 15. Moral Support In spite of all said to the contrary, I believe that young people upon the whole are more apt to ponder than the old folk are—at least, if to ponder means as it should—to weigh in the balance of prose and cons, the probable results of their own doings. The old man remembers the time he has lost in thinking thoughts that came to naught, and he sees that if they had come to much, that much would have been very little now. The young man has plenty of time on his hands and believes he is going to do wonders with it, and makes a bright map of his mighty course in life, and this is the wisest thing that he can do, but when he falls in love, alas, his ripe wisdom has seldom applied to himself. Like a roguish grocer with a magnet in his counter, he brings a scale down to his own liking. But he differs from him in that he cheats himself. Being very wise in my own eyes, I pondered very carefully my next step, not with any thought of retiring, but with a firm resolve to advance in the strongest and most effective manner. My uncle's long story, instead of damping, had added hot fuel to my ardor, and compassion had lent a deeper tone to passion. Tender pictures arose before me of my angelic kitty, starved and tortured and snubbed and trampled and, worst of all perhaps to a female body, shabbily and grotesquely dressed. Such a woman as my uncle had described was enough to drive the largest-minded man to fury, and to grind the sweetest of her own sex into fragments of misery and despair. The one crumb of comfort I could pick up was that such cruelty must make my darling pine all the more for tender love, and long perpetually for some refuge, however humble it might be. But the point of all points was, how should I get at her? All these things were passing through my mind for about the thousandth time. Yet all in vain, as I came back from church see an old spanker's back a day or two later in that same week. Old spanker was as good a horse as ever tasted corn, and when we got together we always seemed to fall into very much the same vein of thought. Not that spanker had any love troubles, but plenty of other cares and considerations which brought him into tune with me as we jogged along. If anything were to miss in our promises, spanker seemed to find it out. Not one of us knew how, and to feel a friendly sadness for us, though it never affected his appetite. So warm was his interest in our affairs that whenever he took a load to coven garden the proper thing always was to let him know how it had been disposed of, and Selsey Bill declared that he came home with his ears pricked forward or laid back according as the prices had been up or down. What Selsey Bill was seventeen hungry children was himself as sympathetic as almost any horse. It was very nigh dark, for the days were drawing in, being nearly come to the equinox and the weather breaking up as we had foreseen. Indeed but for that I should not have been here, for my uncle would never have sent me to church see if the fruit had been fit to be gathered to-day. Never gather there any fruit when it is wet except a horse chestnut, he used to say, and you may find the flavor of that improved. But the rain had not been so very heavy, only just enough to hang on things and make them sticky. And now there was a strong wind getting up which was likely to fetch down a hundred bushels. The river was no longer in high flood, though still over its banks and turbulent, and I had not to ride through great stretches of water as our roads require one to do, even if they let him pass at all when the Thames comes down at its utmost. When I was a lad in 1852 we could scarcely go anywhere without swimming. And now without floods I very nearly had to swim, for old Spanker stopped as suddenly as if he had been shot in a dark place where there was a ditch beside the road, and I riding carelessly and mooning in my grievances was as loose on his back as my head on my head. I just saved myself from flying over his ears, and then flourished my whip-stock, for I thought it was a foot-pad. Don't be a fool, Kit! You have done a little too much of that to me already. The voice was well known to me, and the glimmering light showed the figure of Sam Henderson. He had a contemptuous manner of putting his heels on the earth with his toes turned up and out, as if the world were not worth riding, except with a reckless attitude. But I was vexed to be pulled up like this and nearly cast out of the saddle, therefore I said something of his own sort. Young man, you don't value my good intentions, and you're not all charmed with a new dodge, for fetching a horse up before he can think. You saw I never touched your bridle. Well, never mind that, I'm not going to teach you. How are things getting on at your crib, my boy? Famously, I answered, for it was not likely that I should discourse of my troubles to him. Nothing could be better, Mr. Henderson, and since you have proved your new dodge satisfactory, I will say good night and beg you not to do it to me again. What a confounding moth you are! he continued in his slangly drawl, which he had picked up perhaps at Tattersall's. Do you think that I would have calmed down this beastly lane on a dirty night like this without I had something important to say? How about your kitty? This was a little too familiar and put me on my dignity, at the same time it gave me a thrill of pleasure, as a proof of the public conclusion upon a point of deep private interest. If you happen to mean in your cheeky style a young lady known as Miss Fairthorne, and the niece of Miss Cold Pepper of the Hall, I can only tell you that she is in London with her father, the celebrated Captain Fairthorne. A pinch for stale news, as we used to say at school. Perhaps I could give you a fresher tip, my boy, but I dare say you don't care to hear it. Perhaps you have put your money on another filly, so have I, and this time it is a ripper. Little as I liked his low manner of describing things too lofty for his comprehension, I could not let him depart like this. He lit a cigar under Spanker's nose as if he had been nobody and whistling to his bull terrier bob, turned away as if everything was settled. But I called him back sternly, and he said, Oh, well, if you want to hear more, you must turn into my little den down there. I followed him through a white gate, which he opened in the high pailing that fenced his paddocks, and presently we came to a long, low building, more like a shed than a dwelling-house, but having a snug room or two at one end, this is my doctor's shop, he said, and it serves for a thousand other uses. No patience at present. We'll be plenty by and by. Come into my snuggery and have something hot. I will send a fellow home with your old screw and tell the Governor not to expect you to supper. From steak and onions in ten minutes, Tom, and a knife and fork for this gentleman? Now, Kit, put your trotters on the hob, but have a pole first at this pewter. This was heaping hot coals of fire on my head, after all that I had done to him, and I said something clumsy to that effect. He treated it as if it were hardly worth a word, and much as I loved to be forgiven, I like to have done it to others much better. I never think twice of a thing like that, he replied, without turning to look at me. A fellow like you, who never sees a bit of life, gets waxy over nothing, and makes a fool of himself. You hit straight, and I deserved it, and live among horses a deal too much to bury ill-will, as the humans do. Let us have our corn, my boy, and then I'll tell you what I heard in town today, and you can grind it between your wisdom teeth. In spite of all anxiety I did well with the vitals set before me, and Sam was right hospitable in every way, and made me laugh freely at his short, crisp stories with a horse for the hero, and a man for the rogue, or even a woman in some cases. I endeavored to match some of them with tales of our own nags, but those he swept by disdainfully. No horse was worth talking of below the rank of thoroughbred, as the story has no interest, until we come to the earls and the dukes and the marquises. Now, said Sam Henderson, when the plates were gone and the glasses had succeeded them, get Orchardson! You were a very present fellow, considering how little you know of the world. I never thought there was so much in you. Why, if you could get over your shyness, kid, you would be fit for very good society. But it is a mistake on the right side, my boy. I would much rather see a young chap like that than one of your bump-chewest clad-hoppers. I suppose I am the only man in Sunbury who ever goes into high society, and I take good care that it never spoils me. There is not a lord on the turf that won't shake hands with me when he thinks I can put him up to anything, but you can't say I am stuck up, can you now? Certainly not, I declared with warmth for his hospitality was gorgeal. You keep to your nature through the whole of it. It would spoil most of us to have so much to do with noblemen. You and I should see more of one another, Sam answered with gratification beaming in his very keen and lively eyes, and if ever you would put a bit of Uncle Cornie's tin upon any tit at long odds, come to me, the finest tip in England free, gratis and for nothing. But I called you in for a different sort of tip. When I was at the corner this afternoon, who should I see but Sir Cumberlay Hutspot? I daresay you may have heard of him. No? Very well. That proves just what I was saying. You were as green as a grasshopper looking at a cuckoo. Hutspot, as we call him, and it fits him well, for his figure is that, and his habits are black, is one of the best known men in London, and one of the worst to have much to do with. Ah, Sam, he says, glad to see you. What will you take for your old sinner now? Sinner, you must know, is my old mare, Cinaminta, the dam of whore winners than any other mare alive, and the old rogue knows well enough that I would sooner sell my shadow, even if he had six pence to put on it. He gives himself out to be rolling in money, but all he ever rolls is in the gutter. Well, sir, we got on from one thing to another, and by and by I gave him just a little rub about a hatful of money I had won of him at Chester, and never seen the color of. All right, he says, down upon the nail next week. Haven't you heard what's up with me? So I told him no, and he falls to laughing, enough to shake the die out of his grisly whiskers. Going to Buckle, too, by gosh I mean it, says he, and the sweetest young filly has ever looked through a red band. Rejoices in the name of Kitty Farathorn, just the very name for the winner of the oaks. Ha, ha, wish me joy, old chap. She was down your way, I'm told, last week, but I had spotted her before that, Sam. I was thrown upon my hunches, as you may fancy, Kit, but had not let him see it, though to think of old crumbly pot going in for such a stunner. Rhino, no doubt, I says, and he says, by the bucketful. Her dad is a buffer who can sit down and coin it in batteries, and only this kid to put it on. The others belong to a different stable. Think of coming for the honeymoon down to your place. They tell me you keep the big crib empty. Well, I only shook my head at that. For the old rogue never pays his rent, and I asked him when it was to be pulled off. Pretty smart, he said, but the day not named. And he must go first to Lincolnshire to see about his property there, which I happen to know is up the spout to its outside value, although he always talks big on the strength of it. And no doubt he has got over your grand-professor, with his baron at sea, and his flourishing estates. That's about the tune of it, you may swear, Kit. Well, how do you like my yarn, my boy? Sam, it shall never come off! I cried with a stamp which made the glasses jingle, and the stirrup irons that hung on the wall rattled as if a mad horse were between them. I would rather see that innocent young creature in her coffin than married to such a low brute. Why, even if she married you, Sam, although it would be a terrible fall, she would have a man and an honest one comparatively to deal with, but as to the crumbly pot, as you call him. Well, old fellow, you mean well, replied Henderson with tranquility, though your compliments are rather left-handed. But you may look upon me, Kit, as out of the running. I was taken with the girl. I won't deny it. But she didn't take to me, and she took to you. In between you and me I am as sure as egg she hasn't got six pence to bless herself. That wouldn't suit my book, and I'm no plunger. She wants no six pence to bless herself. She is the best without a half-penny, and a blessing she will be to any man who deserves her, although there is none on the face of this earth. Very well, very well, stow all that. A woman's a dark horse, even to her own trainer. But I've met with just a fine bit of stuff, a lovely young filly down in Lodred. She's the only daughter of an old man there, and if ever I spotted Derby Nag, he has got the next one in his string this moment. I have not quite made up my mind yet, but I think I shall go in for her. At any rate, I'm off with the fair-thornly. Why, there's a cuss of a woman to deal with there, who'd frighten a dromedary into fits, they say. I wonder if old Pot knows about it. But Pot shan't have her, if I can help it. And you may trust me for knowing a thing or two. Come, let's strike a bargain, Kit, and stick to it like men. Will you help me with the Lodred job? If I do all I can for you in the fair-thorn affair, give me your hand on it, and I am your man. I told him that I did not see how I could be of any service to him in his scheme of the young lady he was thinking of, but he said that I could help him as much as I liked, for a relative of mine lived in that village, an elderly lady, and highly respected, as she occupied one of the best houses in the place, and more than that it belonged to her. It was some years now since I had seen her, but she had been kind to me when I was at school, and Sam proposed that I should look her up and give a bright account of him, and perhaps do more than that, for the young lady visited at that house, and valued her opinion highly. I now perceived why Henderson had become so friendly, and was able to trust him, as he had a good motive. Moreover, I had heard of his lovely Philly, and even seen her when she was a child, and I knew that her father, the well-known Mr. Chalker, had made a good fortune in the racing business, and perhaps would be apt to look down upon Sam, from the point of higher standing and better breeding, being interested now in all true love I readily promised to do all I could, and then begged for Sam's counsel in my own case. Take the bull by the horns, he said with his usual briskness. Never beat about the bush, that's my plan, Kit. Go up and see the Governor, and say, I love your daughter, I hear she is awfully sat upon at home, and doesn't even get her corn regular. She has taken a great liking to me, I know that, and although I am not a great gun, and am terribly green, my Uncle Corny is a warm old chap, and I shall have all his land and money when he croaks. You see, Governor, you might do worse. And as for old Pot, if you knew the old scamp you'd sooner kill your girl than let him have her, why, he can't even square his bets, and all his land in Lincolnshire is collared by the Moseys. And her to me, and I'll make her a good husband, and you shall come to our place and live jolly when you can't stand your devil wife no longer. Kit, I'll write it down for you, if you like. You say all that to him exactly as I said it, and if you don't fetch him, turn me out to grass in January. I was much amused that Henderson should call me green, and yet be an earnest with such absurdity as this, which I recommended him, since he had such faith in it, to learn by heart and then repeat, with the needful alterations, to the gentleman whose daughter he was anxious now to win. However, though indignant and frightened sadly at the news about that vile baronette, I was pleased in the whole with Sam's behaviour, though not with his last words which were these, as he left me at the top of the village, and he uttered them with much solemnity. I say, who stole the dog? Talk of angels after that! CHAPTER XVI. TRUE LOVE If anyone had told me, so lately as last week, that Sam and myself would be sworn allies upon matters of the deepest interest, within fifty years of such a prophecy, I should have considered him as great a liar as the greatest statesman in the present period prove themselves daily out of their own mouths. Although I had not then the benefit of knowing how the most righteous of mankind deceives us, I knew well enough that the world is full of rogues, for no man can visit Covent Garden twice without having that conviction forced upon him, and Sam Henderson's quiet grins at my greenness naturally led me to ponder such a little upon the possibility of his trafficking upon it, however I'm glad to say and still hold to it, that neither then nor even in my later troubles, which were infinitely deeper than any yet recounted, did I ever pass into the bitter shadow through which all men are beheld as liars. The difficulty was to know what to do next, if I did nothing, which was the easiest thing to do, and a course to which my bashfulness and ignorance inclined me. The foulest of all foul wrongs, my triumph! The sweetest and most lovable of all the fair beings, who are sent among the coarser lot to renew their faith in goodness, might even by virtue of her own excellence become a sacrifice to villainy. I knew that my darling had that strong sense of justice without which pure gentleness is a broken reed, and I felt that she also had a keen perception of the good and the bad, as they appear in men. But alas! I knew also that she loved her father before any one on earth, and almost worshipped him, which he deserved for his character at large, but not so entirely for his conduct to herself. He was always kind and loving to her when the state of things permitted it. But the bent of his nature was towards peace, and in a strange home which had swallowed him there was no peace, either by day or night, if he even dared to show that he loved his own child. The blackest falsehoods were told about her, and the lowest devices perpetually plied, as I discovered later on, to estrange the father from the daughter, and rob them of their faith in one another. But this part of her story I mean to pass over with as light a step as possible, for to dwell on such matters stirs the lower part of nature, and angers us without the enlargement of good wrath. We must try to forgive, when we cannot forget, an endeavour not to hope, whenever faith allows us, that the cruel and inhuman may be basted with red pepper for more than a millennium of the time to come. But as yet I had none of this clemency in me, youth as a stronger and far more militant sense of justice than middle age, I was fired continually with indignation, and often clenched my fists, and was eager to rush at a wall with no door in it when my uncle's tail and Sam's confirmation came into my head like a whirlwind. What a fool I am! What a helpless idiot! I kept on muttering to myself, the murder will be done before I move! I could see no pretext, no prospect whatever, no possibility of interference, and my uncle, to whom I confided my misery, could only shake his head and say, Very bad job, my boy! You must try to make the best of it. Probably it would have made the worst of me, and left me to die an old bachelor, if it had not been for a little chance, such as no one would think much of. Time was drawing on without a sign of sunshine in it. When to pick up a very small crumb of comfort and recall the happiest day I had ever known yet, I went to my cupboard, and pulled out a simple sketch in watercolors, which I had made of the stricken pear-tree after someone had made of it the luckiest tree that ever died. She had not finished her work of art, partly through sweet talk with me, and I hoped to surprise her and compare our portraits, when she should come to complete her drawing. Now as I glanced and sighed and gazed and put in a little touch with listless hands, my good genius stood behind me, in the form of a little old woman, holding in one hand a bucket, and in the other a scrubbing brush. Lord, how beautiful you have, doodan! Tabby Tapscott cried, as if she would like to have a turn at it with her reeking brush. I can see every crinkle crankum of the eight leaves is, and a girt bumble-dumble-good sniffin' her couldn't do havin' so natural as thisy, if her was to comb a dozen times for kissy-kissy talk-like. Think I didn't clap eyes upon you both, good as a plie it were, and the both of ye vans seeing nobody nigh. Lord, I never see nor the morn moosin'. Then all I can say is you ought to have that bucket of slobs thrown over you. What business of yours, you inquisitive old creature? That be vain matters, after all, as I do, the vetchon here for you to caron with. I could tell ye some it now, if so be I was minded to, but I reckon ye would go to draw a bucket over, Tabby. This very noon my courtesy at once, for I had great faith in Tabby's devices, and after some coying and the touch of a crooked six-pence, she told me her plan, which was simplicity itself, so that I wondered of my own dullness. I was to find out where Captain Fairthorne lived, which could be done with the greatest ease, and then to call and make a point of seeing him on the plea of presenting him with a perfect copy, such as his daughter had no time to finish. Who could tell that good luck might not afford me a glimpseet, or even a few words with, the one who was never absent from my mind? And, supposing that there were no such bliss as that, at least I could get some tidings of her, and possibly find a chance of doing something more, be it as it might, I could make things no worse, and anything was better than this horrible suspense. I consulted my uncle about this little scheme, and he readily fell in with it, for he could not bear to see me going about my work as if my heart were not in it, and searching the papers and dread of bad news every morning. He proposed that I should go that very night in the fruit-van with Celci Bill, and the thief-boy, that is to say the boy who kept watch against thieves, of whom there are scores in the market. When I found my way towards the middle of the day, to that wild-wheeled, as it then was, of London, which is now a camp of punch-and-judy boxes strung with balconies, it took me some minutes to become convinced that I was not in a hop-ground turned upside down. Some mighty contractor was at work in the breadth and depth of chaos, and countless volcanoes of plied clay, which none but a demon could have made to burn, were uttering horizontal fumes, not at all like on a smoke and texture, but tenfold worse to cope with, some thousands of brawny navies running on planks, at the head pirate's order with skelton-barrows before them, and contrived with the aid of ten thousand tin pots to keep their throats clear and their insides going. Not one of them would stop to tell me where I was. All gave a nod and went on barrowing. Perhaps they were under conditions, such as occurred to most of us in the barrow drive of life, when the pause for a moment is the topple over. After shouting in vain to these night-capped fellows I saw through the blue mist of drifting poison, a young fellow, perhaps about twenty-one, who seemed to be the clerk of the works, or something, and I felt myself fit to patronize him, being four or five years his elder, and at least to that amount his bigger, but for his better he would not have me, and snapped in such a style that I seemed to belong almost to a past generation. "'Athorn?' he said. Yes, I may have heard of him. Elderly, Gent, where's Goggle's, and goes in for thunderbolts? Don't hang out here. Stop's business. Three turns to the left, and ask the old Applewoman.' I was much inclined to increase his acquaintance with Apples by giving him one to his eye, external and not a treasure, but before I could even return his contempt he was gone, and left me in the wilderness. At last I found a boy who was looking after pots, and for two pence he not only led me truly, but enlightened me largely as to this part of the world. He showed me where the great Sheebeson was to be, and how all the roads were to be laid out, and even shook his head, now twelve years old, as to the solvency of this rum-gig. He dismissed me kindly with his salary doubled, at the gate of the great philosopher, and with his finger to his nose gave a parting counsel. Best not go in, young man. The old conjure can blow you to bits by turning a handle, and the old cattle scratch your wig off. But there's a stunning gal. Ah, that's what you're after. I say, young Covey, if you're game for a bit of sweet-artin' on the sly, I'll show you the very nick for it.' He pointed to a gate between two old trees, and overhung with ivy. "'How does I know?' he said, anticipating briskly any doubt on my part. So help me, taters, it's the only place round here as I never took apart a beard, too. Anxious as I was, I smiled a little at this criterion for a tristing place, and then did my utmost to fix in mind the bearings of this strange neighborhood. Although I knew the busy parts of London well enough, on the vast spread of outskirts I knew little, except the ups and downs of the great roads through them, and here and there a long lookout from the top of Notting Hill, or any other little eminence. Even so I had only lost my eyes in a mighty maze of things to come, and felt a deep wonder of pity for the builders who were running up houses they could never fill. The part I was now exploring lay between two great western roads, and was therefore to me an unknown land. But I felt pretty sure that the house now before me had been quite lately a mere country mansion, with grounds not overlooked, and even meadows of its own, where cows might find it needful to loat one another, and a horse might go a long way to find a gate to scratch against. Even now there was a cattle pond, the dregs of better days, near the gate that led up from the brick-fields, and half a dozen ancient scotch furs leaned in a whispering attitude towards one another. Perhaps they alone were left of a goodly group trembling at every axe that passed. The house itself was long, low, and red, and full of little windows upon whose sills a straggling illyx leaned its elbows here and there, and sparrows held a lively chivvy. There was not a flower in the beds in front, and the box-edging of the walks was as high and broad as a wheel-barrow. Two large cedars, one at either corner of the sodden grass-plot, looked like mighty pencils placed to mark the extent of the building, describing no one, except an ancient dog of mighty stature, and of some race unknown to me, who came up in a friendly manner. I summoned all my courage, with good manners at the back of it, and pulled a great bell-handle hanging, like a butcher's steel-yard, between two mossy piers of stone. There was no sound of any bell inside, and I was counting the time for another pull. When the door was open some few inches, and sharp black eyes peered out at me. Subscription, Bible! No, thank you, young man! Cook was put into county court last time. I did not know what she meant until I saw that she was glancing at the poor portfolio of my own make, which held my unpretentious drawing. I have not come for any subscription, I said, drawing back from the door as she seemed to suspect that I would try to push it open. I have the pleasure of knowing Captain Fairthorne, and I wish to see him. Don't think you can, she answered sharply, but if you will tell me what your business is, I will ask the mistress about it. You may come in and wait here while I go to her. Scrape your boots first, and don't bring in any clay. This did not sound very gracious, but I obeyed her orders with my best smile, and producing two very fine pairs I laid them on the black marble chimney-piece of the hall. Her sallow face almost relaxed to a smile. Young man from the country! Well, take a chair a minute while I go and ask for orders about you. With these words she hastened up an old oak staircase and left me at leisure to look about. The hall was a large but not lofty chamber, paneled with some dark wood and hung with several grimy paintings, two doors at either end from it, as well as the main staircase in the middle and a narrow stone passage at one corner. The fireplace was large but looked as if it had more to do with frost than fire, and the day being chilly and very damp, with an east wind crawling along the ground, I began to shiver from my feet where wet from the wilderness of clay I had waded through, but presently the sound of loud voices caught my ear and filled me with hot interest. One of the doors at the further end was not quite closed, and the room beyond resounded with some contention. What a fool you are to make such a fuss! One feminine voice was exclaiming, Oh, don't reason with her! cried another. The poor stoop isn't worth it. The thing is settled, and so what is the use of talking? How glad it shall be to see the last of her wicked temper and perpetual sulks. And I am sure you will be the same, Jerry. Nothing surprises me so much as Mama's wonderful patience with her. Why, she hasn't boxed her ears since Saturday. It isn't only that," replied the first, but Frizzy considered the indulgences she has had, a candle to go to bed with almost every night, and a sardine, positively one of our sardines for her dinner, the day before yesterday. Why, she'll want to be dining with us next thing. The more she has petted, the worse she gets. Now don't you aspire to dine with us, you deers, you darling, don't you now? I'm sure I never do," replied a gentle voice, silvery even now, though quivering with tears. I would rather have bread and water by myself in peace than be scolded and sneered at and brudged every mouthful. What have I done to deserve it all? I told you what would come of reasoning with her, said the one who had been called Frizzy, probably Miss Euphrasia Bullrag. It simply makes her outrageous, Jerry, ever since she came back from Sunbury. There has simply been no living with her, and she looks upon us as her enemies, because we are resolved that she shall do what is best for her. Lady Hodgepot, what can sound better? And then she can eat and drink all day long, which seems to be all she cares for. That's a little mistake of yours," answered Miss Jerry or Geraldine. I know her tricks even better than you do. She cares for something, or somebody, some clad hopper or chaw-bacon, down in that delightful village. Why, you can't say Sunbury in the most innocent matter without her blushing furiously. But she's so cunning, I can't get out of her who the beloved chaw-bacon is. Come now, kitty, make a clean rest of it. I believe it's the fellow that bets down there, and lives by having families of horses. Sir Cumberlay told me all about him, and had a rare laugh. You should have seen him laugh when I said that our kid he was smitten. Well, I hope she had a little more principle than that, and you'd think the butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but her never gets a chance. I heard my darling say anew by her voice that the sweetest temper in the world was roused at last. Your mother never lets it go into my mouth, while you have it thicker than your bread almost. But I'll thank you to enjoy among yourselves, or with any old break you may fawn upon, your low and most ignorant gossip about me. You'd better not strike me. Your mother may, but I will not take it from either of you, nor from both together. I could scarcely contain myself, I assure you. And if the young tyrants had fallen upon her I must have got into a nice position in the old but not the new sense of nice, that of bodily conflict with women. Luckily, however, these were cowards as behooved such creatures, and I verily believe that my angel, if driven as no angel should be into a free fight, would have made a bad record of both of them. I was hovering as it were upon my legs, burning to dash into the room, yet shuddering at the strange intrusion, when Miss Fairthorne came out very quietly, and holding her handkerchief to her streaming eyes, the door was banged behind her as if by a kick, and a loud, contemptuous laugh came through it. What I did is a great deal more than I can tell, for I must have been carried far beyond myself by pity, indignation, and ardent love. Oh, don't! said Kitty as I stood before her, almost before she could have used her eyes, being overcome with weeping. But the glance she gave me had told the thing that I cared for most on earth or heaven, and the strangest point was that we felt no surprise at being together in this wondrous way. To me it seemed right that she should fall into my arms, and to her it seemed natural that I should drop from heaven. Oh, don't! said Kitty, but she let me do it. I kissed away her tears, and I cannot tell you whether they gave me more bliss or pain. I stroked her softly nestling hair, as if it all belonged to me, and I played with her pretty fingers, putting them one by one between my great things to make the thrilling process last. Then I looked once more into her lovely eyes, the wells of all my life springs now, and lo! their tears were flown, and hope, and woman's faith, and heaven's own love were beaming from their lustrous depth as the light that proves the jewel true. Darling of my life was all I said, and she only answered, yes, dear. Now anybody may suppose, who looks at things too sensibly, that true love never yet has chosen time and place more foolishly, for coming to grand issue and obtaining pledge for ever. The sour-faced woman might have returned in the crisis of our doings, or the two young tyrants might have broken forth and made sport of us from the parlor. Whether we knew these things or not we never gave a thought to them, all we thought of was one another, and the rest might think what they liked of us. This is not a large way to look at things, and yet once in a life the largest. My kitty, as I called her now, and have never since wanted any other name, was the first, as behooved the more sensitive one, to bring common sense to bear on us. You must come and see my father, dear, she whispered with her hands in mine. I am sure that he loves me all he can, and if you have quite made up your mind that you cannot do without me, we may trust him to make the best of it, for he always makes the best of things. Show me where he is, I answered, scarcely yet believing that my fortune was so glorious. While she looked at me as only one in the world can ever look at us, I fear that he will be sadly vexed, but he is kind to everyone. He will not be vexed on his own account, nor yet on mine, she answered very quietly. But nobody knows what he has to bear. Let us go to him, while he is by himself. There is someone coming, we must be quick. We hastened down the long stone passage just in time to escape the servant who had found her mistress, and after passing several doors we came to one with an iron bar and iron rails in front of it. See how he has to protect himself. If somebody knew that I have this key it would very soon be torn from me. I dare say you are surprised, such things are not done down at Sunbury. How I love that quiet place. And you shall live there all your life, I answered as we passed the barrier. No one shall dare to insult you there. You shall be the Queen, the Queen of all, and you know who will be your slave of slaves. That is all very fine talk, she said. I believe it is the usual style at first, and then we come to Brahma, cold iron. But her smile as she put her hand on my shoulder proved that her own heart taught her better. Let me go in first and see what he is doing. Oh, Kit, you have taken advantage enough. What right have you to say that it is your last chance? I am sure I hope not. Oh, how mean of you to turn my own words against me! Now have a little reason. Yes, yes, yes, for the fiftieth time at least in five minutes I love you and never will have anybody else. Now let me go in first. Sometimes he is too busy for even me to interrupt him. Much against my will I let her go, for half an hour later would have done as well according to my judgment, and after securing the fence behind us which had wholly escaped my attention. She knocked at the door of the inner room, and without being answered opened it. Her father was sitting with his back to us, so intent upon some small object that he did not hear our footsteps. Some instrument made of brass and glass, but quite unlike a microscope was in his left hand, and with the other he was slowly revolving something. The appearance of the room amazed me, with its vast multitude of things unknown to me by the name or shape, but all looking full of polished mischief and poisonous intelligence. This is why my kitty weeps and is starved and crushed by female dragons, I said to myself in bitter mood, and even a professor's grand calm head in sweet scientific attitude did not arouse the reverence which a stranger would have felt for him. His daughter touched, as lightly as a frond of fern might touch it, one of his wavering silver locks and waited with a smile for him to turn. But I saw that her bosom trembled with a sigh of deeper birth than else, then he turned and looked at her and knew from the eyes that were so like his own and yet so deeply different that she had something he must hear. You have been crying again, my child, he said as he kissed her forehead. They promised me you should be happy now. Yes, if I let them do what they like. Father, you have no idea what it is. I am never allowed to see you alone except by stealth and at fearful risk. Father, come out of philosophy and science and attend to your own child. But, my dear, I do. It is a very thing that is in my mind continually. I spoke very strongly not a week ago and received a solemn promise that you should have new clothes, and dye it the same as the rust, and everything I could think of for your good. How many times have they promised it, Father? Then I am beaten and put on bread and water for having dared to complain to you, but all that is a trifle, a thing soon over. I must expect that sort of thing because I have no mother, but Father, what they are trying to do to me is ten times worse than ragged clothes or starvation or bodily punishment. They want me to marry a man I detest, an old man and a bad one. My dear, I have promised you and you know that you can rely on my promises that you shall not even be allowed to marry a man of doubtful character. I have not been able, my darling kitty, to do everything I should have liked for you. But one thing is certain. If inquiries prove that this gentleman, I forget his name, is a man of bad life and unkind nature, you shall have nothing to do with him. You know how little I am able to go into what is called society, and most of my friends are men of my own tastes. But I have taken particular trouble at the loss of much important time to ascertain whether your opinion of this person is correct. He is wealthy and of good family, I am told, though that is merely a secondary point. He is likely to have outlived youthful follies, and the difference of age is in your favour. But not in his! Interrupted kitty, with a smile for which I could have kissed her fifty times, it was so natural and simple, yet sagacious. You are flippant, my dear, in spite of all your troubles, continued her father smiling also. No length of discipline has entirely tamed you. And now I will tell you why I am so anxious that you should have a settled home, and someone to take care of you, as soon as can be suitably arranged. I am likely to leave England on a roving expedition, for how long a time is as yet uncertain. It may be for a twelve-month, or even more, possibly for two years, and all that time where will you be, my darling child? I know that you are not happy now, though my object in making this second arrangement was mainly to have you protected and cared for. But things have not turned out exactly as I hoped. And I fear that in my absence they may grow still When I heard that this gentleman was strongly attached to you and wished you to become his wife this winter, I hoped that I might be of some little service to the cause of knowledge without any neglect of my duty to you. And I may tell you, my child, that through a long course of rather extravagant habits which I have failed to check, it has become of great importance to me so far as mere money goes, which is not much, to accept the appointment which was offered me. I am often deeply grieved at your condition, and do my very utmost to improve it, but I am not always allowed, as you know, my dear, and are very sweet and patient with me. I am not always allowed to have my own way. Don't put it so, Papa. That is not half the truth. Say that you never have been allowed. Never are, and never will be, to have so much as a barley-corn of your own way. Young people put things in too strong a light, the man of science answered gently. But we will not go into that question now. Only you will see, my dear, from what I have said, why I am so anxious that you should be settled in a happy and peaceful home of your own, far away from all those who worry you. This gentleman offers you a wealthy home, but knowing your nature I do not insist on that. Indeed I should be quite satisfied with a very humble home for my darling, if it were a happy one. Very well, Papa. Nothing could be nicer. Can I please you now exactly and meet all your wishes, though I cannot bear to hear of your leaving me so long? But you will not leave me to the tender mercies. Here my kitty beckoned to me to come forward, which I had been long most eager to do, but in obedience to her signals had remained by the door and behind a tall case of some wheel within wheel-work almost as complex as human motives. Father, you see that you need not leave me to tender mercies of anybody except this gentleman, who saved my life at Sunbury, as you know, and wishes to make it a part of his own for the rest of it. Captain Fairthorne looked at me with extreme surprise. My idea of his character was that nothing upon or below the earth could surprise him, but he had his glasses on, and these always seemed to me to trouble the marks of astonishment in the eyes that stand behind them, in deference to his large intellect and frame and great, though inactive, nobility of nature. I waited for him to begin, though I am sure, now I come to think of it, that he would have been glad for me to take the move. Kitty, he said at last, with some relief at not having to fall upon me yet, I should like to know a little more of this story. I remember this young man very well, but his name has escaped me for the moment. You will not think me rude, it is one of the many penalties we pay for undue devotion to our own little subjects. If he had been a Zoophyte, or a Probesidian, or even one of the Constituents, if he had been a Zoophyte Papa or anything else with a very big name and a very little meaning, Miss Fairthorne exclaimed in reproachful tones, where should I be now at the bottom of the Thames, and perhaps you would enjoy dredging for me? In spite of all training she has a temper, the Father addressed this remark to me. Also she has a deep sense of gratitude, a feeling we find the more largely developed the further we travel from the human order, but, my dear, you allow yourself vague discursions. In a matter like this you have brought before me my desire is always to be practical. At great an original investigator, to whom we owe not only knowledge, but what is even more important, the only true course by which to arrive, my dear Father, if you once begin on that, the knowledge we want in a quick course to it, is whether you will be so good and so kind as to make us both happy by your consent. This gentleman loves me and I love him. He is not wealthy, but he is good. You may leave me in his care without a doubt. I have not known him long, but I know him as truly as if we have been brought up together. The only fault he has is that he cannot praise himself, and his reverence for you is so strong and deep that it makes him more diffident than ever. You are dreadfully diffident in yourself, Papa. You know you are, and it makes me so desperate of all boastful people. Now fully understand that I won't have that horrible old, sir cumbrous hodgepot, and I will have this kit orchardson, that is to say, with your leave, Father. And you owe me something, I should think after all, but I have no right to speak of that. Only if you don't give it, mind, I'll—I'll—as a sample of what she would do, she began to sob deeply and I caught her in my arms. You see, sir, I said. Oh, don't, my darling, your father is the kindest man in the world, and he would never have the heart to make you unhappy. You see, sir, how good she is, and how simple and ready to be satisfied even with me. I'm a poor man, and I have my way to make. But with her I could make it to—to—I was going to say to heaven, but substituted—the top of the tree, and we have a pretty place where she would be happy as the day is long. And if I don't protect her and cherish her and worship her and keep her as the apple of my eye, I hope you will take me by the neck, Captain Fairthorne, and put me under this air-pump. How do you know that is an air-pump? he asked with admiration of my cleverness. By the look, sir, I replied, I have seen them before. Well, then, it isn't. Neither does it much resemble one. Kitty, you see what his diffidence is, and another proof, I suppose, is, that he has fallen in love with you. Yes, said my darling, with a smile so humble and loving and confiding that my eyes grew moist, and her father could not see through his spectacles. It is sure proof of his diffidence, for he deserves to have a better wife than I shall ever be, although I will do my best to please him. Well, after that, replied Captain Fairthorne, it seems to me that my opinion matters very little. You appear to have made up your minds, and your minds appear to have been made for one another. I am wholly unable to withstand such facts. Of course, I shall make my inquiries, Master Kitty. But so far as I can see at present I will not deny you what you have won. If she is half as good to her husband as she always has been to her father, you will be a happy man, God willing. There, kiss me, my pretty dear, and don't cry any more, till he makes you. End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Of Kit and Kitty Bereter Doddridge Blackmore This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 18 False Mother Such is the balance of human events, if the phrase be held admissible, that the moment any member of our race is likely to strike the stars with its head sublime, he receives a hard thump upon that protuberance and comes down with a crown, but a cracked one. As for myself, an unpretentious fellow, and a very simple intellect, though not quite such a fool as the world considered me in my later troubles, desiring always to tell the truth, I will not deny that I walked on air when I found myself gifted with my Kitty's love and her large hearted father's assent to it. It had been arranged that I must wait and keep my bliss inside my waistcoat, until such time as slower prudence and clearer foresight might prescribe, but all I thought of were the glorious facts that Kitty loved me, as I loved her, and that her father, who alone could enter sound denial, would not deny. What do I care for that old stepmother, I said to myself as I buttoned my coat? That coat was henceforth sacred to me. There may have been smarter and grander coats, coats with more tone of high art about them, and of sleeker and richer substance, but this coat was enriched forever, with at least three tears from Kitty's eyes. Kitty's lovely hair had fallen like a vernal shower upon it, and her true heart had quivered to it when she owned whose heart it was. I knew that it might be my duty now to start a new coat of loftier order, to keep me abreast of my rise in the world, as a son of a celebrated man. Nevertheless, this would be the coat to look back upon and look up to, as it hung upon a holy peg with the pockets full of lavender. I had said farewell to my dear love and was just beginning to think how I would come it over Uncle Corny, telling him a bit, and then another bit, and then leading him on to laugh at me, until I should come out with the news, which would make him snap his favorite pipe. When suddenly, near the captain's gate, I fell the sharp tug from behind. The dusk was gathering and I meant to put my best foot foremost and walk all the way to Sunbury, scarcely feeling the road beneath my feet. What do you want, little chap? I asked for it was not in my power then to speak rudely to any living creature, although I was vexed at losing time. If you please, young man, my lady says that you are to come back and speak to her. You are to come with me to the door over there, and you must be careful how you scrape your boots. I looked at the boy and felt inclined to laugh. He was dressed in green from head to foot, and two or three dozen gilt buttons shown in a double row down the front of him. For the moment I doubted about obeying, until it occurred to me that if I refused my sin might be visited upon another. So I turned and followed the page, who seemed to think disobedience impossible. He led me to a door at the west end of the house, and then up a little staircase to a fine broad passage, with statues and pictures looking very grand indeed. Before I could take half of it into my mind he opened the door with carved work upon it, and showed me into the grandest room I had ever entered except in show places such as Hampton Court or Windsor Castle. All this part of the house was so different from the other end that I was amazed when I came to think of it. But I could not think now of floors and ceilings or even chairs and tables as I walked with my best hat in my hand towards a tall lady very richly dressed, who stood by the mantelpiece almost like a figure carved upon it. Her thick and strong hair seemed as black as coal, until one came to look at it, and then it showed the undercast of red such as I never saw in any other person. Her form was large and robust and full, and as powerful as that of any ordinary man. But the chief thing to notice was her face and her eyes. Her face was like those we see cut in shell to represent some ancient goddess such as I read of at Hampton School. Juno or Pallas, or it may have been Prosopine, my memory is not clear upon those little points. But although I remember a god with two faces and a dog with three heads, I cannot call to mind any goddess among them endowed with three chins. My lady, as the boy in green had called her, certainly did own three fine chins as well as a mouth which was too large for the shells and contemptuous nostrils that seemed to sift the air and bright eyes with very thick lids for their sheath, and they wanted a sheath, I can tell you. And a forehead which looked as if it could roll instead of only wrinkling when the storm of passion swept it. As yet I was too young to understand that justice and kindness are the only qualities entitling our poor fellow mortals to respect, I had passed through no tribulation yet and coped with none of the sorrows which in large when they do not embitter the heart. Therefore I was much impressed by this lady's grandeur and fine presence, and made her a clumsy bow as if I had scarcely the right to exist before her. She saw it and scorned me and took the wrong course as we mostly do when we despise another. Do I know your name, young man? She asked as if it were very doubtful whether I possessed any name at all. I seem to have heard of you but cannot say where. In that case, I said with my spirit returning at the insolent disdain of her eyes and voice, the boy who came to fetch me has made some mistake. No doubt you wish to see some other person. I beg you to make no apologies. With another low bow I began my retreat and was very near securing it, or she became too furious to condescend to speak, but two young ladies whom I had scarcely noticed jumped up from their chairs and intercepted me. Mama forgets names so, said one of them a little plain thing with a mass of curly hair. But you are Mr. Orchardson, I think, of Sunbury. If so, it is you that Mama wants to speak to. I am not Mr. Orchardson of Sunbury, I answered. My uncle Cornelius is the gentleman so known. I am Christopher Orchardson, who only helps him in his business. Then Christopher Orchardson resumed their mother as I came back and looked at her quietly. You seem to have very little knowledge of good manners. Allow me to ask you what you are doing in this house. I understood that I was sent for, ma'am, and I am waiting to know what your pleasure is. I saw the girls giggle and glance at one another as I delivered this statement. None of your trifling with me, young man, what I insist upon knowing is this. What right had you to enter my house some hours ago without my knowledge and to remain in it without my permission? Don't fence with the question but answer it. That is easy enough. I replied with my eyes full on hers, which vainly strove to look down mine. I came to this house without asking whose it was to see Captain Fairthorne with a little sketch of something in which he had taken interest. The servant or housekeeper told me to wait while she went to look for her mistress. Then I met Miss Fairthorne, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting several times before, and she most kindly showed me to her father's room, and I was very glad to find him in good health. After a very pleasant time with him I was leaving the garden on my way home, when I was told that you wish to see me. I was not rude enough to refuse, and that is why I am in this house again. You have made a fine tale of it, but not told the truth. Did you come to my house to see the Professor? Or did you come rather to see his daughter? I came to this house to see Captain Fairthorne, but I hope that I might perhaps have the pleasure of seeing Miss Fairthorne also. And what was your motive in wishing to see her? I have a right to ask, as she is in my charge, I stand in the place of a mother to her, whether she is grateful or whether she is otherwise. What did you wish to see her for? I was greatly in a loss to answer this. Not from any shame at the affection which was the honour and glory of my being, but from dread of the consequences to my precious darling. She saw my hesitation and burst forth. Do you think that I do not know all about it? You have had the gross insolence to lift your eyes to a young lady far above you in every way. You fancy that because she has no mother and her father is a man of no worldly wisdom and of extravagant sentiments, a kind of philosopher in short, you will be permitted to reduce her to your inferior rank in life. What are you? A small market gardener or something of that kind, I believe? You were kind enough to say just now, I answered, that you did not know anything about me. Even my name was strange to you. I am not ashamed of my business, and I lay no traps for anyone. Have you the insolence to refer to me? Her guilty conscience caught her here, and under its sting she grew so wild that I thought she would have flown at me, though no thought of her had been in my words. But you are below my contempt and I wonder that I even deign to speak to you, and I will make short work of it. Go back to your spade or your heap of manure or whatever it is you live in, and never dare to think again of Miss Kitty Fairthorne. She is engaged to a gentleman of family and title and large property, and I mean to have her married to him very shortly. Go back to your manure heap, I have done with you. Not quite so easily as you think. To her great amazement I approached her, not only without terror but with calm contempt. You have a foul scheme in hand, as is widely known for selling a poor girl whom you have vilely misused and starved for some years and made her life a misery, and you think you will be allowed to sell her to a reproachable old man who has not even gold enough to cover the blackness of his character. As a girl she is born your blows, as a woman she would have to bear those of a cowardly and godless scoundrel. You like plain speaking, and there it is for you. Do you think that God will allow such crimes? I tell you, poor tyrant, that the right will conquer. Miss Fairthorne shall have a happy home, with the affection and kindness of which you have robbed her, and you shall suffer the misery you have inflicted. Now I had not meant to say a single word of this, and was thoroughly astonished to my own strong language, bitterly angry with myself as well, for what I felt to be unmanly conduct, even under fierce this provocation, when I saw the effect upon this haughty lady. It must have been many years now since anyone had dared to show her thus what she was like, for her strong will had swept black and white into one, the one she chose to make them, weak indolence and cowardice, a thousandfold more common than the resolute will had got out of her way, until her way turned to a resistless rush. She looked at me now as if utterly unable to believe that her ears could be true to her, then glancing at one of her daughters, she said, Geraldine, this young man does not mean it. He has no idea what he is talking about. Take him away, my dear, I feel unwell. I shall be able to think of things by and by. Euphrasia, run for the salvo tale, or the cognac in the square decanter, and then he may come back and tell me what he means. The strange turn of mind puzzled me. As much as my straightforward speech had puzzled her, Dr. Sipitz, our great man at Sunbury, said, when I spoke of it many years afterwards, that he quite understood and could easily explain it, to wit, that with people of choleric habit the vessels of the brain become so charged up to a certain tension that if anything more—but I had better not try to put his hundred-ton words into my tint-pot—he is a choleric man himself and his vessels might become so charged as to vent themselves in a heavy charge to me. It is enough to say that when the lady sank, with a face as white as death, upon the sofa proper feeling told me to depart. This I was doing, in a sad haze of mind, doubting whether duty did not require that I should halt on the promises, until I had learned how the sufferer passed through her trial. But now another strange thing happened to me, and perhaps the very last I should have dreamed of. I was lingering uneasily near the door, with many pricks of self-reproach and even shame, when a slim figure glided out and came to me, although the night had quite fallen now I could see that it was not my kitty who came out, but someone much shorter and smaller altogether. With great anxiety I went to meet her, fearing almost to hear fatal tidings, for who can tell in such a case what may be the end of it? You need not be alarmed, Mr. Orchardson, said a voice which I recognize as that of Miss Jerry. My mother is all right again, and quite ready to have another turn at you, if you are anxious to come back. The Lord forbid, I replied devoutly, I would run into the hottest of the brick kilns yonder rather than meet the good lady again, but I am delighted that it is no worse. It was very kind of you to come and tell me, my best thanks to you, Mr. Eldine. It was not that at all, she said with some hesitation. I did not come to set your mind at ease, though I thought that possibly you might be waiting here, which is very good of you, but I came to say how grateful I am for your behaviour. You have done a lot of good. I cannot tell you half of it. Nobody ever dares to contradict Mama. That is what makes her so much what she is. She is very kind and pleasant at the bottom, I am sure, but she has such a very strong will of her own, as a clever man said when he tried to comfort my dear father many years ago, such a very powerful identity that everyone has always given way before her, until she thinks all the world is bound to do it. You spoke very harshly to her, I know. Perhaps a real gentleman would not have done it, and for the moment I hated you. But she is so delightful to us ever since. We shall have a sweet time of it for at least one week. But won't Miss Kitty catch it? Those last words gave me a bitter pang. This odd girl who seemed to have some good in her spoke them, as I thought, with exultation, or at any rate without any sign of sorrow. Her justice, like her mother's, stopped at home. If I have done you any good, I said with faint hopes of getting some little myself. Do promise me one thing, I am sure you will. Try to be kind, Miss Fairthorn. Enlighten some of the little burden she has to bear. Oh, you don't know her, she answered with a laugh. You think she is wonderful, I dare say. I can tell you Miss Kitty has a temper of her own. She is awfully provoking, and she won't be pitied. I believe she hates Frizzy and me, just because we are her mother's daughters. If you ever marry her, you had better look out. However, I will bear with her as far as human nature can, and now I will say good night. She gave me her hand, which I do not expect. I saw that she was rather a pretty girl, which I had not noticed in the room. She had fine, dark eyes, and her voice was much softer than that of her sister. It seemed to me that she might come to good, if she got among good people and away from her terrible mother. When I gave Uncle Corny, as I was bound to do, a full account of that day's work, he was mightily pleased and clapped me on the back for having spoken so plainly to that haughty woman, but now you must make up your mind. He said, To have the door slammed in your face, if ever you attempt to get a glimpse of your sweetheart there. Poor thing, what a time of it she will have. What puts my back up is to think that her own father lets her be knocked about like that. She never tells him, you think, because it would only get him into trouble and do her no good. Well, she is a noble girl, if that is the case, but he must know how she is treated, as I told you in fifty other ways. Badly dressed, half-starved, or at any rate fed on rice and suet-putting, and kept in the school-room away from the others. How is she dressed now? What clothes had she on? I answered that I really did not know, and this was the truth, though I blame myself for it, when first she began to be so much to me I had noticed how neat and becoming her cloak was, and her hat and her little tender muff, which held a still, tenderer pair of hands. But now that she was all the world to me and more I seemed to have no sense of her apparel, but to be filled with herself alone as if her existence came into mind. I did not tell him that because he would have cried stuff. But he understood my meaning so far as to tell me of a case he had known some years ago. A friend of his had married a lovely girl, who had not a penny to bless herself with, and he was most deeply attached to her, but although he was very well off for money and not at all of a stingy turn, for a long time it never came into his head that his wife had only two gowns, two bonnets, and one cloak. She was too proud to ask him for money, and instead of doing that, went on and on, wearing out all her poor things, until they were scarcely fit to be looked at. And many bitter tears she shed, as she darned and patched and let pieces in, convinced more and more as the light shone through that her husband must hate her to keep her like that. And perhaps it would have ended in the ruin of them both, for some villain was making love to her when, luckily a sister of his came to see them and scolded him roundly for his blind neglect. Why bless her heart! he cried, opening his eyes. I never see Mary's clothes. I see Mary. Now, mind you're not such a jack-a-napes as that. My uncle drew the moral as he rubbed his hands, for he loved to have his stories laughed at. When you have got your kitty, and I don't see why you should not, be sure that you praise her dresses and bonnets, not quite so much, perhaps, as you praise herself. But still, every time you can think of it. Women like that sort of thing, somehow. I can hardly tell you why. For if any man praised my coat or my hat, I should be vexed with him, unless it was to say that I had got them dirt-cheap. But perhaps the reason is that a woman's clothes are a part of her mind and her body, too, a sort of another self to her. How on earth do you know such a lot about women? I asked, though I thought that he did not know much. One would think that you had been married for forty years. What woman could have taught you all these things? Mind your own business, my uncle answered sharply. You will have quite enough to do with that, as things appear at present. You have made play with this pretty girl, and you have booked your place with her father. Also, you have got over me, who have meant to have nothing to do with it. And you have given that hateful woman a rolling for her Oliver. But I will go bail that you have no idea whose shoulders will bear the brunt of it. Who should you say was a trump card now? The learned professor, I replied, the man who could kill that woman with a wire, if he were not so magnanimous, the man who knows everything in this world except how to manage his own household, he will stand up for me, and I shall win. So you shall, my boy, you are quite right there. But it won't be done through him, I can tell you, or you would have a precious time to wait. It shall be done through a small market gardener, as she had the cheek to call me, and she may grind her teeth and slap her husband. Very few people know what I am, because I don't care what they think of me. But I see the proper thing to do, and I mean to begin tomorrow. Now, go to bed and dream as you do all day. You'll be no good to me till you've had too much of kitty. Being weary and body and mind I slept until Tabby called out that the breakfast was ready. For this I expected to be well-uprated, as my uncle was always afoot with the sun, but to my surprise he was not come home, and I kept his rasher hot for him. At last he came in and sat down without a word beyond his short good-morning kit, and his appetite was fine and his face almost cheerful, though his gray curls appeared a little grimy, and his coat had a smell more peculiar than pleasant. She'll have to go under the pump again, he said, as he pushed away his plate. That won't matter now until dinnertime. That twitch does make such a sticky smoke, with the south thistles wellmed down over it. But the wind was the right way, and took it very level. Lost my soul how he did cough, and how he ran from one room to another. It was enough to kill American blight almost, let alone what they call a human. But it's high time to rouse him up again, my lad. Bring one of them runner sticks and lend a hand. If he don't bolt by dinnertime we'll try a little sulfur. I would have done it sooner if it had not been for the Dutch honeysuckle and blue creeper. Wondering what this device could be, I took a kidney bean stick and followed him. He marched a great pace, with a pitchfork on his shoulder, down a long alley of pears and apples. On which, though the leaves hung very late from the wetness of the season, the chill air of some frosty mornings had breathed diverse colors. Then we came into an open break, which I had helped to plant with potatoes in the spring. And here were a score of bonfires burning, a rather smoking furiously. Beyond them was honeysuckle cottage, belonging to my uncle, and standing at the north end of his grounds against a lane which led to Hanworth. This cottage had five windows facing us and receiving the volleys of foul gray smoke as a smart southwest wind drove it, and the fires being piled with diseased potato-home, of which there was abundance in that bad year, as well as bottomed with twitch grass, bethwine, cat's tail, and fifty other kinds of weed, and still more noxious refuse. The reek was more than any nose could stand when even a mild puff strayed towards us. But the mane and solid mass was rushing, in a flood of embodied stench, straight into the windows of that peaceful cot, penetrating sash and frame and lining. Once or twice as the cloud whisked before the wind, we seemed to catch a brief glimpse of some agitated mortal holding up his hands in supplication or ringing them and applying them in anguish to his nose. Pile on some more, behold, and stir them up again, shouted Uncle Corny with his pitchforks swinging in the thick of it. Agricultural operations must not be suspended to suit the caprice of individuals, as the county court judge said, when nox tried to stop me from carting manure near his parlor window. If old Harker won't harken, well make him sniff, eh? See the joke, Celsius Bill? Celsius Bill saw it, after deep reflection, and shook his long sides with a longer guffaw. But don't sniff at us, I must of square nostrils. He was wheezing himself as he chopped in another great dollop of rottenness and stirred it. I could never have bided it two minutes, though the Lord hathn't made me too particular. Sure, I shall venture him out this time, master. Here I cometh, here I cometh, looky see! Following his point we described the little man timidly opening the cottage door and apparently testing the smells outside to compare them with those he was squitting. He glanced at the bonfires and shook his fist wildly, then threw his skirt over his head and made off as if he smelled quite enough of this world. Running at the key, Bill! My uncle cried as soon as he could speak for laughing. Lock the door and bring the key to me. We'll send for the fire engine by and by and wash down the front. And then put your wife in and scrub the whole place out. Be to broad the firesmen and throw some earth on them. That's what I call something like ejectment. The old rogue has paid no rent since Lady Day, though he had a dirt-cheap at three and six a week, and me to pay the rates and taxes. Calm, you shall have a pint of beer all round, and I'm sure you want something to take the taste out. As we went home to have a good wash and change our coats, I learned all the meaning of this strong measure and felt no more pity for the tenant evicted. He had occupied this cottage for some seven years now, and although he lived so close to us and on our land, scarcely any one had exchanged ten words with him. He was of a morose and silent nature, living all alone though he had some money and never going out of doors when he could help it. His name was Ben Harker, and throughout the village his nickname was Old Arcarrate, for when anything was said to him that he could pick a hole in, if it were only a remark about the weather he would always say, No, that isn't Arcarrate. It was said that he had lost a considerable fortune, before he came to Sunbury, by some inaccuracy in the will, or titled deeds, and thence he had taken to challenge the correctness of even the most trivial statement. My uncle had been longing for months to recover possession of his own premises. But Old Harker took advantage of the obstacles richly provided by English law in such a case, and swore he would never go out without a lawsuit, but he had never spent a half penny on repairs, though he had it so cheap through his promises, and by his own default he was thus smoked out, and the key was in the landlord's pocket. Mrs. Salci Bill, a mother of seventeen living children, was very fat and stumpy, as behooves a giant's wife, and was blessed with a cold in her head just now which redeemed all her system from prejudice. The greatest philosophers assure us that all things, if there be anything, are good or bad, simply as we color them in our own minds. That is to say, if we have minds, and the Mrs. Bill Tompkins, the stench of that house, was as sweet as the perfumes of Arabi. She flung up the windows from the force of habit and not from the aesthetic preference, and she scrubbed away with soda and fuller's earth, and soft soap, and bristle, and cocoa fiber. And the next day, as soon as we had finished dinner, which we never left for nightfall, as if it were a burglary, my uncle said, Let us go and see how that place looks after Old Harker rate has cut and run. When we got there, fat little Mrs. Tompkins was scrubbing almost as hard as ever. It was quite wrong to talk as if fat people cannot work. Many of them can, and can even carry on, by drawing on their own resources when a lean person having hollow places down her begins to pant and has no stuff to fill them out. She drew her breath a little, as she got up from the bucket, but neither of her hands went to her waist, because there was no such place to go. She had three of the young ones strapped down on the floor of the room, she had not yet grappled with. For her husband was in a ingenious mind, and necessity had taught him invention. Mrs. Celsy Bill stood up and faced us. She thought that we were come to say she had not done enough. Honourable gents! she began with the lead as women loved to do. It don't look much, and you might think you got the worst of one and nine pence for a day, with the days going on for dusk at five o'clock. But when you has to find your own soap and flannels, I think you have done wonders, Mrs. Tompkins. My uncle made answer with his pleasant smile. If I only got the best of every bargain like this, I need never be out of elbows, ma'am. Why, the stairs are as white as a scraped horse-radish. May we go up and see the view from the best bedroom, not if it will upset any of your clever doings. You are the mistress now, and we take your orders. With a laugh which challenged our criticism for no man except a sailor knows the rudiments of scrubbing. She loosed for us a cord which she had tied across lest any celsy baby might break bonds and crawl upstairs, and presently we stood in a pretty little bedroom, with an ample but rickety window facing southwards. The room was not too lofty, and I might have knocked my head against the ceiling if I had not dofted. But Uncle Corny, being not so tall, though wider, had plenty of headroom, and asked what man could want more, and when I looked out of the window I agreed that a man deserved less who could not be pleased with this. For Honey-Suckle Cottage stood at the very highest corner of all his pleasant fruit-grounds, and I was much surprised, having never been inside this house before, at the rich view of gardening ever varied, in the fair land and water beyond the fruit alleys which shone in a soft spread of sunshine far away. Over the heads of countless trees and betwixt their coats of many colors, matched by the motherly hands of autumn, the broad reaches of the flooded Thames, with many a band of sheen and shadow, led the eye to dwell with pleasure, and the heart with wonder, and across the wide water sloping meadows streaked and rounded with hedge and breastland, spread a green footing for the dark and distant hills. Let me see, today is Friday, an unlucky day, kid, for you to come first to the house. If I had thought of that we might have waited for to-morrow, but it can't be helped now, and I am not superstitious. On Monday I'll have Joe and Jimmy Andrews in and put all these window frames and doors to rights, and then we'll have Tilbury from the Hampton, to see to the papering and painting and all that. By the end of the week we'll have it snug and tidy. I have sent old Harker's traps after him today. They'll tell me he has taken that tumble-down barn of Osborns, over by Halliford. I suppose I may whistle from my back runce. I ought to have restrained upon his sticks. But I laugh so when I saw how he bolted that I couldn't do it. But you'll have to pay an improved front, my lad. You can't have it under five shillings a week, and cheap enough at that, I can tell you. Why, what do you mean? I asked. I don't want a house, and if I did, how am I to keep it up? I haven't got a six pence to call my own. Then a pretty fellow you are to make up to Captain Fairthorn's daughter. Where did you intend to put her, I should like to know? I won't make that all right between you and me in the bedpost. I've got a little nest egg of your mother's money for you, and a heel-tap of your father's. Didn't you know why I smoked that old rogue out? Why, that this might be a little home for Kit and Kitty. And of Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Of Kit and Kitty By Richard Doddridge Blackmore This LibriVox Recording Is in a Public Domain Chapter 20 And Parcelo It is a bad thing for any man to be always beating his own bounds and treading the track of his own grounds and pursuing the twist of his own affairs, though they be even love affairs as a dog spins round to catch his own tail. Under the hammer of innocent thought and in the hot pincers of perpetual yearning, I was getting as flat as a horseshoe twice removed when Sam Henderson gave a boy two pence to slip into our grounds, when my uncle's back was turned, and put into my hand an envelope addressed to Samuel Henderson Esquire, the Paddocks, Halliford Middlesex. At first I thought of my slow way that his object was to let me see what deference he had won in racing circles, and I smiled at the littleness of the man. But the boy, who was shaking in his ventilated shoes with dread of Uncle Corny, said, "'Taint that side, turn it over!' I obeyed his instructions and beheld in pencil. Come down the lane a bit, I have news for you, important.' What mortal, dwelling wholly on his own affairs, would not have concluded that this concerned him, on his own account, and unselfishly. I hurried on my coat which had been thrown off for a job of winter pruning, and in less than two minutes I had turned the corner and was face to face with the mighty Sam. "'All right, old fellow!' he said as coolly as if I had come to recover alone. You needn't turn a hair. It is not about your kitty, but my skittish little Sally, Sally Chalker. You know I told you all about her, the daughter of the old bloke down at Ludred. Oh, I remember now,' I answered with a sudden chill of disappointment. I might have known that it was not for me that you were in such a precious hurry. You were very wise not to come into our place. My uncle is a man of short measures. "'A man of uncommonly short measures? He will get fine some day, I'm afraid,' Sam laughed, wonderingly at his own wit. But I know he don't want me to see his little tricks. Don't bluster, beloved kit. We all do it, and we respect one another all the more for it. Free trade has turned John Bull into Charlie Fox. I can feel for you, my boy, for now there's a foreign rogue compoaching on my preserves at Ludred, and he doesn't know how many legs make a horse.' Sam tapped his own dapper and well curved legs with a light gold-headed riding whip, and his favorite mare, who was under the charge of a lad down the lane, gave a winnie to him. "'There's nothing she don't know,' said Sam, and her name is Sally. I was not sure which of the two fillies, for I knew that he called a sweetheart one and her name too was Sally. My friend was thus commending. But I rose to the situation and said, Let us go, and route the fellow out. I was sure you would stand by a brother of Britain,' cried Sam, shaking his hands very heartily. "'And you won't find me forget it, Kit. When old crumbly pot comes back again, I am keeping a look out for you there, as I gave you my word to do. It has been Kettles' demand, I am told, in Fenland, where he hails from. I know a Jew fellow who brought him to book, and was very nearly quaddling him. You won't be back this side of Christmas unless my friend is a liar, and then I shall do you as good a turn as you are going to do me now. Can you make it fit to come to-morrow? I'll put my Sally in the spider, and call for you about ten o'clock. You can tell old Punnets that you want to see your Aunt Parslow about some important business. For important it is and no mistake, think of a dirty Frenchman, Noddlin sweet Sally Chocker, and all her cash.' Old Punnets, as he instantly called my uncle, was glad enough that I should pay a visit to my aunt, or rather my mother's aunt, Miss Parslow, who is said to be worth at least ten thousand pounds, as well as a very nice house, a large garden, and three or four meadows by River Mole. You should never neglect such folk, he said. You have no proper sense of the Plainest Duty. She has only one relation as near as you are, and he has got plenty of tin of his own. You might cut him out easy enough, if you tried, and now is the nick of time for it. Anna Parslow is as proud as Punch, I know. And if you can only put it to her, with a little of the proper grease, of course, that your mother's son is considered unfit to marry a young lady, because he cannot cut a shine, who can tell what she might do for you? She doesn't spend half of her income, I know. I was thinking of it only the other night, and she might allow you two hundred a year without stinting a pinch of Keating's powder. You love dogs, and dogs love you. Half the dogs in the village come to see you home? Make up to Jupiter and Juno, and the other bow-wows she has taken to her bosom, and you'll never want my thirty shillings a week, nor yet the little balance of your father and mother's money. You go and see her, Kit. Don't lose a day. You may accept a lift from that fast Sam Henderson, but throw him over as soon as you've got it. Now this little speech was as like two peas to Uncle Corny's nature. He had never said a word about meaning to give me any one pound ten a week, though heaven knows that I was worth it. For let the weather be what it would, there was I making the best of it. On a contrary, I had very seldom put into the purse, which I carried more for the husk than Colonel, so much as five shillings on a Sunday morning, which was my uncle's particular time for easing his conscience about me. Of course I had my vitals and my clothes to a certain extent, and the power to pay his bills, which made people offer me something sometimes. Also I could talk as if the place belonged to me, but people knew better for at least three miles away, so that his talking of thirty shillings proved without another word on his part in his high and holy views of marriage. And again it was like him to try to put me up to get something good out of good Aunt Parslow. Whatever I could get from her would mean so much relief for the Orchardson firm, as he often called us in his prouder times, though if I had asked for a penny of the proceeds he would have banged his big desk upon my knuckles. But do not let me seem to say a word against him for a better uncle never lived, and I felt his generosity very deeply until I began to think of it. Few things have been more successful yet and very few have been better managed than that drive of ours to leatherhead. Possibly Sam was a luckier fellow than myself and I think it likely because he was less deserving. Not that there was much harm about him, except a kind of laxity and talk and a strained desire to be accounted sharp, and a strong ambition to rise in the world without cleaning the steps there he mounted them. But he showed a fine heart by his words just now, although he was much ashamed of it, and the pace we were going at brought it out, for a brisk air stirs up the best part of us. Ain't she a stepper? he said as we crossed Walton Bridge and dashed through the flood water, for the high road was not made up then. Wet or dry is all alike to Sally. That's the way to go through the world, my boy. Julia Caesar crossed the river here, and I have got a yearling named after him. What makes it all the kinder on my part is he hasn't got a Latin in his family. How proud the old chap would have been for me to go out of the customs, so? It'll set a whole lot of emperors going if the colt gets to shine, I expect of him. Knowing nothing about the turf and caring very little, I let him rattle on about pedigrees and strains of double blood and waxy and whale bone and I know not what. As bad as the multiplication table. And I wondered that such stuff should form his discourse, when he should have been full of young ladies. Even the beauty of the country which was more than enough to delight the eyes and hold the mind still with pleasure, seemed nothing to Sam beyond. Yes, very pretty. Nice bit of training ground up there. That's the sort of grass that suits milk-teeth. At last we came within a mile of our mark and followed the fair valley of the river. I brought him to the business of the day having heard enough of spider-wheels, and flyers, and so forth, and requiring to know what he expected of me. We had gone at such a pace up hill and down scarcely ever varying from one long stride, which left every other trap far in the lurch, that but for my boyish remembrance of the place I could scarcely have believed that we were almost in the village. Fifteen or five, he said. That's her pace. There's no halfway house for Sally. She walks a good five. Walk, as the word, old gal. Well, all you have got to do, Kit, is just this. I put up at the dolphin. And you make a call, with your best gloves on, and your hat brushed up at Valley View House, where your good aunt lives. You have not seen her for years so much the better. Tell her that a distinguished friend of yours, especially esteemed by your uncle, and well known in the best London circles, has important business in the town, and that you took occasion to pay your respects, where they have been due so long. Admire her dogs, and all that sort of thing, and when she insists on your staying to lunch, regret very deeply that you cannot leave your distinguished friend, etc., then if she is any good, she'll say, Do you think he would waive formality? And so on, and you say, if he is not engaged at Lord Nether Souls, I will endeavor to fetch him. I shall happen to be lounging up the hill, and shall pull out my watch, and be doubtful. But the attractions of the spot are too many for me. I throw over his lordship, and get over the old lady. I promise to do my best towards this, but without any fictions concerning him, for his best chance lay, as I told him, in moderation and simplicity. For my aunt, according to my remembrance, was rather a shrewd old lady, and Sam had shown some little sense of this, in the choice of what he called his Toggery. All rich adornments and gorgeous hues had been for once discarded. His clothes were all of quiet grey, and his tone had subsided from the solar to the lunar rainbow. In short he looked more like a gentleman than I had ever known him look before, and seeing what a fine young man he was, I felt heartily glad that he had fixed his affections where they could not impair a mine. When he entered the gate of Valley View, nine or ten small dogs came scampering out, all giving tongue, all making believe to be born for one end, namely my end. They were pugs and sky terriers, and Blenheims, Spaniels, and wiry-coated terriers and Italian greyhounds, and little ridiculous toy dogs fit for a child's Noah's Ark, and I know not what else, but no dog of the name of silence. What a pack of currs, I said rather gruffly, and with a gesture of contempt, for I never did hear such a medley of barks. As dogs are the most humorous creatures in the world, and they immediately looked at one another and laughed, each applying my remark to his neighbours, if they had been currs they would have felt it more. Being all a fine breeding they took it lightly, as I said it, for I had no real meaning to offend them. Then a great deal more quickly than we said all matters they referred the whole question to a grand old pug, with his face pulled up short, like a plated blind. By the cords of disgust at the tricks of mankind and lots of little pimples, like a turbot's moles upon it, as a chairman of committee he came up to me, reserving his stump in a very strict line, till my character passed through the test of his nose. Then he gave a little doubtful trepidation to his tail, and after another sniff and a very hardy wag, and with one accord all the doggies set off to the house to announce that an honest dog was coming. Miss Parsley was inclined, as appeared thereafter, to attach more importance to the verdict of her dogs, even as a Roman admiral should have consulted his holy chickens. When the dogs came to say that they believed me to be safe their mistress put them all into their own room, and came out to the porch to meet me. She knew me at once, though I might have forgotten her, except for a great event in my life, when she gave me the first sovereign I ever possessed. Being a small and slim lady she rested her head upon the upper pocket of my waistcoat, which seemed to be an excellent omen. Oh, how you do take after your mother! she exclaimed with a genial tear or two. You are not like an orchidson, my dear boy, but a parselow, a parselow all over. Why have you kept away from valet view till now? This was a difficult question to answer, and therefore I naturally asked another. How are you getting on, my dear aunt, and will it put you out that I should come like this? I wrote last night, but it may have been too late. Oh, the posts are always wrong. Come and sit here by the fire. We shall have a sharp winter, I'm sure of that. Jupiter knows the weather as well as if he made it. Now, come and tell me about your own affairs. At first I was not inclined to do that, preferring to talk about hers and desiring some knowledge of her character and opinions before I began to spread forth my own. But she took the lead of me and contrived to get out of me all about Uncle Corny and everybody else I had to do with, and even the whole of my hopes and fears concerning the main object of my life, for the old can always pump the young when they know the right way to hold the handle. I cannot see where presumption is, she said, as she took my hand and placed it in one of hers and padded it. Your mother was Annie Parslow as sweet a young lady as any Miss Fairthorne. Her father would have been Lord Mayor of London if he had only lived long enough. The Parslows were in the tea-line, which is equal to almost any. It is true that she dropped several grades in life by marrying George Orchardson, and Miss Fairthorne's friends, if she ever does it, will say that she dropped several grades in life by marrying Kit Orchardson. I felt I had her there, but she would not see it. Don't talk nonsense, Kit. The case is wholly different. You may be counted as half a Parslow while nobody knows what she is, and you must not consider what her friends will say but your own, who are sensible people. You have acted very wisely in coming over to tell me about this affair. I am sorry that the girl is so poor through her father's stupid carelessness. You know that I like your Uncle Cornelius, although he is such a queer character. One of the most obstinate men on earth, and nearly all men are obstinate. But he is apt to put things off. He is always waiting for something else to be ready. I shall pay him a visit soon, as Mr. Parker's fly has got its new cushions in, and his bay horse recovered from his lameness. Then we will settle something about you. I never let the grass grow below my feet. I shall make your Uncle Cornelius come to a book. I am quite convinced in my own mind that he has been keeping all these years a nice little lump of your father's money, as well as your dear mother's property. No Parslow was ever a beggar yet. There was none of them, but had a silver teapot, as was only decent in the business. And most of them could fill it with banknotes. Though I am not saying that your mother could. Hear me what a dreadful to do there was when she ran away with George Ortsonson. My dear brother vowed he would never forgive her, although she was his favourite child. So upright and fair, and so ladylike, and cheeks like Damasque roses. You never see such a sweet face now. All the education is to learn to stare, and their polish is like a brass knocker's. What they all want is a good stepmother to starve and to slap their ears out of them. That may have made your kitty nicer than you can expect to find them now. If I were a young man I wouldn't marry any girl who had not been ten years under a strong stepmother. Why, how many more times is a young man to lounge up and down the road over there? He is very like the one who comes from somewhere near you and has taken a fancy to Sally Chalker. My dear aunt, I said your delightful conversation has driven him out of my head altogether. It must be Mr. Henderson who drove me over, a sporting man but a landlord, and a very fashionable fellow. He is waiting for me to go back with him, no doubt, and he will not take the liberty of ringing your bell. I must not keep him any more. Goodbye, my dear aunt. Do you think that I would let you go without a morsel? We shall have luncheon in about five minutes. Ask your friend to join us if he will oblige me. Oh, I do like a shy man. He is getting so scarce. End of Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Of Kit and Kitty by Richard Dodgeridge Blackmore This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 21 A Tulip Bloom All other Hedions he used to admit, and could show good reason for doing so, that my great aunt Parslow was the cleverest woman, as well as the most respectable in the place. But even her abilities were hardly taxed to find in my friend Sam Henderson any large amount of that element of shyness, with which he had endowed him through the window. His merits were rather inclined to dispense with any bridal veil of modesty, and his charms never mantled themselves in moss, as the coy rose attracts by retiring. But I was pleased to find that he behaved much better than any of his best friends could have hoped. For he dropped all slang, and soared in the lofty places among much more nobility than I had ever heard of. And I wondered a little at my aunt's familiarity with all the great names he was so friendly with, for she never said no, but nodded intimately, whenever he presumed that she knew the earl of something, or even the duke of anything. I could not resist the conclusion that the Parslows had been in the peerage, and lost it. Probably through excess of greatness and consequent peril to the throne itself. When Sam had told scandals enough of great people, to keep all ludrid in affirmament for a month, though I notice with surprise his delicacy and deference to the fact, if to no other, that he was speaking in the presence of a maiden lady. He played another card even more effective. He asked, as the very greatest favour he could think of, the honour of an introduction to the noblest circle of dogs now existing in the kingdom. Perhaps you will regret it, Mr. Henderson. Aunt Parslow replied with a smile and a blush, for she had a very pretty colour still, which had varied with some of his narratives. My dogs are perfect little wizards and witches they took to my nephew because he is a Parslow, and perhaps because he is so innocent, but you have seen so much of the world, yet kept myself quite untainted by it. He spoke with such gravity that I was obliged to turn away. Next to the society of accomplished ladies I enjoy that of horses and of thoroughbred dogs, with a very long interval between, of course, but I scarcely ever met an accomplished lady. What a lucky mark I must have put to this day. Oh, if I could only show you my little Tim, he can stand on his tail and sing rural Pertania and beat time with all his four legs in the air. But compared to your dogs he is nothing but a cur. What beauties! Why, Ms. Parslow, I will never trust my eyes again. Yes, they are very pretty, as good as any children, or a great deal better, I might say. Jupiter, don't growl, sir. Cleopatra, take your teeth out of Mr. Henderson's boot, Vulcan and Venus and Mercury! Oh, dear! At a signal from Jupiter, the ancient pug, all the pets had made a rush at the bewildered Sam, and a chorus of yells arose as he was obliged in self-defense to kick at them. Then they rallied in a body round the corner of a sideboard, snarling and showing their little white teeth, with their bristles erect and their eyes full of fire, bravely encouraging one another for a still fiercer charge at the stranger. And he would have had the worst of it or killed some of the tiny ones if I had not spied a light whip in the lobby, and given Master Jupiter a crack on his fat sides which made him bolt with a howl, and all his army followed suit. Oh, how shall I punish them? Do forgive me! I never knew them to do such a thing before, and I thought them such excellent judges of character. How could I imagine that they would ever fly at you? They had pulled down the cloth and broken two decanters that belonged to my dear mother. But that is nothing, Mr. Henderson, compared with a shocking fright they have given you. How can I ever thank you for not killing them? Then Henderson, with the skill of Hannibal, turned his defeat into victory. What plucky little chaps they are! he said. I did all I could to put them in a rage on purpose to test their breeding. Perhaps you saw me flash this pin at them. If anything drives a small dog wild, it is to catch him in the eyes with a large car-bunkle, but I got the worst of it and served me right. I only hope I may not have hurt any of the darlings. You are magnammity itself, my dear sir. Aunt Parslow glanced shyly at his very good trousers, which would never be quite so good again. The main point is whether you are hurt, even a very little dog, you know, Miss Parslow. A dog, unless really rabid, is not a quarter so venomous as a cat. If I had been attacked like that by cats, I could not have dared to show a bit of mercy, even if they had been prime favourites of yours. Oh, I cannot bear cats. I am so glad you draw that most just distinction. Dogs are so noble and generous, so candid and loving and chivalrous. They show that, even when they did their best to bite you. But a cat is so stealthy and crawling and crafty, and I might even say bloodthirsty. Next to my dogs I love my birds, the dear little things that come and sing, even in the—not by any means an elegant expression—of winter. Not a robin could live here, until I had my doggies. But that sounds like the front doorbell. Kit, would you oblige me by just seeing who it is? Jenny and Biddy are engaged, I know. What a very strange thing, if it should be Miss Chalker. Of course, you never heard of our bell Chalker, Mr. Henderson. Madam, it appears to me that you are all bells here. Sam bowed as he spoke, and contrived to convey me a wink as I left the room, which told me that the very strange thing had been brought to pass by post or possibly by telegram. When I opened the door I saw a very pretty girl, but no more to be compared with my darling Kitty than a tulip with a lily of the valley. Although it was close upon winter now she had a striped parasol, which I detest, and her velvet hat, turned down over one year and turned up at the other, and two Kingfisher's wings stuck crosswise, and between them a gorgeous topaz hummingbird. You might look at my Kitty fifty times, and if anyone asked you how she was dressed, you would have to say, I have not the least idea, if you happen not to be a woman. But this young lady's attire compelled attention, and perhaps deserved it. Oh, I beg your pardon, she said very nicely and giving me a smile which made two dimples, but I thought Miss Parslow might be disengaged. I thought I would look in as I was going down the town, but I will not intrude if she has visitors. She made some difficulty about coming in as if she were not bent upon doing so, but I told her with a look, which she feigned not to understand, that I should never be forgiven if I allowed her to depart. Then the lady of the house came out and brought her in, and introduced her to both visitors. Oh, I know Mr. Henderson, a great friend of my father's. I am so glad that he knows you, Aunt Parslow. I am sure he admires your lovely view. Now, this was not exactly to my liking. What right had she to call my Aunt Parslow hers? If I ever met anyone free from petty jealousy, I believe it is the one I see while shaving. But ever since Sam Henderson came in at my aunt's door, I, who had been getting on so well till then, seemed to be no better than a nobody. He had made himself the hero of the hour, and played first fiddle, and forced his way into her best graces, by working on her vanity in social yearnings and family pride, till I quite expected that he would declare himself to be a Parslow and entitled to the silver teapot. And now he was this girl, who had made up her mind as I could see plainly, to be Mrs. Sam Erlong, daring to address my wealthy relative as her own Aunt Parslow. "'Kid, you don't look very well,' said the lady of the house after much chatter had been indulged in. "'A little change will do you good, perhaps. I suppose you are always up an apple-tree at home. Would you like to come with me through my long garden and give me your advice about one or two things? The view of the valley is very lovely and so perfectly rustic. Jenny will have tea ready when we come back. To this we all agreed with great pleasure, and my aunt contrived to let Sam and his sally fall behind, quite out of sight among the trees and shrubs, while she took my arm and let me carry her campstool. Jupiter alone of the dogs came with us, for she scarcely went even to church without him. And he certainly was a clever and amusing fellow full of information, and yet always adding to it. He looked at me with great respect, and not a shadow of resentment for the very solid whack I had be stowed upon him. His black muzzle, big forehead, large deep eyes, crow's feet of experience, and furrows of philosophy, were relieved of their austerity every now and then, by the gentle waggery of his corkscrew tail. Now, I will show you as lovely a piece of rich English landscape as ever you saw,' the old lady said, as we turned a grassy corner. I have often thought of having a bower made here, but perhaps that would tend to cocknify it. Let me have the stool, Kit, and you sit on that stump. The view from the house is very beautiful, but this beats it because it shows another bend, and perhaps the very prettiest bend of all the valley. You ought to be here in May, Kit, when the lilacs and lobernums and the wild broom and the apple blossom and the soft green of the trees along the winding river. Don't talk to me of Devonshire after that. I have never been there, but I won't believe it. I admired the view, which was very nice indeed, and very prettily varied on its way. At the same time I could not help thinking that some of the broad reaches of the Thames and the long spread of meadows with the slanting sun, and the cattle too sleek to care a flip for flies, and the trees and the islands and the glassy quiet, such as we have round our way, were much more likely to do a man good, which must be the thing they were made for, than all the sharp turns of a pretty little stream which our river receives without knowing it. You are right, my dear nephew, replied my dear aunt, when I had expressed opinions not exactly as above. It is indeed a large and noble sight, but I fear that those two young people behind us will be looking all the time at one another, and perhaps never know that they are in a valley. Mr. Henderson is a very pleasant young man, so far as I can judge, and a clever one, likely to make his own way in the world, with the help of all the very great friends he has, but is he to be thoroughly dependent on? Has he the strict principle and downright honesty and love of domestic life, without which no marriage can be truly happy? I have a great regard for young Miss Chalker, and though her father belongs to another grade of life, and one with which I have had but little sympathy, I believe him to be a very upright man, and his heart is bound up with his only child. She has no mother, you must understand, and I will not lend myself to anything for which I could not answer to her father and myself. My aunt fixed her keen gray eyes upon me, and her white hair added to their force and truth. For the first time I felt that I had acted rashly, and by no means rightly in the matter as she put it, and that she put it sensibly, and honestly, and kindly, was too evident for my self-content. I should not have yielded to Sam's overtures or at any rate I should not have involved her in the case, without being far more sure than I was at present of his good qualities. I answered as truthfully as I could, which is the only right thing to do, however it may end, and I felt that the end might be my disgrace with her. Aunt Parslow, I know very little of Sam Henderson, that is to say, I have known him from a boy, but never been intimate with him. In our village he is considered rather fast, but we are a very steady going lot, and anyone who deals at all with racing matters is sure to get that reputation with us. I have never heard anything against his honesty. If I had I should not be with him until it was disproved. I think that he is really attached to Miss Chalker, and whether he would be a good husband for her is a great deal more than I can say. You ladies are the best judges of such matters. If you can give him a good word, do, but it must depend entirely upon your own judgment, for as I said before I do not know him at all thoroughly. I am not very sanguine about it, said my aunt, whose eyes had never left mine while I spoke, and I shall take good care that, if they meet again here, it shall be with her father's knowledge. There is one thing to be said that they both belong to the same class in life, and are likely therefore to understand one another's ways. The same cannot be said of you, my dear, and your love is a much more romantic affair and likely, I fear, to run no smooth course. There I will help you all I can, and my advice will be of great service to you. Also, if you want a little money, you know where to come for it, and that reminds me that you may want some now. Your uncle Orchardson is a man, I believe, of great integrity and fine principle, but I know that he objects very strongly departing with any of the means God has given him. If you are obliged to run away with your kitty to save her from an old retrograde, and it may come to that, though I dislike such things, what does your uncle propose to do for you? You ought to do something handsome. And so he will, something very handsome. He has promised to pay me thirty shillings a week for my services and his business, and to let us a cottage at five shillings a week, which must be worth seven and six pence. Exactly like him, the old curmudgeon, well I won't say yet what I will do, because I have not even seen your kitty, and I have, of course, so many claims upon me. But here is a ten-pound note to save you for making your uncle unhappy by asking him to advance you a trifle, and if you want another you can have it any day. I am pleased with you, Christopher, because I think you have told me the truth about all these affairs, as well as about Mr. Henderson, and Jupiter, who is the greatest of all judges, has pronounced most strongly in your favor. Now let us go and look for that sporting pair. Quite enough of such proceedings in my garden.