Clifton, and asked my mother to call on +her. But mamma said it was too far for the horse--she visited no +one at that distance, and had never thought much of Selina Clarkson +before or after her marriage. + +'But now that she is a widow, it would be such a kindness,' pleaded +Griff. + +'Depend upon it, a gay young widow needs no kindness from me, and +had better not have it from you,' said my mother, getting up from +behind her urn and walking off, followed by my father. + +Griff drummed on the table. 'I wonder what good ladies of a certain +age do with their charity,' he said. + +And while we were still crying out at him, Ellen Fordyce and her +father appeared, like mirth bidding good-morrow, at the window. All +was well for the time, but Griff wanted Ellen to set out alone with +him, and take their leisurely way through the wood-path, and she +insisted on waiting for her father, who had got into an endless +discussion with mine on the Reform Bill, thrown out in the last +Session. Griff tried to wile her on with him, but, though she +consented to wander about the lawn before the windows with him, she +always resolutely turned at the great beech tree. Emily and I +watched them from the window, at first amused, then vexed, as we +could see, by his gestures, that he was getting out of temper, and +her straw bonnet drooped at one moment, and was raised the next in +eager remonstrance or defence. At last he flung angrily away from +her, and went off to the stables, leaving her leaning against the +gate in tears. Emily, in an access of indignant sympathy, rushed +out to her, and they vanished together into the summer-house, until +her father called her, and they went home together. + +Emily told me that Ellen had struggled hard to keep herself from +crying enough to show traces of tears which her father could +observe, and that she had excused Griff with all her might on the +plea of her own 'tiresomeness.' + +We were all the more angry with him for his selfishness and want of +consideration, for Ellen, in her torrent of grief, had even +disclosed that he had said she did not care for him--no one really +in love ever scrupled about a mother's nonsense, etc., etc. + +We were resolved, like two sages, to give him a piece of our minds, +and convince him that such dutifulness was the pledge of future +happiness, and that it was absolute cruelty to the rare creature he +had won, to try to draw her in a direction contrary to her +conscience. + +However, we saw him no more that day; and only learnt that he had +left a message at the stables that dinner was not to be kept waiting +for him. Such a message from Clarence would have caused a great +commotion; but it was quite natural and a matter of course from him +in the eyes of the elders, who knew nothing of his parting with +Ellen. However, there was annoyance enough, when bedtime came, +family prayers were over, and still there was no sign of him. My +father sat up till one o'clock, to let him in, then gave it up, and +I heard his step heavily mounting the stairs. + + + +CHAPTER XXII--BRISTOL DIAMONDS + + + +'Stafford. And you that are the King's friends, follow me. + +Cade. And you that love the Commons, follow me; +We will not leave one lord, one gentleman, +Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon.' + +Act I. Henry VI. + +The next day was Sunday, and no Griff appeared in the morning. +Vexation, perhaps, prevented us from attending as much as we +otherwise might have done to Mr. Henderson when he told us that +there were rumours of a serious disturbance at Bristol; until Emily +recollected that Griff had been talking for some days past of riding +over to see his friend in the cavalry regiment there stationed, and +we all agreed that it was most likely that he was there; and our +wrath began to soften in the belief that he might have been detained +to give his aid in the cause of order, though his single arm could +not be expected to effect as much as at Hillside. + +Long after dark we heard a horse's feet, and in another minute +Griff, singed, splashed, and battered, had hurried into the room-- +'It has begun!' he said. 'The revolution! I have brought her--Lady +Peacock. She was at Clifton, dreadfully alarmed. She is almost at +the door now, in her carriage. I'll just take the pony, and ride +over to tell Eastwood in case he will call out the Yeomanry.' + +The wheels were to be heard, and everybody hastened out to receive +Lady Peacock, who was there with her maid, full of gratitude. I +heard her broken sentences as she came across the hall, about +dreadful scenes--frightful mob--she knew not what would have become +of her but for Griffith--the place was in flames when they left it-- +the military would not act--Griffith had assured her that Mr. and +Mrs. Winslow would be so kind--as long as any place was a refuge + +We really did believe we were at the outbreak of a revolution or +civil war, and, all little frets forgotten, listened appalled to the +tidings; how the appearance of Sir Charles Wetherall, the Recorder +of Bristol, a strong opponent to the Reform Bill, seemed to have +inspired the mob with fury. Griff and his friend the dragoon, while +walking in Broad Street, were astonished by a violent rush of +riotous men and boys, hooting and throwing stones as the Recorder's +carriage tried to make its way to the Guildhall. In the midst a +piteous voice exclaimed - + +'Oh, Griffith! Mr. Griffith Winslow! Is it you?' and Lady Peacock +was seen retreating upon the stone steps of a house either empty, or +where the inhabitants were too much alarmed to open the doors. She +was terribly frightened, and the two gentlemen stood in front of her +till the tumultuary procession had passed by. She was staying in +lodgings at Clifton, and had driven in to Bristol to shop, when she +thus found herself entangled in the mob. They then escorted her to +the place where she was to meet her carriage, and found it for her +with some difficulty. Then, while the officer returned to his +quarters, Griff accompanied her far enough on the way to Clifton to +see that everything was quiet before her, and then returned to seek +out his friend. The court at the Guildhall had had to be adjourned, +but the rioters were hunting Sir Charles to the Mansion-House. +Griff was met by one of the Town Council, a tradesman with whom we +dealt, who, having perhaps heard of his prowess at Hillside, +entreated him to remain, offering him a bed, and saying that all +friends of order were needed in such a crisis as this. Griff wrote +a note to let us know what had become of him, but everything was +disorganised, and we did not get it till two days afterwards. + +In the evening the mob became more violent, and in the midst of +dinner a summons came for Griff's host to attend the Mayor in +endeavouring to disperse it. Getting into the Mansion-House by +private back ways, they were able to join the Mayor when he came +out, amid a shower of brickbats, sticks, and stones, and read the +Riot Act three times over, after warning them of the consequences of +persisting in their defiance. + +'But they were far past caring for that,' said Griff. 'An iron rail +from the square was thrown in the midst of it, and if I had not +caught it there would have been an end of his Worship.' + +The constables, with such help as Griff and a few others could give +them, defended the front of the Mansion-House, while the Recorder, +for whom they savagely roared, made his escape by the roof to +another house. A barricade was made with beds, tables, and chairs, +behind which the defenders sheltered themselves, while volleys of +stones smashed in the windows, and straw was thrown after them. But +at last the tramp of horses' feet was heard, and the Dragoons came +up. + +'We thought all over then,' said Griff; 'but Colonel Brereton would +not have a blow struck, far less a shot fired! He would have it +that it was a good-humoured mob! I heard him! When one of his own +men was brought up badly hurt with a brickbat, I heard Ludlow, the +Town-Clerk, ask him what he thought of their good humour, and he had +nothing to say but that it was an accident! And the rogues knew it! +He took care they should; he walked about among them and shook hands +with them!' + +Griff waited at the Mansion-House all night, and helped to board up +the smashed windows; but at daylight Colonel Brereton came and +insisted on withdrawing the piquet on guard--not, however, sending a +relief for them, on the plea that they only collected a crowd. The +instant they were withdrawn, down came the mob in fresh force, so +desperate that all the defences were torn down, and they swarmed in +so that there was nothing for it but to escape over the roofs. + +Griffith was sent to rouse the inhabitants of College Green and St. +Augustine's Back to come in the King's name to assist the +Magistrates, and he had many good stories of the various responses +he met with. But the rioters, inflamed by the wine they had found +in sacking the Mansion-House, and encouraged by the passiveness of +the troops, had become entirely masters of the situation. And +Colonel Brereton seems to have imagined that the presence of the +soldiers acted as an irritation; for in this crisis he actually sent +them out of the city to Keynsham, then came and informed the mob, +who cheered him, as well they might. + +In the night the Recorder had left the city, and notices were posted +to that effect; also that the Riot Act had been read, and any +further disturbance would be capital felony. This escape of their +victim only had the effect of directing the rage of the populace +against Bishop Grey, who had likewise opposed the Reform Bill. + +Messages had been sent to advise the Bishop, who was to preach that +day at the Cathedral, to stay away and sanction the omission of the +service; but his answer to one of his clergy was--'These are times +in which it is necessary not to shrink from danger! Our duty is to +be at our post.' And he also said, 'Where can I die better than in +my own Cathedral?' + +Since the bells were ringing, and it was understood that the Bishop +was actually going to dare the peril, Griff and others of the +defenders decided that it was better to attend the service and fill +up the nave so as to hinder outrage. He said it was a most strange +and wonderful service. Chants and Psalms and Lessons and prayers +going on their course as usual, but every now and then in the pauses +of the organ, a howl or yell of the voice of the multitude would +break on the ear through the thick walls. Griff listened and hoped +for a volley of musketry. He was not tender-hearted! But none +came, and by the time the service was over, the mob had been greatly +reinforced and had broken into the prisons, set them on fire, and +released the prisoners. They were mustering on College Green for an +attack on the palace. Griff aided in guarding the entrance to the +cloisters till the Bishop and his family had had time to drive away +to Almondsbury, four miles off, and then the rush became so strong +that they had to give way. There was another great struggle at the +door of the palace, but it was forced open with a crowbar, while +shouts rang out 'No King and no Bishops!' A fire was made in the +dining-room with chairs and tables, and live coals were put into the +beds, while the plunder went on. + +Griff meantime had made his way to the party headed by the +magistrates, and accompanied by the dragoons, and the mob began to +flee; but Colonel Brereton had given strict orders that the soldiers +should not fire, and the plunderers rallied, made a fire in the +Chapter House, and burnt the whole of the library, shouting with the +maddest triumph. + +They next attacked the Cathedral, intending to burn that likewise, +but two brave gentlemen, Mr. Ralph and Mr. Linne, succeeded in +saving this last outrage, at the head of the better affected. + +Griff had fought hard. He was all over bruises which he really had +never felt at the time, scarcely even now, though one side of his +face was turning purple, and his clothes were singed. In a sort of +council held at the repulse of the attack on the Cathedral, it had +been decided that the best thing he could do would be to give notice +to Sir George Eastwood, in order that the Yeomanry might be called +out, since the troops were so strangely prevented from acting. As +he rode through Clifton, he had halted at Lady Peacock's, and found +her in extreme alarm. Indeed, no one could guess what the temper of +the mob might be the next day, or whether they might not fall upon +private houses. The Mansion-House, the prisons, the palace were all +burning and were an astounding sight, which terrified her +exceedingly, and she was sending out right and left to endeavour to +get horses to take her away. In common humanity, and for old +acquaintance sake, it was impossible not to help her, and Griff had +delayed, to offer any amount of reward in her name for posthorses, +which he had at last secured. Her own man-servant, whom she had +sent in quest of some, had never returned, and she had to set off +without him, Griff acting as outrider; but after the first there was +no more difficulty about horses, and she had been able to change +them at the next stage. + +We all thought the days of civil war were really begun, as the heads +of this account were hastily gathered; but there was not much said, +only Mr. Frank Fordyce laid his hand on Griff's shoulder and said, +'Well done, my boy; but you have had enough for to-day. If you'll +lend me a horse, Winslow, I'll ride over to Eastwood. That's work +for the clergy in these times, eh? Griffith should rest. He may be +wanted to-morrow. Only is there any one to take a note home for me, +to say where I'm gone;' and then he added with that sweet smile of +his, 'Some one will be more the true knight than ever, eh, you +Griffith you--' + +Griffith coloured a little, and Lady Peacock's eyes looked +interrogative. When the horse was announced, Griff followed Mr. +Fordyce into the hall, and came back announcing that, unless +summoned elsewhere, he should go to breakfast at Hillside, and so +hear what was decided on. He longed to be back at the scene of +action, but was so tired out that he could not dispense with another +night's rest; though he took all precautions for being called up, in +case of need. + +However, nothing came, and he rode to the Rectory in Yeomanry +equipment. Nor could any one doubt that in the ecstasy of meeting +such a hero, all the little misunderstanding and grief of the night +before was forgotten? Ellen looked as if she trod on air, when she +came down with her father to report that Griffith had gone, +according to the orders sent, to join the rest of the Yeomanry, who +were to advance upon Bristol. They had seen, and tried to turn +back, some of the villagers who were starting with bludgeons to +share in the spoil, and who looked sullen, as if they were +determined not to miss their share. + +I do not think we were very much alarmed for Griff's safety or for +our own, not even the ladies. My mother had the lion-heart of her +naval ancestors, and Ellen was in a state of exaltation. Would that +I could put her before other eyes, as she stood with hands clasped +and glowing cheek. + +'Oh!--think!--think of having one among us who is as real and true +knight as ever watched his armour - + + +'"For king, for church, for lady fight!" +It has all come gloriously true!' + + +'Should not you like to bind on his spurs?' I asked somewhat +mischievously; but she was serious as she said, 'I am sure he has +won them.' All the rest of the Fordyces came down afterwards, too +anxious to stay at home. Our elders felt the matter more gravely, +thinking of what civil war might mean to us all, and what an awful +thing it was for Englishmen to be enrolled against each other. +Nottingham Castle had just been burnt, and things looked only too +like revolution, especially considering the inaction of the +dragoons. After Griff had left Bristol, there had been some +terrible scenes at the Custom House, where the ringleaders--unhappy +men!--were caught in a trap of their own and perished miserably. + +However, by the morning, the order sent from Lord Hill, the arrival +of Major Beckwith from Gloucester, and the proceedings of the good- +humoured mob had put an end to poor Brereton's hesitations; a +determined front had been shown; the mob had been fairly broken up; +troops from all quarters poured into the city, and by dinner-time +Griff came back with the news that all was quiet and there was +nothing more to fear. Ellen and Emily both flew out to meet him at +the first sound of the horse's feet, and they all came into the +drawing-room together--each young lady having hold of one of his +hands--and Ellen's face in such a glow, that I rather suspect that +he had snatched a reward which certainly would not have been granted +save in such a moment of uplifted feeling, and when she was thankful +to her hero for forgetting how angry he had been with her two days +before. + +Minor matters were forgotten in the details of his tidings, as he +stood before the fire, shining in his silver lace, and relating the +tragedy and the comedy of the scene. + +It was curious, as the evening passed on, to see how Ellen and Lady +Peacock regarded each other, now that the tension of suspense was +over. To Ellen, the guest was primarily a distressed and widowed +dame, delivered by Griff, to whom she, as his lady love, was bound +to be gracious and kind; nor had they seen much of one another, the +elder ladies sitting in the drawing-room, and we in our own regions; +but we were all together at dinner and afterwards, and Lady Peacock, +who had been in a very limp, nervous, and terrified state all day, +began to be the Selina Clarkson we remembered, and 'more too.' She +was still in mourning, but she came down to dinner in gray satin +sheen, and with her hair in a most astonishing erection of bows and +bands, on the very crown of her head, raising her height at least +four inches. Emily assures me that it was the mode in use, and that +she and Ellen wore their hair in the same style, appealing to +portraits to prove it. I can only say that they never astonished my +weak mind in the like manner; and that their heads, however dressed, +only appeared to me a portion of the general woman, and part of the +universal fitness of things. Ellen was likewise amazed, most likely +not at the hair, but at the transformation of the disconsolate, +frightened widow, into the handsome, fashionable, stylish lady, +talking over London acquaintance and London news with my father and +Griff whenever they left the endless subject of the Bristol +adventures. + +The widow had gained a good deal in beauty since her early girlhood, +having regular features, eyes of an uncommon deep blue, very black +brows, eye-lashes, and hair, and a form of the kind that is better +after early youth is over. 'A fine figure of a woman,' Parson Frank +pronounced her, and his wife, with the fine edge of her lips +replied, 'exactly what she is!' + +She looked upon us younger ones as mere children still--indeed she +never looked at me at all if she could help it--but she mortally +offended Emily by penning her up in a corner, and asking if Griff +were engaged to that sentimental little girl. + +Emily coloured like a turkey cock between wrath and embarrassment, +and hotly protested against the word sentimental. + +'Ah yes, I see!' she said in a patronising tone, 'she is your bosom +friend, eh? That's the way those things always begin. You need not +answer: I see it all. And no doubt it is a capital thing for him; +properties joining and all. And she will get a little air and style +when he takes her to London.' It was a tremendous offence even to +hint that Ellen's style was capable of improvement; perhaps an +unprejudiced eye would have said that the difference was between +high-bred simplicity and the air of fashion and society. + +In our eyes Lady Peacock was the companion of the elders, and as +such was appreciated by the gentlemen; but neither of the two +mothers was equally delighted with her, nor was mine at all sorry +when, on Tuesday, the boxes were packed, posthorses sent for, and my +Lady departed, with great expressions of thankfulness to us all. + +'A tulip to a jessamine,' muttered Griff as she drove off, and he +looked up at his Ellen's sweet refined face. + +The unfortunate Colonel Brereton put an end to himself when the +court-martial was half over. How Clarence was shocked and how +ardent was his pity! But Griffith received the thanks of the +Corporation of Bristol for his gallant conduct, when the special +assize was held in January. Mrs. Fordyce was almost as proud of him +as we were, and there was much less attempt at restraining the terms +on which he stood with Ellen--though still the formal engagement was +not permitted. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--QUICKSANDS + + + + 'Whither shall I go? +Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?' + +TENNYSON. + +It was in the May of the ensuing year, 1832, that Clarence was sent +down to Bristol for a few weeks to take the place of one of the +clerks in the office where the cargoes of the incoming vessels of +the firm were received and overhauled. + +This was a good-natured arrangement of Mr. Castleford's in order to +give him change of work and a sight of home, where, by the help of +the coach, he could spend his Sundays. That first spring day on his +way down was a great delight and even surprise to him, who had never +seen our profusion of primroses, cowslips, and bluebells, nor our +splendid blossom of trees--apple, lilac, laburnum--all vieing in +beauty with one another. Emily conducted him about in great +delight, taking him over to Hillside to see Mrs. Fordyce's American +garden, blazing with azaleas, and glowing with rhododendrons. He +came back with a great bouquet given to him by Ellen, who had been +unusually friendly with him, and he was more animated and full of +life than for years before. + +Next time he came he looked less happy. There was plenty of room in +our house, but he used, by preference, the little chamber within +mine, and there at night he asked me to lend him a few pounds, since +Griffith had written one of his off-hand letters asking him to +discharge a little bill or two at Bristol, giving the addresses, but +not sending the accounts. This was no wonder, since any enclosure +doubled the already heavy postage. One of these bills was for some +sporting equipments from the gunsmith's; another, much heavier, from +a tavern for breakfasts, or rather luncheons, to parties of +gentlemen, mostly bearing date in the summer and autumn of 1830, +before the friendship with the Fordyces had begun. On Clarence's +defraying the first and applying for the second, two more had come +in, one from a jeweller for a pair of drop-earrings, the other from +a nurseryman for a bouquet of exotics. Doubting of these two last, +Clarence had written to Griff, but had not yet received an answer. +The whole amount was so much beyond what he had been led to expect +that he had not brought enough money to meet it, and wanted an +advance from me, promising repayment, to which latter point I could +not assent, as both of us knew, but did not say, we should never see +the sum again, and to me it only meant stinting in new books and +curiosities. We were anxious to get the matter settled at once, as +Griffith spoke of being dunned; and it might be serious, if the +tradesmen applied to my father when he was still groaning over +revelations of college expenses. + +On the ensuing Saturday, Clarence showed me Griff's answer--'I had +forgotten these items. The earrings were a wedding present to the +pretty little barmaid, who had been very civil. The bouquet was for +Lady Peacock; I felt bound to do something to atone for mamma's +severe virtue. It is all right, you best of brothers.' + +It was consolatory that all the dates were prior to the Hillside +fire, except that of the bouquet. As to the earrings, we all knew +that Griff could not see a pretty girl without talking nonsense to +her. Anyway, if they were a wedding present, there was an end of +it; and we were only glad to prevent any hint of them from reaching +the ears of the authorities. + +Clarence had another trouble to confide to me. He had strong reason +to believe that Tooke, the managing clerk at Bristol, was carrying +on a course of peculation, and feathering his nest at the expense of +the firm. What a grand discovery, thought I, for such a youth to +have made. The firm would be infinitely obliged to him, and his +fortune would be secured. He shook his head, and said that was all +my ignorance; the man, Tooke, was greatly trusted, especially by Mr. +Frith the senior partner, and was so clever and experienced that it +would be almost impossible to establish anything against him. +Indeed he had browbeaten Clarence, and convinced him at the moment +that his suspicions and perplexities were only due to the ignorance +of a foolish, scrupulous youth, who did not understand the customs +and perquisites of an agency. It was only when Clarence was alone, +and reflected on the matter by the light of experience gained on a +similar expedition to Liverpool, that he had perceived that Mr. +Tooke had been throwing dust in his eyes. + +'I shall only get into a scrape myself,' said Clarence despondently. +'I have felt it coming ever since I have been at Bristol;' and he +pushed his hair back with a weary hopeless gesture. + +'But you don't mean to let it alone?' I cried indignantly. + +He hesitated in a manner that painfully recalled his failing, and +said at last, 'I don't know; I suppose I ought not.' + +'Suppose?' I cried. + +'It is not so easy as you think,' he answered, 'especially for one +who has forfeited the right to be believed. I must wait till I have +an opportunity of speaking to Mr. Castleford, and then I can hardly +do more than privately give him a hint to be watchful. You don't +know how things are in such houses as ours. One may only ruin +oneself without doing any good.' + +'You cannot write to him?' + +'Certainly not. He has taken his family to Mrs. Castleford's home +in the north of Ireland for a month or six weeks. I don't know the +address, and I cannot run the risk of the letter being opened at the +office.' + +'Can't you speak to my father?' + +'Impossible! it would be a betrayal. He would do things for which I +should never be forgiven. And, after all, remember, it is no +business of mine. I know of agents at the docks who do such things +as a matter of course. It is only that I happen to know that Harris +at Liverpool does not. Very possibly old Frith knows all about it. +I should only get scored down as a meddlesome prig, worse hypocrite +than they think me already.' + +He said a good deal more to this effect, and I remember exclaiming, +'Oh, Clarence, the old story!' and then being frightened at the +whiteness that came over his face. + +Little did I know the suffering to which those words of mine +condemned him. For not only had he to make up his mind to +resistance, which to his nature was infinitely worse than it was to +Griffith to face a raging mob, but he knew very well that it would +almost inevitably produce his own ruin, and renew the disgrace out +of which he was beginning to emerge. I did not--even while I prayed +that he might do the right--guess at his own agony of supplication, +carried on incessantly, day and night, sleeping and waking, that the +Holy Spirit of might should brace his will and govern his tongue, +and make him say the right thing at the right time, be the +consequences what they might. No one, not constituted as he was, +can guess at the anguish he endured. I knew no more. Clarence did +not come home the next Saturday, to my mother's great vexation; but +on Tuesday a small parcel was given to me, brought from our point of +contact with the Bristol coach. It contained some pencils I had +asked him to get, and a note marked PRIVATE. Here it is - + + +'DEAR EDWARD--I am summoned to town. Tooke has no doubt forestalled +me. We have had some curious interviews, in which he first, as I +told you, persuaded me out of my senses that it was all right, and +then, finding me still dissatisfied, tried in a delicate fashion to +apprise me that I had a claim to a share of the plunder. When I +refused to appropriate anything without sanction from headquarters, +he threatened me with the consequences of presumptuous interference. +It came to bullying at last. I hardly know what I answered, but I +don't think I gave in. Now, a sharp letter from old Frith recalls +me. Say nothing at home; and whatever you do, do not betray Griff. +He has more to lose than I. Help me in the true way, as you know +how.--Ever yours, W. C. W. + + +I need not dwell on the misery of those days. It was well that my +father had ruled that our letters should not be family property. +Here were all the others discussing a proposed tour in the north of +Devon, to be taken conjointly with the Fordyces, as soon as Griff +should come home. My mother said it would do me good; she saw I was +flagging, but she little guessed at the continual torment of +anxiety, and my wonder at the warning about Griff. + +At the end of the week came another letter. + + +'You need not speak yet. Papa and mamma will know soon enough. I +brought down 150 pounds in specie, to be paid over to Tooke. He +avers that only 130 pounds was received. What is my word worth +against his? I am told that if I am not prosecuted it will only be +out of respect to my father. I am not dismissed yet, but shall get +notice as soon as letters come from Ireland. I have written, but it +is not in the nature of things that Mr. Castleford should not accept +such proofs as have been sent him. I have no hope, and shall be +glad when it is over. The part of black sheep is not a pleasant +one. Say not a word, and do not let my father come up. He could do +no good, and to see him believing it all would be the last drop in +the bucket. + +N.B.--In this pass, nothing would be saved by bringing Griff into +it, so be silent on your life. Innocence does not seem to be much +comfort at present. Maybe it will come in time. I know you will +not drop me, dear Ted, wherever I may be.' + + +Need I tell the distress of those days of suspense and silence, when +my only solace was in being left alone, and in writing letters to +Clarence which were mostly torn up again. + +My horror was lest he should be driven to go off to the sea, which +he loved so well, knowing, as nobody else did, the longing that +sometimes seized him for it, a hereditary craving that curiously +conflicted with the rest of his disposition; and, indeed, his lack +was more of moral than of physical courage. It haunted me +constantly that his entreaty that my father should not come to +London was a bad sign, and that he would never face such another +return home. And was I justified in keeping all this to myself, +when my father's presence might save him from the flight that would +indeed be the surrender of his character, and to the life of a +common sailor? Never have I known such leaden days as these, yet +the misery was not a tithe of what Clarence was undergoing. + +I was right in my forebodings. Prosecution and a second return home +in shame and disgrace were alike hideous to Clarence, and the +present was almost equally terrible, for nobody at the office had +any doubt of his guilt, and the young men who had sneered at his +strictness and religious habits regarded him as an unmasked +hypocrite, only waiting on sufferance till his greatly deceived +patron should write to decide on the steps to be taken with him, +while he knew he was thought to be brazening it out in hopes of +again deceiving Mr. Castleford. + +The sea began to exert its power over him, and he thought with +longing of its freedom, as if the sails of the vessels were the +wings of a dove to flee away and be at rest. He had no illusions as +to the roughness of the life and companionship; but in his present +mood, the frank rudeness and profanity of the sailors seemed +preferable to his cramped life, and the scowls of his fellows; and +he knew himself to have seamanship enough to rise quickly, even if +he could not secure a mate's berth at first. + +Mr. Castleford could not be heard from till the end of the week. +Friday, Saturday came and not a word. That was the climax! When +the consignment of cash, hitherto carried by Clarence to the Bank of +England, was committed to another clerk, the very office boy +sniggered, and the manager demonstratively waited to see him depart. + +Unable to bear it any longer, he walked towards Wapping, bought a +Southwester, examined the lists of shipping, and entered into +conversation with one or two sailors about the vessels making up +their crews; intending to go down after dark, to meet the skipper of +a craft bound for Lisbon, who, he heard, was so much in want of a +mate as perhaps to overlook the lack of testimonials, and at any +rate take him on board on Sunday. + +Going home to pick up a few necessaries, a book lent to him by Miss +Newton came in his way, and he felt drawn to carry it home, and see +her face for the last time. + +All unconscious of his trouble and of his intentions, the good lady +told him of her strong desire to hear a celebrated preacher at a +neighbouring church on the Sunday evening, but said that in her +partial blindness and weakness, she was afraid to venture, unless he +would have the extreme goodness, as she said, to take care of her. +He saw that she wished it so much that he had not the heart to +refuse, and he recollected likewise that very early on Monday +morning would answer his purpose equally well. + +It was the 7th of June. The Psalm was the 37th--the supreme lesson +of patience. 'Hold thee still in the Lord; and abide patiently on +Him; and He shall bring it to pass. He shall make thy righteousness +as clear as the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday.' + +The awful sense of desolation seemed to pass away under those words, +with that gentle woman beside him. And the sermon was on 'Oh tarry +thou the Lord's leisure; be strong, and He shall comfort thine +heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.' + +Clarence remembered nothing but the text. But it was borne in upon +him that his purpose of flight was 'the old story,'--cowardice and +virtual distrust of the Lord, as well as absolute cruelty to us who +loved him. + +When he had deposited Miss Newton at her own door, he whispered +thanks, and an entreaty for her prayers. + +And then he went home, and fought the battle of his life, with his +own horrible dread of Mr. Castleford's disappointment; of possible +prosecution; of the shame at home; the misery of a life a second +time blighted. He fought it out on his knees, many a time +persuading himself that flight would not be a sin, then returning to +the sense that it was a temptation of his worse self to be overcome. +And by morning he knew that it would be a surrender of himself to +his lower nature, and the evil spirit behind it; while, by facing +the worst that could befall him, he would be falling into the hand +of the Lord. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--AFTER THE TEMPEST + + + +'Nor deem the irrevocable past +As wholly wasted, wholly vain, +If rising on its wrecks at last +To something nobler we attain.' + +LONGFELLOW. + +All the rest of the family were out, and I was relieved by being +alone with my distress, not forced to hide it, when the door opened +and 'Mr. Castleford' was announced. After one moment's look at me, +one touch of my hand, he must have seen that I was faint with +anxiety, and said, 'It is all right, Edward; I see you know all. I +am come from Bristol to tell your father that he may be proud of his +son Clarence.' + +I don't know what I did. Perhaps I sobbed and cried, but the first +words I could get out were, 'Does he know? Oh! it may be too late. +He may be gone off to sea!' I cried, breaking out with my chief +fear. Mr. Castleford looked astounded, then said, 'I trust not. I +sent off a special messenger last night, as soon as I saw my way--' + +Then I breathed a little more freely, and could understand what he +was telling me, namely, that Tooke had accused Clarence of +abstracting 20 pounds from the sum in his charge. The fellow +accounted for it by explaining that young Winslow had been paying +extravagant bills at a tavern, where the barmaid showed his +presents, and boasted of her conquest. All this had been written to +Mr. Castleford by his partner, and he was told that it was out of +deference to himself that his protege was not in custody, nor had +received notice of dismissal; but, no doubt, he would give his +sanction to immediate measures, and communicate with the family. + +The effect had been to make the good man hurry at once from the +Giant's Causeway to Bristol, where he had arrived on Sunday, to +investigate the books and examine the underlings. In the midst +Tooke attempted to abscond, but he was brought back as he was +embarking in an American vessel; and he then confessed the whole,-- +how speculation had led to dishonesty, and following evil customs +not uncommon in other firms. Then, when the fugitive found that +young Winslow was too acute to be blinded, and that it had been a +still greater mistake to try to overcome his integrity, self-defence +required his ruin, or at any rate his expulsion, before he could +gain Mr. Castleford's ear. + +Tooke really believed that the discreditable bills were the young +man's own, and proofs of concealed habits of dissipation; but this +excellent man had gone into the matter, repaired to the tradesfolk, +learnt the date, and whose the accounts really were, and had even +hunted up the barmaid, who was not married after all, and had no +hesitation in avowing that her beau had been the handsome young +Yeomanry lieutenant. Mr. Castleford had spent the greater part of +Monday in this painful task, but had not been clear enough till +quite late in the evening to despatch an express to his partner, and +to Clarence, whom he desired to meet him here. + +'He has acted nobly,' said our kind friend. 'His only error seems +to have been in being too good a brother.' + +This made me implore that nothing should be said about Griffith's +bills, showing those injunctions of Clarence's which had so puzzled +me, and explaining the circumstances. + +Mr. Castleford hummed and hawed, and perhaps wished he had seen my +father before me; but I prevailed at last, and when the others came +in from their drive, there was nothing to alloy the intelligence +that Clarence had shown rare discernment, as well as great +uprightness, steadfastness, and moral courage. + +My mother, when she had taken in the fact, actually shed tears of +joy. Emily stood by me, holding my hand. My father said, 'It is +all owing to you, Castleford, and the helping hand you gave the poor +boy.' + +'Nay,' was the answer, 'it seems to me that it was owing to his +having the root of the matter in him to overcome his natural +failings.' + +Still, in all the rejoicing, my heart failed me lest the express +should have come too late, and Clarence should be already on the +high seas, for there had been no letter from him on Sunday morning. +It was doubtful whether Mr. Castleford's messenger could reach +London in time for tidings to come down by the coach--far less did +we expect Clarence--and we had nearly finished the first course at +dinner, when we heard the front door open, and a voice speaking to +the butler. Emily screamed 'It's he! Oh mamma, may I?' and flew +out into the hall, dragging in a pale, worn and weary wight, all +dust and heat, having travelled down outside the coach on a broiling +day, and walked the rest of the way. He looked quite bewildered at +the rush at him; my father's 'Well done, Clarence,' and strong +clasp; and my mother's fervent kiss, and muttered something about +washing his hands. + +Formal folks, such as we were, had to sit in our chairs; and when he +came back apologising for not dressing, as he had left his +portmanteau for the carrier, he looked so white and ill that we were +quite shocked, and began to realise what he had suffered. He could +not eat the food that was brought back for him, and allowed that his +head was aching dreadfully; but, after a glass of wine had been +administered, it was extracted that he had met Mr. Frith at the +office door, and been gruffly told that Mr. Castleford was +satisfied, and he might consider himself acquitted. + +'And then I had your letter, sir, thank you,' said Clarence, +scarcely restraining his tears. + +'The thanks are on our side, my dear boy,' said Mr. Castleford. 'I +must talk it over with you, but not till you have had a night's +rest. You look as if you had not known one for a good while.' + +Clarence gave a sort of trembling smile, not trusting himself to +speak. Approbation at home was so new and strange to him that he +could scarcely bear it, worn out as he was by nearly a month of +doubt, distress, apprehension, and self-debate. + +My mother went herself to hasten the preparation of his room, and +after she had sent him to bed went again to satisfy herself that he +was comfortable and not feverish. She came back wiping away a tear, +and saying he had looked up at her just as when she had the three of +us in our nursery cribs. In truth these two had seldom been so +happy together since those days, though the dear mother, while +thankful that he had not failed, was little aware of the conflict +his resolution had cost him, and the hot journey and long walk came +in for more blame for his exhaustion than they entirely deserved. + +My father perhaps understood more of the trial; for when she came +back, declaring that all that was needed was sleep, and forbidding +me to go to my room before bedtime, he said he must bid the boy +good-night. + +And he spoke as his reserve would have never let him speak at any +other time, telling Clarence how deeply thankful he felt for the +manifestation of such truthfulness and moral courage as he said +showed that the man had conquered the failings of the boy. + +Nevertheless, when I retired for the night, it was to find Clarence +asleep indeed, but most uneasily, tossing, moaning, and muttering +broken sentences about 'disgracing his pennant,' 'never bearing to +see mamma's face'--and the like. I thought it a kindness to wake +him, and he started up. 'Ted, is it you? I thought I should never +hear your dear old crutch again! Is it really all right'--then, +sitting up and passing his hand over his face, 'I always mix it up +with the old affair, and think the court-martial is coming again.' + +'There's all the difference now.' + +'Thank God! yes--He has dragged me through! But it did not seem so +in one's sleep, nor waking neither--though sleep is worst, and +happily there was not much of that! Sit down, Ted; I want to look +at you. I can't believe it is not three weeks since I saw you +last.' + +We talked it all out, and I came to some perception of the fearful +ordeal it had been--first, in the decision neither to shut his eyes, +nor to conceal that they were open; and then in the lack of presence +of mind and the sense of confusion that always beset him when +browbeaten and talked down, so that, in the critical contest with +Tooke, he felt as if his feet were slipping from under him, and what +had once been clear to him was becoming dim, so that he had only +been assured that he had held his ground by Tooke's redoubled +persuasions and increased anger. And for a clerk, whose years were +only twenty-one, to oppose a manager, who had been in the service +more than the whole of that space, was preposterous insolence, and +likely to result in the utter ruin of his own prospects, and the +character he had begun to retrieve. It was just after this, the +real crisis, that he had the only dream which had not been misery +and distress. In it she--she yonder--yes, the lady with the lamp, +came and stood by him, and said, 'Be steadfast.' + +'It was a dream,' said Clarence. 'She was not as she is in the +mullion room, not crying, but with a sweet, sad look, almost like +Miss Fordyce--if Miss Fordyce ever looked sad. It was only a +dream.' + +Yet it had so refreshed and comforted him that we have often since +discussed whether the spirit really visited him, or whether this was +the manner in which conscience and imagination acted on his brain. +Indeed, he always believed that the dream had been either heaven- +sent or heaven-permitted. + +The die had been cast in that interview when he had let it be seen +that he was dangerous, and could not be bought over. The after +consequences had been the terrible distress and temptation I have +before described, only most inadequately. 'But that,' said +Clarence, half smiling, 'only came of my being such a wretched +creature as I am. There, dear old Miss Newton saved me--yes, she +did--most unconsciously, dear old soul. Don't you remember how +Griff used to say she maundered over the text. Well, she did it all +the way home in my ear, as she clung to my arm--"Be strong, and He +shall comfort thine heart." And then I knew my despair and +determination to leave it all behind were a temptation--"the old +story," as you told me, and I prayed God to help me, and just +managed to fight it out. Thank God for her!' + +If it had not been for that good woman, he would have been out of +reach--already out in the river--before Mr. Castleford's messenger +had reached London! He might call himself a poor creature--and +certainly a man of harder, bolder stuff would not have fared so +badly in the strife; but it always seemed to me in after years that +much of what he called the poor creature--the old, nervous, timid, +diffident self--had been shaken off in that desperate struggle, +perhaps because it had really given him more self-reliance, and +certainly inspired others with confidence in him. + +We talked late enough to have horrified my mother, but I did not +leave him till he was sleeping like a child, nor did he wake till I +was leaving the room at the sound of the bell. It was alleged that +it was the first time in his life that he had been late for prayers. +Mr. Castleford said he was very glad, and my mother, looking +severely at me, said she knew we had been talking all night, and +then went off to satisfy herself whether he ought to be getting up. + +There was no doubt on that score, for he was quite himself again, +though he was, in looks and in weariness, just as if he had +recovered from a bad illness, or, as he put it himself, he felt as +tired and bruised as if he had been in a stiff gale. Mr. Castleford +was sorry to be obliged to ask him to go through the whole matter +with him in the study, and the result was that he was pronounced to +have an admirable head for business, as well as the higher qualities +that had been put to the test. After that his good friend insisted +that he should have a long and complete holiday, at first proposing +to take him to Ireland, but giving the notion up on hearing of our +projected excursion to the north of Devon. Pending this, Clarence +was, for nearly a week, fit for nothing but lying on the grass in +the shade, playing with the cats and dogs, or with little Anne, +looking over our drawings, listening to Wordsworth, our reigning +idol,--and enjoying, with almost touching gratitude, the first +approach to petting that had ever fallen to his share. + +The only trouble on his mind was the Quarter-Session. Mr. +Castleford would hardly have prosecuted an old employe, but Mr. +Frith was furious, and resolved to make an example. Tooke had, +however, so carefully entrenched himself that nothing could be +actually made a subject of prosecution but the abstraction of the 20 +pounds of which he had accused Clarence, who had to prove the having +received and delivered it. + +It was a very painful affair, and Tooke was sentenced to seven +years' transportation. I believe he became a very rich and +prosperous man in New South Wales, and founded a family. My father +received warm compliments upon his sons, and Clarence had the new +sensation of being honourably coupled with Griffith, though he +laughed at the idea of mere honesty with fierce struggles being +placed beside heroism with no struggle at all. + + + +CHAPTER XXV--HOLIDAY-MAKING + + + +'The child upon the mountain side + Plays fearless and at ease, +While the hush of purple evening + Spreads over earth and seas. +The valley lies in shadow, + But the valley lies afar; +And the mountain is a slope of light + Upreaching to a star.' + +MENELLA SMEDLEY. + +How pleasant it was to hear Griffith's cheery voice, as he swung +himself down, out of a cloud of dust, from the top of the coach at +the wayside stage-house, whither Clarence and I had driven in the +new britshka to meet him. While the four fine coach-horses were led +off, and their successors harnessed in almost the twinkling of an +eye, Griff was with us; and we did nothing but laugh and poke fun at +each other all the way home, without a word of graver matters. + +I was resolved, however, that Griff should know how terribly his +commission had added to Clarence's danger, and how carefully the +secret had been guarded; and the first time I could get him alone, I +told him the whole. + +The effect was one of his most overwhelming fits of laughter. 'Poor +old Bill! To think of his being accused of gallanting about with +barmaids!' (an explosion at every pause) 'and revelling with +officers! Poor old Bill! it was as bad as Malvolio himself.' + +When, indignant at the mirth excited by what had nearly cost us so +dear, I observed that these items had nearly turned the scale +against our brother, Griff demanded how we could have been such +idiots as not to have written to him; I might at least have had the +sense to do so. As to its doing him harm at Hillside, Parson Frank +was no fool, and knew what men were made of! Griff would have taken +the risk, come at once, and thrust the story down the fellow's +throat (as indeed he would have done). The idea of Betsy putting up +with a pious young man like Bill, whose only flame had ever been old +Miss Newton! And he roared again at the incongruous pair. 'Oh, +wasn't she married after all, the hussy? She always had a dozen +beaux, and professed to be on the point of putting up her banns; so +if the earrings were not a wedding present, they might have been, +ought to have been, and would be some time or other.' + +Then he patted me, and declared there was no occasion for my +disgusted looks, for no one knew better than himself that he had the +best brace of brothers in existence, wanting in nothing but common +sense and knowledge of the world. As to Betsy--faugh! I need not +make myself uneasy about her; she knew what a civil word was worth +much better than I did. + +He showed considerable affection for Clarence after a fashion of his +own, which we three perfectly understood, and preferred to anything +more conventional. Griff was always delightful, and he was +especially so on that vacation, when every one was in high spirits; +so that the journey is, as I look back on it, like a spot of +brilliant sunshine in the distant landscape. + +Mrs. Fordyce kept house with her father-in-law, little Anne, and +Martyn, whose holidays began a week after we had started. The two +children were allowed to make a desert island and a robbers' cave in +the beech wood; and the adventures which their imaginations +underwent there completely threw ours into the shade. + +The three ladies and I started in the big Hillside open carriage, +with my brothers on the box and the two fathers on horseback. Frank +Fordyce was a splendid rider, as indeed was the old rector, who had +followed the hounds, made a leap over a fearful chasm, still known +as the Parson's Stride, and had been an excellent shot. The +renunciation of field sports had been a severe sacrifice to Frank +Fordyce, and showed of what excellent stuff he was made. He used to +say that it was his own fault that he had to give them up; another +man would have been less engrossed by them. Though he only read by +fits and starts when his enthusiasm was excited, he was thorough, +able, and acute, and his intelligence and sympathy were my father's +best compensation for the loss of London society. + +The two riders were a great contrast. Mr. Winslow had the +thoroughly well-appointed, somewhat precise, and highly-polished air +of a barrister, and a thin, somewhat worn and colourless face, with +grizzled hair and white whiskers; and though he rode well, with full +command of his horse, he was old enough to have chosen Chancery for +her sterling qualities. Parson Frank, on the other hand, though a +thorough gentleman, was as ruddy and weather-browned as any farmer, +and--albeit his features were handsome and refined, and his figure +well poised and athletic--he lost something of dignity by easiness +of gesture and carelessness of dress, except on state occasions, +when he discarded his beloved rusty old coat and Oxford mixture +trousers, and came out magnificent enough for an archdeacon, if not +an archbishop; while his magnificent horse, Cossack, was an animal +that a sporting duke might have envied. + +Nothing ever tired that couple, but my father had stipulated for +exchanges with Griffith. On these occasions it almost invariably +happened that there was a fine view for Ellen to see, so that she +was exalted to the box with Griffith to show it to her, and Chancery +was consigned to Clarence. Griff was wont to say that Chancery +deserved her name, and that he would defy the ninety-ninth part of a +tailor to come to harm with her; but Clarence was utterly +unpractised in riding, did not like it, was tormented lest Cossack's +antics should corrupt Chancery, and was mortally afraid of breaking +the knees of the precious mare. Not all Parson Frank's good advice +and kindly raillery would induce him to risk riding her on a +descent; and as our travels were entirely up and down hill, he was +often left leading her far behind, in hot sun or misty rain, and +then would come cantering hastily up, reckless of parallels with +John Gilpin, and only anxious to be in time to help me out at the +halting-place; but more than once only coming in when the beefsteaks +were losing their first charm, and then good-humouredly serving as +the general butt for his noble horsemanship. Did any one fully +comprehend how much pleasanter our journey was through the presence +of one person entirely at the service of the others? For my own +part, it made an immense difference to have one pair of strong arms +and dextrous well-accustomed hands always at my service, enabling me +to accomplish what no one else, kind as all were, would have +ventured on letting me attempt. Primarily, he was my devoted slave; +but he was at the beck and call of every one, making the inquiries, +managing the bargains, going off in search of whatever was wanting-- +taking in fact all the 'must be dones' of the journal. The +contemplation of Cossack and Chancery being rubbed down, and +devouring their oats was so delightful to Frank Fordyce and Griffith +that they seldom wished to shirk it; but if there were any more +pleasing occupation, it was a matter of course that Clarence should +watch to see that the ostlers did their duty by the animals--an +obsolete ceremony, by the bye. He even succeeded in hunting up and +hiring a side saddle when the lovers, with the masterfulness of +their nature, devised appropriating the horses at all the most +beautiful places, in spite of Frank's murmur, 'What will mamma say?' +But, as Griff said, it was a real mercy, for Ellen was infinitely +more at her ease with Chancery than was Clarence. Then Emily had +Clarence to walk up the hills with her, and help her in botany--her +special department in our tour. Mine was sketching, Ellen's, +keeping the journal, though we all shared in each other's work at +times; and Griff, whose line was decidedly love-making, interfered +considerably with us all, especially with our chronicler. I spare +you the tour, young people; it lies before me on the table, +profusely illustrated and written in many hands. As I turn it over, +I see noble Dunster on its rock; Clarence leading Chancery down +Porlock Hill; Parson Frank in vain pursuit of his favourite ancient +hat over that wild and windy waste, the sheep running away from him; +a boat tossing at lovely Minehead; a 'native' bargaining over a crab +with my mother; the wonderful Valley of Rocks, and many another +scene, ludicrous or grand; for, indeed, we were for ever taking the +one step between the sublime and the ridiculous! I am inclined to +believe it is as well worth reading as many that have rushed into +print, and it is full of precious reminiscences to Emily and me; but +the younger generation may judge for itself, and it would be an +interruption here. The country we saw was of utterly unimagined +beauty to the untravelled eyes of most of us. I remember Ellen +standing on Hartland Point, with her face to the infinite expanse of +the Atlantic, and waving back Griff with 'Oh, don't speak to me.' +Yet the sea was a delight above all to my mother and Clarence. To +them it was a beloved friend; and magnificent as was Lynmouth, +wonderful as was Clovelly, and glorious as was Hartland, I believe +they would equally have welcomed the waves if they had been on the +flattest of muddy shores! The ripple, plash, and roar were as +familiar voices, the salt smell as native air; and my mother never +had thawed so entirely towards Clarence as when she found him the +only person who could thoroughly participate her feeling. + +At Minehead they stayed out, walking up and down together in the +summer twilight till long after every one else was tired out, and +had gone in; and when at last they appeared she was leaning on +Clarence's arm, an unprecedented spectacle! + +At Appledore, the only place on that rugged coast where boating +tempted them, there was what they called a pretty little breeze, but +quite enough to make all the rest of us decline venturing out into +Bideford bay. They, however, found a boatman and made a trip, which +was evidently such enjoyment to them, that my father, who had been a +little restless and uneasy all the time, declared on their return +that he felt quite jealous of Neptune, and had never known what a +cruelty he was committing in asking a sea-nymph to marry a London +lawyer. + +Mr. Fordyce told him he was afraid of being like the fisherman who +wedded a mermaid, and made Ellen tell the story in her own pretty +way; but while we were laughing over it, I saw my mother steal her +hand into my father's and give it a strong grasp. Such gestures, +which she denominated pawing, when she witnessed them in Emily, were +so alien to her in general that no doubt this little action was +infinitely expressive to her husband. She was wonderfully softened, +and Clarence implied to me that it was the first time she had ever +seemed to grieve for him more than she despised him, or to recognise +his deprivation more than his disgrace,--implied, I say, for the +words he used were little more than--'You can't think how nice she +was to me.' + +The regaining of esteem and self-respect was lessening Clarence's +bashfulness, and bringing out his powers of conversation, so that he +began to be appreciated as a pleasant companion, answering Griff's +raillery in like fashion, and holding his own in good-natured +repartee. Mr. Fordyce got on excellently with him in their tete-a- +tetes (who would not with Parson Frank?), and held him in higher +estimation than did Ellen. To her, honesty was common, tame, and +uninteresting in comparison with heroism; and Griff's vague +statement that Clarence was the best brother in the world did not go +for much. Emily and I longed to get the two better acquainted, but +it did not become possible while Griff absorbed the maiden as his +exclusive property. + +The engagement was treated as an avowed and settled thing, though I +do not know that there had been a formal ratification by the +parents; but in truth Mrs. Fordyce must have tacitly yielded her +consent when she permitted her daughter to make the journey under +the guardianship of Parson Frank. After a walk in the ravine of +Lynton, we became aware of a ring upon Ellen's finger; and Emily was +allowed at night to hear how and when it had been put on. + +Ellen only slightly deepened her lovely carnation tints when her +father indulged in a little tender teasing and lamentation over +himself. She was thoroughly happy and proud of her hero, and not +ashamed of owning it. + +There was one evening when she and I were sitting with our +sketchbooks in the shade on the beech at Ilfracombe, while the rest +had gone, some to bathe, the others to make purchases in the town. +We had been condoling with one another over the impossibility of +finding anything among our water-colours that would express the +wondrous tints before our eyes. + +'No, nothing can do it,' I said at last; 'we can only make a sort of +blot to assist our memories.' + +'Sunshine outside and in!' said Ellen. 'The memory of such days as +these can never fade away,--no, nor thankfulness for them, I hope.' + +Something then passed about the fact that it was quite possible to +go on in complete content in a quiet monotonous life, in an oyster- +like way, till suddenly there was an unveiling and opening of +unimagined capacities of enjoyment--as by a scene like this before +us, by a great poem, an oratorio, or, as I supposed, by Niagara or +the Alps. Ellen put it--'Oh! and by feelings for the great and +good!' Dear girl, her colour deepened, and I am sure she meant her +bliss in her connection with her hero. Presently, however, she +passed on to saying how such revelations of unsuspected powers of +enjoyment helped one to enter into what was meant by 'Eye hath not +seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man +to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love +him.' Then there was a silence, and an inevitable quoting of the +Christian Year, the guide to all our best thoughts - + + +'But patience, there may come a time.' + + +And then a turning to the 'Ode to Immortality,' for Wordsworth was +our second leader, and we carried him on our tour as our one secular +book, as Keble was our one religious book. We felt that the +principal joy of all this beauty and delight was because there was +something beyond. Presently Ellen said, prettily and shyly, 'I am +sure all this has opened much more to me than I ever thought of. I +always used to be glad that we had no brothers, because our cousins +were not always pleasant with us; but now I have learnt what +valuable possessions they are,' she added, with the sweetest, +prettiest glance of her bright eyes. + +I ventured to say that I was glad she said they, and hoped it was a +sign that she was finding out Clarence. + +'I have found out that I behaved so ill to him that I have been +ashamed ever since to look at him or speak to him,' said Ellen; 'I +long to ask his pardon, but I believe that would distress him more +than anything.' + +In which she was right; and I was able to tell her of the excuses +there had been for the poor boy, how he had suffered, and how he had +striven to conquer his failings; and she replied that the words +'Judge not, that ye be not judged,' always smote her with the +remembrance of her disdainfully cantering past him. There was a +tear on her eye-lashes, and it drew from me an apology for having +brought a painful recollection into our bright day. + +'There must be shade to throw up the lights,' she said, with her +sparkling look. + +Was it shade that we never fell into one of these grave talks when +Griffith was present, and that the slightest approach to them was +sure to be turned by him into jest? + +We made our journey a little longer than we intended, crossing the +moors so as to spend a Sunday at Exeter; but Frank Fordyce left us, +not liking to give his father the entire duty of a third Sunday. + +Emily says she has come to have a superstition that extensions of +original plans never turn out well, and certainly some of the charm +of our journey departed with the merry, genial Parson Frank. Our +mother was more anxious about Ellen, and put more restrictions on +the lovers than when the father was present to sanction their +doings. Griffith absolutely broke out against her in a way he had +never ventured before, when she forbade Ellen's riding with him when +he wanted to hire a horse at Lydford and take an excursion on the +moor before joining us at Okehampton. + +My father looked up, and said, 'Griffith, I am surprised at you.' +He was constrained to mutter some apology, and I believe Ellen +privately begged my mother's pardon, owning her to have been quite +right; but, by the dear girl, the wonderful cascade and narrow gorge +were seen through swollen eyes. And poor Clarence must have had a +fine time of it when Griffith had to ride off with him faute de +mieux. + +All was cleared off, however, when we met again, for Griff's storms +were very fleeting, and Ellen treated him as if she had to make her +own peace with him. She sacrificed her own enjoyment of Exeter +Cathedral to go about with him when he had had enough of it, but on +Sunday afternoon she altogether declined to walk with him till after +the second service. He laughed at her supposed passion for sacred +music, and offered to wait with her to hear the anthem from the +nave. 'No,' she said, 'that would be amusing ourselves instead of +worshipping.' + +'We've done our devoir in that way already,' said Griff. 'Paid our +dues.' + +'One can't,' cried Ellen, with an eager look. 'One longs to do all +the more when He has just let us have such a taste of His beautiful +things.' + +'ONE, perhaps, when one is a little saint,' returned Griff. + +'Oh don't, Griff! I'm not THAT; but you know every one wants all +the help and blessing that can be got. And then it is so +delightful!' + +He gave a long whistle. 'Every one to his taste,' he said; +'especially you ladies.' + +He did come to the Cathedral with us, but he had more than half +spoilt this last Sunday. Did he value her for what was best in her, +or was her influence raising him? + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--C. MORBUS, ESQ. + + + +'Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears, +The plaintive voice alone she hears, + Sees but the dying man.' + +SCOTT. + +C. Morbus, Esq. Such was the card that some wicked wag, one of +Clarence's fellow-clerks probably, left at his lodgings in the +course of the epidemic which was beginning its ravages even while we +were upon our pleasant journey--a shade indeed to throw out the +light. + +In these days, the tidings of a visitation of cholera are heard with +compassion for crowded towns, but without special alarm for +ourselves or our friends, since its conditions and the mode of +combating it have come to be fairly understood. + +In 1832, however, it was a disease almost unknown and unprecedented +except in its Indian abode, whence it had advanced city by city, +seaport by seaport, sweeping down multitudes before it; nor had +science yet discovered how to encounter or forestall it. We heard +of it in a helpless sort of way, as if it had been the plague or the +Black Death, and thought of its victims as doomed. + +That terrible German engraving, 'Death as a Foe,' which represents +the grisly form as invading a ballroom in Paris, is an expression of +the feeling with which the scourge was regarded on that first +occasion. Two Years Ago gives some notion of the condition of +things in 1849, but by that time there had been some experience, and +means of prevention were better understood. On the alarm in that +year there was a great inspection of cottages throughout Earlscombe +and Hillside, but in 1832 there was no notion of such precautions. +Nevertheless, on neither visitation, nor any subsequent one, has the +disease come nearer to us than Bristol. + +As far as memory serves me, the idea was that wholesome food, +regular habits, and cleanliness were some protection, but one +locality might be as dangerous as another. There had been cases in +London all the spring, but no special anxiety was felt when Clarence +returned to his work in the end of July, much refreshed and +invigorated by his holiday, and with the understanding that he was +to have a rise in position and salary on Mr. Castleford's return +from Ireland, where he was still staying with his wife's relations. +Clarence was received at the office with a kind of shamefaced +cordiality, as if every one would fain forget the way in which he +had been treated; and he was struck by finding that all the talk was +of the advances of the cholera, chiefly at Rotherhithe. And a great +shock awaited him. He went, as soon as business hours were over, to +thank good old Miss Newton for the comfort and aid she had +unwittingly given him, and to tell her from what she had saved him. +Alas! it was the last benefit she was ever to confer on her old +pupil. At the door he was told by a weeping, terrified maid that +she was very ill with cholera, and that no hope was given. He tried +to send up a message, but she was in a state of collapse and +insensible; and when he inquired the next morning, the gentle spirit +had passed away. + +He attended her funeral that same evening. Griff said it was a +proof how your timid people will do the most foolhardy things; but +Clarence always held that the good woman had really done more for +him than any one in actually establishing a contact, so to say, +between his spirit and external truth, and he thought no mark of +respect beyond her deserts. She was a heavy loss to him, for no one +else in town gave him the sense of home kindness; and there was much +more to depress him, for several of his Sunday class were dead, and +the school had been broken up for the time, while the heats and the +fruits of August contributed to raise the mortality. + +His return had released a couple more clerks for their holiday; it +was a slack time of year, with less business in hand than usual, and +the place looked empty. Mr. Frith worked on as usual, but preserved +an ungracious attitude, as though he were either still incredulous +or, if convinced against his will, resolved that 'that prig of a +Winslow' should not presume upon his services. Altogether the poor +fellow was quite unhinged, and wrote such dismal bills of mortality, +and meek, resigned forebodings that my father was almost angry, +declaring that he would frighten himself into the sickness; yet I +suppressed a good deal, and never told them of the last will and +testament in which he distributed his possessions amongst us. Griff +said he had a great mind to go and shake old Bill up and row him +well, but he never did. + +More than a week passed by, two of Clarence's regular days for +writing, but no letter came. My mother grew uneasy, and talked of +writing to Mrs. Robson, or, as we still called her, Gooch; but it +was doubtful whether the answer would contain much information, and +it was quite certain that any ill tidings would be sent to us. + +At last we did hear, and found, as we had foreboded, that the letter +had not been written for fear of alarming us, or carrying infection, +though Clarence underlined the words 'I am perfectly well.' + +Having to take a message into the senior partner's room, Clarence +had found the old man crouched over the table, writhing in the +unmistakable grip of the deadly enemy. No one else was available; +Clarence had to collect himself, send for the doctor, and manage the +conveyance of the patient to his rooms, which fortunately adjoined +the office; for, through all his influx of wealth, Mr. Frith had +retained the habits and expenditure of his early struggling days. +His old housekeeper and her drudge showed themselves terrified out +of their senses, and as incapable as unwilling. Naval experience, +and waiting on me, had taught Clarence helpfulness and handiness; +and though this was the very thing that had appalled his +imagination, he seemed, as he said afterwards, 'to have got beyond +his fright' to the use of his commonsense. And when at last the +doctor came, and talked of finding a nurse, if possible, for they +were scarce articles, the sufferer only entreated between his +paroxysms, 'Stay, Winslow! Is Winslow there? Don't go! Don't +leave me!' + +No nurse was to be found, but to Clarence's amazement Gooch arrived. +He had sent by the office boy to explain his absence; and before +night the faithful woman descended on him, intending, as in her old +days of authority, simply to put Master Clarry out of harm's way, +and take the charge upon herself. Then, as he proved unmanageable +and would not leave his patient, neither would she leave him, and +through the frightful night that ensued, there was quite employment +enough for them both. Gooch fully thought the end would come before +morning, and was murmuring something about a clergyman, but was cut +short by a sharp prohibition. However, detecting Clarence's lips +moving, the old man said, 'Eh! speak it out!' 'And with difficulty, +feeling as if I were somebody else,' said Clarence, 'I did get out +some short words of prayer. It seemed so awful for him to die +without any.' + +When the doctor came in early morning, the watchers were astonished +to hear that their charge had taken a turn for the better, and might +recover if their admirable care were continued. The doctor had +brought a nurse; but Mr. Frith would not let her come into the room, +and there was plenty of need for her elsewhere. + +Several days of unremitting care followed, during which Clarence +durst not write to us, so little were the laws of infection +understood. Good Mrs. Robson stayed all the time, and probably +saved Clarence from falling a victim to his zeal, for she looked +after him as anxiously as after the sick man; and with a wondering +and thankful heart, he found himself in full health, when both were +set free to return home. Clarence had written at the beginning of +the illness to the only relations of whose existence or address he +was aware, an old sister, Mrs. Stevens, and a young great-nephew in +the office at Liverpool; and the consequence was the arrival of a +sour-looking, old widow sister, who came to take charge of the +convalescence, and, as the indignant Gooch overheard her say, 'to +prevent that young Winslow from getting round him.' + +There were no signs of such a feat having been performed, when, the +panic being past, my father went up to London with Griffith, who was +to begin eating his terms at the Temple. He was to share Clarence's +lodgings, for the Robsons had plenty of room, and Gooch was +delighted to extend her cares to her special favourite, as she +already reigned over Clarence's wardrobe and table as entirely as in +nursery days; and, to my great exultation, my father said it would +be good for Griffith to be with his brother; and, moreover, we +should hear of the latter. Nothing could be a greater contrast than +his rare notifications or requests, scrawled on a single side of the +quarto sheet, with Clarence's regular weekly lines of clerkly +manuscript, telling all that could interest any of us, and covering +every available flap up to the blank circle left for the trim red +seal. + +Promotion had come to Clarence in the natural course of seniority, +and a small sum, due to him on his coming of age, was invested in +the house of business, so that the two brothers could take between +them all the Robsons' available rooms. Clarence's post was one of +considerable trust; but there were no tokens of special favour, +except that Mr. Frith was more civil to my father than usual, and +when he heard of the arrangement about the lodgings, he snarled out, +'Hm! Law student indeed! Don't let him spoil his brother!' + +Which was so far an expression of gratitude that it showed that he +considered that there was something to be spoilt. Mr. Castleford, +however, showed real satisfaction in the purchase of a share in the +concern for Clarence. His own eldest son inherited a good deal of +his mother's Irish nature, and was evidently unfit to be anything +but a soldier, and the next was so young that he was glad to have a +promising and trustworthy young man, from whom a possible joint head +of the firm might be manufactured. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--PETER'S THUNDERBOLT + + + +If you can separate yourself and your misdemeanours you are welcome +to the house; if not, an it would please you to take leave of her, +she is very willing to bid you farewell.' + +Twelfth Night. + +In the early summer of 1833, we had the opportunity of borrowing a +friend's house in Portman Square for six weeks, and we were allowed +to take Ellen with us for introduction to the Admiral and other old +friends, while we were to make acquaintance with her connections-- +the family of Sir Horace Lester, M.P. + +We were very civil; but there were a good many polite struggles for +the exclusive possession of Ellen, whom both parties viewed as their +individual right; and her unselfish good-humour and brightness must +have carried her over more worries than we guessed at the time. + +She had stayed with the Lesters before, but in schoolroom days. +They were indolent and uninterested, and had never shown her any of +the permanent wonders of London, despising these as only fit for +country cousins, whereas we had grown up to think of them with +intelligent affection. To me, however, much was as new as to Ellen. +Country life had done so much for me that I could venture on what I +had never attempted before. The Admiral said it was getting away +from doctors and their experiments, but I had also done with the +afflictions of attempts at growth in wrong directions. Old friends +did not know me, and more than once, as I sat in the carriage, +addressed me for one of my brothers--a compliment which, Griff said, +turned my head. Happily I was too much accustomed to my own +appearance, and people were too kind, for me to have much shyness on +that score. Our small dinner parties were great enjoyment to me, +and the two girls were very happy in their little gaieties. + +Braham and Catalani, Fanny Kemble, and Turner's landscapes at his +best, rise in my memory as supreme delights and revelations in their +different lines, and awakening trains of thought; and then there was +that entertainment which Griffith and Clarence gave us in their +rooms, when they regaled us with all the delicacies of the season, +and Peter and Gooch looked all pride and hospitality! The dining- +parlour, or what served as such, was Griff's property, as any one +could see by the pictures of horses, dogs, and ladies, the cups, +whips, and boxing-gloves that adorned it; the sitting-room had +tokens of other occupation, in Clarence's piano, window-box of +flowers, and his one extravagance in engravings from Raffaelle, and +a marine water-colour or two, besides all my own attempts at family +portraits, with a case of well-bound books. Those two rooms were +perfectly redolent of their masters--I say it literally--for the +scent of flowers was in Clarence's room, and in Griff's, the odour +of cigars had not wholly been destroyed even by much airing. For in +those days it was regarded by parents and guardians as an +objectionable thing. + +Peter was radiant on that occasion; but a few evenings later, when +all were gone to an evening party except my father and myself, Mr. +Robson was announced as wishing to speak to Mr. Winslow. After the +civilities proper to the visit of an old servant had passed, he +entered with obvious reluctance on the purpose of his visit, namely, +his dissatisfaction with Griff as a lodger. His wife, he said, +would not have had him speak, she was THAT attached to Mr. Griffith, +it couldn't be more if he was her own son; nor was it for want of +liking for the young gentleman on his part, as had known him from a +boy, 'but the wife of one's bosom must come first, sir, as stands to +reason, and it's for the good of the young gentleman himself, and +his family, as some one should speak. I never said one word against +it when she would not be satisfied without running the risk of her +life after Mr. Clarence; hattending of Mr. Frith in the cholery. +That was only her dooty, sir, and I have never a word to say against +dooty: but I cannot see her nearly wore out, and for no good to +nobody.' + +It appeared that Mrs. Robson was 'pretty nigh wore out, a setting up +for Mr. Griffith's untimely hours.' 'He laughed and coaxed--what I +calls cajoling--did Mr. Griff, to get a latch-key; but we knows our +dooty too well for that, and Mrs. Winslow had made us faithfully +promise, when Master Clarence first came to us, that he should never +have a latch-key,--Mr. Clarence, as had only been five times later +than eleven o'clock, and then he was going to dine with Mr. +Castleford, or to the theayter, and spoke about it beforehand. If +he was not reading to poor Miss Newton, as was gone, or with some of +his language-masters, he was setting at home with his books and +papers, not giving no trouble to nobody, after he had had his bit of +bread and cheese and glass of beer to his supper.' + +Ay, Peter knew what young gentlemen was. He did not expect to see +them all like poor Master Clarence, as had had his troubles; the +very life knocked out of him in his youth, as one might say. Indeed +Peter would be pleased to see him a bit more sprightly, and taking +more to society and hamusements of his hage. Nor would there be any +objection if the late 'ours was only once a week or so, and things +was done in a style fitting the family; but when it came to mostly +every night, often to two or three o'clock, it was too much for Mrs. +Robson, for she would never go to bed, being mortal afraid of fire, +and not always certain that Mr. Griffith was--to say--fit to put out +his candle. 'What do you mean, Peter?' thundered my father, whose +brow had been getting more and more furrowed every moment. 'Say it +out!--Drunk?' + +'Well sir, no, no, not to say that exactly, but a little excited, +sir, and women is timid. No sir, not to call intoxicated.' + +'No, that's to come,' muttered my father. 'Has this often +happened?' + +Peter did not think that it had been noticed more than three times +at the most; but he went on to offer his candid and sensible advice +that Mr. Griffith should be placed in a family where there was a +gentleman or lady who would have some hauthority, and could not be +put aside with his good-'umoured haffability--'You're an old fogy, +Peter.' 'Never mind, Nursey, I'll be a good boy next time,' and the +like. 'It is a disadvantage you see, sir, to have been in his +service, and 'tis for the young gentleman's own good as I speaks; +but it would be better if he were somewheres else--unless you would +speak to him, sir.' + +To the almost needless question whether Clarence had been with his +brother on these occasions, there was a most decided negative. He +had never gone out with Griffith except once to the theatre, and to +dine at the Castlefords, and at first he had sat up for his return, +'but it led to words between the young gentlemen,' said Peter, whose +confidences were becoming reckless; and it appeared that when +Clarence had found that Gooch would not let him spare her vigil, he +had obeyed her orders and ceased to share it. + +Peter was thanked for the revelations, which had been a grievous +effort to him, and dismissed. My father sat still in great distress +and perplexity, asking me whether Clarence had ever told me anything +of this, and I had barely time to answer 'No' before Clarence +himself came in, from what Peter called his language-master. He was +taking lessons in French and Spanish, finding a knowledge of these +useful in business. To his extreme distress, my father fell on him +at once, demanding what he knew of the way Griffith was spending his +time, 'coming home at all sorts of hours in a disreputable +condition. No prevarication, sir,' he added, as the only too +familiar look of consternation and bewilderment came over Clarence's +face. 'You are doing your brother no good by conniving at his +conduct. Speak truth, if you can,' he added, with more cruelty than +he knew, in his own suffering. + +'Sir,' gasped Clarence, 'I know Griff often comes home after I am in +bed, but I do not know the exact time, nor anything more.' + +'Is this all you can tell me? Really all?' + +'All I know--that is--of my own knowledge,' said Clarence, +recovering a little, but still unable to answer without hesitation, +which vexed my father. + +'What do you mean by that? Do you hear nothing?' + +'I am afraid,' said Clarence, 'that I do not see as much of him as I +had hoped. He is not up till after I have to be at our place, and +he does not often spend an evening at home. He is such a popular +fellow, and has so many friends and engagements.' + +'Ay, and of what sort? Can't you tell? or will you not? I sent him +up to you, thinking you a steady fellow who might influence him for +good.' + +The colour rushed into Clarence's face, as he answered, looking up +and speaking low, 'Have I not forfeited all such hopes?' + +'Nonsense! You've lived down that old story long ago. You would +make your mark, if you only showed a little manliness and force of +character. Griffith was always fond of you. Can't you do anything +to hinder him from ruining his own life and that sweet girl's +happiness?' + +'I would--I would give my life to do so!' exclaimed Clarence, in +warm, eager tones. 'I have tried, but he says I know nothing about +it, and it is very dull at our rooms for him. I have got used to +it, but you can't expect a fellow like Griff to stay at home, with +no better company than me, and do nothing but read law.' + +'Then you DO know,' began my father; but Clarence, with full self- +possession, said, 'I think you had better ask me no more questions, +papa. I really know nothing, or hardly anything, personally of his +proceedings. I went to one supper with him, after going to the +play, and did not fancy it; besides, it almost unfitted me for my +morning's work; nor does it answer for me to sit up for him--it only +vexes him, as if I were watching him.' + +'Did you ever see him come home showing traces of excess?' + +'No!' said Clarence, 'I never saw!' and, under a stern, distressed +look, 'Once I heard tones that--that startled me, and Mrs. Robson +has grumbled a good deal--but I think Peter takes it for more than +it is worth.' + +'I see,' said my father more gently; 'I will not press you farther. +I believe I ought to be glad that these habits are only hearsay to +you.' + +'As far as I can see,' said Clarence diffidently, but quite restored +to himself, 'Griff is only like most of his set, young men who go +into society.' + +'Oh!' said my father, in a 'that's your opinion' kind of tone; and +as at that moment the yell of a newsboy was heard in the street, he +exclaimed that he must go and get an evening paper. Clarence made a +step to go instead, but was thrust back, as apparently my father +merely wanted an excuse for rushing into the open air to recover the +shock or to think it over. + +Clarence gave a kind of groan, and presently exclaimed, 'If only +untruth were not such a sin!' and, on my exclamation of dismay, he +added, 'I don't think a blowing up ever does good!' + +'But this state of things should not last.' + +'It will not. It would have come to an end without Peter's +springing this mine. Griff says he can't stand Gooch any longer! +And really she does worry him intolerably.' + +'Peter professed to come without her knowledge or consent.' + +'Exactly so. It will almost break the good old soul's heart for +Griff to leave her; but she expects to have him in hand as if he was +in the nursery. She is ever so much worse than she was with me, and +he is really good-nature itself to laugh off her nagging as he does- +-about what he chooses to put on, or eating, or smoking, or leaving +his room untidy, as well as other things.' + +'And those other things? Do you suspect more than you told papa?' + +'It amounts to no more. Griff likes amusement, and everybody likes +him--that's all. Yes, I know my father read law ten hours a day, +but his whole nature and circumstances were different. I don't +believe Griff could go on in that way.' + +'Not with such a hope before him? You would, Clarence.' + +His face and not his tongue answered me, but he added, 'Griff is +sure of THAT without so much labour and trouble.' + +'And do you see so little of him?' + +'I can't help it. I can't keep his hours and do my work. Yes, I +know we are drifting apart; I wish I could help it, but being +coupled up together makes it rather worse than better. It +aggravates him, and he will really get on better without Gooch to +worry him, and thrust my droning old ways down his throat,--as if +Prince Hal could bear to be twitted with "that sober boy, Lord John +of Lancaster." Not,' he added, catching himself up, 'that I meant +to compare him to the madcap Prince. He is the finest of fellows, +if they only would let him alone.' + +And that was all I could get from Clarence. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--A SQUIRE OF DAMES + + + + 'Spited with a fool - +Spited and angered both.' + +Cymbeline. + +This long stay of Ellen's in our family had made our fraternal +relations with her nearer and closer. Familiarity had been far from +lessening our strong feeling for her goodness and sweetness. Emily, +who knew her best, used to confide to me little instances of the +spirit of devotion and self-discipline that underlay all her sunny +gaiety--how she never failed in her morning's devout readings; how +she learnt a verse or two of Scripture every day, and persuaded +Emily to join with her in repeating it ere they went downstairs for +their evening's pleasure; how she had set herself a little task of +plain work for the poor, which she did every day in her own room; +and the like dutiful habits, which seemed, as it were, to help her +to keep herself in hand, and not be carried away by what was a whirl +of pleasure to her, though a fashionable young lady would have +despised its mildness. + +Indeed Lady Peacock, with whom we exchanged calls, made no secret of +her compassion when she found how many parties the ladies were NOT +going to; and Ellen's own relations, the Lesters, would have taken +her out almost every night if she had not staunchly held to her +promise to her mother not to go out more than three evenings in the +week, for Mrs. Fordyce knew her to be delicate, and feared late +hours for her. The vexation her cousins manifested made her feel +the more bound to give them what time she could, at hours when +Griffith was not at liberty. She did not like them to be hurt, and +jealous of us, or to feel forsaken, and she tried to put her +affection for us on a different footing by averring that 'it was not +the same kind of thing--Emily was her sister.' + +One day she had gone to luncheon with the Lesters in Cavendish +Square, and was to be called for in the carriage by me, on the way +to take up the other two ladies, who were shopping in Regent Street. + +Ellen came running downstairs, with her cheeks in a glow under the +pink satin lining of her pretty bonnet, and her eyes sparkling with +indignation, which could not but break forth. + +'I don't know how I shall ever go there again!' she exclaimed; 'they +have no right to say such things!' Then she explained. Mary and +Louisa had been saying horrid things about Griffith--her Griff! It +was always their way. Think how Horace had made her treat Clarence! +It was their way and habit to tease, and call it fun, and she had +never minded it before; but this was too bad. Would not I put it in +her power to give a flat contradiction, such as would make them +ashamed of themselves? + +Contradict what? + +Then it appeared that the Misses Lester had laughed at her, who was +so very particular and scrupulous, for having taken up with a +regular young man about town. Oh no, THEY did not think much of it- +-no doubt he was only just like other people; only the funny thing +was that it should be Ellen, for whom it was always supposed that no +saint in the calendar, no knight in all the Waverley novels, would +be good enough! And then, on her hot desire to know what they +meant, they quoted John, the brother in the Guards, as having been +so droll about poor Ellen's perfect hero, and especially at his +straight-laced Aunt Fordyce having been taken in,--but of course it +was the convenience of joining the estates, and it was agreeable to +see that your very good folk could wink at things like other people +in such a case. Then, when Ellen fairly drove her inquiries home, +in her absolute trust of confuting all slanders, she was told that +Griffith did, what she called 'all sorts of things--billiards and +all that.' And even that he was always running after a horrid Lady +Peacock, a gay widow. + +'They went on in fun,' said Ellen, 'and laughed the more when--yes, +I am afraid I did--I lost my temper. No, don't say I well might, I +know I ought not; but I told them I knew all about Lady Peacock, and +that you were all old friends, even before he rescued her from the +Bristol riots and brought her home to Chantry House; and that only +made Mary merrier than ever, and say, "What, another distressed +damsel? Take care, Ellen; I would not trust such a squire of +dames." And then Louisa chimed in, "Oh no, you see this Peacock +dame was only conducted, like Princess Micomicona and all the rest +of them, to the feet of his peerless Dulcinea!" And then I heard +the knock, and I was never so glad in my life!' + +'Well!' I could not help remarking, 'I have heard of women's +spitefulness, but I never believed it till now.' + +'I really don't think it was altogether what you call malice, so +much as the Lester idea of fun,' said Ellen, recovering herself +after her outpouring. 'A very odd notion I always thought it was; +and Mary and Louisa are not really ill-natured, and cannot wish to +do the harm they might have done, if I did not know Griff too well.' + +Then, after considering a little, she said, blushing, 'I believe I +have told you more than I ought, Edward--I couldn't help having it +out; but please don't tell any one, especially that shocking way of +speaking of mamma, which they could not really mean.' + +'No one could who knew her.' + +'Of course not. I'll tell you what I mean to do. I will write to +Mary when we go in, and tell her that I know she really cares for me +enough to be glad that her nonsense has done no mischief, and, +though I was so foolish and wrong as to fly into a passion, of +course I know it is only her way, and I do not believe one word of +it.' + +Somehow, as she looked with those radiant eyes full of perfect +trust, I could not help longing not to have heard Peter Robson's +last night's complaint; but family feeling towards outsiders +overcomes many a misgiving, and my wrath against the malignity of +the Lesters was quite as strong as if I had been devoid of all +doubts whether Griff wore to all other eyes the same halo of pure +glory with which Ellen invested him. + +Such doubts were very transient. Dear old Griff was too delightful, +too bright and too brave, too ardent and too affectionate, not to +dispel all clouds by the sunshine he carried about with him. If +rest and reliance came with Clarence, zest and animation came with +Griffith. He managed to take the initiative by declining to remain +any longer with the Robsons, saying they had been spoilt by such a +model lodger as Clarence, who would let Gooch feed him on bread and +milk and boiled mutton, and put on his clean pinafore if she chose +to insist; whereas her indignation, when Griff found fault with the +folding of his white ties, amounted to 'Et tu Brute,' and he really +feared she would have had a fit when he ordered devilled kidneys for +breakfast. He was sure her determination to tuck him up every night +and put out his candle was shortening her life; and he had made +arrangements to share the chambers of a friend who had gone through +school and college with him. There was no objection to the friend, +who had stayed at Chantry House and was an agreeable, lively, young +man, well reported of, satisfactorily connected, fairly industrious, +and in good society, so that Griff was likely to be much less +exposed to temptation of the lower kinds than when left to his own +devices, or only with Clarence, who had neither time nor disposition +to share his amusements. + +There was a scene with my father, but in private; and all that came +to general knowledge was that Griff felt himself injured by any +implication that he was given to violent or excessive dissipation, +such as could wreck Ellen's happiness or his own character. + +He declared with all his heart that immediate marriage would be the +best thing for both, and pleaded earnestly for it; but my father +could not have arranged for it even if the Fordyces would have +consented, and there were matters of business, as well as other +reasons, which made it inexpedient for them to revoke their decision +that the wedding should not take place before Ellen was of age and +Griffith called to the bar. + +So we took our young ladies home, loaded with presents for their +beloved school children, of whom Emily said she dreamt, as the time +for seeing them again drew near. After all the London enjoyment, it +was pretty to see the girls' delight in the fresh country sights and +sounds in full summer glory, and how Ellen proved to have been +hungering after all her dear ones at home. When we left her at her +own door, our last sight of her was in her father's arms, little +Anne clinging to her dress, mother and grandfather as close to her +as could be--a perfect tableau of a joyous welcome. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--LOVE AND OBEDIENCE + + + +'Unless he give me all in change + I forfeit all things by him; +The risk is terrible and strange.' + +MRS. BROWNING. + +You will be weary of my lengthiness; and perhaps I am lingering too +long over the earlier portion of my narrative. Something is due to +the disproportion assumed in our memories by the first twenty years +of existence--something, perhaps, to reluctance to passing from +comparative sunshine to shadow. There was still a period of +brightness, but it was so uneventful that I have no excuse for +dwelling on it further than to say that Henderson, our excellent +curate, had already made a great difference in the parish, and it +was beginning to be looked on as almost equal to Hillside. The +children were devoted to Emily, who was the source of all the +amenities of their poor little lives. The needlework of the school +was my mother's pride; and our church and its services, though you +would shudder at them now, were then thought presumptuously superior +'for a country parish.' They were a real delight and blessing to +us, as well as to many more of the flock, who still, in their old +age, remember and revere Parson Henderson as a sort of apostle. + +The dawning of the new Poor-Law led to investigations which revealed +the true conditions of the peasant's life--its destitution, +recklessness, and dependence. We tried to mend matters by inducing +families to emigrate, but this renewed the distrust which had at +first beheld in the schools an attempt to enslave the children. +Even accounts, sent home by the exceptionally enterprising who did +go to Canada, were, we found, scarcely trusted. Amos Bell, who +would have gone, if he had not been growing into my special personal +attendant, was letter-writer and reader to all his relations, and +revealed to us that it had been agreed that no letter should be +considered as genuine unless it bore a certain private mark. To be +sure, the accounts of prosperity might well sound fabulous to the +toilers and moilers at home. Harriet Martineau's Hamlets, which we +lent to many of our neighbours, is a fair picture of the state of +things. We much enjoyed those tales, and Emily says they were the +only political economy she ever learnt. + +The model arrangements of our vestries led to a summons to my father +and the younger Mr. Fordyce to London, to be examined on the +condition of the pauper, and the working of the old Elizabethan +Poor-Law. + +They were absent for about a fortnight of early spring, and Emily +and I could not help observing that our mother was unusually +uncommunicative about my father's letters; and, moreover, there was +a tremendous revolution of the furniture, a far more ominous token +in our household than any comet. + +The truth came on us when the two fathers returned. Mine told me +himself that Frank Fordyce was so much displeased with Griffith's +conduct that he had declared that the engagement could not continue +with his consent. + +This from good-natured, tender-hearted Parson Frank! + +I cried out hotly that 'those Lesters' had done this. They had +always been set against us, and any one could talk over Mr. Frank. +My father shook his head. He said Frank Fordyce was not weak, but +all the stronger for his gentleness and charity; and, moreover, that +he was quite right--to our shame and grief be it spoken--quite +right. + +It was true that the first information had been given by Sir Horace +Lester, Mrs. Fordyce's brother, but it had not been lightly spoken +like the daughter's chatter; and my father himself had found it only +too true, so that he could not conscientiously call Griffith worthy +of such a creature as Ellen Fordyce. + +Poor Griff, he had been idle and impracticable over his legal +studies, which no persuasion would make him view as otherwise than a +sort of nominal training for a country gentleman; nor had he ever +believed or acted upon the fact that the Earlscombe property was not +an unlimited fortune, such as would permit him to dispense with any +profession, and spend time and money like the youths with whom he +associated. Still, this might have been condoned as part of the +effervescence which had excited him ever since my father had +succeeded to the estate, and patience might still have waited for +greater wisdom; but there had been graver complaints of +irregularities, which were forcing his friend to dissolve +partnership with him. There was evidence of gambling, which he not +only admitted, but defended; and, moreover, he was known at parties, +at races, and at the theatre, as one of the numerous satellites who +revolved about that gay and conspicuous young fashionable widow, +Lady Peacock. + +'Yes, Frank has every right to be angry,' said my father, pacing the +room. 'I can't wonder at him. I should do the same; but it is +destroying the best hope for my poor boy.' + +Then he began to wish Clarence had more--he knew not what to call +it--in him; something that might keep his brother straight. For, of +course, he had talked to Clarence and discovered how very little the +brothers saw of one another. Clarence had been to look for Griff in +vain more than once, and they had only really met at a Castleford +dinner-party. In fact, Clarence's youthful spirits, and the tastes +which would have made him companionable to Griff, had been crushed +out of him; and he was what more recent slang calls 'such a muff,' +that he had perforce drifted out of our elder brother's daily life, +as much as if he had been a grave senior of fifty. It was, as he +owned, a heavy penalty of his youthful fall that he could not help +his brother more effectually. + +It appeared that Frank Fordyce, thoroughly roused, had had it out +with Griffith, and had declared that his consent was withdrawn and +the engagement annulled. Griff, astounded at the resolute tone of +one whom he considered as the most good-natured of men, had answered +hotly and proudly that he should accept no dismissal except from +Ellen herself, and that he had done no more than was expected of any +young man of position and estate. On the other indictment he +scorned any defence, and the two had parted in mutual indignation. +He had, however, shown himself so much distressed at the threat of +being deprived of Ellen, that neither my father nor Clarence had the +least doubt of his genuine attachment to her, nor that his +attentions to Lady Peacock were more than the effect of old habit +and love of amusement, and that they had been much exaggerated. He +scouted the bare idea of preferring her to Ellen; and, in his second +interview with my father, was ready to make any amount of promises +of reformation, provided his engagement were continued. + +This was on the last evening before leaving town, and he came to the +coach-office looking so pale, jaded, and unhappy that Parson Frank's +kind heart was touched; and in answer to a muttered 'I've been ten +thousand fools, sir, but if you will overlook it I will try to be +worthy of her,' he made some reply that could be construed into, 'If +you keep to that, all may yet be well. I'll talk to her mother and +grandfather.' + +Perhaps this was cruel kindness, for, as we well knew, Mrs. Fordyce +was far less likely to be tolerant of a young man's failings than +was her husband; and she was, besides, a Lester, and might take the +same view. + +Abusing the Lesters was our great resource; for we did not believe +either the sailor or the guardsman to be immaculate, and we knew +them to be jealous. We had to remain in ignorance of what we most +wished to know, for Ellen was kept away from us, and my mother would +not let Emily go in search of her. Only Anne, who was a high- +spirited, independent little person, made a sudden rush upon me as I +sat in the garden. She had no business to be so far from home +alone; but, said she, 'I don't care, it is all so horrid. Please, +Edward, is it true that Griff has been so very wicked? I heard the +maids talking, and they said papa had found out that he was a bad +lot, and that he was not to marry Ellen; but she would stick to him +through thick and thin, like poor Kitty Brown who would marry the +man that got transported for seven years.' 'Will he be transported, +Edward? and would Ellen go too, like the "nut-brown maid?" Is that +what she cries so about? Not by day, but all night. I know she +does, for her handkerchief is wet through, and there is a wet place +on her pillow always in the morning; but she only says, "Never +mind," and nobody WILL tell me. They only say little girls should +not think about such things. And I am not so very little. I am +eight, and have read the Lay of the Last Minstrel and I know all +about people in love. So you might tell me.' + +I relieved Anne's mind as to the chances of transportation, and, +after considering how many confidences might be honourably exchanged +with the child, I explained that her father thought Griff had been +idle and careless, and not fit as yet to be trusted with Ellen. + +Her parish experience came into play. 'Does papa think he would be +like Joe Sparks? But then gentlemen don't beat their wives, nor go +to the public-house, nor let their children go about in rags.' + +I durst not inquire much, but I gathered that there was a heavy +shadow over the house, and that Ellen was striving to do as usual, +but breaking down when alone. Just then Parson Frank appeared. +Anne had run away from him while on a farming inspection, when the +debate over the turnips with the factotum had become wearisome. He +looked grave and sorrowful, quite unlike his usual hearty self, and +came to me, leaning over my chair, and saying, 'This is sad work, +Edward'; and, on an anxious venture of an inquiry for Ellen, 'Poor +little maid, it is very sore work with her. She is a good child and +obedient--wants to do her duty; but we should never have let it go +on so long. We have only ourselves to thank--taking the family +character, you see'--and he made a kindly gesture towards me. 'Your +father sees how it is, and won't let it make a split between us. I +believe that not seeing as much of your sister as usual is one of my +poor lassie's troubles, but it may be best--it may be best.' + +He lingered talking, unwilling to tear himself away, and ended by +disclosing, almost at unawares, that Ellen had held out for a long +time, would not understand nor take in what she was told, accepted +nothing on Lester authority, declared she understood all about Lady +Peacock, and showed a strength of resistance and independence of +view that had quite startled her parents, by proving how far their +darling had gone from them in heart. But they still held her by the +bonds of obedience; and, by dealing with her conscience, her mother +had obtained from her a piteous little note - + + +'MY DEAR GRIFFITH--I am afraid it is true that you have not always +seemed to be doing right, and papa and mamma forbid our going on as +we are. You know I cannot be disobedient. It would not bring a +blessing on you. So I must break off, though--' + + +The 'though' could be read through an erasure, followed by the +initials, E. M. F.--as if the dismal conclusion had been felt to be +only too true--and there followed the postscript, 'Forgive me, and, +if we are patient, it may come right.' + +This letter was displayed, when, on the ensuing evening, it brought +Griff down in towering indignation, and trying to prove the coercion +that must have been exercised to extract even thus much from his +darling. Over he went headlong to Hillside to insist on seeing her, +but to encounter a succession of stormy scenes. Mrs. Fordyce was +the most resolute, but was ill for a week after. The old Rector was +gentle, and somewhat overawed Griff by his compassion, and by +representations that were only too true; and Parson Frank, with his +tender heart torn to pieces, showed symptoms of yielding another +probation. + +The interview with Ellen was granted. She, however, was intrenched +in obedience. She had promised submission to the rupture of her +engagement, and she kept her word,--though she declared that nothing +could hinder her love, and that she would wait patiently till her +lover had proved himself, to everybody's satisfaction, as good and +noble as she knew him to be. When he told her she did not love him +she smiled. She was sure that whatever mistakes there might have +been, he would give no further occasion against himself, and then +every one would see that all had been mere misunderstanding, and +they should be happy again. + +Such trust humbled him, and he was ready to make all promises and +resolutions; but he could not obtain the renewal of the engagement, +nor permission to correspond. Only there was wrung out of Parson +Frank a promise that if he could come in two years with a perfectly +unstained, unblotted character, the betrothal might be renewed. + +We were very thankful for the hope and motive, and Griff had no +doubts of himself. + +'One can't look at the pretty creature and think of disappointing +her,' he said. 'She is altered, you know, Ted; they've bullied her +till she is more ethereal than ever, but it only makes her lovelier. +I believe if she saw me kill some one on the spot she would think it +all my generosity; or, if she could not, she would take and die. Oh +no! I'll not fail her. No, I won't; not if I have to spend seven +years after the model of old Bill, whose liveliest pastime is a good +long sermon, when it is not a ghost.' + + + +CHAPTER XXX--UNA OR DUESSA + + + +'Soone as the Elfin knight in presence came +And false Duessa, seeming ladye fayre, +A gentle husher, Vanitie by name, +Made roome, and passage did for them prepare.' + +SPENSER. + +The two families were supposed to continue on unbroken terms of +friendship, and we men did so; but Mrs. Fordyce told my mother that +she had disapproved of the probation, and Mrs. Winslow was hurt. +Though the two girls were allowed to be together as usual, it was on +condition of silence about Griff; and though, as Emily said, they +really had not been always talking about him in former times, the +prohibition seemed to weigh upon all they said. + +Old Mr. Fordyce had long been talking of a round of visits among +relations whom he had not seen for many years; and it was decided to +send Ellen with him, chiefly, no doubt, to prevent difficulties +about Griffith in the long vacation. + +There was no embargo on the correspondence with my sister, and +letters full of description came regularly, but how unlike they were +to our journal. They were clear, intelligent, with a certain +liveliness, but no ring of youthful joy, no echo of the heart, +always as if under restraint. Griff was much disappointed. He had +been on his good behaviour for two months, and expected his reward, +and I could not here repeat all that he said about her parents when +he found she was absent. Yet, after all, he got more pity and +sympathy from Parson Frank than from any one else. That good man +actually sent a message for him, when Emily was on honour to do no +such thing. Poor Emily suffered much in consequence, when she would +neither afford Griff a blank corner of her paper, nor write even a +veiled message; while as to the letters she received and gave to +him, 'what was the use,' he said, 'of giving him what might have +been read aloud by the town-crier?' + +'You don't understand, Griff; it is all dear Ellen's +conscientiousness--' + +'Oh, deliver me from such con-sci-en-tious-ness,' he answered, in a +tone of bitter mimicry, and flung out of the room leaving Emily in +tears. + +He could not appreciate the nobleness of Ellen's self-command and +the obedience which was the security of future happiness, but was +hurt at what he thought weak alienation. One note of sympathy would +have done much for Griff just then. I have often thought it over +since, and come to the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce was justified in +the entire separation she brought about. No one can judge of the +strength with which 'true love' has mastered any individual, nor how +far change may be possible; and, on the other hand, unless there +were full appreciation of Ellen's character, she might only have +been looked on as - + + +'Puppet to a father's threat, +Servile to a shrewish tongue.' + + +Yet, after all, Frank Fordyce was very kind to Griff, making himself +as much of a medium of communication as he could consistently with +his conscience, but of course not satisfying one who believed that +the strength of love was to be proved not by obedience but +disobedience. + +Ellen's letters showed increasing anxiety about her grandfather, who +was not favourably affected by the change of habits, consequent on a +long journey, and staying in different houses. His return was fixed +two or three times, and then delayed by slight attacks of illness, +till at last he became anxious to get home, and set off about the +end of September; but after sleeping a night at an inn at Warwick, +he was too ill to proceed any farther. His old man-servant was with +him; but poor Ellen went through a great deal of suspense and +responsibility before her parents reached her. The attack was +paralysis, and he never recovered the full powers of mind or body, +though they managed to bring him back to Hillside--as indeed his +restlessness longed for his native home. When once there he became +calmer, but did not rally; and a second stroke proved fatal just +before Easter. He was mourned alike by rich and poor, 'He WAS a +gentleman,' said even Chapman, 'always the same to rich or poor, +though he was one of they Fordys.' + +My father wrote to summon both his elder sons to the funeral at +Hillside, and in due time Clarence appeared by the coach, but alone. +He had gone to Griffith's chambers to arrange about coming down +together, but found my father's letter lying unopened on the table, +and learnt that his brother was supposed to be staying at a villa in +Surrey, where there were to be private theatricals. He had +forwarded the letter thither, and it would still be possible to +arrive in time by the night mail. + +So entirely was Griff expected that the gig was sent to meet him at +seven o'clock the next morning, but there was no sign of him. My +father and Clarence went without him to the gathering, which showed +how deeply the good old man was respected and loved. + +It was the only funeral Clarence had attended except Miss Newton's +hurried one, and his sensitive spirit was greatly affected. He had +learnt reserve when amongst others, but I found that he had a strong +foreboding of evil; he tossed and muttered in his sleep, and +confessed to having had a wretched night of dreams, though he would +not describe them otherwise than that he had seen the lady whose +face he always looked on as a presage of evil. + +Two days later the Morning Post gave a full account of the amateur +theatricals at Bella Vista, the seat of Benjamin Bullock, Esquire, +and the Lady Louisa Bullock; and in the list of dramatis personae, +there figured Griffith Winslow, Esquire, as Captain Absolute, and +the fair and accomplished Lady Peacock as Lydia Languish. + +Amateur theatricals were much less common in those days than at +present, and were held as the ne plus ultra of gaiety. Moreover, +the Lady Louisa Bullock was noted for fashionable extravagance of +the semi-reputable style; and there would have been vexation enough +at Griffith's being her guest, even had not the performance taken +place on the very day of the funeral of Ellen's grandfather, so as +to be an outrage on decorum. + +At the same time, there came a packet franked by a not very +satisfactory peer, brother to Lady Louisa. My father threw a note +over to Clarence, and proceeded to read a very properly expressed +letter full of apologies and condolences for the Fordyces. + +'He could not have got the letter in time' was my father's comment. +'When did you forward the letter? How was it addressed? Clarence, +I say, didn't you hear?' + +Clarence lifted up his face from his letter, so much flushed that my +mother broke in--'What's the matter? A mistake in the post-town +would account for the delay. Has he had the letter?' + +'Oh yes.' + +'Not in time--eh?' + +'I'm afraid,' and he faltered, 'he did.' + +'Did he or did he not?' demanded my mother. + +'What does he say?' exclaimed my father. + +'Sir' (always an unpropitious beginning for poor Clarence), 'I +should prefer not showing you.' + +'Nonsense!' exclaimed my mother: 'you do no good by concealing it!' + +'Let me see his letter,' said my father, in the voice there was no +gainsaying, and absolutely taking it from Clarence. None of us will +ever forget the tone in which he read it aloud at the breakfast- +table. + + +'DEAR BILL--What possessed you to send a death's-head to the feast? +The letter would have bitten no one in my chambers. A nice scrape I +shall be in if you let out that your officious precision forwarded +it. Of course at the last moment I could not upset the whole affair +and leave Lydia to languish in vain. The whole thing went off +magnificently. Keep counsel and no harm is done. You owe me that +for sending on the letter.--Yours, + +'J. G. W.' + + +Clarence had not read to the end when the letter was taken from him. +Indeed to inclose such a note in a dispatch sure to be opened en +famille was one of Griffith's haphazard proceedings, which arose +from the present being always much more to him than the absent. +Clarence was much shocked at hearing these last sentences, and +exclaimed, 'He meant it in confidence, papa; I implore you to treat +it as unread!' + +My father was always scrupulous about private letters, and said, 'I +beg your pardon, Clarence; I should not have forced it from you. I +wish I had not seen it.' + +My mother gave something between a snort and a sigh. 'It is right +for us to know the truth,' she said, 'but that is enough. There is +no need that they should know at Hillside what was Griffith's +alternative.' + +'I would not add a pang to that dear girl's grief,' said my father; +'but I see the Fordyces were right. I shall never do anything to +bring these two together again.' + +My mother chimed in with something about preferring Lady Peacock and +the Bella Vista crew to Ellen and Hillside, which made us rush into +the breach with incoherent defence. + +'I know how it was,' said Clarence. 'His acting is capital, and of +course these people could not spare him, nor understand how much it +signified that he should be here. They make so much of him.' + +'Who do?' asked my mother. 'Lady Peacock? How do you know? Have +you been with them?' + +'I have dined at Mr. Clarkson's,' Clarence avowed; and, on further +pressure, it was extracted that Griffith--handsome, and with talents +such as tell in society--was a general favourite, and much engrossed +by people who found him an enlivenment and ornament to their +parties. There had been little or nothing of late of the former +noisy, boyish dissipation; but that the more fashionable varieties +were getting a hold on him became evident under the cross- +questioning to which Clarence had to submit. + +My father said he felt like a party to a falsehood when he sent +Griff's letter up to Hillside, and he indemnified himself by writing +a letter more indignant--not than was just, but than was prudent, +especially in the case of one little accustomed to strong censure. +Indeed Clarence could not restrain a slight groan when he perceived +that our mother was shut up in the study to assist in the +composition. Her denunciations always outran my father's, and her +pain showed itself in bitterness. 'I ought to have had the presence +of mind to refuse to show the letter,' he said; 'Griff will hardly +forgive me.' + +Ellen looked very thin, and with a transparent delicacy of +complexion. She had greatly grieved over her grandfather's illness +and the first change in her happy home; and she must have been much +disappointed at Griffith's absence. Emily dreaded her mention of +the subject when they first met. + +'But,' said my sister, 'she said no word of him. All she cared to +tell me was of the talks she had with her grandfather, when he made +her read his favourite chapters in the Bible; and though he had no +memory for outside things, his thoughts were as beautiful as ever. +Sometimes his face grew so full of glad contemplation that she felt +quite awestruck, as if it were becoming like the face of an angel. +It made her realise, she said, "how little the ups and downs of this +life matter, if there can be such peace at the last." And, after +all, I could not help thinking that it was better perhaps that Griff +did not come. Any other sort of talk would have jarred on her just +now, and you know he would never stand much of that.' + +Much as we loved our Griff, we had come to the perception that Ellen +was a treasure he could not esteem properly. + +The Lester cousins, never remarkable for good taste, forced on her +the knowledge of his employment. Her father could not refrain from +telling us that her exclamation had been, 'Poor Griff, how shocked +he must be! He was so fond of dear grandpapa. Pray, papa, get Mr. +Winslow to let him know that I am not hurt, for I know he could not +help it. Or may I ask Emily to tell him so?' + +I wish Mrs. Fordyce would have absolved her from the promise not to +mention Griff to us. That innocent reliance might have touched him, +as Emily would have narrated it; but it only rendered my father more +indignant, and more resolved to reserve the message till a repentant +apology should come. And, alas! none ever came. Just wrath on a +voiceless paper has little effect. There is reason to believe that +Griff did not like the air of my father's letter, and never even +read it. He diligently avoided Clarence, and the pain and shame his +warm heart must have felt only made him keep out of reach. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI--FACILIS DESCENSUS + + + +'The slippery verge her feet beguiled; + She tumbled headlong in.' + +GRAY. + +One of Griffith's briefest notes in his largest hand announced that +he had accepted various invitations to country houses, for cricket +matches, archery meetings, and the like; nor did he even make it +clear where his address would be, except that he would be with a +friend in Scotland when grouse-shooting began. + +Clarence, however, came home for a brief holiday. He was startled +at the first sight of Ellen. He said she was indeed lovelier than +ever, with an added sweetness in her clear eyes and the wild rose +flush in her delicate cheek; but that she looked as if she was being +refined away to nothing, and was more than ever like the vision with +the lamp. + +Of course the Fordyces had not been going into society, though Ellen +and Emily were as much together as before, helping one another in +practising their school children in singing, and sharing in one +another's studies and pursuits. There had been in the spring a +change at Wattlesea; the old incumbent died, and the new one was +well reported of as a very earnest hardworking man. He seemed to be +provided with a large family, and there was no driving into +Wattlesea without seeing members of it scattered about the place. + +The Fordyces being anxious to show them attention without a regular +dinner-party, decided on inviting all the family to keep Anne's +ninth birthday, and Emily and Martyn were of course to come and +assist at the entertainment. + +It was on the morning of the day fixed that a letter came to me +whose contents seemed to burn themselves into my brain. Martyn +called across the breakfast-table, 'Look at Edward! Has any one +sent you a young basilisk?' + +'I wish it was,' I gasped out. + +'Don't look so,' entreated Emily. 'Tell us! Is it Griff?' + +'Not ill-hurt?' cried my mother. 'Oh no, no. Worse!' and then +somehow I articulated that he was married; and Clarence exclaimed, +'Not the Peacock!' and at my gesture my father broke out. 'He has +done for himself, the unhappy boy. A disgraceful Scotch marriage. +Eh?' + +'It was his sense of honour,' I managed to utter. + +'Sense of fiddlestick!' said my poor father. 'Don't stop to excuse +him. We've had enough of that! Let us hear.' + +I cannot give a copy of the letter. It was so painful that it was +destroyed; for there was a tone of bravado betraying his uneasiness, +but altogether unbecoming. All that it disclosed was, that some one +staying in the same house had paid insulting attentions to Lady +Peacock; she had thrown herself on our brother's protection, and +after interfering on her behalf, he had found that there was no +means of sheltering her but by making her his wife. This had been +effected by the assistance of the lady of the house where they had +been staying; and Griffith had written to me two days later from +Edinburgh, declaring that Selina had only to be known to be loved, +and to overcome all prejudices. + +'Prejudices,' said my father bitterly. 'Prejudices in favour of +truth and honour.' + +And my mother uttered the worst reproach of all, when in my +agitation, I slipped and almost fell in rising--'Oh, my poor Edward! +that I should have lived to think yours the least misfortune that +has befallen my sons!' + +'Nay, mother,' said Clarence, putting Martyn toward her, 'here is +one to make up for us all.' + +'Clarence,' said my father, 'your mother did not mean anything but +that you and Edward are the comfort of our lives. I wish there were +a chance of Griffith redeeming the past as you have done; but I see +no hope of that. A man is never ruined till he is married.' + +At that moment there was a step in the hall, a knock at the door, +and there stood Mr. Frank Fordyce. He looked at us and said, 'It is +true then.' + +'To our shame and sorrow it is,' said my father. 'Fordyce, how can +we look you in the face?' + +'As my dear good friend, and my father's,' said the kind man, +shaking him by the hand heartily. 'Do you think we could blame you +for this youth's conduct? Stay'--for we young ones were about to +leave the room. 'My poor girl knows nothing yet. Her mother +luckily got the letter in her bedroom. We can't put off the +Reynoldses, you know, so I came to ask the young people to come up +as if nothing had happened, and then Ellen need know nothing till +the day is over.' + +'If I can,' said Emily. + +'You can be capable of self-command, I hope,' said my mother +severely, 'or you do not deserve to be called a friend.' + +Such speeches might not be pleasant, but they were bracing, and we +all withdrew to leave the elders to talk it over together, when, as +I believe, kind Parson Frank was chiefly concerned to argue my +parents out of their shame and humiliation. + +Clarence told us what he knew or guessed; and we afterwards +understood the matter to have come about chiefly through poor +Griff's weakness of character, and love of amusement and flattery. +The boyish flirtation with Selina Clarkson had never entirely died +away, though it had been nothing more than the elder woman's +bantering patronage and easy acceptance of the youth's equally gay, +jesting admiration. It had, however, involved some raillery on his +attachment to the little Methodistical country girl, and this +gradually grew into jealousy of her--especially as Griff became more +of a man, and a brilliant member of society. The detention from the +funeral had been a real victory on the widow's part, and the few +times when Clarence had seen them together he had been dismayed at +the cavaliere serviente terms on which Griff seemed to stand; but +his words of warning were laughed down. The rest was easy to +gather. He had gone about on the round of visits almost as an +appendage to Lady Peacock, till they came to a free and easy house, +where her coquetry and love of admiration brought on one of those +disputes which rendered his championship needful; and such defence +could only have one conclusion, especially in Scotland, where hasty +private marriages were still legal. What an exchange! Only had +Griff ever comprehended the worth of his treasure? + +Emily went as late as she could, that there might be the less chance +of a tete-a-tete, in which she might be surprised into a betrayal of +her secret: indeed she only started at last when Martyn's +impatience had become intolerable. + +What was our amazement when, much earlier than we expected, we saw +Mr. Fordyce driving up in his phaeton, and heard the story he had to +tell. + +Emily's delay had succeeded in bringing her only just in time for +the luncheon that was to be the children's dinner. There was a +keen-looking, active, sallow clergyman, grizzled, and with an air of +having seen much service; a pale, worn wife, with a gentle, sensible +face; and a bewildering flock of boys and girls, all apparently +under the command of a very brisk, effective-looking elder sister of +fourteen or fifteen, who seemed to be the readiest authority, and to +decide what and how much each might partake of, among delicacies, +evidently rare novelties. + +The day was late in August. The summer had broken; there had been +rain, and, though fine, the temperature was fitter for active sports +than anything else. Croquet was not yet invented, and, besides, +most of the party were of the age for regular games at play. Ellen +and Emily did their part in starting these--finding, however, that +the Reynolds boys were rather rough, in spite of the objurgations of +their sister, who evidently thought herself quite beyond the age for +romps. The sports led them to the great home-field on the opposite +slope of the ridge from our own. The new farm-buildings were on the +level ground at the bottom to the right, where the declivity was +much more gradual than to the left, which was very steep, and ended +in furze bushes and low copsewood. It was voted a splendid place +for hide-and-seek, and the game was soon in such full career that +Ellen, who had had quite running enough, could fall out of it, and +with her, the other two elder girls. Emily felt Fanny Reynolds' +presence a sort of protection, 'little guessing what she was up to,' +to use her own expression. Perhaps the girl had not earlier made +out who Emily was, or she had been too much absorbed in her cares; +but, as the three sat resting on a stump overlooking the hill, she +was prompted by the singular inopportuneness of precocious fourteen +to observe, 'I ought to have congratulated you, Miss Winslow.' + +Emily gabbled out, 'Thank you, never mind,' hoping thus to put a +stop to whatever might be coming; but there was no such good +fortune. 'We saw it in the paper. It is your brother, isn't it?' + +'What?' asked unsuspicious Ellen, thinking, no doubt, of some fresh +glory to Griffith. + +And before Emily could utter a word, if there were any she could +have uttered, out it came. 'The marriage--John Griffith Winslow, +Esquire, eldest son of John Edward Winslow of Chantry House, to +Selina, relict of Sir Henry Peacock and daughter of George Clarkson, +Esquire, Q.C. I didn't think it could be you at first, because you +would have been at the wedding.' + +Emily had not even time to meet Ellen's eyes before they were +startled by a shriek that was not the merry 'whoop' and 'I spy' of +the game, and, springing up, the girls saw little Anne Fordyce +rushing headlong down the very steepest part of the slope, just +where it ended in an extremely muddy pool, the watering-place of the +cattle. The child was totally unable to stop herself, and so was +Martyn, who was dashing after her. Not a word was said, though, +perhaps, there was a shriek or two, but the elder sisters flew with +one accord towards the pond. They also were some way above it, but +at some distance off, so that the descent was not so perpendicular, +and they could guard against over-running themselves. Ellen, +perhaps from knowing the ground better, was far before the other +two; but already poor little Anne had gone straight down, and fallen +flat on her face in the water, Martyn after her, perhaps with a +little more free will, for, though he too fell, he was already +struggling to lift Anne up, and had her head above water, when Ellen +arrived and dashed in to assist. + +The pond began by being shallow, but the bottom sloped down into a +deep hollow, and was besides covered several feet deep with heavy +cattle-trodden mire and weeds, in which it was almost impossible to +gain a footing, or to move. By the time Emily and Miss Reynolds had +come to the brink, Ellen and Martyn were standing up in the water, +leaning against one another, and holding poor little Anne's head up- +-all they could do. Ellen called out, 'Don't! don't come in! Call +some one! The farm! We are sinking in! You can't help! Call--' + +The danger was really terrible of their sinking in the mud and +weeds, and being sucked into the deep part of the pool, and they +were too far in to be reached from the bank. Emily perceived this, +and ran as she had never run before, happily meeting on the way with +the gentlemen, who had been inspecting the new model farm-buildings, +and had already taken alarm from the screams. + +They found the three still with their heads above water, but no +more, for every struggle to get up the slope only plunged them +deeper in the horrible mud. Moreover, Fanny Reynolds was up to her +ankles in the mud, holding by one of her brothers, but unable to +reach Martyn. It seems she had had some idea of forming a chain of +hands to pull the others out. + +Even now the rescue was not too easy. Mr. Fordyce hurried in, and +took Anne in his arms; but, even with his height and strength, he +found his feet slipping away under him, and could only hand the +little insensible girl to Mr. Reynolds, bidding him carry her at +once to the house, while he lifted Martyn up only just in time, and +Ellen clung to him. Thus weighted, he could not get out, till the +bailiff and another man had brought some faggots and a gate that +were happily near at hand, and helped him to drag the two out, +perfectly exhausted, and Martyn hardly conscious. They both were +carried to the Rectory,--Ellen by her father, Martyn by the +foreman,--and they were met at the door by the tidings that little +Anne was coming to herself. + +Indeed, by the time Mr. Fordyce had put on dry clothes, all three +were safe in warm beds, and quite themselves again, so that he +trusted that no mischief was done; though he decided upon fetching +my mother to satisfy herself about Martyn. However, a ducking was +not much to a healthy fellow like Martyn, and my mother found him +quite fit to dress himself in the clothes she brought, and to return +home with her. Both the girls were asleep, but Ellen had had a +shivering fit, and her mother was with her, and was anxious. Emily +told her mother of Fanny Reynolds' unfortunate speech, and it was +thought right to mention it. Mrs. Fordyce listened kindly, kissed +Emily, and told her not to be distressed, for possibly it might turn +out to have been the best thing for Ellen to have learnt the fact at +such a moment; and, at any rate, it had spared her parents some +doubt and difficulty as to the communication. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII--WALY, WALY + + + +'And am I then forgot, forgot? +It broke the heart of Ellen!' + +CAMPBELL + +Clarence and Martyn walked over to Hillside the first thing the next +morning to inquire for the two sisters. As to one, they were +quickly reassured, for Anne was in the porch feeding the doves, and +no sooner did she see them than out she flew, and was clinging round +Martyn's neck, her hat falling back as she kissed him on both +cheeks, with an eagerness that made him, as Clarence reported, turn +the colour of a lobster, and look shy, not to say sheepish, while +she exclaimed, ' Oh, Martyn! mamma says she never thanked you, for +you really and truly did save my life, and I am so glad it was you-- +' + +'It was not I, it was Ellen,' gruffly muttered Martyn. + +'Oh yes! but papa says I should have been smothered in that horrid +mud, before Ellen could get to me if you had not pulled me up +directly.' + +The elders came out by this time, and Clarence was able to get in +his inquiry. Ellen had had a feverish night, and her chest seemed +oppressed, but her mother did not think her seriously ill. Once she +had asked, 'Is it true, what Fanny Reynolds said?' and on being +answered, 'Yes, my dear, I am afraid it is,' she had said no more; +and as the Fordyce habit of treating colds was with sedatives, her +mother thought her scarcely awake to the full meaning of the +tidings, and hoped to prevent her dwelling on them till she had +recovered the physical shock. Having answered these inquiries, the +two parents turned upon Martyn, who, in an access of shamefacedness, +had crept behind Clarence and a great orange-tree, and was thence +pulled out by Anne's vigorous efforts. The full story had come to +light. The Reynolds' boys had grown boisterous as soon as the +restraint of the young ladies' participation had been removed, and +had, whether intentionally or not, terrified little Anne in the +chases of hide-and-seek. Finally, one of them had probably been +unable to withstand the temptation of seeing her timid nervous way +of peeping and prying about; and had, without waiting to be properly +found, leapt out of his lair with a roar that scared the little girl +nearly out of her wits, and sent her flying, she knew not whither. +Martyn was a few steps behind, only not holding her hand, because +the other children had derided her for clinging to his protection. +He had instantly seen where she was going, and shouted to her to +stop and take care; but she was past attending to him, and he had no +choice but to dart after her, seeing what was inevitable; while +George Reynolds had sense to stop in time, and seek a safer descent. +Had Martyn not been there to raise the child instantly from the +stifling mud, her sister could hardly have been in time to save her. + +Mrs. Fordyce tearfully kissed him; her husband called him a little +hero, as if in joke, then gravely blessed him; and he looked, +Clarence related, as if he had been in the greatest possible +disgrace. + +It was the second time that one of us had saved a life from +drowning, but there was none of the exultation we had felt that time +before in London. It was a much graver feeling, where the danger +had really been greater, and the rescue had been of one so dear to +us. It was tempered likewise by anxiety about our dear Ellen--ours, +alas, no longer! She was laid up for several days, and it was +thought better that she should not see Emily till she had recovered; +but after a week had passed, her father drove over to discuss some +plans for the Poor-Law arrangements, and begged my sister to go back +in the carriage and spend the day with his daughter. + +We brothers could now look forward to some real intelligence; we +became restless; and in the afternoon Clarence and I set out with +the donkey-chair on the woodland path to meet Emily. We gained more +than we had hoped, for as we came round one of the turns in the +winding path, up the hanging beech-wood, we came on the two friends- +-Ellen, a truly Una-like figure, in her white dress with her black +scarf making a sable stole. Perhaps we betrayed some confusion, for +there was a bright flush on her cheeks as she came towards us, and, +standing straight up, said, 'Clarence, Edward, I am so glad you are +here; I wanted to see you. I wanted--to say--I know he could not +help it. It was his generosity--helping those that need it; and-- +and--I'm not angry. And though that's all over, you'll always be my +brothers, won't you?' + +She held her outstretched hands to us both. I could not help it, I +drew her down, and kissed her brow; Clarence clasped her other hand +and held it to his lips, but neither of us could utter a word. + +She turned back and went quietly away through the wood, while Emily +sank down under the beech-tree in a paroxysm of grief. You may see +which it was, for Clarence cut out 'E. M. F., 1835' upon the bark. +He soothed and caressed poor Emily as in old nursery troubles; and +presently she told us that it would be long before we saw that dear +one again, for Mrs. Fordyce was going to take her away on the +morrow. + +Mrs. Fordyce had seen Emily in private, before letting her go to +Ellen. There was evidently a great wish to be kind. Mrs. Fordyce +said she could never forget what she owed to us all, and could not +think of blaming any of us. 'But,' she said, 'you are a sensible +girl, Emily,'--'how I hate being called a sensible girl,' observed +the poor child, in parenthesis,--'and you must see that it is +desirable not to encourage her to indulge in needless discussion +after she once understands the facts.' She added that she thought a +cessation of present intercourse would be wise till the sore was in +some degree healed. She had not been satisfied about her daughter's +health for some time, and meant to take her to Bath the next day to +consult a physician, and then decide what would be best. 'And, my +dear,' she said, 'if there should be a slackening of correspondence, +do not take it as unkindness, but as a token that my poor child is +recovering her tone. Do not discontinue writing to her, but be +guarded, and perhaps less rapid, in replying.' + +It was for her friendship that poor Emily wept so bitterly--the +first friendship that had been an enthusiasm to her; looking at it +as a cruel injustice that Griff's misdoing should separate them. +The prediction that all might be lived down and forgotten was too +vague and distant to be much consolation; indeed, we were too young +to take it in. + +We had it all over again in a somewhat grotesque form when, at +another turn in the wood, we came upon Martyn and Anne, loaded with +treasures from their robbers' cave, some of which were bestowed in +my chair, the others carried off between Anne and her not very +willing nursery-maid. + +Anne kissed us all round, and augured cheerfully that she should lay +up a store of shells and rocks by the seaside to make 'a perfect +Robinson Crusoe cavern,' she said, 'and then Clarence can come and +be the Spaniards and the savages. But that won't be till next +summer,' she added, shaking her head. 'I shall get Ellen to tell +Emily what shells I find, and then she can tell Martyn; for mamma +says girls never write to boys unless they are their brothers! And +now Martyn will never be my brother,' she added ruefully. + +'You will always be our darling,' I said. + +'That's not the same as your sister,' she answered. However, amid +auguries of the combination of robbers and Robinson Crusoe, the +parting was effected, and Anne borne off by the maid; while we had +Martyn on our hands, stamping about and declaring that it was very +hard that because Griff chose to be a faithless, inconstant ruffian, +all his pleasure and comfort in life should be stopped! He said +such outrageous things that, between scolding him and laughing at +him, Emily had been somewhat cheered by the time we reached the +house. + +My father had written to Griffith, in his first displeasure, curt +wishes that he might not have reason to repent of the step he had +taken, though he had not gone the right way to obtain a blessing. +As it was not suitable that a man should be totally dependent on his +wife, his allowance should be continued; but under present +circumstances he must perceive that he and Lady Peacock could not be +received at Chantry House. We were shown the letter, and thought it +terribly brief and cold; but my mother said it would be weak to +offer forgiveness that was not sought, and my father was specially +exasperated at the absence of all contrition as to the treatment of +Ellen. All Griff had vouchsafed on that head was--the rupture had +been the Fordyces' doing; he was not bound. As to intercourse with +him, Clarence and I might act as we saw fit. + +'Only,' said my father, as Clarence was leaving home, 'I trust you +not to get yourself involved in this set.' + +Clarence gave a queer smile, 'They would not take me as a gift, +papa.' + +And as my father turned from the hall door, he laid his hand on his +wife's arm, and said, 'Who would have told us what that young fellow +would be to us.' + +She sighed, and said, 'He is not twenty-three; he has plenty of +money, and is very fond of Griff.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII--THE RIVER'S BANK + + + +'And my friend rose up in the shadows, + And turned to me, +"Be of good cheer," I said faintly, + For He called thee.' + +B. M. + +Mr. Fordyce waited at Hillside till after Sunday, and then went to +Bath to hear the verdict of the physician. He returned as much +depressed as it was in his sanguine nature to be, for great delicacy +of the lungs had been detected; and to prevent the recent chill from +leaving permanent injury, Ellen must have a winter abroad, and warm +sea or mountain air at once. Whether the disease were +constitutional and would have come on at all events no one could +tell. + +Consumption was much less understood half a century ago; codliver +oil was unknown; and stethoscopes were new inventions, only used by +the more advanced of the faculty. The only escape poor Parson Frank +had from accepting the doom was in disbelieving that a thing like a +trumpet could really reveal the condition of the chest. Moreover, +Mrs. Fordyce had had a brother who had, under the famous cowhouse +cure, recovered enough to return home, and be killed by the +upsetting of a stage coach. + +Mrs. Fordyce took her daughter to Lyme, and waited there till her +husband had found a curate and made all arrangements. It must have +been very inconvenient not to come home; but, no doubt, she wanted +to prevent any more partings. Then they went abroad, travelling +slowly, and seeing all the sights that came in their way, to +distract Ellen's thoughts. She was not allowed to hear what ailed +her; but believed her languor and want of interest in everything to +be the effect of the blow she had received, struggling to exert +herself, and to enter gratefully into the enjoyments provided for +her. She was not prevented from writing to Emily; indeed, no one +liked to hinder anything she wished, but they were guide-book +letters, describing all she saw as a kind of duty, but scarcely +concealing the trouble it was to look. Such sentences would slip +out as 'This is a nice quiet place, and I am happy to say there is +nothing that one ought to see.' Or, 'I sat in the cathedral at +Lucerne while the others were going round. The organ was playing, +and it was such rest!' Or, again, after a day on the Lago di Como, +'It was glorious, and if you and Edward were here, perhaps the +beauty would penetrate my sluggish soul!' + +Ellen's sluggish soul!--when we remembered her keen ecstasy at the +Valley of Rocks. + +Those letters were our chief interest in an autumn which seemed +dreary to us, in spite of friendly visitors; for had not our family +hope and joy been extinguished? There was no direct communication +with Griffith after his unpleasant reply to my father's letter; but +Clarence saw the newly married pair on their return to Lady +Peacock's house in London, and reported that they were very kind and +friendly to him, and gave him more invitations than he could accept. +Being cross-examined when he came home for Christmas, he declared +his conviction that Lady Peacock had married Griff entirely from +affection, and that he had been--well--flattered into it. They +seemed very fond of each other now, and were launching out into all +sorts of gaieties; but though he did not tell my father, he confided +to me that he feared that Griffith had been disappointed in the +amount of fortune at his wife's disposal. + +It was at that Christmas time, one night, having found an intrusive +cat upon my bed, Clarence carried her out at the back door close to +his room, and came back in haste and rather pale. 'It is quite true +about the lady and the light being seen out of doors,' he said in an +awe-stricken voice, 'I have just seen her flit from the mullion room +to the ruin.' + +We only noted the fact in that ghost-diary of ours--we told nobody, +and looked no more. We already believed that these appearances on +the lawn must be the cause that every window, up to the attics on +the garden side of the house, were so heavily shuttered and barred +that there was no opening them without noise. Indeed, those on the +ground floor had in addition bells attached to them. No doubt the +former inhabitants had done their best to prevent any one from +seeing or inquiring into what was unacknowledged and unaccountable. +It might be only a coincidence, but we could not help remarking that +we had seen and heard nothing of her during the engagement which +might have united the two families; though, of course, it would be +ridiculous to suppose her cognisant of it, like the White Lady of +Avenel, dancing for joy at Mary's marriage with Halbert Glendinning. + +The Fordyces had settled at Florence, where they suffered a great +deal more from cold than they would have done at Hillside; and there +was such a cessation of Ellen's letters that Emily feared that Mrs. +Fordyce had attained her wish and separated the friends effectually. +However, Frank Fordyce beguiled his enforced leisure with long +letters to my father on home business, Austrian misgovernment, and +the Italian Church and people, full of shrewd observations and new +lights; and one of these ended thus, 'My poor lassie has been in bed +for ten days with a severe cold. She begs me to say that she has +begun a letter to Emily, and hopes soon to finish it. We had +thought her gaining ground, but she is sadly pulled down. Fiat +voluntas.' + +The letter, which had been begun, never came; but, after three long +weeks, there was one from the dear patient herself, mentioning her +illness, and declaring that it was so comfortable to be allowed to +be tired, and to go nowhere and see nothing except the fragment of +beautiful blue sky, and the corner of a campanile, and the flowers +Anne brought in daily. + +As soon as she could be moved, they took her to Genoa, where she +revived enough to believe that she should be well if she were at +home again, and to win from her parents a promise to take her to +Hillside as soon as the spring winds were over. So anxious was she +that, as soon as there was any safety in travelling, the party began +moving northwards, going by sea to Marseilles to avoid the Corniche, +so early in the year. There were many fluctuations, and it was only +her earnest yearning for home and strong resolution that could have +made her parents persevere; but at last they were at Hillside, just +after Whitsuntide, in the last week of May. + +Frank Fordyce walked over to see us on the very evening after their +arrival. He was much altered, his kindly handsome face looked +almost as if he had gone through an illness; and, indeed, apart from +all his anxiety and sorrow, he had pined in foreign parts for his +human flock, as well as his bullocks and his turnips. He had also +read, thought, and observed a great deal, and had left his long +boyhood behind him, during a space for study and meditation such as +he had never had before. + +He was quite hopeless of his daughter's recovery, and made no secret +of it. In passing through London the best advice had been taken, +but only to obtain the verdict that the case was beyond all skill, +and that it was only a matter of weeks, when all that could be done +was to give as much gratification as possible. The one thing that +Ellen did care about was to be at home--to have Emily with her, and +once more see her school children, her church, and her garden. +Tired as she was she had sprung up in the carriage at the first +glimpse of Hillside spire, and had leant forward at the window, +nodding and smiling her greetings to all the villagers. + +She had been taken at once to her room and her bed, but her father +had promised to beg Emily to come up by noon on the morrow. Then he +sat talking of local matters, not able to help showing what infinite +relief it was to him to be at home, and what music to his ears was +the Somersetshire dialect and deep English voice 'after all those +thin, shrill, screeching foreigners.' + +Poor Emily! It was in mingled grief and gladness that she set off +the next day, with the trepidation of one to whom sickness and decay +were hitherto unknown. When she returned, it was in a different +mood, unable to believe the doctors could be right, and in the +delight of having her own bright, sweet Ellen back again, all +herself. They had talked, but more of home and village than of +foreign experiences; and though Ellen did not herself assist, she +had much enjoyed watching the unpacking of the numerous gifts which +had cost a perfect fortune at the Custom House. No one seemed +forgotten--villagers, children, servants, friends. Some of these +tokens are before me still. The Florentine mosaic paper-weight she +brought me presses this very sheet; the antique lamp she gave my +father is on the mantelpiece; Clarence's engraving of Raffaelle's +St. Michael hangs opposite to me on the wall. Most precious in our +eyes was the collection of plants, dried and labelled by herself, +which she brought to Emily and me--poor mummies now, but redolent of +undying affection. Her desire was to bestow all her keepsakes with +her own hands, and in most cases she actually did so--a few daily, +as her strength served her. The little figures in costume, coloured +prints, Swiss carvings, French knicknacks, are preserved in many a +Hillside cottage as treasured relics of 'our young lady.' Many +years later, Martyn recognised a Hillside native in a back street in +London by a little purple-blue picture of Vesuvius, and thereby +reached the soft spot in a nearly dried-up heart. + +So bright and playful was the dear girl over all her old familiar +interests that we inexperienced beings believed not only that the +wound to her affections was healed, but that she either did not know +or did not realise the sentence that had been pronounced on her; but +when this was repeated to her mother, it was met by a sad smile and +the reply that we only saw her in her best hours. Still, through +the summer, it was impossible to us to accept the truth; she looked +so lovely, was so cheerful, and took such delight in all that was +about her. + +With the first cold, however, she seemed to shrivel up, and the bad +nights extended into the days. Emily ascribed the change to the +lack of going out into the air, and always found reasons for the +increased languor and weakness; till at last there came a day when +my poor little sister seemed as if the truth had broken upon her for +the first time, when Ellen talked plainly to her of their parting, +and had asked us both, 'her dear brother and sister,' to be with her +at her Communion on All Saints' Day. + +She had written a little letter to Clarence, begging his forgiveness +for having cut him, and treated him with the scorn which, I believe, +was the chief fault that weighed upon her conscience; and, hearing +my father's voice in the house, she sent a message to beg him to +come and see her in her mother's dressing-room--that very window +where I had first heard her voice, refusing to come down to 'those +Winslows.' She had sent for him to entreat him to forgive Griffith +and recall the pair to Chantry House. 'Not now,' she said, 'but +when I am gone.' + +My father could deny her nothing, though he showed that the sight of +her made the entreaty all the harder to him; and she pleaded, 'But +you know this was not his doing. I never was strong, and it had +begun before. Only think how sad it would have been for him.' + +My father would have promised anything with that wasted hand on his, +those fervent eyes gazing on him, and he told her he would have +given his pardon long ago, if it had been sought, as it never had +been. + +'Ah! perhaps he did not dare!' she said. 'Won't you write when all +this is over, and then you will be one family again as you used to +be?' + +He promised, though he scarcely knew where Griffith was. Clarence, +however, did. He had answered Ellen's letter, and it had made him +ask for a few days' leave of absence. So he came down on the +Saturday, and was allowed a quarter of an hour beside Ellen's sofa +in the Sunday evening twilight. He brought away the calm, rapt +expression I had sometimes seen on his face at church, and Ellen +made a special entreaty that he might share the morrow's feast. + +There are some things that cannot be written of, and that was one. +Still we had not thought the end near at hand, though on Tuesday +morning a message was sent that Ellen was suffering and exhausted, +and could not see Emily. It was a wild, stormy day, with fierce +showers of sleet, and we clung to the hope that consideration for my +sister had prompted the message. In the afternoon Clarence battled +with a severe gale, made his way to Hillside, and heard that the +weather affected the patient, and that there was much bodily +distress. For one moment he saw her father, who said in broken +accents that we could only pray that the spirit might be freed +without much more suffering, 'though no doubt it is all right.' + +Before daylight, before any one in the house was up, Clarence was +mounting the hill in the gusts that had done their work on the trees +and were subsiding with the darkness. And just as he was beginning +the descent, as the sun tipped the Hillside steeple with light, he +heard the knell, and counted the twenty-one for the years of our +Ellen--for ours she will always be. + +'Somehow,' he told me, 'I could not help taking off my hat and +giving thanks for her, and then all the drops on all the boughs +began sparkling, and there was a hush on all around as if she were +passing among the angels, and a thrush broke out into a regular song +of jubilee!' + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV--NOT IN VAIN + + + +'Then cheerly to your work again, + With hearts new braced and set +To run untired love's blessed race, +As meet for those who face to face + Over the grave their Lord have met.' + +KEBLE. + +That dying request could not but be held sacred, and overtures were +made to Griffith, who returned an odd sort of answer, friendly and +affectionate, but rather as if my father were the offending party in +need of forgiveness. He and his wife were obliged for the +invitation, but could not accept it, as they had taken a house near +Melton-Mowbray for the hunting season, and were entertaining +friends. + +In some ways it was disappointing, in others it was a relief, not to +have the restraint of Lady Peacock's presence during the last days +we were to have with the Fordyces. For a fresh loss came upon us. +Beachharbour was a fishing-village on the north-western coast, +which, within the previous decade, had sprung into importance, on +the one hand as a fashionable resort, on the other as a minor port +for colliers. The living was wretchedly poor, and had been held for +many years by one of the old inferior stamp of clergy, scarcely +superior in habits or breeding to the farmers, and only outliving +the scandals of his youth to fall into a state of indolent +carelessness. It was in the gift of a child, for whom Sir Horace +Lester was trustee, and that gentleman had written, about a +fortnight before Ellen's death, to consult Mr. Fordyce on its +disposal, declaring the great difficulties and deficiencies of the +place, which made it impossible to offer it to any one without +considerable private means, and also able to attract and improve the +utterly demoralised population. He ended, almost in joke, by +saying, 'In fact, I know no one who could cope with the situation +but yourself; I wish you could find me your own counterpart, or come +yourself in earnest. It is just the air that suits my sister-- +bracing sea-breezes; the parsonage, though a wretched place, is well +situated, and she would be all the stronger; but in poor Ellen's +state there is no use in talking of it, and besides I know you are +wedded to your fertile fields and Somersetshire clowns.' + +That letter (afterwards shown to us) had worked on Mr. Fordyce's +mind during those mournful days. He was still young enough to leave +behind him Parson Frank and the 'squarson' habits of Hillside in +which he had grown up; and the higher and more spiritual side of his +nature had been fostered by the impressions of the last year. He +was conscious, as he said, that his talk had been overmuch of +bullocks, and that his farm had engrossed him more than he wished +should happen again, though a change would be tearing himself up by +the roots; and as to his own people at Hillside, the curate, an +active young man, had well supplied his place, and, in his TRULY +humble opinion, though by no means in theirs, introduced several +improvements even in that model parish. + +What had moved him most, however, was a conversation he had had with +Ellen, with whom during this last year he had often held deep and +serious counsel, with a growing reverence on his side. He had read +her uncle's letter to her, and to his great surprise found that she +looked on it as a call. Devotedly fond as she herself was of +Hillside, she could see that her father's abilities were wasted on +so small a field, in a manner scarcely good for himself, and she had +been struck with the greater force of his sermons when preaching to +educated congregations abroad. If no one else could or would take +efficient charge of these Beachharbour souls, she could see that it +would weigh on his conscience to take comparative ease in his own +beloved meadows, among a flock almost his vassals. Moreover, she +relieved his mind about her mother. She had discovered, what the +good wife kept out of sight, that the north-country woman never +could entirely have affinities with the south, and she had come to +the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce's spirits would be heavily tried by +settling down at Hillside in the altered state of things. + +After this talk, Mr. Fordyce had suggested a possible incumbent to +his brother-in-law, but left the matter open; and when Sir Horace +came down to the funeral, it was more thoroughly discussed; and, as +soon as Mrs. Fordyce saw that departure would not break her +husband's heart, she made no secret of the way that both her opinion +and her inclinations lay. She told my mother that she had always +believed her own ill-health was caused by the southern climate, and +that she hoped that Anne would grow up stronger than her sister in +the northern breezes. + +Poor little Anne! Of all the family, to her the change was the +greatest grief. The tour on the Continent had been a dull affair to +her; she was of the age to weary of long confinement in the carriage +and in strange hotels, and too young to appreciate 'grown-up' +sights. Picture-galleries and cathedrals were only a drag to her, +and if the experiences that were put into Rosella's mouth for the +benefit of her untravelled sisters could have been written down, +they would have been as unconventional as Mark Twain's adventures. +Rosella went through the whole tour, and left a leg behind in the +hinge of a door, but in compensation brought home a Paris bonnet and +mantle. She seemed to have been her young mistress's chief comfort, +next to an occasional game of play with her father, or a walk, +looking in at the shop windows and watching marionettes, or, still +better, the wonderful sports of brown-legged street children, +without trying to make her speak French or Italian--in her eyes one +of the inflictions of the journey, in those of her elders the one +benefit she might gain. She had missed the petting to which she had +been accustomed from her grandfather and from all of us; and she had +absolutely counted the days till she could get home again, and had +fallen into dire disgrace for fits of crying when Ellen's weakness +caused delays. Martyn's holidays had been a time of rapture to her, +for there was no one to attend much to her at home, and she was too +young to enter into the weight of anxiety; so the two had run as +wild together as a gracious well-trained damsel of ten and a +fourteen-year-old boy with tender chivalry awake in him could well +do. To be out of the way was all that was asked of her for the +time, and all old delights, such as the robbers' cave, were renewed +with fresh zest. + + +'It was the sweetest and the last.' + + +And though Martyn was gone back to school, the child felt the wrench +from home most severely. As she told me on one of those sorrowful +days, 'She did think she had come back to live at dear, dear little +Hillside all the days of her life.' Poor child, we became convinced +that this vehement attachment to Griffith's brothers was one factor +in Mrs. Fordyce's desire to make a change that should break off +these habits of intimacy and dependence. + +Pluralities had not become illegal, and Frank Fordyce, being still +the chief landholder in Hillside, and wishing to keep up his +connection with his people, did not resign the rectory, though he +put the curate into the house, and let the farm. Once or twice a +year he came to fulfil some of a landlord's duties, and was as +genial and affectionate as ever, but more and more absorbed in the +needs of Beachharbour, and unconsciously showing his own growth in +devotion and activity; while he brought his splendid health and +vigour, his talent, his wealth, and, above all, his winning charm of +manner and address, to that magnificent work at Beachharbour, well +known to all of you; though, perhaps, you never guessed that the +foundation of all those churches and their grand dependent works of +piety, mercy, and beneficence was laid in one young girl's grave. I +never heard of a fresh achievement there without remembering how the +funeral psalm ends with - + + +'Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us, +O prosper Thou our handiwork.' + + +And Emily? Her drooping after the loss of her friend was sad, but +it would have been sadder but for the spirit Ellen had infused. We +found the herbs to heal our woe round our pathway, though the first +joyousness of life had departed. The reports Mr. Henderson and the +Hillside curate brought from Oxford were great excitements to us, +and we thought and puzzled over church doctrine, and tried to impart +it to our scholars. We I say, for Henderson had made me take a +lads' class, which has been the chief interest of my life. Even the +roughest were good to their helpless teacher, and some men, as gray- +headed as myself, still come every Sunday to read with Mr. Edward, +and are among the most faithful friends of my life. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV--GRIFF'S BIRD + + + +'Shall such mean little creatures pretend to the fashion? +Cousin Turkey Cock, well may you be in a passion.' + +The Peacock at Home. + +It was not till the second Christmas after dear Ellen Fordyce's +death that my eldest brother brought his wife and child to Chantry +House, after an urgent letter to Lady Peacock from my mother, who +yearned for a sight of Griffith's boy. + +I do not wish to dwell on that visit. Selina, or Griff's bird, as +Martyn chose to term her, was certainly handsome and stylish; but +her complexion had lost freshness and delicacy, and the ladies said +her colour was rouge, and her fine figure due to other female +mysteries. She meant to be very gracious, and patronised everybody, +especially Emily, who, she said, would be quite striking if not +sacrificed by her dress, and whom she much wished to take to London, +engaging to provide her with a husband before the season was over, +not for a moment believing my mother's assurance that it would be a +trial to us all whenever we had to resign our Emily. Nay, she tried +to condole with the poor moped family slave, and was received with +such hot indignation as made her laugh, for, to do her justice, she +was good-natured and easy-tempered. However, I saw less of her than +did the others, for I believe she thought the sight of me made her +ill. Griff, poor old fellow, was heartily glad to be with us again, +but quite under her dominion. He had lost his glow of youth and +grace of figure, his complexion had reddened, and no one would have +guessed him only a year older than Clarence, whose shoulders did +indeed reveal something of the desk, but whose features, though +pale, were still fair and youthful. The boy was another Clarence, +not so much in compliment to his godfather as because it was the +most elegant name in the family, and favoured an interesting belief, +current among his mother's friends, that the king had actually stood +sponsor to the uncle. Poor little man, his grandmother shut herself +into the bookroom and cried, after her first sight of him. He was a +wretched, pinched morsel of humanity, though mamma and Emily +detected wonderful resemblances; I never saw them, but then he +inherited his mother's repulsion towards me, and roared doubly at +the sight of me. My mother held that he was the victim of Selina's +dissipations and mismanagement of herself and him, and gave many +matronly groans at his treatment by the smart, flighty nurse, who +waged one continual warfare with the household. + +Accustomed to absolute supremacy in domestic matters, it was very +hard for my mother to have her counsels and experience set at +naught, and, if she appealed to Griff, to find her notions treated +with the polite deference he might have shown to a cottage dame. + +A course of dinner-parties could not hinder her ladyship from +finding Chantry House insufferably dull, 'always like Sunday;' and, +when she found that we were given to Saints' Day services, her pity +and astonishment knew no bounds. 'It was all very well for a poor +object like Edward,' she held, 'but as to Mr. Winslow and Clarence, +did they go for the sake of example? Though, to be sure, Clarence +might be a Papist any day.' + +Popery, instead of Methodism, was just beginning to be the bugbear +set up for those whom the world held to be ultra-religious, and my +mother was so far disturbed at our interest in what was termed +Oxford theology that the warning would have alarmed her if it had +come from any other quarter. However, Lady Peacock was rather fond +of Clarence, and entertained him with schemes for improving Chantry +House when it should have descended to Griffith. The mullion rooms +were her special aversion, and were all to be swept away, together +with the vaultings and the ruin--'enough to give one the blues, if +there were nothing else,' she averred. + +We really felt it to the credit of our country that Sir George +Eastwood sent an invitation to an early dance to please his young +daughters; and for this our visitors prolonged their stay. My +mother made Clarence go, that she might have some one to take care +of her and Emily, since Griff was sure to be absorbed by his lady. +Emily had not been to a ball since those gay days in London with +Ellen. She shrank back from the contrast, and would have begged +off; but she was told that she must submit; and though she said she +felt immeasurably older than at that happy time, I believe she was +not above being pleased with the pale pink satin dress and wreath of +white jessamine, which my father presented to her, and in which, +according to Martyn, she beat 'Griff's bird all to shivers.' + +Clarence had grown much less bashful and embarrassed since the Tooke +affair had given him a kind of position and a sense of not being a +general disgrace. He really was younger in some ways at five-and- +twenty than at eighteen; he enjoyed dancing, and especially enjoyed +the compliments upon our sister, whom in our usual fashion we viewed +as the belle of the ball. He was standing by my fire, telling me +the various humours of the night, when a succession of shrieks ran +through the house. He dashed away to see what was the matter, and +returned, in a few seconds, saying that Selina had seen some one in +the garden, and neither she nor mamma would be satisfied without +examination--'though, of course, I know what it must be,' he added, +as he drew on his coat. + +'Bill, are you coming?' said Griff at the door. 'You needn't, if +you don't like it. I bet it is your old friend.' + +'I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm sure it is,' shouted Martyn from +behind, with the inconsistent addition, 'I've got my gun.' + +'Enough to dispose of any amount of robbers or phantoms either,' +observed Griff as they went forth by the back door, reinforced by +Amos Bell with a lantern in one hand and a poker in the other. + +My father was fortunately still asleep, and my mother came down to +see whether I was frightened. + +She said she had no patience with Selina, and had left her to Emily +and her maid; but, before many words had been spoken, they all came +creeping down after her, feeling safety in numbers, or perhaps in +her entire fearlessness. The report of a gun gave us all a shock, +and elicited another scream or two. My mother, hoping that no one +was hurt, hastened into the hall, but only to meet Griff, hurrying +in laughing to reassure us with the tidings that it was only Martyn, +who had shot the old sun-dial by way of a robber; and he was +presently followed by the others, Martyn rather crestfallen, but +arguing with all his might that the sun-dial was exactly like a man; +and my mother hurried every one off upstairs without further +discussion. + +Clarence was rather white, and when Martyn demanded, 'Do you really +think it was the ghost? Fancy her selection of the bird!' he +gravely answered, 'Martyn, boy, if it were, it is not a thing to +speak of in that tone. You had better go to bed.' + +Martyn went off, somewhat awed. Clarence was cold and shivering, +and stood warming himself. He was going to wind up his watch, but +his hand shook, and I did it for him, noting the hour--twenty +minutes past one. + +It appeared that Selina, on going upstairs, recollected that she had +left her purse in Griff's sitting-room before going to dress, and +had gone in quest of it. She heard strange shouts and screams +outside, and, going to one of the old windows, where the shutters +were less unmanageable than elsewhere, she beheld a woman rushing +towards the house pursued by at least a couple of men. Filled with +terror she had called out, and nearly fainted in Griff's arms. + +'It agrees with all we have heard before,' said Clarence, 'the very +day and hour!' + +'As Martyn said, the person is strange.' + +'Villagers, less concerned, have seen the like,' he said; 'and, +indeed, all unconsciously poor Selina has cut away the hope of +redress,' he sighed. 'Poor, restless spirit! would that I could do +anything for her.' + +'Let me ask, do you ever see her now?' + +'N-no, I suppose not; but whenever I am anxious or worried, the +trouble takes her form in my dreams.' + +Lady Peacock had soon extracted the ghost story from her husband, +and, though she professed to be above the vulgar folly of belief in +it, her nerves were so upset, she said, that nothing would have +induced her to sleep another night in the house. The rational +theory on this occasion was that one of the maids must have stolen +out to join in the Christmas entertainment at the Winslow Arms, and +been pursued home by some tipsy revellers; but this explanation was +not productive of goodwill between the mother and daughter-in-law, +since mamma had from the first so entirely suspected Selina's smart +nurse as actually to have gone straight to the nursery on the plea +of seeing whether the baby had been frightened. The woman was found +asleep--apparently so--said my mother, but all her clothes were in +an untidy heap on the floor, which to my mother was proof conclusive +that she had slipped into the house in the confusion, and settled +herself there. Had not my mother with her own eyes watched from the +window her flirtations with the gardener, and was more evidence +requisite to convict her? Mamma entertained the hope that her +proposal would be adopted of herself taking charge of her grandson, +and fattening his poor little cheeks on our cows' milk, while the +rest of the party continued their round of visits. + +Lady Peacock, however, treated it as a personal imputation that HER +nurse should be accused instead of any servant of Mrs. Winslow's +own, though, as Griff observed, not only character, but years and +features might alike acquit them of any such doings; but even he +could not laugh long, for it was no small vexation to him that such +offence should have arisen between his mother and wife. Of course +there was no open quarrel--my mother had far too much dignity to +allow it to come to that--but each said in private bitter things of +the other, and my lady's manner of declining to leave her baby at +Chantry House was almost offensive. + +Poor Griffith, who had been growing more like himself every day, +tried in vain to smooth matters, and would have been very glad to +leave his child to my mother's management, though, of course, he +acquitted the nurse of the midnight adventure. He privately owned +to us that he had no opinion of the woman, but he defended her to my +mother, in whose eyes this was tantamount to accusing her own +respectable maids, since it was incredible that any rational person +could accept the phantom theory. + +Gladly would he have been on better terms, for he had had to confess +that his wife's fortune had turned out to be much less than common +report had stated, or than her style of living justified, and that +his marriage had involved him in a sea of difficulties, so that he +had to beg for a larger allowance, and for assistance in paying off +debts. + +The surrender of the London house and of some of the chief expenses +were made conditions of such favours, and Griffith had assented +gratefully when alone with his father; but after an interview with +his wife, demonstrations were made that it was highly economical to +have a house in town, and horses, carriages, and servants and that +any change would be highly derogatory to the heir of Earlscombe and +the sacred wishes of the late Sir Henry Peacock. + +In fact, it was impressed on us that we were mere homely, +countrified beings, who could not presume to dictate to her +ladyship, but who had ill requited her condescension in deigning to +beam upon us. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI--SLACK WATER + + + +'O dinna look, ye prideful queen, on a' aneath your ken, +For he wha seems the farthest BUT aft wins the farthest BEN, +And whiles the doubie of the schule tak's lead of a' the rest: +The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest. + +'The cauld, grey, misty morn aft brings a sunny summer day; +The tree wha's buds are latest is longest to decay; +The heart sair tried wi' sorrow still endures the sternest test: +The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest. + +'The wee wee stern that glints in heaven may be a lowin' sun, +Though like a speck of light it seem amid the welkin dun; +The humblest sodger on the field may win a warrior's crest: +The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.' + +Scotch Newspaper. + +The wickedness of the nurse was confirmed in my mother's eyes when +the doom on the first-born of the Winslows was fulfilled, and the +poor little baby, Clarence, succumbed to a cold on the chest caught +while his nurse was gossiping with a guardsman. + +He was buried in London. 'It was better for Selina to get those +things over as quickly as possible,' said Griff; but Clarence saw +that he suffered much more than his wife would let him show to her. +'It is so bad for him to dwell on it,' she said. 'You see. I never +let myself give way.' + +And she was soon going out, nearly as usual, till their one other +infant came to open its eyes only for a few hours on this +troublesome world, and owe its baptism to Clarence's exertions. My +mother, who was in London just after, attending on the good old +Admiral's last illness, was greatly grieved and disgusted with all +she heard and saw of the young pair, and that was not much. She +felt their disregard of her uncle as heartless, or rather as +insulting, on Selina's part, and weak on Griff's; and on all sides +she heard of their reckless extravagance, which made her forebode +the worst. + +All these disappointments much diminished my father's pleasure and +interest in his inheritance. He had little heart to build and +improve, when his eldest son's wife made no secret of her hatred to +the place, or to begin undertakings only to be neglected by those +who came after; and thus several favourite schemes were dropped, or +prevented by Griffith's applications for advances. + +At last there was a crisis. At the end of the second season after +their visit to us, Clarence sent a hasty note, begging my father to +join him in averting an execution in Griffith's house. I cannot +record the particulars, for just at that time I had a long low +fever, and did not touch my diary for many weeks; nor indeed did I +know much about the circumstances, since my good nurses withheld as +much as possible, and would not let me talk about what they believed +to make me worse. Nor can I find any letters about it. I believe +they were all made away with long ago, and thus I only know that my +father hurried up to town, remained for a fortnight, and came back +looking ten years older. The house in London had been given up, and +he had offered a vacant one of our own, near home, to Griff to +retrench in, but Selina would not hear of it, insisting on going +abroad. + +This was a great grief to him and to us all. There was only one +side of our lives that was not saddened. Our old incumbent had died +about six months after the Fordyces had gone, and Mr. Henderson had +gladly accepted the living where the parsonage had been built. The +lady to whom he had been so long engaged was a great acquisition. +Her home had been at Oxford; and she was as thoroughly imbued with +the spirit that there prevailed as was the Hillside curate. She +talked to us of Littlemore, and of the sermons there and at St. +Mary's, and Emily and I shared to the full her hero-worship. It was +the nearest compensation my sister had had for the loss of Ellen, +with this difference, that Mrs. Henderson was older, had read more, +and had conversed thoughtfully with some of the leading spirits in +religious thought, so that she opened a new world to us. + +People would hardly believe in our eagerness and enthusiasm over the +revelations of church doctrine; how we debated, consulted our books, +and corresponded with Clarence over what now seems so trite; how we +viewed the British Critic and Tracts for the Times as our oracles, +and worried the poor Wattlesea bookseller to get them for us at the +first possible moment. + +Church restoration was setting in. Henderson had always objected to +christening from a slop-basin on the altar, and had routed out a +dilapidated font; and now one, which was termed by the country paper +chaste and elegant, was by united efforts, in which Clarence had the +lion's share, presented in time for the christening of the first +child at the Parsonage. It is that which was sent off to the +Mission Chapel as a blot on the rest of Earlscombe Church. Yet what +an achievement it was deemed at the time! + +The same may be said of most of our doings at that era. We effected +them gradually, and have ever since been undoing them, as our +architectural and ecclesiastical perceptions have advanced. I +wonder how the next generation will deal with our alabaster reredos +and our stained windows, with which we are all as well pleased as we +were fifty years ago with the plain red cross with a target-like +arrangement above and below it in the east window, or as poor +Margaret may have been with her livery altar-cloth. Indeed, it +seems to me that we got more delight out of our very imperfect work, +designed by ourselves and sent to Clarence to be executed by men in +back streets in London, costing an immensity of trouble, than can be +had now by simply choosing out of a book of figures of cut and dried +articles. + +What an enthusiastic description Clarence sent of the illuminated +commandments in the new Church of St. Katharine in the Regent's +Park! How Emily and I gloated over the imitation of them when we +replaced the hideous old tables, and how exquisite we thought the +initial I, which irreverent youngsters have likened, with some +justice, to an enormous overfed caterpillar, enwreathed with red and +green cabbage leaves! + +My mother was startled at these innovations; but my father, who had +kept abreast with the thought of the day, owned to the doctrines as +chiming in with his unbroken belief, and transferred to the +improvements in the church the interest which he had lost in the +estate. The farmers had given up their distrust of him, and +accepted him loyally as friend and landlord, submitting to the +reseating of the church, and only growling moderately at decorations +that cost them nothing. Daily service began as soon as Henderson +was his own master, and was better attended than it is now; for the +old people to whom it was a novelty took up the habit more freely +than their successors, to whom the bell has been familiar through +their days of toil. We were too far off to be constant attendants; +but evensong made an object for our airings, and my father's head, +now quite white, was often seen there. He felt it a great relief +amid the cares of his later years. + +Perhaps it was with a view to him that Mr. Castleford arranged that +Clarence should become manager for the firm at Bristol, with a good +salary. The Robsons would not take a fresh lodger--they were +getting too old for fresh beginnings; but they kept their rooms +ready for him, whenever he had to be in town, and Gooch found him a +trustworthy widow as housekeeper. He took a little cottage at +Clifton, availing himself of the coach to spend his Sundays with us; +and it was an acknowledged joy to every one that I should drive to +meet him every Saturday afternoon at the Carpenter's Arms, and bring +him home to be my father's aid in all his business, and a most +valuable help in Sunday parish work, in which he had an amount of +experience which astonished us. + +What would have become of the singing without him? The first hint +against the remarkable anthems had long ago alienated our tuneful +choir placed on high, and they had deserted en masse. Then Emily +and the schoolmistress had toiled at the school children, whose thin +little pipes and provincialisms were a painful infliction, till Mrs. +Henderson, backed by Clarence, worked up a few promising men's +voices to support them. We thought everything but the New and Old +Versions smacked of dissent, except the hymns at the end of the +Prayer-book, though we did not go as far as Chapman, who told Emily +he understood as how all the tunes was tried over in Doctor's +Commons afore they were sent out, and it was not 'liable' to change +them. One of Clarence's amusements in his lonely life had been the +acquisition of a knowledge of music, and he had a really good voice; +while his adherence to our choir encouraged other young men of the +farmer and artisan class to join us. Choir, however, did not mean +surplices and cassocks, but a collection of our best voices, male +and female, in the gallery. + +Martyn began to be a great help when at home, never having wavered +in his purpose of becoming a clergyman. On going to Oxford, he +became imbued with the influences that made Alma Mater the focus of +the religious life and progress of that generation which is now the +elder one. There might in some be unreality, in others +extravagance, in others mere imitation; but there was a truly great +work on the minds of the young men of that era--a work which has +stood the test of time, made saints and martyrs, and sown the seed +whereof we have witnessed a goodly growth, in spite of cruel shocks +and disappointments, fightings within and fears without, slanders +and follies to provoke them, such as we can now afford to laugh +over. With Martyn, rubrical or extra-rubrical observances were the +outlet of the exuberance of youth, as chivalry and romance had been +to us; and on Frank Fordyce's visits, it was delightful to find that +he too was in the full swing of these ideas and habits, partly from +his own convictions, partly from his parish needs, and partly +carried along by curates fresh from Oxford. + +In the first of his summer vacations Martyn joined a reading party, +with a tutor of the same calibre, and assured them that if they took +up their quarters in a farmhouse not many miles by the map from +Beachharbour, they would have access to unlimited services, with the +extraordinary luxury of a surpliced choir, and intercourse with +congenial spirits, which to him meant the Fordyces. + +On arriving, however, the bay proved to be so rocky and dangerous +that there was no boating across it, as he had confidently expected. +The farm depended on a market town in the opposite direction, and +though the lights of Beachharbour could be seen at night, there was +no way thither except by a six-miles walk along a cliff path, with a +considerable detour in order to reach a bridge and cross the rapid +river which was an element of danger in the bay, on the north side +of the promontory which sheltered the harbour to the south. + +So when Martyn started as pioneer on the morning before the others +arrived, he descended into Beachharbour later than he intended, but +still he was in time to meet Anne Fordyce, a tall, bright-faced girl +of fourteen, taking her after-lessons turn on the parade with a +governess, who looked amazed as the two met, holding out both hands +to one another, with eager joy and welcome. + +It was not the same when Anne flew into the Vicarage with the +rapturous announcement, 'Here's Martyn!' The vicar was gone to a +clerical meeting, and Mrs. Fordyce said nothing about staying to see +him. The luncheon was a necessity, but with quiet courtesy Martyn +was made to understand that he was regarded as practically out of +reach, and 'Oh, mamma, he could come and sleep,' was nipped in the +utterance by 'Martyn is busy with his studies; we must not disturb +him.' This was a sufficient intimation that Mrs. Fordyce did not +intend to have the pupils dropping in on her continually, and making +her house their resort; and while Martyn was digesting the rebuff, +the governess carried Anne off to prepare for a music lesson, and +her mother gave no encouragement to lingering or repeating the +visit. + +Still Martyn, on his way homewards, based many hopes on the return +of Mr. Fordyce; but all that ensued was, three weeks later, a note +regretting the not having been able to call, and inviting the whole +party to a great school-feast on the anniversary of the dedication +of the first of the numerous new churches of Beachharbour. There +was no want of cordiality on that occasion, but time was lacking for +anything beyond greetings and fleeting exchanges of words. Parson +Frank tried to talk to Martyn, bemoaned the not seeing more of him, +declared his intentions of coming to the farm, began an invitation, +but was called off a hundred ways; and Anne was rushing about with +all the children of the place, gentle and simple, on her hands. +Whenever Martyn tried to help her, he was called off some other way, +and engaged at last in the hopeless task of teaching cricket where +these fisher boys had never heard of it. + +That was all he saw of our old friends, and he was much hurt by such +ingratitude. So were we all, and though we soon acquitted the head +of the family of more than the forgetfulness of over occupation, the +soreness at his wife's coldness was not so soon passed over. Yet +from her own point of view, poor woman, she might be excused for a +panic lest her second daughter might go the way of the first. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII--OUTWARD BOUND + + + +'As slow our ship her foamy track + Against the wind was cleaving, +Her trembling pennant still looked back + To the dear isle 'twas leaving. +So loath we part from all we love, + From all the links that bind us, +So turn our hearts as on we rove + To those we've left behind us.' + +T. MOORE. + +The first time I saw Clarence's menage was in that same summer of +poor Martyn's repulse. My father had come in for a small property +in his original county of Shropshire, and this led to his setting +forth with my mother to make necessary arrangements, and then to pay +visits to old friends; leaving Emily and me to be guests to our +brother at Clifton. + +We told them it was their harvest honeymoon, and it was funny to see +how they enjoyed the scheme when they had once made up their minds +to it, and our share in the project was equally new and charming, +for Emily and I, though both some way on in our twenties, were still +in many respects home children, nor had I ever been out on a visit +on my own account. The yellow chariot began by conveying Emily and +me to our destination. + +Clifton has grown considerably since those days, and terraces have +swallowed up the site of what the post-office knew as Prospect +Cottage, but we were apt to term the doll's house, for, as Emily +said, our visit there had something the same effect as a picnic or +tea drinking at little Anne's famous baby house. In like manner, it +was tiny, square, with one sash-window on each side of the door, but +it was nearly covered with creepers, odds and ends which Clarence +brought from home, and induced to flourish and take root better than +their parent stocks. In his nursery days his precision had given +him the name of 'the old bachelor,' and he had all a sailor's +tidiness. Even his black cat and brown spaniel each had its +peculiar basket and mat, and had been taught never to transgress +their bounds or interfere with one another; and the effect of his +parlour, embellished as it was in our honour, was delightful. The +outlook was across the beautiful ravine, into the wooded slopes on +the further side, and, on the other side, down the widening cleft to +that giddy marvel, the suspension bridge, with vessels passing under +it, and the expanse beyond. + +Most entirely we enjoyed ourselves, making merry over Clarence's +housekeeping, employing ourselves after our wonted semi-student, +semi-artist fashion in the morning; and, when our host came home +from business, starting on country expeditions, taking a carriage +whenever the distance exceeded Emily's powers of walking beside my +chair; sketching, botanising, or investigating church architecture, +our newest hobby. I sketched, and the other two rambled about, +measuring and filling up archaeological papers, with details of +orientation, style, and all the rest, deploring barbarisms and +dilapidations, making curious and delightful discoveries, pitying +those who thought the Dun Cow's rib and Chatterton's loft the most +interesting features of St. Mary's Redcliff, and above all rubbing +brasses with heel ball, and hanging up their grim effigies wherever +there was a vacant space on the walls of our doll's house. + +And though we grumbled when Clarence was detained at the office +later than we expected, this was qualified by pride at feeling his +importance there as a man in authority. It was, however, with much +dismay and some inhospitality that we learnt that a young man +belonging to the office--in fact, Mr. Frith's great-nephew--was +coming to sail for Canton in one of the vessels belonging to the +firm, and would have to be 'looked after.' He could not be asked to +sleep at Prospect Cottage, for Emily had the only spare bedchamber, +and Clarence had squeezed himself into a queer little dressing +closet to give me his room; but the housekeeper (a treasure found by +Gooch) secured an apartment in the next house, and we were to act +hosts, much against our will. Clarence had barely seen the youth, +who had been employed in the office at Liverpool, living with his +mother, who was in ill-health and had died in the last spring. The +only time of seeing him, he had seemed to be a very shy raw lad; +but, 'poor fellow, we can make the best of him,' was the sentiment; +'it is only for one night.' However, we were dismayed when, as +Emily was in the crisis of washing-in a sky, it was announced that a +gentleman was asking for Mr. Winslow. Churlishness bade us despatch +him to the office, but humanity prevailed to invite him previously +to share our luncheon. Yet we doubted whether it had not been a +cruel mercy when he entered, evidently unprepared to stumble on a +young lady and a deformed man, and stammering piteously as he hoped +there was no mistake--Mr. Winslow--Prospect, etc. + +Emily explained, frustrating his desire to flee at once to the +office, and pointing out his lodging, close at hand, whence he was +invited to return in a few minutes to the meal. + +We had time for some amiable exclamations, 'The oaf!' 'What a +bore!' 'He has spoilt my sky!' 'I shan't finish this to-day!' +'Shall we order a carriage and take him to the office; we can't have +him on our hands all the afternoon?' 'And we might get the new +number of Nicholas Nickleby.' + +N.B.--Perhaps it was Oliver Twist or The Old Curiosity Shop--I am +not certain which was the current excitement just then; but I am +quite sure it was Mrs. Nickleby who first disclosed to us that our +guest had a splendid pair of dark eyes. Hitherto he had kept them +averted in the studious manner I have often noticed in persons who +did not wish to excite suspicion of staring at my peculiarities; but +that lady's feelings when her neighbour's legs came down her chimney +were too much for his self-consciousness, and he gave a glance that +disclosed dark liquid depths, sparkling with mirth. He was one +number in advance of us, and could enlighten us on the next stage in +the coming story; and this went far to reconcile us to the invasion, +and to restore him to the proper use of his legs and arms--and very +shapely limbs they were, for he was a slim, well-made fellow, with a +dark gipsy complexion, and intelligent, honest face, altogether +better than we expected. + +Yet we could have groaned when in the evening, Clarence brought him +back with tidings that something had gone wrong with the ship. If I +tried to explain, I might be twitted with, + + +'The bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.' + + +But of course Clarence knew all about it, and he thought it unlikely +that the vessel would be in sailing condition for a week at soonest. +Great was our dismay! Getting through one evening by the help of +walking and then singing was one thing, having the heart of our +visit consumed by an interloper was another; though Clarence +undertook to take him to the office and find some occupation for him +that might keep him out of our way. But it was Clarence's leisure +hours that we begrudged; though truly no one could be meeker than +this unlucky Lawrence Frith, nor more conscious of being an +insufferable burthen. I even detected a tear in his eye when +Clarence and Emily were singing 'Sweet Home.' + +'Do you know,' said Clarence, on the second evening, when his guest +had gone to dress for dinner, 'I am very sorry for that poor lad. +It is only six weeks since he lost his mother, and he has not a soul +to care for him, either here or where he is going. I had fancied +the family were under a cloud, but I find it was only that old Frith +quarrelled with the father for taking Holy Orders instead of going +into our house. Probably there was some imprudence; for the poor +man died a curate and left no provision for his family. The only +help the old man would give was to take the boy into the office at +Liverpool, stopping his education just as he was old enough to care +about it. There were a delicate mother and two sisters then, but +they are all gone now; scarlet fever carried off the daughters, and +Mrs. Frith never was well again. He seems to have spent his time in +waiting on her when off duty, and to have made no friends except one +or two contemporaries of hers; and his only belongings are old Frith +and Mrs. Stevens, who are packing him off to Canton without caring a +rap what becomes of him. I know what Mrs. Stevens is at; she comes +up to town much oftener now, and has got her husband's nephew into +the office, and is trying to get everything for him; and that's the +reason she wants to keep up the old feud, and send this poor +Lawrence off to the ends of the earth.' + +'Can't you do anything for him?' asked Emily. 'I thought Mr. Frith +did attend to you.' + +Clarence laughed. 'I know that Mrs. Stevens hates me like poison; +but that is the only reason I have for supposing I might have any +influence.' + +'And can't you speak to Mr. Castleford?' + +'Set him to interfere about old Frith's relations! He would know +better! Besides, the fellow is too old to get into any other line-- +four-and-twenty he says, though he does not look it; and he is as +innocent as a baby, indifferent just now to what becomes of him, or +whither he goes; it is all the same to him, he says; there is no one +to care for him anywhere, and I think he is best pleased to go where +it is all new. And there, you see, the poor lad will be left to +drift to destruction--mother's darling that he has been--just for +want of some human being to care about him, and hinder his getting +heartless and reckless!' + +Clarence's voice trembled, and Emily had tears in her eyes as she +asked if absolutely nothing could be done for him. Clarence meant +to write to Mr. Castleford, who would no doubt beg the chaplain at +the station to show the young man some kindness; also, perhaps, to +the resident partner, whom Clarence had looked at once over his +desk, but in his rawest and most depressed days. The only clerk out +there, whom he knew, would, he thought, be no element of safety, and +would not like the youth the better either for bringing his +recommendation or bearing old Frith's name. + +We were considerably softened towards our guest, though the next +time Emily came on him he was standing in the hall, transfixed in +contemplation of her greatest achievement in brass-rubbing, a severe +and sable knight with the most curly of nostrils, the stiffest and +straightest of mouths, hair straight on his brows, pointed toes +joined together below, and fingers touching over his breast. There +he hung in triumph just within the front door, fluttering and +swaying a little on his pins whenever a draught came in; and there +stood Lawrence Frith, freshly aware of him, and unable to repress +the exclamation, 'I say! isn't he a guy?' + +'Sir Guy de Warrenne,' began Emily composedly; 'don't you see his +coat of arms? "chequy argent and azure."' + +'Does your brother keep him there to scare away the tramps?' + +Emily's countenance was a study. + +The subject of brasses was unfolded to Lawrence Frith, and before +the end of the week he had spent an entire day on his hands and +knees, scrubbing away with the waxy black compound at a figure in +the Cathedral--the office-work, as we declared, which Clarence gave +him to do. In fact he became so thoroughly infected that it was a +pity that he was going where there would be no exercise in +ecclesiology--rather the reverse. Embarrassment on his side, and +hostility on ours, may be said to have vanished under the influence +of Sir Guy de Warrenne's austere countenance. The youth seemed to +regard 'Mr. Winslow' in the light of a father, and to accept us as +kindly beings. He ceased to contort his limbs in our awful +presence, looked at me like as an ordinary person, and even ventured +on giving me an arm. He listened with unfeigned pleasure to our +music, perilled his neck on St. Vincent's rocks in search of plants, +and by and by took to hanging back with Emily, while Clarence walked +on with me, to talk to her out of his full heart about his mother +and sisters. + +Three weeks elapsed before the Hoang-ho was ready to sail, and by +that time Lawrence knew that there were some who would rejoice in +his success, or grieve if things went ill with him. Clarence and I +had promised him long home letters, and impressed on him that we +should welcome his intelligence of himself. For verily he had made +his way into our hearts, as a thoroughly good-hearted, affectionate +being, yearning for something to cling to; intelligent and refined, +though his recent cultivation had been restricted, soundly +principled, and trained in religious feelings and habits, but so +utterly inexperienced that there was no guessing how it might be +with him when cast adrift, with no object save his own maintenance, +and no one to take an interest in him. + +Clarence talked to him paternally, and took him to second-hand shops +to provide a cheap library of substantial reading, engaging to cater +for him for the future, not omitting Dickens; and Emily worked at +providing him with the small conveniences and comforts for the +voyage that called for a woman's hand. He was so grateful that it +was like fitting out a dear friend or younger brother. + +'I wonder,' said Clarence, as he walked by my chair on one of the +last days, 'whether it was altogether wise to have this young Frith +here so much, though it could hardly have been helped.' + +To which I rejoined that it could hardly have displeased the uncle, +and that if it did, the youth's welfare was worth annoying him for. + +'I meant something nearer home,' said Clarence, and proceeded to ask +if I did not think Lawrence Frith a good deal smitten with Emily. + +To me it seemed an idea not worth consideration. Any youth, +especially one who had lived so secluded a life, would naturally be +taken by the first pleasing young woman who came in his way, and +took a kindly interest in him; but I did not think Emily very +susceptible, being entirely wrapped up in home and parish matters; +and I reminded Clarence that she had not been loverless. She had +rejected the Curate of Hillside; and we all saw, though she did not, +that only her evident indifference kept Sir George Eastwood's second +son from making further advances. + +Clarence was not convinced. He said he had never seen our sister +look at either of these as she did when Lawrence came into the room; +and there was no denying that there was a soft and embellishing +light on her whole countenance, and a fresh sweetness in her voice. +But then he seemed such a boy as to make the notion ridiculous; and +yet, on reckoning, it proved that their years were equal. All that +could be hoped was that the sentiment, if it existed, would not +discover itself before they parted, so as to open their eyes to the +dreariness of the prospect, and cause our mother to think we had +betrayed our trust in the care of our sister. As we could do +nothing, we were not sorry that this was the last day. Clarence was +to go on board with Frith, see him out of the river, and come back +with the pilot; and we all drove down to the wharf together; nobody +saying much by the way, except the few jerky remarks we brothers +felt bound to originate and reply to. + +Emily sat very still, her head bent under her shading bonnet--I +think she was trying to keep back tears for the solitary exile; and +Lawrence, opposite, was unable to help watching her with wistful +eyes, which would have revealed all, if we had not guessed it +already. It might be presumptuous, but it made us very sorry for +him. + +When the moment of parting came, there was a wringing of hands, and, +'Thank you, thank you,' in a low, broken, heartfelt voice, and to +Emily, 'You have made life a new thing to me. I shall never +forget,' and the showing of a tiny book in his waistcoat pocket. + +When the two had disappeared, Emily, no longer restraining her +tears, told me that she had exchanged Prayer-books with him, and +they were to read the Psalms at the same time every day. 'I thought +it might be a help to him,' she said simply. + +Nor was there any consciousness in her talk as she related to me +what he had told her about his mother and sisters, and his dreary +sense of piteous loneliness, till we had adopted him as a brother-- +in which capacity I trusted that she viewed him. + +However, Clarence had been the recipient of all the poor lad's +fervent feelings for Miss Winslow, how she had been a new revelation +to his desolate spirit, and was to be the guiding star of his life, +etc., etc., all from the bottom of his heart, though he durst not +dream of requital, and was to live, not on hope, but on memory of +the angelic kindness of these three weeks. + +It was impossible not to be touched, though we strove to be worldly +wise old bachelors, and assured one another that the best and most +probable thing that could happen to Lawrence Frith would be to have +his dream blown away by the Atlantic breezes, and be left open to +the charms of some Chinese merchant's daughter. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII--TOO LATE + + + +'Thus Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss, +Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.' + +KEBLE. + +After such a rebuff as Martyn had experienced at Beachharbour, he no +longer haunted its neighbourhood, but devoted the long vacation of +the ensuing year to a walking tour in Germany, with one or two +congenial spirits, who shared his delight in scenery, pictures, and +architecture. + +By and by he wrote to Clarence from Baden Baden - + +'Whom do you think I should find here but Griffith and his bird? I +first spotted the old fellow smoking under a tree in the Grand +Platz, but he looked so seedy and altered altogether that I was not +sure enough of him to speak, especially as he showed no signs of +knowing me. (He says it was my whiskers that stumped him.) I made +inquiries and found that they figured as "Sir Peacock and lady," but +they were entered all right in the book. He is taking the "Kur"--he +looks as if he wanted it--and she is taking rouge et noir. I saw +her at the salon, with her neck grown as long as her namesake's, but +not as pretty, claws to match, thin and painted, as if the ruling +passion was consuming her. Poor old Griff! he was glad enough to +see me, but he is wofully shaky, and nearly came to tears when he +asked after Ted and all at home. They had an upset of their +carriage in Vienna last winter, and he got some twist, or other +damage, which he thought nothing of, but it has never righted +itself; I am sure he is very ill, and ought to be looked after. He +has had only foreign doctoring, and you know he never was strong in +languages. I heard of the medico here inquiring what precise +symptom der Englander meant by being "down in zie mout!" Poor Griff +is that, whatever else he is, and Selina does not see it, nor +anything else but her rouge et noir table. I am afraid he plays +too, when he is up to it, but he can't stand much of the stuffiness +of the place, and he respects my innocence, poor old beggar; so he +has kept out of it, since we have been here. He seems glad to have +me to look after him, but afraid to let me stay, for fear of my +falling a victim to the place. I can't well tell him that there is +a perpetual warning to youth in the persons of himself and his +Peacock. His mind might be vastly relieved if I were out of it, but +scarcely his body; and I shall not leave him till I hear from home. +Thomson says I am right. I should like to bring the poor old man +home for advice, especially if my lady could be left behind, and by +all appearances she would not object. Could not you come, or mamma? +Speak to papa about it. It is all so disgusting that I really could +not write to him. It is enough to break one's heart to see Griff +when he hears about home, and Edward, and Emily. I told him how +famously you were getting on, and he said, "It has been all up, up +with him, all down, down with me," and then he wanted me to fix my +day for leaving Baden, as if it were a sink of infection. I fancy +he thinks me a mere infant still, for he won't heed a word of advice +about taking care of himself and WILL do the most foolish things +imaginable for a man in his state, though I can't make out what is +the matter with him. I tried both French and Latin with his doctor, +equally in vain.' + +There was a great consultation over this letter. Our parents would +fain have gone at once to Baden, but my father was far from well; in +fact, it was the beginning of the break-up of his constitution. He +had been ageing ever since his disappointment in Griffith, and +though he had so enjoyed his jaunt with my mother that he had seemed +revived for the time, he had been visibly failing ever since the +winter, and my mother durst not leave him. Indeed she was only too +well aware that her presence was apt to inspire Selina with the +spirit of contradiction, and that Clarence would have a better +chance alone. He was to go up to London by the mail train, see Mr. +Castleford, and cross to Ostend. + +A valise from the lumber-room was wanted, and at bedtime he went in +quest of it. He came back white and shaken; and I said - + +'You have not seen HER?' + +'Yes, I have.' + +'It is not her time of year.' + +'No; I was not even thinking of her. There was none of the wailing, +but when I looked up from my rummaging, there was her face as if in +a window or mirror on the wall.' + +'Don't dwell on it' was all I could entreat, for the apparition at +unusual times had been mentioned as a note of doom, and not only did +it weigh on me, but it might send Clarence off in a desponding mood. +Tidings were less rapid when telegraphs were not, and railways +incomplete. Clarence did not reach Baden till ten days after the +despatch of Martyn's letter, and Griffith's condition had in the +meantime become much more serious. Low fever had set in, and he was +confined to his dreary lodgings, where Martyn was doing his best for +him in an inexperienced, helpless sort of way, while Lady Peacock +was at the salle, persisting in her belief that the ailment was a +temporary matter. Martyn afterwards declared that he had never seen +anything more touching than poor Griff's look of intense rest and +relief at Clarence's entrance. + +On the way through London, by the assistance of Mr. Castleford, +Clarence had ascertained how to procure the best medical advice +attainable, and he was linguist enough to be an adequate +interpreter. Alas! all that was achieved was the discovery that +between difficulties of language, Griff's own indifference, and his +wife's carelessness, the injury had developed into fatal disease. +An operation MIGHT yet save him, if he could rally enough for it, +but the fever was rapidly destroying his remaining strength. Selina +ascribed it to excitement at meeting Martyn, and indeed he had been +subject to such attacks every autumn. Any way, he had no spirits +nor wish for improvement. If his brothers told him he was better, +he smiled and said it was like a condemned criminal trying to +recover enough for the gallows. His only desire was to be let alone +and have Clarence with him. He had ceased to be uneasy as to +Martyn's exposure to temptation, but he said he could hardly bear to +watch that bright, fresh young manhood, and recollect how few years +had passed since he had been such another, nor did he like to have +any nurse save Clarence. His wife at first acquiesced, holding fast +to the theory of the periodical autumnal fever, and then that the +operation would restore him to health; and as her presence fretted +him, and he received her small attentions peevishly, she persisted +in her usual habits, and heard with petulance his brothers' +assurances of his being in a critical condition, declaring that it +was always thus with these fevers--he was always cross and low- +spirited, and no one could tell what she had undergone with him. + +Then came days of positive pain, and nights of delirious, dreary +murmuring about home and all of us, more especially Ellen Fordyce. +Clarence had no time for letters, and Martyn's became a call for +mamma, with the old childish trust in her healing and comforting +powers, declaring that he would meet her at Cologne, and steer her +through the difficulties of foreign travel. + +Hesitation was over now. My father was most anxious to send her, +and she set forth, secure that she could infuse life, energy, and +resolution into her son, when those two poor boys had failed. + +It was not, however, Martyn who met her, but his friend Thomson, +with the tidings that the suffering had become so severe as to +prevent Martyn from leaving Baden, not only on his brother's +account, but because Lady Peacock had at last taken alarm, and was +so uncontrollable in her distress that he was needed to keep her out +of the sickroom, where her presence, poor thing, only did mischief. + +She evidently had a certain affection for her husband; and it was +the more piteous that in his present state he only regarded her as +the tempter who had ruined his life--his false Duessa, who had led +him away from Una. On one unhappy evening he had been almost +maddened by her insisting on arguing with him; he called her a hag, +declared she had been the death of his children, the death of that +dear one--could she not let him alone now she had been the death of +himself? + +When Martyn took her away, she wept bitterly, and told enough to +make the misery of their life apparent, when the gaiety was over, +and regrets and recriminations set in. + +However, there came a calmer interval, when the suffering passed +off, but in the manner which made the German doctor intimate that +hope was over. Would life last till his mother came? + +His brothers had striven from the first to awaken thoughts of higher +things, and turn remorse into repentance; but every attempt resulted +in strange, sad wanderings about Esau, the birthright, and the +blessing. Indeed, these might not have been entirely wanderings, +for once he said, 'It is better this way, Bill. You don't know what +you wish in trying to bring me round. Don't be hard on me. She +drove me to it. It is all right now. The Jews will be +disappointed.' + +For even at the crisis in London, he had concealed that he had +raised money on post obits, so that, had he outlived my father, +Chantry House would have been lost. Lady Peacock's fortune had been +undermined when she married him; extravagance and gambling had made +short work of the rest. + +Why should I speak of such things here, except to mourn over our +much-loved brother, with all his fine qualities and powers wasted +and overthrown? He clung to Clarence's affection, and submitted to +prayers and psalms, but without response. He showed tender +recollection of us all, but scarcely durst think of his father, and +hardly appeared to wish to see his mother. Clarence's object soon +came to be to obtain forgiveness for the wife, since bitterness +against her seemed the great obstacle to seeking pardon, peace, or +hope; but each attempt only produced such bitterness against her, +and such regrets and mourning for Ellen, as fearfully shook the +failing frame, while he moaned forth complaints of the blandishments +and raillery with which his temptress had beguiled him. Clarence +tried in vain to turn away this idea, but nothing had any effect +till he bethought himself of Ellen's message, that she knew even +this fatal act had been prompted by generosity of spirit. There was +truth enough in it to touch Griff, but only so far as to cry, 'What +might I not have been with her?' Still, there was no real softening +till my mother came. He knew her at once, and all the old childish +relations were renewed between them. There was little time left +now, but he was wholly hers. Even Clarence was almost set aside, +save where strength was needed, and the mother seemed to have equal +control of spirit and body. It was she, who, scarcely aware of what +had gone before, caused him to admit Selina. + +'Tell her not to talk,' he said. 'But we have each much to forgive +one another.' + +She came in, awed and silent, and he let her kiss him, sit near at +hand, and wait on my mother, whose coming had, as it were, +insensibly taken the bitterness away and made him as a little child +in her hands. He could follow prayers in which she led him, as he +could not, or did not seem to do, with any one else, for he was +never conscious of the presence of the clergyman whom Thomson hunted +up and brought, and who prayed aloud with Martyn while the physical +agony claimed both my mother and Clarence. + +Once Griff looked about him and called out for our father, then +recollecting, muttered, 'No--the birthright gone--no blessing.' + +It grieved us much, it grieves me now, that this was his last +distinct utterance. He LOOKED as if the comforting replies and the +appeals to the Source of all redemption did awaken a response, but +he never spoke articulately again; and only thirty-six hours after +my mother's arrival, all was over. + +Poor Selina went into passions of hysterics and transports of grief, +needing all the firmness of so resolute a woman as my mother to deal +with her. She was wild in self-accusation, and became so ill that +the care of her was a not unwholesome occupation for my mother, who +was one of those with whom sorrow has little immediate outlet, and +is therefore the more enduring. + +She would not bring our brother's coffin home, thinking the +agitation would be hurtful to my father, and anxious to get back to +him as soon as possible. So Griff was buried at Baden, and from +time to time some of us have visited his grave. Of course she +proposed Selina's return to Chantry House with her; but Mr. +Clarkson, the brother, had come out to the funeral, and took his +sister home with him, certainly much to our relief, though all the +sad party at Baden had drawn much nearer together in these latter +days. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX--A PURPOSE + + + + 'It then draws near the season +Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.' + +Hamlet. + +We had really lost our Griffith long before--our bright, generous, +warm-hearted, promising Griff, the brilliance of our home; but his +actual death made the first breach in a hitherto unbroken family, +and was a new and strange shock. It made my father absolutely an +old man; and it also changed Martyn. His first contact with +responsibility, suffering, and death had demolished the light- +hearted boyishness which had lasted in the youngest of the family +through all his high aspirations. Till his return to Oxford, his +chief solace was in getting some one of us alone, going through all +the scenes at Baden, discussing his new impressions of the trials +and perplexities of life, and seeking out passages in the books that +were becoming our oracles. What he had admired externally before, +he was grasping from within; nor can I describe what the Lyra +Apostolica, and the two first volumes of Parochial Sermons preached +at Littlemore, became to us. + +Mr. Clarkson had been rather dry with my brothers at Baden, +evidently considering that poor Griffith had been as fatal to his +sister as we thought Selina had been to our brother. It was hardly +just, for there had been much more to spoil in him than in her; and +though she would hardly have trod a much higher path, there is no +saying what he might have been but for her. + +Griffith had said nothing about providing for her, not having +forgiven her till he was past recollecting the need, but her brother +had intimated that something was due from the family, and Clarence +had assented--not, indeed, as to her deserts, poor woman, but her +claims and her needs--well knowing that my father would never suffer +Griff's widow to be in want. + +He judged rightly. My father was nervously anxious to arrange for +giving her 500 pounds a year, in the manner most likely to prevent +her from making away with it, and leaving herself destitute. But +there had already been heavy pulls on his funded property, and ways +and means had to be considered, making Clarence realise that he had +become the heir. Somehow, there still remained, especially with my +mother and himself, a sense of his being a failure, and an inferior +substitute, although my father had long come to lean upon him, as +never had been the case with our poor Griff. + +The first idea of raising the amount required was by selling an +outlying bit of the estate near the Wattlesea Station, for which an +enterprising builder was making offers, either to purchase or take +on a building lease. My father had received several letters on the +subject, and only hesitated from a feeling against breaking up the +estate, especially if this were part of the original Chantry House +property, and not a more recent acquisition of the Winslows. +Moreover, he would do nothing without Clarence's participation. + +The title-deeds were not in the house, for my father had had too +much of the law to meddle more than he could help with his own +affairs, and had left them in the hands of the family solicitor at +Bristol, where Clarence was to go and look over them. He rejoiced +in the opportunity of being able to see whether anything would throw +light on the story of the mullion chamber; and the certainty that +the Wattlesea property had never been part of the old endowment of +the Chantry did not seem nearly so interesting as a packet of yellow +letters tied with faded red tape. Mr. Ryder made no difficulty in +entrusting these to him, and we read them by our midnight lamp. + +Clarence had seen poor Margaret's will, bequeathing her entire +property to her husband's son, Philip Winslow, and had noted the +date, 1705; also the copy of the decision in the Court of Probate +that there was no sufficient evidence of entail on the Fordyce +family to bar her power of disposing of it. We eagerly opened the +letters, but found them disappointing, as they were mostly offerings +of 'Felicitations' to Philip Winslow on having established his 'Just +Claim,' and 'refuted the malicious Accusations of Calumny.' They +only served to prove the fact that he had been accused of something, +and likewise that he had powerful friends, and was thought worth +being treated with adulation, according to the fashion of his day. +Perhaps it was hardly to be expected that he should have preserved +evidence against himself, but it was baffling to sift so little out +of such a mass of correspondence. If we could have had access to +the Fordyce papers, no doubt they would have given the other phase +of the transaction, but they were unattainable. The only public +record that Clarence could discover was much abbreviated, and though +there was some allusion to intimidation, the decision seemed to have +been fixed by the non-existence of any entail. + +Christmas was drawing on, and gathering together what was left of +us. Though Griffith had spent only one Christmas at home in nine +years, it was wonderful how few we seemed, even when Martyn +returned. My father liked to have us about him, and even spoke of +Clarence's giving up his post as manager at Bristol, and living +entirely at home to attend to the estate; but my mother did not +encourage the idea. She could not quite bear to accept any one in +Griff's place, and rightly thought there was not occupation enough +to justify bringing Clarence home. I was competent to assist my +father through all the landlord's business that came to him within +doors, and Emily had ridden and walked about enough with him to be +an efficient inspector of crops and repairs, besides that Clarence +himself was within reach. + +'Indeed,' he said to me, 'I cannot loose my hold on Frith and +Castleford till I see my way into the future.' + +I did not know what he intended either then or when he gave his +voice against dismembering the property by selling the Wattlesea +estate, but arranged for raising Selina's income otherwise, +persuading my father to let him undertake the building of the +required cottages out of his own resources, on principles much more +wholesome than were likely to be employed by the speculator. Nor +did grasp what was in his mind when he made me look out my 'ghost +journal,' as we called my record of each apparition reported in the +mullion chamber or the lawn, with marks to those about which we had +no reasonable doubt. Separately there might be explanation, but +conjointly and in connection with the date they had a remarkable +force. + +'I am resolved,' said Clarence, 'to see whether that figure can have +a purpose. I have thought of it all those years. It has hitherto +had no fair play. I was too much upset by the sight, and beaten by +the utter incredulity of everybody else; but now I am determined to +look into it.' + +There was both awe and resolution in his countenance, and I only +stipulated that he should not be alone, or with no more locomotive +companion than myself. Martyn was as old as I had been at our +former vigil, and a person to be relied on. + +A few months ago he would have treated the matter as a curious +adventurous enterprise--a concession to superstition or imagination; +but now he took it up with much grave earnestness. He had been +discussing the evidence for such phenomena with friends at Oxford, +and the conclusion had been that they were at times permitted, +sometimes as warnings, sometimes to accomplish the redress of a +wrong, sometimes to teach us the reality of the spiritual world +about us; and, likewise, that some constitutions were more +susceptible than others to these influences. Of course he had +adduced all that he knew of his domestic haunted chamber, but had +found himself uncertain as to the amount of direct or trustworthy +evidence. So he eagerly read our jottings, and was very anxious to +keep watch with Clarence, though there were greater difficulties in +the way than when the outer chamber was Griffith's sitting-room, and +always had a fire lighted. + +To our disappointment, likewise, there came an invitation from the +Eastwoods for the evening of the 27th of December, the second of the +recurring days of the phantom's appearance. My father could not, +and my mother would not go, but they so much wanted my brothers and +sister to accept it that it could not well be declined. It was +partly a political affair, and my father was anxious to put Clarence +forward, and make him take his place as the future squire; and my +mother thought depression had lasted long enough with her children, +and did not like to see Martyn so grave and preoccupied. 'It was +quite right and very nice in him, dear boy, but it was not natural +at his age, though he was to be a clergyman.' + +As to Emily, her gentle cheerfulness had helped us all through our +time of sorrow, and just now we had been gratified by the tidings of +young Lawrence Frith. That youth was doing extremely well. There +had been golden reports from manager and chaplain, addressed to Mr. +Castleford, the latter adding that the young man evidently owed much +to Mr. Winslow's influence. Moreover, Lawrence had turned out an +excellent correspondent. Long letters, worthy of forming a book of +travels, came regularly to Clarence and me, indeed they were thought +worth being copied into that fat clasped MS. book in the study. +Writing them must have been a real solace to the exile, in his +island outside the town, whither all the outer barbarians were +relegated. So, no doubt, was the packing of the gifts that were +gradually making Prospect Cottage into a Chinese exhibition of +nodding mandarins, ivory balls, exquisite little cups, and faggots +of tea. Also, a Chinese walking doll was sent humbly as an offering +for the amusement of Miss Winslow's school children, whom indeed she +astonished beyond measure; and though her wheels are out of order, +and her movements uncertain, she is still a stereotyped incident in +the Christmas entertainments. + +There was no question but that these letters and remembrances gave +great pleasure to Emily; but I believe she was not in the least +conscious that though greater in degree, it was not of the same +quality as that she felt when a runaway scholar who had gone to sea +presented her in token of gratitude with a couple of dried sea- +horses. + + + +CHAPTER XL--THE MIDNIGHT CHASE + + + +'What human creature in the dead of night + Had coursed, like hunted hare, that cruel distance, +Had sought the door, the window in her flight + Striving for dear existence?' + +HOOD. + +On the night of the 26th of December, Clarence and Martyn, well +wrapped in greatcoats, stole into the outer mullion room; but though +the usual sounds were heard, and the mysterious light again +appeared, Martyn perceived nothing else, and even Clarence declared +that if there were anything besides, it was far less distinct to him +than it had been previously. Could it be that his spiritual +perceptions were growing dimmer as he became older, and outgrew the +sensitiveness of nerves and imagination? + +We came to the conclusion that it would be best to watch the outside +of the house, rather than within the chamber; and the dinner-party +facilitated this, since it accounted for being up and about nearer +to the hour when the ghost might be expected. Egress could be had +through the little garden door, and I undertook to sit up and keep +up the fire. + +All three came to my room on their return home, for Emily had become +aware of our scheme, and entreated to be allowed to watch with us. +Clarence had unfastened the alarum bell from my shutters, and taken +down the bar after the curtains had been drawn by the housemaid, and +he now opened them. It was a frosty moonlight night, and the lawn +lay white and crisp, marked with fantastic shadows. The others +looked grave and pale, Emily was in a thick white shawl and hood, +with a swan's down boa over her black dress, a somewhat ghostly +figure herself, but we were in far too serious a mood for light +observations. + +There was something of a shudder about Clarence as he went to unbolt +the back door; Martyn kept close to him. We saw them outside, and +then Emily flew after them. From my window I could watch them +advancing on the central gravel walk, Emily standing still between +her brothers, clasping an arm of each. I saw the light near the +ruin, and caught some sounds as of shrieks and of threatening +voices, the light flitted towards the gable of the mullion rooms, +and then was the concluding scream. All was over, and the three +came back much agitated, Emily sinking into an armchair, panting, +her hands over her face, and a nervous trembling through her whole +frame, Martyn's eyes looking wide and scared, Clarence with the +well-known look of terror on his face. He hurried to fetch the tray +of wine and water that was always left on the table when anyone went +to a party at night, but he shivered too much to prevent the glasses +from jingling, and I had to pour out the sherry and administer it to +Emily. 'Oh! poor, poor thing,' she gasped out. + +'You saw?' I exclaimed. + +'They did,' said Martyn; 'I only saw the light, and heard! That was +enough!' and he shuddered again. + +'Then Emily did,' I began, but Clarence cut me short. 'Don't ask +her to-night.' + +'Oh! let me tell,' cried Emily; 'I can't go away to bed till I have +had it out.' + +Then she gave the details, which were the more notable because she +had not, like Martyn, been studying our jottings, and had heard +comparatively little of the apparition. + +'When I joined the boys,' she said, 'I looked toward the mullion +rooms; I saw the windows lighted up, and heard a sobbing and crying +inside.' + +'So did I,' put in Martyn, and Clarence bent his head. + +'Then,' added Emily, 'by the moonlight I saw the gable end, not +blank, and covered by the magnolia as it is now, but with stone +steps up to the bricked-up doorway. The door opened, the light +spread, and there came out a lady in black, with a lamp in one hand, +and a kind of parcel in the other, and oh, when she turned her face +this way, it was Ellen's!' + +'So you called out,' whispered Martyn. + +'Dear Ellen, not as she used to be,' added Emily, 'but like what she +was when last I saw her; no, hardly that either, for this was sad, +sad, scared, terrified, with eyes all tears, as Ellen never, never +was.' + +'I saw,' added Clarence, 'I saw the shape, but not the countenance +and expression as I used to do.' + +'She came down the steps,' continued Emily, 'looking about her as if +making her escape, but, just as she came opposite to us, there was a +sound of tipsy laughing and singing from the gate up by the wood.' + +'I thought it real,' said Martyn. + +'Then,' continued Emily, 'she wavered, then turned and went under an +arch in the ruin--I fancied she was hiding something--then came out +and fled across to the steps; but there were two dark men rushing +after her, and at the stone steps there was a frightful shriek, and +then it was all over, the steps gone, all quiet, and the magnolia +leaves glistening in the moonshine. Oh! what can it all mean?' + +'Went under the arch,' repeated Clarence. 'Is it what she hid there +that keeps her from resting?' + +'Then you believe it really happened?' said Emily, 'that some +terrible scene is being acted over again. Oh! but can it be the +real spirits!' + +'That is one of the great mysteries,' answered Martyn; 'but I could +tell you of other instances.' + +'Don't now,' I interposed; 'Emily has had quite enough.' + +We reminded her that the ghastly tragedy was over and would not +recur again for another year; but she was greatly shaken, and we +were very sorry for her, when the clock warned her to go to her own +room, whither Martyn escorted her. He lighted every candle he could +find, and revived the fire; but she was sadly overcome by what she +had witnessed, she lay awake all the rest of the night, and in the +morning, looked so unwell, and had so little to tell about the party +that my mother thought her spirits had been too much broken for +gaieties. + +The real cause could not be confessed, for it would have been +ascribed to some kind of delirium, and have made a commotion for +which my father was unfit. Besides, we had reached an age when, +though we would not have disobeyed, liberty of thought and action +had become needful. All our private confabulations were on this +extraordinary scene. We looked for the arch in the ruin, but there +was, as our morning senses told us, nothing of the kind. She tried +to sketch her remembrance of both that and the gable of the mullion +chamber, and Martyn prowled about in search of some hiding-place. +Our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, had made a conjectural drawing +of the Chapel restored, and all the portfolios about the house were +searched for it, disquieting mamma, who suspected Martyn's Oxford +notions of intending to rebuild it, nor would he say that it ought +not to be done. However, he with his more advanced ecclesiology, +pronounced Mr. Stafford's reconstruction to be absolutely mistaken +and impossible, and set to work on a fresh plan, which, by the bye, +he derides at present. It afforded, however, an excuse for routing +under the ivy and among the stones, but without much profit. From +the mouldings on the materials and in the stables and the front +porch, it was evident that the chapel had been used as a quarry, and +Emily's arch was very probably that of the entrance door. In a dry +summer, the foundations of the walls and piers could be traced on +the turf, and the stumps of one or two columns remained, but the +rest was only a confused heap of fragments within which no one could +have entered as in that strange vision. + +Another thing became clear. There had once been a wall between the +beech wood and the lawn, with a gate or door in it; Chapman could +just remember its being taken down, in James Winslow's early married +life, when landscape gardening was the fashion. It must have been +through this that the Winslow brothers were returning, when poor +Margaret perhaps expected them to enter by the front. + +We wished we could have consulted Dame Dearlove, but she had died a +few years before, and her school was extinct. + + + +CHAPTER XLI--WILLS OLD AND NEW + + + +'And that to-night thou must watch with me + To win the treasure of the tomb.' + +SCOTT. + +Some seasons seem to be peculiarly marked, as if Death did indeed +walk forth in them. + +Old Mr. Frith died in the spring of 1841, and it proved that he had +shown his gratitude to Clarence by a legacy of shares in the firm +amounting to about 2000 pounds. The rest of his interest therein +went to Lawrence Frith, and his funded property to his sister, Mrs. +Stevens, a very fair and upright disposition of his wealth. + +Only six weeks later, my father had a sudden seizure, and there was +only time to summon Clarence from London and Martyn from Oxford, +before a second attack closed his righteous and godly career upon +earth. + +My mother was very still and calm, hardly shedding a tear, but her +whole demeanour was as if life were over for her, and she had +nothing to do save to wait. She seemed to care very little for +tendernesses or attentions on our part. No doubt she would have +been more desolate without them, but we always had a baffled +feeling, as though our affection were contrasted with her perfect +union with her husband. Yet they had been a singularly +undemonstrative couple; I never saw a kiss pass between them, except +as greeting or farewell before or after a journey; and if my mother +could not use the terms papa or your father, she always said, 'Mr. +Winslow.' There was a large gathering at the funeral, including Mr. +Fordyce, but he slept at Hillside, and we scarcely saw him--only for +a few kind words and squeezes of the hand. Holy Week was begun, and +he had to hurry back to Beachharbour that very night. + +The will had been made on my father's coming into the inheritance. +It provided a jointure of 800 pounds per annum for my mother, and +gave each of the younger children 3000 pounds. A codicil had been +added shortly after Griffith's death, written in my father's hand, +and witnessed by Mr. Henderson and Amos Bell. This put Clarence in +the position of heir; secured 500 pounds a year to Griffith's widow, +charged on the estate, and likewise an additional 200 pounds a year +to Emily and to me, hers till marriage, mine for life, 300 pounds a +year to Martyn, until Earlscombe Rectory should be voided, when it +was to be offered to him. The executors had originally been Mr. +Castleford and my mother, but by this codicil, Clarence was +substituted for the former. + +The legacies did not come out of the Chantry House property, for my +father had, of course, means of his own besides, and bequests had +accrued to both him and my mother; but Clarence was inheriting the +estate much more burthened than it had been in 1829, having 2000 +pounds a year to raise out of its proceeds. + +My mother was quite equal to business, with a sort of outside sense, +which she applied to it when needful. Clarence made it at once +evident to her that she was still mistress of Chantry House, and +that it was still to be our home; and she immediately calculated +what each ought to contribute to the housekeeping. She looked +rather blank when she found that Clarence did not mean to give up +business, nor even to become a sleeping partner; but when she +examined into ways and means, she allowed that he was prudent, and +that perhaps it was due to Mr. Castleford not to deprive him of an +efficient helper under present circumstances. Meantime she was +content to do her best for Earlscombe 'for the present,' by which +she meant till her son brought home a wife; but we knew that to him +the words bore a different meaning, though he was still in doubt and +uncertainty how to act, and what might be the wrong to be undone. + +He was anxious to persuade her to go from home for a short time, and +prevailed on her at last to take Emily and me to Dawlish, while the +repairs went on which had been deferred during my father's +feebleness; at least that was the excuse. We two, going with great +regret, knew that his real reason was to have an opportunity for a +search among the ruins. + +It was in June, just as Martyn came back from Oxford, eager to share +in the quest. Those two brothers would trust no one to help them, +but one by one, in the long summer evenings, they moved each of +those stones; I believe the servants thought they were crazed, but +they could explain with some truth that they wanted to clear up the +disputed points as to the architecture, as indeed they succeeded in +doing. + +They had, however, nearly given up, having reached the original +pavement and disinterred the piscina of the side altar, also a +beautiful coffin lid with a floriated cross; when, in a kind of +hollow, Martyn lit upon the rotten remains of something silken, +knotted together. It seemed to have enclosed a bundle. There were +some rags that might have been a change of clothing, also a Prayer- +book, decayed completely except the leathern covering, inside which +was the startling inscription, 'Margaret Winslow, her booke; Lord, +have mercy on a miserable widow woman.' There was also a thick +leathern roll, containing needles, pins, and scissors, entirely +corroded, and within these a paper, carefully folded, but almost +destroyed by the action of damp and the rust of the steel, so that +only thus much was visible. 'I, Margaret Winslow, being of sound +mind, do hereby give and bequeath--' + +Then came stains that defaced every line, till the extreme end, +where a seal remained; the date 1707 was legible, and there were +some scrawls, probably the poor lady's signature, and perhaps that +of witnesses. Clarence and Martyn said very little to one another, +but they set out for Dawlish the next day. + +'Found' was indicated to us, but no more, for they arrived late, and +had to sleep at the hotel, after an evening when we were delighted +to hear my mother ask so many questions about household and parish +affairs. In the morning she was pleased to send all 'the children' +out on the beach, then free from the railway. It was a beautiful +day, with the intensely blue South Devon sea dancing in golden +ripples, and breaking on the shore with the sound Clarence loved so +well, as, in the shade of the dark crimson cliffs, Emily sat at my +feet and my brothers unfolded their strange discoveries into her +lap. There was a kind of solemnity in the thing; we scarcely spoke, +except that Emily said, 'Oh, will she come again,' and, as the tears +gathered at sight of the pathetic petition in the old book, 'Was +that granted?' + +We reconstructed our theory. The poor lady must have repented of +the unjust will forced from her by her stepsons, and contrived to +make another; but she must have been kept a captive until, during +their absence at some Christmas convivialities, she tried to escape; +but hearing sounds betokening their return, she had only time to +hide the bundle in the ruin before she was detected, and in the +scuffle received a fatal blow. + +'But why,' I objected, 'did she not remain hidden till her enemies +were safe in the house?' + +'Terrified beyond the use of her senses,' said Clarence. + +'By all accounts,' said Martyn, 'the poor creature must have been +rather a silly woman.' + +'For shame, Martyn,' cried Emily, 'how can you tell? They might +have seen her go in, or she might have feared being missed.' + +'Or if you watch next Christmas you may see it all explained.' + +To which Emily replied with a shiver that nothing would induce her +to go through it again, and indeed she hoped the spirit would rest +since the discovery had been made. + +'And then?'--one of us said, and there was a silence, and another +futile attempt to read the will. + +'I shall take it to London and see what an expert can do with it,' +said Clarence. 'I have heard of wonderful decipherings in the +Record Office; but you will remember that even if it can be made +out, it will hardly invalidate our possession after a hundred and +thirty years.' + +'Clarence!' cried Emily in a horrified voice; and I asked if the +date were not later than that by which we inherited. + +'Three years,' Clarence said, 'yes; but as things stand, it is +absolutely impossible for me to make restitution at present.' + +'On account of the burthens on the estate?' I said. + +'Oh, but we could give up,' said Emily. + +'I dare say!' said Clarence, smiling; 'but to say nothing of poor +Selina, my mother would hardly see it in the same light, nor should +I deal rightly, even if I could make any alterations; I doubt +whether my father would have held himself bound--certainly not while +no one can read this document.' + +'It would simply outrage his legal mind,' said Martyn. + +'Then what is to be done? Is the injustice to be perpetual?' asked +Emily. + +'This is what I have thought of,' said Clarence. 'We must leave +matters as they are till I can realise enough either to pay off all +these bequests, or to offer Mr. Fordyce the value of the estate.' + +'It is not the whole,' I said. + +'Not the Wattlesea part. This means Chantry House and the three +farms in the village. 10,000 pounds would cover it.' + +'Is it possible?' asked Emily. + +'Yes,' returned Clarence, 'God helping me. You know our concern is +bringing in good returns, and Mr. Castleford will put me in the way +of doing more with my available capital.' + +'We will save so as to help you!' added Emily. At which he smiled. + + + +CHAPTER XLII--ON A SPREE + + + +'Her eyes as stars of twilight fair, +Like twilight too, her dusky hair, +But all things else about her drawn +From May-time and the cheerful dawn, +A dancing shape, an image gay, +To haunt, to startle, and waylay.' + +WORDSWORTH. + +Clarence went to London according to his determination, and as he +had for some time been urgent that I should try some newly-invented +mechanical appliances, he took me with him, this being the last +expedition of the ancient yellow chariot. One of his objects was +that I should see St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, which was then the most +distinguished church of our school of thought, and where there was +to be some special preaching. The Castlefords had a seat there, and +I was settled there in good time, looking at the few bits of stained +glass then in the east window, when, as the clergy came in from the +vestry, I beheld a familiar face, and recognised the fine +countenance and bearing of our dear old friend Frank Fordyce. + +Then, looking at the row of ladies in front of me, I beheld for a +moment an outline of a profile recalling many things. No doubt, +Anne Fordyce was there, though instead of barely emulating my +stunted stature, she towered above her companions, looking to my +mind most fresh and graceful in her pretty summer dress; and I knew +that Clarence saw her too. + +I had never heard Mr. Fordyce preach before, as in his flying visits +his ministrations were due at Hillside; and I certainly should have +been struck with the force and beauty of his sermon if I had never +known him before. It was curious that it was on the 49th Psalm, +meant perhaps for the fashionable congregation, but remarkably +chiming in with the feelings of us, who were conscious of an +inheritance of evil from one who had 'done well unto himself;' +though, no doubt, that was the last thing honest Parson Frank was +thinking of. + +When the service was over, and Anne turned, she became aware of us, +and her face beamed all over. It was a charming face, with a +general likeness to dear Ellen's, but without the fragile ethereal +look, and all health, bloom, and enjoyment recalling her father's. +She was only moving to let her pew-fellows pass out, and was waiting +for him to come for her, as he did in a few moments, and he too was +all pleasure and cordiality. He told us when we were outside that +he had come up to preach, and 'had brought Miss Anne up for a +spree.' They were at a hotel, Mrs. Fordyce was at home, and the +Lesters were not in town this season--a matter of rejoicing to us. +Could we not come home and dine with them at once? We were too much +afraid of disappointing Gooch to do so, but they made an appointment +to meet us at the Royal Academy as soon as it was open the next +morning. + +There was a fortnight of enjoyment. Parson Frank was like a boy out +for a holiday. He had not spent more than a day or two in town for +many years; Anne had not been there since early childhood, and they +adopted Clarence as their lioniser, going through such a country- +cousin course of delights as in that memorable time with Ellen. +They even went down to Eton and Windsor, Frank Fordyce being an old +Etonian. I doubt whether Clarence ever had a more thoroughly happy +time, not even in the north of Devon, for there was no horse on his +mind, and he was not suppressed as in those days. Indeed, I +believe, it is the experience of others besides ourselves that there +is often more unmixed pleasure on casual holidays like this than in +those of early youth; for even if spirits are less high (which is +not always the case), anticipations are less eager, there is more +readiness to accept whatever comes, more matured appreciation, and +less fret and friction at contretemps. + +I was not much of a drag, for when I could not be with the others, I +had old friends, and the museum was as dear to me as ever, in those +recesses that had been the paradise of my youth; but there was a +good deal in which we could all share, and as usual they were all +kind consideration. + +Anne overflowed with minute remembrances of her old home, and +Clarence so basked in her sunshine that it began to strike me that +here might be the solution of all the perplexities especially after +the first evening, when he had shown his strange discovery to Mr. +Fordyce, who simply laughed and said we need not trouble ourselves +about it. Illegible was it? He was heartily glad to hear that it +was. Even otherwise, forty years' possession was quite enough, and +then he pointed to the grate, and said that was the best place for +such things. There was no fire, but Clarence could hardly rescue +the paper from being torn up. + +As to the ghost, he knew much less than his daughter Ellen had done. +He said his old aunt had some stories about Chantry House being +haunted, and had thought it incumbent on her to hate the Winslows, +but he had thought it all nonsense, and such stories were much +better forgotten. 'Would he not see if there were any letters?' + +There might be, perhaps in the solicitor's office at Bath, but if he +ever got hold of them, he should certainly burn them. What was the +use of being Christians, if such quarrels were to be remembered? + +Anne knew nothing. Aunt Peggy had died before she could remember, +and even Martyn had been discreet. Clarence said no more after that +one conversation, and seemed to me engrossed between his necessary +business at the office, and the pleasant expeditions with the +Fordyces. Only when they were on the point of returning home, did +he tell me that the will had been pronounced utterly past +deciphering, and that he thought he saw a way of setting all +straight. 'So do I,' was my rejoinder, and there must have been a +foolishly sagacious expression about me that made him colour up, and +say, 'No such thing, Edward. Don't put that into my head.' + +'Isn't it there already?' + +'It ought not to be. It would be mere treachery in these sweet, +fresh, young, innocent, days of hers, knowing too what her mother +would think of it and of me. Didn't you observe in old Frank's +unguarded way of reading letters aloud, and then trying to suppress +bits, that Mrs. Fordyce was not at all happy at our being so much +about with them, poor woman. No wonder! the child is too young,' he +added, showing how much, after all, he was thinking of it. 'It +would be taking a base advantage of them NOW.' + +'But by and by?' + +'If she should be still free when the great end is achieved and the +evil repaired, then I might dare.' + +He broke off with a look of glad hope, and I could see it was +forbearance rather than constitutional diffidence that withheld him +from awakening the maiden's feelings. He was a very fine looking +man, in his prime--tall, strong, and well made, with a singularly +grave, thoughtful expression, and a rare but most winning smile; and +Anne was overflowing with affectionate gladness at intercourse with +one who belonged to the golden age of her childhood. I could +scarcely believe but that in the friction of the parting the spark +would be elicited, and I should even have liked to kindle it for +them myself, being tolerably certain that warm-hearted, unguarded +Parson Frank would forget all about his lady and blow it with all +his might. + +We dined with the Fordyces at their hotel, and sat in the twilight +with the windows open, and we made Anne and Clarence sing, as both +could do without notes, but he would not undertake to remember +anything with an atom of sentiment in it, and when Anne did sing, +'Auld lang syne,' with all her heart, he went and got into a dark +corner, and barely said, 'Thank you.' + +Not a definite answer could be extracted from him in reply to all +the warm invitations to Beachharbour that were lavished on us by the +father, while the daughter expatiated on its charms; the rocks I +might sketch, the waves and the delicious boating, and above all the +fisher children and the church. Nothing was wanting but to have us +all there! Why had we not brought Mrs. Winslow, and Emily, and +Martyn, instead of going to Dawlish? + +Good creatures, they little knew the chill that had been cast upon +Martyn. They even bemoaned the having seen so little of him. And +we knew all the time that they were mice at play in the absence of +their excellent and cautious cat. + +'Now mind you do come!' said Anne, as we were in the act of taking +leave. 'It would be as good as Hillside to have you by my Lion +rock. He has a nose just like old Chapman's, and you must sketch it +before it crumbles off. Yes, and I want to show you all the dear +old things you made for my baby-house after the fire, your dear +little wardrobe and all.' + +She was coming out with us, oblivious that a London hotel was not +like her own free sea-side house. Her father was out at the +carriage door, prepared to help me in, Clarence halted a moment - + +'Please, pray, go back, Anne,' he said, and his voice trembled. +'This is not home you know.' + +She started back, but paused. 'You'll not forget.' + +'Oh no; no fear of my forgetting.' + +And when seated beside me, he leant back with a sigh. + +'How could you help?' I said. + +'How? Why the perfect, innocent, childish, unconsciousness of the +thing,' he said, and became silent except for one murmur on the way. + +'Consequences must be borne--' + + + +CHAPTER XLIII--THE PRICE + + + +'With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go + Athwart the foaming brine.' + +LORD BYRON. + +Clarence would not tell me his purpose, he said, till he had +considered it more fully; nor could we have much conversation on the +way home, as my mother had arranged that we should bring an old +friend of hers back with us to pay her a visit. So I had to sit +inside and make myself agreeable to Mrs. Wrightson, while Clarence +had plenty of leisure for meditation outside on the box seat. The +good lady said much on the desirableness of marriage for Clarence, +and the comfort it would be to my mother to see Emily settled. + +We had heard much in town of railway shares; and the fortunes of +Hudson, the railway king, were under discussion. I suspected +Clarence of cogitating the using his capital in this manner; and +hoped that when he saw his way, he might not think it dishonourable +to come into further contact with Anne, and reveal his hopes. He +allowed that he was considering of such investments, but would not +say any more. + +My mother and Emily had, in the meantime, been escorted home by +Martyn. The first thing Clarence did was to bespeak Emily's company +in a turn in the garden. What passed then I never knew nor guessed +for years after. He consulted her whether, in case he were absent +from England for five, seven, or ten years, she would be equal to +the care of my mother and me. Martyn, when ordained, would have +duties elsewhere, and could only be reckoned upon in emergencies. +My mother, though vigorous and practical, had shown symptoms of +gout, and if she were ill, I could hardly have done much for her; +and on the other hand, though my health and powers of moving were at +their best, and I was capable of the headwork of the estate, I was +scarcely fit to be the representative member of the family. +Moreover, these good creatures took into consideration that poor +mamma and I would have been rather at a loss as each other's sole +companions. I could sort shades for her Berlin work, and even solve +problems of intricate knitting, and I could read to her in the +evening; but I could not trot after her to her garden, poultry-yard, +and cottages; nor could she enter into the pursuits that Emily had +shared with me for so many years. Our connecting link, that dear +sister, knew how sorely she would be missed, and she told Clarence +that she felt fully competent to undertake, conjointly with us, all +that would be incumbent on Chantry House, if he really wanted to be +absent. For the rest, Clarence believed my mother would be the +happier for being left regent over the estate; and his scheme broke +upon me that very forenoon, when my mother and he were settling some +executor's business together, and he told her that Mr. Castleford +wished him to go out to Hong Kong, which was then newly ceded to the +English, and where the firm wished to establish a house of business. + +'You can't think of it,' she exclaimed, and the sound fell like a +knell on my ears. + +'I think I must,' was his answer. 'We shall be cut out if we do not +get a footing there, and there is no one who can quite answer the +purpose.' + +'Not that young Frith--' + +'Ten to one but he is on his way home. Besides, if not, he has his +own work at Canton. We see our way to very considerable advantages, +if--' + +'Advantages!' she interrupted. 'I hate speculation. I should have +thought you might be contented with your station; but that is the +worst of merchants,--they never know when to stop. I suppose your +ambition is to make this a great overgrown mansion, so that your +father would not know it again.' + +'Certainly not that, mamma,' said Clarence smiling; 'it is the last +thing I should think of; but stopping would in this case mean going +backward.' + +'Why can't Mr. Castleford send one of his own sons?' + +'Probably Walter may come out by and by, but he has not experience +enough for this.' + +Clarence had not in the least anticipated my mother's opposition, +for he had come to underestimate her affection for and reliance on +him. He had us all against him, for not only could we not bear to +part with him; but the climate of Hong-Kong was in evil repute, and +I had become persuaded that, with his knowledge of business, railway +shares and scrip might be made to realise the amount needed, but he +said, 'That is what _I_ call speculation. The other matter is trade +in which, with Heaven's blessing, I can hope to prosper.' + +He explained that Mr. Castleford had received him on his coming to +London with almost a request that he would undertake this +expedition; but with fears whether, in his new position, he could or +would do so, although his presence in China would be very important +to the firm at this juncture; and there would be opportunities which +would probably result in very considerable profits after a few +years. If Clarence had been, as before, a mere younger brother, it +would have been thought an excellent chance; and he would almost +have felt bound by his obligations to Mr. Castleford to undertake +the first starting of the enterprise, if it had not been for our +recent loss, and the doubt whether he could he spared from home. + +He made light of the dangers of climate. He had never suffered in +that way in his naval days, and scarcely knew what serious illness +meant. Indeed, he had outgrown much of that sensibility of nerve +which had made him so curiously open to spiritual or semi-spiritual +impressions. + +'Any way,' he said, 'the thing is right to be done, provided my +mother does not make an absolute point of my giving it up; and +whether she does or not depends a good deal on how you others put it +to her.' + +'Right on Mr. Castleford's account?' I asked. + +'That is one side of it. To refuse would put him in a serious +difficulty; but I could perhaps come home sooner if it were not for +this other matter. I told him so far as that it was an object with +me to raise this sum in a few years, and he showed me how there is +every likelihood of my being able to do so out there. So now I feel +in your hands. If you all, and Edward chiefly, set to and persuade +my mother that this undertaking is a dangerous business, and that I +can only be led to it by inordinate love of riches--' + +'No, no--' + +'That's what she thinks,' pursued Clarence, 'and that I want to be a +grander man than my father. That's at the bottom of her mind, I +see. Well, if you deplore this, and let her think the place can't +do without me, she will come out in her strength and make it my duty +to stay at home.' + +'It is very tempting,' said Emily. + +'We all undertook to give up something.' + +'We never thought it would come in this way!' + +'We never do,' said Clarence. + +'Tell me,' said Martyn, 'is this to content that ghost, poor thing? +For it is very hard to believe in her, except in the mullion room in +December.' + +'Exactly so, Martyn,' he answered. 'Impressions fade, and the +intellect fails to accept them. But I do not think that is my +motive. We know that a wicked deed was done by our ancestor, and we +hardly have the right to pray, "Remember not the sins of our +forefathers," unless, now that we know the crime, we attempt what +restitution in us lies.' + +There was no resisting after this appeal, and after the first shock, +my mother was ready to admit that as Clarence owed everything to Mr. +Castleford, he could not well desert the firm, if it were really +needful for its welfare that he should go out. We got her to look +on Mr. Castleford as captain of the ship, and Clarence as first +lieutenant; and when she was once convinced that he did not want to +aggrandise the family, but to do his duty, she dropped her +objections; and we soon saw that the occupations that his absence +would impose on her would be a fresh interest in life. + +Just as the decision was thus ratified, a packet from Canton arrived +for Clarence from Bristol. It was the first reply of young Frith to +the tidings of the bequest which had changed the poor clerk to a +wealthy man, owning a large proportion of the shares of the +prosperous house. + +I asked if he were coming home, and Clarence briefly replied that he +did not know,--'it depended--' + +'Is he going to wed a fair Chinese with lily feet?' asked Martyn, to +which the reply was an unusually discourteous 'Bosh,' as Clarence +escaped with his letter. He was so reticent about it that I +required a solemn assurance that poor Lawrence's head had not been +turned by his fortune, and that there was nothing wrong with him. +Indeed, there was great stupidity in never guessing the purport of +that thick letter, nor that it contained one for Emily, where +Lawrence Frith laid himself, and all that he had, at her feet, +ascribing to her all the resolution with which he had kept from +evil, and entreating permission to come home and endeavour to win +her heart. We lived so constantly together that it is surprising +that Clarence contrived to give the letter to Emily in private. She +implored him to say nothing to us, and brought him the next day her +letter of uncompromising refusal. + +He asked whether it would have been the same if he had intended to +remain at home. + +'As if you were a woman, you conceited fellow,' was all the answer +she vouchsafed him. + +Nor could he ascertain, nor perhaps would she herself examine, on +which side lay her heart of hearts. The proof had come whether she +would abide by her pledge to him to accept the care of us in his +absence. When he asked it, it had not occurred to him that it might +be a renunciation of marriage. Now he perceived that so it had +been, but she kept her counsel and so did he. We others never +guessed at what was going on between those two. + + + +CHAPTER XLIV--PAYING THE COST + + + +'But oh! the difference to me.' + +WORDSWORTH. + +So Clarence was gone, and our new life begun in its changed aspect. +Emily showed an almost feverish eagerness to make it busy and +cheerful, getting up a sewing class in the village, resuming the +study of Greek, grappling with the natural system in botany, all of +which had been fitfully proposed but hindered by interruptions and +my father's feebleness. + +On a suggestion of Mr. Stafford's, we set to work on that History of +Letter Writing which, what with collecting materials, and making +translations, lasted us three years altogether, and was a great +resource and pleasure, besides ultimately bringing in a fraction +towards the great purpose. Emily has confessed that she worked away +a good deal of vague, weary depression, and sense of monotony into +those Greek choruses: but to us she was always a sunbeam, with her +ever ready attention, and the playfulness which resumed more of +genuine mirth after the first effort and strain of spirits were +over. + +Then journal-letters on either side began to bridge the gulf of +separation,--those which, minus all the specially interesting +portions, are to be seen in the volume we culled from them, and +which had considerable success in its day. + +Martyn worked in the parish and read with Mr. Henderson till he was +old enough for Ordination, and then took the curacy of St. +Wulstan's, under a hardworking London vicar, and thenceforth his +holidays were our festivals. Our old London friends pitied us for +what they viewed as a fearfully dull life, and in the visits they +occasionally paid us thought they were doing us a great favour by +bringing us new ideas and shooting our partridges. + +We hardly deserved their compassion: our lives were full of +interest to ourselves--that interest which comes of doing ever so +feeble a stroke of work in one great cause; and there was much keen +participation in the general life of the Church in the crisis +through which she was passing. We found that, what with drawing +pictures, writing little books, preparing lessons for teachers, and +much besides which is now ready done by the National Society and +Sunday School Institute, we could do a good deal to assist Martyn in +his London work, and our own grew upon us. + +For the first year of her widowhood, my mother shrank from society, +and afterwards had only spasmodic fits of doubt whether it were not +her duty to make my sister go out more. So that now and then Emily +did go to a party, or to make a visit of some days or weeks from +home, and then we knew how valuable she was. It would be hard to +say whether my mother were relieved or disappointed when Emily +refused James Eastwood, in spite of many persuasions, not only from +himself, but his family. I believe mamma thought it selfish to be +glad, and that it was a failure in duty not to have performed that +weighty matter of marrying her daughter; feeling in some way +inferior to ladies who had disposed of a whole flock under five and +twenty, whereas she had not been able to get rid of a single one! + +Of Clarence's doings in China I need not speak; you have read of +them in the book for yourselves, and you know how his work +prospered, so that the results more than fulfilled his expectations, +and raised the firm to the pitch of greatness and reputation which +it has ever since preserved, and this without soiling his hands with +the miserable opium traffic. Some of the subordinates were so set +on the gains to be thus obtained, that he and Lawrence Frith had a +severe struggle with them to prevent it, and were forced conjointly +to use all their authority as principals to make it impossible. +Those two were the greatest of friends. Their chief relaxation was +one another's company, and their earnest aim was to support the +Christian mission, and to keep up the tone of their English +dependants, a terribly difficult matter, and one that made the time +of their return somewhat doubtful, even when Walter Castleford was +gone out to relieve them. Their health had kept up so well that we +had ceased to be anxious on that point, and it was through the +Castlefords that we received the first hint that Clarence might not +be as well as his absence of complaint had led us to believe. + +In fact he had never been well since a terrible tempest, when he had +worked hard and exposed himself to save life. I never could hear +the particulars, for Lawrence was away, and Clarence could not write +about it himself, having been prostrated by one of those chills so +perilous in hot countries; but from all I have heard, no resident in +Hong-Kong would have believed that Mr. Winslow's courage could ever +have been called in question. He ought to have come home +immediately after that attack of fever; for the five years were +over, and his work nearly done; but there was need to consolidate +his achievements, and a strong man is only too apt to trifle with +his health. We might have guessed something by the languor and +brevity of his letters, but we thought the absence of detail owing +to his expectation of soon seeing us; and had gone on for months +expecting the announcement of a speedy return, when an unexpected +shock fell on us. Our dear mother was still an active woman, with +few signs of age about her, when, in her sixty-seventh year, she was +almost suddenly taken from us by an attack of gout in the stomach. + +I feel as if I had not done her justice, and as if she might seem +stern, unsympathising, and lacking in tenderness. Yet nothing could +be further from the truth. She was an old-fashioned mother, who +held it her duty to keep up her authority, and counted over- +familiarity and indulgence as sins. To her 'the holy spirit of +discipline was the beginning of wisdom,' and to make her children +godly, truthful, and honourable was a much greater object than to +win their love. And their love she had, and kept to a far higher +degree than seems to be the case with those who court affection by +caresses and indulgence. We knew that her approval was of a +generous kind, we prized enthusiastically her rare betrayals of her +motherly tenderness, and we depended on her in a manner we only +realised in the desolation, dreariness, and helplessness that fell +upon us, when we knew that she was gone. She had not, nor had any +of us, understood that she was dying, and she had uttered only a few +words that could imply any such thought. On hearing that there was +a letter from Clarence, she said, 'Poor Clarence! I should like to +have seen him. He is a good boy after all. I've been hard on him, +but it will all be right now. God Almighty bless him!' + +That was the only formal blessing she left among us. Indeed, the +last time I saw her was with an ordinary good-night at the foot of +the stairs. Emily said she was glad that I had not to carry with me +the remembrance of those paroxysms of suffering. My dear Emily had +alone the whole force of that trial--or shall I call it privilege? +Martyn did not reach home till some hours after all was over, poor +boy. + +And in the midst of our desolateness, just as we had let the +daylight in again upon our diminished numbers round the table, came +a letter from Hong-Kong, addressed to me in Lawrence Frith's +writing, and the first thing I saw was a scrawl, as follows:- + + +'DEAREST TED--All is in your hands. You can do IT. God bless you +all. W. C. W.' + + +When I came to myself, and could see and hear, Martyn was impressing +on me that where there is life there is hope, though indeed, +according to poor Lawrence's letter, there was little of either. He +feared our hearing indirectly, and therefore wrote to prepare us. + +He had been summoned to Hong-Kong to find Clarence lying desperately +ill, for the most part semi-delirious, holding converse with +invisible forms, or entreating some one to let him alone--he had +done his best. In one of his more lucid intervals he had made +Lawrence find that note in a case that lay near him, and promise to +send it; and he had tried to send some messages, but they had become +confused, and he was too weak to speak further. + +The next mail was sure to bring the last tidings of one who had +given his life for right and justice. It was only a reprieve that +what it actually brought was the intelligence that he was still +alive, and more sensible, and had been able to take much pleasure in +seeing the friend of his youth, Captain Coles, who was there with +his ship, the Douro. Then there had been a relapse. Captain Coles +had brought his doctor to see him, and it had been pronounced that +the best chance of saving him was a sea-voyage. The Douro had just +received orders to return to England, and Coles had offered to take +home both the friends as guests, though there was evidently little +hope that our brother would reach any earthly home. As we knew +afterwards, he had smiled and said it was like rehabilitation to +have the chance of dying on board one of H.M. ships. And he was +held in such respect, and was so entirely one of the leading men of +the little growing colony, and had been known as such a friend to +the naval men, and had so gallantly aided a Queen's ship in that +hurricane, that his passage home in this manner only seemed a +natural tribute of respect. A few last words from Lawrence told us +that he was safely on board, all unconscious of the silent, almost +weeping, procession that had escorted his litter to the Douro's +boat, only too much as if it were his bier. In fact, Captain Coles +actually promised him that if he died at sea he should be buried +with the old flag. + +We could not hope to hear more for at least six weeks, since our +letter had come by overland mail, and the Douro would take her time. +It was a comfort in this waiting time that Martyn could be with us. +His rector had been promoted; there was a general change of curates; +and as Martyn had been working up to the utmost limits of his +strength, we had no scruple in inducing him to remain with us, and +undertake nothing fresh till this crisis was past. Though as to +rest, not one Sunday passed without requests for his assistance from +one or more of the neighbouring clergy. + + + +CHAPTER XLV--ACHIEVED + + + +'And hopes and fears that kindle hope, +An undistinguishable throng, +And gentle wishes long subdued - +Subdued and cherished long.' + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +The first that we did hear of our brother was a letter with a +Falmouth postmark, which we scarcely dared to open. There was not +much in it, but that was enough. 'D. G.- I shall see you all again. +We put in at Portsmouth.' + +There was no staying at home after that. We three lost no time in +starting, for railways had become available, and by the time we had +driven from the station at Portsmouth the Douro had been signalled. + +Martyn took a boat and went on board alone, for besides that Emily +did not like to leave me, her dress would have been a revelation +that ALL were no longer there to greet the arrival. The precaution +was, however, unnecessary. There stood Clarence on deck, and after +the first greeting, he laid his hand on Martyn's arm and said, 'My +mother is gone?' and on the wondering assent, 'I was quite sure of +it.' + +So they came ashore, Clarence lying in the man-of-war's boat, in +which his friend insisted on sending him, able now to give a smiling +response and salute to the three cheers with which the crew took +leave of him. He was carried up to our hotel on a stretcher by +half-a-dozen blue jackets. Indeed he was grievously changed, +looking so worn and weak, so hollow-eyed and yellow, and so +fearfully wasted, that the very memory is painful; and able to do +nothing but lie on the sofa holding Emily's hand, gazing at us with +a face full of ineffable peace and gladness. There was a misgiving +upon me that he had only come back to finish his work and bid us +farewell. + +Kindly and considerately they had sent him on before with Martyn. +In a quarter of an hour's time his good doctor came in with Lawrence +Frith, a considerable contrast to our poor Clarence, for the slim +gypsy lad had developed into a strikingly handsome man, still +slender and lithe, but with a fine bearing, and his bronzed +complexion suiting well with his dark shining hair and beautiful +eyes. They had brought some of the luggage, and the doctor insisted +that his patient should go to bed directly, and rest completely +before trying to talk. + +Then we heard that his condition, though still anxious, was far from +being hopeless, and that after the tropics had been passed, he had +been gradually improving. The kind doctor had got leave to go up to +London with us, and talk over the case with L---, and he hoped +Clarence might be able to bear the journey by the next afternoon. + +Presently after came Captain Coles, whom we had not seen since the +short visit when we had idolised the big overgrown midshipman, whom +Clarence exhibited to our respectful and distant admiration nearly +twenty years ago. My mother used to call him a gentlemanly lad, and +that was just what he was still, with a singularly soft gentle +manner, gallant officer and post-captain as he was. He cheered me +much, for he made no doubt of Clarence's ultimate recovery, and he +added that he had found the dear fellow so valued and valuable, so +useful in all good works, and so much respected by all the English +residents, 'that really,' said the captain, 'I did not know whether +to deplore that the service should have lost such a man, or whether +to think it had been a good thing for him, though not for us, that-- +that he got into such a scrape.' + +I said something of our thanks. + +'To tell you the truth,' said Coles, 'I had my doubts whether it had +not been a cruel act, for he had a terrible turn after we got him on +board, and all the sounds of a Queen's ship revived the past +associations, and always of a painful kind in his delirium, till at +last, just as I gave him up, the whole character of his fancies +seemed to change, and from that time he has been gaining every day.' + +We kept the captain to dinner, and gathered a good deal more +understanding of the important position to which Clarence had risen +by force of character and rectitude of purpose in that strange +little Anglo-Chinese colony; and afterwards, I was allowed to make a +long visit to Clarence, who, having eaten and slept, was quite ready +to talk. + +It seemed that the great distress of his illness had been the +recurrence--nay, aggravation--of the strange susceptibility of brain +and nerve that had belonged to his earlier days, and with it either +imagination or perception of the spirit-world. Much that had seemed +delirium had belonged to that double consciousness, and he perfectly +recollected it. As Coles had said, the sights and sounds of the +ship had been a renewal of the saddest time in his life; he could +not at night divest himself of the impression that he was under +arrest, and the sins of his life gathered themselves in fearful and +oppressive array, as if to stifle him, and the phantom of poor +Margaret with her lamp--which had haunted him from the beginning of +his illness--seemed to taunt him with having been too fainthearted +and tardy to be worthy to espouse her cause. The faith to which he +tried to cling WOULD seem to fail him in those awful hours, when he +could only cry out mechanical prayers for mercy. Then there had +come a night when he had heard my mother say, 'All right now; God +Almighty bless him.' And therewith the clouds cleared from his +mind. The power of FEELING, as well as believing in, the blotting +out of sin, returned, the sense of pardon and peace calmed him, and +from that time he was fully himself again, 'though,' he said, 'I +knew I should not see my mother here.' + +If she could only have seen him come home under the Union Jack, +cheered by sailors, and carried ashore by them, it would have been +to her like restoration. Perhaps Clarence in his dreamy weakness +had so felt it, for certainly no other mode of return to Portsmouth, +the very place of his degradation, could so have soothed him and +effaced those memories. The English sounds were a perfect charm to +him, as well as to Lawrence, the commonest street cry, the very +slices of bread and butter, anything that was not Chinese, was as +water to the thirsty! And wasted as was his face, the quiet rest +and joy were ineffable. + +Still Portsmouth was not the best place for him, and we were glad +that he was well enough to go up to London in the afternoon; +intensely delighting in the May beauty of the green meadows, and +white blossoming hedgerows, and the Church towers, especially the +gray massiveness of Winchester Cathedral. 'Christian tokens,' he +said, instead of the gay, gilded pagodas and quaint crumpled roofs +he had left. The soft haze seemed to be such a rest after the glare +of perpetual clearness. + +We were all born Londoners, and looked at the blue fog, and the +broad, misty river, and the brooding smoke, with the affection of +natives, to the amazement of Lawrence, who had never been in town +without being browbeaten and miserable. That he hardly was now, as +he sat beside Emily all the way up, though they did not say much to +one another. + +He told us it was quite a new sensation to walk into the office +without timidity, and to have no fears of a biting, crushing speech +about his parents or himself; but to have the clerks getting up +deferentially as soon as he was known for Mr. Frith. He had hardly +ever been allowed by his old uncle to come across Mr. Castleford, +who was of course cordial and delighted to receive him, and, without +loss of time, set forth to see Clarence. + +The consultation with the physician had taken place, and it was not +concealed from us that Clarence's health was completely shattered, +and his state still very precarious, needing the utmost care to give +him any chance of recovering the effects of the last two years, when +he had persevered, in spite of warning, in his eagerness to complete +his undertaking, and then to secure what he had effected. The +upshot of the advice given him was to spend the summer by the +seaside, and if he had by that time gathered strength, and +surmounted the symptoms of disease, to go abroad, as he was not +likely to be able as yet to bear English cold. Business and cares +were to be avoided, and if he had anything necessary to be done, it +had better be got over at once, so as to be off his mind. Martyn +and Frith gathered that the case was thought doubtful, and entirely +dependent on constitution and rallying power. Clarence himself +seemed almost passive, caring only for our presence and the +accomplishment of his task. + +We had a blessed thanksgiving for mercies received in the Margaret +Street Chapel, as we called what is now All Saints; but he and I +were unfit for crowds, and on Sunday morning availed ourselves of a +friend's seat in our old church, which felt so natural and homelike +to us elders that Martyn was scandalised at our taste. But it was +the church of our Confirmation and first Communion, and Clarence +rejoiced that it was that of his first home-coming Eucharist. What +a contrast was he now to the shrinking boy, scarcely tolerated under +his stigmatised name. Surely the Angel had led him all his life +through! + +How happy we two were in the afternoon, while the others conducted +Lawrence to some more noteworthy church. + +'Now,' said Clarence, 'let us go down to Beachharbour. It must be +done at once. I have been trying to write, and I can't do it,' and +his face lighted with a quiet smile which I understood. + +So we wrote to the principal hotel to secure rooms, and set forth on +Tuesday, leaving Frith to finish with Mr. Castleford what could not +be settled in the one business interview that had been held with +Clarence on the Monday. + + + +CHAPTER XLVI--RESTITUTION + + + +'Ah! well for us all some sweet hope lies +Deeply buried from human eyes.' + +WHITTIER. + +Things always happen in unexpected ways. During the little +hesitation and difficulty that always attend my transits at a +station, a voice was heard to say, 'Oh! Papa, isn't that Edward +Winslow?' Martyn gave a violent start, and Mr. Fordyce was +exclaiming, 'Clarence, my dear fellow, it isn't you! I beg your +pardon; you have strength enough left nearly to wring one's hand +off!' + +'I--I wanted very much to see you, sir,' said Clarence. 'Could you +be so good as to appoint a time?' + +'See you! We must always be seeing you of course. Let me think. +I've got three weddings and a funeral to-morrow, and Simpson coming +about the meeting. Come to luncheon--all of you. Mrs. Fordyce will +be delighted, and so will somebody else.' + +There was no doubt about the somebody else, for Anne's feet were as +nearly dancing round Emily as public propriety allowed, and the +radiance of her face was something to rejoice in. Say what people +will, Englishwomen in a quiet cheerful life are apt to gain rather +than lose in looks up to the borders of middle age. Our Emily at +two-and-thirty was fair and pleasant to look on; while as for Anne +Fordyce at twenty-three, words will hardly tell how lovely were her +delicate features, brown eyes, and carnation cheeks, illuminated by +that sunshine brightness of her father's, which made one feel better +all day for having been beamed upon by either of them. Clarence +certainly did, when the good man turned back to say, 'Which hotel? +Eh? That's too far off. You must come nearer. I would see you in, +but I've got a woman to see before church time, and I'm short of a +curate, so I must be sharp to the hour.' + +'Can I be of any use?' eagerly asked Martyn. 'I'll follow you as +soon as I have got these fellows to their quarters.' + +We had Amos with us, and were soon able to release Martyn, after a +few compliments on my not being as usual THE invalid; and by and by +he came back to take Emily to inspect a lodging, recommended by our +friends, close to the beach, and not a stone's throw from the +Rectory built by Mr. Fordyce. As we two useless beings sat opposite +to each other, looking over the roofs of houses at the blue expanse +and feeling the salt breeze, it was no fancy that Clarence's cheek +looked less wan, and his eyes clearer, as a smile of content played +on his lips. 'Years sit well on her,' he said gaily; and I thought +of rewards in store for him. + +Then he took this opportunity of consulting me on the chances for +Frith, telling of the original offer, and the quiet constancy of his +friend, and asking whether I thought Emily would relent. And I +answered that I suspected that she would,--'But you must get well +first.' + +'I begin to think that more possible,' he answered, and my heart +bounded as he added, 'she would be satisfied since you would always +have a home with US.' + +Oh, how much was implied in that monosyllable. He knew it, for a +little faint colour came up, as he, shyly, laughed and hesitated, +'That is--if--' + +'If' included Mrs. Fordyce's not being ungracious. Nor was she. +Emily had found her as kind as in the old days at Hillside, and +perfectly ready to bring us into close vicinity. It was not caprice +that had made this change, but all possible doubt and risk of +character were over, the old wound was in some measure healed, and +the friendship had been brought foremost by our recent sorrow and +our present anxiety. Anne was in ecstasies over Emily. 'It is so +odd,' she said, 'to have grown as old as you, whom I used to think +so very grown up,' and she had all her pet plans to display in the +future. Moreover, Martyn had been permitted to relieve the Rector +from the funeral--a privilege which seemed to gratify him as much as +if it had been the liveliest of services. + +We were to lunch at the Rectory, and the move of our goods was to be +effected while we were there. We found Mrs. Fordyce looking much +older, but far less of an invalid than in old times, and there was +something more genial and less exclusive in her ways, owing perhaps +to the difference of her life among the many classes with whom she +was called on to associate. + +Somersetshire, Beachharbour, and China occupied our tongues by +turns, and we had to begin luncheon without the Rector, who had been +hindered by numerous calls; in fact, as Anne warned us, it was a +wonder if he got the length of the esplanade without being stopped +half-a-dozen times. + +His welcome was like himself, but he needed a reminder of Clarence's +request for an interview. Then we repaired to the study, for +Clarence begged that his brothers might be present, and then the +beginning was made. 'Do you remember my showing you a will that I +found in the ruins at Chantry House?' + +'A horrid old scrap that you chose to call one. Yes; I told you to +burn it.' + +'Sir, we have proved that a great injustice was perpetrated by our +ancestor, Philip Winslow, and that the poor lady who made that will +was cruelly treated, if not murdered. This is no fancy; I have +known it for years past, but it is only now that restitution has +become possible.' + +'Restitution? What are you talking about? I never wanted the place +nor coveted it.' + +'No, sir, but the act was our forefather's. You cannot bid us sit +down under the consciousness of profiting by a crime. I could not +do so before, but I now implore you to let me restore you either +Chantry House and the three farms, or their purchase money, +according to the valuation made at my father's death. I have it in +hand.' + +Frank Fordyce walked about the room quite overcome. 'You foolish +fellow!' he said, 'Was it for this that you have been toiling and +throwing away your health in that pestiferous place? Edward, did +you know this?' + +'Yes,' I answered. 'Clarence has intended this ever since he found +the will.' + +'As if that was a will! You consented.' + +'We all thought it right.' + +He made a gesture of dismay at such folly. + +'I do not think you understand how it was, Mr. Fordyce,' said +Clarence, who by this time was quivering and trembling as in his +boyish days. + +'No, nor ever wish to do so. Such matters ought to be forgotten, +and you don't look fit to say another word.' + +'Edward will tell you,' said Clarence, leaning back. + +I had the whole written out, and was about to begin, when the +person, with whom there was an appointment, was reported, and we +knew that the rest of the day was mapped out. + +'Look here,' said Mr. Fordyce, 'leave that with me; I can't give any +answer off-hand, except that Don Quixote is come alive again, only +too like himself.' + +Which was true, for Clarence took long to rally from the effort, and +had to be kept quiet for some time in the study where we were left. +He examined me on the contents of my paper, and was vexed to hear +that I had mentioned the ghost, which he said would discredit the +whole. Never was the dear fellow so much inclined to be fretful, +and when Martyn restlessly observed that if we did not want him, he +might as well go back to the drawing-room, the reply was quite +sharp--'Oh yes, by all means.' + +No wonder there was pain in the tone; for the next words, after some +interval, were, when two happy voices came ringing in from the +garden behind, 'You see, Edward.' + +Somehow I had never thought of Martyn. He had simply seemed to me a +boy, and I had decided that Anne would be the crown of Clarence's +labours. I answered 'Nonsense; they are both children together!' + +'The nonsense was elsewhere,' he said. 'They always were devoted to +each other. I saw how it was the moment he came into the room.' + +'Don't give up,' I said; 'it is only the old habit. When she knows +all, she must prefer--' + +'Hush!' he said. 'An old scarecrow and that beautiful young +creature!' and he laughed. + +'You won't be an old scarecrow long.' + +'No,' he said in an ominous way, and cut short the discussion by +going back to Mrs. Fordyce. + +He was worn out, had a bad night, and did not get up to breakfast; I +was waiting for it in the sitting-room, when Mr. Fordyce came in +after matins with Emily and Martyn. + +'I feel just like David when they brought him the water of +Bethlehem,' he said. 'You know I think this all nonsense, +especially this--this ghost business; and yet, such--such doings as +your brother's can't go for nothing.' + +His face worked, and the tears were in his eyes; then, as he partook +of our breakfast, he cross-examined us on my statement, and even +tried to persuade us that the phantom in the ruin was Emily; and on +her observing that she could not have seen herself, he talked of the +Brocken Spectre and fog mirages; but we declared the night was +clear, and I told him that all the rational theories I had ever +heard were far more improbable than the appearance herself, at which +he laughed. Then he scrupulously demanded whether this--this (he +failed to find a name for it) would be an impoverishment of our +family, and I showed how Clarence had provided that we should be in +as easy circumstances as before. In the midst came in Clarence +himself, having hastened to dress, on hearing that Mr. Fordyce was +in the house, and looking none the better for the exertion. + +'Look here, my dear boy,' said Frank, taking his hot trembling hand, +'you have put me in a great fix. You have done the noblest deed at +a terrible cost, and whatever I may think, it ought not to be thrown +away, nor you be hindered from freeing your soul from this sense of +family guilt. But here, my forefathers had as little right to the +Chantry as yours, and ever since I began to think about such things, +I have been thankful it was none of mine. Let us join in giving it +or its value to some good work for God--pour it out to the Lord, as +we may say. Bless me! what have I done now.' + +For Clarence, muttering 'thank you,' sank out of his grasp on a +chair, and as nearly as possible fainted; but he was soon smiling +and saying it was all relief, and he felt as if a load he had been +bearing had been suddenly removed. + +Frank Fordyce durst stay no longer, but laid his hand on Clarence's +head and blessed him. + + + +CHAPTER XLVII--THE FORDYCE STORY + + + +'For soon as once the genial plain +Has drunk the life-blood of the slain, +Indelible the spots remain, +And aye for vengeance call.' + +EURIPIDES--(Anstice). + +Still all was not over, for by the next day our brother was as ill, +or worse, than ever. The doctor who came from London allowed that +he had expected something of the kind, but thought we must have let +him exert himself perilously. Poor innocent Martyn and Anne, they +little suspected that their bright eyes and happy voices had +something to do with the struggle and disappointment, which probably +was one cause of the collapse. As to poor Frank Fordyce, I never +saw him so distressed; he felt as if it were all his own fault, or +that of his ancestors, and, whenever he was not required by his +duties, was lingering about for news. I had little hope, though +Clarence seemed to me the very light of my eyes; it was to me as +though, his task being accomplished, and the earthly reward denied, +he must be on his way to the higher one. + +His complete quiescence confirmed me in the assurance that he +thought so himself. He was too ill for speech, but Lawrence, who +could not stay away, was struck with the difference from former +times. Not only were there no delusions, but there was no anxiety +or uneasiness, as there had always been in the former attacks, when +he was evidently eager to live, and still more solicitous to be told +if he were in a hopeless state. Now he had plainly resigned himself +- + + +'Content to live, but not afraid to die;' + + +and perhaps, dear fellow, it was chiefly for my sake that he was +willing to live. At least, I know that when the worst was over, he +announced it by putting those wasted fingers into mine, and saying - + +'Well, dear old fellow, I believe we shall jog on together, after +all.' + +That attack, though the most severe of all, brought, either owing to +skilful treatment or to his own calm, the removal of the mischief, +and the beginning of real recovery. Previously he had given himself +no time, but had hurried on to exertions which retarded his cure, so +as very nearly to be fatal; but he was now perfectly submissive to +whatever physicians or nurses desired, and did not seem to find his +slow convalescence in the least tedious, since he was amongst us all +again. + +It was nearly a month before he was disposed to recur to the subject +of his old solicitude again, and then he asked what Mr. Fordyce had +said or done. Just nothing at all; but on the next visit paid to +the sick-room, Parson Frank yielded to his earnest request to send +for any documents that might throw light on the subject, and after a +few days he brought us a packet of letters from his deed-box. They +were written from Hillside Rectory to the son in the army in +Flanders, chiefly by his mother, and were full of hot, angry +invective against our family, and pity for poor, foolish 'Madam,' or +'Cousin Winslow,' as she was generally termed, for having put +herself in their power. + +The one most to the purpose was an account of the examination of +Molly Cox, the waiting-woman, who had been in attendance on the +unfortunate Margaret, and whose story tallied fairly with Aunt +Peggy's tradition. She declared that she was sure that her mistress +had met with foul play. She had left her as usual at ten o'clock on +the fatal 27th of December 1707, in the inner one of the old +chambers; and in the night had heard the tipsy return home of the +gentlemen, followed by shrieks. In the morning she (the maid) who +usually was the first to go to her room, was met by Mistress Betty +Winslow, and told that Madam was ill, and insensible. The old nurse +of the Winslows was called in; and Molly was never left alone in the +sick-room, scarcely permitted to approach the bed, and never to +touch her lady. Once, when emptying out a cup at the garden-door, +she saw a mark of blood on the steps, but Mr. Philip came up and +swore at her for a prying fool. Doctor Tomkins was sent for, but he +barely walked through the room, and 'all know that he is a mere +creature of Philip Winslow,' wrote the Mrs. Fordyce of that date to +her son. And presently after, 'Justice Eastwood declared there is +no case for a Grand Jury; but he is a known Friend and sworn Comrade +of the Winslows, and bound to suppress all evidence against them. +Nay, James Dearlove swears he saw Edward Winslow slip a golden +Guinea into his Clerk's Hand. But as sure as there is a Heaven +above us, Francis, poor Cousin Winslow was trying to escape to us of +her own Kindred, and met with cruel Usage. Her Blood is on their +Heads.' + +'There!' said Frank Fordyce. 'This Francis challenged Philip +Winslow's eldest son, a mere boy, three days after he joined the +army before Lille, and shot him like a dog. I turned over the +letter about it in searching for these. I can't boast of my +ancestors more than you can. But may God accept this work of yours, +and take away the guilt of blood from both of us.' + +'And have you thought what is best to be done?' asked Clarence, +raising himself on his cushions. + +'Have you?' asked the Vicar. + +'Oh yes; I have had my dreams.' + +They put their castles together, and they turned out to be for an +orphanage, or rather asylum, not too much hampered with strict +rules, combined with a convalescent home. The battle of sisterhoods +was not yet fought out, and we were not quite prepared for them; but +Frank Fordyce had, as he said, 'the two best women in the world in +his eye' to make a beginning. + +There was full time to think and discuss the scheme, for our patient +was in no condition to move for many weeks, lying day after day on a +couch just within the window of our sitting-room, which was as +nearly as possible in the sea, so that he constantly had the +freshness of its breezes, the music of its ripple, and the sight of +its waves, and seemed to find endless pleasure in watching the red +sails, the puffs of steam, and the frolics of the children, simple +or gentle, on the beach. + +Something else was sometimes to be watched. Martyn, all this time, +was doing the work of two curates, and was to be seen walking home +with Anne from church or school, carrying her baskets and bags, and, +as we were given to understand, discussing by turns ecclesiastical +questions, visionary sisterhoods, and naughty children. At first I +wished it were possible to remove Clarence from the perpetual +spectacle, but we had one last talk over the matter, and this was +quite satisfactory. + +'It does me no harm,' he said; 'I like to see it. Yes, it is quite +true that I do. What was personal and selfish in my fancies seems +to have been worn out in the great lull of my senses under the +shadow of death; and now I can revert with real joy and thankfulness +to the old delight of looking on our dear Ellen as our sister, and +watch those two children as we used when they talked of dolls' +fenders instead of the surplice war. I have got you, Edward; and +you know there is a love "passing the love of women."' + +A lively young couple passed by the window just then, and with +untamed voices observed - + +'There are those two poor miserable objects! It is enough to make +one melancholy only to look at them.' + +Whereat we simultaneously burst out laughing; perhaps because a +choking, very far from misery, was in our throats. + +At any rate, Clarence was prepared to be the cordial, fatherly +brother, when Martyn came headlong in upon us with the tidings that +utterly indescribable, unimaginable joy had befallen him. A +revelation seemed simultaneously to have broken upon him and Anne +while they were copying out the Sunday School Registers, that what +they had felt for each other all their lives was love--'real, true +love,' as Anne said to Emily, 'that never could have cared for +anybody else.' + +Mrs. Fordyce's sharp eyes had seen what was coming, and accepted the +inevitable, quite as soon as Clarence had. She came and talked it +over with us, saying she was perfectly satisfied and happy. Martyn +was all that could be wished, and she was sincerely glad of the +connection with her old friends. So, in fact, was dear old Frank, +but he had been running about with his head full, and his eyes +closed, so that it was quite a shock to him to find that his little +Anne, his boon companion and playfellow, was actually grown up, and +presuming to love and be loved; and he could hardly believe that she +was really seven years older than her sister had been when the like +had begun with her. But if Anne must be at those tricks, he said, +shaking his head at her, he had rather it was with Martyn than +anybody else. + +There was no difficulty as to money matters. In truth, Martyn was +not so good a match as an heiress, such as was Anne Fordyce, might +have aspired to, and her Lester kin were sure to be shocked; but +even if Clarence married, the Earlscombe living went for something +(though, by the bye, he has never held it), and the Fordyces only +cared that there should be easy circumstances. The living of +Hillside would be resigned in favour of Martyn in the spring, and +meantime he would gain more experience at Beachharbour, and this +would break the separation to the Fordyces. + +After all, however, theirs was not to be our first wedding. I have +said little of Emily. The fact was, that after that week of +Clarence's danger, we said she lived in a kind of dream. She +fulfilled all that was wanted of her, nursing Clarence, waiting on +me, ordering dinner, making the tea, and so forth; but it was quite +evident that life began for her on the Saturdays, when Lawrence came +down, and ended on the Mondays, when he went away. If, in the +meantime, she sat down to work, she went off into a trance; if she +was sent out for fresh air, she walked quarter-deck on the +esplanade, neither seeing nor hearing anything, we averred, but some +imaginary Lawrence Frith. + +If she had any drawback, good girl, it was the idea of deserting me; +but then, as I could honestly tell her, nobody need fear for my +happiness, since Clarence was given back to me. And she believed, +and was ready to go to China with her Lawrence. + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII--THE LAST DISCOVERY + + + +'Grief will be joy if on its edge +Fall soft that holiest ray, +Joy will be grief, if no faint pledge +Be there of heavenly day.' + +KEBLE. + +We did not move from Beachharbour till September, and by that time +it had been decided that Chantry House itself should be given up to +the new scheme. It was too large for us, and Clarence had never +lived there enough to have any strong home feeling for it; but he +rather connected it with disquiet and distress, and had a longing to +make actual restitution thereof, instead of only giving an +equivalent, as he did in the case of the farms. Our feelings about +the desecrated chapel were also considerably changed from the days +when we regarded it merely as a picturesque ruin, and it was to be +at once restored both for the benefit of the orphanage, and for that +of the neighbouring households. For ourselves, a cottage was to be +built, suited to our idiosyncrasies; but that could wait till after +the yacht voyage, which we were to make together for the winter. + +Thus it came to pass that the last time we inhabited Chantry House +was when we gave Emily to Lawrence Frith. We would fain have made +it a double wedding, but the Fordyces wished to wait for Easter, +when Martyn would have been inducted to Hillside. They came, +however, that Mrs. Fordyce might act lady of the house, and Anne be +bridesmaid, as well as lay the first stone of St. Cecily's restored +chapel. + +It was on the day on which they were expected, when the workmen were +digging foundations, and clearing away rubbish, that the foreman +begged Mr. Winslow to come out to see something they had found. +Clarence came back, very grave and awe-struck. It was an old oak +chest, and within lay a skeleton, together with a few fragments of +female clothing, a wedding ring, and some coins of the later +Stewarts, in a rotten leathern purse. This was ghastly +confirmation, though there was nothing else to connect the bones +with poor Margaret. We had some curiosity as to the coffin in the +niche in the family vault which bore her name, but both Clarence and +Mr. Fordyce shrank from investigations which could not be carried +out without publicity, and might perhaps have disturbed other +remains. + +So on the ensuing night there was a strange, quiet funeral service +at Earlscombe Church. Mr. Henderson officiated, and Chapman acted +as clerk. These, with Amos Bell, alone knew the tradition, or +understood what the discovery meant to the two Fordyces and three +Winslows who stood at the opening of the vault, and prayed that +whatever guilt there might be should be put away from the families +so soon to be made one. The coins were placed with those of +Victoria, which the next day Anne laid beneath the foundation-stone +of St. Cecily's. I need not say that no one has ever again heard +the wailings, nor seen the lady with the lamp. + +What more is there to tell? It was of this first half of our lives +that I intended to write, and though many years have since passed, +they have not had the same character of romance and would not +interest you. Our honeymoon, as Mr. Fordyce called the expedition +we two brothers made in the Mediterranean, was a perfect success; +and Clarence regained health, and better spirits than had ever been +his; while contriving to show me all that I was capable of being +carried to see. It was complete enjoyment, and he came home, not as +strong as in old times, but with fair comfort and capability for the +work of life, so as to be able to take Mr. Castleford's place, when +our dear old friend retired from active direction of the firm. + +You all know how the two old bachelors have kept house together in +London and at Earlscombe cottage, and you are all proud of the +honoured name Clarence Winslow has made for himself, foremost in +works for the glory of God and the good of men--as one of those +merchant princes of England whose merchandise has indeed been +Holiness unto the Lord. + +Thus you must all have felt a shock on finding that he always looked +on that name as blotted, and that one of the last sayings I heard +from him was, 'O remember not the sins and offences of my youth, but +according to Thy mercy, think upon me, O Lord, for Thy goodness.' + +Then he almost smiled, and said, 'Yes, He has so looked on me, and I +am thankful.' + +Thankful, and so am I, for those thirty-four peaceful years we spent +together, or rather for the seventy years of perfect brotherhood +that we have been granted, and though he has left me behind him, I +am content to wait. It cannot be for long. My brothers and +sisters, their children, and my faithful Amos Bell, are very good to +me; and in writing up to that mezzo termine of our lives, I have +been living it over again with my brother of brothers, through the +troubles that have become like joys. + + +REMARKS. + + +Uncle Edward has not said half enough about his dear old self. I +want to know if he never was unhappy when he was young about being +LIKE THAT, though mother says his face was always nearly as +beautiful as it is now. And it is not only goodness. It IS +beautiful with his sweet smile and snowy white hair. ELLEN WINSLOW. + +And I wonder, though perhaps he could not have told, what Aunt Anne +would have done if Uncle Clarence had not been so forbearing before +he went to China. CLARE FRITH. + +The others are highly impertinent questions, but we ought to know +what became of Lady Peacock. ED. G. W. + + +REPLY. + + +Poor woman, she drifted back to London after about ten years, with +an incurable disease. Clarence put her into lodgings near us, and +did his best for her as long as she lived. He had a hard task, but +she ended by saying he was her only friend. + +To question No. 2 I have nothing to say; but as to No. 1, with its +extravagant compliment, Nature, or rather God, blessed me with even +spirits, a methodical nature that prefers monotony, and very little +morbid shyness; nor have I ever been devoid of tender care and love. +So that I can only remember three severe fits of depression. One, +when I had just begun to be taken out in the Square Gardens, and +Selina Clarkson was heard to say I was a hideous little monster. It +was a revelation, and must have given frightful pain, for I remember +it acutely after sixty-five years. + +The second fit was just after Clarence was gone to sea, and some +very painful experiments had been tried in vain for making me like +other people. For the first time I faced the fact that I was set +aside from all possible careers, and should be, as I remember +saying, 'no better than a girl.' I must have been a great trial to +all my friends. My father tried to reason on resignation, and tell +me happiness could be IN myself, till he broke down. My mother +attempted bracing by reproof. Miss Newton endeavoured to make me +see that this was my cross. Every word was true, and came round +again, but they only made me for the time more rebellious and +wretched. That attack was ended, of all things in the world, by +heraldry. My attention somehow was drawn that way, and the study +filled up time and thought till my misfortunes passed into custom, +and haunted me no more. + +My last was a more serious access, after coming into the country, +when improved health and vigour inspired cravings that made me fully +sensible of my blighted existence. I had gone the length of my +tether and overdone myself; I missed London life and Clarence; and +the more I blamed myself, and tried to rouse myself, the more +despondent and discontented I grew. + +This time my physician was Mr. Stafford; I had deciphered a bit of +old French and Latin for him, and he was very much pleased. 'Why, +Edward,' he said, 'you are a very clever fellow; you can be a +distinguished--or what is better--a useful man.' + +Somehow that saying restored the spring of hope, and gave an +impulse! I have not been a distinguished man, but I think in my +degree I have been a fairly useful one, and I am sure I have been a +happy one. E. W. + + +'Useful! that you have, dear old fellow. Even if you had done +nothing else, and never been an unconscious backbone to Clarence; +your influence on me and mine has been unspeakably blest. But pray, +Mistress Anne, how about that question of naughty little Clare's?' +M. W. + +'Don't you think you had better let alone that question, reverend +sir? Youngest pets are apt to be saucy, especially in these days, +but I didn't expect it of you! It might have been the worse for you +if W. C. W. had not held his tongue in those days. Just like +himself, but I am heartily glad that so he did. A. W.' + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg eBook Chantry House *** Corrected and +fully spell-checked to here *** + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHANTRY HOUSE *** + +This file should be named chhs10.txt or chhs10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, chhs11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, chhs10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 + +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + + PROJECT GUTENBERG LITERARY ARCHIVE FOUNDATION + 809 North 1500 West + Salt Lake City, UT 84116 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/chhs10.zip b/old/chhs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..082048d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/chhs10.zip diff --git a/old/chhs10h.htm b/old/chhs10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64dc143 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/chhs10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9758 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Chantry House</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Chantry House + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7378] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h1>CHANTRY HOUSE</h1> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER I - A NURSERY PROSE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘And if it be the heart of man<br /> Which +our existence measures,<br />Far longer is our childhood’s span<br /> Than +that of manly pleasures.</p> +<p>‘For long each month and year is then,<br /> Their +thoughts and days extending,<br />But months and years pass swift with +men<br /> To time’s last goal descending.’</p> +<p>ISAAC WILLIAMS.</p> +<p>The united force of the younger generation has been brought upon +me to record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances +connected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers. Once +this could not have been done without more pain than I could brook, +but the lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when +the heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of what +once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and thankfulness. +Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned in the coming narrative +should be wholly forgotten, and their place know them no more.</p> +<p>To explain all, I must go back to a time long before the morning +when my father astonished us all by exclaiming, ‘Poor old James +Winslow! So Chantry House is came to us after all!’ +Previous to that event I do not think we were aware of the existence +of that place, far less of its being a possible inheritance, for my +parents would never have permitted themselves or their family to be +unsettled by the notion of doubtful contingencies.</p> +<p>My father, John Edward Winslow, was a barrister, and held an appointment +in the Admiralty Office, which employed him for many hours of the day +at Somerset House. My mother, whose maiden name was Mary Griffith, +belonged to a naval family. Her father had been lost in a West +Indian hurricane at sea, and her uncle, Admiral Sir John Griffith, was +the hero of the family, having been at Trafalgar and distinguished himself +in cutting out expeditions. My eldest brother bore his name. +The second was named after the Duke of Clarence, with whom my mother +had once danced at a ball on board ship at Portsmouth, and who had been +rather fond of my uncle. Indeed, I believe my father’s appointment +had been obtained through his interest, just about the time of Clarence’s +birth.</p> +<p>We three boys had come so fast upon each other’s heels in the +Novembers of 1809, 10, and 11, that any two of us used to look like +twins. There is still extant a feeble water-coloured drawing of +the trio, in nankeen frocks, and long white trowsers, with bare necks +and arms, the latter twined together, and with the free hands, Griffith +holding a bat, Clarence a trap, and I a ball. I remember the emulation +we felt at Griffith’s privilege of eldest in holding the bat.</p> +<p>The sitting for that picture is the only thing I clearly remember +during those earlier days. I have no recollection of the disaster, +which, at four years old, altered my life. The catastrophe, as +others have described it, was that we three boys were riding cock-horse +on the balusters of the second floor of our house in Montagu Place, +Russell Square, when we indulged in a general <i>mêlée</i>, +which resulted in all tumbling over into the vestibule below. +The others, to whom I served as cushion, were not damaged beyond the +power of yelling, and were quite restored in half-an-hour, but I was +undermost, and the consequence has been a curved spine, dwarfed stature, +an elevated shoulder, and a shortened, nearly useless leg.</p> +<p>What I do remember, is my mother reading to me Miss Edgeworth’s +<i>Frank and the little do Trusty</i>, as I lay in my crib in her bedroom. +I made one of my nieces hunt up the book for me the other day, and the +story brought back at once the little crib, or the watered blue moreen +canopy of the big four-poster to which I was sometimes lifted for a +change; even the scrawly pattern of the paper, which my weary eyes made +into purple elves perpetually pursuing crimson ones, the foremost of +whom always turned upside down; and the knobs in the Marseilles counterpane +with which my fingers used to toy. I have heard my mother tell +that whenever I was most languid and suffering I used to whine out, +‘O do read <i>Frank and the little dog Trusty</i>,’ and +never permitted a single word to be varied, in the curious childish +love of reiteration with its soothing power.</p> +<p>I am afraid that any true picture of our parents, especially of my +mother, will not do them justice in the eyes of the young people of +the present day, who are accustomed to a far more indulgent government, +and yet seem to me to know little of the loyal veneration and submission +with which we have, through life, regarded our father and mother. +It would have been reckoned disrespectful to address them by these names; +they were through life to us, in private, papa and mamma, and we never +presumed to take a liberty with them. I doubt whether the petting, +patronising equality of terms on which children now live with their +parents be equally wholesome. There was then, however, strong +love and self-sacrificing devotion; but not manifested in softness or +cultivation of sympathy. Nothing was more dreaded than spoiling, +which was viewed as idle and unjustifiable self-gratification at the +expense of the objects thereof. There were an unlucky little pair +in Russell Square who were said to be ‘spoilt children,’ +and who used to be mentioned in our nursery with bated breath as a kind +of monsters or criminals. I believe our mother laboured under +a perpetual fear of spoiling Griff as the eldest, Clarence as the beauty, +me as the invalid, Emily (two years younger) as the only girl, and Martyn +as the after-thought, six years below our sister. She was always +performing little acts of conscientiousness, little as we guessed it.</p> +<p>Thus though her unremitting care saved my life, and was such that +she finally brought on herself a severe and dangerous illness, she kept +me in order all the time, never wailed over me nor weakly pitied me, +never permitted resistance to medicine nor rebellion against treatment, +enforced little courtesies, insisted on every required exertion, and +hardly ever relaxed the rule of Spartan fortitude in herself as in me. +It is to this resolution on her part, carried out consistently at whatever +present cost to us both, that I owe such powers of locomotion as I possess, +and the habits of exertion that have been even more valuable to me.</p> +<p>When at last, after many weeks, nay months, of this watchfulness, +she broke down, so that her life was for a time in danger, the lack +of her bracing and tender care made my life very trying, after I found +myself transported to the nursery, scarcely understanding why, accused +of having by my naughtiness made ray poor mamma so ill, and discovering +for the first time that I was a miserable, naughty little fretful being, +and with nobody but Clarence and the housemaid to take pity on me.</p> +<p>Nurse Gooch was a masterful, trustworthy woman, and was laid under +injunctions not to indulge Master Edward. She certainly did not +err in that respect, though she attended faithfully to my material welfare; +but woe to me if I gave way to a little moaning; and what I felt still +harder, she never said ‘good boy’ if I contrived to abstain.</p> +<p>I hear of carpets, curtains, and pictures in the existing nurseries. +They must be palaces compared with our great bare attic, where nothing +was allowed that could gather dust. One bit of drugget by the +fireside, where stood a round table at which the maids talked and darned +stockings, was all that hid the bare boards; the walls were as plain +as those of a workhouse, and when the London sun did shine, it glared +into my eyes through the great unshaded windows. There was a deal +table for the meals (and very plain meals they were), and two or three +big presses painted white for our clothes, and one cupboard for our +toys. I must say that Gooch was strictly just, and never permitted +little Emily, nor Griff - though he was very decidedly the favourite, +- to bear off my beloved woolly dog to be stabled in the houses of wooden +bricks which the two were continually constructing for their menagerie +of maimed animals.</p> +<p>Griff was deservedly the favourite with every one who was not, like +our parents, conscientiously bent on impartiality. He was so bright +and winning, he had such curly tight-rolled hair with a tinge of auburn, +such merry bold blue eyes, such glowing dimpled cheeks, such a joyous +smile all over his face, and such a ringing laugh; he was so strong, +brave, and sturdy, that he was a boy to be proud of, and a perfect king +in his own way, making every one do as he pleased. All the maids, +and Peter the footman, were his slaves, every one except nurse and mamma, +and it was only by a strong effort of principle that they resisted him; +while he dragged Clarence about as his devoted though not always happy +follower.</p> +<p>Alas! for Clarence! Courage was not in him. The fearless +infant boy chiefly dwells in conventional fiction, and valour seldom +comes before strength. Moreover, I have come to the opinion that +though no one thought of it at the time, his nerves must have had a +terrible and lasting shock at the accident and at the sight of my crushed +and deathly condition, which occupied every one too much for them to +think of soothing or shielding him. At any rate, fear was the +misery of his life. Darkness was his horror. He would scream +till he brought in some one, though he knew it would be only to scold +or slap him. The housemaid’s closet on the stairs was to +him an abode of wolves. Mrs. Gatty’s tale of <i>The Tiger +in the Coal-box</i> is a transcript of his feelings, except that no +one took the trouble to reassure him; something undefined and horrible +was thought to wag in the case of the eight-day clock; and he could +not bear to open the play cupboard lest ‘something’ should +jump out on him. The first time he was taken to the Zoological +Gardens, the monkeys so terrified him that a bystander insisted on Gooch’s +carrying him away lest he should go into fits, though Griffith was shouting +with ecstasy, and could hardly forgive the curtailment of his enjoyment.</p> +<p>Clarence used to aver that he really did see ‘things’ +in the dark, but as he only shuddered and sobbed instead of describing +them, he was punished for ‘telling fibs,’ though the housemaid +used to speak under her breath of his being a ‘Sunday child.’ +And after long penance, tied to his stool in the corner, he would creep +up to me and whisper, ‘But, Eddy, I really did!’</p> +<p>However, it was only too well established in the nursery that Clarence’s +veracity was on a par with his courage. When taxed with any misdemeanour, +he used to look round scared and bewildered, and utter a flat demur. +One scene in particular comes before me. There were strict laws +against going into shops or buying dainties without express permission +from mamma or nurse; but one day when Clarence had by some chance been +sent out alone with the good natured housemaid, his fingers were found +sticky.</p> +<p>‘Now, Master Clarence, you’ve been a naughty boy, eating +of sweets,’ exclaimed stern Justice in a mob cap and frills.</p> +<p>‘No - no - ’ faltered the victim; but, alas! Mrs. +Gooch had only to thrust her hand into the little pocket of his monkey +suit to convict him on the spot.</p> +<p>The maid was dismissed with a month’s wages, and poor Clarence +underwent a strange punishment from my mother, who was getting about +again by that time, namely, a drop of hot sealing-wax on his tongue, +to teach him practically the doom of the false tongue. It might +have done him good if there had been sufficient encouragement to him +to make him try to win a new character, but it only added a fresh terror +to his mind; and nurse grew fond of manifesting her incredulity of his +assertions by always referring to Griff or to me, or even to little +Emily. What was worse, she used to point him out to her congeners +in the Square or the Park as ‘such a false child.’</p> +<p>He was a very pretty little fellow, with a delicately rosy face, +wistful blue eyes, and soft, light, wavy hair, and perhaps Gooch was +jealous of his attracting more notice than Griffith, and thought he +posed for admiration, for she used to tell people that no one could +guess what a child he was for slyness; so that he could not bear going +out with her, and sometimes bemoaned himself to me.</p> +<p>There must be a good deal of sneaking in the undeveloped nature, +for in those days I was ashamed of my preference for Clarence, the naughty +one. But there was no helping it, he was so much more gentle than +Griff, and would always give up any sport that incommoded me, instead +of calling me a stupid little ape, and becoming more boisterous after +the fashion of Griff. Moreover, he fetched and carried for me +unweariedly, and would play at spillekins, help to put up puzzles, and +enact little dramas with our wooden animals, such as Griff scorned as +only fit for babies. Even nurse allowed Clarence’s merits +towards me and little Emily, but always with the sigh: ‘If he +was but as good in other respects, but them quiet ones is always sly.’</p> +<p>Good Nurse Gooch! We all owe much to her staunch fidelity, +strong discipline, and unselfish devotion, but nature had not fitted +her to deal with a timid, sensitive child, of highly nervous temperament. +Indeed, persons of far more insight might have been perplexed by the +fact that Clarence was exemplary at church and prayers, family and private, +- whenever Griff would let him, that is to say, - and would add private +petitions of his own, sometimes of a startling nature. He never +scandalised the nursery, like Griff, by unseemly pranks on Sundays, +nor by innovations in the habits of Noah’s ark, but was as much +shocked as nurse when the lion was made to devour the elephant, or the +lion and wolf fought in an embrace fatal to their legs. Bible +stories and Watt’s hymns were more to Clarence than even to me, +and he used to ask questions for which Gooch’s theology was quite +insufficient, and which brought the invariable answers, ‘Now, +Master Clarry, I never did! Little boys should not ask such questions!’ +‘What’s the use of your pretending, sir! It’s +all falseness, that’s what it is! I hates hypercriting!’ +‘Don’t worrit, Master Clarence; you are a very naughty boy +to say such things. I shall put you in the corner!’</p> +<p>Even nurse was scared one night when Clarence had a frightful screaming +fit, declaring that he saw ‘her - her - all white,’ and +even while being slapped reiterated, ‘<i>her</i>, Lucy!’</p> +<p>Lucy was a kind elder girl in the Square gardens, a protector of +little timid ones. She was known to be at that time very ill with +measles, and in fact died that very night. Both my brothers sickened +the next day, and Emily and I soon followed their example, but no one +had it badly except Clarence, who had high fever, and very much delirium +each night, talking to people whom he thought he saw, so as to make +nurse regret her severity on the vision of Lucy.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER II - SCHOOLROOM DAYS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘In the loom of life-cloth pleasure,<br /> Ere +our childish days be told,<br />With the warp and woof enwoven,<br /> Glitters +like a thread of gold.’</p> +<p>JEAN INGELOW.</p> +<p>Looking back, I think my mother was the leading spirit in our household, +though she never for a moment suspected it. Indeed, the chess +queen must be the most active on the home board, and one of the objects +of her life was to give her husband a restful evening when he came home +to the six o’clock dinner. She also had to make both ends +meet on an income which would seem starvation at the present day; but +she was strong, spirited, and managing, and equal to all her tasks till +the long attendance upon me, and the consequent illness, forced her +to spare herself - a little - a very little.</p> +<p>Previously she had been our only teacher, except that my father read +a chapter of the Bible with us every morning before breakfast, and heard +the Catechism on a Sunday. For we could all read long before young +gentlefolks nowadays can say their letters. It was well for me, +since books with a small quantity of type, and a good deal of frightful +illustration, beguiled many of my weary moments. You may see my +special favourites, bound up, on the shelf in my bedroom. Crabbe’s +<i>Tales</i>, <i>Frank</i>, <i>the Parent’s Assistant</i>, and +later, Croker’s <i>Tales from English History</i>, Lamb’s +<i>Tales from Shakespeare</i>, <i>Tales of a Grandfather</i>, and the +<i>Rival Crusoes</i> stand pre-eminent - also <i>Mrs. Leicester’s +School</i>, with the ghost story cut out.</p> +<p>Fairies and ghosts were prohibited as unwholesome, and not unwisely. +The one would have been enervating to me, and the other would have been +a definite addition to Clarence’s stock of horrors. Indeed, +one story had been cut out of Crabbe’s <i>Tales</i>, and another +out of an Annual presented to Emily, but not before Griff had read the +latter, and the version he related to us probably lost nothing in the +telling; indeed, to this day I recollect the man, wont to slay the harmless +cricket on the hearth, and in a storm at sea pursued by a gigantic cockroach +and thrown overboard. The night after hearing this choice legend +Clarence was found crouching beside me in bed for fear of the cockroach. +I am afraid the vengeance was more than proportioned to the offence!</p> +<p>Even during my illness that brave mother struggled to teach my brothers’ +daily lessons, and my father heard them a short bit of Latin grammar +at his breakfast (five was thought in those days to be the fit age to +begin it, and fathers the fit teachers thereof). And he continued +to give this morning lesson when, on our return from airing at Ramsgate +after our recovery from the measles, my mother found she must submit +to transfer us to a daily governess.</p> +<p>Old Miss Newton’s attainments could not have been great, for +her answers to my inquiries were decidedly funny, and prefaced <i>sotto +voce</i> with, ‘What a child it is!’ But she was a +good kindly lady, who had the faculty of teaching, and of forestalling +rebellion; and her little thin corkscrew curls, touched with gray, her +pale eyes, prim black silk apron, and sandalled shoes, rise before me +full of happy associations of tender kindness and patience. She +was wise, too, in her own simple way. When nurse would have forewarned +her of Clarence’s failings in his own hearing, she cut the words +short by declaring that she should like never to find out which was +the naughty one. And when habit was too strong, and he had denied +the ink spot on the atlas, she persuasively wiled out a confession not +only to her but to mamma, who hailed the avowal as the beginning of +better things, and kissed instead of punishing.</p> +<p>Clarence’s queries had been snubbed into reserve, and I doubt +whether Miss Newton’s theoretic theology was very much more developed +than that of Mrs. Gooch, but her practice and devotion were admirable, +and she fostered religious sentiment among us, introducing little books +which were welcome in the restricted range of Sunday reading. +Indeed, Mrs. Sherwood’s have some literary merit, and her <i>Fairchild +Family</i> indulged in such delicious and eccentric acts of naughtiness +as quite atoned for all the religious teaching, and fascinated Griff, +though he was apt to be very impatient of certain little affectionate +lectures to which Clarence listened meekly. My father and mother +were both of the old-fashioned orthodox school, with minds formed on +Jeremy Taylor, Blair, South, and Secker, who thought it their duty to +go diligently to church twice on Sunday, communicate four times a year +(their only opportunities), after grave and serious preparation, read +a sermon to their household on Sunday evenings, and watch over their +children’s religious instruction, though in a reserved undemonstrative +manner. My father always read one daily chapter with us every +morning, one Psalm at family prayers, and my mother made us repeat a +few verses of Scripture before our other studies began; besides which +there was special teaching on Sunday, and an abstinence from amusements, +such as would now be called Sabbatarian, but a walk in the Park with +papa was so much esteemed that it made the day a happy and honoured +one to those who could walk.</p> +<p>There was little going into society, comparatively, for people in +our station, - solemn dinner-parties from time to time - two a year, +did we give, and then the house was turned upside down, - and now and +then my father dined out, or brought a friend home to dinner; and there +were so-called morning calls in the afternoon, but no tea-drinking. +For the most part the heads of the family dined alone at six, and afterwards +my father read aloud some book of biography or travels, while we children +were expected to employ ourselves quietly, threading beads, drawing, +or putting up puzzles, and listen or not as we chose, only not interrupt, +as we sat at the big, central, round, mahogany table. To this +hour I remember portions of Belzoni’s Researches and Franklin’s +terrible American adventures, and they bring back tones of my father’s +voice. As an authority ‘papa’ was seldom invoked, +except on very serious occasions, such as Griffith’s audacity, +Clarence’s falsehood, or my obstinacy; and then the affair was +formidable, he was judicial and awful, and, though he would graciously +forgive on signs of repentance, he never was sympathetic. He had +not married young, and there were forty years or more between him and +his sons, so that he had left too far behind him the feelings of boyhood +to make himself one with us, even if he had thought it right or dignified +to do so, - yet I cannot describe the depth of the respect and loyalty +he inspired in us nor the delight we felt in a word of commendation +or a special attention from him.</p> +<p>The early part of Miss Newton’s rule was unusually fertile +in such pleasures, and much might have been spared, could Clarence have +been longer under her influence; but Griff grew beyond her management, +and was taunted by ‘fellows in the Square’ into assertions +of manliness, such as kicking his heels, stealing her odd little fringed +parasol, pitching his books into the area, keeping her in misery with +his antics during their walks, and finally leading Clarence off after +Punch into the Rookery of St. Giles’s, where she could not follow, +because Emily was in her charge.</p> +<p>This was the crisis. She had to come home without the boys, +and though they arrived long before any of the authorities knew of their +absence, she owned with tears that she could not conscientiously be +responsible any longer for Griffith, - who not only openly defied her +authority, but had found out how little she knew, and laughed at her. +I have reason to believe also that my mother had discovered that she +frequented the preachings of Rowland Hill and Baptist Noel; and had +confiscated some unorthodox tracts presented to the servants, thus being +alarmed lest she should implant the seeds of dissent.</p> +<p>Parting with her after four years under her was a real grief. +Even Griff was fond of her; when once emancipated, he used to hug her +and bring her remarkable presents, and she heartily loved her tormentor. +Everybody did. It remained a great pleasure to get her to spend +an evening with us while the elders were gone out to dinner; nor do +I think she ever did us anything but good, though I am afraid we laughed +at ‘Old Newton’ as we grew older and more conceited. +We never had another governess. My mother read and enforced diligence +on Emily and me, and we had masters for different studies; the two boys +went to school; and when Martyn began to emerge from babyhood, Emily +was his teacher.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER III - WIN AND SLOW</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘The rude will shuffle through with ease enough:<br />Great +schools best suit the sturdy and the rough.’</p> +<p>COWPER.</p> +<p>At school Griffith was very happy, and brilliantly successful, alike +in study and sport, though sports were not made prominent in those days, +and triumphs in them were regarded by the elders with doubtful pride, +lest they should denote a lack of attention to matters of greater importance. +All his achievements were, however, poured forth by himself and Clarence +to Emily and me, and we felt as proud of them as if they had been our +own.</p> +<p>Clarence was industrious, and did not fail in his school work, but +when he came home for the holidays there was a cowed look about him, +and private revelations were made over my sofa that made my flesh creep. +The scars were still visible, caused by having been compelled to grasp +the bars of the grate bare-handed; and, what was worse, he had been +suspended outside a third story window by the wrists, held by a schoolfellow +of thirteen!</p> +<p>‘But what was Griff about?’ I demanded, with hot tears +of indignation.</p> +<p>‘Oh, Win! - that’s what they call him, and me Slow - +he said it would do me good. But I don’t think it did, Eddy. +It only makes my heart beat fit to choke me whenever I go near the passage +window.’</p> +<p>I could only utter a vain wish that I had been there and able to +fight for him, and I attacked Griff on the subject on the first opportunity.</p> +<p>‘Oh!’ was his answer, ‘it is only what all fellows +have to bear if there’s no pluck in them. They tried it +on upon me, you know, but I soon showed them it would not do’ +- with the cock of the nose, the flash of the eyes, the clench of the +fist, that were peculiarly Griff’s own; and when I pleaded that +he might have protected Clarence, he laughed scornfully. ‘As +to Slow, wretched being, a fellow can’t help bullying him. +It comes as natural as to a cat with a mouse.’ On further +and reiterated pleadings, Griff declared, first, that it was the only +thing to do Slow any good, or make a man of him; and next, that he heartily +wished that Winslow junior had been Miss Clara at once, as the fellows +called him - it was really hard on him (Griff) to have such a sneaking +little coward tied to him for a junior!</p> +<p>I particularly resented the term Slow, for Clarence had lately been +the foremost of us in his studies; but the idea that learning had anything +to do with the matter was derided, and as time went on, there was vexation +and displeasure at his progress not being commensurate with his abilities. +It would have been treason to schoolboy honour to let the elders know +that though a strong, high-spirited popular boy like ‘Win’ +might venture to excel big bullying dunces, such fair game as poor ‘Slow’ +could be terrified into not only keeping below them, but into doing +their work for them. To him Cowper’s ‘Tirocinium’ +had only too much sad truth.</p> +<p>As to his old failing, there were no special complaints, but in those +pre-Arnoldian times no lofty code of honour was even ideal among schoolboys, +or expected of them by masters; shuffling was thought natural, and allowances +made for faults in indolent despair.</p> +<p>My mother thought the Navy the proper element of boyhood, and her +uncle the Admiral promised a nomination, - a simple affair in those +happy days, involving neither examination nor competition. Griffith +was, however, one of those independent boys who take an aversion to +whatever is forced on them as their fate. He was ready and successful +with his studies, a hero among his comrades, and preferred continuing +at school to what he pronounced, on the authority of the nautical tales +freely thrown in our way, to be the life of a dog, only fit for the +fool of the family; besides, he had once been out in a boat, tasted +of sea-sickness, and been laughed at. My father was gratified, +thinking his brains too good for a midshipman, and pleased that he should +wish to tread in his own steps at Harrow and Oxford, and thus my mother +could not openly regret his degeneracy when all the rest of us were +crazy over <i>Tom Cringle’s Log</i>, and ready to envy Clarence +when the offer was passed on to him, and he appeared in the full glory +of his naval uniform. Not much choice had been offered to him. +My mother would have thought it shameful and ungrateful to have no son +available, my father was glad to have the boy’s profession fixed, +and he himself was rejoiced to escape from the miseries he knew only +too well, and ready to believe that uniform and dirk would make a man +of him at once, with all his terrors left behind. Perhaps the +chief drawback was that the ladies <i>would</i> say, ‘What a darling!’ +affording Griff endless opportunities for the good-humoured mockery +by which he concealed his own secret regrets. Did not even Selina +Clarkson, whose red cheeks, dark blue eyes, and jetty profusion of shining +curls, were our notion of perfect beauty, select the little naval cadet +for her partner at the dancing master’s ball?</p> +<p>In the first voyage, a cruise in the Pacific, all went well. +The good Admiral had carefully chosen ship and captain; there were an +excellent set of officers, a good tone among the midshipmen, and Clarence, +who was only twelve years old, was constituted the pet of the cockpit. +One lad in especial, Coles by name, attracted by Clarence’s pleasant +gentleness, and impelled by the generosity that shields the weak, became +his guardian friend, and protected him from all the roughnesses in his +power. If there were a fault in that excellent Coles, it was that +he made too much of a baby of his <i>protégé</i>, and +did not train him to shift for himself: but wisdom and moderation are +not characteristics of early youth. At home we had great enjoyment +of his long descriptive letters, which came under cover to our father +at the Admiralty, but were chiefly intended for my benefit. All +were proud of them, and great was my elation when I heard papa relate +some fact out of them with the preface, ‘My boy tells me, my boy +Clarence, in the <i>Calypso</i>; he writes a capital letter.’</p> +<p>How great was our ecstasy when after three years and a half we had +him at home again; handsome, vigorous, well-grown, excellently reported +of, fully justifying my mother’s assurances that the sea would +make a man of him. There was Griffith in the fifth form and a +splendid cricketer, but Clarence could stand up to him now, and Harrovian +exploits were tame beside stories of sharks and negroes, monkeys and +alligators. There was one in particular, about a whole boat’s +crew sitting down on what they thought was a fallen tree, but which +suddenly swept them all over on their faces, and turned out to be a +boa-constrictor, and would have embraced one of them if he had not had +the sail of the boat coiled round the mast, and palmed off upon him, +when he gorged it contentedly, and being found dead on the next landing, +his skin was used to cover the captain’s sea-chest. Clarence +declined to repeat this tale and many others before the elders, and +was displeased with Emily for referring to it in public. As to +his terrors, he took it for granted that an officer of H.M.S. <i>Calypso</i>, +had left them behind, and in fact, he naturally forgot and passed over +what he had not been shielded from, while his hereditary love of the +sea really made those incidental to his profession much more endurable +than the bullying he had undergone at school.</p> +<p>We were very happy that Christmas, and very proud of our boys. +One evening we were treated to a box at the pantomime, and even I was +able to go to it. We put our young sailor and our sister in the +forefront, and believed that every one was as much struck with them +as with the wonderful transformations of Goody-Two-Shoes under the wand +of Harlequin. Brother-like, we might tease our one girl, and call +her an affected little pussy cat, but our private opinion was that she +excelled all other damsels with her bright blue eyes and pretty curling +hair, which had the same chestnut shine as Griff’s - enough to +make us correct possible vanity by terming it red, though we were ready +to fight any one else who presumed to do so. Indeed Griff had +defended its hue in single combat, and his eye was treated for it with +beefsteak by Peter in the pantry. We were immensely, though silently, +proud of her in her white embroidered cambric frock, red sash and shoes, +and coral necklace, almost an heirloom, for it had been brought from +Sicily in Nelson’s days by my mother’s poor young father. +How parents and doctors in these days would have shuddered at her neck +and arms, bare, not only in the evening, but by day! When she +was a little younger she could so shrink up from her clothes that Griff, +or little Martyn, in a mischievous mood, would put things down her back, +to reappear below her petticoats. Once it was a dead wasp, which +descended harmlessly the length of her spine! She was a good-humoured, +affectionate, dear sister, my valued companion, submitting patiently +to be eclipsed when Clarence was present, and everything to me in his +absence. Sturdy little Martyn too, was held by us to be the most +promising of small boys. He was a likeness of Clarence, only stouter, +hardier, and without the delicate, girlish, wistful look; imitating +Griff in everything, and rather a heavy handful to Emily and me when +left to our care, though we were all the more proud of his high spirit, +and were fast becoming a mutual admiration society.</p> +<p>What then were our feelings when Griff, always fearless, dashed to +the rescue of a boy under whom the ice had broken in St. James’ +Park, and held him up till assistance came? Martyn, who was with +him, was sent home to fetch dry clothes and reassure my mother, which +he did by dashing upstairs, shouting, ‘Where’s mamma? +Here’s Griff been into the water and pulled out a boy, and they +don’t know if he is drowned; but he looks - oh!’</p> +<p>Even after my mother had elicited that Martyn’s <i>he</i> meant +the boy, and not Griff, she could not rest without herself going to +see that our eldest was unhurt, greet him, and bring him home. +What happy tears stood in her eyes, how my father shook hands with him, +how we drank his health after dinner, and how ungrateful I was to think +Clarence deserved his name of Slow for having stayed at home to play +chess with me because my back was aching, when he might have been winning +the like honours! How red and gruff and shy the hero looked, and +how he entreated no one to say any more about it!</p> +<p>He would not even look publicly at the paragraph about it in the +paper, only vituperating it for having made him into ‘a juvenile +Etonian,’ and hoping no one from Harrow would guess whom it meant.</p> +<p>I found that paragraph the other day in my mother’s desk, folded +over the case of the medal of the Royal Humane Society, which Griff +affected to despise, but which, when he was well out of the way, used +to be exhibited on high days and holidays. It seems now like the +boundary mark of the golden days of our boyhood, and unmitigated hopes +for one another.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER IV - UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Clarence is come - false, fleeting, perjured Clarence.’</p> +<p><i>King Richard III.</i></p> +<p>There was much stagnation in the Navy in those days in the reaction +after the great war; and though our family had fair interest at the +Admiralty, it was seven months before my brother went to sea again. +To me they were very happy months, with my helper of helpers, companion +of companions, who made possible to me many a little enterprise that +could not be attempted without him. My father made him share my +studies, and thus they became doubly pleasant. And oh, ye boys! +who murmur at the Waverley Novels as a dry holiday task, ye may envy +us the zest and enthusiasm with which we devoured them in their freshness. +Strangely enough, the last that we read together was the <i>Fair Maid +of Perth.</i></p> +<p>Clarence and his friend Coles longed to sail together again, but +Coles was shelved; and when Clarence’s appointment came at last, +it was to the brig <i>Clotho</i>, Commander Brydone, going out in the +Mediterranean Fleet, under Sir Edward Codrington. My mother did +not like brigs, and my father did not like what he heard of the captain; +but there had been jealous murmurs about appointments being absorbed +by sons of officials - he durst not pick and choose; and the Admiral +pronounced that if the lad had been spoilt on board the <i>Calypso</i>, +it was time for him to rough it - a dictum whence there was no appeal.</p> +<p>Half a year later the tidings of the victory of Navarino rang through +Europe, and were only half welcome to the conquerors; but in our household +it is connected with a terrible recollection. Though more than +half a century has rolled by, I shrink from dwelling on the shock that +fell on us when my father returned from Somerset House with such a countenance +that we thought our sailor had fallen; but my mother could brook the +fact far less than if her son had died a gallant death. The <i>Clotho</i> +was on her way home, and Midshipman William Clarence Winslow was to +be tried by court-martial for insubordination, disobedience, and drunkenness. +My mother was like one turned to stone. She would hardly go out +of doors; she could scarcely bring herself to go to church; she would +have had my father give up his situation if there had been any other +means of livelihood. She could not talk; only when my father sighed, +‘We should never have put him into the Navy,’ she hotly +replied,</p> +<p>‘How was I to suppose that a son of mine would be like that?’</p> +<p>Emily cried all day and all night. Some others would have felt +it a relief to have cried too. In more furious language than parents +in those days tolerated, Griff wrote to me his utter disbelief, and +how he had punched the heads of fellows who presumed to doubt that it +was not all a rascally, villainous plot.</p> +<p>When the time came my father went down by the night mail to Portsmouth. +He could scarcely bear to face the matter; but, as he said, he could +not have it on his conscience if the boy did anything desperate for +want of some one to look after him. Besides, there might be some +explanation.</p> +<p>‘Explanation,’ said my mother bitterly. ‘That +there always is!’</p> +<p>The ‘explanation’ was this - I have put together what +came out in evidence, what my father and the Admiral heard from commiserating +officers, and what at different times I learned from Clarence himself. +Captain Brydone was one of the rough old description of naval men, good +sailors and stern disciplinarians, but wanting in any sense of moral +duties towards their ship’s company. His lieutenant was +of the same class, soured, moreover, by tardy promotion, and prejudiced +against a gentleman-like, fair-faced lad, understood to have interest, +and bearing a name that implied it. Of the other two midshipmen, +one was a dull lad of low stamp, the other a youth of twenty, a born +bully, with evil as well as tyrannical propensities; - the crew conforming +to severe discipline on board, but otherwise wild and lawless. +In such a ship a youth with good habits, sensitive conscience, and lack +of moral or physical courage, could not but lead a life of misery, losing +every day more of his self-respect and spirit as he was driven to the +evil he loathed, dreading the consequences, temporal and eternal, with +all his soul, yet without resolution or courage to resist.</p> +<p>As every one knows, the battle of Navarino came on suddenly, almost +by mistake; and though it is perhaps no excuse, the hurly-burly and +horror burst upon him at unawares. Though the English loss was +comparatively very small, the <i>Clotho</i> was a good deal exposed, +and two men were killed - one so close to Clarence that his clothes +were splashed with blood. This entirely unnerved him; he did not +even know what he did, but he was not to be found when required to carry +an order, and was discovered hidden away below, shuddering, in his berth, +and then made some shallow excuse about misunderstanding orders. +Whether this would have been brought up against him under other circumstances, +or whether it would have been remembered that great men, including Charles +V. and Henri IV., have had their <i>moment de peur</i>, I cannot tell; +but there were other charges. I cannot give date or details. +There is no record among the papers before me; and I can only vaguely +recall what could hardly be read for the sense of agony, was never discussed, +and was driven into the most oblivious recesses of the soul fifty years +ago. There was a story about having let a boat’s crew, of +which he was in charge, get drunk and over-stay their time. One +of them deserted; and apparently prevarication ran to the bounds of +perjury, if it did not overpass them. (N.B. - Seeing seamen flogged +was one of the sickening horrors that haunted Clarence in the <i>Clotho</i>.) +Also, when on shore at Malta with the young man whose name I will not +record - his evil genius - he was beguiled or bullied into a wine-shop, +and while not himself was made the cat’s-paw of some insolent +practical joke on the lieutenant; and when called to account, was so +bewildered and excited as to use unpardonable language.</p> +<p>Whatever it might have been in detail, so much was proved against +him that he was dismissed his ship, and his father was recommended to +withdraw him from the service, as being disqualified by want of nerve. +Also, it was added more privately, that such vicious tendencies needed +home restraint. The big bully, his corrupter, bore witness against +him, but did not escape scot free, for one of the captains spoke to +him in scathing tones of censure.</p> +<p>Whenever my mother was in trouble, she always re-arranged the furniture, +and a family crisis was always heralded by a revolution of chairs, tables, +and sofas. She could not sit still under suspense, and, during +these terrible days the entire house underwent a setting to rights. +Emily attended upon her, and I sat and dusted books. No doubt +it was much better for us than sitting still. My father’s +letter came by the morning mail, telling us of the sentence, and that +he and our poor culprit, as he said, would come home by the Portsmouth +coach in the evening.</p> +<p>One room was already in order when Sir John Griffith kindly came +to see whether he could bring any comfort to a spirit which would infinitely +have preferred death to dishonour, and was, above all, shocked at the +lack of physical courage. Never had I liked our old Admiral so +well as when I heard how his chief anger was directed against the general +mismanagement, and the cruelty of blighting a poor lad’s life +when not yet seventeen. His father might have been warned to remove +him without the public scandal of a court-martial and dismissal.</p> +<p>‘The guilt and shame would have been all the same to us,’ +said my mother.</p> +<p>‘Come, Mary, don’t be hard on the poor fellow. +In quiet times like these a poor boy can’t look over the wall +where one might have stolen a horse, ay, or a dozen horses, when there +was something else to think about!’</p> +<p>‘You would not have forgiven such a thing, sir.’</p> +<p>‘It never would have happened under me, or in any decently +commanded ship!’ he thundered. ‘There wasn’t +a fault to be found with him in the <i>Calypso</i>. What possessed +Winslow to let him sail with Brydone? But the service is going,’ +etc. etc., he ran on - forgetting that it was he himself who had been +unwilling, perhaps rightly, to press the Duke of Clarence for an appointment +to a crack frigate for his namesake. However, when he took leave +he repeated, as he kissed my mother, ‘Mind, Mary, don’t +be set against the lad. That’s the way to make ’em +desperate, and he is a mere boy, after all.’</p> +<p>Poor mother, it was not so much hardness as a wounded spirit that +made her look so rigid. It might have been better if the return +could have been delayed so as to make her yearn after her son, but there +was nowhere for him to go, and the coach was already on its way. +How strange it was to feel the wonted glow at Clarence’s return +coupled with a frightful sense of disgrace and depression.</p> +<p>The time was far on in October, and it was thus quite dark when the +travellers arrived, having walked from Charing Cross, where the coach +set them down. My father came in first, and my mother clung to +him as if he had been absent for weeks, while all the joy of contact +with my brother swept over me, even though his hand hung limp in mine, +and was icy cold like his cheeks. My father turned to him with +one of the little set speeches of those days. ‘Here is our +son, Mary, who has promised me to do his utmost to retrieve his character, +as far as may be possible, and happily he is still young.’</p> +<p>My mother’s embrace was in a sort of mechanical obedience to +her husband’s gesture, and her voice was not perhaps meant to +be so severe as it sounded when she said, ‘You are very cold - +come and warm yourself.’</p> +<p>They made room for him by the fire, and my father stood up in front +of it, giving particulars of the journey. Emily and Martyn were +at tea in the nursery, in a certain awe that hindered them from coming +down; indeed, Martyn seems to have expected to see some strange transformation +in his brother. Indeed, there was alteration in the absence of +the blue and gold, and, still more, in the loss of the lightsome, hopeful +expression from the young face.</p> +<p>There is a picture of Ary Scheffer’s of an old knight, whose +son had fled from the battle, cutting the tablecloth in two between +himself and the unhappy youth. Like that stern baron’s countenance +was that with which my mother sat at the head of the dinner-table, and +we conversed by jerks about whatever we least cared for, as if we could +hide our wretchedness from Peter. When the children appeared each +gave Clarence the shyest of kisses, and they sat demurely on their chairs +on either side of my father to eat their almonds and raisins, after +which we went upstairs, and there was the usual reading. It is +curious, but though none of us could have told at the time what it was +about, on turning over not long ago a copy of Head’s <i>Pampas +and Andes</i>, one chapter struck me with an intolerable sense of melancholy, +such as the bull chases of South America did not seem adequate to produce, +and by and by I remembered that it was the book in course of being read +at that unhappy period. My mother went on as diligently as ever +with some of those perpetual shirts which seemed to be always in hand +except before company, when she used to do tambour work for Emily’s +frocks. Clarence sat the whole time in a dark corner, never stirring, +except that he now and then nodded a little. He had gone through +many wakeful, and worse than wakeful, nights of wretched suspense, and +now the worst was over.</p> +<p>Family prayers took place, chill good-nights were exchanged, and +nobody interfered with his helping me up to my bedroom as usual; but +there was something in his face to which I durst not speak, though perhaps +I looked, for he exclaimed, ‘Don’t, Ned!’ wrung my +hand, and sped away to his own quarters higher up. Then came a +sound which made me open my door to listen. Dear little Emily! +She had burst out of her own room in her dressing-gown, and flung herself +upon her brother as he was plodding wearily upstairs in the dark, clinging +round his neck sobbing, ‘Dear, dear Clarry! I can’t +bear it! I don’t care. You’re my own dear brother, +and they are all wicked, horrid people.’</p> +<p>That was all I heard, except hushings on Clarence’s part, as +if the opening of my door and the thread of light from it warned him +that there was risk of interruption. He seemed to be dragging +her up to her own room, and I was left with a pang at her being foremost +in comforting him.</p> +<p>My father enacted that he should be treated as usual. But how +could that be when papa himself did not know how changed were his own +ways from his kindly paternal air of confidence? All trust had +been undermined, so that Clarence could not cross the threshold without +being required to state his object, and, if he overstayed the time calculated, +he was cross-examined, and his replies received with a sigh of doubt.</p> +<p>He hung about the house, not caring to do much, except taking me +out in my Bath chair or languidly reading the most exciting books he +could get; - but there was no great stock of sensation then, except +the Byronic, and from time to time one of my parents would exclaim, +‘Clarence, I wonder you can find nothing more profitable to occupy +yourself with than trash like that!’</p> +<p>He would lay down the book without a word, and take up Smith’s +<i>Wealth of Nations</i> or Smollett’s <i>England</i> - the profitable +studies recommended, and speedily become lost in a dejected reverie, +with fixed eyes and drooping lips.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER V - A HELPING HAND</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Though hawks can prey through storms and winds,<br />The poor +bee in her hive must dwell.’</p> +<p>HENRY VAUGHAN.</p> +<p>In imagination the piteous dejection of our family seems to have +lasted for ages, but on comparison of dates it is plain that the first +lightening of the burthen came in about a fortnight’s time.</p> +<p>The firm of Frith and Castleford was coming to the front in the Chinese +trade. The junior partner was an old companion of my father’s +boyhood; his London abode was near at hand, and he was a kind of semi-godfather +to both Clarence and me, having stood proxy for our nominal sponsors. +He was as good and open-hearted a man as ever lived, and had always +been very kind to us; but he was scarcely welcome when my father, finding +that he had come up alone to London to see about some repairs to his +house, while his family were still in the country, asked him to dine +and sleep - our first guest since our misfortune.</p> +<p>My mother could hardly endure to receive any one, but she seemed +glad to see my father become animated and like himself while Roman Catholic +Emancipation was vehemently discussed, and the ruin of England hotly +predicted. Clarence moped about silently as usual, and tried to +avoid notice, and it was not till the next morning - after breakfast, +when the two gentlemen were in the dining-room, nearly ready to go their +several ways, and I was in the window awaiting my classical tutor - +that Mr. Castleford said,</p> +<p>‘May I ask, Winslow, if you have any plans for that poor boy?’</p> +<p>‘Edward?’ said my father, almost wilfully misunderstanding. +‘His ambition is to be curator of something in the British Museum, +isn’t it?’</p> +<p>Mr. Castleford explained that he meant the other, and my father sadly +answered that he hardly knew; he supposed the only thing was to send +him to a private tutor, but where to find a fit one he did not know +and besides, what could be his aim? Sir John Griffith had said +he was only fit for the Church, ‘But one does not wish to dispose +of a tarnished article there.’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not,’ said Mr. Castleford; and then he spoke +words that rejoiced my heart, though they only made my father groan, +bidding him remember that it was not so much actual guilt as the accident +of Clarence’s being in the Navy that had given so serious a character +to his delinquencies. If he had been at school, perhaps no one +would ever have heard of them, ‘Though I don’t say,’ +added the good man, casting a new light on the subject, ‘that +it would have been better for him in the end.’ Then, quite +humbly, for he knew my mother especially had a disdain for trade, he +asked what my father would think of letting him give Clarence work in +the office for the present. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘it +is not the line your family might prefer, but it is present occupation; +and I do not think you could well send a youth who has seen so much +of the world back to schooling. Besides, this would keep him under +your own eye.’</p> +<p>My father was greatly touched by the kindness, but he thought it +right to set before Mr. Castleford the very worst side of poor Clarence; +declaring that he durst not answer for a boy who had never, in spite +of pains and punishments, learnt to speak truth at home or abroad, repeating +Captain Brydone’s dreadful report, and even adding that, what +was most grievous of all, there was an affectation of piety about him +that could scarcely be anything but self-deceit and hypocrisy. +‘Now,’ he said, ‘my eldest son, Griffith, is just +a boy, makes no profession, is not - as I am afraid you have seen - +exemplary at church, when Clarence sits as meek as a mouse, but then +he is always above-board, frank and straightforward. You know +where to have a high-spirited fellow, who will tame down, but you never +know what will come next with the other. I sometimes wonder for +what error of mine Providence has seen fit to give me such a son.’</p> +<p>Just then an important message came for Mr. Winslow, and he had to +hurry away, but Mr. Castleford still remained, and presently said,</p> +<p>‘Edward, I should like to know what your eyes have been trying +to say all this time.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, sir,’ I burst out, ‘do give him a chance. +Indeed he never means to do wrong. The harm is not in him. +He would have been the best of us all if he had only been let alone.’</p> +<p>Those were exactly my own foolish words, for which I could have beaten +myself afterwards; but Mr. Castleford only gave a slight grave smile, +and said, ‘You mean that your brother’s real defect is in +courage, moral and physical.’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ I said, with a great effort at expressing myself. +‘When he is frightened, or bullied, or browbeaten, he does not +know what he is doing or saying. He is quite different when he +is his own self; only nobody can understand.’</p> +<p>Strange that though the favoured home son and nearly sixteen years +old, it would have been impossible to utter so much to one of our parents. +Indeed the last sentence felt so disloyal that the colour burnt in my +cheeks as the door opened; but it only admitted Clarence, who, having +heard the front door shut, thought the coast was clear, and came in +with a load of my books and dictionaries.</p> +<p>‘Clarence,’ said Mr. Castleford, and the direct address +made him start and flush, ‘supposing your father consents, should +you be willing to turn your mind to a desk in my counting-house?’</p> +<p>He flushed deeper red, and his fingers quivered as he held by the +table. ‘Thank you, sir. Anything - anything,’ +he said hesitatingly.</p> +<p>‘Well,’ said Mr. Castleford, with the kindest of voices, +‘let us have it out. What is in your mind? You know, +I’m a sort of godfather to you.’</p> +<p>‘Sir, if you would only let me have a berth on board one of +your vessels, and go right away.’</p> +<p>‘Aye, my poor boy, that’s what you would like best, I’ve +no doubt; but look at Edward’s face there, and think what that +would come to at the best!’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I know I have no right to choose,’ said Clarence, +drooping his head as before.</p> +<p>‘’Tis not that, my dear lad,’ said the good man, +‘but that packing you off like that, among your inferiors in breeding +and everything else, would put an end to all hope of your redeeming +the past - outwardly I mean, of course - and lodge you in a position +of inequality to your brothers and sister, and all - ’</p> +<p>‘That’s done already,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘If you were a man grown it might be so,’ returned Mr. +Castleford, ‘but bless me, how old are you?’</p> +<p>‘Seventeen next 1st of November,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘Not a bit too old for a fresh beginning,’ said Mr. Castleford +cheerily. ‘God helping you, you will be a brave and good +man yet, my boy - ’ then as my master rang at the door - ‘Come +with me and look at the old shop.’</p> +<p>Poor Clarence muttered something unintelligible, and I had to own +for him that he never went out without accounting for himself. +Whereupon our friend caused my mother to be hunted up, and explained +to her that he wanted to take Clarence out with him - making some excuse +about something they were to see together.</p> +<p>That walk enabled him to say something which came nearer to cheering +Clarence than anything that had passed since that sad return, and made +him think that to be connected with Mr. Castleford was the best thing +that could befall him. Mr. Castleford on his side told my father +that he was sure that the boy was good-hearted all the time, and thoroughly +repentant; but this had the less effect because plausibility, as my +father called it, was one of the qualities that specially annoyed him +in Clarence, and made him fear that his friend might be taken in. +However, the matter was discussed between the elders, and it was determined +that this most friendly offer should be accepted experimentally. +It was impressed on Clarence, with unnecessary care, that the line of +life was inferior; but that it was his only chance of regaining anything +like a position, and that everything depended on his industry and integrity.</p> +<p>‘Integrity!’ commented Clarence, with a burning spot +on his cheek after one of these lectures; ‘I believe they think +me capable of robbing the office!’</p> +<p>We found out, too, that the senior partner, Mr. Frith, a very crusty +old bachelor, did not like the appointment, and that it was made quite +against his will. ‘You’ll be getting your clerks next +from Newgate!’ was what some amiable friend reported him to have +said. However, Mr. Castleford had his way, and Clarence was to +begin his work with the New Year, being in the meantime cautioned and +lectured on the crime and danger of his evil propensities more than +he could well bear. ‘Oh!’ he groaned, ‘it serves +me right, I know that very well, but if my father only knew how I hate +and abhor all those things - and how I loathed them at the very time +I was dragged into them!’</p> +<p>‘Why don’t you tell him so?’ I asked.</p> +<p>‘That would make it no better.’</p> +<p>‘It is not so bad as if you had gone into it willingly, and +for your own pleasure.’</p> +<p>‘He would only think that another lie.’</p> +<p>No more could be said, for the idea of Clarence’s untruthfulness +and depravity had become so deeply rooted in our father’s mind +that there was little hope of displacing it, and even at the best his +manner was full of grave constrained pity. Those few words were +Clarence’s first approach to confidence with me, but they led +to more, and he knew there was one person who did not believe the defect +was in the bent of his will so much as in its strength.</p> +<p>All the time the prospect of the counting-house in comparison with +the sea was so distasteful to him that I was anxious whenever he went +out alone, or even with Griffith, who despised the notion of, as he +said, sitting on a high stool, dealing in tea, so much that he was quite +capable of aiding and abetting in an escape from it. Two considerations, +however, held Clarence back; one, the timidity of nature which shrank +from so violent a step, and the other, the strong affections that bound +him to his home, though his sojourn there was so painful. He knew +the misery his flight would have been to me; indeed I took care to let +him see it.</p> +<p>And Griffith’s return was like a fresh spring wind dispersing +vapours. He had gained an excellent scholarship at Brazenose, +and came home radiant with triumph, cheering us all up, and making a +generous use of his success. He was no letter-writer, and after +learning that the disaster and disgrace were all too certain, he ignored +the whole, and hailed Clarence on his return as if nothing had happened. +As eldest son, and almost a University man, he could argue with our +parents in a manner we never presumed on. At least I cannot aver +what he actually uttered, but probably it was a revised version of what +he thundered forth to me. ‘Such nonsense! such a shame to +keep the poor beggar going about with that hang dog look, as if he had +done for himself for life! Why, I’ve known fellows do ever +so much worse of their own accord, and nothing come of it. If +it was found out, there might be a row and a flogging, and there was +an end of it. As to going about mourning, and keeping the whole +house in doleful dumps, as if there was never to be any good again, +it was utter folly, and so I’ve told Bill, and papa and mamma, +both of them!’</p> +<p>How this was administered, or how they took it, there is no knowing, +but Griff would neither skate nor go to the theatre, nor to any other +diversion, without his brother; and used much kindly force and banter +to unearth him from his dismal den in the back drawing-room. He +was only let alone when there were engagements with friends, and indeed, +when meetings in the streets took place, by tacit agreement, Clarence +would shrink off in the crowd as if not belonging to his companion; +and these were the moments that stung him into longing to flee to the +river, and lose the sense of shame among common sailors: but there was +always some good angel to hold him back from desperate measures - chiefly +just then, the love between us three brothers, a love that never cooled +throughout our lives, and which dear old Griff made much more apparent +at this critical time than in the old Win and Slow days of school. +That return of his enlivened us all, and removed the terrible constraint +from our meals, bringing us back, as it were, to ordinary life and natural +intercourse among ourselves and with our neighbours.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER VI - THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘But when I lay upon the shore,<br /> Like +some poor wounded thing,<br />I deemed I should not evermore<br /> Refit +my wounded wing.<br />Nailed to the ground and fastened there,<br />This +was the thought of my despair.’</p> +<p>ABP. TRENCH.</p> +<p>Clarence’s debut at the office was not wholly unsuccessful. +He wrote a good hand, and had a good deal of method and regularity in +his nature, together with a real sense of gratitude to Mr. Castleford; +and this bore him through the weariness of his new employment, and, +what was worse, the cold reception he met with from the other clerks. +He was too quiet and reserved for the wilder spirits, too much of a +gentleman for others, and in the eyes of the managers, and especially +of the senior partner, a disgraced, untrustworthy youth foisted on the +office by Mr. Castleford’s weak partiality. That old Mr. +Frith had, Clarence used to say, a perfectly venomous way of accepting +his salute, and seemed always surprised and disappointed if he came +in in time, or showed up correct work. Indeed, the old man was +disliked and feared by all his subordinates as much as his partner was +loved; and while Mr. Castleford, with his good-natured Irish wife and +merry family, lived a life as cheerful as it was beneficent, Mr. Frith +dwelt entirely alone, in rooms over the office, preserving the habits +formed when his income had been narrow, and mistrusting everybody.</p> +<p>At the end of the first month of experiment, Mr. Castleford declared +himself contented with Clarence’s industry and steadiness, and +permanent arrangements were made, to which Clarence submitted with an +odd sort of passive gratitude, such as almost angered my father, who +little knew how trying the position really was, nor how a certain home-sickness +for the seafaring life was tugging at the lad’s heart, and making +each morning’s entrance at the counting-house an effort - each +merchant-captain, redolent of the sea, an object of envy. My mother +would have sympathised here, but Clarence feared her more than my father, +and she was living in continual dread of some explosion, so that her +dark curls began to show streaks of gray, and her face to lose its round +youthfulness.</p> +<p>Lent brought the question of Confirmation. Under the influence +of good Bishop Blomfield, and in the wave of evangelical revival - then +at its flood height - Confirmation was becoming a more prominent subject +with religious people than it had probably ever been in our Church, +and it was recognised that some preparation was desirable beyond the +power of repeating the Church Catechism. This was all that had +been required of my father at Harrow. My mother’s godfather, +a dignified clergyman, had simply said, ‘I suppose, my dear, you +know all about it;’ and as for the Admiral, he remarked, ‘Confirmed! +I never was confirmed anything but a post-captain!’</p> +<p>Our incumbent was more attentive to his duties, or rather recognised +more duties, than his predecessor. He preached on the subject, +and formed classes, sixteen being then the limit of age, - since the +idea of the vow, having become far more prominent than that of the blessing, +it was held that full development of the will and understanding was +needful.</p> +<p>I was of the requisite age, and my father spoke to the clergyman, +who called, and, as I could not attend the classes, gave me books to +read and questions to answer. Clarence read and discussed the +questions with me, showing so much more insight into them, and fuller +knowledge of Scripture than I possessed, that I exclaimed, ‘Why +should you not go up for Confirmation too?’</p> +<p>‘No,’ he answered mournfully. ‘I must take +no more vows if I can’t keep them. It would just be profane.’</p> +<p>I had no more to say; indeed, my parents held the same view. +It was good Mr. Castleford who saw things differently. He was +a clergyman’s son, and had been bred up in the old orthodoxy, +which was just beginning to put forth fresh shoots, and, as a quasi-godfather, +he held himself bound to take an interest in our religious life, while +the sponsors, whose names stood in the family Bible, and whose spoons +reposed in the plate-chest, never troubled themselves on the matter. +I remember Clarence leaning over me and saying, ‘Mr. Castleford +thinks I might be confirmed. He says it is not so much the promise +we make as of coming to Almighty God for strength to keep what we are +bound by already! He is going to speak to papa.’</p> +<p>Perhaps no one except Mr. Castleford could have prevailed over the +fear of profanation in the mind of my father, who was, in his old-fashioned +way, one of the most reverent of men, and could not bear to think of +holy things being approached by one under a stigma, nor of exposing +his son to add to his guilt by taking and breaking further pledges. +However, he was struck by his friend’s arguments, and I heard +him telling my mother that when he had wished to wait till there had +been time to prove sincerity of repentance by a course of steadiness, +the answer had been that it was hard to require strength, while denying +the means of grace. My mother was scarcely convinced, but as he +had consented she yielded without a protest; and she was really glad +that I should have Clarence at my side to help me at the ceremony. +The clergyman was applied to, and consented to let Clarence attend the +classes, where his knowledge, comprehension, and behaviour were exemplary, +so that a letter was written to my father expressive of perfect satisfaction +with him. ‘There,’ said my father, ‘I knew it +would be so! It is not <i>that</i> which I want.’</p> +<p>The Confirmation seemed at the time a very short and perfunctory +result of our preparation; and, as things were conducted or misconducted +then, involved so much crowding and distress that I recollect very little +but clinging to Clarence’s arm under a strong sense of my infirmities, +- the painful attempt at kneeling, and the big outstretched lawn sleeves +while the blessing was pronounced over six heads at once, and then the +struggle back to the pew, while the silver-pokered apparitor looked +grim at us, as though the maimed and halt had no business to get into +the way. Yet this was a great advance upon former Confirmations, +and the Bishop met my father afterwards, and inquired most kindly after +his lame son.</p> +<p>We were disappointed, and felt that we could not attain to the feelings +in the Confirmation poem in the <i>Christian Year</i> - Mr. Castleford’s +gift to me. Still, I believe that, though encumbered with such +a drag as myself, Clarence, more than I did,</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘Felt Him how strong, our hearts how frail,<br />And longed +to own Him to the death.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>But the evangelical belief that dejection ought to be followed by +a full sense of pardon and assurance of salvation somewhat perplexed +and dimmed our Easter Communion. For one short moment, as Clarence +turned to help my father lift me up from the altar-rail, I saw his face +and eyes radiant with a wonderful rapt look; but it passed only too +fast, and the more than ordinary glimpse his spiritual nature had had +made him all the more sad afterwards, when he said, ‘I would give +everything to know that there was any steadfastness in my purpose to +lead a new life.’</p> +<p>‘But you are leading a new life.’</p> +<p>‘Only because there is no one to bully me,’ he said. +Still, there had been no reproach against him all the time he had been +at Frith and Castleford’s, when suddenly we had a great shock.</p> +<p>Parties were running very high, and there were scurrilous papers +about, which my father perfectly abhorred; and one day at dinner, when +declaiming against something he had seen, he laid down strict commands +that none should be brought into the house. Then, glancing at +Clarence, something possessed him to say, ‘You have not been buying +any.’</p> +<p>‘No, sir,’ Clarence answered; but a few minutes later, +when we were alone together, the others having left him to help me upstairs, +he exclaimed, ‘Edward, what is to be done? I didn’t +buy it; but there is one of those papers in my great-coat pocket. +Pollard threw it on my desk; and there was something in it that I thought +would amuse you.’</p> +<p>‘Oh! why didn’t you say so?’</p> +<p>‘There I am again! I simply could not, with his eye on +me! Miserable being that I am! Oh, where is the spirit of +ghostly strength?’</p> +<p>‘Helping you now to take it to papa in the study and explain!’ +I cried; but the struggle in that tall fellow was as if he had been +seven years old instead of seventeen, ere he put his hand over his face +and gave me his arm to come out into the hall, fetch the paper, and +make his confession. Alas! we were too late. The coat had +been moved, the paper had fallen out; and there stood my mother with +it in her hand, looking at Clarence with an awful stony face of mute +grief and reproach, while he stammered forth what he had said before, +and that he was about to give it to my father. She turned away, +bitterly, contemptuously indignant and incredulous; and my corroborations +only served to give both her and my father a certain dread of Clarence’s +influence over me, as though I had been either deceived or induced to +back him in deceiving them. The unlucky incident plunged him back +into the depths, just as he had begun to emerge. Slight as it +was, it was no trifle to him, in spite of Griffith’s exclamation, +‘How absurd! Is a fellow to be bound to give an account +of everything he looks at as if he were six years old? Catch me +letting my mother pry into my pockets! But you are too meek, Bill; +you perfectly invite them to make a row about nothing!’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER VII - THE INHERITANCE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘For he that needs five thousand pound to live<br />Is full +as poor as he that needs but five.<br />But if thy son can make ten +pound his measure,<br />Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.’</p> +<p>GEORGE HERBERT.</p> +<p>It was in the spring of 1829 that my father received a lawyer’s +letter announcing the death of James Winslow, Esquire, of Chantry House, +Earlscombe, and inviting him, as heir-at-law, to be present at the funeral +and opening of the will. The surprise to us all was great. +Even my mother had hardly heard of Chantry House itself, far less as +a possible inheritance; and she had only once seen James Winslow. +He was the last of the elder branch of the family, a third cousin, and +older than my father, who had known him in times long past. When +they had last met, the Squire of Chantry House was a married man, with +more than one child; my father a young barrister; and as one lived entirely +in the country and the other in town, without any special congeniality, +no intercourse had been kept up, and it was a surprise to hear that +he had left no surviving children. My father greatly doubted whether +being heir-at-law would prove to avail him anything, since it was likely +that so distant a relation would have made a will in favour of some +nearer connection on his wife’s or mother’s side. +He was very vague about Chantry House, only knowing that it was supposed +to be a fair property, and he would hardly consent to take Griffith +with him by the Western Royal Mail, warning him and all the rest of +us that our expectations would be disappointed.</p> +<p>Nevertheless we looked out the gentlemen’s seats in <i>Paterson’s +Road Book</i>, and after much research, for Chantry House lay far off +from the main road, we came upon - ‘Chantry House, Earlscombe, +the seat of James Winslow, Esquire, once a religious foundation; beautifully +situated on a rising ground, commanding an extensive prospect - ’</p> +<p>‘A religious foundation!’ cried Emily. ‘It +will be a dear delicious old abbey, all Gothic architecture, with cloisters +and ruins and ghosts.’</p> +<p>‘Ghosts!’ said my mother severely, ‘what has put +such nonsense into your head?’</p> +<p>Nevertheless Emily made up her mind that Chantry House would be another +Melrose, and went about repeating the moonlight scene in the <i>Lay +of the Last Minstrel</i> whenever she thought no one was there to laugh +at her.</p> +<p>My father and Griffith returned with the good news that there was +no mistake. Chantry House was really his own, with the estate +belonging to it, reckoned at £5000 a year, exclusive of a handsome +provision to Miss Selby, the niece of the late Mrs. Winslow, a spinster +of a certain age, who had lived with her uncle, and now proposed to +remove to Bath. Mr. Winslow had, it appeared, lost his only son +as a schoolboy, and his daughters, like their mother, had been consumptive. +He had always been resolved that the estate should continue in the family; +but reluctance to see any one take his son’s place had withheld +him from making any advances to my father; and for several years past +he had been in broken health with failing faculties.</p> +<p>Of course there was much elation. Griff described as charming +the place, perched on the southern slope of a wooded hill, with a broad +fertile valley lying spread out before it, and the woods behind affording +every promise of sport. The house, my father said, was good, odd +and irregular, built at different times, but quite habitable, and with +plenty of furniture, though he opined that mamma would think it needed +modernising, to which she replied that our present chattels would make +a great difference; whereat my father, looking at the effects of more +than twenty years of London blacks, gave a little whistle, for she was +always the economical one of the pair.</p> +<p>Emily, with glowing cheeks and eager eyes, entreated to know whether +it was Gothic, and had a cloister! Papa nipped her hopes of a +cloister, but there were Gothic windows and doorway, and a bit of ruin +in the garden, a fragment of the old chapel.</p> +<p>My father could not resign his office without notice, and, besides, +he wished Miss Selby to have leisure for leaving her home of many years; +after which there would be a few needful repairs. The delay was +not a great grievance to any of us except little Martyn. We were +much more Cockney than almost any one is in these days of railways. +We were unusually devoid of kindred on both sides, my father’s +holidays were short, I was not a very movable commodity, and economy +forbade long journeys, so that we had never gone farther than Ramsgate, +where we claimed a certain lodging-house as a sort of right every summer.</p> +<p>Real country was as much unknown to us as the backwoods. My +father alone had been born and bred to village life and habits, for +my mother had spent her youth in a succession of seaport towns, frequented +by men-of-war. We heard, too, that Chantry House was very secluded, +with only a few cottages near at hand - a mile and a half from the church +and village of Earlscombe, three from the tiny country town of Wattlesea, +four from the place where the coach passed, connecting it with the civilisation +of Bath and Bristol, from each of which places it was about half a day’s +distance, according to the measures of those times. It was a sort +of banishment to people accustomed to the stream of life in London; +and though the consequence and importance derived from being raised +to the ranks of the Squirearchy were agreeable, they were a dear purchase +at the cost of being out of reach of all our friends and acquaintances, +as well as of other advantages.</p> +<p>To my father, however, the retirement from his many years of drudgery +was really welcome, and he had preserved enough of country tastes to +rejoice that it was, as he said, a clear duty to reside on his estate +and look after his property. My mother saw his relief in the prospect, +and suppressed her sighs at the dislocation of her life-long habits, +and the loss of intercourse with the acquaintance whom separation raised +to the rank of intimate friends, even her misgivings as to butchers, +bakers, and grocers in the wilderness, and still worse, as to doctors +for me.</p> +<p>‘Humph!’ said the Admiral, ‘the boy will be all +the better without them.’</p> +<p>And so I was; I can’t say they were the subject of much regret, +but I was really sorry to leave our big neighbour, the British Museum, +where there were good friends who always made me welcome, and encouraged +me in studies of coins and heraldry, which were great resources to me, +so that I used to spend hours there, and was by no means willing to +resign my ambition of obtaining an appointment there, when I heard my +father say that he was especially thankful for his good fortune because +it enabled him to provide for me. There were lessons, too, from +masters in languages, music, and drawing, which Emily and I shared, +and which she had just begun to value thoroughly. We had filled +whole drawing-books with wriggling twists of foliage in B B B marking +pencil, and had just been promoted to water-colours; and she was beginning +to sing very prettily. I feared, too, that I should no longer +have a chance of rivalling Griffith’s university studies. +All this, with my sister’s girl friends, and those kind people +who used to drop in to play chess, and otherwise amuse me, would all +be left behind; and, sorest of all, Clarence, who, whatever he was in +the eyes of others, had grown to be my mainstay during this last year. +He it was who fetched me from the Museum, took me into the gardens, +helped me up and down stairs, spared no pains to rout out whatever my +fanciful pursuits required from shops in the City, and, in very truth, +spoilt me through all his hours that were free from business, besides +being my most perfect sympathising and understanding companion.</p> +<p>I feared, too, that he would be terribly lonesome, though of late +he had been less haunted by longings for the sea, had made some way +with his fellows, and had been commended by the managing clerk; and +it was painful to find the elders did not grieve on their own account +at parting with him. My mother told the Admiral that she thought +it would be good for Mr. Winslow’s spirits not to be continually +reminded of his trouble; and my father might be heard confiding to Mr. +Castleford that the separation might be good for both her and her son, +if only the lad could be trusted. To which that good man replied +by giving him an excellent character; but was only met by a sigh, and +‘Well, we shall see!’</p> +<p>Clarence was to be lodged with Peter, whose devotion would not extend +to following us into barbarism, where, as he told us, he understood +there was no such thing as a ‘harea,’ and master would have +to kill his own mutton.</p> +<p>Peter had been tranquilly engaged to Gooch for years untold. +They were to be transformed into Mr. and Mrs. Robson, with some small +appointment about the Law Courts for him, and a lodging-house for her, +where Clarence was to abide, my mother feeling secure that neither his +health, his morals, nor his shirts could go much astray without her +receiving warning thereof.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, by the help of an antiquarian friend of my father, Mr. +Stafford, who was great in county history, I hunted up in the Museum +library all I could discover about our new possession.</p> +<p>The Chantry of St. Cecily at Earlscombe, in Somersetshire, had, it +appeared, been founded and endowed by Dame Isabel d’Oyley, in +the year of grace 1434, that constant prayers might be offered for the +souls of her husband and son, slain in the French wars. The poor +lady’s intentions, which to our Protestant minds appeared rather +shocking than otherwise, had been frustrated at the break up of such +establishments, when the Chantry, and the estate that maintained its +clerks and bedesmen, was granted to Sir Harry Power, from whom, through +two heiresses, it had come to the Fordyces, the last of whom, by name +Margaret, had died childless, leaving the estate to her stepson, Philip +Winslow, our ancestor.</p> +<p>Moreover, we learnt that a portion of the building was of ancient +date, and that there was an ‘interesting fragment’ of the +old chapel in the grounds, which our good friend promised himself the +pleasure of investigating on his first holiday.</p> +<p>To add to our newly-acquired sense of consideration and of high pedigree, +the family chariot, after taking Miss Selby to Bath, came up post to +London to be touched up at the coachbuilder’s, have the escutcheon +altered so as to impale the Griffith coat instead of the Selby, and +finally to convey us to our new abode, in preparation for which all +its boxes came to be packed.</p> +<p>A chariot! You young ones have as little notion of one as of +a British war-chariot armed with scythes. Yet people of a certain +grade were as sure to keep their chariot as their silver tea-pot; indeed +we knew one young couple who started in life with no other habitation, +but spent their time as nomads, in visits to their relations and friends, +for visits <i>were</i> visits then.</p> +<p>The capacities of a chariot were considerable. Within, there +was a good-sized seat for the principal occupants, and outside a dickey +behind, and a driving box before, though sometimes there was only one +of these, and that transferable. The boxes were calculated to +hold family luggage on a six months’ tour. There they lay +on the spare-room floor, ready to be packed, the first earnest of our +new possessions - except perhaps the five-pound note my father gave +each of us four elder ones, on the day the balance at the bank was made +over to him. There was the imperial, a grand roomy receptacle, +which was placed on the top of the carriage, and would not always go +upstairs in small houses; the capbox, which fitted into a curved place +in front of the windows, and could not stand alone, but had a frame +to support it; two long narrow boxes with the like infirmity of standing, +which fitted in below; square ones under each seat; and a drop box fastened +on behind. There were pockets beneath each window, and, curious +relic in name and nature of the time when every gentleman carried his +weapon, there was the sword case, an excrescence behind the back of +the best seat, accessible by lifting a cushion, where weapons used to +be carried, but where in our peaceful times travellers bestowed their +luncheon and their books.</p> +<p>Our chariot was black above, canary yellow below, beautifully varnished, +and with our arms blazoned on each door. It was lined with dark +blue leather and cloth, picked out with blue and yellow lace in accordance +with our liveries, and was a gorgeous spectacle. I am afraid Emily +did not share in Mistress Gilpin’s humility when</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p> ‘The chaise was brought,<br /> But +yet was not allowed<br />To drive up to the door, lest all<br /> Should +say that she was proud!’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>It was then that Emily and I each started a diary to record the events +of our new life. Hers flourished by fits and starts; but I having +perforce more leisure than she, mine has gone on with few interruptions +till the present time, and is the backbone of this narrative, which +I compile and condense from it and other sources before destroying it.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII - THE OLD HOUSE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Your history whither are you spinning?<br /> Can +you do nothing but describe?<br />A house there is, and that’s +enough!’</p> +<p>GRAY.</p> +<p>How we did enjoy our journey, when the wrench from our old home was +once made. We did not even leave Clarence behind, for Mr. Castleford +had given him a holiday, so that he might not appear to be kept at a +distance, as if under a cloud, and might help me through our travels.</p> +<p>My mother and I occupied the inside of the carriage, with Emily between +us at the outset; but when we were off the London stones she was often +allowed to make a third on the dickey with Clarence and Martyn, whose +ecstatic heels could be endured for the sake of the free air and the +view. Of course we posted, and where there were severe hills we +indulged in four horses. The varieties of the jackets of our post-boys, +blue or yellow, as supposed to indicate the politics of their inns, +were interesting to us, as everything was interesting then. Otherwise +their equipment was exactly alike - neat drab corduroy breeches and +top-boots, and hats usually white, and they were all boys, though the +red faces and grizzled hair of some looked as if they had faced the +weather for at least fifty years.</p> +<p>It was a beautiful August, and the harvest fields were a sight perfectly +new, filling us with rapture unspeakable. At every hill which +offered an excuse, our outsiders were on their feet, thrusting in their +heads and hands to us within with exclamations of delight, and all sorts +of discoveries - really new to us three younger ones. Ears of +corn, bearded barley, graceful oats, poppies, corn-flowers, were all +delicious novelties to Emily and me, though Griff and my father laughed +at our ecstasies, and my mother occasionally objected to the wonderful +accumulation of curiosities thrust into her lap or the door pockets, +and tried to persuade Martyn that rooks’ wings, dead hedgehogs, +sticks and stones of various merits, might be found at Earlscombe, until +Clarence, by the judicious purchase of a basket at Salisbury, contrived +to satisfy all parties and safely dispose of the treasures. The +objects that stand out in my memory on that journey were Salisbury Spire, +and a long hill where the hedgebank was one mass of the exquisite rose-bay +willow herb - a perfect revelation to our city-bred eyes; but indeed, +the whole route was like one panorama to us of <i>L’Allegro</i> +and other descriptions on which we had fed. For in those days +we were much more devoted to poetry than is the present generation, +which has a good deal of false shame on that head.</p> +<p>Even dining and sleeping at an inn formed a pleasing novelty, though +we did not exactly sympathise with Martyn when he dashed in at breakfast +exulting in having witnessed the killing of a pig. As my father +observed, it was too like realising Peter’s forebodings of our +return to savage life.</p> +<p>Demonstrations were not the fashion of these times, and there was +a good deal of dull discontent and disaffection in the air, so that +no tokens of welcome were prepared for us - not even a peal of bells; +nor indeed should we have heard them if they had been rung, for the +church was a mile and a half beyond the house, with a wood between cutting +off the sound, except in certain winds. We did not miss a reception, +which would rather have embarrassed us. We began to think it was +time to arrive, and my father believed we were climbing the last hill, +when, just as we had passed a remarkably pretty village and church, +Griffith called out to say that we were on our own ground. He +had made his researches with the game keeper while my father was busy +with the solicitor, and could point to our boundary wall, a little below +the top of the hill on the northern side. He informed us that +the place we had passed was Hillside - Fordyce property, - but this +was Earlscombe, our own. It was a great stony bit of pasture with +a few scattered trees, but after the flat summit was past, the southern +side was all beechwood, where a gate admitted us into a drive cut out +in a slant down the otherwise steep descent, and coming out into an +open space. And there we were!</p> +<p>The old house was placed on the widest part of a kind of shelf or +natural terrace, of a sort of amphitheatre shape, with wood on either +hand, but leaving an interval clear in the midst broad enough for house +and gardens, with a gentle green slope behind, and a much steeper one +in front, closed in by the beechwoods. The house stood as it were +sideways, or had been made to do so by later inhabitants. I know +this is very long-winded, but there have been such alterations that +without minute description this narrative will be unintelligible.</p> +<p>The aspect was northwards so far as the lie of the ground was concerned, +but the house stood across. The main body was of the big symmetrical +Louis XIV. style - or, as it is now the fashion to call it, Queen Anne +- brick, with stone quoins, big sash-windows, and a great square hall +in the midst, with the chief rooms opening into it. The principal +entrance had been on the north, with a huge front door and a flight +of stone steps, and just space enough for a gravel coach ring before +the rapid grassy descent. Later constitutions, however, must have +eschewed that northern front door, and later nerves that narrow verge, +and on the eastern front had been added that Gothic porch of which Emily +had heard, - and a flagrantly modern Gothic porch it was, flanked by +two comical little turrets, with loopholes, from which a thread-paper +or Tom Thumb might have defended it. Otherwise it resembled a +church porch, except for the formidable points of a sham portcullis; +but there was no denying that it greatly increased the comfort of the +house, with its two sets of heavy doors, and the seats on either side. +The great hall door had been closed up, plastered over within, and rendered +inoffensive. Towards the west there was another modern addition +of drawing and dining rooms, and handsome bedchambers above, in Gothic +taste, <i>i.e</i>. with pointed arches filled up with glass over the +sash-windows. The drawing-room was very pretty, with a glass door +at the end leading into an old-fashioned greenhouse, and two French +windows to the south opening upon the lawn, which soon began to slope +upwards, curving, as I said, like an amphitheatre, and was always shady +and sheltered, tilting its flower-beds towards the house as if to display +them. The dining-room had, in like manner, one west and two north +windows, the latter commanding a grand view over the green meadow-land +below, dotted with round knolls, and rising into blue hills beyond. +We became proud of counting the villages and church towers we could +see from thence.</p> +<p>There was a still older portion, more ancient than the square <i>corps +de logis</i>, and built of the cream-coloured stone of the country. +It was at the south-eastern angle, where the ground began sloping so +near the house that this wing - if it may so be called - containing +two good-sized rooms nearly on a level with the upper floor, had nothing +below but some open stone vaultings, under which it was only just possible +for my tall brothers to stand upright, at the innermost end. These +opened into the cellars which, no doubt, belonged to the fifteenth-century +structure. There seemed to have once been a door and two or three +steps to the ground, which rose very close to the southern end; but +this had been walled up. The rooms had deep mullioned windows +east and west, and very handsome groined ceilings, and were entered +by two steps down from the gallery round the upper part of the hall. +There was a very handsome double staircase of polished oak, shaped like +a Y, the stem of which began just opposite the original front door - +making us wonder if people knew what draughts were in the days of Queen +Anne, and remember Madame de Maintenon’s complaint that health +was sacrificed to symmetry. Not far from this oldest portion were +some broken bits of wall and stumps of columns, remnants of the chapel, +and prettily wreathed with ivy and clematis. We rejoiced in such +a pretty and distinctive ornament to our garden, and never troubled +ourselves about the desecration; and certainly ours was one of the most +delightful gardens that ever existed, what with green turf, bright flowers, +shapely shrubs, and the grand beech-trees enclosing it with their stately +white pillars, green foliage, and the russet arcades beneath them. +The stillness was wonderful to ears accustomed to the London roar - +almost a new sensation. Emily was found, as she said, ‘listening +to the silence;’ and my father declared that no one could guess +at the sense of rest that it gave him.</p> +<p>Of space within there was plenty, though so much had been sacrificed +to the hall and staircase; and this was apparently the cause of the +modern additions, as the original sitting-rooms, wainscotted and double-doored, +were rather small for family requirements. One of these, once +the dining-room, became my father’s study, where he read and wrote, +saw his tenants, and by and by acted as Justice of the Peace. +The opposite one, towards the garden, was termed the book-room. +Here Martyn was to do his lessons, and Emily and I carry on our studies, +and do what she called keeping up her accomplishments. My couch +and appurtenances abode there, and it was to be my retreat from company, +- or on occasion could be made a supplementary drawing-room, as its +fittings showed it had been the parlour. It communicated with +another chamber, which became my own - sparing the difficulties that +stairs always presented; and beyond lay, niched under the grand staircase, +a tiny light closet, a passage-room, where my mother put a bed for a +man-servant, not liking to leave me entirely alone on the ground floor. +It led to a passage to the garden door, also to my mother’s den, +dedicated to housewifely cares and stores, and ended at the back stairs, +descending to the servants’ region. This was very old, handsomely +vaulted with stone, and, owing to the fall of the ground, had ample +space for light on the north side, - where, beyond the drive, the descent +was so rapid as to afford Martyn infinite delight in rolling down, to +the horror of all beholders and the detriment of his white duck trowsers.</p> +<p>I don’t know much about the upper story, so I spare you that. +Emily had a hankering for one of the pretty old mullioned-windowed rooms +- the mullion chambers, as she named them; but Griff pounced on them +at once, the inner for his repose, the outer for his guns and his studies +- not smoking, for young men were never permitted to smoke within doors, +nor indeed in any home society. The choice of the son and heir +was undisputed, and he proceeded to settle his possessions in his new +domains, where they made an imposing appearance.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER IX - RATS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘As louder and louder, drawing near,<br />The gnawing of their +teeth he could hear.’</p> +<p>SOUTHEY.</p> +<p>‘What a ridiculous old fellow that Chapman is,’ said +Griff, coming in from a conference with the gaunt old man who acted +as keeper to our not very extensive preserves. ‘I told him +to get some gins for the rats in my rooms, and he shook his absurd head +like any mandarin, and said, “There baint no trap as will rid +you of them kind of varmint, sir.”’</p> +<p>‘Of course,’ my father said, ‘rats are part of +the entail of an old house. You may reckon on them.’</p> +<p>‘Those rooms of yours are the very place for them,’ added +my mother. ‘I only hope they will not infest the rest of +the house.’</p> +<p>To which Griff rejoined that they perpetrated the most extraordinary +noises he had ever heard from rats, and told Emily she might be thankful +to him for taking those rooms, for she would have been frightened out +of her little wits. He meant, he said, to get a little terrier, +and have a thorough good rat hunt, at which Martyn capered about in +irrepressible ecstasy.</p> +<p>This, however, was deferred by the unwillingness of old Chapman, +of whom even Griff was somewhat in awe. His fame as a sportsman +had to be made, and he had had only such practice as could be attained +by shooting at a mark ever since he had been aware of his coming greatness. +So he was desirous of conciliating Chapman, and not getting laughed +at as the London young gentleman who could not hit a hay-stack. +My father, who had been used to carrying a gun in his younger days, +was much amused, in his quiet way, at seeing Griff watch Chapman off +on his rounds, and then betake himself to the locality most remote from +the keeper’s ears to practise on the rook or crow. Martyn +always ran after him, having solemnly promised not to touch the gun, +and to keep behind. He was too good-natured to send the little +fellow back, though he often tried to elude the pursuit, not wishing +for a witness to his attempts; and he never invited Clarence, who had +had some experience of curious game but never mentioned it.</p> +<p>Clarence devoted himself to Emily and me, tugging my garden-chair +along all the paths where it would go without too much jolting, and +when I had had enough, exploring those hanging woods, either with her +or on his own account. They used to come home with their hands +full of flowers, and this resulted in a vehement attack of botany, - +a taste that has lasted all our lives, together with the <i>hortus siccus</i> +to which we still make additions, though there has been a revolution +there as well as everywhere else, and the Linnæan system we learnt +so eagerly from Martin’s <i>Letters</i> is altogether exploded +and antiquated. Still, my sister refuses to own the scientific +merits of the natural system, and can point to school-bred and lectured +young ladies who have no notion how to discover the name or nature of +a live plant.</p> +<p>On the Friday after our arrival the noises had been so fearful that +Griff had been exasperated into going off across the hills, accompanied +by his constant shadow, Martyn, in search of the professional ratcatcher +of the neighbourhood, in spite of Chapman’s warning - that Tom +Petty was the biggest rascal in the neighbourhood, and a regular out +and out poacher; and as to the noises - he couldn’t ‘tackle +the like of they.’ After revelling in the beauty of the +beechwoods as long as was good for me or for Clarence, I was left in +the garden to sketch the ruin, while my two companions started on one +of their exploring expeditions.</p> +<p>It was getting late enough to think of going to prepare for the six +o’clock dinner when Emily came forth alone from the path between +the trees, announcing - ‘An adventure, Edward! We have had +such an adventure.’</p> +<p>‘Where’s Clarence?’</p> +<p>‘Gone for the doctor! Oh, no; Griff hasn’t shot +anybody. He is gone for the ratcatcher, you know. It is +a poor little herdboy, who tumbled out of a tree; and oh! such a sweet, +beautiful, young lady - just like a book!’</p> +<p>When Emily became less incoherent, it appeared that on coming out +on the bit of common above the wood, as she and Clarence were halting +on the brow of the hill to admire the view, they heard a call for help, +and hurrying down in the direction whence it proceeded they saw a stunted +ash-tree, beneath which were a young lady and a little child bending +over a village lad who lay beneath moaning piteously. The girl, +whom Emily described as the most beautiful creature she ever saw, explained +that the boy, who had been herding the cattle scattered around, had +been climbing the tree, a limb of which had broken with him. She +had seen the fall from a distance, and hurried up; but she hardly knew +what to do, for her little sister was too young to be sent in quest +of assistance. Clarence thought one leg seriously injured, and +as the young lady seemed to know the boy, offered to carry him home. +School officers were yet in the future; children were set to work almost +as soon as they could walk, and this little fellow was so light and +thin as to shock Clarence when he had been taken up on his back, for +he weighed quite a trifle. The young lady showed the way to a +wretched little cottage, where a bigger girl had just come in with a +sheaf of corn freshly gleaned poised on her head. They sent her +to fetch her mother, and Clarence undertook to go for a doctor, but +to the surprise and horror of Emily, there was a demur. Something +was said of old Molly and her ‘ile’ and ‘yarbs,’ +or perhaps Madam could step round. When Clarence, on this being +translated to him, pronounced the case beyond such treatment, it was +explained outside the door that this was a terribly poor family, and +the doctor would not come to parish patients for an indefinite time +after his summons, besides which, he lived at Wattlesea. ‘Indeed +mamma does almost all the doctoring with her medicine chest,’ +said the girl.</p> +<p>On which Clarence declared that he would let the doctor know that +he himself would be responsible for the cost of the attendance, and +set off for Wattlesea, a kind of town village in the flat below. +He could not get back till dinner was half over, and came in alarmed +and apologetic; but he had nothing worse to encounter than Griff’s +unmerciful banter (or, as you would call it, chaff) about his knight +errantry, and Emily’s lovely heroine in the sweetest of cottage +bonnets.</p> +<p>Griff could be slightly tyrannous in his merry mockery, and when +he found that on the ensuing day Clarence proposed to go and inquire +after the patient, he made such wicked fun of the expectations the pair +entertained of hearing the sweet cottage bonnet reading a tract in a +silvery voice through the hovel window, that he fairly teased and shamed +Clarence out of starting till the renowned Tom Petty arrived and absorbed +all the three brothers, and even their father, in delights as mysterious +to me as to Emily. How she shrieked when Martyn rushed triumphantly +into the room where we were arranging books with the huge patriarch +of all the rats dangling by his tail! Three hopeful families were +destroyed; rooms, vaults, and cellars examined and cleared; and Petty +declared the race to be exterminated, picturesque ruffian that he was, +in his shapeless hat, rusty velveteen, long leggings, a live ferret +in his pocket, and festoons of dead rats over his shoulder.</p> +<p>Chapman, who regarded him much as the ferret did the rat, declared +that the rabbits and hares would suffer from letting ‘that there +chap’ show his face here on any plea; and, moreover, gave a grunt +very like a scoff; at the idea of slumbers in the mullion rooms (as +they were called) being secured by his good offices.</p> +<p>And Chapman was right. The unaccountable noises broke out again +- screaming, wailing, sobbing - sounds scarcely within the power of +cat or rat, but possibly the effect of the wind in the old building. +At any rate, Griff could not stand them, and declared that sleep was +impossible when the wind was in that quarter, so that he must shift +his bedroom elsewhere, though he still wished to retain the outer apartment, +which he had taken pleasure in adorning with his special possessions. +My mother would scarcely have tolerated such fancies in any one else, +but Griff had his privileges.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER X - OUR TUNEFUL CHOIR</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘The church has been whitewashed, but right long ago,<br />As +the cracks and the dinginess amply doth show;<br />About the same time +that a strange petrifaction<br />Confined the incumbent to mere Sunday +action.<br />So many abuses in this place are rife,<br />The only church +things giving token of life<br />Are the singing within and the nettles +without -<br />Both equally rampant without any doubt.’</p> +<p>F. R. HAVERGAL.</p> +<p>All Griff’s teasing could not diminish - nay, rather increased +- Emily’s excitement in the hope of seeing and identifying the +sweet cottage bonnet at church on Sunday. The distance we had +to go was nearly two miles, and my mother and I drove thither in a donkey +chair, which had been hunted up in London for that purpose because the +‘pheeaton’ (as the servants insisted on calling it) was +too high for me. My father had an old-fashioned feeling about +the Fourth Commandment, which made him scrupulous as to using any animal +on Sunday; and even when, in bad weather, or for visitors, the larger +carriage was used, he always walked. He was really angry with +Griff that morning for mischievously maintaining that it was a greater +breach of the commandment to work an ass than a horse.</p> +<p>It was a pretty drive on a road slanting gradually through the brushwood +that clothed the steep face of the hillside, and passing farms and meadows +full of cattle - all things quieter and stiller than ever in their Sunday +repose. We knew that the living was in Winslow patronage, but +that it was in the hands of one of the Selby connection, who held it, +together with it is not safe to say how many benefices, and found it +necessary for his health to reside at Bath. The vicarage had long +since been turned into a farmhouse, and the curate lived at Wattlesea. +All this we knew, but we had not realised that he was likewise assistant +curate there, and only favoured Earlscombe with alternate morning and +evening services on Sundays.</p> +<p>Still less were we prepared for the interior of the church. +It had a picturesque square tower covered with ivy, and a general air +of fitness for a sketch; indeed, the photograph of it in its present +beautified state will not stand a comparison with our drawings of it, +in those days of dilapidation in the middle of the untidy churchyard, +with little boys astride on the sloping, sunken lichen-grown headstones, +mullein spikes and burdock leaves, more graceful than the trim borders +and zinc crosses which are pleasanter to the mental eye.</p> +<p>The London church we had left would be a fearful shock to the present +generation, but we were accustomed to decency, order, and reverence; +and it was no wonder that my father was walking about the churchyard, +muttering that he never saw such a place, while my brothers were full +of amusement. Their spruce looks in their tall hats, bright ties, +dark coats, and white trowsers strapped tight under their boots, looked +incongruous with the rest of the congregation, the most distinguished +members of which were farmers in drab coats with huge mother-of-pearl +buttons, and long gaiters buttoned up to their knees and strapped up +to their gay waistcoats over their white corduroys. Their wives +and daughters were in enormous bonnets, fluttering with ribbons; but +then what my mother and Emily wore were no trifles. The rest of +the congregation were - the male part of it - in white or gray smock-frocks, +the elderly women in black bonnets, the younger in straw; but we had +not long to make our observations, for Chapman took possession of us. +He was parish clerk, and was in great glory in his mourning coat and +hat, and his object was to marshal us all into our pew before he had +to attend upon the clergyman; and of course I was glad enough to get +as soon as possible out of sight of all the eyes not yet accustomed +to my figure.</p> +<p>And hidden enough I was when we had been introduced through the little +north chancel door into a black-curtained, black-cushioned, black-lined +pew, well carpeted, with a table in the midst, and a stove, whose pipe +made its exit through the floriated tracery of the window overhead. +The chancel arch was to the west of us, blocked up by a wooden parcel-gilt +erection, and to the east a decorated window that would have been very +handsome if two side-lights had not been obscured by the two Tables +of the Law, with the royal arms on the top of the first table, and over +the other our own, with the Fordyce in a scutcheon of pretence; for, +as an inscription recorded, they had been erected by Margaret, daughter +of Christopher Fordyce, Esquire, of Chantry House, and relict of Sir +James John Winslow, Kt., sergeant-at-law, A.D. 1700 - the last date, +I verily believe, at which anything had been done to the church. +And on the wall, stopping up the southern chancel window, was a huge +marble slab, supported by angels blowing trumpets, with a very long +inscription about the Fordyce family, ending with this same Margaret, +who had married the Winslow, lost two or three infants, and died on +1st January 1708, three years later than her husband.</p> +<p>Thus far I could see; but Griff was standing lifting the curtain, +and showing by the working of his shoulders his amazement and diversion, +so that only the daggers in my mother’s eyes kept Martyn from +springing up after him. What he beheld was an altar draped in +black like a coffin, and on the step up to the rail, boys and girls +eating apples and performing antics to beguile the waiting time, while +a row of white-smocked old men occupied the bench opposite to our seat, +conversing loud enough for us to hear them.</p> +<p>My father and Clarence came in; the bells stopped; there was a sound +of steps, and in the fabric in front of us there emerged a grizzled +head and the back of a very dirty surplice besprinkled with iron moulds, +while Chapman’s back appeared above our curtain, his desk (full +of dilapidated prayer-books) being wedged in between us and the reading-desk.</p> +<p>The duet that then took place between him and the curate must have +been heard to be credible, especially as, being so close behind the +old man, we could not fail to be aware of all the remarkable shots at +long words which he bawled out at the top of his voice, and I refrain +from recording, lest they should haunt others as they have done by me +all my life. Now and then Chapman caught up a long switch and +dashed out at some obstreperous child to give an audible whack; and +towards the close of the litany he stumped out - we heard his tramp +the whole length of the church, and by and by his voice issued from +an unknown height, proclaiming - ‘Let us sing to the praise and +glory in an anthem taken from the 42d chapter of Genesis.’</p> +<p>There was an outburst of bassoon, clarionet, and fiddle, and the +performance that followed was the most marvellous we had ever heard, +especially when the big butcher - fiddling all the time - declared in +a mighty solo, ‘I am Jo - Jo - Jo - Joseph!’ and having +reiterated this information four or five times, inquired with equal +pertinacity, ‘Doth - doth my fa-a-u-ther yet live?’ +Poor Emily was fairly ‘convulsed;’ she stuffed her handkerchief +into her mouth, and grew so crimson that my mother was quite frightened, +and very near putting her out at the little door of excommunication. +To our last hour we shall never forget the shock of that first anthem.</p> +<p>The Commandments were read from the desk, Chapman’s solitary +response coming from the gallery; and while the second singing - four +verses from Tate and Brady - was going on, we beheld the surplice stripped +off, - like the slough of a May-fly, as Griff said, - when a rusty black +gown was revealed, in which the curate ascended the pulpit and was lost +to our view before the concluding verse of the psalm, which we had reason +to believe was selected in compliment to us, as well as to Earlscombe, +-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘My lot is fall’n in that blest land<br /> Where +God is truly know,<br />He fills my cup with liberal hand;<br /> ’Tis +He - ’tis He - ’tis He - supports my throne.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>We had great reason to doubt how far the second line could justly +be applied to the parish! but there was no judging of the sermon, for +only detached sentences reached us in a sort of mumble. Griff +afterwards declared churchgoing to be as good as a comedy, and we all +had to learn to avoid meeting each other’s eyes, whatever we might +hear. When the scuffle and tramp of the departing congregation +had ceased, we came forth from our sable box, and beheld the remnants +of a once handsome church, mauled in every possible way, green stains +on the walls, windows bricked up, and a huge singing gallery. +Good bits of carved stall work were nailed anyhow into the pews; the +floor was uneven; no font was visible; there was a mouldy uncared-for +look about everything. The curate in riding-boots came out of +the vestry, - a pale, weary-looking man, painfully meek and civil, with +gray hair sleeked round his face. He ‘louted low,’ +and seemed hardly to venture on taking the hand my father held out to +him. There was some attempt to enter into conversation with him, +but he begged to be excused, for he had to hurry back to Wattlesea to +a funeral. Poor man! he was as great a pluralist as his vicar, +for he kept a boys’ school, partially day, partially boarding, +and his eyes looked hungrily at Martyn.</p> +<p>If the ‘sweet cottage bonnet’ had been at church there +would have been little chance of discovering her, but we found that +we were the only ‘quality,’ as Chapman called it, or things +might not have been so bad. Old James Winslow had been a mere +fox-hunting squire till he became a valetudinarian; nor had he ever +cared for the church or for the poor, so that the village was in a frightful +state of neglect. There was a dissenting chapel, old enough to +be overgrown with ivy and not too hideous, erected by the Nonconformists +in the reign of the Great Deliverer, but this partook of the general +decadence of the parish, and, as we found, the chapel’s principal +use was to serve as an excuse for not going to church.</p> +<p>My father always went to church twice, so he and Clarence walked +to Wattlesea, where appearances were more respectable; but they heard +the same sermon over again, and, as my father drily remarked, it was +not a composition that would bear repetition.</p> +<p>He was much distressed at the state of things, and intended to write +to the incumbent, though, as he said, whatever was done would end by +being at his own expense, and the move and other calls left him so little +in hand that he sighed over the difficulties, and declared that he was +better off in London, except for the honour of the thing. Perhaps +my mother was of the same opinion after a dreary afternoon, when Griff +and Martyn had been wandering about aimlessly, and were at length betrayed +by the barking of a little terrier, purchased the day before from Tom +Petty, besieging the stable cat, who stood with swollen tail, glaring +eyes, and thunderous growls, on the top of the tallest pillar of the +ruins. Emily nearly cried at their cruelty. Martyn was called +off by my mother, and set down, half sulky, half ashamed, to <i>Henry +and his Bearer</i>; and Griff, vowing that he believed it was that brute +who made the row at night, and that she ought to be exterminated, strolled +off to converse with Chapman, who was a quaint compound of clerk and +keeper - in the one capacity upholding his late master, in the other +bemoaning Mr. Mears’ unpunctualities, specially as regarded weddings +and funerals; one ‘corp’ having been kept waiting till a +messenger had been sent to Wattlesea, who finding both clergy out for +the day, had had to go to Hillside, ‘where they was always ready, +though the old Squire would have been mad with him if he’d a-guessed +one of they Fordys had ever set foot in the parish.’</p> +<p>The only school in the place was close to the meeting-house, ‘a +very dame’s school indeed,’ as Emily described it after +a peep on Monday. Dame Dearlove, the old woman who presided, was +a picture of Shenstone’s schoolmistress, - black bonnet, horn +spectacles, fearful birch rod, three-cornered buff ’kerchief, +checked apron and all, but on meddling with her, she proved a very dragon, +the antipodes of her name. Tattered copies of the <i>Universal +Spelling-Book</i> served her aristocracy, ragged Testaments the general +herd, whence all appeared to be shouting aloud at once. She looked +sour as verjuice when my mother and Emily entered, and gave them to +understand that ‘she wasn’t used to no strangers in her +school, and didn’t want ’em.’ We found that +in Chapman’s opinion she ‘didn’t larn ’em nothing.’ +She had succeeded her aunt, who had taught him to read ‘right +off,’ but ‘her baint to be compared with she.’ +And now the farmers’ children, and the little aristocracy, including +his own grand-children, - all indeed who, in his phrase, ‘cared +for eddication,’ - went to Wattlesea.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XI - ‘THEY FORDYS.’</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Of honourable reckoning are you both,<br />And pity ’tis, +you lived at odds so long.’</p> +<p>SHAKESPEARE.</p> +<p>My father had a good deal of business in hand, and was glad of Clarence’s +help in writing and accounts, - a great pleasure, though it prevented +his being Griff’s companion in his exploring and essays at shooting. +He had time, however, to make an expedition with me in the donkey chair +to inquire after the herdboy, Amos Bell, and carry him some kitchen +physic. To our horror we found him quite alone in the wretched +cottage, while everybody was out harvesting; but he did not seem to +pity himself, or think it otherwise than quite natural, as he lay on +a little bed in the corner, disabled by what Clarence thought a dislocation. +Miss Ellen had brought him a pudding, and little Miss Anne a picture-book.</p> +<p>He was not so dense and shy as the children of the hamlet near us, +and Emily extracted from him that Miss Ellen was ‘Our passon’s +young lady.’</p> +<p>‘Mr. Mears’!’ she exclaimed.</p> +<p>‘No: ourn be Passon Fordy.’</p> +<p>It turned out that this place was not in Earlscombe at all, but in +Hillside, a different parish; and the boy, Amos, further communicated +that there was old Passon Fordy, and Passon Frank, and Madam, what was +Mr. Frank’s lady. Yes, he could read, he could; he went +to Sunday School, and was in Miss Ellen’s class; he had been to +school worky days, only father was dead, and Farmer Hartop gave him +a job.</p> +<p>It was plain that Hillside was under a very different rule from Earlscombe; +and Emily was delighted to have discovered that the sweet cottage bonnet’s +owner was called Ellen, which just then was the pet Christian name of +romance, in honour of the <i>Lady of the Lake.</i></p> +<p>In the midst of her raptures, however, just as we were about to turn +in at our own gate into the wood, we heard horses’ hoofs, and +then came, careering by on ponies, a very pretty girl and a youth of +about the same age. Clarence’s hand rose to his hat, and +he made his eager bow; but the young lady did not vouchsafe the slightest +acknowledgment, turned her head away, and urged her pony to speed.</p> +<p>Emily broke out with an angry disappointed exclamation. Clarence’s +face was scarlet, and he said low and hoarsely, ‘That’s +Lester. He was in the <i>Argus</i> at Portsmouth two years ago;’ +- and then, as our little sister continued her indignant exclamations, +he added, ‘Hush! Don’t on any account say a word about +it. I had better get back to my work. I am only doing you +harm by staying here.’</p> +<p>At which Emily shed tears, and together we persuaded him not to curtail +his holiday, which, indeed, he could not have done without assigning +the reason to the elders, and this was out of the question. Nor +did he venture to hang back when, as our service was to be on Sunday +afternoon, my father proposed to walk to Hillside Church in the morning. +They came back well pleased. There was care and decency throughout. +The psalms were sung to a ‘grinder organ’ - which was an +advanced state of things in those days - and very nicely. Parson +Frank read well and impressively, and the old parson, a fine venerable +man, had preached an excellent sermon - really admirable, as my father +repeated. Our party had been scarcely in time, and had been disposed +of in seats close to the door, where Clarence was quite out of sight +of the disdainful young lady and her squire, of whom Emily begged to +hear no more.</p> +<p>She looked askance at the cards left on the hall table the next day +- ‘The Rev. Christopher Fordyce,’ and ‘The Rev. F. +C. Fordyce,’ also ‘Mrs. F. C. Fordyce, Hillside Rectory.’</p> +<p>We had found out that Hillside was a family living, and that there +was much activity there on the part of the father and son - rector and +curate; and that the other clerical folk, ladies especially, who called +on us, spoke of Mrs. F. C. Fordyce with a certain tone, as if they were +afraid of her, as Sir Horace Lester’s sister, - very superior, +very active, very strict in her notions, - as if these were so many +defects. They were an offshoot of the old Fordyces of Chantry +House, but so far back that all recollection of kindred or connection +must have worn out. Their property - all in beautiful order - +marched with ours, and Chapman was very particular about the boundaries. +‘Old master he wouldn’t have a bird picked up if it fell +over on they Fordys’ ground - not he! He couldn’t +abide passons, couldn’t the old Squire - not Miss Hannah More, +and all they Cheddar lot, and they Fordys least of all. My son’s +wife, she was for sending her little maid to Hillside to Madam Fordys’ +school, but, bless your heart, ’twould have been as much as my +place was worth if master had known it.’</p> +<p>The visit was not returned till after Clarence had gone back to his +London work. Sore as was the loss of him from my daily life, I +could see that the new world and fresh acquaintances were a trial to +him, and especially since the encounter with young Lester had driven +him back into his shell, so that he would be better where he was already +known and had nothing new to overcome. Emily, though not yet sixteen, +was emancipated from schoolroom habits, and the dear girl was my devoted +slave to an extent that perhaps I abused.</p> +<p>Not being ‘come out,’ she was left at home on the day +when we set out on a regular progress in the chariot with post-horses. +The britshka and pair, which were our ambition, were to wait till my +father’s next rents came in. Morning calls in the country +were a solemn and imposing ceremony, and the head of the family had +to be taken on the first circuit; nor was there much scruple as to making +them in the forenoon, so several were to be disposed of before fulfilling +an engagement to luncheon at the farthest point, where some old London +friends had borrowed a house for the summer, and had included me in +their invitation.</p> +<p>Here alone did I leave the carriage, but I had Cooper’s <i>Spy</i> +and my sketch-book as companions while waiting at doors where the inhabitants +were at home. The last visit was at Hillside Rectory, a house +of architecture somewhat similar to our own, but of the soft creamy +stone which so well set off the vine with purple clusters, the myrtles +and fuchsias, that covered it. I was wishing we had drawn up far +enough off for a sketch to be possible, when, from a window close above, +I heard the following words in a clear girlish voice -</p> +<p>‘No, indeed! I’m not going down. It is only +those horrid Earlscombe people. I can’t think how they have +the face to come near us!’</p> +<p>There was a reply, perhaps that the parents had made the first visit, +for the rejoinder was - ‘Yes; grandpapa said it was a Christian +duty to make an advance; but they need not have come so soon. +Indeed, I wonder they show themselves at all. I am sure I would +not if I had such a dreadful son.’ Presently, ‘I hate +to think of it. That I should have thanked him. Depend upon +it, he will never pay the doctor. A coward like that is capable +of anything.’</p> +<p>The proverb had been realised, but there could hardly have been a +more involuntary or helpless listener. Presently my parents came +back, escorted by both the gentlemen of the house, tall fine-looking +men, the elder with snowy hair, and the dignity of men of the old school; +the younger with a joyous, hearty, out-of-door countenance, more like +a squire than a clergyman.</p> +<p>The visit seemed to have been gratifying. Mrs. Fordyce was +declared to be of higher stamp than most of the neighbouring ladies; +and my father was much pleased with the two clergymen, while as we drove +along he kept on admiring the well-ordered fields and fences, and contrasting +the pretty cottages and trim gardens with the dreary appearance of our +own village. I asked why Amos Bell’s home had been neglected, +and was answered with some annoyance, as I pointed down the lane, that +it was on our land, though in Hillside parish. ‘I am glad +to have such neighbours!’ observed my mother, and I kept to myself +the remarks I had heard, though I was still tingling with the sting +of them.</p> +<p>We heard no more of ‘they Fordys’ for some time. +The married pair went away to stay with friends, and we only once met +the old gentleman, when I was waiting in the street at Wattlesea in +the donkey chair, while my mother was trying to match netting silk in +the odd little shop that united fancy work, toys, and tracts with the +post office. Old Mr. Fordyce met us as we drew up, handed her +out with a grand seigneur’s courtesy, and stood talking to me +so delightfully that I quite forgot it was from Christian duty.</p> +<p>My father corresponded with the old Rector about the state of the +parish, and at last went over to Bath for a personal conference, but +without much satisfaction. The Earlscombe people were pronounced +to be an ungrateful good-for-nothing set, for whom it was of no use +to do anything; and indeed my mother made such discoveries in the cottages +that she durst not let Emily fulfil her cherished scheme of visiting +them. The only resemblance to the favourite heroines of religious +tales that could be permitted was assembling a tiny Sunday class in +Chapman’s lodge; and it must be confessed that her brothers thought +she made as much fuss about it as if there had been a hundred scholars.</p> +<p>However, between remonstrances and offers of undertaking a share +of the expense, my father managed to get Mr. Mears’ services dispensed +with from the ensuing Lady Day, and that a resident curate should be +appointed, the choice of whom was to rest with himself. It was +then and there decided that Martyn should be ‘brought up to the +Church,’ as people then used to term destination to Holy Orders. +My father said he should feel justified in building a good house when +he could afford it, if it was to be a provision for one of his sons, +and he also felt that as he had the charge of the parish as patron, +it was right and fitting to train one of his sons up to take care of +it. Nor did Martyn show any distaste to the idea, as indeed there +was less in it then than at present to daunt the imagination of an honest, +lively boy, not as yet specially thoughtful or devout, but obedient, +truthful, and fairly reverent, and ready to grow as he was trained.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XII - MRS. SOPHIA’S FEUD</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘O’er all there hung the shadow of a fear,<br /> A +sense of mystery the spirit daunted,<br />And said as plain as whisper +in the ear,<br /> The place is haunted.’</p> +<p>HOOD.</p> +<p>We had a houseful at Christmas. The Rev. Charles Henderson, +a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, lately ordained a deacon, had been +recommended to us by our London vicar, and was willing not only to take +charge of the parish, but to direct my studies, and to prepare Martyn +for school. He came to us for the Christmas vacation to reconnoitre +and engage lodgings at a farmhouse. We liked him very much - my +mother being all the better satisfied after he had shown her a miniature, +and confided to her that the original was waiting till a college living +should come to him in the distant future.</p> +<p>Admiral Griffith could not tear himself from his warm rooms and his +club, but our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, came with his wife, +and revelled in the ceilings of the mullion room, where he would much +have liked to sleep, but that its accommodations were only fit for a +bachelor.</p> +<p>Our other visitor was Miss Selby, or rather Mrs. Sophia Selby, as +she designated herself, according to the becoming fashion of elderly +spinsters, which to my mind might be gracefully resumed. It irked +my father to think of the good lady’s solitary Christmas at Bath, +and he asked her to come to us. She travelled half-way in a post-chaise, +and then was met by the carriage. A very nice old lady she was, +with a meek, delicate babyish face, which could not be spoilt by the +cap of the period, one of the most disfiguring articles of head gear +ever devised, though nobody thought so then. She was full of kindness; +indeed, if she had a fault it was the abundant pity she lavished on +me, and her determination to amuse me. The weather was of the +kind that only the healthy and hardy could encounter, and when every +one else was gone out, and I was just settling in with a new book, or +an old crabbed Latin document, that Mr. Stafford had entrusted to me +to copy out fairly and translate, she would glide in with her worsted +work on a charitable mission to enliven poor Mr. Edward.</p> +<p>However, this was the means of my obtaining some curious enlightenments. +A dinner-party was in contemplation, and she was dismayed at the choice +of the fashionable London hour of seven, and still more by finding that +the Fordyces were to be among the guests. She was too well-bred +to manifest her feelings to her hosts, but alone with me, she could +not refrain from expressing her astonishment to me, all the more when +she heard this was reciprocity for an invitation that it had not been +possible to accept. Her poor dear uncle would never hear of intercourse +with Hillside. On being asked why, she repeated what Chapman had +said, that he could not endure any one connected with Mrs. Hannah More +and her canting, humbugging set, as the ungodly old man had chosen to +call them, imbuing even this good woman with evil prejudices against +their noble work at Cheddar.</p> +<p>‘Besides this, Fordyces and Winslows could never be friends, +since the Fordyces had taken on themselves to dispute the will, and +say it had been improperly obtained.’</p> +<p>‘What will?’</p> +<p>‘Mrs. Winslow’s - Margaret Fordyce that was. She +was the heiress, and had every right to dispose of her property.’</p> +<p>‘But that was more than a hundred years ago!’</p> +<p>‘So it was, my dear; but though the law gave it to us - to +my uncle’s grandfather (or great-grandfather, was it?) - those +Fordyces never could rest content. Why, one of them - a clergyman’s +son too - shot young Philip Winslow dead in a duel. They have +always grudged at us. Does your papa know it, my dear Mr. Edward? +He ought to be aware.’</p> +<p>‘I do not know,’ I said; ‘but he would hardly care +about what happened in the time of Queen Anne.’</p> +<p>It was curious to see how the gentle little lady espoused the family +quarrel, which, after all, was none of hers.</p> +<p>‘Well, you are London people, and the other branch, and may +not feel as we do down here; but I shall always say that Madam Winslow’s +husband’s son had every right to come before her cousin once removed.’</p> +<p>I asked if we were descended from her, for, having a turn for heraldry +and genealogy, I wanted to make out our family tree. Mrs. Sophia +was ready to hold up her hands at the ignorance of the ‘other +branch.’ This poor heiress had lost all her children in +their infancy, and bequeathed the estate to her stepson, the Fordyce +male heir having been endowed by her father with the advowson of Hillside +and a handsome estate there, which Mrs. Selby thought ought to have +contented him, ‘but some people never know when they have enough;’ +and, on my observing that it might have been a matter of justice, she +waxed hotter, declaring that what the Winslows felt so much was the +accusation of violence against the poor lady. She spoke as if +it were a story of yesterday, and added, ‘Indeed, they made the +common people have all sorts of superstitious fancies about the room +where she died - that old part of the house.’ Then she added +in a low mysterious voice, ‘I hear that your brother Mr. Griffith +Winslow could not sleep there;’ and when the rats and the wind +were mentioned - ‘Yes, that was what my poor dear uncle used to +say. He always called it nonsense; but we never had a servant +who would sleep there. You’ll not mention it, Mr. Edward, +but I could not help asking that very nice housemaid, Jane, whether +the room was used, and she said how Mr. Griffith had given it up, and +none of the servants could spend a night there when they are sleeping +round. Of course I said all in my power to dispel the idea, and +told her that there was no accounting for all the noises in old houses; +but you never can reason with that class of people.’</p> +<p>‘Did you ever hear the noises, Mrs. Selby?’</p> +<p>‘Oh, no; I wouldn’t sleep there for thousands! +Not that I attach any importance to such folly, - my poor dear uncle +would never hear of such a thing; but I am such a nervous creature, +I should lie awake all night expecting the rats to run over me. +I never knew of any one sleeping there, except in the gay times when +I was a child, and the house used to be as full as, or fuller than, +it could hold, for the hunt breakfast or a ball, and my poor aunt used +to make up ever so many beds in the two rooms, and then we never heard +of any disturbance, except what they made themselves.’</p> +<p>This chiefly concerned me, because home cosseting had made me old +woman enough to be uneasy about unaired beds; and I knew that my mother +meant to consign Clarence to the mullion chamber. So, without +betraying Jane, I spoke to her, and was answered, ‘Oh, sir, I’ll +take care of that; I’ll light a fire and air the mattresses well. +I wish that was all, poor young gentleman!’</p> +<p>To the reply that the rats were slaughtered and the wind stopped +out, Jane returned a look of compassion; but the subject was dropped, +as it was supposed to be the right thing to hush up, instead of fostering, +any popular superstition; but it surprised me that, as all our servants +were fresh importations, they should so soon have become imbued with +these undefined alarms.</p> +<p>My father was much amused at being successor to this family feud, +and said that when he had time he would look up the documents.</p> +<p>Mrs. Sophia was a sight when Mr. Fordyce and his son and daughter-in-law +were announced; she was so comically stiff between her deference to +her hosts and her allegiance to her poor dear uncle; but her coldness +melted before the charms of old Mr. Fordyce, who was one of the most +delightful people in the world. She even was his partner at whist, +and won the game, and that she <i>did</i> like.</p> +<p>Parson Frank, as we naughty young ones called him, was all good-nature +and geniality - a thorough clergyman after the ideas of the time, and +a thorough farmer too; and in each capacity, as well as in politics, +he suited my father or Mr. Henderson. His lady, in a blonde cap, +exactly like the last equipment my mother had provided herself with +in London, and a black satin dress, had much more style than the more +gaily-dressed country dames, and far more conversation. Mr. Stafford, +who had dreaded the party, pronounced her a sensible, agreeable woman, +and she was particularly kind and pleasant to me, coming and talking +over the botany of the country, and then speaking of my brother’s +kindness to poor Amos Bell, who was nearly recovered, but was a weakly +child, for whom she dreaded the toil of a ploughboy in thick clay with +heavy shoes.</p> +<p>I was sorry when, after Emily’s well-studied performance on +the piano, Mrs. Fordyce was summoned away from me to sing, but her music +and her voice were both of a very different order from ordinary drawing-room +music; and when our evening was over, we congratulated ourselves upon +our neighbours, and agreed that the Fordyces were the gems of the party.</p> +<p>Only Mrs. Sophia sighed at us as degenerate Winslows, and Emily reserved +to herself the right of believing that the daughter was ‘a horrid +girl.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII - A SCRAPE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Though bound with weakness’ heavy chain<br />We in the +dust of earth remain;<br />Not all remorseful be our tears,<br />No +agony of shame or fears,<br />Need pierce its passion’s bitter +tide.’</p> +<p><i>Verses and Sonnets.</i></p> +<p>Perhaps it was of set purpose that our dinner. party had been given +before Clarence’s return. Griffith had been expected in +time for it, but he had preferred going by way of London to attend a +ball given by the daughter of a barrister friend of my father’s. +Selina Clarkson was a fine showy girl, with the sort of beauty to inspire +boyish admiration, and Griff’s had been a standing family joke, +even my father condescending to tease him when the young lady married +Sir Henry Peacock, a fat vulgar old man who had made his fortune in +the commissariat, and purchased a baronetcy. He was allowing his +young wife her full swing of fashion and enjoyment. My mother +did not think it a desirable acquaintance, and was restless until both +the brothers came home together, long after dark on Christmas Eve, having +been met by the gig at the corner where the coach stopped. The +dinner-hour had been put off till half-past six, and we had to wait +for them, the coach having been delayed by setting down Christmas guests +and Christmas fare. They were a contrast; Griffith looking very +handsome and manly, all in a ruddy glow from the frosty air, and Clarence, +though equally tall, well-made, and with more refined features, looked +pale and effaced, now that his sailor tan was worn off. The one +talked as eagerly as he ate, the other was shy, spiritless, and with +little appetite; but as he always shrank into himself among strangers, +it was the less wonder that he sat in his drooping way behind my sofa, +while Griffith kept us all merry with his account of the humours of +the ‘Peacock at home;’ the lumbering efforts of old Sir +Henry to be as young and gay as his wife, in spite of gout and portliness; +and the extreme delight of his lady in her new splendours - a gold spotted +muslin and white plumes in a diamond agraffe. He mimicked Sir +Henry’s cockneyisms more than my father’s chivalry approved +towards his recent host, as he described the complaints he had heard +against ‘my Lady being refused the hentry at Halmack’s, +but treated like the wery canal;’ and how the devoted husband +‘wowed he would get up a still more hexclusive circle, and shut +hout these himpertinent fashionables who regarded Halmack’s as +the seventh ’eaven.’</p> +<p>My mother shook her head at his audacious fun about Paradise and +the Peri, but he was so brilliant and good-humoured that no one was +ever long displeased with him. At night he followed when Clarence +helped me to my room, and carefully shutting the door, Griff began. +‘Now, Teddy, you’re always as rich as a Jew, and I told +Bill you’d help him to set it straight. I’d do it +myself, but that I’m cleaned out. I’d give ten times +the cash rather than see him with that hang-dog look again for just +nothing at all, if he would only believe so and be rational.’</p> +<p>Clarence did look indescribably miserable while it was explained +that he had been commissioned to receive about £20 which was owing +to my father, and to discharge therewith some small debts to London +tradesmen. All except the last, for a little more than four pounds, +had been paid, when Clarence met in the street an old messmate, a good-natured +rattle-pated youth, - one of those who had thought him harshly treated. +There was a cordial greeting, and an invitation to dine at once at a +hotel, where they were joined by some other young men, and by and by +betook themselves to cards, when my poor brother’s besetting enemy +prevented him from withdrawing when he found the points were guineas. +Thus he lost the remaining amount in his charge, and so much of his +own that barely enough was left for his journey. His salary was +not due till Lady Day; Mr. Castleford was in the country, and no advances +could be asked from Mr. Frith. Thus Griff had found him in utter +despair, and had ever since been trying to cheer him and make light +of his trouble. If I advanced the amount, which was no serious +matter to me, Clarence could easily get Peter to pay the bill, and if +my father should demand the receipt too soon, it would be easy to put +him off by saying there had been a delay in getting the account sent +in.</p> +<p>‘I couldn’t do that,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘Well, I should not have thought you would have stuck at that,’ +returned Griff.</p> +<p>‘There must be no untruth,’ I broke in; ‘but if +without <i>that</i>, he can avoid getting into a scrape with papa - +’</p> +<p>Clarence interrupted in the wavering voice we knew so well, but growing +clearer and stronger.</p> +<p>‘Thank you, Edward, but - but - no, I can’t. There’s +the Sacrament to-morrow.’</p> +<p>‘Oh - h!’ said Griff, in an indescribable tone. +But he will never believe you, nor let you go.’</p> +<p>‘Better so,’ said Clarence, half choked, ‘than +go profanely - deceiving - or not knowing whether I shall - ’</p> +<p>Just then we heard our father wishing the other gentlemen good-night, +and to our surprise Clarence opened the door, though he was deadly white +and with dew starting on his forehead.</p> +<p>My father turned good-naturedly. ‘Boys, boys, you are +glad to be together, but mamma won’t have you talking here all +night, keeping her baby up.’</p> +<p>‘Sir,’ said Clarence, holding by the rail of the bed, +‘I was waiting for you. I have something to tell you - ’</p> +<p>The words that followed were incoherent and wrong end foremost; nor +had many, indeed, been uttered before my father cut them short with +-</p> +<p>‘No false excuses, sir; I know you too well to listen. +Go. I have ceased to hope for anything better.’</p> +<p>Clarence went without a word, but Griff and I burst out with entreaties +to be listened to. Our father thought at first that ours were +only the pleadings of partiality, and endeavours to shield the brother +we both so heartily loved; but when he understood the circumstances, +the real amount of the transgression, and Clarence’s rejection +of our united advice and assistance to conceal it, he was greatly touched +and softened. ‘Poor lad! poor fellow!’ he muttered, +‘he is really doing his best. I need not have cut him so +short. I was afraid of more falsehoods if I let him open his mouth. +I’ll go and see.’</p> +<p>He went off, and we remained in suspense, Griff observing that he +had done his best, but poor Bill always would be a fool, and that no +one who had not always lived at home like me would have let out that +we had been for the suppression policy. As I was rather shocked, +he went off to bed, saying he should look in to see what remained of +Clarence after the pelting of the pitiless storm he was sure to bring +on himself by his ridiculous faltering instead of speaking out like +a man.</p> +<p>I longed to have been able to do the same, but my father kindly came +back to relieve my mind by telling me that he was better satisfied about +Clarence than ever he had been before. When encouraged to speak +out, the narrative of the temptation had so entirely agreed with what +we had said as to show there had been no prevarication, and this had +done more to convince my father that he was on the right track than +the having found him on his knees. He had had a patient hearing, +and thus was able to command his nerves enough to explain himself, and +it had ended in my father giving entire forgiveness for what, as Griff +truly said, would have been a mere trifle but for the past. The +voluntary confession had much impressed my father, and he could not +help adding a word of gentle reproof to me for having joined in aiding +him to withhold it, but he accepted my explanation and went away, observing, +‘By the by, I don’t wonder at what Griffith says of that +room; I never heard such strange effects of currents of air.’</p> +<p>Clarence was in my room before I was drest, full of our father’s +‘wonderful goodness’ to him. He had never experienced +anything like it, he said. ‘Why! he really seemed hopeful +about me,’ were words uttered with a gladness enough to go to +one’s heart. ‘O Edward, I feel as if there was some +chance of “steadfastly purposing” this time.’</p> +<p>It was not the way of the family to say much of religious feeling, +and this was much for Clarence to utter. He looked white and tired, +but there was an air of rest and peace about him, above all when my +mother met him with a very real kiss. Moreover, Mr. Castleford +had taken care to brighten our Christmas with a letter expressive of +great satisfaction with Clarence for steadiness and intelligence. +Even Mr. Frith allowed that he was the most punctual of all those young +dogs.</p> +<p>‘I do believe,’ said my father, ‘that his piety +is doing him some good after all.’</p> +<p>So our mutual wishes of a happy Christmas were verified, though not +much according to the notions of this half of the century. People +made their Christmas day either mere merriment, or something little +different from the grave Sunday of that date. And ours, except +for the Admiral’s dining with us, had always been of the latter +description, all the more that when celebrations of the Holy Communion +were so rare they were treated with an awe and reverence which frequency +has perhaps diminished, and a feeling (possibly Puritanical) prevailed +which made it appear incongruous to end with festivity a day so begun. +That we had a Christmas Day Communion at all at Earlscombe was an innovation +only achieved by Mr. Henderson going to assist the old Rector at Wattlesea; +and there were no communicants except from our house, besides Chapman, +his daughter-in-law, and five old creatures between whom the alms were +immediately divided. We afterwards learnt that our best farmer +and his wife were much disappointed at the change from Sunday interfering +with the family jollification; and Mrs. Sophia Selby was annoyed at +the contradiction to her habits under the rule of her poor dear uncle.</p> +<p>Of the irregularities, irreverences, and squalor of the whole I will +not speak. They were not then such stumbling-blocks as they would +be now, and many passed unperceived by us, buried as we were in our +big pew, with our eyes riveted on our books; yet even thus there was +enough evident to make my mother rejoice that Mr. Henderson would be +with us before Easter. Still this could not mar the thankful gladness +that was with us all that day, and which shone in Clarence’s eyes. +His countenance always had a remarkable expression in church, as if +somehow his spirit went farther than ours did, and things unseen were +more real to him.</p> +<p>Hillside, as usual, had two services, and my father and his friend +were going to walk thither in the afternoon, but it was a raw cold day, +threatening snow, and Emily was caught by my mother in the hail and +ordered back, as well as Clarence, who had shown symptoms of having +caught cold on his dismal journey. Emily coaxed from her permission +to have a fire in the bookroom, and there we three had a memorably happy +time. We read our psalms and lessons, and our <i>Christian Year</i>, +which was more and more the lodestar of our feelings. We compared +our favourite passages, and discussed the obscurer ones, and Clarence +was led to talk out more of his heart than he had ever shown to us before. +Perhaps he had lost some of his reserve through his intercourse with +our good old governess, Miss Newton, who was still grinding away at +her daily mill, though with somewhat failing eyesight, so that she could +do nothing but knit in the long evenings, and was most grateful to her +former pupil for coming, as often as he could, to talk or read to her.</p> +<p>She was a most excellent and devout woman, and when Emily, who in +youthful <i>gaieté de cœur</i> had got a little tired of +her, exclaimed at his taste, and asked if she made him read nothing +but Pike’s Early <i>Piety</i>, he replied gravely, ‘She +showed me where to lay my burthen down,’ and turned to the two +last verses of the poem for ‘Good Friday’ in the <i>Christian +Year</i>, as well as to the one we had just read on the Holy Communion.</p> +<p>My father’s kindness had seemed to him the pledge of the Heavenly +Father’s forgiveness; and he added, perhaps a little childishly, +that it had been his impulse to promise never to touch a card again, +but that he dreaded the only too familiar reply, ‘What availed +his promises?’</p> +<p>‘Do promise, Clarry!’ cried Emily, ‘and then you +won’t have to play with that tiresome old Mrs. Sophia.’</p> +<p>‘That would rather deter me,’ said Clarence good-humouredly.</p> +<p>‘A card-playing old age is despicable,’ pronounced Miss +Emily, much to our amusement.</p> +<p>After that we got into a bewilderment. We knew nothing of the +future question of temperance <i>versus</i> total abstinence; but after +it had been extracted that Miss Newton regarded cards as the devil’s +books, the inconsistent little sister changed sides, and declared it +narrow and evangelical to renounce what was innocent. Clarence +argued that what might be harmless for others might be dangerous for +such as himself, and that his real difficulty in making even a mental +vow was that, if broken, there was an additional sin.</p> +<p>‘It is not oneself that one trusts,’ I said.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Clarence emphatically; ‘and setting +up a vow seems as if it might be sticking up the reed of one’s +own word, and leaning on <i>that</i> - when it breaks, at least mine +does. If I could always get the grasp of Him that I felt to-day, +there would be no more bewildered heart and failing spirit, which are +worse than the actual falls they cause.’ And as Emily said +she did not understand, he replied in words I wrote down and thought +over, ‘What we <i>are</i> is the point, more than even what we +<i>do</i>. We <i>do</i> as we <i>are</i>; and yet we form ourselves +by what we <i>do</i>.’</p> +<p>‘And,’ I put in, ‘I know somebody who won a victory +last night over himself and his two brothers. Surely <i>doing</i> +that is a sign that he <i>is</i> more than he used to be.’</p> +<p>‘If he were, it would not have been an effort at all,’ +said Clarence, but with his rare sweet smile.</p> +<p>Just then Griff called him away, and Emily sat pondering and impressed. +‘It did seem so odd,’ she said, ‘that Clarry should +be so much the best, and yet so much the worst of us.’</p> +<p>I agreed. His insight into spiritual things, and his enjoyment +of them, always humiliated us both, yet he fell so much lower in practice, +- ‘But then we had not his temptations.’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ said Emily; ‘but look at Griff! He +goes about like other young men, and keeps all right, and yet he doesn’t +care about religious things a bit more than he can help.’</p> +<p>It was quite true. Religion was life to the one and an insurance +to the other, and this had been a mystery to us all our young lives, +as far as we had ever reflected on the contrast between the practical +failure and success of each. Our mother, on the other hand, viewed +Clarence’s tendencies as part of an unreal, self-deceptive nature, +and regretted his intimacy with Miss Newton, who, she said, had fostered +‘that kind of thing’ in his childhood - made him fancy talk, +feeling, and preaching were more than truth and honour - and might lead +him to run after Irving, Rowland Hill, or Baptist Noel, about whose +tenets she was rather confused. It would be an additional misfortune +if he became a fanatical Evangelical light, and he was just the character +to be worked upon.</p> +<p>My father held that she might be thankful for any good influence +or safe resort for a young man in lodgings in London, and he merely +bade Clarence never resort to any variety of dissenting preacher. +We were of the school called - a little later - high and dry, but were +strictly orthodox according to our lights, and held it a prime duty +to attend our parish church, whatever it might be; nor, indeed, had +Clarence swerved from these traditions.</p> +<p>Poor Mrs. Sophia was baulked of the game at whist, which she viewed +as a legitimate part of the Christmas pleasures; and after we had eaten +our turkey, we found the evening long, except that Martyn escaped to +snapdragon with the servants; and, by and by, Chapman, magnificent in +patronage, ushered in the church singers into the hall, and clarionet, +bassoon, and fiddle astonished our ears.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV - THE MULLION CHAMBER</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘A lady with a lamp I see,<br />Pass through the glimmering +gloom,<br /> And flit from room to room.’</p> +<p>LONGFELLOW.</p> +<p>For want of being able to take exercise, the first part of the night +had always been sleepless with me, though my dear mother thought it +wrong to recognise the habit or allow me a lamp. A fire, however, +I had, and by its light, on the second night after Christmas, I saw +my door noiselessly opened, and Clarence creeping in half-dressed and +barefooted. To my frightened interrogation the answer came, through +chattering teeth, ‘It’s I - only I - Ted - no - nothing’s +the matter, only I can’t stand it any longer!’</p> +<p>His hands were cold as ice when he grasped mine, as if to get hold +of something substantial, and he trembled so as to shake the bed. +‘That room,’ he faltered. ‘’Tis not only +the moans! I’ve seen her!’</p> +<p>‘Whom?’</p> +<p>‘I don’t know. There she stands with her lamp, +crying!’ I could scarcely distinguish the words through +the clashing of his teeth, and as I threw my arms round him the shudder +seemed to pass to me; but I did my best to warm him by drawing the clothes +over him, and he began to gather himself together, and speak intelligibly. +There had been sounds the first night as of wailing, but he had been +too much preoccupied to attend to them till, soon after one o’clock, +they ended in a heavy fall and long shriek, after which all was still. +Christmas night had been undisturbed, but on this the voices had begun +again at eleven, and had a strangely human sound; but as it was windy, +sleety weather, and he had learnt at sea to disregard noises in the +rigging, he drew the sheet over his head and went to sleep. ‘I +was dreaming that I was at sea,’ he said, ‘as I always do +on a noisy night, but this was not a dream. I was wakened by a +light in the room, and there stood a woman with a lamp, moaning and +sobbing. My first notion was that one of the maids had come to +call me, and I sat up; but I could not speak, and she gave another awful +suppressed cry, and moved towards that walled-up door. Then I +saw it was none of the servants, for it was an antique dress like an +old picture. So I knew what it must be, and an unbearable horror +came over me, and I rushed into the outer room, where there was a little +fire left; but I heard her going on still, and I could endure it no +longer. I knew you would be awake and would bear with me, so I +came down to you.’</p> +<p>Then this was what Chapman and the maids had meant. This was +Mrs. Sophia Selby’s vulgar superstition! I found that Clarence +had heard none of the mysterious whispers afloat, and only knew that +Griff had deserted the room after his own return to London. I +related what I had learnt from the old lady, and in that midnight hour +we agreed that it could be no mere fancy or rumour, but that cruel wrong +must have been done in that chamber. Our feeling was that all +ought to be made known, and in that impression we fell asleep, Clarence +first.</p> +<p>By and by I found him moving. He had heard the clock strike +four, and thought it wiser to repair to his own quarters, where he believed +the disturbance was over. Lucifer matches as yet were not, but +he had always been a noiseless being, with a sailor’s foot, so +that, by the help of the moonlight through the hall windows, he regained +his room.</p> +<p>And when morning had come, the nocturnal visitation wore such a different +aspect to both our minds that we decided to say nothing to our parents, +who, said Clarence, would simply disbelieve him; and, indeed, I inclined +to suppose it had been an uncommonly vivid dream, produced in that sensitive +nature by the uncanny sounds of the wind in the chinks and crannies +of the ancient chamber. Had not Scott’s <i>Demonology and +Witchcraft</i>, which we studied hard on that day, proved all such phantoms +to be explicable? The only person we told was Griff, who was amused +and incredulous. He had heard the noises - oh yes! and objected +to having his sleep broken by them. It was too had to expose Clarence +to them - poor Bill - on whom they worked such fancies!</p> +<p>He interrogated Chapman, however, but probably in that bantering +way which is apt to produce reserve. Chapman never ‘gave +heed to them fictious tales,’ he said; but, when hard pressed, +he allowed that he had ‘heerd that a lady do walk o’ winter +nights,’ and that was why the garden door of the old rooms was +walled up. Griff asked if this was done for fear she should catch +cold, and this somewhat affronted him, so that he averred that he knew +nought about it, and gave no thought to such like.</p> +<p>Just then they arrived at the Winslow Arms, and took each a glass +of ale, when Griff, partly to tease Chapman, asked the landlady - an +old Chantry House servant - whether she had ever met the ghost. +She turned rather pale, which seemed to have impressed him, and demanded +if he had seen it. ‘It always walked at Christmas time - +between then and the New Year.’ She had once seen a light +in the garden by the ruin in winter-time, and once last spring it came +along the passage, but that was just before the old Squire was took +for death, - folks said that was always the way before any of the family +died - ‘if you’ll excuse it, sir.’ Oh no, she +thought nothing of such things, but she had heard tell that the noises +were such at all times of the year that no one could sleep in the rooms, +but the light wasn’t to be seen except at Christmas.</p> +<p>Griff with the philosophy of a university man, was certain that all +was explained by Clarence having imbibed the impression of the place +being haunted; and going to sleep nervous at the noises, his brain had +shaped a phantom in accordance. Let Clarence declare as he might +that the legends were new to him, Griff only smiled to think how easily +people forgot, and he talked earnestly about catching ideas without +conscious information.</p> +<p>However, he volunteered to sit up that night to ascertain the exact +causes of the strange noises and convince Clarence that they were nothing +but the effects of draughts. The fire in his gunroom was surreptitiously +kept up to serve for the vigil, which I ardently desired to share. +It was an enterprise; it would gratify my curiosity; and besides, though +Griffith was good-natured and forbearing in a general way towards Clarence, +I detected a spirit of mockery about him which might break out unpleasantly +when poor Clarry was convicted of one of his unreasonable panics.</p> +<p>Both brothers were willing to gratify me, the only difficulty being +that the tap of my crutches would warn the entire household of the expedition. +However, they had - all unknown to my mother - several times carried +me about queen’s cushion fashion, as, being always much of a size, +they could do most handily; and as both were now fine, strong, well-made +youths of twenty and nineteen, they had no doubt of easily and silently +conveying me up the shallow-stepped staircase when all was quiet for +the night.</p> +<p>Emily, with her sharp ears, guessed that something was in hand, but +we promised her that she should know all in time. I believe Griff, +being a little afraid of her quickness, led her to suppose he was going +to hold what he called a symposium in his rooms, and to think it a mystery +of college life not intended for young ladies.</p> +<p>He really had prepared a sort of supper for us when, after my father’s +resounding turn of the key of the drawing-room door, my brothers, in +their stocking soles, bore me upstairs, the fun of the achievement for +the moment overpowering all sense of eeriness. Griff said he could +not receive me in his apartment without doing honour to the occasion, +and that Dutch courage was requisite for us both; but I suspect it was +more in accordance with Oxford habits that he had provided a bottle +of sherry and another of ale, some brandy cherries, bread, cheese, and +biscuits, by what means I do not know, for my mother always locked up +the wine. He was disappointed that Clarence would touch nothing, +and declared that inanition was the preparation for ghost-seeing or +imagining. I drank his health in a glass of sherry as I looked +round at the curious old room, with its panelled roof, the heraldic +devices and badges of the Power family, and the trophy of swords, dirks, +daggers, and pistols, chiefly relics of our naval grandfather, but reinforced +by the sword, helmet, and spurs of the county Yeomanry which Griff had +joined.</p> +<p>Griff proposed cards to drive away fancies, especially as the sounds +were beginning; but though we generally yielded to him we <i>could</i> +not give our attention to anything but these. There was first +a low moan. ‘No great harm in that,’ said Griff; ‘it +comes through that crack in the wainscot where there is a sham window. +Some putty will put a stop to that.’</p> +<p>Then came a more decided wail and sob much nearer to us. Griff +hastily swallowed the ale in his tumbler, and, striking a theatrical +attitude, exclaimed, ‘Angels and ministers of grace defend us!’</p> +<p>Clarence held up his hand in deprecation. The door into his +bedroom was open, and Griff, taking up one of the flat candlesticks, +pursued his researches, holding the flame to all chinks or cracks in +the wainscotting to detect draughts which might cause the dreary sounds, +which were much more like suppressed weeping than any senseless gust +of wind. Of draughts there were many, and he tried holding his +hand against each crevice to endeavour to silence the wails; but these +became more human and more distressful. Presently Clarence exclaimed, +‘There!’ and on his face there was a whiteness and an expression +which always recurs to me on reading those words of Eliphaz the Temanite, +‘Then a spirit passed before my face, and the hair of my flesh +stood up.’ Even Griff was awestruck as we cried, ‘Where? +what?’</p> +<p>‘Don’t you see her? There! By the press - +look!’</p> +<p>‘I see a patch of moonlight on the wall,’ said Griff.</p> +<p>‘Moonlight - her lamp. Edward, don’t you see her?’</p> +<p>I could see nothing but a spot of light on the wall. Griff +(plainly putting a force on himself) came back and gave him a good-natured +shake. ‘Dreaming again, old Bill. Wake up and come +to your senses.’</p> +<p>‘I am as much in my senses as you are,’ said Clarence. +‘I see her as plainly as I see you.’</p> +<p>Nor could any one doubt either the reality of the awe in his voice +and countenance, nor of the light - a kind of hazy ball - nor of the +choking sobs.</p> +<p>‘What is she like?’ I asked, holding his hand, for, though +infected by his dread, my fears were chiefly for the effect on him; +but he was much calmer and less horror-struck than on the previous night, +though still he shuddered as he answered in a low voice, as if loth +to describe a lady in her presence, ‘A dark cloak with the hood +fallen back, a kind of lace headdress loosely fastened, brown hair, +thin white face, eyes - oh, poor thing! - staring with fright, dark +- oh, how swollen the lids! all red below with crying - black dress +with white about it - a widow kind of look - a glove on the arm with +the lamp. Is she beckoning - looking at us? Oh, you poor +thing, if I could tell what you mean!’</p> +<p>I felt the motion of his muscles in act to rise, and grasped him. +Griff held him with a strong hand, hoarsely crying, ‘Don’t! +- don’t - don’t follow the thing, whatever you do!’</p> +<p>Clarence hid his face. It was very awful and strange. +Once the thought of conjuring her to speak by the Holy Name crossed +me, but then I saw no figure; and with incredulous Griffith standing +by, it would have been like playing, nor perhaps could I have spoken. +How long this lasted there is no knowing; but presently the light moved +towards the walled-up door and seemed to pass into it. Clarence +raised his head and said she was gone. We breathed freely.</p> +<p>‘The farce is over,’ said Griff. ‘Mr. Edward +Winslow’s carriage stops the way!’</p> +<p>I was hoisted up, candle in hand, between the two, and had nearly +reached the stairs when there came up on the garden side a sound as +of tipsy revellers in the garden. ‘The scoundrels! how can +they have got in?’ cried Griff, looking towards the window; but +all the windows on that side had peculiarly heavy shutters and bars, +with only a tiny heart-shaped aperture very high up, so they somewhat +hurried their steps downstairs, intending to rush out on the intruders +from the back door. But suddenly, in the middle of the staircase, +we heard a terrible heartrending woman’s shriek, making us all +start and have a general fall. My brothers managed to seat me +safely on a step without much damage to themselves, but the candle fell +and was extinguished, and we made too heavy a weight to fall without +real noise enough to bring the household together before we could pick +ourselves up in the dark.</p> +<p>We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something about pistols, +impelling Griff to call out, ‘It’s nothing, papa; but there +are some drunken rascals in the garden.’</p> +<p>A light had come by this time, and we were detected. There +was a general sally upon the enemy in the garden before any one thought +of me, except a ‘You here!’ when they nearly fell over me. +And there I was left sitting on the stair, helpless without my crutches, +till in a few minutes all returned declaring there was nothing - no +signs of anything; and then as Clarence ran up to me with my crutches +my father demanded the meaning of my being there at that time of night.</p> +<p>‘Well, sir,’ said Griff, ‘it is only that we have +been sitting up to investigate the ghost.’</p> +<p>‘Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense! What induced +you to be dragging Edward about in this dangerous way?’</p> +<p>‘I wished it,’ said I.</p> +<p>‘You are all mad together, I think. I won’t have +the house disturbed for this ridiculous folly. I shall look into +it to-morrow!‘</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XV - RATIONAL THEORIES</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘These are the reasons, they are natural.’</p> +<p><i>Julius Cæsar.</i></p> +<p>If anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant to Mr. +and Mrs. Winslow, it would have been the presence of guests. However, +inquiry was suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my mother +made to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that Emily was +nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew more about +the popular version of the legend than any of us.</p> +<p>Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head was aching from +a bump against the edge of a step, and his cold was much worse; no wonder, +said my mother; but she was always softened by any ailment, and feared +that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness. I have always +thought that if Clarence could have come home from his court-martial +with a brain fever he would have earned immediate forgiveness; but unluckily +for him, he was a very healthy person.</p> +<p>All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, where +my father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed ‘this +preposterous business.’ In our morning senses our impressions +were much more vague than at midnight, and we betrayed some confusion; +but Griff and I had a strong instinct of sheltering Clarence, and we +stoutly declared the noises to be beyond the capacities of wind, rats, +or cats; that the light was visible and inexplicable; and that though +we had seen nothing else, we could not doubt that Clarence did.</p> +<p>‘Thought he did,’ corrected my father.</p> +<p>‘Without discussing the word,’ said Griff, ‘I mean +that the effect on his senses was the same as the actual sight. +You could not look at him without being certain.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so,’ returned my mother. ‘I wish +Dr. Fellowes were near.’</p> +<p>Indeed nothing saved Clarence from being consigned to medical treatment +but the distance from Bath or Bristol, and the contradictory advice +that had been received from our county neighbours as to our family doctor. +However, she formed her theory that his nervous imaginings - whether +involuntary or acted, she hoped the former, and wished she could be +sure - had infected us; and, as she was really uneasy about him, she +would not let him sleep in the mullion room, but having nowhere else +to bestow him, she turned out the man-servant and put him into the little +room beyond mine, and she also forbade any mention of the subject to +him that day.</p> +<p>This was a sore prohibition to Emily, who had been discussing it +with the other ladies, and was in a mingled state of elation at the +romance, and terror at the supernatural, which found vent in excited +giggle, and moved Griff to cram her with raw-head and bloody-bone horrors, +conventional enough to be suspicious, and send her to me tearfully to +entreat to know the truth. If by day she exulted in a haunted +chamber, in the evening she paid for it by terrors at walking about +the house alone, and, when sent on an errand by my mother, looked piteous +enough to be laughed at or scolded on all sides.</p> +<p>The gentlemen had more serious colloquies, and the upshot was a determination +to sit up together and discover the origin of the annoyance. Mr. +Stafford’s antiquarian researches had made him familiar with such +mysteries, and enough of them had been explained by natural causes to +convince him that there was a key to all the rest. Owls, coiners, +and smugglers had all been convicted of simulating ghosts. In +one venerable mansion, behind the wainscot, there had been discovered +nine skeletons of cats in different stages of decay, having trapped +themselves at various intervals of time, and during the gradual extinction +of their eighty-one lives having emitted cries enough to establish the +ghastly reputation of the place. Perhaps Mr. Henderson was inclined +to believe there were more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt +of in even an antiquary’s philosophy. He owned himself perplexed, +but reserved his opinion.</p> +<p>At breakfast Clarence was quite well, except for the remains of his +sore throat, and the two seniors were gruff and brief as to their watch. +They had heard odd noises, and should discover the cause; the carpenter +had already been sent for, and they had seen a light which was certainly +due to reflection or refraction. Mr. Henderson committed himself +to nothing but that ‘it was very extraordinary;’ and there +was a wicked look of diversion on Griff’s face, and an exchange +of glances. Afterwards, in our own domain, we extracted a good +deal more from them.</p> +<p>Griff told us how the two elders started on politics, and denounced +Brougham and O’Connell loud enough to terrify any save the most +undaunted ghost, till Henderson said ‘Hush!’ and they paused +at the moan with which the performance always commenced, making Mr. +Stafford turn, as Griff said, ‘white in the gills,’ though +he talked of the wind on the stillest of frosty nights. Then came +the sobbing and wailing, which certainly overawed them all; Henderson +called them ‘agonising,’ but Griff was in a manner inured +to this, and felt as if master of the ceremonies. Let them say +what they would by daylight about owls, cats, and rats, they owned the +human element then, and were far from comfortable, though they would +not compromise their good sense by owning what both their younger companions +had perceived - their feeling of some undefinable presence. Vain +attempts had been made to account for the light or get rid of it by +changing the position of candles or bright objects in the outer room; +and Henderson had shut himself into the bedroom with it; but there he +still only saw the hazy light - though all was otherwise pitch dark, +except the keyhole and the small gray patch of sky at the top of the +window-shutters. ‘You saw nothing else?’ said Griff. +‘I thought I heard you break out as Clarence did, just before +my father opened the door.’</p> +<p>‘Perhaps I did so. I had the sense strongly on me of +some being in grievous distress very near me.’</p> +<p>‘And you should have power over it,’ suggested Emily.</p> +<p>‘I am afraid,’ he said, ‘that more thorough conviction +and comprehension are needed before I could address the thing with authority. +I should like to have stayed longer and heard the conclusion.’</p> +<p>For Mr. Stafford had grown impatient and weary, and my father having +satisfied himself that there was something to be detected, would not +remain to the end, and not only carried his companions off, but locked +the doors, perhaps expecting to imprison some agent in a trick, and +find him in the morning.</p> +<p>Indeed Clarence had a dim remembrance of having been half wakened +by some one looking in on him in the night, when he was sleeping heavily +after his cold and the previous night’s disturbance, and we suspected, +though we would not say, that our father might have wished to ascertain +that he had no share in producing these appearances. He was, however, +fully acquitted of all wilful deception in the case, and he was not +surprised, though he was disappointed, that his vision of the lady was +supposed to be the consequence of excited imagination.</p> +<p>‘I can’t help it,’ he said to me in private. +‘I have always seen or felt, or whatever you may call it, things +that others do not. Don’t you remember how nobody would +believe that I saw Lucy Brooke?’</p> +<p>‘That was in the beginning of the measles.’</p> +<p>‘ I know; and I will tell you something curious. When +I was at Gibraltar I met Mrs. Emmott - ’</p> +<p>‘Mary Brooke?’</p> +<p>‘Yes; I spent a very happy Sunday with her. We talked +over old times, and she told me that Lucy had all through her illness +been very uneasy about having promised to bring me a macaw’s feather +the next time we played in the Square gardens. It could not be +sent to me for fear of carrying the infection, but the dear girl was +too light-headed to understand, and kept on fretting and wandering about +breaking her word. I have no doubt the wish carried her spirit +to me the moment it was free,’ he added, with tears springing +to his eyes. He also said that before the court-martial he had, +night after night, dreams of sinking and drowning in huge waves, and +his friend Coles struggling to come to his aid, but being forcibly withheld; +and he had since learnt that Coles had actually endeavoured to come +from Plymouth to bear testimony to his previous character, but had been +refused leave, and told that he could do no good.</p> +<p>There had been other instances of perception of a presence and of +a prescient foreboding. ‘It is like a sixth sense,’ +he said, ‘and a very uncomfortable one. I would give much +to be rid of it, for it is connected with all that is worst in my life. +I had it before Navarino, when no one expected an engagement. +It made me believe I should be killed, and drove me to what was much +worse - or at least I used to think so.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t you now?’ I asked.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Clarence. ‘It was a great mercy +that I did not die then. There’s something to conquer first. +But you’ll never speak of this, Ted. I have left off telling +of such things - it only gives another reason for disbelieving me.’</p> +<p>However, this time his veracity was not called in question, - but +he was supposed to be under a hallucination, the creation of the noises +acting on his imagination and memory of the persecuted widow, which +must have been somewhere dormant in his mind, though he averred that +he had never heard of it. It had now, however, made a strong impression +on him; he was convinced that some crime or injustice had been perpetrated, +and thought it ought to be investigated; but Griffith made us laugh +at his championship of this shadow of a shade, and even wrote some mock +heroic verses about it, - nor would it have been easy to stir my father +to seek for the motives of an apparition which no one in the family +save Clarence professed to have seen.</p> +<p>The noises were indisputable, but my mother began to suspect a cause +for them. To oblige a former cook we had brought down with us +as stable-boy her son, George Sims, an imp accustomed to be the pet +and jester of a mews. Martyn was only too fond of his company, +and he made no secret of his contempt for the insufferable dulness of +the country, enlivening it by various acts of monkey-mischief, in some +of which Martyn had been implicated. That very afternoon, as Mrs. +Sophia Selby was walking home in the twilight from Chapman’s lodge, +in company with Mr. Henderson, an eldritch yell proceeding from the +vaults beneath the mullion chambers nearly frightened her into fits. +Henderson darted in and captured the two boys in the fact. Martyn’s +asseveration that he had taken the pair for Griff and Emily would have +pacified the good-natured clergyman, but Mrs. Sophia was too much agitated, +or too spiteful, as we declared, not to make a scene.</p> +<p>Martyn spent the evening alone and in disgrace, and only his unimpeachable +character for truth caused the acceptance of his affirmation that the +yell was an impromptu fraternal compliment, and that he had nothing +to do with the noises in the mullion chamber. He had been supposed +to be perfectly unconscious of anything of the kind, and to have never +so much as heard of a phantom, so my mother was taken somewhat aback +when, in reply to her demand whether he had ever been so naughty as +to assist George in making a noise in Clarence’s room, he said, +‘Why, that’s the ghost of the lady that was murdered atop +of the steps, and always walks every Christmas!’</p> +<p>‘Who told you such ridiculous nonsense?’</p> +<p>The answer ‘George’ was deemed conclusive that all had +been got up by that youth; and there was considerable evidence of his +talent for ventriloquism and taste for practical jokes. My mother +was certain that, having heard of the popular superstition, he had acted +ghost. She appealed to <i>Woodstock</i> to prove the practicability +of such feats; and her absolute conviction persuaded the maids (who +had given warning <i>en masse</i>) that the enemy was exorcised when +George Sims had been sent off on the Royal Mail under Clarence’s +guardianship.</p> +<p>None of the junior part of the family believed him guilty, but he +had hunted the cows round the paddock, mounted on my donkey, had nearly +shot the kitchen-maid with Griff’s gun, and, if not much maligned, +knew the way to the apple-chamber only too well, - so that he richly +deserved his doom, rejoiced in it himself, and was unregretted save +by Martyn. Clarence viewed him in the light of a victim, and tried +to keep an eye on him, but he developed his talent as a ventriloquist, +made his fortune, and retired on a public-house.</p> +<p>My mother would fain have had the vaults under the mullion rooms +bricked up, but Mr. Stafford cried out on the barbarism of such a proceeding. +The mystery was declared to be solved, and was added to Mr. Stafford’s +good stories of haunted houses.</p> +<p>And at home my father forbade any further mention of such rank folly +and deception. The inner mullion chamber was turned into a lumber-room, +and as weeks passed by without hearing or seeing any more of lady or +of lamp, we began to credit the wonderful freaks of the goblin page.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI - CAT LANGUAGE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Soon as she parted thence - the fearful twayne,<br />That blind old +woman and her daughter deare,<br />Came forth, and finding Kirkrapine +there slayne,<br />For anguish greate they gan to rend their heare<br />And +beate their breasts, and naked flesh to teare;<br />And when they both +had wept and wayled their fill,<br />Then forth they ran, like two amazèd +deere,<br />Half mad through malice and revenging will,<br />To follow +her that was the causer of their ill.’</p> +<p>SPENSER.</p> +<p>The Christmas vacation was not without another breeze about Griffith’s +expenses at Oxford. He held his head high, and declared that people +expected something from the eldest son of a man of property, and my +father tried to convince him that a landed estate often left less cash +available than did the fixed salary of an office. Griff treated +all in his light, good-humoured way, promised to be careful, and came +to me to commiserate the poor old gentleman’s ignorance of the +ways of the new generation.</p> +<p>There ensued some trying weeks of dark days, raw frost, and black +east wind, when the home party cast longing, lingering recollections +back to the social intercourse, lamp-lit streets, and ready interchange +of books and other amenities we had left behind us. We were not +accustomed to have our nearest neighbours separated from us by two miles +of dirty lane, or road mended with excruciating stones, nor were they +very congenial when we did see them. The Fordyce family might +be interesting, but we younger ones could not forget the slight to Clarence, +and, besides, the girls seemed to be entirely in the schoolroom, Mrs. +Fordyce was delicate and was shut up all the winter, and the only intercourse +that took place was when my father met the elder Mr. Fordyce at the +magistrates’ bench; also there was a conference about Amos Bell, +who was preferred to the post left vacant by George Sims, in right of +his being our tenant, but more civilised than Earlscombers, a widow’s +son, and not sufficiently recovered from his accident to be exposed +to the severe tasks of a ploughboy in the winter.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce was the manager of a book-club, which circulated volumes +covered in white cartridge paper, with a printed list of the subscribers’ +names. Two volumes at a time might be kept for a month by each +member in rotation, novels were excluded, and the manager had a veto +on all orders. We found her more liberal than some of our other +neighbours, who looked on our wants and wishes with suspicion as savouring +of London notions. Happily we could read old books and standard +books over again, and we gloated over <i>Blackwood</i> and the <i>Quarterly</i>, +enjoying, too, every out-of-door novelty of the coming spring, as each +revealed itself. Emily will never forget her first primroses, +nor I the first thrush in early morning.</p> +<p>Blankets, broth, and what were uncomfortably termed broken victuals +had been given away during the winter, and a bewildering amount of begging +women and children used to ask interviews with ‘the Lady Winslow,’ +with stories that crumbled on investigation so as to make us recollect +the Rector’s character of Earlscombe.</p> +<p>However, Mr. Henderson came in the second week of Lent, and what +our steps towards improvement introduced would have seemed almost as +shocking to you youngsters, as what they displaced. For instance, +a plain crimson cloth covered the altar, instead of the rags in the +colours of the Winslow livery, presented, according to the queer old +register, by the unfortunate Margaret. There was talk of velvet +and the gold monogram, surrounded by rays, alternately straight and +wavy, as in our London church, but this was voted ‘unfit for a +plain village church.’ Still, the new hangings of pulpit, +desk, and altar were all good in quality and colour, and huge square +cushions were provided as essential to each. Moreover, the altar +vessels were made somewhat more respectable, - all this being at my +father’s expense.</p> +<p>He also carried in the Vestry, though not without strong opposition +from a dissenting farmer, that new linen and a fresh surplice should +be provided by the parish, which surplice would have made at least six +of such as are at present worn. The farmers were very jealous +of the interference of the Squire in the Vestry - ‘what he had +no call to,’ and of church rates applied to any other object than +the reward of birdslayers, as thus, in the register -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Hairy Wills, 1 score sprows heds 2d.<br />Jems Brown, 1 poulcat 6d.<br />Jarge +Bell, 2 howls 6d.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>It was several years before this appropriation of the church rates +could be abolished. The year 1830, with a brand new squire and +parson, was too ticklish a time for many innovations.</p> +<p>Hillside Church was the only one in the neighbourhood where Holy +Week or Ascension Day had been observed in the memory of man. +When we proposed going to church on the latter day the gardener asked +my mother ‘if it was her will to keep Thursday holy,’ as +if he expected its substitution for Sunday. Monthly Communions +and Baptisms after the Second Lesson were viewed as ‘not fit for +a country church,’ and every attempt at even more secular improvements +was treated with the most disappointing distrust and aversion. +When my father laid out the allotment grounds, the labourers suspected +some occult design for his own profit, and the farmers objected that +the gardens would be used as an excuse for neglecting their work and +stealing their potatoes. Coal-club and clothing-club were regarded +in like manner, and while a few took advantage of these offers in a +grudging manner, the others viewed everything except absolute gifts +as ‘me-an’ on our part, the principle of aid to self-help +being an absolute novelty. When I look back to the notes in our +journals of that date I see how much has been overcome.</p> +<p>Perhaps we listened more than was strictly wise to the revelations +of Amos Bell, when he attended Emily and me on our expeditions with +the donkey. Though living over the border of Hillside, he had +a family of relations at Earlscombe, and for a time lodged with his +grandmother there. When his shyness and lumpishness gave way, +he proved so bright that Emily undertook to carry on his education. +He soon had a wonderful eye for a wild flower, and would climb after +it with the utmost agility; and when once his tongue was loosed, he +became almost too communicative, and made us acquainted with the opinions +of ‘they Earlscoom folk’ with a freedom not to be found +in an elder or a native.</p> +<p>Moreover, he was the brightest light of the Sunday school which Mr. +Henderson opened at once - for want of a more fitting place - in the +disused north transept of the church. It was an uncouth, ill-clad +crew which assembled on those dilapidated paving tiles. Their +own grandchildren look almost as far removed from them in dress and +civilisation as did my sister in her white worked cambric dress, silk +scarf, huge Tuscan bonnet, and the little curls beyond the lace quilling +round her bright face, far rosier than ever it had been in town. +And what would the present generation say to the odd little contrivances +in the way of cotton sun-bonnets, check pinafores, list tippets, and +print capes, and other wonderful manufactures from the rag-bag, which +were then grand prizes and stimulants?</p> +<p>Previous knowledge or intelligence scarcely existed, and then was +not due to Dame Dearlove’s tuition. Mr. Henderson pronounced +an authorised school a necessity. My father had scruples as to +vested rights, for the old woman was the last survivor of a family who +had had recourse to primer and hornbook after their ejection on ‘black +Bartholomew’s Day;’ and when the meeting-house was built +after the Revolution, had combined preaching with teaching. Monopoly +had promoted degeneracy, and this last of the race was an unfavourable +specimen in all save outward picturesqueness. However, much against +Henderson’s liking, an accommodation was proposed, by which books +were to be supplied to her, and the Church Catechism be taught in her +school, with the assistance of the curate and Miss Winslow.</p> +<p>The terms were rejected with scorn. No School Board could be +more determined against the Catechism, nor against ‘passons meddling +wi’ she;’ and as to assistance, ‘she had been a governess +this thirty year, and didn’t want no one trapesing in and out +of her school.’</p> +<p>She was warned, but probably did not believe in the possibility of +an opposition school; and really there were children enough in the place +to overfill both her room and that which was fitted up after a very +humble fashion in one of our cottages. H.M. Inspector would hardly +have thought it even worth condemnation any more than the attainments +of the mistress, the young widow of a small Bristol skipper. Her +qualifications consisted in her piety and conscientiousness, good temper +and excellent needlework, together with her having been a scholar in +one of Mrs. Hannah More’s schools in the Cheddar district. +She could read and teach reading well; but as for the dangerous accomplishments +of writing and arithmetic, such as desired to pass beyond the rudiments +of them must go to Wattlesea.</p> +<p>So nice did she look in her black that Earlscombe voted her a mere +town lady, and even at a penny a week hesitated to send its children +to her. Indeed it was currently reported that her school was part +of a deep and nefarious scheme of the gentlefolks for reducing the poor-rates +by enticing the children, and then shipping them off to foreign parts +from Bristol.</p> +<p>But the great crisis was one unlucky summer evening when Emily and +I were out with the donkey, and Griffith, just come home from Oxford, +was airing the new acquisition of a handsome black retriever.</p> +<p>Close by the old chapel, a black cat was leisurely crossing the road. +At her dashed Nero, stimulated perhaps by an almost involuntary scss +- scss - from his master, if not from Amos and me. The cat flew +up a low wall, and stood at bay on the top on tiptoe, with bristling +tail, arched back, and fiery eyes, while the dog danced round in agony +on his hind legs, barking furiously, and almost reaching her. +Female sympathy ever goes to the cat, and Emily screamed out in the +fear that he would seize her, or even that Griff might aid him. +Perhaps Amos would have done so, if left to himself; but Griff, who +saw the cat was safe, could not help egging on his dog’s impotent +rage, when in the midst, out flew pussy’s mistress, Dame Dearlove +herself, broomstick in hand, using language as vituperative as the cat’s, +and more intelligible.</p> +<p>She was about to strike the dog - indeed I fancy she did, for there +was a howl, and Griff sprang to his defence with - ‘Don’t +hurt my dog, I say! He hasn’t touched the brute! She +can take care of herself. Here, there’s half-a-crown for +the fright,’ as the cat sprang down within the wall, and Nero +slunk behind him. But Dame Dearlove was not so easily appeased. +Her blood was up after our long series of offences, and she broke into +a regular tirade of abuse.</p> +<p>‘That’s the way with you fine folk, thinking you can +tread down poor people like the dirt under your feet, and insult ’em +when you’ve taken the bread out of the mouths of them that were +here before you. Passons and ladies a meddin’ where no one +ever set a foot before! Ay, ay, but ye’ll all be down before +long.’</p> +<p>Griff signed to us to go on, and thundered out on her to take care +what she was about and not be abusive; but this brought a fresh volley +on him, heralded by a derisive laugh. ‘Ha! ha! fine talking +for the likes of you, Winslows that you are. But there’s +a curse on you all! The poor lady as was murdered won’t +let you be! Why, there’s one of you, poor humpy object - +’</p> +<p>At this savage attack on me, Griff waxed furious, and shouted at +her to hold her confounded tongue, but this only diverted the attack +on himself. ‘And as for you - fine chap as ye think yourself, +swaggering and swearing at poor folk, and setting your dog at them - +your time’s coming. Look out for yourself. It’s +well known as how the curse is on the first-born. The Lady Margaret +don’t let none of ’em live to come after his father.’</p> +<p>Griff laughed and said, ‘There, we have had enough of this;’ +and in fact we had already moved on, so that he had to make some long +steps to overtake us, muttering, ‘So we’ve started a Meg +Merrilies! My father won’t keep such a foul-mouthed hag +in the parish long!’</p> +<p>To which I had to respond that her cottage belonged to the trustees +of the chapel, whereat he whistled. I don’t think he knew +that we had heard her final denunciation, and we did not like to mention +it to him, scarcely to each other, though Emily looked very white and +scared.</p> +<p>We talked it over afterwards in private, and with Henderson, who +confessed that he had heard of the old woman’s saying something +of the kind to other persons. We consulted the registers in hopes +of confuting it, but did not satisfy ourselves. The last Squire +had lost his only son at school. He himself had been originally +second in the family, and in the generation before him there had been +some child-deaths, after which we came back to a young man, apparently +the eldest, who, according to Miss Selby’s story, had been killed +in a duel by one of the Fordyces. It was not comfortable, till +I remembered that our family Bible recorded the birth, baptism, and +death of a son who had preceded Griffith, and only borne for a day the +name afterwards bestowed on me.</p> +<p>And Henderson, who was so little our elder as to discuss things on +fairly equal grounds, had some very interesting talks with us two over +ancestral sin and its possible effects, dwelling on the 18th of Ezekiel +as a comment on the Second Commandment. Indeed, we agreed that +the uncomfortable state of disaffection which, in 1830, was becoming +only too manifest in the populace, was the result of neglect in former +ages, and that, even in our own parish, the bitterness, distrust, and +ingratitude were due to the careless, riotous, and oppressive family +whom we represented.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII - THE SIEGE OF HILLSIDE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar,<br />Represt ambition +struggles round the shore;<br />Till, overwrought, the general system +feels<br />Its motion stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.’</p> +<p>GOLDSMITH.</p> +<p>Griffith had come straight home this year. There were no Peacock +gaieties to tempt him in London, for old Sir Henry had died suddenly +soon after the ball in December; nor was there much of a season that +year, owing to the illness and death of George IV.</p> +<p>A regiment containing two old schoolmates of his was at Bristol, +and he spent a good deal of time there, and also in Yeomanry drill. +As autumn came on we rejoiced in having so stalwart a protector, for +the agricultural riots had begun, and the forebodings of another French +Revolution seemed about to be realised. We stayed on at Chantry +House. My father thought his duty lay there as a magistrate, and +my mother would not leave him; nor indeed was any other place much safer, +certainly not London, whence Clarence wrote accounts of formidable mobs +who were expected to do more harm than they accomplished; though their +hatred of the hero of our country filled us with direful prognostications, +and made us think of the guillotine, which was linked with revolution +in our minds, before we had I beheld the numerous changes that followed +upon the thirty years of peace in which we grew up.</p> +<p>The ladies did not much like losing so stalwart a defender when Griff +returned to Oxford; and Jane the housemaid went to bed every night with +the pepper-pot and a poker, the first wherewith to blind the enemy, +the second to charge them with. From our height we could more +than once see blazing ricks, and were glad that the home farm was not +in our own hands, and that our only stack of hay was a good way from +the house. When the onset came at last, it was December, and the +enemy only consisted of about thirty dreary-looking men and boys in +smock-frocks and chalked or smutted faces, armed only with sticks and +an old gun diverted from its purpose of bird-scaring. They shouted +for food, money, and arms; but my father spoke to them from the hall +steps, told them they had better go home and learn that the public-house +was a worse enemy to them than any machine that had ever been invented, +and assured them that they would get no help from him in breaking the +laws and getting themselves into trouble. A stone or two was picked +up, whereupon he went back and had the hall door shut and barred, the +heavy shutters of the windows having all been closed already, so that +we could have stood a much more severe siege than from these poor fellows. +One or two windows were broken, as well as the glass of the conservatory, +and the flower beds were trampled; but finding our fortress impregnable +they sneaked away before dark. We fared better than our neighbours, +some of whom were seriously frightened, and suffered loss of property. +Old Mr. Fordyce had for many years past been an active magistrate - +that a clergyman should be on the bench having been quite correct according +to the notions of his younger days; and in spite of his beneficence +he incurred a good deal of unpopularity for withstanding the lax good-nature +which made his brother magistrates give orders for parish relief refused +to able-bodied paupers by their own Vestries. This was a mischievous +abuse of the old poor-law times, which made people dispose of every +one’s money save their own. He had also been a keen sportsman; +and though his son had given up field sports in deference to higher +notions of clerical duty (his wife’s, as people said), the old +man’s feeling prompted him to severity on poachers. Frank +Fordyce, while by far the most earnest, hardworking clergyman in the +neighbourhood, worked off his superfluous energy on scientific farming, +making the glebe and the hereditary estate as much the model farm as +Hillside was the model parish. He had lately set up a threshing-machine +worked by horses, which was as much admired by the intelligent as it +was vituperated by the ignorant.</p> +<p>Neither paupers nor poachers abounded in Hillside; the natives were +chiefly tenants and employed on the property, and, between good management +and beneficence, there was little real want and much friendly confidence +and affection; and thus, in spite of surrounding riots, Hillside seemed +likely to be an exception, proving what could he done by rightful care +and attention. Nor indeed did the attack come from thence; but +the two parsons were bitterly hated by outsiders beyond the reach of +their personal influence and benevolence.</p> +<p>It was on a Saturday evening, the day after Griff had come back for +the Christmas vacation, that, as Emily was giving Amos his lesson, she +saw that the boy was crying, and after examination he let out that ‘folk +should say that the lads were agoing to break Parson Fordy’s machine +and fire his ricks that very night;’ but he would not give his +authority, and when he saw her about to give warning, entreated, ‘Now, +dont’ze say nothing, Miss Emily - ’</p> +<p>‘What?’ she cried indignantly; ‘do you think I +could hear of such a thing without trying to stop it?’</p> +<p>‘Us says,’ he blurted out, ‘as how Winslows be +always fain of ought as happens to the Fordys - ’</p> +<p>‘We are not such wicked Winslows as you have heard of,’ +returned Emily with dignity; and she rushed off in quest of papa and +Griff, but when she brought them to the bookroom, Amos had decamped, +and was nowhere to be found that night. We afterwards learnt that +he lay hidden in the hay-loft, not daring to return to his granny’s, +lest he should be suspected of being a traitor to his kind; for our +lawless, untamed, discontented parish furnished a large quota to the +rioters, and he has since told me that though all seemed to know what +was about to be done, he did not hear it from any one in particular.</p> +<p>It was no time to make light of a warning, but very difficult to +know what to do. Rural police were non-existent; there were no +soldiers nearer than Keynsham, and the Yeomanry were all in their own +homesteads. However, the captain of Griff’s troop, Sir George +Eastwood, lived about three miles beyond Wattlesea, and had a good many +dependants in the corps, so it was resolved to send him a note by the +gardener, good James Ellis, a steady, resolute man, on Emily’s +fast-trotting pony, while my father and Griff should hasten to Hillside +to warn the Fordyces, who were not unlikely to be able to muster trustworthy +defenders among their own people, and might send the ladies to take +shelter at Chantry House.</p> +<p>My mother’s brave spirit disdained to detain an effective man +for her own protection, and the groom was to go to Hillside; he was +in the Yeomanry, and, like Griff, put on his uniform, while my father +had the Riot Act in his pocket. All the horses were thus absorbed, +but Chapman and the man-servant followed on foot.</p> +<p>Never did I feel my incapacity more than on that strange night, when +Emily was flying about with Martyn to all the doors and windows in a +wild state of excitement, humming to herself -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘When the dawn on the mountain was misty and gray,<br />My +true love has mounted his steed and away.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>My mother was equally restless, prolonging as much as possible the +preparation of rooms for possible guests; and when she did come and +sit down, she netted her purse with vehement jerks, and scolded Emily +for jumping up and leaving doors open.</p> +<p>At last, after an hour according to the clock, but far more by our +feelings, wheels were heard in the distance; Emily was off like a shot +to reconnoitre, and presently Martyn bounced in with the tidings that +a pair of carriage lamps were coming up the drive. My mother hurried +out into the hall; I made my best speed after her, and found her hastily +undoing the door-chain as she recognised the measured, courteous voice +of old Mr. Fordyce. In a moment more they were all in the house, +the old gentleman giving his arm to his daughter-in-law, who was quite +overcome with distress and alarm; then came his tall, slim granddaughter, +carrying her little sister with arms full of dolls, and sundry maid-servants +completed the party of fugitives.</p> +<p>‘We are taking advantage of Mr. Winslow’s goodness,’ +said the old Rector. ‘He assured us that you would be kind +enough to receive those who would only be an encumbrance.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, but I must go back to Frank now that you and the children +are safe,’ cried the poor lady. ‘Don’t send +away the carriage; I must go back to Frank.’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense, my dear,’ returned Mr. Fordyce, ‘Frank +is in no danger. He will get on much better for knowing you are +safe. Mrs. Winslow will tell you so.’</p> +<p>My mother was enforcing this assurance, when the little girl’s +sobs burst out in spite of her sister, who had been trying to console +her. ‘It is Celestina Mary,’ she cried, pointing to +three dolls whom she had carried in clasped to her breast. ‘Poor +Celestina Mary! She is left behind, and Ellen won’t let +me go and see if she is in the carriage.’</p> +<p>‘My dear, if she is in the carriage, she will be quite safe +in the morning.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, but she will be so cold. She had nothing on but +Rosella’s old petticoat.’</p> +<p>The distress was so real that I had my hand on the bell to cause +a search to be instituted for the missing damsel, when Mrs. Fordyce +begged me to do no such thing, as it was only a doll. The child, +while endeavouring to shelter with a shawl the dolls, snatched in their +night-gear from their beds, wept so piteously at the rebuff that her +grandfather had nearly gone in quest of the lost one, but was stopped +by a special entreaty that he would not spoil the child. Martyn, +however, who had been standing in open-mouthed wonder at such feeling +for a doll, exclaimed, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry. +I’ll go and get it for you;’ and rushed off to the stable-yard.</p> +<p>This episode had restored Mrs. Fordyce, and while providing some +of our guests with wine, and others with tea, we heard the story, only +interrupted by Martyn’s return from a vain search, and Anne’s +consequent tears, which, however, were somehow hushed and smothered +by fears of being sent to bed, coupled with his promises to search every +step of the way to-morrow.</p> +<p>It appeared that while the Fordyce family were at dinner, shouts, +howls and yells had startled them. The rabble had surrounded the +Rectory, bawling out abuse of the parsons and their machines, and occasionally +throwing stones. There was no help to be expected; the only hope +was in the strength of the doors and windows, and the knowledge that +personal violence was very uncommon; but those were terrible moments, +and poor Mrs. Fordyce was nearly dead with suppressed terror when her +husband tried haranguing from an upper window, and was received with +execrations and a volley of stones, while the glass crashed round him.</p> +<p>At that instant the shouts turned to yells of dismay, ‘The +so’diers! the so’diers!’</p> +<p>Our party had found everything still and dark in the village, for +in truth the men had hidden themselves. They were being too much +attached to their masters to join in the attack, but were afraid of +being compelled to assist the rioters, and not resolute enough against +their own class either to inform against them or oppose them.</p> +<p>Through the midnight-like stillness of the street rose the tumult +around the Rectory; and by the light of a few lanterns, and from the +upper windows, they could see a mass of old hats, smock-frocked shoulders, +and the tops of bludgeons; while at soonest, Sir George Eastwood’s +troop could not be expected for an hour or more.</p> +<p>‘We must get to them somehow,’ said my father and Griff +to one another; and Griff added, ‘These rascals are arrant cowards, +and they can’t see the number of us.’</p> +<p>Then, before my father knew what he was about - certainly before +he could get hold of the Riot Act - he found the stable lantern made +over to him, and Griff’s sword flashing in light, as, making all +possible clatter and jingling with their accoutrements, the two yeomen +dashed among the throng, shouting with all their might, and striking +with the flat of their swords. The rioters, ill-fed, dull-hearted +men for the most part - many dragged out by compulsion, and already +terrified - went tumbling over one another and running off headlong, +bearing off with them (as we afterwards learnt) their leaders by their +weight, taking the blows and pushes they gave one another in their pell-mell +rush for those of the soldiery, and falling blindly against the low +wall of the enclosure. The only difficulty was in clearing them +out at the two gates of the drive.</p> +<p>When Mr. Fordyce opened the door to hail his rescuers he was utterly +amazed to behold only three, and asked in a bewildered voice, ‘Where +are the others?’</p> +<p>There were two prisoners, Petty the ratcatcher, who had attempted +some resistance and had been knocked down by Griff’s horse, and +a young lad in a smock-frock who had fallen off the wall and hurt his +knee, and who blubbered piteously, declaring that them chaps had forced +him to go with them, or they would duck him in the horse-pond. +They were supposed to be given in charge to some one, but were lost +sight of, and no wonder! For just then it was discovered that +the machine shed was on fire. The rioters had apparently detached +one of their number to kindle the flame before assaulting the house. +The matter was specially serious, because the stackyard was on a line +with the Rectory, at some distance indeed, but on lower ground; and +what with barns, hay and wheat ricks, sheds, cowhouses and stables, +all thatched, a big wood-pile, and a long old-fashioned greenhouse, +there was almost continuous communication. Clouds of smoke and +an ominous smell were already perceptible on the wind, generated by +the heat, and the loose straw in the centre of the farmyard was beginning +to be ignited by the flakes and sparks, carrying the mischief everywhere, +and rendering it exceedingly difficult to release the animals and drive +them to a place of safety. Water was scarce. There were +only two wells, besides the pump in the house, and a shallow pond. +The brook was a quarter of a mile off in the valley, and the nearest +engine, a poor feeble thing, at Wattlesea. Moreover, the assailants +might discover how small was the force of rescuers, and return to the +attack. Thus, while Griff, who had given amateur assistance at +all the fires he could reach in London; was striving to organise resistance +to this new enemy, my father induced the gentlemen to cause the horses +to be put to the various vehicles, and employ them in carrying the women +and children to Chantry House. The old Rector was persuaded to +go to take care of his daughter-in-law, and she only thought of putting +her girls in safety. She listened to reason, and indeed was too +much exhausted to move when once she was laid on the sofa. She +would not hear of going to bed, though her little daughter Anne was +sent off with her nurse, grandpapa persuading her that Rosella and the +others were very much tired. When she was gone, he declared his +fears that he had sat down on Celestina’s head, and showed so +much compunction that we were much amused at his relief when Martyn +assured him of having searched the carriage with a stable lantern, so +that whatever had befallen the lady he was not the guilty person. +He really seemed more concerned about this than at the loss of all his +own barns and stores. And little Anne was certainly as lovely +and engaging a little creature as ever I saw; while, as to her elder +sister, in all the trouble and anxiety of the night, I could not help +enjoying the sight of her beautiful eager face and form. She was +tall and very slight, sylph-like, as it was the fashion to call it, +but every limb was instinct with grace and animation. Her face +was, perhaps, rather too thin for robust health, though this enhanced +the idea of her being all spirit, as also did the transparency of complexion, +tinted with an exquisite varying carnation. Her eyes were of a +clear, bright, rather light brown, and were sparkling with the lustre +of excitement, her delicate lips parted, showing the pretty pearly teeth, +as she was telling Emily, in a low voice of enthusiasm, scarcely designed +for my ears, how glorious a sight our brother had been, riding there +in his glancing silver, bearing down all before him with his good sword, +like the Captal de Buch dispersing the Jacquerie.</p> +<p>To which Emily responded, ‘Oh, don’t you love the Captal +de Buch?’ And their friendship was cemented.</p> +<p>Next I heard, ‘And that you should have been so good after +all my rudeness. But I thought you were like the old Winslows; +and instead of that you have come to the rescue of your enemies. +Isn’t it beautiful?’</p> +<p>‘Oh no, not enemies,’ said Emily. ‘That was +all over a hundred years ago!’</p> +<p>‘So my papa and grandpapa say,’ returned Miss Fordyce; +‘but the last Mr. Winslow was not a very nice man, and never would +be civil to us.’</p> +<p>A report was brought that the glare of the fire could be seen over +the hill from the top of the house, and off went the two young ladies +to the leads, after satisfying themselves that Anne was asleep among +her homeless dolls.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Fordyce devoted himself to keeping up the spirits of his +daughter-in-law as the night advanced without any tidings, except that +the girls, from time to time, rushed down to tell us of fresh outbursts +of red flame reflected in the sky, then that the glow was diminishing; +by which time they were tired out, and, both sinking into a big armchair, +they went to sleep in each other’s arms. Indeed I believe +we all dozed more or less before any one returned from the scene of +action - at about three o’clock.</p> +<p>The struggle with the flames had been very unequal. The long +tongues soon reached the roof of the large barn, which was filled with +straw, nor could the flakes of burning thatch be kept from the stable, +while the water of the pond was soon reduced to mud. Helpers began +to flock in, but who could tell which were trustworthy? and all were +uncomprehending.</p> +<p>There was so little hope of saving the house that the removal of +everything valuable was begun under my father’s superintendence. +Frank Fordyce was here, there, and everywhere; while Griffith, like +a gallant general, fought the foe with very helpless unmanageable forces. +Villagers, male and female, had emerged and stood gaping round; but, +let him rage and storm as he might, they would not go and collect pails +and buckets and form a line to the brook. Still less would they +assist in overthrowing and carrying away the faggots of a big wood-pile +so as to cut off the communication with the offices. Only Chapman +and one other man gave any help in this; and presently the stack caught, +and Griff, on the top, was in great peril of the faggots rolling down +with him into the middle, and imprisoning him in the blazing pile. +‘I never felt so like Dido,’ said Griff.</p> +<p>That woodstack gave fearful aliment to the roaring flame, which came +on so fast that the destruction of the adjoining buildings quickly followed. +The Wattlesea engine had come, but the yard well was unattainable, and +all that could be done was to saturate the house with water from its +own well, and cover the side with wet blankets; but these reeked with +steam, and then shrivelled away in the intense glow of heat.</p> +<p>However, by this time the Eastwood Yeomanry, together with some reasonable +men, had arrived. A raid was made on the cottages for buckets, +a chain formed to the river, and at last the fire was got under, having +made a wreck of everything out-of-doors, and consumed one whole wing +of the house, though the older and more esteemed portion was saved.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII - THE PORTRAIT</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘When day was gone and night was come,<br /> And +all men fast asleep,<br />There came the spirit of fair Marg’ret<br /> And +stood at William’s feet.’</p> +<p><i>Scotch Ballad.</i></p> +<p>When I emerged from my room the next morning the phaeton was at the +door to take the two clergymen to reconnoitre their abode before going +to church. Miss Fordyce went with them, and my father was for +once about to leave his parish church to give them his sympathy, and +join in their thanksgiving that neither life nor limb had been injured. +He afterwards said that nothing could have been more touching than old +Mr. Fordyce’s manner of mentioning this special cause for gratitude +before the General Thanksgiving; and Frank Fordyce, having had all his +sermons burnt, gave a short address extempore (a very rare and almost +shocking thing at that date), reducing half the congregation to tears, +for they really loved ‘the fam’ly,’ though they had +not spirit enough to defend it; and their passiveness always remained +a subject of pride and pleasure to the Fordyces. It was against +the will of these good people that Petty, the ratcatcher, was arrested, +but he had been engaged in other outrages, though this was the only +one in which a dwelling-house had suffered. And Chapman observed +that ‘there was nothing to be done with such chaps but to string +’em up out of the way.’</p> +<p>Griff had toiled that night till he was as stiff as a rheumatic old +man when he came down only just in time for luncheon. Mrs. Fordyce +did not appear at all. She was a fragile creature, and quite knocked +up by the agitations of the night. The gentlemen had visited the +desolate rectory, and found that though the fine ancient kitchen had +escaped, the pleasant living rooms had been injured by the water, and +the place could hardly be made habitable before the spring. They +proposed to take a house in Bath, whence Frank Fordyce could go and +come for Sunday duty and general superintendence, but my parents were +urgent that they should not leave us until after Christmas, and they +consented. Their larger possessions were to be stored in the outhouses, +their lesser in our house, notably in the inner mullion chamber, which +would thus be so blocked that there would be no question of sleeping +in it.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Fordyce had ascertained that he might acquit himself of smashing +Celestina Mary, for no remains appeared in the carriage; but a miserable +trunk was discovered in the ruins, which he identified - though surely +no one else save the disconsolate parent could have done so. Poor +little Anne’s private possessions had suffered most severely of +all, for her whole nursery establishment had vanished. Her surviving +dolls were left homeless, and devoid of all save their night-clothing, +which concerned her much more than the loss of almost all her own garments. +For what dolls were to her could never have been guessed by us, who +had forced Emily to disdain them; whereas they were children to the +maternal heart of this lonely child.</p> +<p>She was quite a new revelation to us. All the Fordyces were +handsome; and her chestnut curls and splendid eyes, her pretty colour +and unconscious grace, were very charming. Emily was so near our +own age that we had never known the winsomeness of a little maid-child +amongst us, and she was a perpetual wonder and delight to us.</p> +<p>Indeed, from having always lived with her elders, she was an odd +little old-fashioned person, advanced in some ways, and comically simple +in others. Her doll-heart was kept in abeyance all Sunday, and +it was only on Monday that her anxiety for Celestina manifested itself +with considerable vehemence; but her grandfather gravely informed her +that the young lady was gone to an excellent doctor, who would soon +effect a cure. The which was quite true, for he had sent her to +a toy-shop by one of the maids who had gone to restore the ravage on +the wardrobes, and who brought her back with a new head and arms, her +identity apparently not being thus interfered with. The hoards +of scraps were put under requisition to re-clothe the survivors; and +I won my first step in Miss Anne’s good graces by undertaking +a knitted suit for Rosella.</p> +<p>The good little girl had evidently been schooled to repress her dread +and repugnance at my unlucky appearance, and was painfully polite, only +shutting her eyes when she came to shake hands with me; but after Rosella +condescended to adopt me, we became excellent friends. Indeed +the following conversation was overheard by Emily, and set down:</p> +<p>‘Do you know, Martyn, there’s a fairies’ ring on +Hillside Down?’</p> +<p>‘Mushrooms,’ quoth Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Yes, don’t you know? They are the fairies’ +tables. They come out and spread them with lily tablecloths at +night, and have acorn cups for dishes, with honey in them. And +they dance and play there. Well, couldn’t Mr. Edward go +and sit under the beech-tree at the edge till they come?’</p> +<p>‘I don’t think he would like it at all,’ said Martyn. +‘He never goes out at odd times.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, but don’t you know? when they come they begin to +sing -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘“Sunday and Monday,<br />Monday and Tuesday.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>And if he was to sing nicely,</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘“Wednesday and Thursday,”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>they would be so much pleased that they would make his back straight +again in a moment. At least, perhaps Wednesday and Thursday would +not do, because the little tailor taught them those; but Friday makes +them angry. But suppose he made some nice verse -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘“Monday and Tuesday<br />The fairies are gay,<br />Tuesday +and Wednesday<br />They dance away - ”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>I think that would do as well, perhaps. Do get him to do so, +Martyn. It would be so nice if he was tall and straight.’</p> +<p>Dear little thing! Martyn, who was as much her slave as was +her grandfather, absolutely made her shed tears over his history of +our accident, and then caressed them off; but I believe he persuaded +her that such a case might be beyond the fairies’ reach, and that +I could hardly get to the spot in secret, which, it seems, is an essential +point. He had imagination enough to be almost persuaded of fairyland +by her earnestness, and she certainly took him into doll-land. +He had a turn for carpentry and contrivance, and he undertook that the +Ladies Rosella, etc., should be better housed than ever. A great +packing-case was routed out, and much ingenuity was expended, much delight +obtained, in the process of converting it into a doll’s mansion, +and replenishing it with furniture. Some was bought, but Martyn +aspired to make whatever he could; I did a good deal, and I believe +most of our achievements are still extant. Whatever we could not +manage, Clarence was to accomplish when he should come home.</p> +<p>His arrival was, as usual, late in the evening; and, as before, he +had the little room within mine. In the morning, as we were crossing +the hall to the bright wood fire, around which the family were wont +to assemble before prayers, he came to a pause, asking under his breath, +‘What’s that? Who’s that?’</p> +<p>‘It is one of the Hillside pictures. You know we have +a great many things here from thence.’</p> +<p>‘It is <i>she</i>,’ he said, in a low, awe-stricken voice. +No need to say who <i>she</i> meant.</p> +<p>I had not paid much attention to the picture. It had come with +several more, such as are rife in country houses, and was one of the +worst of the lot, a poor imitation of Lely’s style, with a certain +air common to all the family; but Clarence’s eyes were riveted +on it. ‘She looks younger,’ he said; ‘but it +is the same. I could swear to the lip and the whole shape of the +brow and chin. No - the dress is different.’</p> +<p>For in the portrait, there was nothing on the head, and one long +lock of hair fell on the shoulder of the low-cut white-satin dress, +done in very heavy gray shading. The three girls came down together, +and I asked who the lady was.</p> +<p>‘Don’t you know? You ought; for that is poor Margaret +who married your ancestor.’</p> +<p>No more was said then, for the rest of the world was collecting, +and then everybody went out their several ways. Some tin tacks +were wanted for the dolls’ house, and there were reports that +Wattlesea possessed a doll’s grate and fire-irons. The children +were wild to go in quest of them, but they were not allowed to go alone, +and it was pronounced too far and too damp for the elder sister, so +that they would have been disappointed, if Clarence - stimulated by +Martyn’s kicks under the table - had not offered to be their escort. +When Mrs. Fordyce demurred, my mother replied, ‘You may perfectly +trust her with Clarence.’</p> +<p>‘Yes; I don’t know a safer squire,’ rejoined my +father.</p> +<p>Commendation was so rare that Clarence quite blushed with pleasure; +and the pretty little thing was given into his charge, prancing and +dancing with pleasure, and expecting much more from sixpence and from +Wattlesea than was likely to be fulfilled.</p> +<p>Griff went out shooting, and the two young ladies and I intended +to spend a very rational morning in the bookroom, reading aloud Mme. +de La Rochejaquelein’s <i>Memoirs</i> by turns. Our occupations +were, on Emily’s part, completing a reticule, in a mosaic of shaded +coloured beads no bigger than pins’ heads, for a Christmas gift +to mamma - a most wearisome business, of which she had grown extremely +tired. Miss Fordyce was elaborately copying our Müller’s +print of Raffaelle’s St. John in pencil on cardboard, so as to +be as near as possible a facsimile; and she had trusted me to make a +finished water-coloured drawing from a rough sketch of hers of the Hillside +barn and farm-buildings, now no more.</p> +<p>In a pause Ellen Fordyce suddenly asked, ‘What did you mean +about that picture?’</p> +<p>‘Only Clarence said it was like - ’ and here Emily came +to a dead stop.</p> +<p>‘Grandpapa says it is like me,’ said Miss Fordyce. +‘What, you don’t mean <i>that</i>? Oh! oh! oh! is +it true? Does she walk? Have you seen her? Mamma calls +it all nonsense, and would not have Anne hear of it for anything; but +old Aunt Peggy used to tell me, and I am sure grandpapa believes it, +just a little. Have you seen her?’</p> +<p>‘Only Clarence has, and he knew the picture directly.’</p> +<p>She was much impressed, and on slight persuasion related the story, +which she had heard from an elder sister of her grandfather’s, +and which had perhaps been the more impressed on her by her mother’s +consternation at ‘such folly’ having been communicated to +her. Aunt Peggy, who was much older than her brother, had died +only four years ago, at eighty-eight, having kept her faculties to the +last, and handed down many traditions to her great-niece. The +old lady’s father had been contemporary with the Margaret of ghostly +fame, so that the stages had been few through which it had come down +from 1708 to 1830.</p> +<p>I wrote it down at once, as it here stands.</p> +<p>Margaret was the only daughter of the elder branch of the Fordyces. +Her father had intended her to marry her cousin, the male heir on whom +the Hillside estates and the advowson of that living were entailed; +but before the contract had been formally made, the father was killed +by accident, and through some folly and ambition of her mother’s +(such seemed to be the Fordyce belief), the poor heiress was married +to Sir James Winslow, one of the successful intriguers of the days of +the later Stewarts, and with a family nearly as old, if not older, than +herself. Her own children died almost at their birth, and she +was left a young widow. Being meek and gentle, her step-sons and +daughters still ruled over Chantry House. They prevented her Hillside +relations from having access to her whilst in a languishing state of +health, and when she died unexpectedly, she was found to have bequeathed +all her property to her step-son, Philip Winslow, instead of to her +blood relations, the Fordyces.</p> +<p>This was certain, but the Fordyce tradition was that she had been +kept shut up in the mullion chambers, where she had often been heard +weeping bitterly. One night in the winter, when the gentlemen +of the family had gone out to a Christmas carousal, she had endeavoured +to escape by the steps leading to the garden from the door now bricked +up, but had been met by them and dragged back with violence, of which +she died in the course of a few days; and, what was very suspicious, +she had been entirely attended by her step-daughter and an old nurse, +who never would let her own woman come near her.</p> +<p>The Fordyces had thought of a prosecution, but the Winslows had powerful +interest at Court in those corrupt times, and contrived to hush up the +matter, as well as to win the suit in which the Fordyces attempted to +prove that there was no right to will the property away. Bitter +enmity remained between the families; they were always opposed in politics, +and their animosity was fed by the belief which arose that at the anniversaries +of her death the poor lady haunted the rooms, lamp in hand, wailing +and lamenting. A duel had been fought on the subject between the +heirs of the two families, resulting in the death of the young Winslow.</p> +<p>‘And now,’ cried Ellen Fordyce, ‘the feud is so +beautifully ended; the doom must be appeased, now that the head of one +hostile line has come to the rescue of the other, and saved all our +lives.’</p> +<p>My suggestion that these would hardly have been destroyed, even without +our interposition, fell very flat, for romance must have its swing. +Ellen told us how, on the news of our kinsman’s death and our +inheritance, the ancestral story had been discussed, and her grandfather +had said he believed there were letters about it in the iron deed-box, +and how he hoped to be on better terms with the new heir.</p> +<p>The ghost story had always been hushed up in the family, especially +since the duel, and we all knew the resemblance of the picture would +be scouted by our elders; but perhaps this gave us the more pleasure +in dwelling upon it, while we agreed that poor Margaret ought to be +appeased by Griffith’s prowess on behalf of the Fordyces.</p> +<p>The two young ladies went off to inspect the mullion chamber, which +they found so crammed with Hillside furniture that they could scarcely +enter, and returned disappointed, except for having inspected and admired +all Griff’s weapons, especially what Miss Fordyce called the sword +of her rescue.</p> +<p>She had been learning German - rather an unusual study in those days, +and she narrated to us most effectively the story of <i>Die Weisse Frau</i>, +working herself up to such a pitch that she would have actually volunteered +to spend a night in the room, to see whether Margaret would hold any +communication with a descendant, after the example of the White Woman +and Lady Bertha, if there had been either fire or accommodation, and +if the only entrance had not been through Griff’s private sitting-room.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX - THE WHITE FEATHER</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘The white doe’s milk is not out of his mouth.’</p> +<p>SCOTT.</p> +<p>Clarence had come home free from all blots. His summer holiday +had been prevented by the illness of one of the other clerks, whose +place, Mr. Castleford wrote, he had so well supplied that ere long he +would be sure to earn his promotion. That kind friend had several +times taken him to spend a Sunday in the country, and, as we afterwards +had reason to think, would have taken more notice of him but for the +rooted belief of Mr. Frith that it was a case of favouritism, and that +piety and strictness were assumed to throw dust in the eyes of his patron.</p> +<p>Such distrust had tended to render Clarence more reserved than ever, +and it was quite by the accident of finding him studying one of Mrs. +Trimmer’s Manuals that I discovered that, at the request of his +good Rector, he had become a Sunday-school teacher, and was as much +interested as the enthusiastic girls; but I was immediately forbidden +to utter a word on the subject, even to Emily, lest she should tell +any one.</p> +<p>Such reserve was no doubt an outcome of his natural timidity. +He had to bear a certain amount of scorn and derision among some of +his fellow-clerks for the stricter habits and observances that could +not be concealed, and he dreaded any fresh revelation of them, partly +because of the cruel imputation of hypocrisy, partly because he feared +the bringing a scandal on religion by his weakness and failures.</p> +<p>Nor did our lady visitors’ ways reassure him, though they meant +to be kind. They could not help being formal and stiff, not as +they were with Griff and me. The two gentlemen were thoroughly +friendly and hearty; Parson Frank could hardly have helped being so +towards any one in the same house with himself; and as to little Anne, +she found in the new-comer a carpenter and upholsterer superior even +to Martyn; but her candour revealed a great deal which I overheard one +afternoon, when the two children were sitting together on the hearth-rug +in the bookroom in the twilight.</p> +<p>‘I want to see Mr. Clarence’s white feather,’ observed +Anne.</p> +<p>‘Griff has a white plume in his Yeomanry helmet,’ replied +Martyn; ‘Clarence hasn’t one.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, I saw Mr. Griffith’s!’ she answered; ‘but +Cousin Horace said Mr. Clarence showed the white feather.’</p> +<p>‘Cousin Horace is an ape!’ cried Martyn.</p> +<p>‘I don’t think he is so nice as an ape,’ said Anne. +‘He is more like a monkey. He tries the dolls by court-martial, +and he shot Arabella with a pea-shooter, and broke her eye; only grandpapa +made him have it put in again with his own money, and then he said I +was a little sneak, and if I ever did it again he would shoot me.’</p> +<p>‘Mind you don’t tell Clarence what he said,’ said +Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Oh, no! I think Mr. Clarence very nice indeed; but Horace +did tease so about that day when he carried poor Amos Bell home. +He said Ellen had gone and made friends with the worst of all the wicked +Winslows, who had shown the white feather and disgraced his flag. +No; I know you are not wicked. And Mr. Griff came all glittering, +like Richard Cœur de Lion, and saved us all that night. +But Ellen cried to think what she had done, and mamma said it showed +what it was to speak to a strange young man; and she has never let Ellen +and me go out of the grounds by ourselves since that day.’</p> +<p>‘It is a horrid shame,’ exclaimed Martyn, ‘that +a fellow can’t get into a scrape without its being for ever cast +up to him.’</p> +<p>‘<i>I</i> like him,’ said Anne. ‘He gave +Mary Bell a nice pair of boots, and he made a new pair of legs for poor +old Arabella, and she can really sit down! Oh, he is <i>very</i> +nice; but’ - in an awful whisper - ‘does he tell stories? +I mean fibs - falsehoods.’</p> +<p>‘Who told you that?’ exclaimed Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Mamma said it. Ellen was telling them something about +the picture of the white-satin lady, and mamma said, “Oh, if it +is only that young man, no doubt it is a mere mystification;” +and papa said, “Poor young fellow, he seems very amiable and well +disposed;” and mamma said, “If he can invent such a story +it shows that Horace was right, and he is not to be believed.” +Then they stopped, but I asked Ellen who it was, and she said it was +Mr. Clarence, and it was a sad thing for Emily and all of you to have +such a brother.’</p> +<p>Martyn began to stammer with indignation, and I thought it time to +interfere; so I called the little maid, and gravely explained the facts, +adding that poor Clarence’s punishment had been terrible, but +that he was doing his best to make up for what was past; and that, as +to anything he might have told, though he might be mistaken, he never +said anything <i>now</i> but what he believed to be true. She +raised her brown eyes to mine full of gravity, and said, ‘I <i>do</i> +like him.’ Moreover, I privately made Martyn understand +that if he told her what had been said about the white-satin lady, he +would never be forgiven; the others would be sure to find it out, and +it might shorten their stay.</p> +<p>That was a dreadful idea, for the presence of those two creatures, +to say nothing of their parents, was an unspeakable charm and novelty +to us all. We all worshipped the elder, and the little one was +like a new discovery and toy to us, who had never been used to such +a presence. She was not a commonplace child; but even if she had +been, she would have been as charming a study as a kitten; and she had +all the four of us at her feet, though her mother was constantly protesting +against our spoiling her, and really kept up so much wholesome discipline +that the little maid never exceeded the bounds of being charming to +us. After that explanation there was the same sweet wistful gentleness +in her manner towards Clarence as she showed to me; while he, who never +dreamt of such a child knowing his history was brighter and freer with +her than with any one else, played with her and Martyn, and could be +heard laughing merrily with them. Perhaps her mother and sister +did not fully like this, but they could not interfere before our faces. +And Parson Frank was really kind to him; took him out walking when going +to Hillside, and talked to him so as to draw him out; certifying, perhaps, +that he would do no harm, although, indeed, the family looked on dear +good Frank as a sort of boy, too kind-hearted and genial for his approval +to be worth as much as that of the more severe.</p> +<p>These were our only Christmas visitors, for the state of the country +did not invite Londoners; but we did not want them. The suppression +of Clarence was the only flaw in a singularly happy time; and, after +all I believe I felt the pity of it more than he did, who expected nothing, +and was accustomed to being in the background.</p> +<p>For instance, one afternoon in the course of one of the grave discussions +that used to grow up between Miss Fordyce, Emily, and me, over subjects +trite to the better-instructed younger generation, we got quite out +of our shallow depths. I think it was on the meaning of the ‘Communion +of Saints,’ for the two girls were both reading in preparation +for a Confirmation at Bristol, and Miss Fordyce knew more than we did +on these subjects. All the time Clarence had sat in the window, +carving a bit of doll’s furniture, and quite forgotten; but at +night he showed me the exposition copied from <i>Pearson on the Creed</i>, +a bit of Hooker, and extracts from one or two sermons. I found +these were notes written out in a blank book, which he had had in hand +ever since his Confirmation - his logbook as he called it; but he would +not hear of their being mentioned even to Emily, and only consented +to hunt up the books on condition I would not bring him forward as the +finder. It was of no use to urge that it was a deprivation to +us all that he should not aid us with his more thorough knowledge and +deeper thought. ‘He could not do so,’ he said, in +a quiet decisive manner; ‘it was enough for him to watch and listen +to Miss Fordyce, when she could forget his presence.’</p> +<p>She often did forget it in her eagerness. She was by nature +one of the most ardent beings that I ever saw, yet with enthusiasm kept +in check by the self-control inculcated as a primary duty. It +would kindle in those wonderful light brown eyes, glow in the clear +delicate cheek, quiver in the voice even when the words were only half +adequate to the feeling. She was not what is now called gushing. +Oh, no! not in the least! She was too reticent and had too much +dignity for anything of the kind. Emily had always been reckoned +as our romantic young lady, and teased accordingly, but her enthusiasm +beside Ellen’s was</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘As moonlight is to sunlight, as water is to wine,’ -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>a mere reflection of the tone of the period, compared with a real +element in the character. At least so my sister tells me, though +at the time all the difference I saw was that Miss Fordyce had the most +originality, and unconsciously became the leader. The bookroom +was given up to us, and there in the morning we drew, worked, read, +copied and practised music, wrote out extracts, and delivered our youthful +minds to one another on all imaginable topics from ‘slea silk +to predestination.’</p> +<p>Religious subjects occupied us more than might have been held likely. +A spirit of reflection and revival was silently working in many a heart. +Evangelicalism had stirred old-fashioned orthodoxy, and we felt its +action. The <i>Christian Year</i> was Ellen’s guiding star +- as it was ours, nay, doubly so in proportion to the ardour of her +nature. Certain poems are dearer and more eloquent to me still, +because the verses recall to me the thrill of her sweet tones as she +repeated them. We were all very ignorant alike of Church doctrine +and history, but talking out and comparing our discoveries and impressions +was as useful as it was pleasant to us.</p> +<p>What the <i>Christian Year</i> was in religion to us Scott was in +history. We read to verify or illustrate him, and we had little +raving fits over his characters, and jokes founded on them. Indeed, +Ellen saw life almost through that medium; and the siege of Hillside, +dispersed by the splendid prowess of Griffith, the champion with silver +helm and flashing sword, was precious to her as a renewal of the days +of Ivanhoe or Damian de Lacy.</p> +<p>As may be believed, these quiet mornings were those when that true +knight was employed in field sports or yeomanry duties, such as the +state of the country called for. When he was at home, all was +fun and merriment and noise - walks and rides on fine days, battledore +and shuttlecock on wet ones, music, singing, paper games, giggling and +making giggle, and sometimes dancing in the hall - Mr. Frank Fordyce +joining with all his heart and drollery in many of these, like the boy +he was.</p> +<p>I could play quadrilles and country dances, and now and then a reel +- nobody thought of waltzes - and the three couples changed and counterchanged +partners. Clarence had the sailor’s foot, and did his part +when needed; Emily generally fell to his share, and their silence and +gravity contrasted with the mirth of the other pairs. He knew +very well he was the <i>pis aller</i> of the party, and only danced +when Parson Frank was not dragged out, nothing loth, by his little daughter. +With Miss Fordyce, Clarence never had the chance of dancing; she was +always claimed by Griff, or pounced upon by Martyn.</p> +<p>Miss Fordyce she always was to us in those days, and those pretty +lips scrupulously ‘Mistered’ and ‘Winslowed’ +us. I don’t think she would have been more to us, if we +had called her Nell, and had been Griff, Bill, and Ted to her, or if +there had not been all the little formalities of avoiding tête +à têtes and the like. They were essentials of propriety +then - natural, and never viewed as prudish. Nor did it detract +from the sweet dignity of maidenhood that there was none of the familiarity +which breeds something one would rather not mention in conjunction with +a lady.</p> +<p>Altogether there was a sunshine around Miss Fordyce by which we all +seemed illuminated, even the least favoured and least demonstrative; +we were all her willing slaves, and thought her smile and thanks full +reward.</p> +<p>One day, when Griff and Martyn were assisting at the turn out of +an isolated barn at Hillside, where Frank Fordyce declared, all the +burnt-out rats and mice had taken refuge, the young ladies went out +to cater for house decorations for Christmas under Clarence’s +escort. Nobody but the clerk ever thought of touching the church, +where there were holes in all the pews to receive the holly boughs.</p> +<p>The girls came back, telling in eager scared voices how, while gathering +butcher’s broom in Farmer Hodges’ home copse, a savage dog +had flown out at them, but had been kept at bay by Mr. Clarence Winslow +with an umbrella, while they escaped over the stile.</p> +<p>Clarence had not come into the drawing-room with them, and while +my mother, who had a great objection to people standing about in out-door +garments, sent them up to doff their bonnets and furs, I repaired to +our room, and was horrified to find him on my bed, white and faint.</p> +<p>‘Bitten?’ I cried in dismay.</p> +<p>‘Yes; but not much. Only I’m such a fool. +I turned off when I began taking off my boots. No, no - don’t! +Don’t call any one. It is nothing!’</p> +<p>He was springing up to stop me, but was forced to drop back, and +I made my way to the drawing-room, where my mother happened to be alone. +She was much alarmed, but a glass of wine restored Clarence; and inspection +showed that the thick trowser and winter stocking had so protected him +that little blood had been drawn, and there was bruise rather than bite +in the calf of the leg, where the brute had caught him as he was getting +over the stile as the rear-guard. It was painful, though the faintness +was chiefly from tension of nerve, for he had kept behind all the way +home, and no one had guessed at the hurt. My mother doctored it +tenderly, and he begged that nothing should be said about it; he wanted +no fuss about such a trifle. My mother agreed, with the proud +feeling of not enhancing the obligations of the Fordyce family; but +she absolutely kissed Clarence’s forehead as she bade him lie +quiet till dinner-time.</p> +<p>We kept silence at table while the girls described the horrors of +the monster. ‘A tawny creature, with a hideous black muzzle,’ +said Emily. ‘Like a bad dream,’ said Miss Fordyce. +The two fathers expressed their intention of remonstrating with the +farmer, and Griff declared that it would be lucky if he did not shoot +it. Miss Fordyce generously took its part, saying the poor dog +was doing its duty, and Griff ejaculated, ‘If I had been there!’</p> +<p>‘It would not have dared to show its teeth, eh?’ said +my father, when there was a good deal of banter.</p> +<p>My father, however, came at night with mamma to inspect the hurt +and ask details, and he ended with, ‘Well done, Clarence, boy; +I am gratified to see you are acquiring presence of mind, and can act +like a man.’</p> +<p>Clarence smiled when they were gone, saying, ‘That would have +been an insult to any one else.’</p> +<p>Emily perceived that he had not come off unscathed, and was much +aggrieved at being bound to silence. ‘Well,’ she broke +out, ‘if the dog goes mad, and Clarence has the hydrophobia, I +suppose I may tell.’</p> +<p>‘In that pleasing contingency,’ said Clarence smiling. +‘Don’t you see, Emily, it is the worst compliment you can +pay me not to treat this as a matter of course?’ Still, +he was the happier for not having failed. Whatever strengthened +his self-respect and gave him trust in himself was a stepping-stone.</p> +<p>As to rivalry or competition with Griff, the idea seemingly never +crossed his mind, and envy or jealousy were equally aloof from it. +One subject of thankfulness runs through these recollections - namely, +that nothing broke the tie of strong affection between us three brothers. +Griffith might figure as the ‘vary parfite knight,’ the +St. George of the piece, glittering in the halo shed round him by the +bright eyes of the rescued damsel; while Clarence might drag himself +along as the poor recreant to be contemned and tolerated, and he would +accept the position meekly as only his desert, without a thought of +bitterness. Indeed, he himself seemed to have imbibed Nurse Gooch’s +original opinion, that his genuine love for sacred things was a sort +of impertinence and pretension in such as he - a kind of hypocrisy even +when they were the realities and helps to which he clung with all his +heart. Still, this depression was only shown by reserve, and troubled +no one save myself, who knew him best guessed what was lost by his silence, +and burned in spirit at seeing him merely endured as one unworthy.</p> +<p>In one of our varieties of Waverley discussions the crystal hardness +and inexperienced intolerance of youth made Miss Fordyce declare that +had she been Edith Plantagenet, she would never, never have forgiven +Sir Kenneth. ‘How could she, when he had forsaken the king’s +banner? Unpardonable!’</p> +<p>Then came a sudden, awful silence, as she recollected her audience, +and blushed crimson with the misery of perceiving where her random shaft +had struck, nor did either of us know what to say; but to our surprise +it was Clarence who first spoke to relieve the desperate embarrassment. +‘Is forgiven quite the right word, when the offence was not personal? +I know that such things can neither be repaired nor overlooked, and +I think that is what Miss Fordyce meant.’</p> +<p>‘Oh, Mr. Winslow,’ she exclaimed, ‘I am very sorry +- I don’t think I quite meant’ - and then, as her eyes for +one moment fell on his subdued face, she added, ‘No, I said what +I ought not. If there is sorrow’ - her voice trembled - +‘and pardon above, no one below has any right to say unpardonable.’</p> +<p>Clarence bowed his head, and his lips framed, but he did not utter, +‘Thank you.’ Emily nervously began reading aloud the +page before her, full of the jingling recurring rhymes about Sir Thomas +of Kent; but I saw Ellen surreptitiously wipe away a tear, and from +that time she was more kind and friendly with Clarence.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XX - VENI, VIDI, VICI</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘None but the brave,<br />None but the brave,<br />None but +the brave deserve the fair.’</p> +<p><i>Song.</i></p> +<p>Christmas trees were not yet heard of beyond the Fatherland, and +both the mothers held that Christmas parties were not good for little +children, since Mrs. Winslow’s strong common sense had arrived +at the same conclusion as Mrs. Fordyce had derived from Hannah More +and Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Besides, rick-burning and mobs were +far too recent for our neighbours to venture out at night.</p> +<p>But as we were all resolved that little Anne should have a memorable +Christmas at Chantry House, we begged an innocent, though iced cake, +from the cook, painted a set of characters ourselves, including all +the dolls, and bespoke the presence of Frank Fordyce at a feast in the +outer mullion room - Griff’s apartment, of course. The locality +was chosen as allowing more opportunity for high jinks than the bookroom, +and also because the swords and pistols in trophy over the mantelpiece +had a great fascination for the two sisters, and to ‘drink tea +with Mr. Griffith’ was always known to be a great ambition of +the little queen of the festival. As to the mullion chamber legends, +they had nearly gone out of our heads, though Clarence did once observe, +‘You remember, it will be the 26th of December;’ but we +did not think this worthy of consideration, especially as Anne’s +entertainment, at its latest, could not last beyond nine o’clock; +and the ghostly performances - now entirely laid to the account of the +departed stable-boy - never began before eleven.</p> +<p>Nor did anything interfere with our merriment. The fun of fifty +years ago must be intrinsically exquisite to bear being handed down +to another generation, so I will attempt no repetition, though some +of those Twelfth Day characters still remain, pasted into my diary. +We anticipated Twelfth Day because our guests meant to go to visit some +other friends before the New Year, and we knew Anne would have no chance +there of fulfilling her great ambition of drawing for king and queen. +These home-made characters were really charming. Mrs. Fordyce +had done several of them, and she drew beautifully. A little manipulation +contrived that the exquisite Oberon and Titania should fall to Martyn +and Anne, for whom crowns and robes had been prepared, worn by her majesty +with complacent dignity, but barely tolerated by him! The others +took their chance. Parson Frank was Tom Thumb, and convulsed us +all the evening by acting as if no bigger than that worthy, keeping +us so merry that even Clarence laughed as I had never seen him laugh +before.</p> +<p>Cock Robin and Jenny Wren - the best drawn of all - fell to Griff +and Miss Fordyce. There was a suspicion of a tint of real carnation +on her cheek, as, on his low, highly-delighted bow, she held up her +impromptu fan of folded paper; and drollery about currant wine and hopping +upon twigs went on more or less all the time, while somehow or other +the beauteous glow on her cheeks went on deepening, so that I never +saw her look so pretty as when thus playing at Jenny Wren’s coyness, +though neither she nor Griff had passed the bounds of her gracious precise +discretion.</p> +<p>The joyous evening ended at last. With the stroke of nine, +Jenny Wren bore away Queen Titania to put her to bed, for the servants +were having an entertainment of their own downstairs for all the out-door +retainers, etc. Oberon departed, after an interval sufficient +to prove his own dignity and advanced age. Emily went down to +report the success of the evening to the elders in the drawing-room, +but we lingered while Frank Fordyce was telling good stories of Oxford +life, and Griff capping them with more recent ones.</p> +<p>We too broke up - I don’t remember how; but Clarence was to +help me down the stairs, and Mr. Fordyce, frowning with anxiety at the +process, was offering assistance, while we had much rather he had gone +out of the way; when suddenly, in the gallery round the hall giving +access to the bedrooms, there dawned upon us the startled but scarcely +displeased figure of Jenny Wren in her white dress, not turning aside +that blushing face, while Cock Robin was clasping her hand and pressing +it to his lips. The tap of my crutches warned them. She +flew back within her door and shut it; Griff strode rapidly on, caught +hold of her father’s hand, exclaiming, ‘Sir, sir, I must +speak to you!’ and dragged him back into the mullion room leaving +Clarence and me to convey ourselves downstairs as best we might.</p> +<p>‘Our sister, our sweet sister!’</p> +<p>We were immensely excited. All the three of us were so far +in love with Ellen Fordyce that her presence was an enchantment to us, +and at any rate none of us ever saw the woman we could compare to her; +and as we both felt ourselves disqualified in different ways from any +nearer approach, we were content to bask in the reflected rays of our +brother’s happiness.</p> +<p>Not that he had gone that length as yet, as we knew before the night +was over, when he came down to us. Even with the dear maiden herself, +he had only made sure that she was not averse, and that merely by her +eyes and lips; and he had extracted nothing from her father but that +they were both very young, a great deal too young, and had no business +to think of such things yet. It must be talked over, etc. etc.</p> +<p>But just then, Griff told us, Frank Fordyce jumped up and turned +round with the sudden exclamation, ‘Ellen!’ looking towards +the door behind him with blank astonishment, as he found it had neither +been opened nor shut. He thought his daughter had recollected +something left behind, and coming in search of it, had retreated precipitately. +He had seen her, he said, in the mirror opposite. Griff told him +there was no mirror, and had to carry a candle across to convince him +that he had only been looking at the door into the inner room, which +though of shining dark oak, could hardly have made a reflection as vivid +as he declared that his had been. Indeed, he ascertained that +Ellen had never left her own room at all. ‘It must have +been thinking about the dear child,’ he said. ‘And +after all, it was not quite like her - somehow - she was paler, and +had something over her head.’ We had no doubt who it was. +Griff had not seen her, but he was certain that there had been none +of the moaning nor crying, ‘In fact, she has come to give her +consent,’ he said with earnest in his mocking tone.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ said Clarence gravely, and with glistening eyes. +‘You are happy Griff. It is given to you to right the wrong, +and quiet that poor spirit.’</p> +<p>‘Happy! The happiest fellow in the world,’ said +Griff, ‘even without that latter clause - if only Madam and the +old man will have as much sense as she has!’</p> +<p>The next day was a thoroughly uncomfortable one. Griff was +not half so near his goal as he had hoped last night when with kindly +Parson Frank.</p> +<p>The commotion was as if a thunderbolt had descended among the elders. +What they had been thinking of, I cannot tell, not to have perceived +how matters were tending; but their minds were full of the Reform Bill +and the state of the country, and, besides, we were all looked on still +as mere children. Indeed, Griff was scarcely one-and-twenty, and +Ellen wanted a month of seventeen; and the crisis had really been a +sudden impulse, as he said, ‘She looked so sweet and lovely, he +could not help it.’</p> +<p>The first effect was a serious lecture upon maidenliness and propriety +to poor Ellen from her mother, who was sure that she must have transgressed +the bounds of discretion, or such ill-bred presumption would have been +spared her, and bitterly regretted the having trusted her to take care +of herself. There were sufficient grains of truth in this to make +the poor girl cry herself out of all condition for appearing at breakfast +or luncheon, and Emily’s report of her despair made us much more +angry with Mrs. Fordyce than was perhaps quite due to that good lady.</p> +<p>My parents were at first inclined to take the same line, and be vexed +with Griff for an act of impertinence towards a guest. He had +a great deal of difficulty in inducing the elders to believe him in +earnest, or treat him as a man capable of knowing his own mind; and +even thus they felt as if his addresses to Miss Fordyce were, under +present circumstances, taking almost an unfair advantage of the other +family - at which our youthful spirits felt indignant.</p> +<p>Yet, after all, such a match was as obvious and suitable as if it +had been a family compact, and the only objection was the youth of the +parties. Mrs. Fordyce would fain have believed her daughter’s +heart to be not yet awake, and was grieved to find childhood over, and +the hero of romance become the lover; and she was anxious that full +time should be given to perceive whether her daughter’s feelings +were only the result of the dazzling aureole which gratitude and excited +fancy had cast around the fine, handsome, winning youth. Her husband, +however, who had himself married very young, and was greatly taken with +Griff, besides being always tender-hearted, did not enter into her scruples; +but, as we had already found out, the grand-looking and clever man of +thirty-eight was, chiefly from his impulsiveness and good-nature, treated +as the boy of the family. His old father, too, was greatly pleased +with Griff’s spirit, affection, and purpose, as well as with my +father’s conduct in the matter; and so, after a succession of +private interviews, very tantalising to us poor outsiders, it was conceded +that though an engagement for the present was preposterous, it might +possibly be permitted when Ellen was eighteen if Griff had completed +his university life with full credit. He was fervently grateful +to have such an object set before him, and my father was warmly thankful +for the stimulus.</p> +<p>That last evening was very odd and constrained. We could not +help looking on the lovers as new specimens over which some strange +transformation had passed, though for the present it had stiffened them +in public into the strictest good behaviour. They would have been +awkward if it had been possible to either of them, and, save for a certain +look in their eyes, comported themselves as perfect strangers.</p> +<p>The three elder gentlemen held discussions in the dining-room, but +we were not trusted in our playground adjoining. Mrs. Fordyce +nailed Griff down to an interminable game at chess, and my mother kept +the two girls playing duets, while Clarence turned over the leaves; +and I read over <i>The Lady of the Lake</i>, a study which I always +felt, and still feel, as an act of homage to Ellen Fordyce, though there +was not much in common between her and the maid of Douglas. Indeed, +it was a joke of her father’s to tease her by criticising the +famous passage about the tears that old Douglas shed over his duteous +daughter’s head - ‘What in the world should the man go whining +and crying for? He had much better have laughed with her.’</p> +<p>Little did the elders know what was going on in the next room, where +there was a grand courtship among the dolls; the hero being a small +jointed Dutch one in Swiss costume, about an eighth part of the size +of the resuscitated Celestina Mary, but the only available male character +in doll-land! Anne was supposed to be completely ignorant of what +passed above her head; and her mother would have been aghast had she +heard the remarkable discoveries and speculations that she and Martyn +communicated to one another.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI - THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURTSHIP</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Or framing, as a fair excuse,<br />The book, the pencil, or +the muse;<br />Something to give, to sing, to say,<br />Some modern +tale, some ancient lay.’</p> +<p>SCOTT.</p> +<p>It seems to me on looking back that I have hardly done justice to +Mrs. Fordyce, and certainly we - as Griffith’s eager partisans +- often regarded her in the light of an enemy and opponent; but after +this lapse of time, I can see that she was no more than a prudent mother, +unwilling to see her fair young daughter suddenly launched into womanhood, +and involved in an attachment to a young and untried man.</p> +<p>The part of a drag is an invidious one; and this must have been her +part through most of her life. The Fordyces, father and son, were +of good family, gentlemen to their very backbones, and thoroughly good, +religious men; but she came of a more aristocratic strain, had been +in London society, and brought with her a high-bred air which, implanted +on the Fordyce good looks, made her daughter especially fascinating. +But that air did not recommend Mrs. Fordyce to all her neighbours, any +more than did those stronger, stricter, more thorough-going notions +of religious obligation which had led her husband to make the very real +and painful sacrifice of his sporting tastes, and attend to the parish +in a manner only too rare in those days. She was a very well-informed +and highly accomplished woman, and had made her daughter the same, keeping +her children up in a somewhat exclusive style, away from all gossip +or undesirable intimacies, as recommended by Miss Edgeworth and other +more religious authorities, and which gave great offence in houses where +there were girls of the same age. No one, however, could look +at Ellen, and doubt of the success of the system, or of the young girl’s +entire content and perfect affection for her mother, though her father +was her beloved playfellow - yet always with respect. She never +took liberties with him, nor called him Pap or any other ridiculous +name inconsistent with the fifth Commandment, though she certainly was +more entirely at ease with him than ever we had been with our elderly +father. When once Mrs. Fordyce found on what terms we were to +be, she accepted them frankly and fully. Already Emily had been +the first girl, not a relation, whose friendship she had fostered with +Ellen; and she had also become thoroughly affectionate and at home with +my mother, who suited her perfectly on the conscientious, and likewise +on the prudent and sensible, side of her nature.</p> +<p>To me she was always kindness itself, so kind that I never felt, +as I did on so many occasions, that she was very pitiful and attentive +to the deformed youth; but that she really enjoyed my companionship, +and I could help her in her pursuits. I have a whole packet of +charming notes of hers about books, botany, drawings, little bits of +antiquarianism, written with an arch grace and finish of expression +peculiarly her own, and in a very pointed hand, yet too definite to +be illegible. I owe her more than I can say for the windows of +wholesome hope and ambition she opened to me, giving a fresh motive +and zest even to such a life as mine. I can hardly tell which +was the most delightful companion, she or her husband. In spite +of ill health, she knew every plant, and every bit of fair scenery in +the neighbourhood, and had fresh, amusing criticisms to utter on each +new book; while he, not neglecting the books, was equally well acquainted +with all beasts and birds, and shed his kindly light over everything +he approached. He was never melancholy about anything but politics, +and even there it was an immense consolation to him to have the owner +of Chantry House staunch on the same side, instead of in chronic opposition.</p> +<p>The family party moved to a tall house at Bath, but there still was +close intercourse, for the younger clergyman rode over every week for +the Sunday duty, and almost always dined and slept at Chantry House. +He acted as bearer of long letters, which, in spite of a reticulation +of crossings, were too expensive by post for young ladies’ pocket-money, +often exceeding the regular quarto sheet. It was a favourite joke +to ask Emily what Ellen reported about Bath fashions, and to see her +look of scorn. For they were a curious mixture, those girlish +letters, of village interests, discussion of books, and thoughts beyond +their age; Tommy Toogood and Prometheus; or Du Guesclin in the closest +juxtaposition with reports of progress in Abercrombie on the <i>Intellectual +Powers</i>. It was the desire of Ellen to prove herself not unsettled +but improved by love, and to become worthy of her ideal Griffith, never +guessing that he would have been equally content with her if she had +been as frivolous as the idlest girl who lingered amid the waning glories +of Bath.</p> +<p>We all made them a visit there when Martyn was taken to a preparatory +school in the place. Mrs. Fordyce took me out for drives on the +beautiful hills; and Emily and I had a very delightful time, undisturbed +by the engrossing claims of love-making. Very good, too, were +our friends, after our departure, in letting Martyn spend Sundays and +holidays with them, play with Anne as before, say his Catechism with +her to Mrs. Fordyce, and share her little Sunday lessons, which had, +he has since told, a force and attractiveness he had never known before, +and really did much, young as he was, in preparing the way towards the +fulfilment of my father’s design for him.</p> +<p>When the Rectory was ready, and the family returned, it was high +summer, and there were constant meetings between the households. +No doubt there were the usual amount of trivial disappointments and +annoyances, but the whole season seems to me to have been bathed in +sunlight. The Reform Bill agitations and the London mobs of which +Clarence wrote to us were like waves surging beyond an isle of peace. +Clarence had some unpleasant walks from the office. Once or twice +the shutters had to be put up at Frith and Castleford’s to prevent +the windows from being broken; and once Clarence actually saw our nation’s +hero, ‘the Duke,’ riding quietly and slowly through a yelling, +furious mob, who seemed withheld from falling on him by the perfect +impassiveness of the eagle face and spare figure. Moreover a pretty +little boy, on his pony, suddenly pushed forward and rode by the Duke’s +side, as if proud and resolute to share his peril.</p> +<p>‘If Griffith had been there!’ said Ellen and Emily, though +they did not exactly know what they expected him to have done.</p> +<p>The chief storms that drifted across our sky were caused by Mrs. +Fordyce’s resolution that Griffith should enjoy none of the privileges +of an accepted suitor before the engagement was an actual fact. +Ellen was obedient and conscientious; and would neither transgress nor +endure to have her mother railed at by Griff’s hasty tongue, and +this affronted him, and led to little breezes.</p> +<p>When people overstay their usual time, tempers are apt to get rather +difficult. Griffith had kept all his terms at Oxford, and was +not to return thither after the long vacation, but was to read with +a tutor before taking his degree. Moreover bills began to come +from Oxford, not very serious, but vexing my father and raising annoyances +and frets, for Griff resented their being complained of, and thought +himself ill-used, going off to see his own friends whenever he was put +out.</p> +<p>One morning at breakfast, late in October, he announced that Lady +Peacock was in lodgings at Clifton, and asked my mother to call on her. +But mamma said it was too far for the horse - she visited no one at +that distance, and had never thought much of Selina Clarkson before +or after her marriage.</p> +<p>‘But now that she is a widow, it would be such a kindness,’ +pleaded Griff.</p> +<p>‘Depend upon it, a gay young widow needs no kindness from me, +and had better not have it from you,’ said my mother, getting +up from behind her urn and walking off, followed by my father.</p> +<p>Griff drummed on the table. ‘I wonder what good ladies +of a certain age do with their charity,’ he said.</p> +<p>And while we were still crying out at him, Ellen Fordyce and her +father appeared, like mirth bidding good-morrow, at the window. +All was well for the time, but Griff wanted Ellen to set out alone with +him, and take their leisurely way through the wood-path, and she insisted +on waiting for her father, who had got into an endless discussion with +mine on the Reform Bill, thrown out in the last Session. Griff +tried to wile her on with him, but, though she consented to wander about +the lawn before the windows with him, she always resolutely turned at +the great beech tree. Emily and I watched them from the window, +at first amused, then vexed, as we could see, by his gestures, that +he was getting out of temper, and her straw bonnet drooped at one moment, +and was raised the next in eager remonstrance or defence. At last +he flung angrily away from her, and went off to the stables, leaving +her leaning against the gate in tears. Emily, in an access of +indignant sympathy, rushed out to her, and they vanished together into +the summer-house, until her father called her, and they went home together.</p> +<p>Emily told me that Ellen had struggled hard to keep herself from +crying enough to show traces of tears which her father could observe, +and that she had excused Griff with all her might on the plea of her +own ‘tiresomeness.’</p> +<p>We were all the more angry with him for his selfishness and want +of consideration, for Ellen, in her torrent of grief, had even disclosed +that he had said she did not care for him - no one really in love ever +scrupled about a mother’s nonsense, etc., etc.</p> +<p>We were resolved, like two sages, to give him a piece of our minds, +and convince him that such dutifulness was the pledge of future happiness, +and that it was absolute cruelty to the rare creature he had won, to +try to draw her in a direction contrary to her conscience.</p> +<p>However, we saw him no more that day; and only learnt that he had +left a message at the stables that dinner was not to be kept waiting +for him. Such a message from Clarence would have caused a great +commotion; but it was quite natural and a matter of course from him +in the eyes of the elders, who knew nothing of his parting with Ellen. +However, there was annoyance enough, when bedtime came, family prayers +were over, and still there was no sign of him. My father sat up +till one o’clock, to let him in, then gave it up, and I heard +his step heavily mounting the stairs.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII - BRISTOL DIAMONDS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘<i>Stafford</i>. And you that are the King’s friends, +follow me.</p> +<p><i>Cade</i>. And you that love the Commons, follow me;<br />We +will not leave one lord, one gentleman,<br />Spare none but such as +go in clouted shoon.’</p> +<p>Act I. <i>Henry VI.</i></p> +<p>The next day was Sunday, and no Griff appeared in the morning. +Vexation, perhaps, prevented us from attending as much as we otherwise +might have done to Mr. Henderson when he told us that there were rumours +of a serious disturbance at Bristol; until Emily recollected that Griff +had been talking for some days past of riding over to see his friend +in the cavalry regiment there stationed, and we all agreed that it was +most likely that he was there; and our wrath began to soften in the +belief that he might have been detained to give his aid in the cause +of order, though his single arm could not be expected to effect as much +as at Hillside.</p> +<p>Long after dark we heard a horse’s feet, and in another minute +Griff, singed, splashed, and battered, had hurried into the room - ‘It +has begun!’ he said. ‘The revolution! I have +brought her - Lady Peacock. She was at Clifton, dreadfully alarmed. +She is almost at the door now, in her carriage. I’ll just +take the pony, and ride over to tell Eastwood in case he will call out +the Yeomanry.’</p> +<p>The wheels were to be heard, and everybody hastened out to receive +Lady Peacock, who was there with her maid, full of gratitude. +I heard her broken sentences as she came across the hall, about dreadful +scenes - frightful mob - she knew not what would have become of her +but for Griffith - the place was in flames when they left it - the military +would not act - Griffith had assured her that Mr. and Mrs. Winslow would +be so kind - as long as any place was a refuge</p> +<p>We really did believe we were at the outbreak of a revolution or +civil war, and, all little frets forgotten, listened appalled to the +tidings; how the appearance of Sir Charles Wetherall, the Recorder of +Bristol, a strong opponent to the Reform Bill, seemed to have inspired +the mob with fury. Griff and his friend the dragoon, while walking +in Broad Street, were astonished by a violent rush of riotous men and +boys, hooting and throwing stones as the Recorder’s carriage tried +to make its way to the Guildhall. In the midst a piteous voice +exclaimed -</p> +<p>‘Oh, Griffith! Mr. Griffith Winslow! Is it you?’ +and Lady Peacock was seen retreating upon the stone steps of a house +either empty, or where the inhabitants were too much alarmed to open +the doors. She was terribly frightened, and the two gentlemen +stood in front of her till the tumultuary procession had passed by. +She was staying in lodgings at Clifton, and had driven in to Bristol +to shop, when she thus found herself entangled in the mob. They +then escorted her to the place where she was to meet her carriage, and +found it for her with some difficulty. Then, while the officer +returned to his quarters, Griff accompanied her far enough on the way +to Clifton to see that everything was quiet before her, and then returned +to seek out his friend. The court at the Guildhall had had to +be adjourned, but the rioters were hunting Sir Charles to the Mansion-House. +Griff was met by one of the Town Council, a tradesman with whom we dealt, +who, having perhaps heard of his prowess at Hillside, entreated him +to remain, offering him a bed, and saying that all friends of order +were needed in such a crisis as this. Griff wrote a note to let +us know what had become of him, but everything was disorganised, and +we did not get it till two days afterwards.</p> +<p>In the evening the mob became more violent, and in the midst of dinner +a summons came for Griff’s host to attend the Mayor in endeavouring +to disperse it. Getting into the Mansion-House by private back +ways, they were able to join the Mayor when he came out, amid a shower +of brickbats, sticks, and stones, and read the Riot Act three times +over, after warning them of the consequences of persisting in their +defiance.</p> +<p>‘But they were far past caring for that,’ said Griff. +‘An iron rail from the square was thrown in the midst of it, and +if I had not caught it there would have been an end of his Worship.’</p> +<p>The constables, with such help as Griff and a few others could give +them, defended the front of the Mansion-House, while the Recorder, for +whom they savagely roared, made his escape by the roof to another house. +A barricade was made with beds, tables, and chairs, behind which the +defenders sheltered themselves, while volleys of stones smashed in the +windows, and straw was thrown after them. But at last the tramp +of horses’ feet was heard, and the Dragoons came up.</p> +<p>‘We thought all over then,’ said Griff; ‘but Colonel +Brereton would not have a blow struck, far less a shot fired! +He would have it that it was a good-humoured mob! I heard him! +When one of his own men was brought up badly hurt with a brickbat, I +heard Ludlow, the Town-Clerk, ask him what he thought of their good +humour, and he had nothing to say but that it was an accident! +And the rogues knew it! He took care they should; he walked about +among them and shook hands with them!’</p> +<p>Griff waited at the Mansion-House all night, and helped to board +up the smashed windows; but at daylight Colonel Brereton came and insisted +on withdrawing the piquet on guard - not, however, sending a relief +for them, on the plea that they only collected a crowd. The instant +they were withdrawn, down came the mob in fresh force, so desperate +that all the defences were torn down, and they swarmed in so that there +was nothing for it but to escape over the roofs.</p> +<p>Griffith was sent to rouse the inhabitants of College Green and St. +Augustine’s Back to come in the King’s name to assist the +Magistrates, and he had many good stories of the various responses he +met with. But the rioters, inflamed by the wine they had found +in sacking the Mansion-House, and encouraged by the passiveness of the +troops, had become entirely masters of the situation. And Colonel +Brereton seems to have imagined that the presence of the soldiers acted +as an irritation; for in this crisis he actually sent them out of the +city to Keynsham, then came and informed the mob, who cheered him, as +well they might.</p> +<p>In the night the Recorder had left the city, and notices were posted +to that effect; also that the Riot Act had been read, and any further +disturbance would be capital felony. This escape of their victim +only had the effect of directing the rage of the populace against Bishop +Grey, who had likewise opposed the Reform Bill.</p> +<p>Messages had been sent to advise the Bishop, who was to preach that +day at the Cathedral, to stay away and sanction the omission of the +service; but his answer to one of his clergy was - ‘These are +times in which it is necessary not to shrink from danger! Our +duty is to be at our post.’ And he also said, ‘Where +can I die better than in my own Cathedral?’</p> +<p>Since the bells were ringing, and it was understood that the Bishop +was actually going to dare the peril, Griff and others of the defenders +decided that it was better to attend the service and fill up the nave +so as to hinder outrage. He said it was a most strange and wonderful +service. Chants and Psalms and Lessons and prayers going on their +course as usual, but every now and then in the pauses of the organ, +a howl or yell of the voice of the multitude would break on the ear +through the thick walls. Griff listened and hoped for a volley +of musketry. He was not tender-hearted! But none came, and +by the time the service was over, the mob had been greatly reinforced +and had broken into the prisons, set them on fire, and released the +prisoners. They were mustering on College Green for an attack +on the palace. Griff aided in guarding the entrance to the cloisters +till the Bishop and his family had had time to drive away to Almondsbury, +four miles off, and then the rush became so strong that they had to +give way. There was another great struggle at the door of the +palace, but it was forced open with a crowbar, while shouts rang out +‘No King and no Bishops!’ A fire was made in the dining-room +with chairs and tables, and live coals were put into the beds, while +the plunder went on.</p> +<p>Griff meantime had made his way to the party headed by the magistrates, +and accompanied by the dragoons, and the mob began to flee; but Colonel +Brereton had given strict orders that the soldiers should not fire, +and the plunderers rallied, made a fire in the Chapter House, and burnt +the whole of the library, shouting with the maddest triumph.</p> +<p>They next attacked the Cathedral, intending to burn that likewise, +but two brave gentlemen, Mr. Ralph and Mr. Linne, succeeded in saving +this last outrage, at the head of the better affected.</p> +<p>Griff had fought hard. He was all over bruises which he really +had never felt at the time, scarcely even now, though one side of his +face was turning purple, and his clothes were singed. In a sort +of council held at the repulse of the attack on the Cathedral, it had +been decided that the best thing he could do would be to give notice +to Sir George Eastwood, in order that the Yeomanry might be called out, +since the troops were so strangely prevented from acting. As he +rode through Clifton, he had halted at Lady Peacock’s, and found +her in extreme alarm. Indeed, no one could guess what the temper +of the mob might be the next day, or whether they might not fall upon +private houses. The Mansion-House, the prisons, the palace were +all burning and were an astounding sight, which terrified her exceedingly, +and she was sending out right and left to endeavour to get horses to +take her away. In common humanity, and for old acquaintance sake, +it was impossible not to help her, and Griff had delayed, to offer any +amount of reward in her name for posthorses, which he had at last secured. +Her own man-servant, whom she had sent in quest of some, had never returned, +and she had to set off without him, Griff acting as outrider; but after +the first there was no more difficulty about horses, and she had been +able to change them at the next stage.</p> +<p>We all thought the days of civil war were really begun, as the heads +of this account were hastily gathered; but there was not much said, +only Mr. Frank Fordyce laid his hand on Griff’s shoulder and said, +‘Well done, my boy; but you have had enough for to-day. +If you’ll lend me a horse, Winslow, I’ll ride over to Eastwood. +That’s work for the clergy in these times, eh? Griffith +should rest. He may be wanted to-morrow. Only is there any +one to take a note home for me, to say where I’m gone;’ +and then he added with that sweet smile of his, ‘Some one will +be more the true knight than ever, eh, you Griffith you - ’</p> +<p>Griffith coloured a little, and Lady Peacock’s eyes looked +interrogative. When the horse was announced, Griff followed Mr. +Fordyce into the hall, and came back announcing that, unless summoned +elsewhere, he should go to breakfast at Hillside, and so hear what was +decided on. He longed to be back at the scene of action, but was +so tired out that he could not dispense with another night’s rest; +though he took all precautions for being called up, in case of need.</p> +<p>However, nothing came, and he rode to the Rectory in Yeomanry equipment. +Nor could any one doubt that in the ecstasy of meeting such a hero, +all the little misunderstanding and grief of the night before was forgotten? +Ellen looked as if she trod on air, when she came down with her father +to report that Griffith had gone, according to the orders sent, to join +the rest of the Yeomanry, who were to advance upon Bristol. They +had seen, and tried to turn back, some of the villagers who were starting +with bludgeons to share in the spoil, and who looked sullen, as if they +were determined not to miss their share.</p> +<p>I do not think we were very much alarmed for Griff’s safety +or for our own, not even the ladies. My mother had the lion-heart +of her naval ancestors, and Ellen was in a state of exaltation. +Would that I could put her before other eyes, as she stood with hands +clasped and glowing cheek.</p> +<p>‘Oh! - think! - think of having one among us who is as real +and true knight as ever watched his armour -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘“For king, for church, for lady fight!”<br />It +has all come gloriously true!’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘Should not you like to bind on his spurs?’ I asked somewhat +mischievously; but she was serious as she said, ‘I am sure he +has won them.’ All the rest of the Fordyces came down afterwards, +too anxious to stay at home. Our elders felt the matter more gravely, +thinking of what civil war might mean to us all, and what an awful thing +it was for Englishmen to be enrolled against each other. Nottingham +Castle had just been burnt, and things looked only too like revolution, +especially considering the inaction of the dragoons. After Griff +had left Bristol, there had been some terrible scenes at the Custom +House, where the ringleaders - unhappy men! - were caught in a trap +of their own and perished miserably.</p> +<p>However, by the morning, the order sent from Lord Hill, the arrival +of Major Beckwith from Gloucester, and the proceedings of the good-humoured +mob had put an end to poor Brereton’s hesitations; a determined +front had been shown; the mob had been fairly broken up; troops from +all quarters poured into the city, and by dinner-time Griff came back +with the news that all was quiet and there was nothing more to fear. +Ellen and Emily both flew out to meet him at the first sound of the +horse’s feet, and they all came into the drawing-room together +- each young lady having hold of one of his hands - and Ellen’s +face in such a glow, that I rather suspect that he had snatched a reward +which certainly would not have been granted save in such a moment of +uplifted feeling, and when she was thankful to her hero for forgetting +how angry he had been with her two days before.</p> +<p>Minor matters were forgotten in the details of his tidings, as he +stood before the fire, shining in his silver lace, and relating the +tragedy and the comedy of the scene.</p> +<p>It was curious, as the evening passed on, to see how Ellen and Lady +Peacock regarded each other, now that the tension of suspense was over. +To Ellen, the guest was primarily a distressed and widowed dame, delivered +by Griff, to whom she, as his lady love, was bound to be gracious and +kind; nor had they seen much of one another, the elder ladies sitting +in the drawing-room, and we in our own regions; but we were all together +at dinner and afterwards, and Lady Peacock, who had been in a very limp, +nervous, and terrified state all day, began to be the Selina Clarkson +we remembered, and ‘more too.’ She was still in mourning, +but she came down to dinner in gray satin sheen, and with her hair in +a most astonishing erection of bows and bands, on the very crown of +her head, raising her height at least four inches. Emily assures +me that it was the mode in use, and that she and Ellen wore their hair +in the same style, appealing to portraits to prove it. I can only +say that they never astonished my weak mind in the like manner; and +that their heads, however dressed, only appeared to me a portion of +the general woman, and part of the universal fitness of things. +Ellen was likewise amazed, most likely not at the hair, but at the transformation +of the disconsolate, frightened widow, into the handsome, fashionable, +stylish lady, talking over London acquaintance and London news with +my father and Griff whenever they left the endless subject of the Bristol +adventures.</p> +<p>The widow had gained a good deal in beauty since her early girlhood, +having regular features, eyes of an uncommon deep blue, very black brows, +eye-lashes, and hair, and a form of the kind that is better after early +youth is over. ‘A fine figure of a woman,’ Parson +Frank pronounced her, and his wife, with the fine edge of her lips replied, +‘exactly what she is!’</p> +<p>She looked upon us younger ones as mere children still - indeed she +never looked at me at all if she could help it - but she mortally offended +Emily by penning her up in a corner, and asking if Griff were engaged +to that sentimental little girl.</p> +<p>Emily coloured like a turkey cock between wrath and embarrassment, +and hotly protested against the word sentimental.</p> +<p>‘Ah yes, I see!’ she said in a patronising tone, ‘she +is your bosom friend, eh? That’s the way those things always +begin. You need not answer: I see it all. And no doubt it +is a capital thing for him; properties joining and all. And she +will get a little air and style when he takes her to London.’ +It was a tremendous offence even to hint that Ellen’s style was +capable of improvement; perhaps an unprejudiced eye would have said +that the difference was between high-bred simplicity and the air of +fashion and society.</p> +<p>In our eyes Lady Peacock was the companion of the elders, and as +such was appreciated by the gentlemen; but neither of the two mothers +was equally delighted with her, nor was mine at all sorry when, on Tuesday, +the boxes were packed, posthorses sent for, and my Lady departed, with +great expressions of thankfulness to us all.</p> +<p>‘A tulip to a jessamine,’ muttered Griff as she drove +off, and he looked up at his Ellen’s sweet refined face.</p> +<p>The unfortunate Colonel Brereton put an end to himself when the court-martial +was half over. How Clarence was shocked and how ardent was his +pity! But Griffith received the thanks of the Corporation of Bristol +for his gallant conduct, when the special assize was held in January. +Mrs. Fordyce was almost as proud of him as we were, and there was much +less attempt at restraining the terms on which he stood with Ellen - +though still the formal engagement was not permitted.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII - QUICKSANDS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p> ‘Whither shall I go?<br />Where shall I hide +my forehead and my eyes?’</p> +<p>TENNYSON.</p> +<p>It was in the May of the ensuing year, 1832, that Clarence was sent +down to Bristol for a few weeks to take the place of one of the clerks +in the office where the cargoes of the incoming vessels of the firm +were received and overhauled.</p> +<p>This was a good-natured arrangement of Mr. Castleford’s in +order to give him change of work and a sight of home, where, by the +help of the coach, he could spend his Sundays. That first spring +day on his way down was a great delight and even surprise to him, who +had never seen our profusion of primroses, cowslips, and bluebells, +nor our splendid blossom of trees - apple, lilac, laburnum - all vieing +in beauty with one another. Emily conducted him about in great +delight, taking him over to Hillside to see Mrs. Fordyce’s American +garden, blazing with azaleas, and glowing with rhododendrons. +He came back with a great bouquet given to him by Ellen, who had been +unusually friendly with him, and he was more animated and full of life +than for years before.</p> +<p>Next time he came he looked less happy. There was plenty of +room in our house, but he used, by preference, the little chamber within +mine, and there at night he asked me to lend him a few pounds, since +Griffith had written one of his off-hand letters asking him to discharge +a little bill or two at Bristol, giving the addresses, but not sending +the accounts. This was no wonder, since any enclosure doubled +the already heavy postage. One of these bills was for some sporting +equipments from the gunsmith’s; another, much heavier, from a +tavern for breakfasts, or rather luncheons, to parties of gentlemen, +mostly bearing date in the summer and autumn of 1830, before the friendship +with the Fordyces had begun. On Clarence’s defraying the +first and applying for the second, two more had come in, one from a +jeweller for a pair of drop-earrings, the other from a nurseryman for +a bouquet of exotics. Doubting of these two last, Clarence had +written to Griff, but had not yet received an answer. The whole +amount was so much beyond what he had been led to expect that he had +not brought enough money to meet it, and wanted an advance from me, +promising repayment, to which latter point I could not assent, as both +of us knew, but did not say, we should never see the sum again, and +to me it only meant stinting in new books and curiosities. We +were anxious to get the matter settled at once, as Griffith spoke of +being dunned; and it might be serious, if the tradesmen applied to my +father when he was still groaning over revelations of college expenses.</p> +<p>On the ensuing Saturday, Clarence showed me Griff’s answer +- ‘I had forgotten these items. The earrings were a wedding +present to the pretty little barmaid, who had been very civil. +The bouquet was for Lady Peacock; I felt bound to do something to atone +for mamma’s severe virtue. It is all right, you best of +brothers.’</p> +<p>It was consolatory that all the dates were prior to the Hillside +fire, except that of the bouquet. As to the earrings, we all knew +that Griff could not see a pretty girl without talking nonsense to her. +Anyway, if they were a wedding present, there was an end of it; and +we were only glad to prevent any hint of them from reaching the ears +of the authorities.</p> +<p>Clarence had another trouble to confide to me. He had strong +reason to believe that Tooke, the managing clerk at Bristol, was carrying +on a course of peculation, and feathering his nest at the expense of +the firm. What a grand discovery, thought I, for such a youth +to have made. The firm would be infinitely obliged to him, and +his fortune would be secured. He shook his head, and said that +was all my ignorance; the man, Tooke, was greatly trusted, especially +by Mr. Frith the senior partner, and was so clever and experienced that +it would be almost impossible to establish anything against him. +Indeed he had browbeaten Clarence, and convinced him at the moment that +his suspicions and perplexities were only due to the ignorance of a +foolish, scrupulous youth, who did not understand the customs and perquisites +of an agency. It was only when Clarence was alone, and reflected +on the matter by the light of experience gained on a similar expedition +to Liverpool, that he had perceived that Mr. Tooke had been throwing +dust in his eyes.</p> +<p>‘I shall only get into a scrape myself,’ said Clarence +despondently. ‘I have felt it coming ever since I have been +at Bristol;’ and he pushed his hair back with a weary hopeless +gesture.</p> +<p>‘But you don’t mean to let it alone?’ I cried indignantly.</p> +<p>He hesitated in a manner that painfully recalled his failing, and +said at last, ‘I don’t know; I suppose I ought not.’</p> +<p>‘Suppose?’ I cried.</p> +<p>‘It is not so easy as you think,’ he answered, ‘especially +for one who has forfeited the right to be believed. I must wait +till I have an opportunity of speaking to Mr. Castleford, and then I +can hardly do more than privately give him a hint to be watchful. +You don’t know how things are in such houses as ours. One +may only ruin oneself without doing any good.’</p> +<p>‘You cannot write to him?’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not. He has taken his family to Mrs. Castleford’s +home in the north of Ireland for a month or six weeks. I don’t +know the address, and I cannot run the risk of the letter being opened +at the office.’</p> +<p>‘Can’t you speak to my father?’</p> +<p>‘Impossible! it would be a betrayal. He would do things +for which I should never be forgiven. And, after all, remember, +it is no business of mine. I know of agents at the docks who do +such things as a matter of course. It is only that I happen to +know that Harris at Liverpool does not. Very possibly old Frith +knows all about it. I should only get scored down as a meddlesome +prig, worse hypocrite than they think me already.’</p> +<p>He said a good deal more to this effect, and I remember exclaiming, +‘Oh, Clarence, the old story!’ and then being frightened +at the whiteness that came over his face.</p> +<p>Little did I know the suffering to which those words of mine condemned +him. For not only had he to make up his mind to resistance, which +to his nature was infinitely worse than it was to Griffith to face a +raging mob, but he knew very well that it would almost inevitably produce +his own ruin, and renew the disgrace out of which he was beginning to +emerge. I did not - even while I prayed that he might do the right +- guess at his own agony of supplication, carried on incessantly, day +and night, sleeping and waking, that the Holy Spirit of might should +brace his will and govern his tongue, and make him say the right thing +at the right time, be the consequences what they might. No one, +not constituted as he was, can guess at the anguish he endured. +I knew no more. Clarence did not come home the next Saturday, +to my mother’s great vexation; but on Tuesday a small parcel was +given to me, brought from our point of contact with the Bristol coach. +It contained some pencils I had asked him to get, and a note marked +<i>private</i>. Here it is -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘DEAR EDWARD - I am summoned to town. Tooke has no doubt +forestalled me. We have had some curious interviews, in which +he first, as I told you, persuaded me out of my senses that it was all +right, and then, finding me still dissatisfied, tried in a delicate +fashion to apprise me that I had a claim to a share of the plunder. +When I refused to appropriate anything without sanction from headquarters, +he threatened me with the consequences of presumptuous interference. +It came to bullying at last. I hardly know what I answered, but +I don’t think I gave in. Now, a sharp letter from old Frith +recalls me. Say nothing at home; and whatever you do, do not betray +Griff. He has more to lose than I. Help me in the true way, +as you know how. - Ever yours, W. C. W.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>I need not dwell on the misery of those days. It was well that +my father had ruled that our letters should not be family property. +Here were all the others discussing a proposed tour in the north of +Devon, to be taken conjointly with the Fordyces, as soon as Griff should +come home. My mother said it would do me good; she saw I was flagging, +but she little guessed at the continual torment of anxiety, and my wonder +at the warning about Griff.</p> +<p>At the end of the week came another letter.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘You need not speak yet. Papa and mamma will know soon +enough. I brought down £150 in specie, to be paid over to +Tooke. He avers that only £130 was received. What +is my word worth against his? I am told that if I am not prosecuted +it will only be out of respect to my father. I am not dismissed +yet, but shall get notice as soon as letters come from Ireland. +I have written, but it is not in the nature of things that Mr. Castleford +should not accept such proofs as have been sent him. I have no +hope, and shall be glad when it is over. The part of black sheep +is not a pleasant one. Say not a word, and do not let my father +come up. He could do no good, and to see him believing it all +would be the last drop in the bucket.</p> +<p><i>N.B</i>. - In this pass, nothing would be saved by bringing Griff +into it, so be silent on your life. Innocence does not seem to +be much comfort at present. Maybe it will come in time. +I know you will not drop me, dear Ted, wherever I may be.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Need I tell the distress of those days of suspense and silence, when +my only solace was in being left alone, and in writing letters to Clarence +which were mostly torn up again.</p> +<p>My horror was lest he should be driven to go off to the sea, which +he loved so well, knowing, as nobody else did, the longing that sometimes +seized him for it, a hereditary craving that curiously conflicted with +the rest of his disposition; and, indeed, his lack was more of moral +than of physical courage. It haunted me constantly that his entreaty +that my father should not come to London was a bad sign, and that he +would never face such another return home. And was I justified +in keeping all this to myself, when my father’s presence might +save him from the flight that would indeed be the surrender of his character, +and to the life of a common sailor? Never have I known such leaden +days as these, yet the misery was not a tithe of what Clarence was undergoing.</p> +<p>I was right in my forebodings. Prosecution and a second return +home in shame and disgrace were alike hideous to Clarence, and the present +was almost equally terrible, for nobody at the office had any doubt +of his guilt, and the young men who had sneered at his strictness and +religious habits regarded him as an unmasked hypocrite, only waiting +on sufferance till his greatly deceived patron should write to decide +on the steps to be taken with him, while he knew he was thought to be +brazening it out in hopes of again deceiving Mr. Castleford.</p> +<p>The sea began to exert its power over him, and he thought with longing +of its freedom, as if the sails of the vessels were the wings of a dove +to flee away and be at rest. He had no illusions as to the roughness +of the life and companionship; but in his present mood, the frank rudeness +and profanity of the sailors seemed preferable to his cramped life, +and the scowls of his fellows; and he knew himself to have seamanship +enough to rise quickly, even if he could not secure a mate’s berth +at first.</p> +<p>Mr. Castleford could not be heard from till the end of the week. +Friday, Saturday came and not a word. That was the climax! +When the consignment of cash, hitherto carried by Clarence to the Bank +of England, was committed to another clerk, the very office boy sniggered, +and the manager demonstratively waited to see him depart.</p> +<p>Unable to bear it any longer, he walked towards Wapping, bought a +Southwester, examined the lists of shipping, and entered into conversation +with one or two sailors about the vessels making up their crews; intending +to go down after dark, to meet the skipper of a craft bound for Lisbon, +who, he heard, was so much in want of a mate as perhaps to overlook +the lack of testimonials, and at any rate take him on board on Sunday.</p> +<p>Going home to pick up a few necessaries, a book lent to him by Miss +Newton came in his way, and he felt drawn to carry it home, and see +her face for the last time.</p> +<p>All unconscious of his trouble and of his intentions, the good lady +told him of her strong desire to hear a celebrated preacher at a neighbouring +church on the Sunday evening, but said that in her partial blindness +and weakness, she was afraid to venture, unless he would have the extreme +goodness, as she said, to take care of her. He saw that she wished +it so much that he had not the heart to refuse, and he recollected likewise +that very early on Monday morning would answer his purpose equally well.</p> +<p>It was the 7th of June. The Psalm was the 37th - the supreme +lesson of patience. ‘Hold thee still in the Lord; and abide +patiently on Him; and He shall bring it to pass. He shall make +thy righteousness as clear as the light, and thy just dealing as the +noonday.’</p> +<p>The awful sense of desolation seemed to pass away under those words, +with that gentle woman beside him. And the sermon was on ‘Oh +tarry thou the Lord’s leisure; be strong, and He shall comfort +thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.’</p> +<p>Clarence remembered nothing but the text. But it was borne +in upon him that his purpose of flight was ‘the old story,’ +- cowardice and virtual distrust of the Lord, as well as absolute cruelty +to us who loved him.</p> +<p>When he had deposited Miss Newton at her own door, he whispered thanks, +and an entreaty for her prayers.</p> +<p>And then he went home, and fought the battle of his life, with his +own horrible dread of Mr. Castleford’s disappointment; of possible +prosecution; of the shame at home; the misery of a life a second time +blighted. He fought it out on his knees, many a time persuading +himself that flight would not be a sin, then returning to the sense +that it was a temptation of his worse self to be overcome. And +by morning he knew that it would be a surrender of himself to his lower +nature, and the evil spirit behind it; while, by facing the worst that +could befall him, he would be falling into the hand of the Lord.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV - AFTER THE TEMPEST</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Nor deem the irrevocable past<br />As wholly wasted, wholly +vain,<br />If rising on its wrecks at last<br />To something nobler +we attain.’</p> +<p>LONGFELLOW.</p> +<p>All the rest of the family were out, and I was relieved by being +alone with my distress, not forced to hide it, when the door opened +and ‘Mr. Castleford’ was announced. After one moment’s +look at me, one touch of my hand, he must have seen that I was faint +with anxiety, and said, ‘It is all right, Edward; I see you know +all. I am come from Bristol to tell your father that he may be +proud of his son Clarence.’</p> +<p>I don’t know what I did. Perhaps I sobbed and cried, +but the first words I could get out were, ‘Does he know? +Oh! it may be too late. He may be gone off to sea!’ I cried, +breaking out with my chief fear. Mr. Castleford looked astounded, +then said, ‘I trust not. I sent off a special messenger +last night, as soon as I saw my way - ’</p> +<p>Then I breathed a little more freely, and could understand what he +was telling me, namely, that Tooke had accused Clarence of abstracting +£20 from the sum in his charge. The fellow accounted for +it by explaining that young Winslow had been paying extravagant bills +at a tavern, where the barmaid showed his presents, and boasted of her +conquest. All this had been written to Mr. Castleford by his partner, +and he was told that it was out of deference to himself that his <i>protégé</i> +was not in custody, nor had received notice of dismissal; but, no doubt, +he would give his sanction to immediate measures, and communicate with +the family.</p> +<p>The effect had been to make the good man hurry at once from the Giant’s +Causeway to Bristol, where he had arrived on Sunday, to investigate +the books and examine the underlings. In the midst Tooke attempted +to abscond, but he was brought back as he was embarking in an American +vessel; and he then confessed the whole, - how speculation had led to +dishonesty, and following evil customs not uncommon in other firms. +Then, when the fugitive found that young Winslow was too acute to be +blinded, and that it had been a still greater mistake to try to overcome +his integrity, self-defence required his ruin, or at any rate his expulsion, +before he could gain Mr. Castleford’s ear.</p> +<p>Tooke really believed that the discreditable bills were the young +man’s own, and proofs of concealed habits of dissipation; but +this excellent man had gone into the matter, repaired to the tradesfolk, +learnt the date, and whose the accounts really were, and had even hunted +up the barmaid, who was not married after all, and had no hesitation +in avowing that her beau had been the handsome young Yeomanry lieutenant. +Mr. Castleford had spent the greater part of Monday in this painful +task, but had not been clear enough till quite late in the evening to +despatch an express to his partner, and to Clarence, whom he desired +to meet him here.</p> +<p>‘He has acted nobly,’ said our kind friend. ‘His +only error seems to have been in being too good a brother.’</p> +<p>This made me implore that nothing should be said about Griffith’s +bills, showing those injunctions of Clarence’s which had so puzzled +me, and explaining the circumstances.</p> +<p>Mr. Castleford hummed and hawed, and perhaps wished he had seen my +father before me; but I prevailed at last, and when the others came +in from their drive, there was nothing to alloy the intelligence that +Clarence had shown rare discernment, as well as great uprightness, steadfastness, +and moral courage.</p> +<p>My mother, when she had taken in the fact, actually shed tears of +joy. Emily stood by me, holding my hand. My father said, +‘It is all owing to you, Castleford, and the helping hand you +gave the poor boy.’</p> +<p>‘Nay,’ was the answer, ‘it seems to me that it +was owing to his having the root of the matter in him to overcome his +natural failings.’</p> +<p>Still, in all the rejoicing, my heart failed me lest the express +should have come too late, and Clarence should be already on the high +seas, for there had been no letter from him on Sunday morning. +It was doubtful whether Mr. Castleford’s messenger could reach +London in time for tidings to come down by the coach - far less did +we expect Clarence - and we had nearly finished the first course at +dinner, when we heard the front door open, and a voice speaking to the +butler. Emily screamed ‘It’s he! Oh mamma, may +I?’ and flew out into the hall, dragging in a pale, worn and weary +wight, all dust and heat, having travelled down outside the coach on +a broiling day, and walked the rest of the way. He looked quite +bewildered at the rush at him; my father’s ‘Well done, Clarence,’ +and strong clasp; and my mother’s fervent kiss, and muttered something +about washing his hands.</p> +<p>Formal folks, such as we were, had to sit in our chairs; and when +he came back apologising for not dressing, as he had left his portmanteau +for the carrier, he looked so white and ill that we were quite shocked, +and began to realise what he had suffered. He could not eat the +food that was brought back for him, and allowed that his head was aching +dreadfully; but, after a glass of wine had been administered, it was +extracted that he had met Mr. Frith at the office door, and been gruffly +told that Mr. Castleford was satisfied, and he might consider himself +acquitted.</p> +<p>‘And then I had your letter, sir, thank you,’ said Clarence, +scarcely restraining his tears.</p> +<p>‘The thanks are on our side, my dear boy,’ said Mr. Castleford. +‘I must talk it over with you, but not till you have had a night’s +rest. You look as if you had not known one for a good while.’</p> +<p>Clarence gave a sort of trembling smile, not trusting himself to +speak. Approbation at home was so new and strange to him that +he could scarcely bear it, worn out as he was by nearly a month of doubt, +distress, apprehension, and self-debate.</p> +<p>My mother went herself to hasten the preparation of his room, and +after she had sent him to bed went again to satisfy herself that he +was comfortable and not feverish. She came back wiping away a +tear, and saying he had looked up at her just as when she had the three +of us in our nursery cribs. In truth these two had seldom been +so happy together since those days, though the dear mother, while thankful +that he had not failed, was little aware of the conflict his resolution +had cost him, and the hot journey and long walk came in for more blame +for his exhaustion than they entirely deserved.</p> +<p>My father perhaps understood more of the trial; for when she came +back, declaring that all that was needed was sleep, and forbidding me +to go to my room before bedtime, he said he must bid the boy good-night.</p> +<p>And he spoke as his reserve would have never let him speak at any +other time, telling Clarence how deeply thankful he felt for the manifestation +of such truthfulness and moral courage as he said showed that the man +had conquered the failings of the boy.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, when I retired for the night, it was to find Clarence +asleep indeed, but most uneasily, tossing, moaning, and muttering broken +sentences about ‘disgracing his pennant,’ ‘never bearing +to see mamma’s face’ - and the like. I thought it +a kindness to wake him, and he started up. ‘Ted, is it you? +I thought I should never hear your dear old crutch again! Is it +really all right’ - then, sitting up and passing his hand over +his face, ‘I always mix it up with the old affair, and think the +court-martial is coming again.’</p> +<p>‘There’s all the difference now.’</p> +<p>‘Thank God! yes - He has dragged me through! But it did +not seem so in one’s sleep, nor waking neither - though sleep +is worst, and happily there was not much of that! Sit down, Ted; +I want to look at you. I can’t believe it is not three weeks +since I saw you last.’</p> +<p>We talked it all out, and I came to some perception of the fearful +ordeal it had been - first, in the decision neither to shut his eyes, +nor to conceal that they were open; and then in the lack of presence +of mind and the sense of confusion that always beset him when browbeaten +and talked down, so that, in the critical contest with Tooke, he felt +as if his feet were slipping from under him, and what had once been +clear to him was becoming dim, so that he had only been assured that +he had held his ground by Tooke’s redoubled persuasions and increased +anger. And for a clerk, whose years were only twenty-one, to oppose +a manager, who had been in the service more than the whole of that space, +was preposterous insolence, and likely to result in the utter ruin of +his own prospects, and the character he had begun to retrieve. +It was just after this, the real crisis, that he had the only dream +which had not been misery and distress. In it she - she yonder +- yes, the lady with the lamp, came and stood by him, and said, ‘Be +steadfast.’</p> +<p>‘It was a dream,’ said Clarence. ‘She was +not as she is in the mullion room, not crying, but with a sweet, sad +look, almost like Miss Fordyce - if Miss Fordyce ever looked sad. +It was only a dream.’</p> +<p>Yet it had so refreshed and comforted him that we have often since +discussed whether the spirit really visited him, or whether this was +the manner in which conscience and imagination acted on his brain. +Indeed, he always believed that the dream had been either heaven-sent +or heaven-permitted.</p> +<p>The die had been cast in that interview when he had let it be seen +that he was dangerous, and could not be bought over. The after +consequences had been the terrible distress and temptation I have before +described, only most inadequately. ‘But that,’ said +Clarence, half smiling, ‘only came of my being such a wretched +creature as I am. There, dear old Miss Newton saved me - yes, +she did - most unconsciously, dear old soul. Don’t you remember +how Griff used to say she maundered over the text. Well, she did +it all the way home in my ear, as she clung to my arm - “Be strong, +and He shall comfort thine heart.” And then I knew my despair +and determination to leave it all behind were a temptation - “the +old story,” as you told me, and I prayed God to help me, and just +managed to fight it out. Thank God for her!’</p> +<p>If it had not been for that good woman, he would have been out of +reach - already out in the river - before Mr. Castleford’s messenger +had reached London! He might call himself a poor creature - and +certainly a man of harder, bolder stuff would not have fared so badly +in the strife; but it always seemed to me in after years that much of +what he called the poor creature - the old, nervous, timid, diffident +self - had been shaken off in that desperate struggle, perhaps because +it had really given him more self-reliance, and certainly inspired others +with confidence in him.</p> +<p>We talked late enough to have horrified my mother, but I did not +leave him till he was sleeping like a child, nor did he wake till I +was leaving the room at the sound of the bell. It was alleged +that it was the first time in his life that he had been late for prayers. +Mr. Castleford said he was very glad, and my mother, looking severely +at me, said she knew we had been talking all night, and then went off +to satisfy herself whether he ought to be getting up.</p> +<p>There was no doubt on that score, for he was quite himself again, +though he was, in looks and in weariness, just as if he had recovered +from a bad illness, or, as he put it himself, he felt as tired and bruised +as if he had been in a stiff gale. Mr. Castleford was sorry to +be obliged to ask him to go through the whole matter with him in the +study, and the result was that he was pronounced to have an admirable +head for business, as well as the higher qualities that had been put +to the test. After that his good friend insisted that he should +have a long and complete holiday, at first proposing to take him to +Ireland, but giving the notion up on hearing of our projected excursion +to the north of Devon. Pending this, Clarence was, for nearly +a week, fit for nothing but lying on the grass in the shade, playing +with the cats and dogs, or with little Anne, looking over our drawings, +listening to Wordsworth, our reigning idol, - and enjoying, with almost +touching gratitude, the first approach to petting that had ever fallen +to his share.</p> +<p>The only trouble on his mind was the Quarter-Session. Mr. Castleford +would hardly have prosecuted an old employé, but Mr. Frith was +furious, and resolved to make an example. Tooke had, however, +so carefully entrenched himself that nothing could be actually made +a subject of prosecution but the abstraction of the £20 of which +he had accused Clarence, who had to prove the having received and delivered +it.</p> +<p>It was a very painful affair, and Tooke was sentenced to seven years’ +transportation. I believe he became a very rich and prosperous +man in New South Wales, and founded a family. My father received +warm compliments upon his sons, and Clarence had the new sensation of +being honourably coupled with Griffith, though he laughed at the idea +of mere honesty with fierce struggles being placed beside heroism with +no struggle at all.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV - HOLIDAY-MAKING</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘The child upon the mountain side<br /> Plays +fearless and at ease,<br />While the hush of purple evening<br /> Spreads +over earth and seas.<br />The valley lies in shadow,<br /> But +the valley lies afar;<br />And the mountain is a slope of light<br /> Upreaching +to a star.’</p> +<p>MENELLA SMEDLEY.</p> +<p>How pleasant it was to hear Griffith’s cheery voice, as he +swung himself down, out of a cloud of dust, from the top of the coach +at the wayside stage-house, whither Clarence and I had driven in the +new britshka to meet him. While the four fine coach-horses were +led off, and their successors harnessed in almost the twinkling of an +eye, Griff was with us; and we did nothing but laugh and poke fun at +each other all the way home, without a word of graver matters.</p> +<p>I was resolved, however, that Griff should know how terribly his +commission had added to Clarence’s danger, and how carefully the +secret had been guarded; and the first time I could get him alone, I +told him the whole.</p> +<p>The effect was one of his most overwhelming fits of laughter. +‘Poor old Bill! To think of his being accused of gallanting +about with barmaids!’ (an explosion at every pause) ‘and +revelling with officers! Poor old Bill! it was as bad as Malvolio +himself.’</p> +<p>When, indignant at the mirth excited by what had nearly cost us so +dear, I observed that these items had nearly turned the scale against +our brother, Griff demanded how we could have been such idiots as not +to have written to him; I might at least have had the sense to do so. +As to its doing him harm at Hillside, Parson Frank was no fool, and +knew what men were made of! Griff would have taken the risk, come +at once, and thrust the story down the fellow’s throat (as indeed +he would have done). The idea of Betsy putting up with a pious +young man like Bill, whose only flame had ever been old Miss Newton! +And he roared again at the incongruous pair. ‘Oh, wasn’t +she married after all, the hussy? She always had a dozen beaux, +and professed to be on the point of putting up her banns; so if the +earrings were not a wedding present, they might have been, ought to +have been, and would be some time or other.’</p> +<p>Then he patted me, and declared there was no occasion for my disgusted +looks, for no one knew better than himself that he had the best brace +of brothers in existence, wanting in nothing but common sense and knowledge +of the world. As to Betsy - faugh! I need not make myself +uneasy about her; she knew what a civil word was worth much better than +I did.</p> +<p>He showed considerable affection for Clarence after a fashion of +his own, which we three perfectly understood, and preferred to anything +more conventional. Griff was always delightful, and he was especially +so on that vacation, when every one was in high spirits; so that the +journey is, as I look back on it, like a spot of brilliant sunshine +in the distant landscape.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce kept house with her father-in-law, little Anne, and +Martyn, whose holidays began a week after we had started. The +two children were allowed to make a desert island and a robbers’ +cave in the beech wood; and the adventures which their imaginations +underwent there completely threw ours into the shade.</p> +<p>The three ladies and I started in the big Hillside open carriage, +with my brothers on the box and the two fathers on horseback. +Frank Fordyce was a splendid rider, as indeed was the old rector, who +had followed the hounds, made a leap over a fearful chasm, still known +as the Parson’s Stride, and had been an excellent shot. +The renunciation of field sports had been a severe sacrifice to Frank +Fordyce, and showed of what excellent stuff he was made. He used +to say that it was his own fault that he had to give them up; another +man would have been less engrossed by them. Though he only read +by fits and starts when his enthusiasm was excited, he was thorough, +able, and acute, and his intelligence and sympathy were my father’s +best compensation for the loss of London society.</p> +<p>The two riders were a great contrast. Mr. Winslow had the thoroughly +well-appointed, somewhat precise, and highly-polished air of a barrister, +and a thin, somewhat worn and colourless face, with grizzled hair and +white whiskers; and though he rode well, with full command of his horse, +he was old enough to have chosen Chancery for her sterling qualities. +Parson Frank, on the other hand, though a thorough gentleman, was as +ruddy and weather-browned as any farmer, and - albeit his features were +handsome and refined, and his figure well poised and athletic - he lost +something of dignity by easiness of gesture and carelessness of dress, +except on state occasions, when he discarded his beloved rusty old coat +and Oxford mixture trousers, and came out magnificent enough for an +archdeacon, if not an archbishop; while his magnificent horse, Cossack, +was an animal that a sporting duke might have envied.</p> +<p>Nothing ever tired that couple, but my father had stipulated for +exchanges with Griffith. On these occasions it almost invariably +happened that there was a fine view for Ellen to see, so that she was +exalted to the box with Griffith to show it to her, and Chancery was +consigned to Clarence. Griff was wont to say that Chancery deserved +her name, and that he would defy the ninety-ninth part of a tailor to +come to harm with her; but Clarence was utterly unpractised in riding, +did not like it, was tormented lest Cossack’s antics should corrupt +Chancery, and was mortally afraid of breaking the knees of the precious +mare. Not all Parson Frank’s good advice and kindly raillery +would induce him to risk riding her on a descent; and as our travels +were entirely up and down hill, he was often left leading her far behind, +in hot sun or misty rain, and then would come cantering hastily up, +reckless of parallels with John Gilpin, and only anxious to be in time +to help me out at the halting-place; but more than once only coming +in when the beefsteaks were losing their first charm, and then good-humouredly +serving as the general butt for his noble horsemanship. Did any +one fully comprehend how much pleasanter our journey was through the +presence of one person entirely at the service of the others? +For my own part, it made an immense difference to have one pair of strong +arms and dextrous well-accustomed hands always at my service, enabling +me to accomplish what no one else, kind as all were, would have ventured +on letting me attempt. Primarily, he was my devoted slave; but +he was at the beck and call of every one, making the inquiries, managing +the bargains, going off in search of whatever was wanting - taking in +fact all the ‘must be dones’ of the journal. The contemplation +of Cossack and Chancery being rubbed down, and devouring their oats +was so delightful to Frank Fordyce and Griffith that they seldom wished +to shirk it; but if there were any more pleasing occupation, it was +a matter of course that Clarence should watch to see that the ostlers +did their duty by the animals - an obsolete ceremony, by the bye. +He even succeeded in hunting up and hiring a side saddle when the lovers, +with the masterfulness of their nature, devised appropriating the horses +at all the most beautiful places, in spite of Frank’s murmur, +‘What will mamma say?’ But, as Griff said, it was +a real mercy, for Ellen was infinitely more at her ease with Chancery +than was Clarence. Then Emily had Clarence to walk up the hills +with her, and help her in botany - her special department in our tour. +Mine was sketching, Ellen’s, keeping the journal, though we all +shared in each other’s work at times; and Griff, whose line was +decidedly love-making, interfered considerably with us all, especially +with our chronicler. I spare you the tour, young people; it lies +before me on the table, profusely illustrated and written in many hands. +As I turn it over, I see noble Dunster on its rock; Clarence leading +Chancery down Porlock Hill; Parson Frank in vain pursuit of his favourite +ancient hat over that wild and windy waste, the sheep running away from +him; a boat tossing at lovely Minehead; a ‘native’ bargaining +over a crab with my mother; the wonderful Valley of Rocks, and many +another scene, ludicrous or grand; for, indeed, we were for ever taking +the one step between the sublime and the ridiculous! I am inclined +to believe it is as well worth reading as many that have rushed into +print, and it is full of precious reminiscences to Emily and me; but +the younger generation may judge for itself, and it would be an interruption +here. The country we saw was of utterly unimagined beauty to the +untravelled eyes of most of us. I remember Ellen standing on Hartland +Point, with her face to the infinite expanse of the Atlantic, and waving +back Griff with ‘Oh, don’t speak to me.’ Yet +the sea was a delight above all to my mother and Clarence. To +them it was a beloved friend; and magnificent as was Lynmouth, wonderful +as was Clovelly, and glorious as was Hartland, I believe they would +equally have welcomed the waves if they had been on the flattest of +muddy shores! The ripple, plash, and roar were as familiar voices, +the salt smell as native air; and my mother never had thawed so entirely +towards Clarence as when she found him the only person who could thoroughly +participate her feeling.</p> +<p>At Minehead they stayed out, walking up and down together in the +summer twilight till long after every one else was tired out, and had +gone in; and when at last they appeared she was leaning on Clarence’s +arm, an unprecedented spectacle!</p> +<p>At Appledore, the only place on that rugged coast where boating tempted +them, there was what they called a pretty little breeze, but quite enough +to make all the rest of us decline venturing out into Bideford bay. +They, however, found a boatman and made a trip, which was evidently +such enjoyment to them, that my father, who had been a little restless +and uneasy all the time, declared on their return that he felt quite +jealous of Neptune, and had never known what a cruelty he was committing +in asking a sea-nymph to marry a London lawyer.</p> +<p>Mr. Fordyce told him he was afraid of being like the fisherman who +wedded a mermaid, and made Ellen tell the story in her own pretty way; +but while we were laughing over it, I saw my mother steal her hand into +my father’s and give it a strong grasp. Such gestures, which +she denominated pawing, when she witnessed them in Emily, were so alien +to her in general that no doubt this little action was infinitely expressive +to her husband. She was wonderfully softened, and Clarence implied +to me that it was the first time she had ever seemed to grieve for him +more than she despised him, or to recognise his deprivation more than +his disgrace, - implied, I say, for the words he used were little more +than - ‘You can’t think how nice she was to me.’</p> +<p>The regaining of esteem and self-respect was lessening Clarence’s +bashfulness, and bringing out his powers of conversation, so that he +began to be appreciated as a pleasant companion, answering Griff’s +raillery in like fashion, and holding his own in good-natured repartee. +Mr. Fordyce got on excellently with him in their tête-à-têtes +(who would not with Parson Frank?), and held him in higher estimation +than did Ellen. To her, honesty was common, tame, and uninteresting +in comparison with heroism; and Griff’s vague statement that Clarence +was the best brother in the world did not go for much. Emily and +I longed to get the two better acquainted, but it did not become possible +while Griff absorbed the maiden as his exclusive property.</p> +<p>The engagement was treated as an avowed and settled thing, though +I do not know that there had been a formal ratification by the parents; +but in truth Mrs. Fordyce must have tacitly yielded her consent when +she permitted her daughter to make the journey under the guardianship +of Parson Frank. After a walk in the ravine of Lynton, we became +aware of a ring upon Ellen’s finger; and Emily was allowed at +night to hear how and when it had been put on.</p> +<p>Ellen only slightly deepened her lovely carnation tints when her +father indulged in a little tender teasing and lamentation over himself. +She was thoroughly happy and proud of her hero, and not ashamed of owning +it.</p> +<p>There was one evening when she and I were sitting with our sketchbooks +in the shade on the beech at Ilfracombe, while the rest had gone, some +to bathe, the others to make purchases in the town. We had been +condoling with one another over the impossibility of finding anything +among our water-colours that would express the wondrous tints before +our eyes.</p> +<p>‘No, nothing can do it,’ I said at last; ‘we can +only make a sort of blot to assist our memories.’</p> +<p>‘Sunshine outside and in!’ said Ellen. ‘The +memory of such days as these can never fade away, - no, nor thankfulness +for them, I hope.’</p> +<p>Something then passed about the fact that it was quite possible to +go on in complete content in a quiet monotonous life, in an oyster-like +way, till suddenly there was an unveiling and opening of unimagined +capacities of enjoyment - as by a scene like this before us, by a great +poem, an oratorio, or, as I supposed, by Niagara or the Alps. +Ellen put it - ‘Oh! and by feelings for the great and good!’ +Dear girl, her colour deepened, and I am sure she meant her bliss in +her connection with her hero. Presently, however, she passed on +to saying how such revelations of unsuspected powers of enjoyment helped +one to enter into what was meant by ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear +heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the +things that God hath prepared for them that love him.’ Then +there was a silence, and an inevitable quoting of the <i>Christian Year</i>, +the guide to all our best thoughts -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘But patience, there may come a time.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>And then a turning to the ‘Ode to Immortality,’ for Wordsworth +was our second leader, and we carried him on our tour as our one secular +book, as Keble was our one religious book. We felt that the principal +joy of all this beauty and delight was because there was something beyond. +Presently Ellen said, prettily and shyly, ‘I am sure all this +has opened much more to me than I ever thought of. I always used +to be glad that we had no brothers, because our cousins were not always +pleasant with us; but now I have learnt what valuable possessions they +are,’ she added, with the sweetest, prettiest glance of her bright +eyes.</p> +<p>I ventured to say that I was glad she said they, and hoped it was +a sign that she was finding out Clarence.</p> +<p>‘I have found out that I behaved so ill to him that I have +been ashamed ever since to look at him or speak to him,’ said +Ellen; ‘I long to ask his pardon, but I believe that would distress +him more than anything.’</p> +<p>In which she was right; and I was able to tell her of the excuses +there had been for the poor boy, how he had suffered, and how he had +striven to conquer his failings; and she replied that the words ‘Judge +not, that ye be not judged,’ always smote her with the remembrance +of her disdainfully cantering past him. There was a tear on her +eye-lashes, and it drew from me an apology for having brought a painful +recollection into our bright day.</p> +<p>‘There must be shade to throw up the lights,’ she said, +with her sparkling look.</p> +<p>Was it shade that we never fell into one of these grave talks when +Griffith was present, and that the slightest approach to them was sure +to be turned by him into jest?</p> +<p>We made our journey a little longer than we intended, crossing the +moors so as to spend a Sunday at Exeter; but Frank Fordyce left us, +not liking to give his father the entire duty of a third Sunday.</p> +<p>Emily says she has come to have a superstition that extensions of +original plans never turn out well, and certainly some of the charm +of our journey departed with the merry, genial Parson Frank. Our +mother was more anxious about Ellen, and put more restrictions on the +lovers than when the father was present to sanction their doings. +Griffith absolutely broke out against her in a way he had never ventured +before, when she forbade Ellen’s riding with him when he wanted +to hire a horse at Lydford and take an excursion on the moor before +joining us at Okehampton.</p> +<p>My father looked up, and said, ‘Griffith, I am surprised at +you.’ He was constrained to mutter some apology, and I believe +Ellen privately begged my mother’s pardon, owning her to have +been quite right; but, by the dear girl, the wonderful cascade and narrow +gorge were seen through swollen eyes. And poor Clarence must have +had a fine time of it when Griffith had to ride off with him <i>faute +de mieux.</i></p> +<p>All was cleared off, however, when we met again, for Griff’s +storms were very fleeting, and Ellen treated him as if she had to make +her own peace with him. She sacrificed her own enjoyment of Exeter +Cathedral to go about with him when he had had enough of it, but on +Sunday afternoon she altogether declined to walk with him till after +the second service. He laughed at her supposed passion for sacred +music, and offered to wait with her to hear the anthem from the nave. +‘No,’ she said, ‘that would be amusing ourselves instead +of worshipping.’</p> +<p>‘We’ve done our devoir in that way already,’ said +Griff. ‘Paid our dues.’</p> +<p>‘One can’t,’ cried Ellen, with an eager look. +‘One longs to do all the more when He has just let us have such +a taste of His beautiful things.’</p> +<p>‘<i>One</i>, perhaps, when one is a little saint,’ returned +Griff.</p> +<p>‘Oh don’t, Griff! I’m not <i>that</i>; but +you know every one wants all the help and blessing that can be got. +And then it is so delightful!’</p> +<p>He gave a long whistle. ‘Every one to his taste,’ +he said; ‘especially you ladies.’</p> +<p>He did come to the Cathedral with us, but he had more than half spoilt +this last Sunday. Did he value her for what was best in her, or +was her influence raising him?</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI - C. MORBUS, ESQ.</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears,<br />The plaintive +voice alone she hears,<br /> Sees but the dying man.’</p> +<p>SCOTT.</p> +<p>C. Morbus, Esq. Such was the card that some wicked wag, one +of Clarence’s fellow-clerks probably, left at his lodgings in +the course of the epidemic which was beginning its ravages even while +we were upon our pleasant journey - a shade indeed to throw out the +light.</p> +<p>In these days, the tidings of a visitation of cholera are heard with +compassion for crowded towns, but without special alarm for ourselves +or our friends, since its conditions and the mode of combating it have +come to be fairly understood.</p> +<p>In 1832, however, it was a disease almost unknown and unprecedented +except in its Indian abode, whence it had advanced city by city, seaport +by seaport, sweeping down multitudes before it; nor had science yet +discovered how to encounter or forestall it. We heard of it in +a helpless sort of way, as if it had been the plague or the Black Death, +and thought of its victims as doomed.</p> +<p>That terrible German engraving, ‘Death as a Foe,’ which +represents the grisly form as invading a ballroom in Paris, is an expression +of the feeling with which the scourge was regarded on that first occasion. +<i>Two Years Ago</i> gives some notion of the condition of things in +1849, but by that time there had been some experience, and means of +prevention were better understood. On the alarm in that year there +was a great inspection of cottages throughout Earlscombe and Hillside, +but in 1832 there was no notion of such precautions. Nevertheless, +on neither visitation, nor any subsequent one, has the disease come +nearer to us than Bristol.</p> +<p>As far as memory serves me, the idea was that wholesome food, regular +habits, and cleanliness were some protection, but one locality might +be as dangerous as another. There had been cases in London all +the spring, but no special anxiety was felt when Clarence returned to +his work in the end of July, much refreshed and invigorated by his holiday, +and with the understanding that he was to have a rise in position and +salary on Mr. Castleford’s return from Ireland, where he was still +staying with his wife’s relations. Clarence was received +at the office with a kind of shamefaced cordiality, as if every one +would fain forget the way in which he had been treated; and he was struck +by finding that all the talk was of the advances of the cholera, chiefly +at Rotherhithe. And a great shock awaited him. He went, +as soon as business hours were over, to thank good old Miss Newton for +the comfort and aid she had unwittingly given him, and to tell her from +what she had saved him. Alas! it was the last benefit she was +ever to confer on her old pupil. At the door he was told by a +weeping, terrified maid that she was very ill with cholera, and that +no hope was given. He tried to send up a message, but she was +in a state of collapse and insensible; and when he inquired the next +morning, the gentle spirit had passed away.</p> +<p>He attended her funeral that same evening. Griff said it was +a proof how your timid people will do the most foolhardy things; but +Clarence always held that the good woman had really done more for him +than any one in actually establishing a contact, so to say, between +his spirit and external truth, and he thought no mark of respect beyond +her deserts. She was a heavy loss to him, for no one else in town +gave him the sense of home kindness; and there was much more to depress +him, for several of his Sunday class were dead, and the school had been +broken up for the time, while the heats and the fruits of August contributed +to raise the mortality.</p> +<p>His return had released a couple more clerks for their holiday; it +was a slack time of year, with less business in hand than usual, and +the place looked empty. Mr. Frith worked on as usual, but preserved +an ungracious attitude, as though he were either still incredulous or, +if convinced against his will, resolved that ‘that prig of a Winslow’ +should not presume upon his services. Altogether the poor fellow +was quite unhinged, and wrote such dismal bills of mortality, and meek, +resigned forebodings that my father was almost angry, declaring that +he would frighten himself into the sickness; yet I suppressed a good +deal, and never told them of the last will and testament in which he +distributed his possessions amongst us. Griff said he had a great +mind to go and shake old Bill up and row him well, but he never did.</p> +<p>More than a week passed by, two of Clarence’s regular days +for writing, but no letter came. My mother grew uneasy, and talked +of writing to Mrs. Robson, or, as we still called her, Gooch; but it +was doubtful whether the answer would contain much information, and +it was quite certain that any ill tidings would be sent to us.</p> +<p>At last we did hear, and found, as we had foreboded, that the letter +had not been written for fear of alarming us, or carrying infection, +though Clarence underlined the words ‘I am perfectly well.’</p> +<p>Having to take a message into the senior partner’s room, Clarence +had found the old man crouched over the table, writhing in the unmistakable +grip of the deadly enemy. No one else was available; Clarence +had to collect himself, send for the doctor, and manage the conveyance +of the patient to his rooms, which fortunately adjoined the office; +for, through all his influx of wealth, Mr. Frith had retained the habits +and expenditure of his early struggling days. His old housekeeper +and her drudge showed themselves terrified out of their senses, and +as incapable as unwilling. Naval experience, and waiting on me, +had taught Clarence helpfulness and handiness; and though this was the +very thing that had appalled his imagination, he seemed, as he said +afterwards, ‘to have got beyond his fright’ to the use of +his commonsense. And when at last the doctor came, and talked +of finding a nurse, if possible, for they were scarce articles, the +sufferer only entreated between his paroxysms, ‘Stay, Winslow! +Is Winslow there? Don’t go! Don’t leave me!’</p> +<p>No nurse was to be found, but to Clarence’s amazement Gooch +arrived. He had sent by the office boy to explain his absence; +and before night the faithful woman descended on him, intending, as +in her old days of authority, simply to put Master Clarry out of harm’s +way, and take the charge upon herself. Then, as he proved unmanageable +and would not leave his patient, neither would she leave him, and through +the frightful night that ensued, there was quite employment enough for +them both. Gooch fully thought the end would come before morning, +and was murmuring something about a clergyman, but was cut short by +a sharp prohibition. However, detecting Clarence’s lips +moving, the old man said, ‘Eh! speak it out!’ ‘And +with difficulty, feeling as if I were somebody else,’ said Clarence, +‘I did get out some short words of prayer. It seemed so +awful for him to die without any.’</p> +<p>When the doctor came in early morning, the watchers were astonished +to hear that their charge had taken a turn for the better, and might +recover if their admirable care were continued. The doctor had +brought a nurse; but Mr. Frith would not let her come into the room, +and there was plenty of need for her elsewhere.</p> +<p>Several days of unremitting care followed, during which Clarence +durst not write to us, so little were the laws of infection understood. +Good Mrs. Robson stayed all the time, and probably saved Clarence from +falling a victim to his zeal, for she looked after him as anxiously +as after the sick man; and with a wondering and thankful heart, he found +himself in full health, when both were set free to return home. +Clarence had written at the beginning of the illness to the only relations +of whose existence or address he was aware, an old sister, Mrs. Stevens, +and a young great-nephew in the office at Liverpool; and the consequence +was the arrival of a sour-looking, old widow sister, who came to take +charge of the convalescence, and, as the indignant Gooch overheard her +say, ‘to prevent that young Winslow from getting round him.’</p> +<p>There were no signs of such a feat having been performed, when, the +panic being past, my father went up to London with Griffith, who was +to begin eating his terms at the Temple. He was to share Clarence’s +lodgings, for the Robsons had plenty of room, and Gooch was delighted +to extend her cares to her special favourite, as she already reigned +over Clarence’s wardrobe and table as entirely as in nursery days; +and, to my great exultation, my father said it would be good for Griffith +to be with his brother; and, moreover, we should hear of the latter. +Nothing could be a greater contrast than his rare notifications or requests, +scrawled on a single side of the quarto sheet, with Clarence’s +regular weekly lines of clerkly manuscript, telling all that could interest +any of us, and covering every available flap up to the blank circle +left for the trim red seal.</p> +<p>Promotion had come to Clarence in the natural course of seniority, +and a small sum, due to him on his coming of age, was invested in the +house of business, so that the two brothers could take between them +all the Robsons’ available rooms. Clarence’s post +was one of considerable trust; but there were no tokens of special favour, +except that Mr. Frith was more civil to my father than usual, and when +he heard of the arrangement about the lodgings, he snarled out, ‘Hm! +Law student indeed! Don’t let him spoil his brother!’</p> +<p>Which was so far an expression of gratitude that it showed that he +considered that there was something to be spoilt. Mr. Castleford, +however, showed real satisfaction in the purchase of a share in the +concern for Clarence. His own eldest son inherited a good deal +of his mother’s Irish nature, and was evidently unfit to be anything +but a soldier, and the next was so young that he was glad to have a +promising and trustworthy young man, from whom a possible joint head +of the firm might be manufactured.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII - PETER’S THUNDERBOLT</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>If you can separate yourself and your misdemeanours you are welcome +to the house; if not, an it would please you to take leave of her, she +is very willing to bid you farewell.’</p> +<p><i>Twelfth Night.</i></p> +<p>In the early summer of 1833, we had the opportunity of borrowing +a friend’s house in Portman Square for six weeks, and we were +allowed to take Ellen with us for introduction to the Admiral and other +old friends, while we were to make acquaintance with her connections +- the family of Sir Horace Lester, M.P.</p> +<p>We were very civil; but there were a good many polite struggles for +the exclusive possession of Ellen, whom both parties viewed as their +individual right; and her unselfish good-humour and brightness must +have carried her over more worries than we guessed at the time.</p> +<p>She had stayed with the Lesters before, but in schoolroom days. +They were indolent and uninterested, and had never shown her any of +the permanent wonders of London, despising these as only fit for country +cousins, whereas we had grown up to think of them with intelligent affection. +To me, however, much was as new as to Ellen. Country life had +done so much for me that I could venture on what I had never attempted +before. The Admiral said it was getting away from doctors and +their experiments, but I had also done with the afflictions of attempts +at growth in wrong directions. Old friends did not know me, and +more than once, as I sat in the carriage, addressed me for one of my +brothers - a compliment which, Griff said, turned my head. Happily +I was too much accustomed to my own appearance, and people were too +kind, for me to have much shyness on that score. Our small dinner +parties were great enjoyment to me, and the two girls were very happy +in their little gaieties.</p> +<p>Braham and Catalani, Fanny Kemble, and Turner’s landscapes +at his best, rise in my memory as supreme delights and revelations in +their different lines, and awakening trains of thought; and then there +was that entertainment which Griffith and Clarence gave us in their +rooms, when they regaled us with all the delicacies of the season, and +Peter and Gooch looked all pride and hospitality! The dining-parlour, +or what served as such, was Griff’s property, as any one could +see by the pictures of horses, dogs, and ladies, the cups, whips, and +boxing-gloves that adorned it; the sitting-room had tokens of other +occupation, in Clarence’s piano, window-box of flowers, and his +one extravagance in engravings from Raffaelle, and a marine water-colour +or two, besides all my own attempts at family portraits, with a case +of well-bound books. Those two rooms were perfectly redolent of +their masters - I say it literally - for the scent of flowers was in +Clarence’s room, and in Griff’s, the odour of cigars had +not wholly been destroyed even by much airing. For in those days +it was regarded by parents and guardians as an objectionable thing.</p> +<p>Peter was radiant on that occasion; but a few evenings later, when +all were gone to an evening party except my father and myself, Mr. Robson +was announced as wishing to speak to Mr. Winslow. After the civilities +proper to the visit of an old servant had passed, he entered with obvious +reluctance on the purpose of his visit, namely, his dissatisfaction +with Griff as a lodger. His wife, he said, would not have had +him speak, she was <i>that</i> attached to Mr. Griffith, it couldn’t +be more if he was her own son; nor was it for want of liking for the +young gentleman on his part, as had known him from a boy, ‘but +the wife of one’s bosom must come first, sir, as stands to reason, +and it’s for the good of the young gentleman himself, and his +family, as some one should speak. I never said one word against +it when she would not be satisfied without running the risk of her life +after Mr. Clarence; hattending of Mr. Frith in the cholery. That +was only her dooty, sir, and I have never a word to say against dooty: +but I cannot see her nearly wore out, and for no good to nobody.’</p> +<p>It appeared that Mrs. Robson was ‘pretty nigh wore out, a setting +up for Mr. Griffith’s untimely hours.’ ‘He laughed +and coaxed - what I calls cajoling - did Mr. Griff, to get a latch-key; +but we knows our dooty too well for that, and Mrs. Winslow had made +us faithfully promise, when Master Clarence first came to us, that he +should never have a latch-key, - Mr. Clarence, as had only been five +times later than eleven o’clock, and then he was going to dine +with Mr. Castleford, or to the theayter, and spoke about it beforehand. +If he was not reading to poor Miss Newton, as was gone, or with some +of his language-masters, he was setting at home with his books and papers, +not giving no trouble to nobody, after he had had his bit of bread and +cheese and glass of beer to his supper.’</p> +<p>Ay, Peter knew what young gentlemen was. He did not expect +to see them all like poor Master Clarence, as had had his troubles; +the very life knocked out of him in his youth, as one might say. +Indeed Peter would be pleased to see him a bit more sprightly, and taking +more to society and hamusements of his hage. Nor would there be +any objection if the late ’ours was only once a week or so, and +things was done in a style fitting the family; but when it came to mostly +every night, often to two or three o’clock, it was too much for +Mrs. Robson, for she would never go to bed, being mortal afraid of fire, +and not always certain that Mr. Griffith was - to say - fit to put out +his candle. ‘What do you mean, Peter?’ thundered my +father, whose brow had been getting more and more furrowed every moment. +‘Say it out! - Drunk?’</p> +<p>‘Well sir, no, no, not to say that exactly, but a little excited, +sir, and women is timid. No sir, not to call intoxicated.’</p> +<p>‘No, that’s to come,’ muttered my father. +‘Has this often happened?’</p> +<p>Peter did not think that it had been noticed more than three times +at the most; but he went on to offer his candid and sensible advice +that Mr. Griffith should be placed in a family where there was a gentleman +or lady who would have some hauthority, and could not be put aside with +his good-’umoured haffability - ‘You’re an old fogy, +Peter.’ ‘Never mind, Nursey, I’ll be a good +boy next time,’ and the like. ‘It is a disadvantage +you see, sir, to have been in his service, and ’tis for the young +gentleman’s own good as I speaks; but it would be better if he +were somewheres else - unless you would speak to him, sir.’</p> +<p>To the almost needless question whether Clarence had been with his +brother on these occasions, there was a most decided negative. +He had never gone out with Griffith except once to the theatre, and +to dine at the Castlefords, and at first he had sat up for his return, +‘but it led to words between the young gentlemen,’ said +Peter, whose confidences were becoming reckless; and it appeared that +when Clarence had found that Gooch would not let him spare her vigil, +he had obeyed her orders and ceased to share it.</p> +<p>Peter was thanked for the revelations, which had been a grievous +effort to him, and dismissed. My father sat still in great distress +and perplexity, asking me whether Clarence had ever told me anything +of this, and I had barely time to answer ‘No’ before Clarence +himself came in, from what Peter called his language-master. He +was taking lessons in French and Spanish, finding a knowledge of these +useful in business. To his extreme distress, my father fell on +him at once, demanding what he knew of the way Griffith was spending +his time, ‘coming home at all sorts of hours in a disreputable +condition. No prevarication, sir,’ he added, as the only +too familiar look of consternation and bewilderment came over Clarence’s +face. ‘You are doing your brother no good by conniving at +his conduct. Speak truth, if you can,’ he added, with more +cruelty than he knew, in his own suffering.</p> +<p>‘Sir,’ gasped Clarence, ‘I know Griff often comes +home after I am in bed, but I do not know the exact time, nor anything +more.’</p> +<p>‘Is this all you can tell me? Really all?’</p> +<p>‘All I know - that is - of my own knowledge,’ said Clarence, +recovering a little, but still unable to answer without hesitation, +which vexed my father.</p> +<p>‘What do you mean by that? Do you hear nothing?’</p> +<p>‘I am afraid,’ said Clarence, ‘that I do not see +as much of him as I had hoped. He is not up till after I have +to be at our place, and he does not often spend an evening at home. +He is such a popular fellow, and has so many friends and engagements.’</p> +<p>‘Ay, and of what sort? Can’t you tell? or will +you not? I sent him up to you, thinking you a steady fellow who +might influence him for good.’</p> +<p>The colour rushed into Clarence’s face, as he answered, looking +up and speaking low, ‘Have I not forfeited all such hopes?’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense! You’ve lived down that old story long +ago. You would make your mark, if you only showed a little manliness +and force of character. Griffith was always fond of you. +Can’t you do anything to hinder him from ruining his own life +and that sweet girl’s happiness?’</p> +<p>‘I would - I would give my life to do so!’ exclaimed +Clarence, in warm, eager tones. ‘I have tried, but he says +I know nothing about it, and it is very dull at our rooms for him. +I have got used to it, but you can’t expect a fellow like Griff +to stay at home, with no better company than me, and do nothing but +read law.’</p> +<p>‘Then you <i>do</i> know,’ began my father; but Clarence, +with full self-possession, said, ‘I think you had better ask me +no more questions, papa. I really know nothing, or hardly anything, +personally of his proceedings. I went to one supper with him, +after going to the play, and did not fancy it; besides, it almost unfitted +me for my morning’s work; nor does it answer for me to sit up +for him - it only vexes him, as if I were watching him.’</p> +<p>‘Did you ever see him come home showing traces of excess?’</p> +<p>‘No!’ said Clarence, ‘I never saw!’ and, +under a stern, distressed look, ‘Once I heard tones that - that +startled me, and Mrs. Robson has grumbled a good deal - but I think +Peter takes it for more than it is worth.’</p> +<p>‘I see,’ said my father more gently; ‘I will not +press you farther. I believe I ought to be glad that these habits +are only hearsay to you.’</p> +<p>‘As far as I can see,’ said Clarence diffidently, but +quite restored to himself, ‘Griff is only like most of his set, +young men who go into society.’</p> +<p>‘Oh!’ said my father, in a ‘that’s your opinion’ +kind of tone; and as at that moment the yell of a newsboy was heard +in the street, he exclaimed that he must go and get an evening paper. +Clarence made a step to go instead, but was thrust back, as apparently +my father merely wanted an excuse for rushing into the open air to recover +the shock or to think it over.</p> +<p>Clarence gave a kind of groan, and presently exclaimed, ‘If +only untruth were not such a sin!’ and, on my exclamation of dismay, +he added, ‘I don’t think a blowing up ever does good!’</p> +<p>‘But this state of things should not last.’</p> +<p>‘It will not. It would have come to an end without Peter’s +springing this mine. Griff says he can’t stand Gooch any +longer! And really she does worry him intolerably.’</p> +<p>‘Peter professed to come without her knowledge or consent.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so. It will almost break the good old soul’s +heart for Griff to leave her; but she expects to have him in hand as +if he was in the nursery. She is ever so much worse than she was +with me, and he is really good-nature itself to laugh off her nagging +as he does - about what he chooses to put on, or eating, or smoking, +or leaving his room untidy, as well as other things.’</p> +<p>‘And those other things? Do you suspect more than you +told papa?’</p> +<p>‘It amounts to no more. Griff likes amusement, and everybody +likes him - that’s all. Yes, I know my father read law ten +hours a day, but his whole nature and circumstances were different. +I don’t believe Griff could go on in that way.’</p> +<p>‘Not with such a hope before him? You would, Clarence.’</p> +<p>His face and not his tongue answered me, but he added, ‘Griff +is sure of <i>that</i> without so much labour and trouble.’</p> +<p>‘And do you see so little of him?’</p> +<p>‘I can’t help it. I can’t keep his hours +and do my work. Yes, I know we are drifting apart; I wish I could +help it, but being coupled up together makes it rather worse than better. +It aggravates him, and he will really get on better without Gooch to +worry him, and thrust my droning old ways down his throat, - as if Prince +Hal could bear to be twitted with “that sober boy, Lord John of +Lancaster.” Not,’ he added, catching himself up, ‘that +I meant to compare him to the madcap Prince. He is the finest +of fellows, if they only would let him alone.’</p> +<p>And that was all I could get from Clarence.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII - A SQUIRE OF DAMES</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p> ‘Spited with a fool -<br />Spited and angered +both.’</p> +<p><i>Cymbeline.</i></p> +<p>This long stay of Ellen’s in our family had made our fraternal +relations with her nearer and closer. Familiarity had been far +from lessening our strong feeling for her goodness and sweetness. +Emily, who knew her best, used to confide to me little instances of +the spirit of devotion and self-discipline that underlay all her sunny +gaiety - how she never failed in her morning’s devout readings; +how she learnt a verse or two of Scripture every day, and persuaded +Emily to join with her in repeating it ere they went downstairs for +their evening’s pleasure; how she had set herself a little task +of plain work for the poor, which she did every day in her own room; +and the like dutiful habits, which seemed, as it were, to help her to +keep herself in hand, and not be carried away by what was a whirl of +pleasure to her, though a fashionable young lady would have despised +its mildness.</p> +<p>Indeed Lady Peacock, with whom we exchanged calls, made no secret +of her compassion when she found how many parties the ladies were <i>not</i> +going to; and Ellen’s own relations, the Lesters, would have taken +her out almost every night if she had not staunchly held to her promise +to her mother not to go out more than three evenings in the week, for +Mrs. Fordyce knew her to be delicate, and feared late hours for her. +The vexation her cousins manifested made her feel the more bound to +give them what time she could, at hours when Griffith was not at liberty. +She did not like them to be hurt, and jealous of us, or to feel forsaken, +and she tried to put her affection for us on a different footing by +averring that ‘it was not the same kind of thing - Emily was her +sister.’</p> +<p>One day she had gone to luncheon with the Lesters in Cavendish Square, +and was to be called for in the carriage by me, on the way to take up +the other two ladies, who were shopping in Regent Street.</p> +<p>Ellen came running downstairs, with her cheeks in a glow under the +pink satin lining of her pretty bonnet, and her eyes sparkling with +indignation, which could not but break forth.</p> +<p>‘I don’t know how I shall ever go there again!’ +she exclaimed; ‘they have no right to say such things!’ +Then she explained. Mary and Louisa had been saying horrid things +about Griffith - her Griff! It was always their way. Think +how Horace had made her treat Clarence! It was their way and habit +to tease, and call it fun, and she had never minded it before; but this +was too bad. Would not I put it in her power to give a flat contradiction, +such as would make them ashamed of themselves?</p> +<p>Contradict what?</p> +<p>Then it appeared that the Misses Lester had laughed at her, who was +so very particular and scrupulous, for having taken up with a regular +young man about town. Oh no, <i>they</i> did not think much of +it - no doubt he was only just like other people; only the funny thing +was that it should be Ellen, for whom it was always supposed that no +saint in the calendar, no knight in all the Waverley novels, would be +good enough! And then, on her hot desire to know what they meant, +they quoted John, the brother in the Guards, as having been so droll +about poor Ellen’s perfect hero, and especially at his straight-laced +Aunt Fordyce having been taken in, - but of course it was the convenience +of joining the estates, and it was agreeable to see that your very good +folk could wink at things like other people in such a case. Then, +when Ellen fairly drove her inquiries home, in her absolute trust of +confuting all slanders, she was told that Griffith did, what she called +‘all sorts of things - billiards and all that.’ And +even that he was always running after a horrid Lady Peacock, a gay widow.</p> +<p>‘They went on in fun,’ said Ellen, ‘and laughed +the more when - yes, I am afraid I did - I lost my temper. No, +don’t say I well might, I know I ought not; but I told them I +knew all about Lady Peacock, and that you were all old friends, even +before he rescued her from the Bristol riots and brought her home to +Chantry House; and that only made Mary merrier than ever, and say, “What, +another distressed damsel? Take care, Ellen; I would not trust +such a squire of dames.” And then Louisa chimed in, “Oh +no, you see this Peacock dame was only conducted, like Princess Micomicona +and all the rest of them, to the feet of his peerless Dulcinea!” +And then I heard the knock, and I was never so glad in my life!’</p> +<p>‘Well!’ I could not help remarking, ‘I have heard +of women’s spitefulness, but I never believed it till now.’</p> +<p>‘I really don’t think it was altogether what you call +malice, so much as the Lester idea of fun,’ said Ellen, recovering +herself after her outpouring. ‘A very odd notion I always +thought it was; and Mary and Louisa are not really ill-natured, and +cannot wish to do the harm they might have done, if I did not know Griff +too well.’</p> +<p>Then, after considering a little, she said, blushing, ‘I believe +I have told you more than I ought, Edward - I couldn’t help having +it out; but please don’t tell any one, especially that shocking +way of speaking of mamma, which they could not really mean.’</p> +<p>‘No one could who knew her.’</p> +<p>‘Of course not. I’ll tell you what I mean to do. +I will write to Mary when we go in, and tell her that I know she really +cares for me enough to be glad that her nonsense has done no mischief, +and, though I was so foolish and wrong as to fly into a passion, of +course I know it is only her way, and I do not believe one word of it.’</p> +<p>Somehow, as she looked with those radiant eyes full of perfect trust, +I could not help longing not to have heard Peter Robson’s last +night’s complaint; but family feeling towards outsiders overcomes +many a misgiving, and my wrath against the malignity of the Lesters +was quite as strong as if I had been devoid of all doubts whether Griff +wore to all other eyes the same halo of pure glory with which Ellen +invested him.</p> +<p>Such doubts were very transient. Dear old Griff was too delightful, +too bright and too brave, too ardent and too affectionate, not to dispel +all clouds by the sunshine he carried about with him. If rest +and reliance came with Clarence, zest and animation came with Griffith. +He managed to take the initiative by declining to remain any longer +with the Robsons, saying they had been spoilt by such a model lodger +as Clarence, who would let Gooch feed him on bread and milk and boiled +mutton, and put on his clean pinafore if she chose to insist; whereas +her indignation, when Griff found fault with the folding of his white +ties, amounted to ‘<i>Et tu Brute</i>,’ and he really feared +she would have had a fit when he ordered devilled kidneys for breakfast. +He was sure her determination to tuck him up every night and put out +his candle was shortening her life; and he had made arrangements to +share the chambers of a friend who had gone through school and college +with him. There was no objection to the friend, who had stayed +at Chantry House and was an agreeable, lively, young man, well reported +of, satisfactorily connected, fairly industrious, and in good society, +so that Griff was likely to be much less exposed to temptation of the +lower kinds than when left to his own devices, or only with Clarence, +who had neither time nor disposition to share his amusements.</p> +<p>There was a scene with my father, but in private; and all that came +to general knowledge was that Griff felt himself injured by any implication +that he was given to violent or excessive dissipation, such as could +wreck Ellen’s happiness or his own character.</p> +<p>He declared with all his heart that immediate marriage would be the +best thing for both, and pleaded earnestly for it; but my father could +not have arranged for it even if the Fordyces would have consented, +and there were matters of business, as well as other reasons, which +made it inexpedient for them to revoke their decision that the wedding +should not take place before Ellen was of age and Griffith called to +the bar.</p> +<p>So we took our young ladies home, loaded with presents for their +beloved school children, of whom Emily said she dreamt, as the time +for seeing them again drew near. After all the London enjoyment, +it was pretty to see the girls’ delight in the fresh country sights +and sounds in full summer glory, and how Ellen proved to have been hungering +after all her dear ones at home. When we left her at her own door, +our last sight of her was in her father’s arms, little Anne clinging +to her dress, mother and grandfather as close to her as could be - a +perfect tableau of a joyous welcome.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX - LOVE AND OBEDIENCE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Unless he give me all in change<br /> I forfeit +all things by him;<br />The risk is terrible and strange.’</p> +<p>MRS. BROWNING.</p> +<p>You will be weary of my lengthiness; and perhaps I am lingering too +long over the earlier portion of my narrative. Something is due +to the disproportion assumed in our memories by the first twenty years +of existence - something, perhaps, to reluctance to passing from comparative +sunshine to shadow. There was still a period of brightness, but +it was so uneventful that I have no excuse for dwelling on it further +than to say that Henderson, our excellent curate, had already made a +great difference in the parish, and it was beginning to be looked on +as almost equal to Hillside. The children were devoted to Emily, +who was the source of all the amenities of their poor little lives. +The needlework of the school was my mother’s pride; and our church +and its services, though you would shudder at them now, were then thought +presumptuously superior ‘for a country parish.’ They +were a real delight and blessing to us, as well as to many more of the +flock, who still, in their old age, remember and revere Parson Henderson +as a sort of apostle.</p> +<p>The dawning of the new Poor-Law led to investigations which revealed +the true conditions of the peasant’s life - its destitution, recklessness, +and dependence. We tried to mend matters by inducing families +to emigrate, but this renewed the distrust which had at first beheld +in the schools an attempt to enslave the children. Even accounts, +sent home by the exceptionally enterprising who did go to Canada, were, +we found, scarcely trusted. Amos Bell, who would have gone, if +he had not been growing into my special personal attendant, was letter-writer +and reader to all his relations, and revealed to us that it had been +agreed that no letter should be considered as genuine unless it bore +a certain private mark. To be sure, the accounts of prosperity +might well sound fabulous to the toilers and moilers at home. +Harriet Martineau’s <i>Hamlets</i>, which we lent to many of our +neighbours, is a fair picture of the state of things. We much +enjoyed those tales, and Emily says they were the only political economy +she ever learnt.</p> +<p>The model arrangements of our vestries led to a summons to my father +and the younger Mr. Fordyce to London, to be examined on the condition +of the pauper, and the working of the old Elizabethan Poor-Law.</p> +<p>They were absent for about a fortnight of early spring, and Emily +and I could not help observing that our mother was unusually uncommunicative +about my father’s letters; and, moreover, there was a tremendous +revolution of the furniture, a far more ominous token in our household +than any comet.</p> +<p>The truth came on us when the two fathers returned. Mine told +me himself that Frank Fordyce was so much displeased with Griffith’s +conduct that he had declared that the engagement could not continue +with his consent.</p> +<p>This from good-natured, tender-hearted Parson Frank!</p> +<p>I cried out hotly that ‘those Lesters’ had done this. +They had always been set against us, and any one could talk over Mr. +Frank. My father shook his head. He said Frank Fordyce was +not weak, but all the stronger for his gentleness and charity; and, +moreover, that he was quite right - to our shame and grief be it spoken +- quite right.</p> +<p>It was true that the first information had been given by Sir Horace +Lester, Mrs. Fordyce’s brother, but it had not been lightly spoken +like the daughter’s chatter; and my father himself had found it +only too true, so that he could not conscientiously call Griffith worthy +of such a creature as Ellen Fordyce.</p> +<p>Poor Griff, he had been idle and impracticable over his legal studies, +which no persuasion would make him view as otherwise than a sort of +nominal training for a country gentleman; nor had he ever believed or +acted upon the fact that the Earlscombe property was not an unlimited +fortune, such as would permit him to dispense with any profession, and +spend time and money like the youths with whom he associated. +Still, this might have been condoned as part of the effervescence which +had excited him ever since my father had succeeded to the estate, and +patience might still have waited for greater wisdom; but there had been +graver complaints of irregularities, which were forcing his friend to +dissolve partnership with him. There was evidence of gambling, +which he not only admitted, but defended; and, moreover, he was known +at parties, at races, and at the theatre, as one of the numerous satellites +who revolved about that gay and conspicuous young fashionable widow, +Lady Peacock.</p> +<p>‘Yes, Frank has every right to be angry,’ said my father, +pacing the room. ‘I can’t wonder at him. I should +do the same; but it is destroying the best hope for my poor boy.’</p> +<p>Then he began to wish Clarence had more - he knew not what to call +it - in him; something that might keep his brother straight. For, +of course, he had talked to Clarence and discovered how very little +the brothers saw of one another. Clarence had been to look for +Griff in vain more than once, and they had only really met at a Castleford +dinner-party. In fact, Clarence’s youthful spirits, and +the tastes which would have made him companionable to Griff, had been +crushed out of him; and he was what more recent slang calls ‘such +a muff,’ that he had perforce drifted out of our elder brother’s +daily life, as much as if he had been a grave senior of fifty. +It was, as he owned, a heavy penalty of his youthful fall that he could +not help his brother more effectually.</p> +<p>It appeared that Frank Fordyce, thoroughly roused, had had it out +with Griffith, and had declared that his consent was withdrawn and the +engagement annulled. Griff, astounded at the resolute tone of +one whom he considered as the most good-natured of men, had answered +hotly and proudly that he should accept no dismissal except from Ellen +herself, and that he had done no more than was expected of any young +man of position and estate. On the other indictment he scorned +any defence, and the two had parted in mutual indignation. He +had, however, shown himself so much distressed at the threat of being +deprived of Ellen, that neither my father nor Clarence had the least +doubt of his genuine attachment to her, nor that his attentions to Lady +Peacock were more than the effect of old habit and love of amusement, +and that they had been much exaggerated. He scouted the bare idea +of preferring her to Ellen; and, in his second interview with my father, +was ready to make any amount of promises of reformation, provided his +engagement were continued.</p> +<p>This was on the last evening before leaving town, and he came to +the coach-office looking so pale, jaded, and unhappy that Parson Frank’s +kind heart was touched; and in answer to a muttered ‘I’ve +been ten thousand fools, sir, but if you will overlook it I will try +to be worthy of her,’ he made some reply that could be construed +into, ‘If you keep to that, all may yet be well. I’ll +talk to her mother and grandfather.’</p> +<p>Perhaps this was cruel kindness, for, as we well knew, Mrs. Fordyce +was far less likely to be tolerant of a young man’s failings than +was her husband; and she was, besides, a Lester, and might take the +same view.</p> +<p>Abusing the Lesters was our great resource; for we did not believe +either the sailor or the guardsman to be immaculate, and we knew them +to be jealous. We had to remain in ignorance of what we most wished +to know, for Ellen was kept away from us, and my mother would not let +Emily go in search of her. Only Anne, who was a high-spirited, +independent little person, made a sudden rush upon me as I sat in the +garden. She had no business to be so far from home alone; but, +said she, ‘I don’t care, it is all so horrid. Please, +Edward, is it true that Griff has been so very wicked? I heard +the maids talking, and they said papa had found out that he was a bad +lot, and that he was not to marry Ellen; but she would stick to him +through thick and thin, like poor Kitty Brown who would marry the man +that got transported for seven years.’ ‘Will he be +transported, Edward? and would Ellen go too, like the “nut-brown +maid?” Is that what she cries so about? Not by day, +but all night. I know she does, for her handkerchief is wet through, +and there is a wet place on her pillow always in the morning; but she +only says, “Never mind,” and nobody <i>will</i> tell me. +They only say little girls should not think about such things. +And I am not so very little. I am eight, and have read the <i>Lay +of the Last Minstrel</i> and I know all about people in love. +So you might tell me.’</p> +<p>I relieved Anne’s mind as to the chances of transportation, +and, after considering how many confidences might be honourably exchanged +with the child, I explained that her father thought Griff had been idle +and careless, and not fit as yet to be trusted with Ellen.</p> +<p>Her parish experience came into play. ‘Does papa think +he would be like Joe Sparks? But then gentlemen don’t beat +their wives, nor go to the public-house, nor let their children go about +in rags.’</p> +<p>I durst not inquire much, but I gathered that there was a heavy shadow +over the house, and that Ellen was striving to do as usual, but breaking +down when alone. Just then Parson Frank appeared. Anne had +run away from him while on a farming inspection, when the debate over +the turnips with the factotum had become wearisome. He looked +grave and sorrowful, quite unlike his usual hearty self, and came to +me, leaning over my chair, and saying, ‘This is sad work, Edward’; +and, on an anxious venture of an inquiry for Ellen, ‘Poor little +maid, it is very sore work with her. She is a good child and obedient +- wants to do her duty; but we should never have let it go on so long. +We have only ourselves to thank - taking the family character, you see’ +- and he made a kindly gesture towards me. ‘Your father +sees how it is, and won’t let it make a split between us. +I believe that not seeing as much of your sister as usual is one of +my poor lassie’s troubles, but it may be best - it may be best.’</p> +<p>He lingered talking, unwilling to tear himself away, and ended by +disclosing, almost at unawares, that Ellen had held out for a long time, +would not understand nor take in what she was told, accepted nothing +on Lester authority, declared she understood all about Lady Peacock, +and showed a strength of resistance and independence of view that had +quite startled her parents, by proving how far their darling had gone +from them in heart. But they still held her by the bonds of obedience; +and, by dealing with her conscience, her mother had obtained from her +a piteous little note -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘MY DEAR GRIFFITH - I am afraid it is true that you have not +always seemed to be doing right, and papa and mamma forbid our going +on as we are. You know I cannot be disobedient. It would +not bring a blessing on you. So I must break off, though - ’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The ‘though’ could be read through an erasure, followed +by the initials, E. M. F. - as if the dismal conclusion had been felt +to be only too true - and there followed the postscript, ‘Forgive +me, and, if we are patient, it may come right.’</p> +<p>This letter was displayed, when, on the ensuing evening, it brought +Griff down in towering indignation, and trying to prove the coercion +that must have been exercised to extract even thus much from his darling. +Over he went headlong to Hillside to insist on seeing her, but to encounter +a succession of stormy scenes. Mrs. Fordyce was the most resolute, +but was ill for a week after. The old Rector was gentle, and somewhat +overawed Griff by his compassion, and by representations that were only +too true; and Parson Frank, with his tender heart torn to pieces, showed +symptoms of yielding another probation.</p> +<p>The interview with Ellen was granted. She, however, was intrenched +in obedience. She had promised submission to the rupture of her +engagement, and she kept her word, - though she declared that nothing +could hinder her love, and that she would wait patiently till her lover +had proved himself, to everybody’s satisfaction, as good and noble +as she knew him to be. When he told her she did not love him she +smiled. She was sure that whatever mistakes there might have been, +he would give no further occasion against himself, and then every one +would see that all had been mere misunderstanding, and they should be +happy again.</p> +<p>Such trust humbled him, and he was ready to make all promises and +resolutions; but he could not obtain the renewal of the engagement, +nor permission to correspond. Only there was wrung out of Parson +Frank a promise that if he could come in two years with a perfectly +unstained, unblotted character, the betrothal might be renewed.</p> +<p>We were very thankful for the hope and motive, and Griff had no doubts +of himself.</p> +<p>‘One can’t look at the pretty creature and think of disappointing +her,’ he said. ‘She is altered, you know, Ted; they’ve +bullied her till she is more ethereal than ever, but it only makes her +lovelier. I believe if she saw me kill some one on the spot she +would think it all my generosity; or, if she could not, she would take +and die. Oh no! I’ll not fail her. No, I won’t; +not if I have to spend seven years after the model of old Bill, whose +liveliest pastime is a good long sermon, when it is not a ghost.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX - UNA OR DUESSA</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Soone as the Elfin knight in presence came<br />And false +Duessa, seeming ladye fayre,<br />A gentle husher, Vanitie by name,<br />Made +roome, and passage did for them prepare.’</p> +<p>SPENSER.</p> +<p>The two families were supposed to continue on unbroken terms of friendship, +and we men did so; but Mrs. Fordyce told my mother that she had disapproved +of the probation, and Mrs. Winslow was hurt. Though the two girls +were allowed to be together as usual, it was on condition of silence +about Griff; and though, as Emily said, they really had not been always +talking about him in former times, the prohibition seemed to weigh upon +all they said.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Fordyce had long been talking of a round of visits among +relations whom he had not seen for many years; and it was decided to +send Ellen with him, chiefly, no doubt, to prevent difficulties about +Griffith in the long vacation.</p> +<p>There was no embargo on the correspondence with my sister, and letters +full of description came regularly, but how unlike they were to our +journal. They were clear, intelligent, with a certain liveliness, +but no ring of youthful joy, no echo of the heart, always as if under +restraint. Griff was much disappointed. He had been on his +good behaviour for two months, and expected his reward, and I could +not here repeat all that he said about her parents when he found she +was absent. Yet, after all, he got more pity and sympathy from +Parson Frank than from any one else. That good man actually sent +a message for him, when Emily was on honour to do no such thing. +Poor Emily suffered much in consequence, when she would neither afford +Griff a blank corner of her paper, nor write even a veiled message; +while as to the letters she received and gave to him, ‘what was +the use,’ he said, ‘of giving him what might have been read +aloud by the town-crier?’</p> +<p>‘You don’t understand, Griff; it is all dear Ellen’s +conscientiousness - ’</p> +<p>‘Oh, deliver me from such con-sci-en-tious-ness,’ he +answered, in a tone of bitter mimicry, and flung out of the room leaving +Emily in tears.</p> +<p>He could not appreciate the nobleness of Ellen’s self-command +and the obedience which was the security of future happiness, but was +hurt at what he thought weak alienation. One note of sympathy +would have done much for Griff just then. I have often thought +it over since, and come to the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce was justified +in the entire separation she brought about. No one can judge of +the strength with which ‘true love’ has mastered any individual, +nor how far change may be possible; and, on the other hand, unless there +were full appreciation of Ellen’s character, she might only have +been looked on as -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘Puppet to a father’s threat,<br />Servile to a shrewish +tongue.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Yet, after all, Frank Fordyce was very kind to Griff, making himself +as much of a medium of communication as he could consistently with his +conscience, but of course not satisfying one who believed that the strength +of love was to be proved not by obedience but disobedience.</p> +<p>Ellen’s letters showed increasing anxiety about her grandfather, +who was not favourably affected by the change of habits, consequent +on a long journey, and staying in different houses. His return +was fixed two or three times, and then delayed by slight attacks of +illness, till at last he became anxious to get home, and set off about +the end of September; but after sleeping a night at an inn at Warwick, +he was too ill to proceed any farther. His old man-servant was +with him; but poor Ellen went through a great deal of suspense and responsibility +before her parents reached her. The attack was paralysis, and +he never recovered the full powers of mind or body, though they managed +to bring him back to Hillside - as indeed his restlessness longed for +his native home. When once there he became calmer, but did not +rally; and a second stroke proved fatal just before Easter. He +was mourned alike by rich and poor, ‘He <i>was</i> a gentleman,’ +said even Chapman, ‘always the same to rich or poor, though he +was one of they Fordys.’</p> +<p>My father wrote to summon both his elder sons to the funeral at Hillside, +and in due time Clarence appeared by the coach, but alone. He +had gone to Griffith’s chambers to arrange about coming down together, +but found my father’s letter lying unopened on the table, and +learnt that his brother was supposed to be staying at a villa in Surrey, +where there were to be private theatricals. He had forwarded the +letter thither, and it would still be possible to arrive in time by +the night mail.</p> +<p>So entirely was Griff expected that the gig was sent to meet him +at seven o’clock the next morning, but there was no sign of him. +My father and Clarence went without him to the gathering, which showed +how deeply the good old man was respected and loved.</p> +<p>It was the only funeral Clarence had attended except Miss Newton’s +hurried one, and his sensitive spirit was greatly affected. He +had learnt reserve when amongst others, but I found that he had a strong +foreboding of evil; he tossed and muttered in his sleep, and confessed +to having had a wretched night of dreams, though he would not describe +them otherwise than that he had seen the lady whose face he always looked +on as a presage of evil.</p> +<p>Two days later the <i>Morning Post</i> gave a full account of the +amateur theatricals at Bella Vista, the seat of Benjamin Bullock, Esquire, +and the Lady Louisa Bullock; and in the list of <i>dramatis personæ</i>, +there figured Griffith Winslow, Esquire, as Captain Absolute, and the +fair and accomplished Lady Peacock as Lydia Languish.</p> +<p>Amateur theatricals were much less common in those days than at present, +and were held as the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of gaiety. Moreover, +the Lady Louisa Bullock was noted for fashionable extravagance of the +semi-reputable style; and there would have been vexation enough at Griffith’s +being her guest, even had not the performance taken place on the very +day of the funeral of Ellen’s grandfather, so as to be an outrage +on decorum.</p> +<p>At the same time, there came a packet franked by a not very satisfactory +peer, brother to Lady Louisa. My father threw a note over to Clarence, +and proceeded to read a very properly expressed letter full of apologies +and condolences for the Fordyces.</p> +<p>‘He could not have got the letter in time’ was my father’s +comment. ‘When did you forward the letter? How was +it addressed? Clarence, I say, didn’t you hear?’</p> +<p>Clarence lifted up his face from his letter, so much flushed that +my mother broke in - ‘What’s the matter? A mistake +in the post-town would account for the delay. Has he had the letter?’</p> +<p>‘Oh yes.’</p> +<p>‘Not in time - eh?’</p> +<p>‘I’m afraid,’ and he faltered, ‘he did.’</p> +<p>‘Did he or did he not?’ demanded my mother.</p> +<p>‘What does he say?’ exclaimed my father.</p> +<p>‘Sir’ (always an unpropitious beginning for poor Clarence), +‘I should prefer not showing you.’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense!’ exclaimed my mother: ‘you do no good +by concealing it!’</p> +<p>‘Let me see his letter,’ said my father, in the voice +there was no gainsaying, and absolutely taking it from Clarence. +None of us will ever forget the tone in which he read it aloud at the +breakfast-table.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘DEAR BILL - What possessed you to send a death’s-head +to the feast? The letter would have bitten no one in my chambers. +A nice scrape I shall be in if you let out that your officious precision +forwarded it. Of course at the last moment I could not upset the +whole affair and leave Lydia to languish in vain. The whole thing +went off magnificently. Keep counsel and no harm is done. +You owe me that for sending on the letter. - Yours,</p> +<p>‘J. G. W.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Clarence had not read to the end when the letter was taken from him. +Indeed to inclose such a note in a dispatch sure to be opened <i>en +famille</i> was one of Griffith’s haphazard proceedings, which +arose from the present being always much more to him than the absent. +Clarence was much shocked at hearing these last sentences, and exclaimed, +‘He meant it in confidence, papa; I implore you to treat it as +unread!’</p> +<p>My father was always scrupulous about private letters, and said, +‘I beg your pardon, Clarence; I should not have forced it from +you. I wish I had not seen it.’</p> +<p>My mother gave something between a snort and a sigh. ‘It +is right for us to know the truth,’ she said, ‘but that +is enough. There is no need that they should know at Hillside +what was Griffith’s alternative.’</p> +<p>‘I would not add a pang to that dear girl’s grief,’ +said my father; ‘but I see the Fordyces were right. I shall +never do anything to bring these two together again.’</p> +<p>My mother chimed in with something about preferring Lady Peacock +and the Bella Vista crew to Ellen and Hillside, which made us rush into +the breach with incoherent defence.</p> +<p>‘I know how it was,’ said Clarence. ‘His +acting is capital, and of course these people could not spare him, nor +understand how much it signified that he should be here. They +make so much of him.’</p> +<p>‘Who do?’ asked my mother. ‘Lady Peacock? +How do you know? Have you been with them?’</p> +<p>‘I have dined at Mr. Clarkson’s,’ Clarence avowed; +and, on further pressure, it was extracted that Griffith - handsome, +and with talents such as tell in society - was a general favourite, +and much engrossed by people who found him an enlivenment and ornament +to their parties. There had been little or nothing of late of +the former noisy, boyish dissipation; but that the more fashionable +varieties were getting a hold on him became evident under the cross-questioning +to which Clarence had to submit.</p> +<p>My father said he felt like a party to a falsehood when he sent Griff’s +letter up to Hillside, and he indemnified himself by writing a letter +more indignant - not than was just, but than was prudent, especially +in the case of one little accustomed to strong censure. Indeed +Clarence could not restrain a slight groan when he perceived that our +mother was shut up in the study to assist in the composition. +Her denunciations always outran my father’s, and her pain showed +itself in bitterness. ‘I ought to have had the presence +of mind to refuse to show the letter,’ he said; ‘Griff will +hardly forgive me.’</p> +<p>Ellen looked very thin, and with a transparent delicacy of complexion. +She had greatly grieved over her grandfather’s illness and the +first change in her happy home; and she must have been much disappointed +at Griffith’s absence. Emily dreaded her mention of the +subject when they first met.</p> +<p>‘But,’ said my sister, ‘she said no word of him. +All she cared to tell me was of the talks she had with her grandfather, +when he made her read his favourite chapters in the Bible; and though +he had no memory for outside things, his thoughts were as beautiful +as ever. Sometimes his face grew so full of glad contemplation +that she felt quite awestruck, as if it were becoming like the face +of an angel. It made her realise, she said, “how little +the ups and downs of this life matter, if there can be such peace at +the last.” And, after all, I could not help thinking that +it was better perhaps that Griff did not come. Any other sort +of talk would have jarred on her just now, and you know he would never +stand much of that.’</p> +<p>Much as we loved our Griff, we had come to the perception that Ellen +was a treasure he could not esteem properly.</p> +<p>The Lester cousins, never remarkable for good taste, forced on her +the knowledge of his employment. Her father could not refrain +from telling us that her exclamation had been, ‘Poor Griff, how +shocked he must be! He was so fond of dear grandpapa. Pray, +papa, get Mr. Winslow to let him know that I am not hurt, for I know +he could not help it. Or may I ask Emily to tell him so?’</p> +<p>I wish Mrs. Fordyce would have absolved her from the promise not +to mention Griff to us. That innocent reliance might have touched +him, as Emily would have narrated it; but it only rendered my father +more indignant, and more resolved to reserve the message till a repentant +apology should come. And, alas! none ever came. Just wrath +on a voiceless paper has little effect. There is reason to believe +that Griff did not like the air of my father’s letter, and never +even read it. He diligently avoided Clarence, and the pain and +shame his warm heart must have felt only made him keep out of reach.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI - FACILIS DESCENSUS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘The slippery verge her feet beguiled;<br /> She +tumbled headlong in.’</p> +<p>GRAY.</p> +<p>One of Griffith’s briefest notes in his largest hand announced +that he had accepted various invitations to country houses, for cricket +matches, archery meetings, and the like; nor did he even make it clear +where his address would be, except that he would be with a friend in +Scotland when grouse-shooting began.</p> +<p>Clarence, however, came home for a brief holiday. He was startled +at the first sight of Ellen. He said she was indeed lovelier than +ever, with an added sweetness in her clear eyes and the wild rose flush +in her delicate cheek; but that she looked as if she was being refined +away to nothing, and was more than ever like the vision with the lamp.</p> +<p>Of course the Fordyces had not been going into society, though Ellen +and Emily were as much together as before, helping one another in practising +their school children in singing, and sharing in one another’s +studies and pursuits. There had been in the spring a change at +Wattlesea; the old incumbent died, and the new one was well reported +of as a very earnest hardworking man. He seemed to be provided +with a large family, and there was no driving into Wattlesea without +seeing members of it scattered about the place.</p> +<p>The Fordyces being anxious to show them attention without a regular +dinner-party, decided on inviting all the family to keep Anne’s +ninth birthday, and Emily and Martyn were of course to come and assist +at the entertainment.</p> +<p>It was on the morning of the day fixed that a letter came to me whose +contents seemed to burn themselves into my brain. Martyn called +across the breakfast-table, ‘Look at Edward! Has any one +sent you a young basilisk?’</p> +<p>‘I wish it was,’ I gasped out.</p> +<p>‘Don’t look so,’ entreated Emily. ‘Tell +us! Is it Griff?’</p> +<p>‘Not ill-hurt?’ cried my mother. ‘Oh no, +no. Worse!’ and then somehow I articulated that he was married; +and Clarence exclaimed, ‘Not the Peacock!’ and at my gesture +my father broke out. ‘He has done for himself, the unhappy +boy. A disgraceful Scotch marriage. Eh?’</p> +<p>‘It was his sense of honour,’ I managed to utter.</p> +<p>‘Sense of fiddlestick!’ said my poor father. ‘Don’t +stop to excuse him. We’ve had enough of that! Let +us hear.’</p> +<p>I cannot give a copy of the letter. It was so painful that +it was destroyed; for there was a tone of bravado betraying his uneasiness, +but altogether unbecoming. All that it disclosed was, that some +one staying in the same house had paid insulting attentions to Lady +Peacock; she had thrown herself on our brother’s protection, and +after interfering on her behalf, he had found that there was no means +of sheltering her but by making her his wife. This had been effected +by the assistance of the lady of the house where they had been staying; +and Griffith had written to me two days later from Edinburgh, declaring +that Selina had only to be known to be loved, and to overcome all prejudices.</p> +<p>‘Prejudices,’ said my father bitterly. ‘Prejudices +in favour of truth and honour.’</p> +<p>And my mother uttered the worst reproach of all, when in my agitation, +I slipped and almost fell in rising - ‘Oh, my poor Edward! that +I should have lived to think yours the least misfortune that has befallen +my sons!’</p> +<p>‘Nay, mother,’ said Clarence, putting Martyn toward her, +‘here is one to make up for us all.’</p> +<p>‘Clarence,’ said my father, ‘your mother did not +mean anything but that you and Edward are the comfort of our lives. +I wish there were a chance of Griffith redeeming the past as you have +done; but I see no hope of that. A man is never ruined till he +is married.’</p> +<p>At that moment there was a step in the hall, a knock at the door, +and there stood Mr. Frank Fordyce. He looked at us and said, ‘It +is true then.’</p> +<p>‘To our shame and sorrow it is,’ said my father. +‘Fordyce, how can we look you in the face?’</p> +<p>‘As my dear good friend, and my father’s,’ said +the kind man, shaking him by the hand heartily. ‘Do you +think we could blame you for this youth’s conduct? Stay’ +- for we young ones were about to leave the room. ‘My poor +girl knows nothing yet. Her mother luckily got the letter in her +bedroom. We can’t put off the Reynoldses, you know, so I +came to ask the young people to come up as if nothing had happened, +and then Ellen need know nothing till the day is over.’</p> +<p>‘If I can,’ said Emily.</p> +<p>‘You can be capable of self-command, I hope,’ said my +mother severely, ‘or you do not deserve to be called a friend.’</p> +<p>Such speeches might not be pleasant, but they were bracing, and we +all withdrew to leave the elders to talk it over together, when, as +I believe, kind Parson Frank was chiefly concerned to argue my parents +out of their shame and humiliation.</p> +<p>Clarence told us what he knew or guessed; and we afterwards understood +the matter to have come about chiefly through poor Griff’s weakness +of character, and love of amusement and flattery. The boyish flirtation +with Selina Clarkson had never entirely died away, though it had been +nothing more than the elder woman’s bantering patronage and easy +acceptance of the youth’s equally gay, jesting admiration. +It had, however, involved some raillery on his attachment to the little +Methodistical country girl, and this gradually grew into jealousy of +her - especially as Griff became more of a man, and a brilliant member +of society. The detention from the funeral had been a real victory +on the widow’s part, and the few times when Clarence had seen +them together he had been dismayed at the <i>cavaliere serviente</i> +terms on which Griff seemed to stand; but his words of warning were +laughed down. The rest was easy to gather. He had gone about +on the round of visits almost as an appendage to Lady Peacock, till +they came to a free and easy house, where her coquetry and love of admiration +brought on one of those disputes which rendered his championship needful; +and such defence could only have one conclusion, especially in Scotland, +where hasty private marriages were still legal. What an exchange! +Only had Griff ever comprehended the worth of his treasure?</p> +<p>Emily went as late as she could, that there might be the less chance +of a tête-à-tête, in which she might be surprised +into a betrayal of her secret: indeed she only started at last when +Martyn’s impatience had become intolerable.</p> +<p>What was our amazement when, much earlier than we expected, we saw +Mr. Fordyce driving up in his phaeton, and heard the story he had to +tell.</p> +<p>Emily’s delay had succeeded in bringing her only just in time +for the luncheon that was to be the children’s dinner. There +was a keen-looking, active, sallow clergyman, grizzled, and with an +air of having seen much service; a pale, worn wife, with a gentle, sensible +face; and a bewildering flock of boys and girls, all apparently under +the command of a very brisk, effective-looking elder sister of fourteen +or fifteen, who seemed to be the readiest authority, and to decide what +and how much each might partake of, among delicacies, evidently rare +novelties.</p> +<p>The day was late in August. The summer had broken; there had +been rain, and, though fine, the temperature was fitter for active sports +than anything else. Croquet was not yet invented, and, besides, +most of the party were of the age for regular games at play. Ellen +and Emily did their part in starting these - finding, however, that +the Reynolds boys were rather rough, in spite of the objurgations of +their sister, who evidently thought herself quite beyond the age for +romps. The sports led them to the great home-field on the opposite +slope of the ridge from our own. The new farm-buildings were on +the level ground at the bottom to the right, where the declivity was +much more gradual than to the left, which was very steep, and ended +in furze bushes and low copsewood. It was voted a splendid place +for hide-and-seek, and the game was soon in such full career that Ellen, +who had had quite running enough, could fall out of it, and with her, +the other two elder girls. Emily felt Fanny Reynolds’ presence +a sort of protection, ‘little guessing what she was up to,’ +to use her own expression. Perhaps the girl had not earlier made +out who Emily was, or she had been too much absorbed in her cares; but, +as the three sat resting on a stump overlooking the hill, she was prompted +by the singular inopportuneness of precocious fourteen to observe, ‘I +ought to have congratulated you, Miss Winslow.’</p> +<p>Emily gabbled out, ‘Thank you, never mind,’ hoping thus +to put a stop to whatever might be coming; but there was no such good +fortune. ‘We saw it in the paper. It is your brother, +isn’t it?’</p> +<p>‘What?’ asked unsuspicious Ellen, thinking, no doubt, +of some fresh glory to Griffith.</p> +<p>And before Emily could utter a word, if there were any she could +have uttered, out it came. ‘The marriage - John Griffith +Winslow, Esquire, eldest son of John Edward Winslow of Chantry House, +to Selina, relict of Sir Henry Peacock and daughter of George Clarkson, +Esquire, Q.C. I didn’t think it could be you at first, because +you would have been at the wedding.’</p> +<p>Emily had not even time to meet Ellen’s eyes before they were +startled by a shriek that was not the merry ‘whoop’ and +‘I spy’ of the game, and, springing up, the girls saw little +Anne Fordyce rushing headlong down the very steepest part of the slope, +just where it ended in an extremely muddy pool, the watering-place of +the cattle. The child was totally unable to stop herself, and +so was Martyn, who was dashing after her. Not a word was said, +though, perhaps, there was a shriek or two, but the elder sisters flew +with one accord towards the pond. They also were some way above +it, but at some distance off, so that the descent was not so perpendicular, +and they could guard against over-running themselves. Ellen, perhaps +from knowing the ground better, was far before the other two; but already +poor little Anne had gone straight down, and fallen flat on her face +in the water, Martyn after her, perhaps with a little more free will, +for, though he too fell, he was already struggling to lift Anne up, +and had her head above water, when Ellen arrived and dashed in to assist.</p> +<p>The pond began by being shallow, but the bottom sloped down into +a deep hollow, and was besides covered several feet deep with heavy +cattle-trodden mire and weeds, in which it was almost impossible to +gain a footing, or to move. By the time Emily and Miss Reynolds +had come to the brink, Ellen and Martyn were standing up in the water, +leaning against one another, and holding poor little Anne’s head +up - all they could do. Ellen called out, ‘Don’t! +don’t come in! Call some one! The farm! We are +sinking in! You can’t help! Call - ’</p> +<p>The danger was really terrible of their sinking in the mud and weeds, +and being sucked into the deep part of the pool, and they were too far +in to be reached from the bank. Emily perceived this, and ran +as she had never run before, happily meeting on the way with the gentlemen, +who had been inspecting the new model farm-buildings, and had already +taken alarm from the screams.</p> +<p>They found the three still with their heads above water, but no more, +for every struggle to get up the slope only plunged them deeper in the +horrible mud. Moreover, Fanny Reynolds was up to her ankles in +the mud, holding by one of her brothers, but unable to reach Martyn. +It seems she had had some idea of forming a chain of hands to pull the +others out.</p> +<p>Even now the rescue was not too easy. Mr. Fordyce hurried in, +and took Anne in his arms; but, even with his height and strength, he +found his feet slipping away under him, and could only hand the little +insensible girl to Mr. Reynolds, bidding him carry her at once to the +house, while he lifted Martyn up only just in time, and Ellen clung +to him. Thus weighted, he could not get out, till the bailiff +and another man had brought some faggots and a gate that were happily +near at hand, and helped him to drag the two out, perfectly exhausted, +and Martyn hardly conscious. They both were carried to the Rectory, +- Ellen by her father, Martyn by the foreman, - and they were met at +the door by the tidings that little Anne was coming to herself.</p> +<p>Indeed, by the time Mr. Fordyce had put on dry clothes, all three +were safe in warm beds, and quite themselves again, so that he trusted +that no mischief was done; though he decided upon fetching my mother +to satisfy herself about Martyn. However, a ducking was not much +to a healthy fellow like Martyn, and my mother found him quite fit to +dress himself in the clothes she brought, and to return home with her. +Both the girls were asleep, but Ellen had had a shivering fit, and her +mother was with her, and was anxious. Emily told her mother of +Fanny Reynolds’ unfortunate speech, and it was thought right to +mention it. Mrs. Fordyce listened kindly, kissed Emily, and told +her not to be distressed, for possibly it might turn out to have been +the best thing for Ellen to have learnt the fact at such a moment; and, +at any rate, it had spared her parents some doubt and difficulty as +to the communication.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII - WALY, WALY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘And am I then forgot, forgot?<br />It broke the heart of Ellen!’</p> +<p>CAMPBELL</p> +<p>Clarence and Martyn walked over to Hillside the first thing the next +morning to inquire for the two sisters. As to one, they were quickly +reassured, for Anne was in the porch feeding the doves, and no sooner +did she see them than out she flew, and was clinging round Martyn’s +neck, her hat falling back as she kissed him on both cheeks, with an +eagerness that made him, as Clarence reported, turn the colour of a +lobster, and look shy, not to say sheepish, while she exclaimed, ‘ +Oh, Martyn! mamma says she never thanked you, for you really and truly +did save my life, and I am so glad it was you - ’</p> +<p>‘It was not I, it was Ellen,’ gruffly muttered Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Oh yes! but papa says I should have been smothered in that +horrid mud, before Ellen could get to me if you had not pulled me up +directly.’</p> +<p>The elders came out by this time, and Clarence was able to get in +his inquiry. Ellen had had a feverish night, and her chest seemed +oppressed, but her mother did not think her seriously ill. Once +she had asked, ‘Is it true, what Fanny Reynolds said?’ and +on being answered, ‘Yes, my dear, I am afraid it is,’ she +had said no more; and as the Fordyce habit of treating colds was with +sedatives, her mother thought her scarcely awake to the full meaning +of the tidings, and hoped to prevent her dwelling on them till she had +recovered the physical shock. Having answered these inquiries, +the two parents turned upon Martyn, who, in an access of shamefacedness, +had crept behind Clarence and a great orange-tree, and was thence pulled +out by Anne’s vigorous efforts. The full story had come +to light. The Reynolds’ boys had grown boisterous as soon +as the restraint of the young ladies’ participation had been removed, +and had, whether intentionally or not, terrified little Anne in the +chases of hide-and-seek. Finally, one of them had probably been +unable to withstand the temptation of seeing her timid nervous way of +peeping and prying about; and had, without waiting to be properly found, +leapt out of his lair with a roar that scared the little girl nearly +out of her wits, and sent her flying, she knew not whither. Martyn +was a few steps behind, only not holding her hand, because the other +children had derided her for clinging to his protection. He had +instantly seen where she was going, and shouted to her to stop and take +care; but she was past attending to him, and he had no choice but to +dart after her, seeing what was inevitable; while George Reynolds had +sense to stop in time, and seek a safer descent. Had Martyn not +been there to raise the child instantly from the stifling mud, her sister +could hardly have been in time to save her.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce tearfully kissed him; her husband called him a little +hero, as if in joke, then gravely blessed him; and he looked, Clarence +related, as if he had been in the greatest possible disgrace.</p> +<p>It was the second time that one of us had saved a life from drowning, +but there was none of the exultation we had felt that time before in +London. It was a much graver feeling, where the danger had really +been greater, and the rescue had been of one so dear to us. It +was tempered likewise by anxiety about our dear Ellen - ours, alas, +no longer! She was laid up for several days, and it was thought +better that she should not see Emily till she had recovered; but after +a week had passed, her father drove over to discuss some plans for the +Poor-Law arrangements, and begged my sister to go back in the carriage +and spend the day with his daughter.</p> +<p>We brothers could now look forward to some real intelligence; we +became restless; and in the afternoon Clarence and I set out with the +donkey-chair on the woodland path to meet Emily. We gained more +than we had hoped, for as we came round one of the turns in the winding +path, up the hanging beech-wood, we came on the two friends - Ellen, +a truly Una-like figure, in her white dress with her black scarf making +a sable stole. Perhaps we betrayed some confusion, for there was +a bright flush on her cheeks as she came towards us, and, standing straight +up, said, ‘Clarence, Edward, I am so glad you are here; I wanted +to see you. I wanted - to say - I know he could not help it. +It was his generosity - helping those that need it; and - and - I’m +not angry. And though that’s all over, you’ll always +be my brothers, won’t you?’</p> +<p>She held her outstretched hands to us both. I could not help +it, I drew her down, and kissed her brow; Clarence clasped her other +hand and held it to his lips, but neither of us could utter a word.</p> +<p>She turned back and went quietly away through the wood, while Emily +sank down under the beech-tree in a paroxysm of grief. You may +see which it was, for Clarence cut out ‘E. M. F., 1835’ +upon the bark. He soothed and caressed poor Emily as in old nursery +troubles; and presently she told us that it would be long before we +saw that dear one again, for Mrs. Fordyce was going to take her away +on the morrow.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce had seen Emily in private, before letting her go to +Ellen. There was evidently a great wish to be kind. Mrs. +Fordyce said she could never forget what she owed to us all, and could +not think of blaming any of us. ‘But,’ she said, ‘you +are a sensible girl, Emily,’ - ‘how I hate being called +a sensible girl,’ observed the poor child, in parenthesis, - ‘and +you must see that it is desirable not to encourage her to indulge in +needless discussion after she once understands the facts.’ +She added that she thought a cessation of present intercourse would +be wise till the sore was in some degree healed. She had not been +satisfied about her daughter’s health for some time, and meant +to take her to Bath the next day to consult a physician, and then decide +what would be best. ‘And, my dear,’ she said, ‘if +there should be a slackening of correspondence, do not take it as unkindness, +but as a token that my poor child is recovering her tone. Do not +discontinue writing to her, but be guarded, and perhaps less rapid, +in replying.’</p> +<p>It was for her friendship that poor Emily wept so bitterly - the +first friendship that had been an enthusiasm to her; looking at it as +a cruel injustice that Griff’s misdoing should separate them. +The prediction that all might be lived down and forgotten was too vague +and distant to be much consolation; indeed, we were too young to take +it in.</p> +<p>We had it all over again in a somewhat grotesque form when, at another +turn in the wood, we came upon Martyn and Anne, loaded with treasures +from their robbers’ cave, some of which were bestowed in my chair, +the others carried off between Anne and her not very willing nursery-maid.</p> +<p>Anne kissed us all round, and augured cheerfully that she should +lay up a store of shells and rocks by the seaside to make ‘a perfect +Robinson Crusoe cavern,’ she said, ‘and then Clarence can +come and be the Spaniards and the savages. But that won’t +be till next summer,’ she added, shaking her head. ‘I +shall get Ellen to tell Emily what shells I find, and then she can tell +Martyn; for mamma says girls never write to boys unless they are their +brothers! And now Martyn will never be my brother,’ she +added ruefully.</p> +<p>‘You will always be our darling,’ I said.</p> +<p>‘That’s not the same as your sister,’ she answered. +However, amid auguries of the combination of robbers and Robinson Crusoe, +the parting was effected, and Anne borne off by the maid; while we had +Martyn on our hands, stamping about and declaring that it was very hard +that because Griff chose to be a faithless, inconstant ruffian, all +his pleasure and comfort in life should be stopped! He said such +outrageous things that, between scolding him and laughing at him, Emily +had been somewhat cheered by the time we reached the house.</p> +<p>My father had written to Griffith, in his first displeasure, curt +wishes that he might not have reason to repent of the step he had taken, +though he had not gone the right way to obtain a blessing. As +it was not suitable that a man should be totally dependent on his wife, +his allowance should be continued; but under present circumstances he +must perceive that he and Lady Peacock could not be received at Chantry +House. We were shown the letter, and thought it terribly brief +and cold; but my mother said it would be weak to offer forgiveness that +was not sought, and my father was specially exasperated at the absence +of all contrition as to the treatment of Ellen. All Griff had +vouchsafed on that head was - the rupture had been the Fordyces’ +doing; he was not bound. As to intercourse with him, Clarence +and I might act as we saw fit.</p> +<p>‘Only,’ said my father, as Clarence was leaving home, +‘I trust you not to get yourself involved in this set.’</p> +<p>Clarence gave a queer smile, ‘They would not take me as a gift, +papa.’</p> +<p>And as my father turned from the hall door, he laid his hand on his +wife’s arm, and said, ‘Who would have told us what that +young fellow would be to us.’</p> +<p>She sighed, and said, ‘He is not twenty-three; he has plenty +of money, and is very fond of Griff.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII - THE RIVER’S BANK</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘And my friend rose up in the shadows,<br /> And +turned to me,<br />“Be of good cheer,” I said faintly,<br /> For +He called thee.’</p> +<p>B. M.</p> +<p>Mr. Fordyce waited at Hillside till after Sunday, and then went to +Bath to hear the verdict of the physician. He returned as much +depressed as it was in his sanguine nature to be, for great delicacy +of the lungs had been detected; and to prevent the recent chill from +leaving permanent injury, Ellen must have a winter abroad, and warm +sea or mountain air at once. Whether the disease were constitutional +and would have come on at all events no one could tell.</p> +<p>Consumption was much less understood half a century ago; codliver +oil was unknown; and stethoscopes were new inventions, only used by +the more advanced of the faculty. The only escape poor Parson +Frank had from accepting the doom was in disbelieving that a thing like +a trumpet could really reveal the condition of the chest. Moreover, +Mrs. Fordyce had had a brother who had, under the famous cowhouse cure, +recovered enough to return home, and be killed by the upsetting of a +stage coach.</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce took her daughter to Lyme, and waited there till her +husband had found a curate and made all arrangements. It must +have been very inconvenient not to come home; but, no doubt, she wanted +to prevent any more partings. Then they went abroad, travelling +slowly, and seeing all the sights that came in their way, to distract +Ellen’s thoughts. She was not allowed to hear what ailed +her; but believed her languor and want of interest in everything to +be the effect of the blow she had received, struggling to exert herself, +and to enter gratefully into the enjoyments provided for her. +She was not prevented from writing to Emily; indeed, no one liked to +hinder anything she wished, but they were guide-book letters, describing +all she saw as a kind of duty, but scarcely concealing the trouble it +was to look. Such sentences would slip out as ‘This is a +nice quiet place, and I am happy to say there is nothing that one ought +to see.’ Or, ‘I sat in the cathedral at Lucerne while +the others were going round. The organ was playing, and it was +such rest!’ Or, again, after a day on the Lago di Como, +‘It was glorious, and if you and Edward were here, perhaps the +beauty would penetrate my sluggish soul!’</p> +<p>Ellen’s sluggish soul! - when we remembered her keen ecstasy +at the Valley of Rocks.</p> +<p>Those letters were our chief interest in an autumn which seemed dreary +to us, in spite of friendly visitors; for had not our family hope and +joy been extinguished? There was no direct communication with +Griffith after his unpleasant reply to my father’s letter; but +Clarence saw the newly married pair on their return to Lady Peacock’s +house in London, and reported that they were very kind and friendly +to him, and gave him more invitations than he could accept. Being +cross-examined when he came home for Christmas, he declared his conviction +that Lady Peacock had married Griff entirely from affection, and that +he had been - well - flattered into it. They seemed very fond +of each other now, and were launching out into all sorts of gaieties; +but though he did not tell my father, he confided to me that he feared +that Griffith had been disappointed in the amount of fortune at his +wife’s disposal.</p> +<p>It was at that Christmas time, one night, having found an intrusive +cat upon my bed, Clarence carried her out at the back door close to +his room, and came back in haste and rather pale. ‘It is +quite true about the lady and the light being seen out of doors,’ +he said in an awe-stricken voice, ‘I have just seen her flit from +the mullion room to the ruin.’</p> +<p>We only noted the fact in that ghost-diary of ours - we told nobody, +and looked no more. We already believed that these appearances +on the lawn must be the cause that every window, up to the attics on +the garden side of the house, were so heavily shuttered and barred that +there was no opening them without noise. Indeed, those on the +ground floor had in addition bells attached to them. No doubt +the former inhabitants had done their best to prevent any one from seeing +or inquiring into what was unacknowledged and unaccountable. It +might be only a coincidence, but we could not help remarking that we +had seen and heard nothing of her during the engagement which might +have united the two families; though, of course, it would be ridiculous +to suppose her cognisant of it, like the White Lady of Avenel, dancing +for joy at Mary’s marriage with Halbert Glendinning.</p> +<p>The Fordyces had settled at Florence, where they suffered a great +deal more from cold than they would have done at Hillside; and there +was such a cessation of Ellen’s letters that Emily feared that +Mrs. Fordyce had attained her wish and separated the friends effectually. +However, Frank Fordyce beguiled his enforced leisure with long letters +to my father on home business, Austrian misgovernment, and the Italian +Church and people, full of shrewd observations and new lights; and one +of these ended thus, ‘My poor lassie has been in bed for ten days +with a severe cold. She begs me to say that she has begun a letter +to Emily, and hopes soon to finish it. We had thought her gaining +ground, but she is sadly pulled down. <i>Fiat voluntas</i>.’</p> +<p>The letter, which had been begun, never came; but, after three long +weeks, there was one from the dear patient herself, mentioning her illness, +and declaring that it was so comfortable to be allowed to be tired, +and to go nowhere and see nothing except the fragment of beautiful blue +sky, and the corner of a campanile, and the flowers Anne brought in +daily.</p> +<p>As soon as she could be moved, they took her to Genoa, where she +revived enough to believe that she should be well if she were at home +again, and to win from her parents a promise to take her to Hillside +as soon as the spring winds were over. So anxious was she that, +as soon as there was any safety in travelling, the party began moving +northwards, going by sea to Marseilles to avoid the Corniche, so early +in the year. There were many fluctuations, and it was only her +earnest yearning for home and strong resolution that could have made +her parents persevere; but at last they were at Hillside, just after +Whitsuntide, in the last week of May.</p> +<p>Frank Fordyce walked over to see us on the very evening after their +arrival. He was much altered, his kindly handsome face looked +almost as if he had gone through an illness; and, indeed, apart from +all his anxiety and sorrow, he had pined in foreign parts for his human +flock, as well as his bullocks and his turnips. He had also read, +thought, and observed a great deal, and had left his long boyhood behind +him, during a space for study and meditation such as he had never had +before.</p> +<p>He was quite hopeless of his daughter’s recovery, and made +no secret of it. In passing through London the best advice had +been taken, but only to obtain the verdict that the case was beyond +all skill, and that it was only a matter of weeks, when all that could +be done was to give as much gratification as possible. The one +thing that Ellen did care about was to be at home - to have Emily with +her, and once more see her school children, her church, and her garden. +Tired as she was she had sprung up in the carriage at the first glimpse +of Hillside spire, and had leant forward at the window, nodding and +smiling her greetings to all the villagers.</p> +<p>She had been taken at once to her room and her bed, but her father +had promised to beg Emily to come up by noon on the morrow. Then +he sat talking of local matters, not able to help showing what infinite +relief it was to him to be at home, and what music to his ears was the +Somersetshire dialect and deep English voice ‘after all those +thin, shrill, screeching foreigners.’</p> +<p>Poor Emily! It was in mingled grief and gladness that she set +off the next day, with the trepidation of one to whom sickness and decay +were hitherto unknown. When she returned, it was in a different +mood, unable to believe the doctors could be right, and in the delight +of having her own bright, sweet Ellen back again, all herself. +They had talked, but more of home and village than of foreign experiences; +and though Ellen did not herself assist, she had much enjoyed watching +the unpacking of the numerous gifts which had cost a perfect fortune +at the Custom House. No one seemed forgotten - villagers, children, +servants, friends. Some of these tokens are before me still. +The Florentine mosaic paper-weight she brought me presses this very +sheet; the antique lamp she gave my father is on the mantelpiece; Clarence’s +engraving of Raffaelle’s St. Michael hangs opposite to me on the +wall. Most precious in our eyes was the collection of plants, +dried and labelled by herself, which she brought to Emily and me - poor +mummies now, but redolent of undying affection. Her desire was +to bestow all her keepsakes with her own hands, and in most cases she +actually did so - a few daily, as her strength served her. The +little figures in costume, coloured prints, Swiss carvings, French knicknacks, +are preserved in many a Hillside cottage as treasured relics of ‘our +young lady.’ Many years later, Martyn recognised a Hillside +native in a back street in London by a little purple-blue picture of +Vesuvius, and thereby reached the soft spot in a nearly dried-up heart.</p> +<p>So bright and playful was the dear girl over all her old familiar +interests that we inexperienced beings believed not only that the wound +to her affections was healed, but that she either did not know or did +not realise the sentence that had been pronounced on her; but when this +was repeated to her mother, it was met by a sad smile and the reply +that we only saw her in her best hours. Still, through the summer, +it was impossible to us to accept the truth; she looked so lovely, was +so cheerful, and took such delight in all that was about her.</p> +<p>With the first cold, however, she seemed to shrivel up, and the bad +nights extended into the days. Emily ascribed the change to the +lack of going out into the air, and always found reasons for the increased +languor and weakness; till at last there came a day when my poor little +sister seemed as if the truth had broken upon her for the first time, +when Ellen talked plainly to her of their parting, and had asked us +both, ‘her dear brother and sister,’ to be with her at her +Communion on All Saints’ Day.</p> +<p>She had written a little letter to Clarence, begging his forgiveness +for having cut him, and treated him with the scorn which, I believe, +was the chief fault that weighed upon her conscience; and, hearing my +father’s voice in the house, she sent a message to beg him to +come and see her in her mother’s dressing-room - that very window +where I had first heard her voice, refusing to come down to ‘those +Winslows.’ She had sent for him to entreat him to forgive +Griffith and recall the pair to Chantry House. ‘Not now,’ +she said, ‘but when I am gone.’</p> +<p>My father could deny her nothing, though he showed that the sight +of her made the entreaty all the harder to him; and she pleaded, ‘But +you know this was not his doing. I never was strong, and it had +begun before. Only think how sad it would have been for him.’</p> +<p>My father would have promised anything with that wasted hand on his, +those fervent eyes gazing on him, and he told her he would have given +his pardon long ago, if it had been sought, as it never had been.</p> +<p>‘Ah! perhaps he did not dare!’ she said. ‘Won’t +you write when all this is over, and then you will be one family again +as you used to be?’</p> +<p>He promised, though he scarcely knew where Griffith was. Clarence, +however, did. He had answered Ellen’s letter, and it had +made him ask for a few days’ leave of absence. So he came +down on the Saturday, and was allowed a quarter of an hour beside Ellen’s +sofa in the Sunday evening twilight. He brought away the calm, +rapt expression I had sometimes seen on his face at church, and Ellen +made a special entreaty that he might share the morrow’s feast.</p> +<p>There are some things that cannot be written of, and that was one. +Still we had not thought the end near at hand, though on Tuesday morning +a message was sent that Ellen was suffering and exhausted, and could +not see Emily. It was a wild, stormy day, with fierce showers +of sleet, and we clung to the hope that consideration for my sister +had prompted the message. In the afternoon Clarence battled with +a severe gale, made his way to Hillside, and heard that the weather +affected the patient, and that there was much bodily distress. +For one moment he saw her father, who said in broken accents that we +could only pray that the spirit might be freed without much more suffering, +‘though no doubt it is all right.’</p> +<p>Before daylight, before any one in the house was up, Clarence was +mounting the hill in the gusts that had done their work on the trees +and were subsiding with the darkness. And just as he was beginning +the descent, as the sun tipped the Hillside steeple with light, he heard +the knell, and counted the twenty-one for the years of our Ellen - for +ours she will always be.</p> +<p>‘Somehow,’ he told me, ‘I could not help taking +off my hat and giving thanks for her, and then all the drops on all +the boughs began sparkling, and there was a hush on all around as if +she were passing among the angels, and a thrush broke out into a regular +song of jubilee!’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV - NOT IN VAIN</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Then cheerly to your work again,<br /> With +hearts new braced and set<br />To run untired love’s blessed race,<br />As +meet for those who face to face<br /> Over the grave +their Lord have met.’</p> +<p>KEBLE.</p> +<p>That dying request could not but be held sacred, and overtures were +made to Griffith, who returned an odd sort of answer, friendly and affectionate, +but rather as if my father were the offending party in need of forgiveness. +He and his wife were obliged for the invitation, but could not accept +it, as they had taken a house near Melton-Mowbray for the hunting season, +and were entertaining friends.</p> +<p>In some ways it was disappointing, in others it was a relief, not +to have the restraint of Lady Peacock’s presence during the last +days we were to have with the Fordyces. For a fresh loss came +upon us. Beachharbour was a fishing-village on the north-western +coast, which, within the previous decade, had sprung into importance, +on the one hand as a fashionable resort, on the other as a minor port +for colliers. The living was wretchedly poor, and had been held +for many years by one of the old inferior stamp of clergy, scarcely +superior in habits or breeding to the farmers, and only outliving the +scandals of his youth to fall into a state of indolent carelessness. +It was in the gift of a child, for whom Sir Horace Lester was trustee, +and that gentleman had written, about a fortnight before Ellen’s +death, to consult Mr. Fordyce on its disposal, declaring the great difficulties +and deficiencies of the place, which made it impossible to offer it +to any one without considerable private means, and also able to attract +and improve the utterly demoralised population. He ended, almost +in joke, by saying, ‘In fact, I know no one who could cope with +the situation but yourself; I wish you could find me your own counterpart, +or come yourself in earnest. It is just the air that suits my +sister - bracing sea-breezes; the parsonage, though a wretched place, +is well situated, and she would be all the stronger; but in poor Ellen’s +state there is no use in talking of it, and besides I know you are wedded +to your fertile fields and Somersetshire clowns.’</p> +<p>That letter (afterwards shown to us) had worked on Mr. Fordyce’s +mind during those mournful days. He was still young enough to +leave behind him Parson Frank and the ‘squarson’ habits +of Hillside in which he had grown up; and the higher and more spiritual +side of his nature had been fostered by the impressions of the last +year. He was conscious, as he said, that his talk had been overmuch +of bullocks, and that his farm had engrossed him more than he wished +should happen again, though a change would be tearing himself up by +the roots; and as to his own people at Hillside, the curate, an active +young man, had well supplied his place, and, in his <i>truly</i> humble +opinion, though by no means in theirs, introduced several improvements +even in that model parish.</p> +<p>What had moved him most, however, was a conversation he had had with +Ellen, with whom during this last year he had often held deep and serious +counsel, with a growing reverence on his side. He had read her +uncle’s letter to her, and to his great surprise found that she +looked on it as a call. Devotedly fond as she herself was of Hillside, +she could see that her father’s abilities were wasted on so small +a field, in a manner scarcely good for himself, and she had been struck +with the greater force of his sermons when preaching to educated congregations +abroad. If no one else could or would take efficient charge of +these Beachharbour souls, she could see that it would weigh on his conscience +to take comparative ease in his own beloved meadows, among a flock almost +his vassals. Moreover, she relieved his mind about her mother. +She had discovered, what the good wife kept out of sight, that the north-country +woman never could entirely have affinities with the south, and she had +come to the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce’s spirits would be heavily +tried by settling down at Hillside in the altered state of things.</p> +<p>After this talk, Mr. Fordyce had suggested a possible incumbent to +his brother-in-law, but left the matter open; and when Sir Horace came +down to the funeral, it was more thoroughly discussed; and, as soon +as Mrs. Fordyce saw that departure would not break her husband’s +heart, she made no secret of the way that both her opinion and her inclinations +lay. She told my mother that she had always believed her own ill-health +was caused by the southern climate, and that she hoped that Anne would +grow up stronger than her sister in the northern breezes.</p> +<p>Poor little Anne! Of all the family, to her the change was +the greatest grief. The tour on the Continent had been a dull +affair to her; she was of the age to weary of long confinement in the +carriage and in strange hotels, and too young to appreciate ‘grown-up’ +sights. Picture-galleries and cathedrals were only a drag to her, +and if the experiences that were put into Rosella’s mouth for +the benefit of her untravelled sisters could have been written down, +they would have been as unconventional as Mark Twain’s adventures. +Rosella went through the whole tour, and left a leg behind in the hinge +of a door, but in compensation brought home a Paris bonnet and mantle. +She seemed to have been her young mistress’s chief comfort, next +to an occasional game of play with her father, or a walk, looking in +at the shop windows and watching marionettes, or, still better, the +wonderful sports of brown-legged street children, without trying to +make her speak French or Italian - in her eyes one of the inflictions +of the journey, in those of her elders the one benefit she might gain. +She had missed the petting to which she had been accustomed from her +grandfather and from all of us; and she had absolutely counted the days +till she could get home again, and had fallen into dire disgrace for +fits of crying when Ellen’s weakness caused delays. Martyn’s +holidays had been a time of rapture to her, for there was no one to +attend much to her at home, and she was too young to enter into the +weight of anxiety; so the two had run as wild together as a gracious +well-trained damsel of ten and a fourteen-year-old boy with tender chivalry +awake in him could well do. To be out of the way was all that +was asked of her for the time, and all old delights, such as the robbers’ +cave, were renewed with fresh zest.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘It was the sweetest and the last.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>And though Martyn was gone back to school, the child felt the wrench +from home most severely. As she told me on one of those sorrowful +days, ‘She did think she had come back to live at dear, dear little +Hillside all the days of her life.’ Poor child, we became +convinced that this vehement attachment to Griffith’s brothers +was one factor in Mrs. Fordyce’s desire to make a change that +should break off these habits of intimacy and dependence.</p> +<p>Pluralities had not become illegal, and Frank Fordyce, being still +the chief landholder in Hillside, and wishing to keep up his connection +with his people, did not resign the rectory, though he put the curate +into the house, and let the farm. Once or twice a year he came +to fulfil some of a landlord’s duties, and was as genial and affectionate +as ever, but more and more absorbed in the needs of Beachharbour, and +unconsciously showing his own growth in devotion and activity; while +he brought his splendid health and vigour, his talent, his wealth, and, +above all, his winning charm of manner and address, to that magnificent +work at Beachharbour, well known to all of you; though, perhaps, you +never guessed that the foundation of all those churches and their grand +dependent works of piety, mercy, and beneficence was laid in one young +girl’s grave. I never heard of a fresh achievement there +without remembering how the funeral psalm ends with -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us,<br />O prosper +Thou our handiwork.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>And Emily? Her drooping after the loss of her friend was sad, +but it would have been sadder but for the spirit Ellen had infused. +We found the herbs to heal our woe round our pathway, though the first +joyousness of life had departed. The reports Mr. Henderson and +the Hillside curate brought from Oxford were great excitements to us, +and we thought and puzzled over church doctrine, and tried to impart +it to our scholars. We I say, for Henderson had made me take a +lads’ class, which has been the chief interest of my life. +Even the roughest were good to their helpless teacher, and some men, +as gray-headed as myself, still come every Sunday to read with Mr. Edward, +and are among the most faithful friends of my life.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV - GRIFF’S BIRD</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Shall such mean little creatures pretend to the fashion?<br />Cousin +Turkey Cock, well may you be in a passion.’</p> +<p><i>The Peacock at Home.</i></p> +<p>It was not till the second Christmas after dear Ellen Fordyce’s +death that my eldest brother brought his wife and child to Chantry House, +after an urgent letter to Lady Peacock from my mother, who yearned for +a sight of Griffith’s boy.</p> +<p>I do not wish to dwell on that visit. Selina, or Griff’s +bird, as Martyn chose to term her, was certainly handsome and stylish; +but her complexion had lost freshness and delicacy, and the ladies said +her colour was rouge, and her fine figure due to other female mysteries. +She meant to be very gracious, and patronised everybody, especially +Emily, who, she said, would be quite striking if not sacrificed by her +dress, and whom she much wished to take to London, engaging to provide +her with a husband before the season was over, not for a moment believing +my mother’s assurance that it would be a trial to us all whenever +we had to resign our Emily. Nay, she tried to condole with the +poor moped family slave, and was received with such hot indignation +as made her laugh, for, to do her justice, she was good-natured and +easy-tempered. However, I saw less of her than did the others, +for I believe she thought the sight of me made her ill. Griff, +poor old fellow, was heartily glad to be with us again, but quite under +her dominion. He had lost his glow of youth and grace of figure, +his complexion had reddened, and no one would have guessed him only +a year older than Clarence, whose shoulders did indeed reveal something +of the desk, but whose features, though pale, were still fair and youthful. +The boy was another Clarence, not so much in compliment to his godfather +as because it was the most elegant name in the family, and favoured +an interesting belief, current among his mother’s friends, that +the king had actually stood sponsor to the uncle. Poor little +man, his grandmother shut herself into the bookroom and cried, after +her first sight of him. He was a wretched, pinched morsel of humanity, +though mamma and Emily detected wonderful resemblances; I never saw +them, but then he inherited his mother’s repulsion towards me, +and roared doubly at the sight of me. My mother held that he was +the victim of Selina’s dissipations and mismanagement of herself +and him, and gave many matronly groans at his treatment by the smart, +flighty nurse, who waged one continual warfare with the household.</p> +<p>Accustomed to absolute supremacy in domestic matters, it was very +hard for my mother to have her counsels and experience set at naught, +and, if she appealed to Griff, to find her notions treated with the +polite deference he might have shown to a cottage dame.</p> +<p>A course of dinner-parties could not hinder her ladyship from finding +Chantry House insufferably dull, ‘always like Sunday;’ and, +when she found that we were given to Saints’ Day services, her +pity and astonishment knew no bounds. ‘It was all very well +for a poor object like Edward,’ she held, ‘but as to Mr. +Winslow and Clarence, did they go for the sake of example? Though, +to be sure, Clarence might be a Papist any day.’</p> +<p>Popery, instead of Methodism, was just beginning to be the bugbear +set up for those whom the world held to be ultra-religious, and my mother +was so far disturbed at our interest in what was termed Oxford theology +that the warning would have alarmed her if it had come from any other +quarter. However, Lady Peacock was rather fond of Clarence, and +entertained him with schemes for improving Chantry House when it should +have descended to Griffith. The mullion rooms were her special +aversion, and were all to be swept away, together with the vaultings +and the ruin - ‘enough to give one the blues, if there were nothing +else,’ she averred.</p> +<p>We really felt it to the credit of our country that Sir George Eastwood +sent an invitation to an early dance to please his young daughters; +and for this our visitors prolonged their stay. My mother made +Clarence go, that she might have some one to take care of her and Emily, +since Griff was sure to be absorbed by his lady. Emily had not +been to a ball since those gay days in London with Ellen. She +shrank back from the contrast, and would have begged off; but she was +told that she must submit; and though she said she felt immeasurably +older than at that happy time, I believe she was not above being pleased +with the pale pink satin dress and wreath of white jessamine, which +my father presented to her, and in which, according to Martyn, she beat +‘Griff’s bird all to shivers.’</p> +<p>Clarence had grown much less bashful and embarrassed since the Tooke +affair had given him a kind of position and a sense of not being a general +disgrace. He really was younger in some ways at five-and-twenty +than at eighteen; he enjoyed dancing, and especially enjoyed the compliments +upon our sister, whom in our usual fashion we viewed as the belle of +the ball. He was standing by my fire, telling me the various humours +of the night, when a succession of shrieks ran through the house. +He dashed away to see what was the matter, and returned, in a few seconds, +saying that Selina had seen some one in the garden, and neither she +nor mamma would be satisfied without examination - ‘though, of +course, I know what it must be,’ he added, as he drew on his coat.</p> +<p>‘Bill, are you coming?’ said Griff at the door. +‘You needn’t, if you don’t like it. I bet it +is your old friend.’</p> +<p>‘I’m coming! I’m coming! I’m +sure it is,’ shouted Martyn from behind, with the inconsistent +addition, ‘I’ve got my gun.’</p> +<p>‘Enough to dispose of any amount of robbers or phantoms either,’ +observed Griff as they went forth by the back door, reinforced by Amos +Bell with a lantern in one hand and a poker in the other.</p> +<p>My father was fortunately still asleep, and my mother came down to +see whether I was frightened.</p> +<p>She said she had no patience with Selina, and had left her to Emily +and her maid; but, before many words had been spoken, they all came +creeping down after her, feeling safety in numbers, or perhaps in her +entire fearlessness. The report of a gun gave us all a shock, +and elicited another scream or two. My mother, hoping that no +one was hurt, hastened into the hall, but only to meet Griff, hurrying +in laughing to reassure us with the tidings that it was only Martyn, +who had shot the old sun-dial by way of a robber; and he was presently +followed by the others, Martyn rather crestfallen, but arguing with +all his might that the sun-dial was exactly like a man; and my mother +hurried every one off upstairs without further discussion.</p> +<p>Clarence was rather white, and when Martyn demanded, ‘Do you +really think it was the ghost? Fancy her selection of the bird!’ +he gravely answered, ‘Martyn, boy, if it were, it is not a thing +to speak of in that tone. You had better go to bed.’</p> +<p>Martyn went off, somewhat awed. Clarence was cold and shivering, +and stood warming himself. He was going to wind up his watch, +but his hand shook, and I did it for him, noting the hour - twenty minutes +past one.</p> +<p>It appeared that Selina, on going upstairs, recollected that she +had left her purse in Griff’s sitting-room before going to dress, +and had gone in quest of it. She heard strange shouts and screams +outside, and, going to one of the old windows, where the shutters were +less unmanageable than elsewhere, she beheld a woman rushing towards +the house pursued by at least a couple of men. Filled with terror +she had called out, and nearly fainted in Griff’s arms.</p> +<p>‘It agrees with all we have heard before,’ said Clarence, +‘the very day and hour!’</p> +<p>‘As Martyn said, the person is strange.’</p> +<p>‘Villagers, less concerned, have seen the like,’ he said; +‘and, indeed, all unconsciously poor Selina has cut away the hope +of redress,’ he sighed. ‘Poor, restless spirit! would +that I could do anything for her.’</p> +<p>‘Let me ask, do you ever see her now?’</p> +<p>‘N-no, I suppose not; but whenever I am anxious or worried, +the trouble takes her form in my dreams.’</p> +<p>Lady Peacock had soon extracted the ghost story from her husband, +and, though she professed to be above the vulgar folly of belief in +it, her nerves were so upset, she said, that nothing would have induced +her to sleep another night in the house. The rational theory on +this occasion was that one of the maids must have stolen out to join +in the Christmas entertainment at the Winslow Arms, and been pursued +home by some tipsy revellers; but this explanation was not productive +of goodwill between the mother and daughter-in-law, since mamma had +from the first so entirely suspected Selina’s smart nurse as actually +to have gone straight to the nursery on the plea of seeing whether the +baby had been frightened. The woman was found asleep - apparently +so - said my mother, but all her clothes were in an untidy heap on the +floor, which to my mother was proof conclusive that she had slipped +into the house in the confusion, and settled herself there. Had +not my mother with her own eyes watched from the window her flirtations +with the gardener, and was more evidence requisite to convict her? +Mamma entertained the hope that her proposal would be adopted of herself +taking charge of her grandson, and fattening his poor little cheeks +on our cows’ milk, while the rest of the party continued their +round of visits.</p> +<p>Lady Peacock, however, treated it as a personal imputation that <i>her</i> +nurse should be accused instead of any servant of Mrs. Winslow’s +own, though, as Griff observed, not only character, but years and features +might alike acquit them of any such doings; but even he could not laugh +long, for it was no small vexation to him that such offence should have +arisen between his mother and wife. Of course there was no open +quarrel - my mother had far too much dignity to allow it to come to +that - but each said in private bitter things of the other, and my lady’s +manner of declining to leave her baby at Chantry House was almost offensive.</p> +<p>Poor Griffith, who had been growing more like himself every day, +tried in vain to smooth matters, and would have been very glad to leave +his child to my mother’s management, though, of course, he acquitted +the nurse of the midnight adventure. He privately owned to us +that he had no opinion of the woman, but he defended her to my mother, +in whose eyes this was tantamount to accusing her own respectable maids, +since it was incredible that any rational person could accept the phantom +theory.</p> +<p>Gladly would he have been on better terms, for he had had to confess +that his wife’s fortune had turned out to be much less than common +report had stated, or than her style of living justified, and that his +marriage had involved him in a sea of difficulties, so that he had to +beg for a larger allowance, and for assistance in paying off debts.</p> +<p>The surrender of the London house and of some of the chief expenses +were made conditions of such favours, and Griffith had assented gratefully +when alone with his father; but after an interview with his wife, demonstrations +were made that it was highly economical to have a house in town, and +horses, carriages, and servants and that any change would be highly +derogatory to the heir of Earlscombe and the sacred wishes of the late +Sir Henry Peacock.</p> +<p>In fact, it was impressed on us that we were mere homely, countrified +beings, who could not presume to dictate to her ladyship, but who had +ill requited her condescension in deigning to beam upon us.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI - SLACK WATER</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘O dinna look, ye prideful queen, on a’ aneath your ken,<br />For +he wha seems the farthest <i>but</i> aft wins the farthest <i>ben</i>,<br />And +whiles the doubie of the schule tak’s lead of a’ the rest:<br />The +birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.</p> +<p>‘The cauld, grey, misty morn aft brings a sunny summer day;<br />The +tree wha’s buds are latest is longest to decay;<br />The heart +sair tried wi’ sorrow still endures the sternest test:<br />The +birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.</p> +<p>‘The wee wee stern that glints in heaven may be a lowin’ +sun,<br />Though like a speck of light it seem amid the welkin dun;<br />The +humblest sodger on the field may win a warrior’s crest:<br />The +birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.’</p> +<p><i>Scotch Newspaper.</i></p> +<p>The wickedness of the nurse was confirmed in my mother’s eyes +when the doom on the first-born of the Winslows was fulfilled, and the +poor little baby, Clarence, succumbed to a cold on the chest caught +while his nurse was gossiping with a guardsman.</p> +<p>He was buried in London. ‘It was better for Selina to +get those things over as quickly as possible,’ said Griff; but +Clarence saw that he suffered much more than his wife would let him +show to her. ‘It is so bad for him to dwell on it,’ +she said. ‘You see. I never let myself give way.’</p> +<p>And she was soon going out, nearly as usual, till their one other +infant came to open its eyes only for a few hours on this troublesome +world, and owe its baptism to Clarence’s exertions. My mother, +who was in London just after, attending on the good old Admiral’s +last illness, was greatly grieved and disgusted with all she heard and +saw of the young pair, and that was not much. She felt their disregard +of her uncle as heartless, or rather as insulting, on Selina’s +part, and weak on Griff’s; and on all sides she heard of their +reckless extravagance, which made her forebode the worst.</p> +<p>All these disappointments much diminished my father’s pleasure +and interest in his inheritance. He had little heart to build +and improve, when his eldest son’s wife made no secret of her +hatred to the place, or to begin undertakings only to be neglected by +those who came after; and thus several favourite schemes were dropped, +or prevented by Griffith’s applications for advances.</p> +<p>At last there was a crisis. At the end of the second season +after their visit to us, Clarence sent a hasty note, begging my father +to join him in averting an execution in Griffith’s house. +I cannot record the particulars, for just at that time I had a long +low fever, and did not touch my diary for many weeks; nor indeed did +I know much about the circumstances, since my good nurses withheld as +much as possible, and would not let me talk about what they believed +to make me worse. Nor can I find any letters about it. I +believe they were all made away with long ago, and thus I only know +that my father hurried up to town, remained for a fortnight, and came +back looking ten years older. The house in London had been given +up, and he had offered a vacant one of our own, near home, to Griff +to retrench in, but Selina would not hear of it, insisting on going +abroad.</p> +<p>This was a great grief to him and to us all. There was only +one side of our lives that was not saddened. Our old incumbent +had died about six months after the Fordyces had gone, and Mr. Henderson +had gladly accepted the living where the parsonage had been built. +The lady to whom he had been so long engaged was a great acquisition. +Her home had been at Oxford; and she was as thoroughly imbued with the +spirit that there prevailed as was the Hillside curate. She talked +to us of Littlemore, and of the sermons there and at St. Mary’s, +and Emily and I shared to the full her hero-worship. It was the +nearest compensation my sister had had for the loss of Ellen, with this +difference, that Mrs. Henderson was older, had read more, and had conversed +thoughtfully with some of the leading spirits in religious thought, +so that she opened a new world to us.</p> +<p>People would hardly believe in our eagerness and enthusiasm over +the revelations of church doctrine; how we debated, consulted our books, +and corresponded with Clarence over what now seems so trite; how we +viewed the <i>British Critic</i> and <i>Tracts for the Times</i> as +our oracles, and worried the poor Wattlesea bookseller to get them for +us at the first possible moment.</p> +<p>Church restoration was setting in. Henderson had always objected +to christening from a slop-basin on the altar, and had routed out a +dilapidated font; and now one, which was termed by the country paper +chaste and elegant, was by united efforts, in which Clarence had the +lion’s share, presented in time for the christening of the first +child at the Parsonage. It is that which was sent off to the Mission +Chapel as a blot on the rest of Earlscombe Church. Yet what an +achievement it was deemed at the time!</p> +<p>The same may be said of most of our doings at that era. We +effected them gradually, and have ever since been undoing them, as our +architectural and ecclesiastical perceptions have advanced. I +wonder how the next generation will deal with our alabaster reredos +and our stained windows, with which we are all as well pleased as we +were fifty years ago with the plain red cross with a target-like arrangement +above and below it in the east window, or as poor Margaret may have +been with her livery altar-cloth. Indeed, it seems to me that +we got more delight out of our very imperfect work, designed by ourselves +and sent to Clarence to be executed by men in back streets in London, +costing an immensity of trouble, than can be had now by simply choosing +out of a book of figures of cut and dried articles.</p> +<p>What an enthusiastic description Clarence sent of the illuminated +commandments in the new Church of St. Katharine in the Regent’s +Park! How Emily and I gloated over the imitation of them when +we replaced the hideous old tables, and how exquisite we thought the +initial I, which irreverent youngsters have likened, with some justice, +to an enormous overfed caterpillar, enwreathed with red and green cabbage +leaves!</p> +<p>My mother was startled at these innovations; but my father, who had +kept abreast with the thought of the day, owned to the doctrines as +chiming in with his unbroken belief, and transferred to the improvements +in the church the interest which he had lost in the estate. The +farmers had given up their distrust of him, and accepted him loyally +as friend and landlord, submitting to the reseating of the church, and +only growling moderately at decorations that cost them nothing. +Daily service began as soon as Henderson was his own master, and was +better attended than it is now; for the old people to whom it was a +novelty took up the habit more freely than their successors, to whom +the bell has been familiar through their days of toil. We were +too far off to be constant attendants; but evensong made an object for +our airings, and my father’s head, now quite white, was often +seen there. He felt it a great relief amid the cares of his later +years.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was with a view to him that Mr. Castleford arranged that +Clarence should become manager for the firm at Bristol, with a good +salary. The Robsons would not take a fresh lodger - they were +getting too old for fresh beginnings; but they kept their rooms ready +for him, whenever he had to be in town, and Gooch found him a trustworthy +widow as housekeeper. He took a little cottage at Clifton, availing +himself of the coach to spend his Sundays with us; and it was an acknowledged +joy to every one that I should drive to meet him every Saturday afternoon +at the Carpenter’s Arms, and bring him home to be my father’s +aid in all his business, and a most valuable help in Sunday parish work, +in which he had an amount of experience which astonished us.</p> +<p>What would have become of the singing without him? The first +hint against the remarkable anthems had long ago alienated our tuneful +choir placed on high, and they had deserted <i>en masse</i>. Then +Emily and the schoolmistress had toiled at the school children, whose +thin little pipes and provincialisms were a painful infliction, till +Mrs. Henderson, backed by Clarence, worked up a few promising men’s +voices to support them. We thought everything but the New and +Old Versions smacked of dissent, except the hymns at the end of the +Prayer-book, though we did not go as far as Chapman, who told Emily +he understood as how all the tunes was tried over in Doctor’s +Commons afore they were sent out, and it was not ‘liable’ +to change them. One of Clarence’s amusements in his lonely +life had been the acquisition of a knowledge of music, and he had a +really good voice; while his adherence to our choir encouraged other +young men of the farmer and artisan class to join us. Choir, however, +did not mean surplices and cassocks, but a collection of our best voices, +male and female, in the gallery.</p> +<p>Martyn began to be a great help when at home, never having wavered +in his purpose of becoming a clergyman. On going to Oxford, he +became imbued with the influences that made Alma Mater the focus of +the religious life and progress of that generation which is now the +elder one. There might in some be unreality, in others extravagance, +in others mere imitation; but there was a truly great work on the minds +of the young men of that era - a work which has stood the test of time, +made saints and martyrs, and sown the seed whereof we have witnessed +a goodly growth, in spite of cruel shocks and disappointments, fightings +within and fears without, slanders and follies to provoke them, such +as we can now afford to laugh over. With Martyn, rubrical or extra-rubrical +observances were the outlet of the exuberance of youth, as chivalry +and romance had been to us; and on Frank Fordyce’s visits, it +was delightful to find that he too was in the full swing of these ideas +and habits, partly from his own convictions, partly from his parish +needs, and partly carried along by curates fresh from Oxford.</p> +<p>In the first of his summer vacations Martyn joined a reading party, +with a tutor of the same calibre, and assured them that if they took +up their quarters in a farmhouse not many miles by the map from Beachharbour, +they would have access to unlimited services, with the extraordinary +luxury of a surpliced choir, and intercourse with congenial spirits, +which to him meant the Fordyces.</p> +<p>On arriving, however, the bay proved to be so rocky and dangerous +that there was no boating across it, as he had confidently expected. +The farm depended on a market town in the opposite direction, and though +the lights of Beachharbour could be seen at night, there was no way +thither except by a six-miles walk along a cliff path, with a considerable +détour in order to reach a bridge and cross the rapid river which +was an element of danger in the bay, on the north side of the promontory +which sheltered the harbour to the south.</p> +<p>So when Martyn started as pioneer on the morning before the others +arrived, he descended into Beachharbour later than he intended, but +still he was in time to meet Anne Fordyce, a tall, bright-faced girl +of fourteen, taking her after-lessons turn on the parade with a governess, +who looked amazed as the two met, holding out both hands to one another, +with eager joy and welcome.</p> +<p>It was not the same when Anne flew into the Vicarage with the rapturous +announcement, ‘Here’s Martyn!’ The vicar was +gone to a clerical meeting, and Mrs. Fordyce said nothing about staying +to see him. The luncheon was a necessity, but with quiet courtesy +Martyn was made to understand that he was regarded as practically out +of reach, and ‘Oh, mamma, he could come and sleep,’ was +nipped in the utterance by ‘Martyn is busy with his studies; we +must not disturb him.’ This was a sufficient intimation +that Mrs. Fordyce did not intend to have the pupils dropping in on her +continually, and making her house their resort; and while Martyn was +digesting the rebuff, the governess carried Anne off to prepare for +a music lesson, and her mother gave no encouragement to lingering or +repeating the visit.</p> +<p>Still Martyn, on his way homewards, based many hopes on the return +of Mr. Fordyce; but all that ensued was, three weeks later, a note regretting +the not having been able to call, and inviting the whole party to a +great school-feast on the anniversary of the dedication of the first +of the numerous new churches of Beachharbour. There was no want +of cordiality on that occasion, but time was lacking for anything beyond +greetings and fleeting exchanges of words. Parson Frank tried +to talk to Martyn, bemoaned the not seeing more of him, declared his +intentions of coming to the farm, began an invitation, but was called +off a hundred ways; and Anne was rushing about with all the children +of the place, gentle and simple, on her hands. Whenever Martyn +tried to help her, he was called off some other way, and engaged at +last in the hopeless task of teaching cricket where these fisher boys +had never heard of it.</p> +<p>That was all he saw of our old friends, and he was much hurt by such +ingratitude. So were we all, and though we soon acquitted the +head of the family of more than the forgetfulness of over occupation, +the soreness at his wife’s coldness was not so soon passed over. +Yet from her own point of view, poor woman, she might be excused for +a panic lest her second daughter might go the way of the first.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII - OUTWARD BOUND</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘As slow our ship her foamy track<br /> Against +the wind was cleaving,<br />Her trembling pennant still looked back<br /> To +the dear isle ’twas leaving.<br />So loath we part from all we +love,<br /> From all the links that bind us,<br />So +turn our hearts as on we rove<br /> To those we’ve +left behind us.’</p> +<p>T. MOORE.</p> +<p>The first time I saw Clarence’s <i>ménage</i> was in +that same summer of poor Martyn’s repulse. My father had +come in for a small property in his original county of Shropshire, and +this led to his setting forth with my mother to make necessary arrangements, +and then to pay visits to old friends; leaving Emily and me to be guests +to our brother at Clifton.</p> +<p>We told them it was their harvest honeymoon, and it was funny to +see how they enjoyed the scheme when they had once made up their minds +to it, and our share in the project was equally new and charming, for +Emily and I, though both some way on in our twenties, were still in +many respects home children, nor had I ever been out on a visit on my +own account. The yellow chariot began by conveying Emily and me +to our destination.</p> +<p>Clifton has grown considerably since those days, and terraces have +swallowed up the site of what the post-office knew as Prospect Cottage, +but we were apt to term the doll’s house, for, as Emily said, +our visit there had something the same effect as a picnic or tea drinking +at little Anne’s famous baby house. In like manner, it was +tiny, square, with one sash-window on each side of the door, but it +was nearly covered with creepers, odds and ends which Clarence brought +from home, and induced to flourish and take root better than their parent +stocks. In his nursery days his precision had given him the name +of ‘the old bachelor,’ and he had all a sailor’s tidiness. +Even his black cat and brown spaniel each had its peculiar basket and +mat, and had been taught never to transgress their bounds or interfere +with one another; and the effect of his parlour, embellished as it was +in our honour, was delightful. The outlook was across the beautiful +ravine, into the wooded slopes on the further side, and, on the other +side, down the widening cleft to that giddy marvel, the suspension bridge, +with vessels passing under it, and the expanse beyond.</p> +<p>Most entirely we enjoyed ourselves, making merry over Clarence’s +housekeeping, employing ourselves after our wonted semi-student, semi-artist +fashion in the morning; and, when our host came home from business, +starting on country expeditions, taking a carriage whenever the distance +exceeded Emily’s powers of walking beside my chair; sketching, +botanising, or investigating church architecture, our newest hobby. +I sketched, and the other two rambled about, measuring and filling up +archæological papers, with details of orientation, style, and +all the rest, deploring barbarisms and dilapidations, making curious +and delightful discoveries, pitying those who thought the Dun Cow’s +rib and Chatterton’s loft the most interesting features of St. +Mary’s Redcliff, and above all rubbing brasses with heel ball, +and hanging up their grim effigies wherever there was a vacant space +on the walls of our doll’s house.</p> +<p>And though we grumbled when Clarence was detained at the office later +than we expected, this was qualified by pride at feeling his importance +there as a man in authority. It was, however, with much dismay +and some inhospitality that we learnt that a young man belonging to +the office - in fact, Mr. Frith’s great-nephew - was coming to +sail for Canton in one of the vessels belonging to the firm, and would +have to be ‘looked after.’ He could not be asked to +sleep at Prospect Cottage, for Emily had the only spare bedchamber, +and Clarence had squeezed himself into a queer little dressing closet +to give me his room; but the housekeeper (a treasure found by Gooch) +secured an apartment in the next house, and we were to act hosts, much +against our will. Clarence had barely seen the youth, who had +been employed in the office at Liverpool, living with his mother, who +was in ill-health and had died in the last spring. The only time +of seeing him, he had seemed to be a very shy raw lad; but, ‘poor +fellow, we can make the best of him,’ was the sentiment; ‘it +is only for one night.’ However, we were dismayed when, +as Emily was in the crisis of washing-in a sky, it was announced that +a gentleman was asking for Mr. Winslow. Churlishness bade us despatch +him to the office, but humanity prevailed to invite him previously to +share our luncheon. Yet we doubted whether it had not been a cruel +mercy when he entered, evidently unprepared to stumble on a young lady +and a deformed man, and stammering piteously as he hoped there was no +mistake - Mr. Winslow - Prospect, etc.</p> +<p>Emily explained, frustrating his desire to flee at once to the office, +and pointing out his lodging, close at hand, whence he was invited to +return in a few minutes to the meal.</p> +<p>We had time for some amiable exclamations, ‘The oaf!’ +‘What a bore!’ ‘He has spoilt my sky!’ +‘I shan’t finish this to-day!’ ‘Shall +we order a carriage and take him to the office; we can’t have +him on our hands all the afternoon?’ ‘And we might +get the new number of <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>.’</p> +<p>N.B. - Perhaps it was <i>Oliver Twist</i> or <i>The Old Curiosity +Shop</i> - I am not certain which was the current excitement just then; +but I am quite sure it was Mrs. Nickleby who first disclosed to us that +our guest had a splendid pair of dark eyes. Hitherto he had kept +them averted in the studious manner I have often noticed in persons +who did not wish to excite suspicion of staring at my peculiarities; +but that lady’s feelings when her neighbour’s legs came +down her chimney were too much for his self-consciousness, and he gave +a glance that disclosed dark liquid depths, sparkling with mirth. +He was one number in advance of us, and could enlighten us on the next +stage in the coming story; and this went far to reconcile us to the +invasion, and to restore him to the proper use of his legs and arms +- and very shapely limbs they were, for he was a slim, well-made fellow, +with a dark gipsy complexion, and intelligent, honest face, altogether +better than we expected.</p> +<p>Yet we could have groaned when in the evening, Clarence brought him +back with tidings that something had gone wrong with the ship. +If I tried to explain, I might be twitted with,</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘The bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>But of course Clarence knew all about it, and he thought it unlikely +that the vessel would be in sailing condition for a week at soonest. +Great was our dismay! Getting through one evening by the help +of walking and then singing was one thing, having the heart of our visit +consumed by an interloper was another; though Clarence undertook to +take him to the office and find some occupation for him that might keep +him out of our way. But it was Clarence’s leisure hours +that we begrudged; though truly no one could be meeker than this unlucky +Lawrence Frith, nor more conscious of being an insufferable burthen. +I even detected a tear in his eye when Clarence and Emily were singing +‘Sweet Home.’</p> +<p>‘Do you know,’ said Clarence, on the second evening, +when his guest had gone to dress for dinner, ‘I am very sorry +for that poor lad. It is only six weeks since he lost his mother, +and he has not a soul to care for him, either here or where he is going. +I had fancied the family were under a cloud, but I find it was only +that old Frith quarrelled with the father for taking Holy Orders instead +of going into our house. Probably there was some imprudence; for +the poor man died a curate and left no provision for his family. +The only help the old man would give was to take the boy into the office +at Liverpool, stopping his education just as he was old enough to care +about it. There were a delicate mother and two sisters then, but +they are all gone now; scarlet fever carried off the daughters, and +Mrs. Frith never was well again. He seems to have spent his time +in waiting on her when off duty, and to have made no friends except +one or two contemporaries of hers; and his only belongings are old Frith +and Mrs. Stevens, who are packing him off to Canton without caring a +rap what becomes of him. I know what Mrs. Stevens is at; she comes +up to town much oftener now, and has got her husband’s nephew +into the office, and is trying to get everything for him; and that’s +the reason she wants to keep up the old feud, and send this poor Lawrence +off to the ends of the earth.’</p> +<p>‘Can’t you do anything for him?’ asked Emily. +‘I thought Mr. Frith did attend to you.’</p> +<p>Clarence laughed. ‘I know that Mrs. Stevens hates me +like poison; but that is the only reason I have for supposing I might +have any influence.’</p> +<p>‘And can’t you speak to Mr. Castleford?’</p> +<p>‘Set him to interfere about old Frith’s relations! +He would know better! Besides, the fellow is too old to get into +any other line - four-and-twenty he says, though he does not look it; +and he is as innocent as a baby, indifferent just now to what becomes +of him, or whither he goes; it is all the same to him, he says; there +is no one to care for him anywhere, and I think he is best pleased to +go where it is all new. And there, you see, the poor lad will +be left to drift to destruction - mother’s darling that he has +been - just for want of some human being to care about him, and hinder +his getting heartless and reckless!’</p> +<p>Clarence’s voice trembled, and Emily had tears in her eyes +as she asked if absolutely nothing could be done for him. Clarence +meant to write to Mr. Castleford, who would no doubt beg the chaplain +at the station to show the young man some kindness; also, perhaps, to +the resident partner, whom Clarence had looked at once over his desk, +but in his rawest and most depressed days. The only clerk out +there, whom he knew, would, he thought, be no element of safety, and +would not like the youth the better either for bringing his recommendation +or bearing old Frith’s name.</p> +<p>We were considerably softened towards our guest, though the next +time Emily came on him he was standing in the hall, transfixed in contemplation +of her greatest achievement in brass-rubbing, a severe and sable knight +with the most curly of nostrils, the stiffest and straightest of mouths, +hair straight on his brows, pointed toes joined together below, and +fingers touching over his breast. There he hung in triumph just +within the front door, fluttering and swaying a little on his pins whenever +a draught came in; and there stood Lawrence Frith, freshly aware of +him, and unable to repress the exclamation, ‘I say! isn’t +he a guy?’</p> +<p>‘Sir Guy de Warrenne,’ began Emily composedly; ‘don’t +you see his coat of arms? “chequy argent and azure.”’</p> +<p>‘Does your brother keep him there to scare away the tramps?’</p> +<p>Emily’s countenance was a study.</p> +<p>The subject of brasses was unfolded to Lawrence Frith, and before +the end of the week he had spent an entire day on his hands and knees, +scrubbing away with the waxy black compound at a figure in the Cathedral +- the office-work, as we declared, which Clarence gave him to do. +In fact he became so thoroughly infected that it was a pity that he +was going where there would be no exercise in ecclesiology - rather +the reverse. Embarrassment on his side, and hostility on ours, +may be said to have vanished under the influence of Sir Guy de Warrenne’s +austere countenance. The youth seemed to regard ‘Mr. Winslow’ +in the light of a father, and to accept us as kindly beings. He +ceased to contort his limbs in our awful presence, looked at me like +as an ordinary person, and even ventured on giving me an arm. +He listened with unfeigned pleasure to our music, perilled his neck +on St. Vincent’s rocks in search of plants, and by and by took +to hanging back with Emily, while Clarence walked on with me, to talk +to her out of his full heart about his mother and sisters.</p> +<p>Three weeks elapsed before the <i>Hoang-ho</i> was ready to sail, +and by that time Lawrence knew that there were some who would rejoice +in his success, or grieve if things went ill with him. Clarence +and I had promised him long home letters, and impressed on him that +we should welcome his intelligence of himself. For verily he had +made his way into our hearts, as a thoroughly good-hearted, affectionate +being, yearning for something to cling to; intelligent and refined, +though his recent cultivation had been restricted, soundly principled, +and trained in religious feelings and habits, but so utterly inexperienced +that there was no guessing how it might be with him when cast adrift, +with no object save his own maintenance, and no one to take an interest +in him.</p> +<p>Clarence talked to him paternally, and took him to second-hand shops +to provide a cheap library of substantial reading, engaging to cater +for him for the future, not omitting Dickens; and Emily worked at providing +him with the small conveniences and comforts for the voyage that called +for a woman’s hand. He was so grateful that it was like +fitting out a dear friend or younger brother.</p> +<p>‘I wonder,’ said Clarence, as he walked by my chair on +one of the last days, ‘whether it was altogether wise to have +this young Frith here so much, though it could hardly have been helped.’</p> +<p>To which I rejoined that it could hardly have displeased the uncle, +and that if it did, the youth’s welfare was worth annoying him +for.</p> +<p>‘I meant something nearer home,’ said Clarence, and proceeded +to ask if I did not think Lawrence Frith a good deal smitten with Emily.</p> +<p>To me it seemed an idea not worth consideration. Any youth, +especially one who had lived so secluded a life, would naturally be +taken by the first pleasing young woman who came in his way, and took +a kindly interest in him; but I did not think Emily very susceptible, +being entirely wrapped up in home and parish matters; and I reminded +Clarence that she had not been loverless. She had rejected the +Curate of Hillside; and we all saw, though she did not, that only her +evident indifference kept Sir George Eastwood’s second son from +making further advances.</p> +<p>Clarence was not convinced. He said he had never seen our sister +look at either of these as she did when Lawrence came into the room; +and there was no denying that there was a soft and embellishing light +on her whole countenance, and a fresh sweetness in her voice. +But then he seemed such a boy as to make the notion ridiculous; and +yet, on reckoning, it proved that their years were equal. All +that could be hoped was that the sentiment, if it existed, would not +discover itself before they parted, so as to open their eyes to the +dreariness of the prospect, and cause our mother to think we had betrayed +our trust in the care of our sister. As we could do nothing, we +were not sorry that this was the last day. Clarence was to go +on board with Frith, see him out of the river, and come back with the +pilot; and we all drove down to the wharf together; nobody saying much +by the way, except the few jerky remarks we brothers felt bound to originate +and reply to.</p> +<p>Emily sat very still, her head bent under her shading bonnet - I +think she was trying to keep back tears for the solitary exile; and +Lawrence, opposite, was unable to help watching her with wistful eyes, +which would have revealed all, if we had not guessed it already. +It might be presumptuous, but it made us very sorry for him.</p> +<p>When the moment of parting came, there was a wringing of hands, and, +‘Thank you, thank you,’ in a low, broken, heartfelt voice, +and to Emily, ‘You have made life a new thing to me. I shall +never forget,’ and the showing of a tiny book in his waistcoat +pocket.</p> +<p>When the two had disappeared, Emily, no longer restraining her tears, +told me that she had exchanged Prayer-books with him, and they were +to read the Psalms at the same time every day. ‘I thought +it might be a help to him,’ she said simply.</p> +<p>Nor was there any consciousness in her talk as she related to me +what he had told her about his mother and sisters, and his dreary sense +of piteous loneliness, till we had adopted him as a brother - in which +capacity I trusted that she viewed him.</p> +<p>However, Clarence had been the recipient of all the poor lad’s +fervent feelings for Miss Winslow, how she had been a new revelation +to his desolate spirit, and was to be the guiding star of his life, +etc., etc., all from the bottom of his heart, though he durst not dream +of requital, and was to live, not on hope, but on memory of the angelic +kindness of these three weeks.</p> +<p>It was impossible not to be touched, though we strove to be worldly +wise old bachelors, and assured one another that the best and most probable +thing that could happen to Lawrence Frith would be to have his dream +blown away by the Atlantic breezes, and be left open to the charms of +some Chinese merchant’s daughter.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII - TOO LATE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Thus Esau-like, our Father’s blessing miss,<br />Then +wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.’</p> +<p>KEBLE.</p> +<p>After such a rebuff as Martyn had experienced at Beachharbour, he +no longer haunted its neighbourhood, but devoted the long vacation of +the ensuing year to a walking tour in Germany, with one or two congenial +spirits, who shared his delight in scenery, pictures, and architecture.</p> +<p>By and by he wrote to Clarence from Baden Baden -</p> +<p>‘Whom do you think I should find here but Griffith and his +bird? I first spotted the old fellow smoking under a tree in the +Grand Platz, but he looked so seedy and altered altogether that I was +not sure enough of him to speak, especially as he showed no signs of +knowing me. (He says it was my whiskers that stumped him.) +I made inquiries and found that they figured as “Sir Peacock and +lady,” but they were entered all right in the book. He is +taking the “Kür” - he looks as if he wanted it - and +she is taking <i>rouge et noir</i>. I saw her at the salon, with +her neck grown as long as her namesake’s, but not as pretty, claws +to match, thin and painted, as if the ruling passion was consuming her. +Poor old Griff! he was glad enough to see me, but he is wofully shaky, +and nearly came to tears when he asked after Ted and all at home. +They had an upset of their carriage in Vienna last winter, and he got +some twist, or other damage, which he thought nothing of, but it has +never righted itself; I am sure he is very ill, and ought to be looked +after. He has had only foreign doctoring, and you know he never +was strong in languages. I heard of the medico here inquiring +what precise symptom <i>der Englander</i> meant by being “down +in zie mout!” Poor Griff is that, whatever else he is, and +Selina does not see it, nor anything else but her <i>rouge et noir</i> +table. I am afraid he plays too, when he is up to it, but he can’t +stand much of the stuffiness of the place, and he respects my innocence, +poor old beggar; so he has kept out of it, since we have been here. +He seems glad to have me to look after him, but afraid to let me stay, +for fear of my falling a victim to the place. I can’t well +tell him that there is a perpetual warning to youth in the persons of +himself and his Peacock. His mind might be vastly relieved if +I were out of it, but scarcely his body; and I shall not leave him till +I hear from home. Thomson says I am right. I should like +to bring the poor old man home for advice, especially if my lady could +be left behind, and by all appearances she would not object. Could +not you come, or mamma? Speak to papa about it. It is all +so disgusting that I really could not write to him. It is enough +to break one’s heart to see Griff when he hears about home, and +Edward, and Emily. I told him how famously you were getting on, +and he said, “It has been all up, up with him, all down, down +with me,” and then he wanted me to fix my day for leaving Baden, +as if it were a sink of infection. I fancy he thinks me a mere +infant still, for he won’t heed a word of advice about taking +care of himself and <i>will</i> do the most foolish things imaginable +for a man in his state, though I can’t make out what is the matter +with him. I tried both French and Latin with his doctor, equally +in vain.’</p> +<p>There was a great consultation over this letter. Our parents +would fain have gone at once to Baden, but my father was far from well; +in fact, it was the beginning of the break-up of his constitution. +He had been ageing ever since his disappointment in Griffith, and though +he had so enjoyed his jaunt with my mother that he had seemed revived +for the time, he had been visibly failing ever since the winter, and +my mother durst not leave him. Indeed she was only too well aware +that her presence was apt to inspire Selina with the spirit of contradiction, +and that Clarence would have a better chance alone. He was to +go up to London by the mail train, see Mr. Castleford, and cross to +Ostend.</p> +<p>A valise from the lumber-room was wanted, and at bedtime he went +in quest of it. He came back white and shaken; and I said -</p> +<p>‘You have not seen <i>her</i>?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I have.’</p> +<p>‘It is not her time of year.’</p> +<p>‘No; I was not even thinking of her. There was none of +the wailing, but when I looked up from my rummaging, there was her face +as if in a window or mirror on the wall.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t dwell on it’ was all I could entreat, for +the apparition at unusual times had been mentioned as a note of doom, +and not only did it weigh on me, but it might send Clarence off in a +desponding mood. Tidings were less rapid when telegraphs were +not, and railways incomplete. Clarence did not reach Baden till +ten days after the despatch of Martyn’s letter, and Griffith’s +condition had in the meantime become much more serious. Low fever +had set in, and he was confined to his dreary lodgings, where Martyn +was doing his best for him in an inexperienced, helpless sort of way, +while Lady Peacock was at the <i>salle</i>, persisting in her belief +that the ailment was a temporary matter. Martyn afterwards declared +that he had never seen anything more touching than poor Griff’s +look of intense rest and relief at Clarence’s entrance.</p> +<p>On the way through London, by the assistance of Mr. Castleford, Clarence +had ascertained how to procure the best medical advice attainable, and +he was linguist enough to be an adequate interpreter. Alas! all +that was achieved was the discovery that between difficulties of language, +Griff’s own indifference, and his wife’s carelessness, the +injury had developed into fatal disease. An operation <i>might</i> +yet save him, if he could rally enough for it, but the fever was rapidly +destroying his remaining strength. Selina ascribed it to excitement +at meeting Martyn, and indeed he had been subject to such attacks every +autumn. Any way, he had no spirits nor wish for improvement. +If his brothers told him he was better, he smiled and said it was like +a condemned criminal trying to recover enough for the gallows. +His only desire was to be let alone and have Clarence with him. +He had ceased to be uneasy as to Martyn’s exposure to temptation, +but he said he could hardly bear to watch that bright, fresh young manhood, +and recollect how few years had passed since he had been such another, +nor did he like to have any nurse save Clarence. His wife at first +acquiesced, holding fast to the theory of the periodical autumnal fever, +and then that the operation would restore him to health; and as her +presence fretted him, and he received her small attentions peevishly, +she persisted in her usual habits, and heard with petulance his brothers’ +assurances of his being in a critical condition, declaring that it was +always thus with these fevers - he was always cross and low-spirited, +and no one could tell what she had undergone with him.</p> +<p>Then came days of positive pain, and nights of delirious, dreary +murmuring about home and all of us, more especially Ellen Fordyce. +Clarence had no time for letters, and Martyn’s became a call for +mamma, with the old childish trust in her healing and comforting powers, +declaring that he would meet her at Cologne, and steer her through the +difficulties of foreign travel.</p> +<p>Hesitation was over now. My father was most anxious to send +her, and she set forth, secure that she could infuse life, energy, and +resolution into her son, when those two poor boys had failed.</p> +<p>It was not, however, Martyn who met her, but his friend Thomson, +with the tidings that the suffering had become so severe as to prevent +Martyn from leaving Baden, not only on his brother’s account, +but because Lady Peacock had at last taken alarm, and was so uncontrollable +in her distress that he was needed to keep her out of the sickroom, +where her presence, poor thing, only did mischief.</p> +<p>She evidently had a certain affection for her husband; and it was +the more piteous that in his present state he only regarded her as the +tempter who had ruined his life - his false Duessa, who had led him +away from Una. On one unhappy evening he had been almost maddened +by her insisting on arguing with him; he called her a hag, declared +she had been the death of his children, the death of that dear one - +could she not let him alone now she had been the death of himself?</p> +<p>When Martyn took her away, she wept bitterly, and told enough to +make the misery of their life apparent, when the gaiety was over, and +regrets and recriminations set in.</p> +<p>However, there came a calmer interval, when the suffering passed +off, but in the manner which made the German doctor intimate that hope +was over. Would life last till his mother came?</p> +<p>His brothers had striven from the first to awaken thoughts of higher +things, and turn remorse into repentance; but every attempt resulted +in strange, sad wanderings about Esau, the birthright, and the blessing. +Indeed, these might not have been entirely wanderings, for once he said, +‘It is better this way, Bill. You don’t know what +you wish in trying to bring me round. Don’t be hard on me. +She drove me to it. It is all right now. The Jews will be +disappointed.’</p> +<p>For even at the crisis in London, he had concealed that he had raised +money on <i>post obits</i>, so that, had he outlived my father, Chantry +House would have been lost. Lady Peacock’s fortune had been +undermined when she married him; extravagance and gambling had made +short work of the rest.</p> +<p>Why should I speak of such things here, except to mourn over our +much-loved brother, with all his fine qualities and powers wasted and +overthrown? He clung to Clarence’s affection, and submitted +to prayers and psalms, but without response. He showed tender +recollection of us all, but scarcely durst think of his father, and +hardly appeared to wish to see his mother. Clarence’s object +soon came to be to obtain forgiveness for the wife, since bitterness +against her seemed the great obstacle to seeking pardon, peace, or hope; +but each attempt only produced such bitterness against her, and such +regrets and mourning for Ellen, as fearfully shook the failing frame, +while he moaned forth complaints of the blandishments and raillery with +which his temptress had beguiled him. Clarence tried in vain to +turn away this idea, but nothing had any effect till he bethought himself +of Ellen’s message, that she knew even this fatal act had been +prompted by generosity of spirit. There was truth enough in it +to touch Griff, but only so far as to cry, ‘What might I not have +been with her?’ Still, there was no real softening till +my mother came. He knew her at once, and all the old childish +relations were renewed between them. There was little time left +now, but he was wholly hers. Even Clarence was almost set aside, +save where strength was needed, and the mother seemed to have equal +control of spirit and body. It was she, who, scarcely aware of +what had gone before, caused him to admit Selina.</p> +<p>‘Tell her not to talk,’ he said. ‘But we +have each much to forgive one another.’</p> +<p>She came in, awed and silent, and he let her kiss him, sit near at +hand, and wait on my mother, whose coming had, as it were, insensibly +taken the bitterness away and made him as a little child in her hands. +He could follow prayers in which she led him, as he could not, or did +not seem to do, with any one else, for he was never conscious of the +presence of the clergyman whom Thomson hunted up and brought, and who +prayed aloud with Martyn while the physical agony claimed both my mother +and Clarence.</p> +<p>Once Griff looked about him and called out for our father, then recollecting, +muttered, ‘No - the birthright gone - no blessing.’</p> +<p>It grieved us much, it grieves me now, that this was his last distinct +utterance. He <i>looked</i> as if the comforting replies and the +appeals to the Source of all redemption did awaken a response, but he +never spoke articulately again; and only thirty-six hours after my mother’s +arrival, all was over.</p> +<p>Poor Selina went into passions of hysterics and transports of grief, +needing all the firmness of so resolute a woman as my mother to deal +with her. She was wild in self-accusation, and became so ill that +the care of her was a not unwholesome occupation for my mother, who +was one of those with whom sorrow has little immediate outlet, and is +therefore the more enduring.</p> +<p>She would not bring our brother’s coffin home, thinking the +agitation would be hurtful to my father, and anxious to get back to +him as soon as possible. So Griff was buried at Baden, and from +time to time some of us have visited his grave. Of course she +proposed Selina’s return to Chantry House with her; but Mr. Clarkson, +the brother, had come out to the funeral, and took his sister home with +him, certainly much to our relief, though all the sad party at Baden +had drawn much nearer together in these latter days.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX - A PURPOSE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p> ‘It then draws near the season<br />Wherein +the spirit held his wont to walk.’</p> +<p><i>Hamlet.</i></p> +<p>We had really lost our Griffith long before - our bright, generous, +warm-hearted, promising Griff, the brilliance of our home; but his actual +death made the first breach in a hitherto unbroken family, and was a +new and strange shock. It made my father absolutely an old man; +and it also changed Martyn. His first contact with responsibility, +suffering, and death had demolished the light-hearted boyishness which +had lasted in the youngest of the family through all his high aspirations. +Till his return to Oxford, his chief solace was in getting some one +of us alone, going through all the scenes at Baden, discussing his new +impressions of the trials and perplexities of life, and seeking out +passages in the books that were becoming our oracles. What he +had admired externally before, he was grasping from within; nor can +I describe what the <i>Lyra Apostolica</i>, and the two first volumes +of <i>Parochial Sermons preached at Littlemore</i>, became to us.</p> +<p>Mr. Clarkson had been rather dry with my brothers at Baden, evidently +considering that poor Griffith had been as fatal to his sister as we +thought Selina had been to our brother. It was hardly just, for +there had been much more to spoil in him than in her; and though she +would hardly have trod a much higher path, there is no saying what he +might have been but for her.</p> +<p>Griffith had said nothing about providing for her, not having forgiven +her till he was past recollecting the need, but her brother had intimated +that something was due from the family, and Clarence had assented - +not, indeed, as to her deserts, poor woman, but her claims and her needs +- well knowing that my father would never suffer Griff’s widow +to be in want.</p> +<p>He judged rightly. My father was nervously anxious to arrange +for giving her £500 a year, in the manner most likely to prevent +her from making away with it, and leaving herself destitute. But +there had already been heavy pulls on his funded property, and ways +and means had to be considered, making Clarence realise that he had +become the heir. Somehow, there still remained, especially with +my mother and himself, a sense of his being a failure, and an inferior +substitute, although my father had long come to lean upon him, as never +had been the case with our poor Griff.</p> +<p>The first idea of raising the amount required was by selling an outlying +bit of the estate near the Wattlesea Station, for which an enterprising +builder was making offers, either to purchase or take on a building +lease. My father had received several letters on the subject, +and only hesitated from a feeling against breaking up the estate, especially +if this were part of the original Chantry House property, and not a +more recent acquisition of the Winslows. Moreover, he would do +nothing without Clarence’s participation.</p> +<p>The title-deeds were not in the house, for my father had had too +much of the law to meddle more than he could help with his own affairs, +and had left them in the hands of the family solicitor at Bristol, where +Clarence was to go and look over them. He rejoiced in the opportunity +of being able to see whether anything would throw light on the story +of the mullion chamber; and the certainty that the Wattlesea property +had never been part of the old endowment of the Chantry did not seem +nearly so interesting as a packet of yellow letters tied with faded +red tape. Mr. Ryder made no difficulty in entrusting these to +him, and we read them by our midnight lamp.</p> +<p>Clarence had seen poor Margaret’s will, bequeathing her entire +property to her husband’s son, Philip Winslow, and had noted the +date, 1705; also the copy of the decision in the Court of Probate that +there was no sufficient evidence of entail on the Fordyce family to +bar her power of disposing of it. We eagerly opened the letters, +but found them disappointing, as they were mostly offerings of ‘Felicitations’ +to Philip Winslow on having established his ‘Just Claim,’ +and ‘refuted the malicious Accusations of Calumny.’ +They only served to prove the fact that he had been accused of something, +and likewise that he had powerful friends, and was thought worth being +treated with adulation, according to the fashion of his day. Perhaps +it was hardly to be expected that he should have preserved evidence +against himself, but it was baffling to sift so little out of such a +mass of correspondence. If we could have had access to the Fordyce +papers, no doubt they would have given the other phase of the transaction, +but they were unattainable. The only public record that Clarence +could discover was much abbreviated, and though there was some allusion +to intimidation, the decision seemed to have been fixed by the non-existence +of any entail.</p> +<p>Christmas was drawing on, and gathering together what was left of +us. Though Griffith had spent only one Christmas at home in nine +years, it was wonderful how few we seemed, even when Martyn returned. +My father liked to have us about him, and even spoke of Clarence’s +giving up his post as manager at Bristol, and living entirely at home +to attend to the estate; but my mother did not encourage the idea. +She could not quite bear to accept any one in Griff’s place, and +rightly thought there was not occupation enough to justify bringing +Clarence home. I was competent to assist my father through all +the landlord’s business that came to him within doors, and Emily +had ridden and walked about enough with him to be an efficient inspector +of crops and repairs, besides that Clarence himself was within reach.</p> +<p>‘Indeed,’ he said to me, ‘I cannot loose my hold +on Frith and Castleford till I see my way into the future.’</p> +<p>I did not know what he intended either then or when he gave his voice +against dismembering the property by selling the Wattlesea estate, but +arranged for raising Selina’s income otherwise, persuading my +father to let him undertake the building of the required cottages out +of his own resources, on principles much more wholesome than were likely +to be employed by the speculator. Nor did grasp what was in his +mind when he made me look out my ‘ghost journal,’ as we +called my record of each apparition reported in the mullion chamber +or the lawn, with marks to those about which we had no reasonable doubt. +Separately there might be explanation, but conjointly and in connection +with the date they had a remarkable force.</p> +<p>‘I am resolved,’ said Clarence, ‘to see whether +that figure can have a purpose. I have thought of it all those +years. It has hitherto had no fair play. I was too much +upset by the sight, and beaten by the utter incredulity of everybody +else; but now I am determined to look into it.’</p> +<p>There was both awe and resolution in his countenance, and I only +stipulated that he should not be alone, or with no more locomotive companion +than myself. Martyn was as old as I had been at our former vigil, +and a person to be relied on.</p> +<p>A few months ago he would have treated the matter as a curious adventurous +enterprise - a concession to superstition or imagination; but now he +took it up with much grave earnestness. He had been discussing +the evidence for such phenomena with friends at Oxford, and the conclusion +had been that they were at times permitted, sometimes as warnings, sometimes +to accomplish the redress of a wrong, sometimes to teach us the reality +of the spiritual world about us; and, likewise, that some constitutions +were more susceptible than others to these influences. Of course +he had adduced all that he knew of his domestic haunted chamber, but +had found himself uncertain as to the amount of direct or trustworthy +evidence. So he eagerly read our jottings, and was very anxious +to keep watch with Clarence, though there were greater difficulties +in the way than when the outer chamber was Griffith’s sitting-room, +and always had a fire lighted.</p> +<p>To our disappointment, likewise, there came an invitation from the +Eastwoods for the evening of the 27th of December, the second of the +recurring days of the phantom’s appearance. My father could +not, and my mother would not go, but they so much wanted my brothers +and sister to accept it that it could not well be declined. It +was partly a political affair, and my father was anxious to put Clarence +forward, and make him take his place as the future squire; and my mother +thought depression had lasted long enough with her children, and did +not like to see Martyn so grave and preoccupied. ‘It was +quite right and very nice in him, dear boy, but it was not natural at +his age, though he was to be a clergyman.’</p> +<p>As to Emily, her gentle cheerfulness had helped us all through our +time of sorrow, and just now we had been gratified by the tidings of +young Lawrence Frith. That youth was doing extremely well. +There had been golden reports from manager and chaplain, addressed to +Mr. Castleford, the latter adding that the young man evidently owed +much to Mr. Winslow’s influence. Moreover, Lawrence had +turned out an excellent correspondent. Long letters, worthy of +forming a book of travels, came regularly to Clarence and me, indeed +they were thought worth being copied into that fat clasped MS. book +in the study. Writing them must have been a real solace to the +exile, in his island outside the town, whither all the outer barbarians +were relegated. So, no doubt, was the packing of the gifts that +were gradually making Prospect Cottage into a Chinese exhibition of +nodding mandarins, ivory balls, exquisite little cups, and faggots of +tea. Also, a Chinese walking doll was sent humbly as an offering +for the amusement of Miss Winslow’s school children, whom indeed +she astonished beyond measure; and though her wheels are out of order, +and her movements uncertain, she is still a stereotyped incident in +the Christmas entertainments.</p> +<p>There was no question but that these letters and remembrances gave +great pleasure to Emily; but I believe she was not in the least conscious +that though greater in degree, it was not of the same quality as that +she felt when a runaway scholar who had gone to sea presented her in +token of gratitude with a couple of dried sea-horses.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XL - THE MIDNIGHT CHASE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘What human creature in the dead of night<br /> Had +coursed, like hunted hare, that cruel distance,<br />Had sought the +door, the window in her flight<br /> Striving for dear +existence?’</p> +<p>HOOD.</p> +<p>On the night of the 26th of December, Clarence and Martyn, well wrapped +in greatcoats, stole into the outer mullion room; but though the usual +sounds were heard, and the mysterious light again appeared, Martyn perceived +nothing else, and even Clarence declared that if there were anything +besides, it was far less distinct to him than it had been previously. +Could it be that his spiritual perceptions were growing dimmer as he +became older, and outgrew the sensitiveness of nerves and imagination?</p> +<p>We came to the conclusion that it would be best to watch the outside +of the house, rather than within the chamber; and the dinner-party facilitated +this, since it accounted for being up and about nearer to the hour when +the ghost might be expected. Egress could be had through the little +garden door, and I undertook to sit up and keep up the fire.</p> +<p>All three came to my room on their return home, for Emily had become +aware of our scheme, and entreated to be allowed to watch with us. +Clarence had unfastened the alarum bell from my shutters, and taken +down the bar after the curtains had been drawn by the housemaid, and +he now opened them. It was a frosty moonlight night, and the lawn +lay white and crisp, marked with fantastic shadows. The others +looked grave and pale, Emily was in a thick white shawl and hood, with +a swan’s down boa over her black dress, a somewhat ghostly figure +herself, but we were in far too serious a mood for light observations.</p> +<p>There was something of a shudder about Clarence as he went to unbolt +the back door; Martyn kept close to him. We saw them outside, +and then Emily flew after them. From my window I could watch them +advancing on the central gravel walk, Emily standing still between her +brothers, clasping an arm of each. I saw the light near the ruin, +and caught some sounds as of shrieks and of threatening voices, the +light flitted towards the gable of the mullion rooms, and then was the +concluding scream. All was over, and the three came back much +agitated, Emily sinking into an armchair, panting, her hands over her +face, and a nervous trembling through her whole frame, Martyn’s +eyes looking wide and scared, Clarence with the well-known look of terror +on his face. He hurried to fetch the tray of wine and water that +was always left on the table when anyone went to a party at night, but +he shivered too much to prevent the glasses from jingling, and I had +to pour out the sherry and administer it to Emily. ‘Oh! +poor, poor thing,’ she gasped out.</p> +<p>‘You saw?’ I exclaimed.</p> +<p>‘They did,’ said Martyn; ‘I only saw the light, +and heard! That was enough!’ and he shuddered again.</p> +<p>‘Then Emily did,’ I began, but Clarence cut me short. +‘Don’t ask her to-night.’</p> +<p>‘Oh! let me tell,’ cried Emily; ‘I can’t +go away to bed till I have had it out.’</p> +<p>Then she gave the details, which were the more notable because she +had not, like Martyn, been studying our jottings, and had heard comparatively +little of the apparition.</p> +<p>‘When I joined the boys,’ she said, ‘I looked toward +the mullion rooms; I saw the windows lighted up, and heard a sobbing +and crying inside.’</p> +<p>‘So did I,’ put in Martyn, and Clarence bent his head.</p> +<p>‘Then,’ added Emily, ‘by the moonlight I saw the +gable end, not blank, and covered by the magnolia as it is now, but +with stone steps up to the bricked-up doorway. The door opened, +the light spread, and there came out a lady in black, with a lamp in +one hand, and a kind of parcel in the other, and oh, when she turned +her face this way, it was Ellen’s!’</p> +<p>‘So you called out,’ whispered Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Dear Ellen, not as she used to be,’ added Emily, ‘but +like what she was when last I saw her; no, hardly that either, for this +was sad, sad, scared, terrified, with eyes all tears, as Ellen never, +never was.’</p> +<p>‘I saw,’ added Clarence, ‘I saw the shape, but +not the countenance and expression as I used to do.’</p> +<p>‘She came down the steps,’ continued Emily, ‘looking +about her as if making her escape, but, just as she came opposite to +us, there was a sound of tipsy laughing and singing from the gate up +by the wood.’</p> +<p>‘I thought it real,’ said Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Then,’ continued Emily, ‘she wavered, then turned +and went under an arch in the ruin - I fancied she was hiding something +- then came out and fled across to the steps; but there were two dark +men rushing after her, and at the stone steps there was a frightful +shriek, and then it was all over, the steps gone, all quiet, and the +magnolia leaves glistening in the moonshine. Oh! what can it all +mean?’</p> +<p>‘Went under the arch,’ repeated Clarence. ‘Is +it what she hid there that keeps her from resting?’</p> +<p>‘Then you believe it really happened?’ said Emily, ‘that +some terrible scene is being acted over again. Oh! but can it +be the real spirits!’</p> +<p>‘That is one of the great mysteries,’ answered Martyn; +‘but I could tell you of other instances.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t now,’ I interposed; ‘Emily has had +quite enough.’</p> +<p>We reminded her that the ghastly tragedy was over and would not recur +again for another year; but she was greatly shaken, and we were very +sorry for her, when the clock warned her to go to her own room, whither +Martyn escorted her. He lighted every candle he could find, and +revived the fire; but she was sadly overcome by what she had witnessed, +she lay awake all the rest of the night, and in the morning, looked +so unwell, and had so little to tell about the party that my mother +thought her spirits had been too much broken for gaieties.</p> +<p>The real cause could not be confessed, for it would have been ascribed +to some kind of delirium, and have made a commotion for which my father +was unfit. Besides, we had reached an age when, though we would +not have disobeyed, liberty of thought and action had become needful. +All our private confabulations were on this extraordinary scene. +We looked for the arch in the ruin, but there was, as our morning senses +told us, nothing of the kind. She tried to sketch her remembrance +of both that and the gable of the mullion chamber, and Martyn prowled +about in search of some hiding-place. Our antiquarian friend, +Mr. Stafford, had made a conjectural drawing of the Chapel restored, +and all the portfolios about the house were searched for it, disquieting +mamma, who suspected Martyn’s Oxford notions of intending to rebuild +it, nor would he say that it ought not to be done. However, he +with his more advanced ecclesiology, pronounced Mr. Stafford’s +reconstruction to be absolutely mistaken and impossible, and set to +work on a fresh plan, which, by the bye, he derides at present. +It afforded, however, an excuse for routing under the ivy and among +the stones, but without much profit. From the mouldings on the +materials and in the stables and the front porch, it was evident that +the chapel had been used as a quarry, and Emily’s arch was very +probably that of the entrance door. In a dry summer, the foundations +of the walls and piers could be traced on the turf, and the stumps of +one or two columns remained, but the rest was only a confused heap of +fragments within which no one could have entered as in that strange +vision.</p> +<p>Another thing became clear. There had once been a wall between +the beech wood and the lawn, with a gate or door in it; Chapman could +just remember its being taken down, in James Winslow’s early married +life, when landscape gardening was the fashion. It must have been +through this that the Winslow brothers were returning, when poor Margaret +perhaps expected them to enter by the front.</p> +<p>We wished we could have consulted Dame Dearlove, but she had died +a few years before, and her school was extinct.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLI - WILLS OLD AND NEW</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘And that to-night thou must watch with me<br /> To +win the treasure of the tomb.’</p> +<p>SCOTT.</p> +<p>Some seasons seem to be peculiarly marked, as if Death did indeed +walk forth in them.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Frith died in the spring of 1841, and it proved that he had +shown his gratitude to Clarence by a legacy of shares in the firm amounting +to about £2000. The rest of his interest therein went to +Lawrence Frith, and his funded property to his sister, Mrs. Stevens, +a very fair and upright disposition of his wealth.</p> +<p>Only six weeks later, my father had a sudden seizure, and there was +only time to summon Clarence from London and Martyn from Oxford, before +a second attack closed his righteous and godly career upon earth.</p> +<p>My mother was very still and calm, hardly shedding a tear, but her +whole demeanour was as if life were over for her, and she had nothing +to do save to wait. She seemed to care very little for tendernesses +or attentions on our part. No doubt she would have been more desolate +without them, but we always had a baffled feeling, as though our affection +were contrasted with her perfect union with her husband. Yet they +had been a singularly undemonstrative couple; I never saw a kiss pass +between them, except as greeting or farewell before or after a journey; +and if my mother could not use the terms papa or your father, she always +said, ‘Mr. Winslow.’ There was a large gathering at +the funeral, including Mr. Fordyce, but he slept at Hillside, and we +scarcely saw him - only for a few kind words and squeezes of the hand. +Holy Week was begun, and he had to hurry back to Beachharbour that very +night.</p> +<p>The will had been made on my father’s coming into the inheritance. +It provided a jointure of £800 per annum for my mother, and gave +each of the younger children £3000. A codicil had been added +shortly after Griffith’s death, written in my father’s hand, +and witnessed by Mr. Henderson and Amos Bell. This put Clarence +in the position of heir; secured £500 a year to Griffith’s +widow, charged on the estate, and likewise an additional £200 +a year to Emily and to me, hers till marriage, mine for life, £300 +a year to Martyn, until Earlscombe Rectory should be voided, when it +was to be offered to him. The executors had originally been Mr. +Castleford and my mother, but by this codicil, Clarence was substituted +for the former.</p> +<p>The legacies did not come out of the Chantry House property, for +my father had, of course, means of his own besides, and bequests had +accrued to both him and my mother; but Clarence was inheriting the estate +much more burthened than it had been in 1829, having £2000 a year +to raise out of its proceeds.</p> +<p>My mother was quite equal to business, with a sort of outside sense, +which she applied to it when needful. Clarence made it at once +evident to her that she was still mistress of Chantry House, and that +it was still to be our home; and she immediately calculated what each +ought to contribute to the housekeeping. She looked rather blank +when she found that Clarence did not mean to give up business, nor even +to become a sleeping partner; but when she examined into ways and means, +she allowed that he was prudent, and that perhaps it was due to Mr. +Castleford not to deprive him of an efficient helper under present circumstances. +Meantime she was content to do her best for Earlscombe ‘for the +present,’ by which she meant till her son brought home a wife; +but we knew that to him the words bore a different meaning, though he +was still in doubt and uncertainty how to act, and what might be the +wrong to be undone.</p> +<p>He was anxious to persuade her to go from home for a short time, +and prevailed on her at last to take Emily and me to Dawlish, while +the repairs went on which had been deferred during my father’s +feebleness; at least that was the excuse. We two, going with great +regret, knew that his real reason was to have an opportunity for a search +among the ruins.</p> +<p>It was in June, just as Martyn came back from Oxford, eager to share +in the quest. Those two brothers would trust no one to help them, +but one by one, in the long summer evenings, they moved each of those +stones; I believe the servants thought they were crazed, but they could +explain with some truth that they wanted to clear up the disputed points +as to the architecture, as indeed they succeeded in doing.</p> +<p>They had, however, nearly given up, having reached the original pavement +and disinterred the piscina of the side altar, also a beautiful coffin +lid with a floriated cross; when, in a kind of hollow, Martyn lit upon +the rotten remains of something silken, knotted together. It seemed +to have enclosed a bundle. There were some rags that might have +been a change of clothing, also a Prayer-book, decayed completely except +the leathern covering, inside which was the startling inscription, ‘Margaret +Winslow, her booke; Lord, have mercy on a miserable widow woman.’ +There was also a thick leathern roll, containing needles, pins, and +scissors, entirely corroded, and within these a paper, carefully folded, +but almost destroyed by the action of damp and the rust of the steel, +so that only thus much was visible. ‘I, Margaret Winslow, +being of sound mind, do hereby give and bequeath - ’</p> +<p>Then came stains that defaced every line, till the extreme end, where +a seal remained; the date 1707 was legible, and there were some scrawls, +probably the poor lady’s signature, and perhaps that of witnesses. +Clarence and Martyn said very little to one another, but they set out +for Dawlish the next day.</p> +<p>‘Found’ was indicated to us, but no more, for they arrived +late, and had to sleep at the hotel, after an evening when we were delighted +to hear my mother ask so many questions about household and parish affairs. +In the morning she was pleased to send all ‘the children’ +out on the beach, then free from the railway. It was a beautiful +day, with the intensely blue South Devon sea dancing in golden ripples, +and breaking on the shore with the sound Clarence loved so well, as, +in the shade of the dark crimson cliffs, Emily sat at my feet and my +brothers unfolded their strange discoveries into her lap. There +was a kind of solemnity in the thing; we scarcely spoke, except that +Emily said, ‘Oh, will she come again,’ and, as the tears +gathered at sight of the pathetic petition in the old book, ‘Was +that granted?’</p> +<p>We reconstructed our theory. The poor lady must have repented +of the unjust will forced from her by her stepsons, and contrived to +make another; but she must have been kept a captive until, during their +absence at some Christmas convivialities, she tried to escape; but hearing +sounds betokening their return, she had only time to hide the bundle +in the ruin before she was detected, and in the scuffle received a fatal +blow.</p> +<p>‘But why,’ I objected, ‘did she not remain hidden +till her enemies were safe in the house?’</p> +<p>‘Terrified beyond the use of her senses,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘By all accounts,’ said Martyn, ‘the poor creature +must have been rather a silly woman.’</p> +<p>‘For shame, Martyn,’ cried Emily, ‘how can you +tell? They might have seen her go in, or she might have feared +being missed.’</p> +<p>‘Or if you watch next Christmas you may see it all explained.’</p> +<p>To which Emily replied with a shiver that nothing would induce her +to go through it again, and indeed she hoped the spirit would rest since +the discovery had been made.</p> +<p>‘And then?’ - one of us said, and there was a silence, +and another futile attempt to read the will.</p> +<p>‘I shall take it to London and see what an expert can do with +it,’ said Clarence. ‘I have heard of wonderful decipherings +in the Record Office; but you will remember that even if it can be made +out, it will hardly invalidate our possession after a hundred and thirty +years.’</p> +<p>‘Clarence!’ cried Emily in a horrified voice; and I asked +if the date were not later than that by which we inherited.</p> +<p>‘Three years,’ Clarence said, ‘yes; but as things +stand, it is absolutely impossible for me to make restitution at present.’</p> +<p>‘On account of the burthens on the estate?’ I said.</p> +<p>‘Oh, but we could give up,’ said Emily.</p> +<p>‘I dare say!’ said Clarence, smiling; ‘but to say +nothing of poor Selina, my mother would hardly see it in the same light, +nor should I deal rightly, even if I could make any alterations; I doubt +whether my father would have held himself bound - certainly not while +no one can read this document.’</p> +<p>‘It would simply outrage his legal mind,’ said Martyn.</p> +<p>‘Then what is to be done? Is the injustice to be perpetual?’ +asked Emily.</p> +<p>‘This is what I have thought of,’ said Clarence. +‘We must leave matters as they are till I can realise enough either +to pay off all these bequests, or to offer Mr. Fordyce the value of +the estate.’</p> +<p>‘It is not the whole,’ I said.</p> +<p>‘Not the Wattlesea part. This means Chantry House and +the three farms in the village. £10,000 would cover it.’</p> +<p>‘Is it possible?’ asked Emily.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ returned Clarence, ‘God helping me. +You know our concern is bringing in good returns, and Mr. Castleford +will put me in the way of doing more with my available capital.’</p> +<p>‘We will save so as to help you!’ added Emily. +At which he smiled.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLII - ON A SPREE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,<br />Like twilight too, +her dusky hair,<br />But all things else about her drawn<br />From May-time +and the cheerful dawn,<br />A dancing shape, an image gay,<br />To haunt, +to startle, and waylay.’</p> +<p>WORDSWORTH.</p> +<p>Clarence went to London according to his determination, and as he +had for some time been urgent that I should try some newly-invented +mechanical appliances, he took me with him, this being the last expedition +of the ancient yellow chariot. One of his objects was that I should +see St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, which was then the most distinguished +church of our school of thought, and where there was to be some special +preaching. The Castlefords had a seat there, and I was settled +there in good time, looking at the few bits of stained glass then in +the east window, when, as the clergy came in from the vestry, I beheld +a familiar face, and recognised the fine countenance and bearing of +our dear old friend Frank Fordyce.</p> +<p>Then, looking at the row of ladies in front of me, I beheld for a +moment an outline of a profile recalling many things. No doubt, +Anne Fordyce was there, though instead of barely emulating my stunted +stature, she towered above her companions, looking to my mind most fresh +and graceful in her pretty summer dress; and I knew that Clarence saw +her too.</p> +<p>I had never heard Mr. Fordyce preach before, as in his flying visits +his ministrations were due at Hillside; and I certainly should have +been struck with the force and beauty of his sermon if I had never known +him before. It was curious that it was on the 49th Psalm, meant +perhaps for the fashionable congregation, but remarkably chiming in +with the feelings of us, who were conscious of an inheritance of evil +from one who had ‘done well unto himself;’ though, no doubt, +that was the last thing honest Parson Frank was thinking of.</p> +<p>When the service was over, and Anne turned, she became aware of us, +and her face beamed all over. It was a charming face, with a general +likeness to dear Ellen’s, but without the fragile ethereal look, +and all health, bloom, and enjoyment recalling her father’s. +She was only moving to let her pew-fellows pass out, and was waiting +for him to come for her, as he did in a few moments, and he too was +all pleasure and cordiality. He told us when we were outside that +he had come up to preach, and ‘had brought Miss Anne up for a +spree.’ They were at a hotel, Mrs. Fordyce was at home, +and the Lesters were not in town this season - a matter of rejoicing +to us. Could we not come home and dine with them at once? +We were too much afraid of disappointing Gooch to do so, but they made +an appointment to meet us at the Royal Academy as soon as it was open +the next morning.</p> +<p>There was a fortnight of enjoyment. Parson Frank was like a +boy out for a holiday. He had not spent more than a day or two +in town for many years; Anne had not been there since early childhood, +and they adopted Clarence as their lioniser, going through such a country-cousin +course of delights as in that memorable time with Ellen. They +even went down to Eton and Windsor, Frank Fordyce being an old Etonian. +I doubt whether Clarence ever had a more thoroughly happy time, not +even in the north of Devon, for there was no horse on his mind, and +he was not suppressed as in those days. Indeed, I believe, it +is the experience of others besides ourselves that there is often more +unmixed pleasure on casual holidays like this than in those of early +youth; for even if spirits are less high (which is not always the case), +anticipations are less eager, there is more readiness to accept whatever +comes, more matured appreciation, and less fret and friction at <i>contretemps.</i></p> +<p>I was not much of a drag, for when I could not be with the others, +I had old friends, and the museum was as dear to me as ever, in those +recesses that had been the paradise of my youth; but there was a good +deal in which we could all share, and as usual they were all kind consideration.</p> +<p>Anne overflowed with minute remembrances of her old home, and Clarence +so basked in her sunshine that it began to strike me that here might +be the solution of all the perplexities especially after the first evening, +when he had shown his strange discovery to Mr. Fordyce, who simply laughed +and said we need not trouble ourselves about it. Illegible was +it? He was heartily glad to hear that it was. Even otherwise, +forty years’ possession was quite enough, and then he pointed +to the grate, and said that was the best place for such things. +There was no fire, but Clarence could hardly rescue the paper from being +torn up.</p> +<p>As to the ghost, he knew much less than his daughter Ellen had done. +He said his old aunt had some stories about Chantry House being haunted, +and had thought it incumbent on her to hate the Winslows, but he had +thought it all nonsense, and such stories were much better forgotten. +‘Would he not see if there were any letters?’</p> +<p>There might be, perhaps in the solicitor’s office at Bath, +but if he ever got hold of them, he should certainly burn them. +What was the use of being Christians, if such quarrels were to be remembered?</p> +<p>Anne knew nothing. Aunt Peggy had died before she could remember, +and even Martyn had been discreet. Clarence said no more after +that one conversation, and seemed to me engrossed between his necessary +business at the office, and the pleasant expeditions with the Fordyces. +Only when they were on the point of returning home, did he tell me that +the will had been pronounced utterly past deciphering, and that he thought +he saw a way of setting all straight. ‘So do I,’ was +my rejoinder, and there must have been a foolishly sagacious expression +about me that made him colour up, and say, ‘No such thing, Edward. +Don’t put that into my head.’</p> +<p>‘Isn’t it there already?’</p> +<p>‘It ought not to be. It would be mere treachery in these +sweet, fresh, young, innocent, days of hers, knowing too what her mother +would think of it and of me. Didn’t you observe in old Frank’s +unguarded way of reading letters aloud, and then trying to suppress +bits, that Mrs. Fordyce was not at all happy at our being so much about +with them, poor woman. No wonder! the child is too young,’ +he added, showing how much, after all, he was thinking of it. +‘It would be taking a base advantage of them <i>now</i>.’</p> +<p>‘But by and by?’</p> +<p>‘If she should be still free when the great end is achieved +and the evil repaired, then I might dare.’</p> +<p>He broke off with a look of glad hope, and I could see it was forbearance +rather than constitutional diffidence that withheld him from awakening +the maiden’s feelings. He was a very fine looking man, in +his prime - tall, strong, and well made, with a singularly grave, thoughtful +expression, and a rare but most winning smile; and Anne was overflowing +with affectionate gladness at intercourse with one who belonged to the +golden age of her childhood. I could scarcely believe but that +in the friction of the parting the spark would be elicited, and I should +even have liked to kindle it for them myself, being tolerably certain +that warm-hearted, unguarded Parson Frank would forget all about his +lady and blow it with all his might.</p> +<p>We dined with the Fordyces at their hotel, and sat in the twilight +with the windows open, and we made Anne and Clarence sing, as both could +do without notes, but he would not undertake to remember anything with +an atom of sentiment in it, and when Anne did sing, ‘Auld lang +syne,’ with all her heart, he went and got into a dark corner, +and barely said, ‘Thank you.’</p> +<p>Not a definite answer could be extracted from him in reply to all +the warm invitations to Beachharbour that were lavished on us by the +father, while the daughter expatiated on its charms; the rocks I might +sketch, the waves and the delicious boating, and above all the fisher +children and the church. Nothing was wanting but to have us all +there! Why had we not brought Mrs. Winslow, and Emily, and Martyn, +instead of going to Dawlish?</p> +<p>Good creatures, they little knew the chill that had been cast upon +Martyn. They even bemoaned the having seen so little of him. +And we knew all the time that they were mice at play in the absence +of their excellent and cautious cat.</p> +<p>‘Now mind you do come!’ said Anne, as we were in the +act of taking leave. ‘It would be as good as Hillside to +have you by my Lion rock. He has a nose just like old Chapman’s, +and you must sketch it before it crumbles off. Yes, and I want +to show you all the dear old things you made for my baby-house after +the fire, your dear little wardrobe and all.’</p> +<p>She was coming out with us, oblivious that a London hotel was not +like her own free sea-side house. Her father was out at the carriage +door, prepared to help me in, Clarence halted a moment -</p> +<p>‘Please, pray, go back, Anne,’ he said, and his voice +trembled. ‘This is not home you know.’</p> +<p>She started back, but paused. ‘You’ll not forget.’</p> +<p>‘Oh no; no fear of my forgetting.’</p> +<p>And when seated beside me, he leant back with a sigh.</p> +<p>‘How could you help?’ I said.</p> +<p>‘How? Why the perfect, innocent, childish, unconsciousness +of the thing,’ he said, and became silent except for one murmur +on the way.</p> +<p>‘Consequences must be borne - ’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLIII - THE PRICE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘With thee, my bark, I’ll swiftly go<br /> Athwart +the foaming brine.’</p> +<p>LORD BYRON.</p> +<p>Clarence would not tell me his purpose, he said, till he had considered +it more fully; nor could we have much conversation on the way home, +as my mother had arranged that we should bring an old friend of hers +back with us to pay her a visit. So I had to sit inside and make +myself agreeable to Mrs. Wrightson, while Clarence had plenty of leisure +for meditation outside on the box seat. The good lady said much +on the desirableness of marriage for Clarence, and the comfort it would +be to my mother to see Emily settled.</p> +<p>We had heard much in town of railway shares; and the fortunes of +Hudson, the railway king, were under discussion. I suspected Clarence +of cogitating the using his capital in this manner; and hoped that when +he saw his way, he might not think it dishonourable to come into further +contact with Anne, and reveal his hopes. He allowed that he was +considering of such investments, but would not say any more.</p> +<p>My mother and Emily had, in the meantime, been escorted home by Martyn. +The first thing Clarence did was to bespeak Emily’s company in +a turn in the garden. What passed then I never knew nor guessed +for years after. He consulted her whether, in case he were absent +from England for five, seven, or ten years, she would be equal to the +care of my mother and me. Martyn, when ordained, would have duties +elsewhere, and could only be reckoned upon in emergencies. My +mother, though vigorous and practical, had shown symptoms of gout, and +if she were ill, I could hardly have done much for her; and on the other +hand, though my health and powers of moving were at their best, and +I was capable of the headwork of the estate, I was scarcely fit to be +the representative member of the family. Moreover, these good +creatures took into consideration that poor mamma and I would have been +rather at a loss as each other’s sole companions. I could +sort shades for her Berlin work, and even solve problems of intricate +knitting, and I could read to her in the evening; but I could not trot +after her to her garden, poultry-yard, and cottages; nor could she enter +into the pursuits that Emily had shared with me for so many years. +Our connecting link, that dear sister, knew how sorely she would be +missed, and she told Clarence that she felt fully competent to undertake, +conjointly with us, all that would be incumbent on Chantry House, if +he really wanted to be absent. For the rest, Clarence believed +my mother would be the happier for being left regent over the estate; +and his scheme broke upon me that very forenoon, when my mother and +he were settling some executor’s business together, and he told +her that Mr. Castleford wished him to go out to Hong Kong, which was +then newly ceded to the English, and where the firm wished to establish +a house of business.</p> +<p>‘You can’t think of it,’ she exclaimed, and the +sound fell like a knell on my ears.</p> +<p>‘I think I must,’ was his answer. ‘We shall +be cut out if we do not get a footing there, and there is no one who +can quite answer the purpose.’</p> +<p>‘Not that young Frith - ’</p> +<p>‘Ten to one but he is on his way home. Besides, if not, +he has his own work at Canton. We see our way to very considerable +advantages, if - ’</p> +<p>‘Advantages!’ she interrupted. ‘I hate speculation. +I should have thought you might be contented with your station; but +that is the worst of merchants, - they never know when to stop. +I suppose your ambition is to make this a great overgrown mansion, so +that your father would not know it again.’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not that, mamma,’ said Clarence smiling; ‘it +is the last thing I should think of; but stopping would in this case +mean going backward.’</p> +<p>‘Why can’t Mr. Castleford send one of his own sons?’</p> +<p>‘Probably Walter may come out by and by, but he has not experience +enough for this.’</p> +<p>Clarence had not in the least anticipated my mother’s opposition, +for he had come to underestimate her affection for and reliance on him. +He had us all against him, for not only could we not bear to part with +him; but the climate of Hong-Kong was in evil repute, and I had become +persuaded that, with his knowledge of business, railway shares and scrip +might be made to realise the amount needed, but he said, ‘That +is what <i>I</i> call speculation. The other matter is trade in +which, with Heaven’s blessing, I can hope to prosper.’</p> +<p>He explained that Mr. Castleford had received him on his coming to +London with almost a request that he would undertake this expedition; +but with fears whether, in his new position, he could or would do so, +although his presence in China would be very important to the firm at +this juncture; and there would be opportunities which would probably +result in very considerable profits after a few years. If Clarence +had been, as before, a mere younger brother, it would have been thought +an excellent chance; and he would almost have felt bound by his obligations +to Mr. Castleford to undertake the first starting of the enterprise, +if it had not been for our recent loss, and the doubt whether he could +he spared from home.</p> +<p>He made light of the dangers of climate. He had never suffered +in that way in his naval days, and scarcely knew what serious illness +meant. Indeed, he had outgrown much of that sensibility of nerve +which had made him so curiously open to spiritual or semi-spiritual +impressions.</p> +<p>‘Any way,’ he said, ‘the thing is right to be done, +provided my mother does not make an absolute point of my giving it up; +and whether she does or not depends a good deal on how you others put +it to her.’</p> +<p>‘Right on Mr. Castleford’s account?’ I asked.</p> +<p>‘That is one side of it. To refuse would put him in a +serious difficulty; but I could perhaps come home sooner if it were +not for this other matter. I told him so far as that it was an +object with me to raise this sum in a few years, and he showed me how +there is every likelihood of my being able to do so out there. +So now I feel in your hands. If you all, and Edward chiefly, set +to and persuade my mother that this undertaking is a dangerous business, +and that I can only be led to it by inordinate love of riches - ’</p> +<p>‘No, no - ’</p> +<p>‘That’s what she thinks,’ pursued Clarence, ‘and +that I want to be a grander man than my father. That’s at +the bottom of her mind, I see. Well, if you deplore this, and +let her think the place can’t do without me, she will come out +in her strength and make it my duty to stay at home.’</p> +<p>‘It is very tempting,’ said Emily.</p> +<p>‘We all undertook to give up something.’</p> +<p>‘We never thought it would come in this way!’</p> +<p>‘We never do,’ said Clarence.</p> +<p>‘Tell me,’ said Martyn, ‘is this to content that +ghost, poor thing? For it is very hard to believe in her, except +in the mullion room in December.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so, Martyn,’ he answered. ‘Impressions +fade, and the intellect fails to accept them. But I do not think +that is my motive. We know that a wicked deed was done by our +ancestor, and we hardly have the right to pray, “Remember not +the sins of our forefathers,” unless, now that we know the crime, +we attempt what restitution in us lies.’</p> +<p>There was no resisting after this appeal, and after the first shock, +my mother was ready to admit that as Clarence owed everything to Mr. +Castleford, he could not well desert the firm, if it were really needful +for its welfare that he should go out. We got her to look on Mr. +Castleford as captain of the ship, and Clarence as first lieutenant; +and when she was once convinced that he did not want to aggrandise the +family, but to do his duty, she dropped her objections; and we soon +saw that the occupations that his absence would impose on her would +be a fresh interest in life.</p> +<p>Just as the decision was thus ratified, a packet from Canton arrived +for Clarence from Bristol. It was the first reply of young Frith +to the tidings of the bequest which had changed the poor clerk to a +wealthy man, owning a large proportion of the shares of the prosperous +house.</p> +<p>I asked if he were coming home, and Clarence briefly replied that +he did not know, - ‘it depended - ’</p> +<p>‘Is he going to wed a fair Chinese with lily feet?’ asked +Martyn, to which the reply was an unusually discourteous ‘Bosh,’ +as Clarence escaped with his letter. He was so reticent about +it that I required a solemn assurance that poor Lawrence’s head +had not been turned by his fortune, and that there was nothing wrong +with him. Indeed, there was great stupidity in never guessing +the purport of that thick letter, nor that it contained one for Emily, +where Lawrence Frith laid himself, and all that he had, at her feet, +ascribing to her all the resolution with which he had kept from evil, +and entreating permission to come home and endeavour to win her heart. +We lived so constantly together that it is surprising that Clarence +contrived to give the letter to Emily in private. She implored +him to say nothing to us, and brought him the next day her letter of +uncompromising refusal.</p> +<p>He asked whether it would have been the same if he had intended to +remain at home.</p> +<p>‘As if you were a woman, you conceited fellow,’ was all +the answer she vouchsafed him.</p> +<p>Nor could he ascertain, nor perhaps would she herself examine, on +which side lay her heart of hearts. The proof had come whether +she would abide by her pledge to him to accept the care of us in his +absence. When he asked it, it had not occurred to him that it +might be a renunciation of marriage. Now he perceived that so +it had been, but she kept her counsel and so did he. We others +never guessed at what was going on between those two.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLIV - PAYING THE COST</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘But oh! the difference to me.’</p> +<p>WORDSWORTH.</p> +<p>So Clarence was gone, and our new life begun in its changed aspect. +Emily showed an almost feverish eagerness to make it busy and cheerful, +getting up a sewing class in the village, resuming the study of Greek, +grappling with the natural system in botany, all of which had been fitfully +proposed but hindered by interruptions and my father’s feebleness.</p> +<p>On a suggestion of Mr. Stafford’s, we set to work on that <i>History +of Letter Writing</i> which, what with collecting materials, and making +translations, lasted us three years altogether, and was a great resource +and pleasure, besides ultimately bringing in a fraction towards the +great purpose. Emily has confessed that she worked away a good +deal of vague, weary depression, and sense of monotony into those Greek +choruses: but to us she was always a sunbeam, with her ever ready attention, +and the playfulness which resumed more of genuine mirth after the first +effort and strain of spirits were over.</p> +<p>Then journal-letters on either side began to bridge the gulf of separation, +- those which, minus all the specially interesting portions, are to +be seen in the volume we culled from them, and which had considerable +success in its day.</p> +<p>Martyn worked in the parish and read with Mr. Henderson till he was +old enough for Ordination, and then took the curacy of St. Wulstan’s, +under a hardworking London vicar, and thenceforth his holidays were +our festivals. Our old London friends pitied us for what they +viewed as a fearfully dull life, and in the visits they occasionally +paid us thought they were doing us a great favour by bringing us new +ideas and shooting our partridges.</p> +<p>We hardly deserved their compassion: our lives were full of interest +to ourselves - that interest which comes of doing ever so feeble a stroke +of work in one great cause; and there was much keen participation in +the general life of the Church in the crisis through which she was passing. +We found that, what with drawing pictures, writing little books, preparing +lessons for teachers, and much besides which is now ready done by the +National Society and Sunday School Institute, we could do a good deal +to assist Martyn in his London work, and our own grew upon us.</p> +<p>For the first year of her widowhood, my mother shrank from society, +and afterwards had only spasmodic fits of doubt whether it were not +her duty to make my sister go out more. So that now and then Emily +did go to a party, or to make a visit of some days or weeks from home, +and then we knew how valuable she was. It would be hard to say +whether my mother were relieved or disappointed when Emily refused James +Eastwood, in spite of many persuasions, not only from himself, but his +family. I believe mamma thought it selfish to be glad, and that +it was a failure in duty not to have performed that weighty matter of +marrying her daughter; feeling in some way inferior to ladies who had +disposed of a whole flock under five and twenty, whereas she had not +been able to get rid of a single one!</p> +<p>Of Clarence’s doings in China I need not speak; you have read +of them in the book for yourselves, and you know how his work prospered, +so that the results more than fulfilled his expectations, and raised +the firm to the pitch of greatness and reputation which it has ever +since preserved, and this without soiling his hands with the miserable +opium traffic. Some of the subordinates were so set on the gains +to be thus obtained, that he and Lawrence Frith had a severe struggle +with them to prevent it, and were forced conjointly to use all their +authority as principals to make it impossible. Those two were +the greatest of friends. Their chief relaxation was one another’s +company, and their earnest aim was to support the Christian mission, +and to keep up the tone of their English dependants, a terribly difficult +matter, and one that made the time of their return somewhat doubtful, +even when Walter Castleford was gone out to relieve them. Their +health had kept up so well that we had ceased to be anxious on that +point, and it was through the Castlefords that we received the first +hint that Clarence might not be as well as his absence of complaint +had led us to believe.</p> +<p>In fact he had never been well since a terrible tempest, when he +had worked hard and exposed himself to save life. I never could +hear the particulars, for Lawrence was away, and Clarence could not +write about it himself, having been prostrated by one of those chills +so perilous in hot countries; but from all I have heard, no resident +in Hong-Kong would have believed that Mr. Winslow’s courage could +ever have been called in question. He ought to have come home +immediately after that attack of fever; for the five years were over, +and his work nearly done; but there was need to consolidate his achievements, +and a strong man is only too apt to trifle with his health. We +might have guessed something by the languor and brevity of his letters, +but we thought the absence of detail owing to his expectation of soon +seeing us; and had gone on for months expecting the announcement of +a speedy return, when an unexpected shock fell on us. Our dear +mother was still an active woman, with few signs of age about her, when, +in her sixty-seventh year, she was almost suddenly taken from us by +an attack of gout in the stomach.</p> +<p>I feel as if I had not done her justice, and as if she might seem +stern, unsympathising, and lacking in tenderness. Yet nothing +could be further from the truth. She was an old-fashioned mother, +who held it her duty to keep up her authority, and counted over-familiarity +and indulgence as sins. To her ‘the holy spirit of discipline +was the beginning of wisdom,’ and to make her children godly, +truthful, and honourable was a much greater object than to win their +love. And their love she had, and kept to a far higher degree +than seems to be the case with those who court affection by caresses +and indulgence. We knew that her approval was of a generous kind, +we prized enthusiastically her rare betrayals of her motherly tenderness, +and we depended on her in a manner we only realised in the desolation, +dreariness, and helplessness that fell upon us, when we knew that she +was gone. She had not, nor had any of us, understood that she +was dying, and she had uttered only a few words that could imply any +such thought. On hearing that there was a letter from Clarence, +she said, ‘Poor Clarence! I should like to have seen him. +He is a good boy after all. I’ve been hard on him, but it +will all be right now. God Almighty bless him!’</p> +<p>That was the only formal blessing she left among us. Indeed, +the last time I saw her was with an ordinary good-night at the foot +of the stairs. Emily said she was glad that I had not to carry +with me the remembrance of those paroxysms of suffering. My dear +Emily had alone the whole force of that trial - or shall I call it privilege? +Martyn did not reach home till some hours after all was over, poor boy.</p> +<p>And in the midst of our desolateness, just as we had let the daylight +in again upon our diminished numbers round the table, came a letter +from Hong-Kong, addressed to me in Lawrence Frith’s writing, and +the first thing I saw was a scrawl, as follows:-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘DEAREST TED - All is in your hands. You can do <i>it</i>. +God bless you all. W. C. W.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>When I came to myself, and could see and hear, Martyn was impressing +on me that where there is life there is hope, though indeed, according +to poor Lawrence’s letter, there was little of either. He +feared our hearing indirectly, and therefore wrote to prepare us.</p> +<p>He had been summoned to Hong-Kong to find Clarence lying desperately +ill, for the most part semi-delirious, holding converse with invisible +forms, or entreating some one to let him alone - he had done his best. +In one of his more lucid intervals he had made Lawrence find that note +in a case that lay near him, and promise to send it; and he had tried +to send some messages, but they had become confused, and he was too +weak to speak further.</p> +<p>The next mail was sure to bring the last tidings of one who had given +his life for right and justice. It was only a reprieve that what +it actually brought was the intelligence that he was still alive, and +more sensible, and had been able to take much pleasure in seeing the +friend of his youth, Captain Coles, who was there with his ship, the +<i>Douro</i>. Then there had been a relapse. Captain Coles +had brought his doctor to see him, and it had been pronounced that the +best chance of saving him was a sea-voyage. The <i>Douro</i> had +just received orders to return to England, and Coles had offered to +take home both the friends as guests, though there was evidently little +hope that our brother would reach any earthly home. As we knew +afterwards, he had smiled and said it was like rehabilitation to have +the chance of dying on board one of H.M. ships. And he was held +in such respect, and was so entirely one of the leading men of the little +growing colony, and had been known as such a friend to the naval men, +and had so gallantly aided a Queen’s ship in that hurricane, that +his passage home in this manner only seemed a natural tribute of respect. +A few last words from Lawrence told us that he was safely on board, +all unconscious of the silent, almost weeping, procession that had escorted +his litter to the <i>Douro’s</i> boat, only too much as if it +were his bier. In fact, Captain Coles actually promised him that +if he died at sea he should be buried with the old flag.</p> +<p>We could not hope to hear more for at least six weeks, since our +letter had come by overland mail, and the <i>Douro</i> would take her +time. It was a comfort in this waiting time that Martyn could +be with us. His rector had been promoted; there was a general +change of curates; and as Martyn had been working up to the utmost limits +of his strength, we had no scruple in inducing him to remain with us, +and undertake nothing fresh till this crisis was past. Though +as to rest, not one Sunday passed without requests for his assistance +from one or more of the neighbouring clergy.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLV - ACHIEVED</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘And hopes and fears that kindle hope,<br />An undistinguishable +throng,<br />And gentle wishes long subdued -<br />Subdued and cherished +long.’</p> +<p>S. T. COLERIDGE.</p> +<p>The first that we did hear of our brother was a letter with a Falmouth +postmark, which we scarcely dared to open. There was not much +in it, but that was enough. ‘D. G.- I shall see you all +again. We put in at Portsmouth.’</p> +<p>There was no staying at home after that. We three lost no time +in starting, for railways had become available, and by the time we had +driven from the station at Portsmouth the <i>Douro</i> had been signalled.</p> +<p>Martyn took a boat and went on board alone, for besides that Emily +did not like to leave me, her dress would have been a revelation that +<i>all</i> were no longer there to greet the arrival. The precaution +was, however, unnecessary. There stood Clarence on deck, and after +the first greeting, he laid his hand on Martyn’s arm and said, +‘My mother is gone?’ and on the wondering assent, ‘I +was quite sure of it.’</p> +<p>So they came ashore, Clarence lying in the man-of-war’s boat, +in which his friend insisted on sending him, able now to give a smiling +response and salute to the three cheers with which the crew took leave +of him. He was carried up to our hotel on a stretcher by half-a-dozen +blue jackets. Indeed he was grievously changed, looking so worn +and weak, so hollow-eyed and yellow, and so fearfully wasted, that the +very memory is painful; and able to do nothing but lie on the sofa holding +Emily’s hand, gazing at us with a face full of ineffable peace +and gladness. There was a misgiving upon me that he had only come +back to finish his work and bid us farewell.</p> +<p>Kindly and considerately they had sent him on before with Martyn. +In a quarter of an hour’s time his good doctor came in with Lawrence +Frith, a considerable contrast to our poor Clarence, for the slim gypsy +lad had developed into a strikingly handsome man, still slender and +lithe, but with a fine bearing, and his bronzed complexion suiting well +with his dark shining hair and beautiful eyes. They had brought +some of the luggage, and the doctor insisted that his patient should +go to bed directly, and rest completely before trying to talk.</p> +<p>Then we heard that his condition, though still anxious, was far from +being hopeless, and that after the tropics had been passed, he had been +gradually improving. The kind doctor had got leave to go up to +London with us, and talk over the case with L---, and he hoped Clarence +might be able to bear the journey by the next afternoon.</p> +<p>Presently after came Captain Coles, whom we had not seen since the +short visit when we had idolised the big overgrown midshipman, whom +Clarence exhibited to our respectful and distant admiration nearly twenty +years ago. My mother used to call him a gentlemanly lad, and that +was just what he was still, with a singularly soft gentle manner, gallant +officer and post-captain as he was. He cheered me much, for he +made no doubt of Clarence’s ultimate recovery, and he added that +he had found the dear fellow so valued and valuable, so useful in all +good works, and so much respected by all the English residents, ‘that +really,’ said the captain, ‘I did not know whether to deplore +that the service should have lost such a man, or whether to think it +had been a good thing for him, though not for us, that - that he got +into such a scrape.’</p> +<p>I said something of our thanks.</p> +<p>‘To tell you the truth,’ said Coles, ‘I had my +doubts whether it had not been a cruel act, for he had a terrible turn +after we got him on board, and all the sounds of a Queen’s ship +revived the past associations, and always of a painful kind in his delirium, +till at last, just as I gave him up, the whole character of his fancies +seemed to change, and from that time he has been gaining every day.’</p> +<p>We kept the captain to dinner, and gathered a good deal more understanding +of the important position to which Clarence had risen by force of character +and rectitude of purpose in that strange little Anglo-Chinese colony; +and afterwards, I was allowed to make a long visit to Clarence, who, +having eaten and slept, was quite ready to talk.</p> +<p>It seemed that the great distress of his illness had been the recurrence +- nay, aggravation - of the strange susceptibility of brain and nerve +that had belonged to his earlier days, and with it either imagination +or perception of the spirit-world. Much that had seemed delirium +had belonged to that double consciousness, and he perfectly recollected +it. As Coles had said, the sights and sounds of the ship had been +a renewal of the saddest time in his life; he could not at night divest +himself of the impression that he was under arrest, and the sins of +his life gathered themselves in fearful and oppressive array, as if +to stifle him, and the phantom of poor Margaret with her lamp - which +had haunted him from the beginning of his illness - seemed to taunt +him with having been too fainthearted and tardy to be worthy to espouse +her cause. The faith to which he tried to cling <i>would</i> seem +to fail him in those awful hours, when he could only cry out mechanical +prayers for mercy. Then there had come a night when he had heard +my mother say, ‘All right now; God Almighty bless him.’ +And therewith the clouds cleared from his mind. The power of <i>feeling</i>, +as well as believing in, the blotting out of sin, returned, the sense +of pardon and peace calmed him, and from that time he was fully himself +again, ‘though,’ he said, ‘I knew I should not see +my mother here.’</p> +<p>If she could only have seen him come home under the Union Jack, cheered +by sailors, and carried ashore by them, it would have been to her like +restoration. Perhaps Clarence in his dreamy weakness had so felt +it, for certainly no other mode of return to Portsmouth, the very place +of his degradation, could so have soothed him and effaced those memories. +The English sounds were a perfect charm to him, as well as to Lawrence, +the commonest street cry, the very slices of bread and butter, anything +that was not Chinese, was as water to the thirsty! And wasted +as was his face, the quiet rest and joy were ineffable.</p> +<p>Still Portsmouth was not the best place for him, and we were glad +that he was well enough to go up to London in the afternoon; intensely +delighting in the May beauty of the green meadows, and white blossoming +hedgerows, and the Church towers, especially the gray massiveness of +Winchester Cathedral. ‘Christian tokens,’ he said, +instead of the gay, gilded pagodas and quaint crumpled roofs he had +left. The soft haze seemed to be such a rest after the glare of +perpetual clearness.</p> +<p>We were all born Londoners, and looked at the blue fog, and the broad, +misty river, and the brooding smoke, with the affection of natives, +to the amazement of Lawrence, who had never been in town without being +browbeaten and miserable. That he hardly was now, as he sat beside +Emily all the way up, though they did not say much to one another.</p> +<p>He told us it was quite a new sensation to walk into the office without +timidity, and to have no fears of a biting, crushing speech about his +parents or himself; but to have the clerks getting up deferentially +as soon as he was known for Mr. Frith. He had hardly ever been +allowed by his old uncle to come across Mr. Castleford, who was of course +cordial and delighted to receive him, and, without loss of time, set +forth to see Clarence.</p> +<p>The consultation with the physician had taken place, and it was not +concealed from us that Clarence’s health was completely shattered, +and his state still very precarious, needing the utmost care to give +him any chance of recovering the effects of the last two years, when +he had persevered, in spite of warning, in his eagerness to complete +his undertaking, and then to secure what he had effected. The +upshot of the advice given him was to spend the summer by the seaside, +and if he had by that time gathered strength, and surmounted the symptoms +of disease, to go abroad, as he was not likely to be able as yet to +bear English cold. Business and cares were to be avoided, and +if he had anything necessary to be done, it had better be got over at +once, so as to be off his mind. Martyn and Frith gathered that +the case was thought doubtful, and entirely dependent on constitution +and rallying power. Clarence himself seemed almost passive, caring +only for our presence and the accomplishment of his task.</p> +<p>We had a blessed thanksgiving for mercies received in the Margaret +Street Chapel, as we called what is now All Saints; but he and I were +unfit for crowds, and on Sunday morning availed ourselves of a friend’s +seat in our old church, which felt so natural and homelike to us elders +that Martyn was scandalised at our taste. But it was the church +of our Confirmation and first Communion, and Clarence rejoiced that +it was that of his first home-coming Eucharist. What a contrast +was he now to the shrinking boy, scarcely tolerated under his stigmatised +name. Surely the Angel had led him all his life through!</p> +<p>How happy we two were in the afternoon, while the others conducted +Lawrence to some more noteworthy church.</p> +<p>‘Now,’ said Clarence, ‘let us go down to Beachharbour. +It must be done at once. I have been trying to write, and I can’t +do it,’ and his face lighted with a quiet smile which I understood.</p> +<p>So we wrote to the principal hotel to secure rooms, and set forth +on Tuesday, leaving Frith to finish with Mr. Castleford what could not +be settled in the one business interview that had been held with Clarence +on the Monday.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLVI - RESTITUTION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Ah! well for us all some sweet hope lies<br />Deeply buried +from human eyes.’</p> +<p>WHITTIER.</p> +<p>Things always happen in unexpected ways. During the little +hesitation and difficulty that always attend my transits at a station, +a voice was heard to say, ‘Oh! Papa, isn’t that Edward +Winslow?’ Martyn gave a violent start, and Mr. Fordyce was +exclaiming, ‘Clarence, my dear fellow, it isn’t you! +I beg your pardon; you have strength enough left nearly to wring one’s +hand off!’</p> +<p>‘I - I wanted very much to see you, sir,’ said Clarence. +‘Could you be so good as to appoint a time?’</p> +<p>‘See you! We must always be seeing you of course. +Let me think. I’ve got three weddings and a funeral to-morrow, +and Simpson coming about the meeting. Come to luncheon - all of +you. Mrs. Fordyce will be delighted, and so will somebody else.’</p> +<p>There was no doubt about the somebody else, for Anne’s feet +were as nearly dancing round Emily as public propriety allowed, and +the radiance of her face was something to rejoice in. Say what +people will, Englishwomen in a quiet cheerful life are apt to gain rather +than lose in looks up to the borders of middle age. Our Emily +at two-and-thirty was fair and pleasant to look on; while as for Anne +Fordyce at twenty-three, words will hardly tell how lovely were her +delicate features, brown eyes, and carnation cheeks, illuminated by +that sunshine brightness of her father’s, which made one feel +better all day for having been beamed upon by either of them. +Clarence certainly did, when the good man turned back to say, ‘Which +hotel? Eh? That’s too far off. You must come +nearer. I would see you in, but I’ve got a woman to see +before church time, and I’m short of a curate, so I must be sharp +to the hour.’</p> +<p>‘Can I be of any use?’ eagerly asked Martyn. ‘I’ll +follow you as soon as I have got these fellows to their quarters.’</p> +<p>We had Amos with us, and were soon able to release Martyn, after +a few compliments on my not being as usual <i>the</i> invalid; and by +and by he came back to take Emily to inspect a lodging, recommended +by our friends, close to the beach, and not a stone’s throw from +the Rectory built by Mr. Fordyce. As we two useless beings sat +opposite to each other, looking over the roofs of houses at the blue +expanse and feeling the salt breeze, it was no fancy that Clarence’s +cheek looked less wan, and his eyes clearer, as a smile of content played +on his lips. ‘Years sit well on her,’ he said gaily; +and I thought of rewards in store for him.</p> +<p>Then he took this opportunity of consulting me on the chances for +Frith, telling of the original offer, and the quiet constancy of his +friend, and asking whether I thought Emily would relent. And I +answered that I suspected that she would, - ‘But you must get +well first.’</p> +<p>‘I begin to think that more possible,’ he answered, and +my heart bounded as he added, ‘she would be satisfied since you +would always have a home with <i>us</i>.’</p> +<p>Oh, how much was implied in that monosyllable. He knew it, +for a little faint colour came up, as he, shyly, laughed and hesitated, +‘That is - if - ’</p> +<p>‘If’ included Mrs. Fordyce’s not being ungracious. +Nor was she. Emily had found her as kind as in the old days at +Hillside, and perfectly ready to bring us into close vicinity. +It was not caprice that had made this change, but all possible doubt +and risk of character were over, the old wound was in some measure healed, +and the friendship had been brought foremost by our recent sorrow and +our present anxiety. Anne was in ecstasies over Emily. ‘It +is so odd,’ she said, ‘to have grown as old as you, whom +I used to think so very grown up,’ and she had all her pet plans +to display in the future. Moreover, Martyn had been permitted +to relieve the Rector from the funeral - a privilege which seemed to +gratify him as much as if it had been the liveliest of services.</p> +<p>We were to lunch at the Rectory, and the move of our goods was to +be effected while we were there. We found Mrs. Fordyce looking +much older, but far less of an invalid than in old times, and there +was something more genial and less exclusive in her ways, owing perhaps +to the difference of her life among the many classes with whom she was +called on to associate.</p> +<p>Somersetshire, Beachharbour, and China occupied our tongues by turns, +and we had to begin luncheon without the Rector, who had been hindered +by numerous calls; in fact, as Anne warned us, it was a wonder if he +got the length of the esplanade without being stopped half-a-dozen times.</p> +<p>His welcome was like himself, but he needed a reminder of Clarence’s +request for an interview. Then we repaired to the study, for Clarence +begged that his brothers might be present, and then the beginning was +made. ‘Do you remember my showing you a will that I found +in the ruins at Chantry House?’</p> +<p>‘A horrid old scrap that you chose to call one. Yes; +I told you to burn it.’</p> +<p>‘Sir, we have proved that a great injustice was perpetrated +by our ancestor, Philip Winslow, and that the poor lady who made that +will was cruelly treated, if not murdered. This is no fancy; I +have known it for years past, but it is only now that restitution has +become possible.’</p> +<p>‘Restitution? What are you talking about? I never +wanted the place nor coveted it.’</p> +<p>‘No, sir, but the act was our forefather’s. You +cannot bid us sit down under the consciousness of profiting by a crime. +I could not do so before, but I now implore you to let me restore you +either Chantry House and the three farms, or their purchase money, according +to the valuation made at my father’s death. I have it in +hand.’</p> +<p>Frank Fordyce walked about the room quite overcome. ‘You +foolish fellow!’ he said, ‘Was it for this that you have +been toiling and throwing away your health in that pestiferous place? +Edward, did you know this?’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘Clarence has intended +this ever since he found the will.’</p> +<p>‘As if that was a will! You consented.’</p> +<p>‘We all thought it right.’</p> +<p>He made a gesture of dismay at such folly.</p> +<p>‘I do not think you understand how it was, Mr. Fordyce,’ +said Clarence, who by this time was quivering and trembling as in his +boyish days.</p> +<p>‘No, nor ever wish to do so. Such matters ought to be +forgotten, and you don’t look fit to say another word.’</p> +<p>‘Edward will tell you,’ said Clarence, leaning back.</p> +<p>I had the whole written out, and was about to begin, when the person, +with whom there was an appointment, was reported, and we knew that the +rest of the day was mapped out.</p> +<p>‘Look here,’ said Mr. Fordyce, ‘leave that with +me; I can’t give any answer off-hand, except that Don Quixote +is come alive again, only too like himself.’</p> +<p>Which was true, for Clarence took long to rally from the effort, +and had to be kept quiet for some time in the study where we were left. +He examined me on the contents of my paper, and was vexed to hear that +I had mentioned the ghost, which he said would discredit the whole. +Never was the dear fellow so much inclined to be fretful, and when Martyn +restlessly observed that if we did not want him, he might as well go +back to the drawing-room, the reply was quite sharp - ‘Oh yes, +by all means.’</p> +<p>No wonder there was pain in the tone; for the next words, after some +interval, were, when two happy voices came ringing in from the garden +behind, ‘You see, Edward.’</p> +<p>Somehow I had never thought of Martyn. He had simply seemed +to me a boy, and I had decided that Anne would be the crown of Clarence’s +labours. I answered ‘Nonsense; they are both children together!’</p> +<p>‘The nonsense was elsewhere,’ he said. ‘They +always were devoted to each other. I saw how it was the moment +he came into the room.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t give up,’ I said; ‘it is only the +old habit. When she knows all, she must prefer - ’</p> +<p>‘Hush!’ he said. ‘An old scarecrow and that +beautiful young creature!’ and he laughed.</p> +<p>‘You won’t be an old scarecrow long.’</p> +<p>‘No,’ he said in an ominous way, and cut short the discussion +by going back to Mrs. Fordyce.</p> +<p>He was worn out, had a bad night, and did not get up to breakfast; +I was waiting for it in the sitting-room, when Mr. Fordyce came in after +matins with Emily and Martyn.</p> +<p>‘I feel just like David when they brought him the water of +Bethlehem,’ he said. ‘You know I think this all nonsense, +especially this - this ghost business; and yet, such - such doings as +your brother’s can’t go for nothing.’</p> +<p>His face worked, and the tears were in his eyes; then, as he partook +of our breakfast, he cross-examined us on my statement, and even tried +to persuade us that the phantom in the ruin was Emily; and on her observing +that she could not have seen herself, he talked of the Brocken Spectre +and fog mirages; but we declared the night was clear, and I told him +that all the rational theories I had ever heard were far more improbable +than the appearance herself, at which he laughed. Then he scrupulously +demanded whether this - this (he failed to find a name for it) would +be an impoverishment of our family, and I showed how Clarence had provided +that we should be in as easy circumstances as before. In the midst +came in Clarence himself, having hastened to dress, on hearing that +Mr. Fordyce was in the house, and looking none the better for the exertion.</p> +<p>‘Look here, my dear boy,’ said Frank, taking his hot +trembling hand, ‘you have put me in a great fix. You have +done the noblest deed at a terrible cost, and whatever I may think, +it ought not to be thrown away, nor you be hindered from freeing your +soul from this sense of family guilt. But here, my forefathers +had as little right to the Chantry as yours, and ever since I began +to think about such things, I have been thankful it was none of mine. +Let us join in giving it or its value to some good work for God - pour +it out to the Lord, as we may say. Bless me! what have I done +now.’</p> +<p>For Clarence, muttering ‘thank you,’ sank out of his +grasp on a chair, and as nearly as possible fainted; but he was soon +smiling and saying it was all relief, and he felt as if a load he had +been bearing had been suddenly removed.</p> +<p>Frank Fordyce durst stay no longer, but laid his hand on Clarence’s +head and blessed him.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLVII - THE FORDYCE STORY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘For soon as once the genial plain<br />Has drunk the life-blood +of the slain,<br />Indelible the spots remain,<br />And aye for vengeance +call.’</p> +<p>EURIPIDES - (<i>Anstice</i>).</p> +<p>Still all was not over, for by the next day our brother was as ill, +or worse, than ever. The doctor who came from London allowed that +he had expected something of the kind, but thought we must have let +him exert himself perilously. Poor innocent Martyn and Anne, they +little suspected that their bright eyes and happy voices had something +to do with the struggle and disappointment, which probably was one cause +of the collapse. As to poor Frank Fordyce, I never saw him so +distressed; he felt as if it were all his own fault, or that of his +ancestors, and, whenever he was not required by his duties, was lingering +about for news. I had little hope, though Clarence seemed to me +the very light of my eyes; it was to me as though, his task being accomplished, +and the earthly reward denied, he must be on his way to the higher one.</p> +<p>His complete quiescence confirmed me in the assurance that he thought +so himself. He was too ill for speech, but Lawrence, who could +not stay away, was struck with the difference from former times. +Not only were there no delusions, but there was no anxiety or uneasiness, +as there had always been in the former attacks, when he was evidently +eager to live, and still more solicitous to be told if he were in a +hopeless state. Now he had plainly resigned himself -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘Content to live, but not afraid to die;’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>and perhaps, dear fellow, it was chiefly for my sake that he was +willing to live. At least, I know that when the worst was over, +he announced it by putting those wasted fingers into mine, and saying +-</p> +<p>‘Well, dear old fellow, I believe we shall jog on together, +after all.’</p> +<p>That attack, though the most severe of all, brought, either owing +to skilful treatment or to his own calm, the removal of the mischief, +and the beginning of real recovery. Previously he had given himself +no time, but had hurried on to exertions which retarded his cure, so +as very nearly to be fatal; but he was now perfectly submissive to whatever +physicians or nurses desired, and did not seem to find his slow convalescence +in the least tedious, since he was amongst us all again.</p> +<p>It was nearly a month before he was disposed to recur to the subject +of his old solicitude again, and then he asked what Mr. Fordyce had +said or done. Just nothing at all; but on the next visit paid +to the sick-room, Parson Frank yielded to his earnest request to send +for any documents that might throw light on the subject, and after a +few days he brought us a packet of letters from his deed-box. +They were written from Hillside Rectory to the son in the army in Flanders, +chiefly by his mother, and were full of hot, angry invective against +our family, and pity for poor, foolish ‘Madam,’ or ‘Cousin +Winslow,’ as she was generally termed, for having put herself +in their power.</p> +<p>The one most to the purpose was an account of the examination of +Molly Cox, the waiting-woman, who had been in attendance on the unfortunate +Margaret, and whose story tallied fairly with Aunt Peggy’s tradition. +She declared that she was sure that her mistress had met with foul play. +She had left her as usual at ten o’clock on the fatal 27th of +December 1707, in the inner one of the old chambers; and in the night +had heard the tipsy return home of the gentlemen, followed by shrieks. +In the morning she (the maid) who usually was the first to go to her +room, was met by Mistress Betty Winslow, and told that Madam was ill, +and insensible. The old nurse of the Winslows was called in; and +Molly was never left alone in the sick-room, scarcely permitted to approach +the bed, and never to touch her lady. Once, when emptying out +a cup at the garden-door, she saw a mark of blood on the steps, but +Mr. Philip came up and swore at her for a prying fool. Doctor +Tomkins was sent for, but he barely walked through the room, and ‘all +know that he is a mere creature of Philip Winslow,’ wrote the +Mrs. Fordyce of that date to her son. And presently after, ‘Justice +Eastwood declared there is no case for a Grand Jury; but he is a known +Friend and sworn Comrade of the Winslows, and bound to suppress all +evidence against them. Nay, James Dearlove swears he saw Edward +Winslow slip a golden Guinea into his Clerk’s Hand. But +as sure as there is a Heaven above us, Francis, poor Cousin Winslow +was trying to escape to us of her own Kindred, and met with cruel Usage. +Her Blood is on their Heads.’</p> +<p>‘There!’ said Frank Fordyce. ‘This Francis +challenged Philip Winslow’s eldest son, a mere boy, three days +after he joined the army before Lille, and shot him like a dog. +I turned over the letter about it in searching for these. I can’t +boast of my ancestors more than you can. But may God accept this +work of yours, and take away the guilt of blood from both of us.’</p> +<p>‘And have you thought what is best to be done?’ asked +Clarence, raising himself on his cushions.</p> +<p>‘Have you?’ asked the Vicar.</p> +<p>‘Oh yes; I have had my dreams.’</p> +<p>They put their castles together, and they turned out to be for an +orphanage, or rather asylum, not too much hampered with strict rules, +combined with a convalescent home. The battle of sisterhoods was +not yet fought out, and we were not quite prepared for them; but Frank +Fordyce had, as he said, ‘the two best women in the world in his +eye’ to make a beginning.</p> +<p>There was full time to think and discuss the scheme, for our patient +was in no condition to move for many weeks, lying day after day on a +couch just within the window of our sitting-room, which was as nearly +as possible in the sea, so that he constantly had the freshness of its +breezes, the music of its ripple, and the sight of its waves, and seemed +to find endless pleasure in watching the red sails, the puffs of steam, +and the frolics of the children, simple or gentle, on the beach.</p> +<p>Something else was sometimes to be watched. Martyn, all this +time, was doing the work of two curates, and was to be seen walking +home with Anne from church or school, carrying her baskets and bags, +and, as we were given to understand, discussing by turns ecclesiastical +questions, visionary sisterhoods, and naughty children. At first +I wished it were possible to remove Clarence from the perpetual spectacle, +but we had one last talk over the matter, and this was quite satisfactory.</p> +<p>‘It does me no harm,’ he said; ‘I like to see it. +Yes, it is quite true that I do. What was personal and selfish +in my fancies seems to have been worn out in the great lull of my senses +under the shadow of death; and now I can revert with real joy and thankfulness +to the old delight of looking on our dear Ellen as our sister, and watch +those two children as we used when they talked of dolls’ fenders +instead of the surplice war. I have got you, Edward; and you know +there is a love “passing the love of women.”’</p> +<p>A lively young couple passed by the window just then, and with untamed +voices observed -</p> +<p>‘There are those two poor miserable objects! It is enough +to make one melancholy only to look at them.’</p> +<p>Whereat we simultaneously burst out laughing; perhaps because a choking, +very far from misery, was in our throats.</p> +<p>At any rate, Clarence was prepared to be the cordial, fatherly brother, +when Martyn came headlong in upon us with the tidings that utterly indescribable, +unimaginable joy had befallen him. A revelation seemed simultaneously +to have broken upon him and Anne while they were copying out the Sunday +School Registers, that what they had felt for each other all their lives +was love - ‘real, true love,’ as Anne said to Emily, ‘that +never could have cared for anybody else.’</p> +<p>Mrs. Fordyce’s sharp eyes had seen what was coming, and accepted +the inevitable, quite as soon as Clarence had. She came and talked +it over with us, saying she was perfectly satisfied and happy. +Martyn was all that could be wished, and she was sincerely glad of the +connection with her old friends. So, in fact, was dear old Frank, +but he had been running about with his head full, and his eyes closed, +so that it was quite a shock to him to find that his little Anne, his +boon companion and playfellow, was actually grown up, and presuming +to love and be loved; and he could hardly believe that she was really +seven years older than her sister had been when the like had begun with +her. But if Anne must be at those tricks, he said, shaking his +head at her, he had rather it was with Martyn than anybody else.</p> +<p>There was no difficulty as to money matters. In truth, Martyn +was not so good a match as an heiress, such as was Anne Fordyce, might +have aspired to, and her Lester kin were sure to be shocked; but even +if Clarence married, the Earlscombe living went for something (though, +by the bye, he has never held it), and the Fordyces only cared that +there should be easy circumstances. The living of Hillside would +be resigned in favour of Martyn in the spring, and meantime he would +gain more experience at Beachharbour, and this would break the separation +to the Fordyces.</p> +<p>After all, however, theirs was not to be our first wedding. +I have said little of Emily. The fact was, that after that week +of Clarence’s danger, we said she lived in a kind of dream. +She fulfilled all that was wanted of her, nursing Clarence, waiting +on me, ordering dinner, making the tea, and so forth; but it was quite +evident that life began for her on the Saturdays, when Lawrence came +down, and ended on the Mondays, when he went away. If, in the +meantime, she sat down to work, she went off into a trance; if she was +sent out for fresh air, she walked quarter-deck on the esplanade, neither +seeing nor hearing anything, we averred, but some imaginary Lawrence +Frith.</p> +<p>If she had any drawback, good girl, it was the idea of deserting +me; but then, as I could honestly tell her, nobody need fear for my +happiness, since Clarence was given back to me. And she believed, +and was ready to go to China with her Lawrence.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII - THE LAST DISCOVERY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>‘Grief will be joy if on its edge<br />Fall soft that holiest +ray,<br />Joy will be grief, if no faint pledge<br />Be there of heavenly +day.’</p> +<p>KEBLE.</p> +<p>We did not move from Beachharbour till September, and by that time +it had been decided that Chantry House itself should be given up to +the new scheme. It was too large for us, and Clarence had never +lived there enough to have any strong home feeling for it; but he rather +connected it with disquiet and distress, and had a longing to make actual +restitution thereof, instead of only giving an equivalent, as he did +in the case of the farms. Our feelings about the desecrated chapel +were also considerably changed from the days when we regarded it merely +as a picturesque ruin, and it was to be at once restored both for the +benefit of the orphanage, and for that of the neighbouring households. +For ourselves, a cottage was to be built, suited to our idiosyncrasies; +but that could wait till after the yacht voyage, which we were to make +together for the winter.</p> +<p>Thus it came to pass that the last time we inhabited Chantry House +was when we gave Emily to Lawrence Frith. We would fain have made +it a double wedding, but the Fordyces wished to wait for Easter, when +Martyn would have been inducted to Hillside. They came, however, +that Mrs. Fordyce might act lady of the house, and Anne be bridesmaid, +as well as lay the first stone of St. Cecily’s restored chapel.</p> +<p>It was on the day on which they were expected, when the workmen were +digging foundations, and clearing away rubbish, that the foreman begged +Mr. Winslow to come out to see something they had found. Clarence +came back, very grave and awe-struck. It was an old oak chest, +and within lay a skeleton, together with a few fragments of female clothing, +a wedding ring, and some coins of the later Stewarts, in a rotten leathern +purse. This was ghastly confirmation, though there was nothing +else to connect the bones with poor Margaret. We had some curiosity +as to the coffin in the niche in the family vault which bore her name, +but both Clarence and Mr. Fordyce shrank from investigations which could +not be carried out without publicity, and might perhaps have disturbed +other remains.</p> +<p>So on the ensuing night there was a strange, quiet funeral service +at Earlscombe Church. Mr. Henderson officiated, and Chapman acted +as clerk. These, with Amos Bell, alone knew the tradition, or +understood what the discovery meant to the two Fordyces and three Winslows +who stood at the opening of the vault, and prayed that whatever guilt +there might be should be put away from the families so soon to be made +one. The coins were placed with those of Victoria, which the next +day Anne laid beneath the foundation-stone of St. Cecily’s. +I need not say that no one has ever again heard the wailings, nor seen +the lady with the lamp.</p> +<p>What more is there to tell? It was of this first half of our +lives that I intended to write, and though many years have since passed, +they have not had the same character of romance and would not interest +you. Our honeymoon, as Mr. Fordyce called the expedition we two +brothers made in the Mediterranean, was a perfect success; and Clarence +regained health, and better spirits than had ever been his; while contriving +to show me all that I was capable of being carried to see. It +was complete enjoyment, and he came home, not as strong as in old times, +but with fair comfort and capability for the work of life, so as to +be able to take Mr. Castleford’s place, when our dear old friend +retired from active direction of the firm.</p> +<p>You all know how the two old bachelors have kept house together in +London and at Earlscombe cottage, and you are all proud of the honoured +name Clarence Winslow has made for himself, foremost in works for the +glory of God and the good of men - as one of those merchant princes +of England whose merchandise has indeed been Holiness unto the Lord.</p> +<p>Thus you must all have felt a shock on finding that he always looked +on that name as blotted, and that one of the last sayings I heard from +him was, ‘O remember not the sins and offences of my youth, but +according to Thy mercy, think upon me, O Lord, for Thy goodness.’</p> +<p>Then he almost smiled, and said, ‘Yes, He has so looked on +me, and I am thankful.’</p> +<p>Thankful, and so am I, for those thirty-four peaceful years we spent +together, or rather for the seventy years of perfect brotherhood that +we have been granted, and though he has left me behind him, I am content +to wait. It cannot be for long. My brothers and sisters, +their children, and my faithful Amos Bell, are very good to me; and +in writing up to that <i>mezzo termine</i> of our lives, I have been +living it over again with my brother of brothers, through the troubles +that have become like joys.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>REMARKS.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Uncle Edward has not said half enough about his dear old self. +I want to know if he never was unhappy when he was young about being +<i>like that</i>, though mother says his face was always nearly as beautiful +as it is now. And it is not only goodness. It <i>is</i> +beautiful with his sweet smile and snowy white hair. ELLEN WINSLOW.</p> +<p>And I wonder, though perhaps he could not have told, what Aunt Anne +would have done if Uncle Clarence had not been so forbearing before +he went to China. CLARE FRITH.</p> +<p>The others are highly impertinent questions, but we ought to know +what became of Lady Peacock. ED. G. W.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>REPLY.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Poor woman, she drifted back to London after about ten years, with +an incurable disease. Clarence put her into lodgings near us, +and did his best for her as long as she lived. He had a hard task, +but she ended by saying he was her only friend.</p> +<p>To question No. 2 I have nothing to say; but as to No. 1, with its +extravagant compliment, Nature, or rather God, blessed me with even +spirits, a methodical nature that prefers monotony, and very little +morbid shyness; nor have I ever been devoid of tender care and love. +So that I can only remember three severe fits of depression. One, +when I had just begun to be taken out in the Square Gardens, and Selina +Clarkson was heard to say I was a hideous little monster. It was +a revelation, and must have given frightful pain, for I remember it +acutely after sixty-five years.</p> +<p>The second fit was just after Clarence was gone to sea, and some +very painful experiments had been tried in vain for making me like other +people. For the first time I faced the fact that I was set aside +from all possible careers, and should be, as I remember saying, ‘no +better than a girl.’ I must have been a great trial to all +my friends. My father tried to reason on resignation, and tell +me happiness could be <i>in</i> myself, till he broke down. My +mother attempted bracing by reproof. Miss Newton endeavoured to +make me see that this was my cross. Every word was true, and came +round again, but they only made me for the time more rebellious and +wretched. That attack was ended, of all things in the world, by +heraldry. My attention somehow was drawn that way, and the study +filled up time and thought till my misfortunes passed into custom, and +haunted me no more.</p> +<p>My last was a more serious access, after coming into the country, +when improved health and vigour inspired cravings that made me fully +sensible of my blighted existence. I had gone the length of my +tether and overdone myself; I missed London life and Clarence; and the +more I blamed myself, and tried to rouse myself, the more despondent +and discontented I grew.</p> +<p>This time my physician was Mr. Stafford; I had deciphered a bit of +old French and Latin for him, and he was very much pleased. ‘Why, +Edward,’ he said, ‘you are a very clever fellow; you can +be a distinguished - or what is better - a useful man.’</p> +<p>Somehow that saying restored the spring of hope, and gave an impulse! +I have not been a distinguished man, but I think in my degree I have +been a fairly useful one, and I am sure I have been a happy one. +E. W.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>‘Useful! that you have, dear old fellow. Even if you +had done nothing else, and never been an unconscious backbone to Clarence; +your influence on me and mine has been unspeakably blest. But +pray, Mistress Anne, how about that question of naughty little Clare’s?’ +M. W.</p> +<p>‘Don’t you think you had better let alone that question, +reverend sir? Youngest pets are apt to be saucy, especially in +these days, but I didn’t expect it of you! It might have +been the worse for you if W. C. W. had not held his tongue in those +days. Just like himself, but I am heartily glad that so he did. +A. W.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHANTRY HOUSE ***</p> +<pre> + +******This file should be named chhs10h.htm or chhs10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, chhs11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, chhs10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 + +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + + PROJECT GUTENBERG LITERARY ARCHIVE FOUNDATION + 809 North 1500 West + Salt Lake City, UT 84116 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart hart@pobox.com + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/old/chhs10h.zip b/old/chhs10h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0f0566 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/chhs10h.zip |
