 20 Any kind good-natured person, loving bright simplicity, would have thought at a little treat to look round the carrier's dwelling-room upon that Saturday evening when he expected Mr. Overshoot. Both the crypts himself was overtidy or too particular. He was so kindly familiar now with hay and straw and bits of string and chaff and chips and promiscuous parcels that on the whole he preferred a litter to any exertions of broom or brush. But Esther, who ruled the house at home, was the essence of quick neatness, and scorned all comfort unless it looked, as well as was, right comfortable. When now expecting so grand a guest, she had tucked up her sleeves and stirred her pretty arms to no small purpose. The room was still a kitchen, and she had made no attempt to disguise that much. But what can look better than a kitchen clean and bright and well supplied with cheery tools of appetite? It was a good-sized room, and very picturesque with snugness. Little corners in and out gave play for light and shadow. The fireplace retired far enough to well express itself, and a dresser had brass-handled drawers that seemed quietly nursing tablecloths. Well above these, upon lofty hooks the chronicles of the present generation might be read on cups. Zachary headed the line, of course, and then, as Genesis is ignored by grander generations, Exodus and Leviticus, the fount of much fine movement, and numbers and a great many more showed that the carrier's father and mother had gladly baptized every one. In front of the fire sat the carrier, with nearly all of his best clothes on, and gazing at a warming pan, he had been forbidden to eat his supper for fear of making a smell of it, and he had a great mind to go to bed and have some hot coals under him. For nearly five miles of uphill work and laying his shoulder against the spokes, he had been promising himself a rare good supper and a pipe to follow. And now where were they? In the far background he had no idea of rebellion, still that saucepan on the simmer made the most provoking movements, therefore he put up his feet upon a stump of oak, which had for generations cooled down pots, and he turned with a shake of his head toward the fire and sniffed the sniff of tantalus and muttered, ah, well, the Lord knoweth best, and thought to himself that if ever again he invited the quality to his house he would wait till he had his own quantity first. Esther was quite in a flutter, although she was ready to deny it stoutly, and to blush a bright red in doing so. To her, of course, justice overshoot was simply a great man who must have the chair of state and the talk of restraint and a clean, dry hearth and the curtsy and the best-white apron of deference. To her it could make not one jot of difference that Mr. Overshoot happened to be the most intimate friend of some other gentleman who never came near her except in dreams. Tush! She had the very greatest mind, when the house was clean and tidy, to go and spend the evening with her dear friend Mealy at the Anvil. But Zachary would not hear of this, and how could she go against Zachary? So she brought the grand chair, the arm-chair of you-tree, the tree that used to shade the graves of unrecorded krypsis, a chair of deepest red complexion, countenanced with a cushion. The cushion was but a little pad in the dark capaceous hollow, suggesting to an innocent mind that a lean man had left his hat there and a fat man had sat down on it. But the mind of every crypts yet known was strictly reverential, and this was the coup roll chair, and even the Olympian throne of krypsis. Russell Overshoot knocked at the door, in his usual quick and impetuous way. In the main he was a gentleman, and he would have knocked at the nobleman's door exactly as he did the carriers, but all radical theories fine as they are detract from gentle practice, and the two large-minded man, while young, takes a flying leap over small niceties. He does not remember that poor men need more deference than rich men, because they are not used to it. To put it more plainly Overshoot knocked hard, and meant no harm by it. Come in, sir, and kindly welcome. Kryps began as he showed him in. Lace to take this chair, your worship. Never mind your boots. More blessed is the mud of three counties come up here. Then it goes away again very quickly. Miss Kryps, how are you? May I shake hands? Esther, who had been shrinking into the shade of the clock and the dresser, came forward with a brave bright blush, and offered her hand, as a lady might. Russell Overshoot took a kindly and bowed to her curtsy, and smiled at her, in an honest manly way he admired pretty Esther. Esther Kryps, you are too bad. Your sister is in a conspiracy, too. I do believe that your mind is set to make me as tipsy as a king tonight. They little things! So the carrier pointing to the old oak table, where a bottle of grand old whisky shone with the reflected gleam of lemons, and glasses danced in the firelight. They little things, sir! Was never set for so good a gentleman of four, nor a one to do such honor to one. But they might be worse, sir, they might be worse, to spake their simple do of them. And how is poor Squire to-night, your worship? Well he is about as usual. Nothing seems to move him much. He sits in his old chair, and listens for a step that never comes, but his patience is wonderful. It ought to be a lesson to us, and I hope that it has been one to me. He trusts in the Lord, Crips, as strongly as ever. I fear I should have given up that long ago, if I were laid on my back as he is. Young folk, answered Crips, as he drew the cork, mean in no disrespect to you, sir. When a encounter's trouble is like a young horse a coming to the foot of a hill for the first time with a heavy load, he feel at the collar beginning to press, and he tosseth his head, and that maketh them worse. He begineth to get into fret and fume, and he shakeeth his legs with anger, and he turneth his head, and foameth a bit, and champeth to ax the meaning of it, and then you can judge what the stuff of him is. If he be bad stuff, he throweth him back, and tilteth his loins and spreadeth it. But if he have good stuff, he throweth out his chest, and puteth the fire into his eyes, and closeeth his nostrils, and gathereth his legs, and straineth his muscles like a bowstring. But if he be as good as a wool, he longeth to see over the top of that hill, before he be half way up it. Well, Crips, I have done that, I confess. I have longed to see over the top of the hill, and heaven only knows where that top is. But as sure as we sit here and drink this glass of punch to your sister's health and to yours, good carrier, so surely shall our dear old friend receive the reward of his faith and courage, whether in this world or the next. Thank ye kindly, sir. Eddie, is that the best sort of curtsy they teach us now? Now, don't blush, child, but make a better. But as to what your worship was a sayin' of, I virtually hopes it may come to pass in this world we be livin' in. Otherwise, maybe, us never may know on it. The kingdom of heaven be in such a size. Crips, I believe it will be in this world, and I hope that I am on the straight road now towards making out some part of it. You have told your sister, all I told you, at praise and those this morning according to my directions? Very well, then. I may begin again at the point where I left off with you. Where did I break it? I almost forget. But the man's big thumb in the mouth of a shield. You was a lookin' at him, sir, and the wind and the rain blowin' furious. Ah, yes, I remember, and so they were. I thought that the crust of the hedge would fall over and bury the whole of us out of the way. And then the poor boy had kicked out his convulsions and fallen into a senseless sleep. The rough man turned on me savagely as if I could have prevented it. A pretty doctor, you be, he exclaimed. But I took the upper hand on him. Stand back there, I said, and I lifted the child expecting him to strike me all the while, and placed the poor little fellow on my horse, and managed to get up into my saddle before the wind blew him off again. Now, lead the way to your home, I said, and muttering something he set off. He strode along at such a pace that having to manage both child and horse, it was all I could do to keep up with him. But I kept him in sight till he came to a common, and there he struck sharply away to the right. By the light of the wind and the rain, and a star that twinkled where the storm was lifting, I followed him, perhaps for half a mile, through a narrow track in and out of furs and bramble. At last he turned suddenly round a corner, and a shadow fell behind him. His own shadow, thrown by a gusty gleam of fire, Cantaloupe, that is my horse, Miss Esther, has not learned to stand fire yet, and he shied at the light, and set off through the furs as if with the hounds and full cry before him. We were very lucky not to break our necks going headlong in the dark among rabbit holes. I thought that I must have dropped the child as the best thing to be done for him, but the shaking revived him, and he clung to me. I got my horse under command at last, but we must have gone half a mile anywhere and to find the way back seemed a hopeless task. But the quick-witted people, who knew what had happened and what was likely to come of it, saved me miles of round about by a very simple expedient. They hoisted from time to time a torch of dry furs blazing upon a pole, and though the light flared and went out in the wind, by the quick repetition they guided me, in the cold and the wet, it rejoiced my heart to think of a good fire somewhere. Eddie, stir the fire up, the hospitable Crips interrupted, his worship hath shivers to think of it. When a man, or beg pardon, a gentleman, feeleth the small of his back o' creeping he needeth good fire to come up his legs, and a hot summit to go down him. Eddie, be quick with the water now. Crips, Crips, Carrier Crips, do you want to have me spilled on the road to-night? I am trying to tell things in proper order, but how can I do it if you go on so? However, as I was beginning to say, can't a loop in the child and I, fetched back to the place at last, where the flash of light had started us, and we saw not a flash, but a glow this time, a dead-fast body of cheerful fire, with pots and cauldrons over it. So well had the spot been chosen in the lee of ground and growth, the de-ash of the fire lay round the embers, as still is the beard of an oyster. While thicket and tree but a few yards off were thrushing in the wind and wailing, behind this fire and under our rick cloth the sloping from a sandstone crest, women and children and one or two men sat as happy and snug as could be, dry and warm and ready for supper, and pleased with the wind and the rain outside, which improved their comfort and appetite, and now and then the children seemed to be pulling at an important woman, to hurry her perhaps in her cookery. But while I was watching them, keeping my horse on the verge of light and shadow, a woman quite different from the rest came out of the darkness after me. Heedless of weather and reckless of self she had been seeking for me, or rather for my little burden, her hair was steeped with the drenching rain, for she wore no hat or bonnet, and her dark clothes hung on the lines of her figure, as women hate to let them do. Her eyes and face I could not see because the way the light fell, but I seemed to know her none the less, while I gazed in doubt my little fellow slipped like an eel from my clasp in the saddle, and almost before I could tell where he was there he was in the arms of his mother. Wonders of love now began to go on, and it struck me that I was one too many in a scene of that sort, and I turned my good horse to be off and away, but the woman called out, and a man laid hold of my bridle, and took his hat off when, with the usual impulse of a stopped Britain, I was going to strike at him. I saw that it was my good friend of the ditch, and I came to parlay with him, what with his scarcity of manners and of polished language and worst of all his want of pallet, I found it hard with so much wind blowing out here all around us to understand his meaning. This was rude of me to the last degree, for the query-voiced man was doing no less than inviting me, with all his heart, to an uncommonly good dinner. CHAPTER XXI Now that, said Cripps, is what I call a proper way of doing things. Harder all, aathons knows a day or more than we credit them. Well, Miss Esther, asked Russell, turning to his other listener, what do you think about it now? Sir, she replied with a round cheeks coloured by the excitement of his tail and shining in the fire-light, I do not know what the manners may be among the gentry in such things, but if it had been one of us, we never could have supped with him. You are right, answered Overshoot. So I felt, starving as I was, I could not break bread with a man like that, until he should have cleared himself. He did not seem to be conscious of any dark mistrust on my part, and that was natural enough, as he did not even know me, but when I said that I must ride home as fast as I could, he asked me first to come and have a look at the poor little child. This I could not well refuse, so I gave my horse to a boy to hold, and followed him into the warm dry-place, and into his own corner. As I passed and the people made way for me, I saw that they were genuine gypsies, not mere English vagabonds. There was no mistaking the clearly cut features in the olive complexions, and the dark eyes lashed both above and below. My gruff companion raised a screen and showed me into his snuggery. It was dimly lit by a queer old lamp of red earthenware, and of Roman shape. Couches of heather, and a few low stools, and some vessels were the only furniture, but the place was beautifully clean and fragrant with dry fern and herbs. In the furthest corner lay little Tom, with a woman bending over him. At the sound of our entry she turned to meet us, and I saw Cinementa. Her hair and eyes and graceful carriage were as grand as ever, and her forehead is clear and noble, but her face had lost the bright puzzle of youth and the flush of Damasque beauty. In a word that rich, mysterious look which used to thrill so many hearts was changed into the glance of fear, and the restless gaze of anxiety. She knew me at once, and asked, with a very poor attempt to gaiety, Are you come to have your fortune, told sir? Before I could answer her husband spoke some words in her own language, and the princess, as we used to call her, took my hand in both of hers and kissed it and poured forth her thanks. She had been so engrossed with her poor sick child that she had not known me on horseback, having done so little to deserve her thanks I was quite surprised at such gratitude, and it made me fear that she must be now unaccustomed to kind treatment. I asked how her grandmother was, who used to sit up so proudly at Cowley, as well as her sister, the little thing that used to run in and out so, as I spoke of them she shook her head and gazed at some long distance, to tell me that they were no more. I could not remember the rest of her people except her uncle Kershaw, as fine a fellow as ever stole a horse. When I spoke of him, she laughed as if he were going on as well as ever, and I hoped that it might be no son of his to whom I had trusted Cantaloupe, but of course I knew that Gypsy honor would hold him sacred for some time, even if he were Bay Middleton. Then I asked her about her own children, and again she shook her head and said, Three, all three in one or now, and that is the one you saved. With that, while her husband left the tent, Sinementa led me to look at the poor little fellow in his deep, warm sleep. A beautiful little boy it was. A real princess might yearn in vain for such a lovely offspring, if only the stamp of health had been on him, but the glow of airy health and breezy vigor was not on him. Where will it ever be so far as one may judge by skin? Clear, transparent, pearly skin, all whose colors seems to come from under instead of over it. The more the wind or the sun strikes on it, the more its color evaporates. I fear that poor Sinementa's child will go the way of the younger ones. Poor dear, poor dear! exclaimed the carrier, rubbing his nose in a sad, slow way. I can guess what her would be to them. Give her, Luzeth, that little unmind. Well, then, you will see if her doesn't go harder on. I believe that she will, replied Overshoot. I never saw any one so wrapped up in another being as she is. As for Joe Smith, her husband, and the way she treats him, I couldn't. No, I never could put up with it, even if it were— But, Miss Esther, why do you look with such a curious smile at me? Of such matters, what can you know? However, there goes your clock again. Cripps, I shall never get home to-night, and my mother will think I was poaching, because I will not send the poachers to prison. She believes that I must be a poacher myself. Now, verily, O Worship, that baits all I ever heard of. How could a justice go a poaching? How some ever he tried his best. Cripps, he might, I believe he might. If he really did his best for it. However, let that question pass, although it is highly interesting, I will try at my leisure to solve it. But how can I think of such little things in the middle of great sad ones? It really made me feel as if I never should laugh again almost when I saw this fine, unselfish woman controlling herself and commanding herself in the depth of her misery about her child. When I thought how she might have got on if she only had liked education, and that—and to marry a fellow of Oriel, I assure you, Miss Esther, I began to feel how women throw away their chances. Of course I could not hint at things disloyal, or what shall I call them, unconjugal, perhaps is what I mean, onexorial, or what it may be, but although I am slow at seeing things, because I used to think myself too quick, and have made false charges through it, I really could not help feeling sure that poor Sinementa had made an awkward tally with her husband. However, that was no concern of mine. She had made her own choice, and must stick to it. But to think of it made me uncomfortable, and I could not speak then of what I wished to speak of, but took short leave and rode away. Just however, I got permission to come over again on the Friday, yesterday, I mean, and now I will tell you exactly what happened then. Your worship do tell a tale, said Cripps, that wonderful, that us be almost there. A woman takes a man, whether or no he will, and when they gets tired of them they puts all fault on he, they do. There was a woman as did the washing over to Squire Pemberton's, nothing to look at, unless you hadn't seen done up here for a twelve month the same as happens to the sailors, and in here go roundings of no account for to catch the notice of a man much. But that very woman I'm danged if her didn't, Zachary Hush, said Esther in the carrier muttered. Of course, of course, no chance of fair play with an, well, go on your worship. I have very little more to tell you as yet, overshoot answered, with a smile at both. You have listened with wonderful patience to me, and I am surprised at remembering half of what happened to me in a hurry, so I shall make more allowance for witnesses now when they get confused and hesitate. But as I was going to say I wrote over to Nettle-Bed Common, or whatever it is called in good time yesterday, so as to have a long, quiet talk with Sineminta, knowing that if she would not tell me the truth, she would tell no falsehood. As I rode along in that fine spring sun my mind was unusually clear and bright. I saw to a nicety what questions I ought to put, and how to put them. And nothing of all the ins and outs of this matter could escape me. When the sun threw my shadow as sharp as a dye I could not help laughing to the open road and clear, long breadth of prospect at the narrow, stupid thoughts we had been thinking throughout the winter. In a word I was sure as I am of my life of finding sweet grace O'Glander, and restoring her father to his fine old health, and spreading great happiness everywhere, and thus I rode up to the Gypsy camp, and there was not a shadow or a trace of it. CHAPTER XXI The log had burned down, and the fire was low, when Russell thus ended his story. Crips was indignant because he had made up his mind for a summit of a settlement, and Esther was full of young womanly thoughts about Sineminta and her poor child, but even before they could consult one another or cross-examine, a loud, sharp knock at the door was heard, and in ran Mary Hookam. "'Oh, if you please, sir, oh, if you please, sir,' she exclaimed with both hands up and making the most of her shawl fringe. "'Such a thing have turned up, I never. Them stockings. Oh, them silk stockings, sir. Your worship. Oh, them silk stockings, sir.' "'My dear,' said Crips in a fatherly tone, and with less contemporary feeling than Mary might wish to inspire him with. "'My dear good-maid, you be that upset that is to spake without sloping the spout of a kettle, might lead to almost anything. Eddie, you ain't had a drop of nort, and all the better for you. Give over your glass, girl. Now, Miss Mary, the laced little drop, and then you spakes, and then you as another drop. "'Scooze me, your worship, to make so bold, but a young man can't see them things in the right light. "'Oh, Master Crips, now!' cried Mary Hookam. "'What but a young man be you yourself? And none of the young men can point their tongues to compare with you to my mind. But I beg your pardon, sir, Mr. Russell. Your name comes so familiar to me through our dear young lady. I forgot what I was doing, your worship, to be sitting down in your presence, sir.' "'Mary, if you get up, I shall get up also, and go away. We are both enjoying the hospitality of our good friend, Master Crips. Now, Mary, by no means hurry yourself, but tell me at your leisure why you came, and what your news is.' "'Silk stockings for a truth,' cried Master Crips, being vexed at his break of the evening. "'Why, my grandmother had a whole pair, are they? I believe I could find them now, I do. Still, stockings to break up one's comfort for. Not but what I be glad to see you, Mary, my dear, I drink your good health, touching spoons and the lack of lips. "'Oh, Mr. Crips, you are so funny, and you do make me fell things in such a way. That's me if I haven't dropped my comb. Oh, and I am so shocked to trouble you. Natural hair are so provoking compared to what most people wears nowadays, but about what I came for. "'Oh, your worship, stockings is not what I ought to speak of except in the ear of females. Stockings are a very good subject, Mary, particularly if they are silk ones.' "'Oh, sir, now I never thought of that. To be sure, that makes all the difference. Well then your worship must know all, and Master Crips and Miss Esther, too. It seems that Mrs. Firmitage, Master's own sister, you know, sir, have never been comfortable in her mind about her behavior when the quest was held. Things lay on her nerves at that time, so that off and on she hardly seemed to know where she was, or how due to he lay to her. Not that she is at all selfish, if you please, to understand me. No more selfish than I myself be, or any one of us here present. But ladies require allowance, and it makes me have a pain to think of it. You could not expect her, could you now? To go through it as if she was a man, or rather I should say a gentleman.' "'Of course we could not,' answered Overshoot, and the carrier began to think. Why not?' "'However, she did go through it,' said Mary, as well as the very best man could have done. She covered her feelings, as you might say, with a pint-part or less than that.' "'With a wine-glass of brandy I did hear tell,' said Master Crips inquiringly. "'No, no, that was a shocking story. It makes me ashamed of the place as we live in whenever I hear such scandalities.' "'Miss Mary, my dear, I beg your pardon. Lord knows I only say what I hear. Take a little drop, Miss, and go on.' It makes one afeard to touch a drop of the most innocent mixture as ever was,' continued poor Mary after one good gulp, and at the same time most respectable waters, when people has never had opportunity of forming no judgment about them, people as only can spit out their tongues at them as have some good taste in therein, when such folk, or people they are not, dare to go forth to say, "'But I see you are laughing at me, your worship. And perhaps I well deserve it, sir. It is no place of mine to converse on sub-subjects. Me, who never deals with them, but one way or the other, that good lady, as barring her way with her servants, she is, with our good master, have many a time, up and given it to her about. Well this very day, sir, in she come, when I was a-doing of my morning-dos, every bit as particular, sir, as if I had a mistress over me, and she say to me, Mary, hook'em, and I says, yes, ma'am, at your service, and she ask me, without any more to do, the just words I cannot now call to mind. Fort ascended once, without troubling poor master, to fetch they stockings as was put by, to the period of the coroner's quest. Poor master have never been allowed to see them, no more is none of us, sir, for fear of setting on foot some allowance of vulgar curiosity, and all of us is not above it, I know, but that is a natural error in places where few has had much education." I don't hold much without their education," cried the carrier rather gloomily. I may suit some people, but not many. They puts it on them all alike, without trial the constitution. Some goes better for it, but most vult worse. Well, you know best, Mr. Cripps, of course, up and down the road as you be, every door give you a instance. His worship is all for education, and no one needs to swallow it unless they like, but pretty well schooled as I have been, sir, I looks down on no one, and now, when master's sister made that sudden call upon me, I assure you, sir, and master Cripps and Miss Esther in the corner there. The very first thing as I longed for was more knowledge of the ways of the kingdom, more sense, I mean, of where the powers puts the things that have been called up and laid at the feet of the law-courts. Today's stockings was more lost to me than gone to be washed by the gypsies. It never would have done for me to say that much to Mrs. Firmitich. She would have been out in a wrath at once, for she was not sweet like master, so I gave her all yes, instead of why, or how, as we do to quick-temper gentlefolk, and then I ran away to ask my mother, and she no more than laughed at me, you silly child, says mother, as if there had never been a fool till now. When the law get ahold of a thing there be only two places for to find it in. Two places, mother? What two places, said I, without construction? Why the right hand or the left hand pocket of a lawyer's breaches? Mother answered just as if she had served all her time with a tailor. Now, don't laugh, Mr. Overshoot, it is true, every word as I tell you. Can that her be?" cried Cripps, with a smack of one hand on the other. Your mother is a wonderful woman for truth and sense, my dearie. Well, well," replied Mary, with a broad, knowing smile, as much to say you had better try her, at her time of life her ought to be, if ever they seek to attain it. So I acted according to mother's directions, letting her always speak foremost, and between us we got master Cale to go on his legs all the way to Oxford with the hope of a lift back with you, master Cripps. But late as you was, he was later. He carried a letter from Mrs. Firmitage couched in the thirtieth person to Mrs. Luke Sharpe of Cross-Duck House. The very one has sent that good book back. Master's sister have felt blow contempt towards her since that time, and indignity could do no otherwise, and now she put it short and sharp as no lust could be expected. And word for word, can I say of it? Mrs. Firmitage has the honour of presenting her compliments to Mrs. Sharpe, and begs to express her surprise at the strange retention by Mrs. S. of a pair of valuable silk stockings, which are the property of Mrs. F. If they are not in use, it is begged that they may be returned by the bearer. This script, Mrs. F, takes this opportunity of acknowledging the return of a book, which, being filled only with the word of God, was perhaps of less practical value to Mrs. S. than silk stockings appear to be. That will fetch them, said my mother. If they be in the house, that will fetch them, ma'am. No lady could stand against them in a windows. And sure enough, back they come by Mr. Kale about an hour after you left our house, sir. It seems that Mr. Luke Sharpe was gone to dine with a corporation, or likely they never would have come at all. And they never would have come at all, because Mrs. Sharpe could not have found them, if it hadn't been that Master Sharpe, the boy they think such wonders of, just happened to come in from shooting, for the whole of his time he spends. He found his mother in the high strikes of a heart too full for tears, as she expressed it beautifully to both cook and housemaid, and they pointed to the letter, and he read it. And he were that put out that Master Kale, seeing the two big barrels of his gun, were touched in his conscience, and ran away and got under the mango. What happened then, he were afeared to be sure of, but the cook and the housemaid brought him out, and they locked him in, to eat a bit, which he did with trembles and thankfulness. And almost before he had licked his knife clean, as he liked to leave it, that wicked young man he kicked open the door and flung a parcel at him. Tell your dint, Mrs.," he says, your worship, I hope's no offense to the statutes. Tell her," he says, that her rubbish is there, an ad without no compliments that the lady of her birth should have known better than to insult another lady, so. Well done, Kit Sharpe, exclaimed Overshoot. I'd rather admire him for that. Not that he ought to have sworn so, of course. But I like a young fellow to get in a rage when he thinks that his mother is trampled on. Then you might have been satisfied with him, sir. In a rage he were a no mistake, so much so that our Mr. Kale made off by the quickest door out of the premises, but the cook she ran after him out to the stops. When there was the corners between them and she begged him not to give a bad account, but to put a Christian turn to it, and she told poor Tumas that she had a manner of doing veal fit to surprise him, and if he could drop in on Sunday week he might go home the wiser. The Lord knows how she hits so quick upon his bad propensities, for he do pay attention to his vitals, whatever his other feelings be, however away he come at last, and I doubt if he goeth in a hurry again. Of course he know'd better than to give the broken handles of his message. It is only the boys and the girls does that, for the pleasure of vexing their batters. Master Kale sent his parcel in by me, together with Mrs. Sharp's compliments, leaving the truth in a kitchen to strengthen, and follow to the parlor as the cat comes in, and so Master's sister she put out her hand all covered with rings and no shaking, and I makes my best entry just like this, excusing your presence, Mr. Russell, sir, and she nod to me pleasantly and take it. Mary, you may go, she said, and for sure I am not one of those who linger. There happened, however, to be a new candle full of thieves and guttering, and being opposite a looking-glass made it more reproachful. So back I turned by the corner of a screen for to write it without disturbance. I had no more idea, bless you, Master Cripps, of curiosity than might have happened to yourself, sir, but I pulled a pair of scissors out of my pocket, no snuffers being handy, and then I hear'd a most sad groan. To my heart it went like a clap of thunder having almost expected it, which made it worse. And back I ran to do my duty, if afforded rightly, and sure enough there was poor misfirmitage that fell back well into the long back chair, with her legs out straight in her hands to her forehead, and a pair of gray stockings laid naked on her lap. Is it they things, ma'am, is it they? I asked, and she put up her chin to acknowledge it. By the way they were lying on her lap I was sure that she was vexed with them. Oh, Mary! She cried out, Oh, Mary hook'em, I am both as foolish and a wicked woman if ever in the world there was one. So deeply was I shocked by this, master's own sister, and a mint of money going the wrong way to kingdom come, that I give her both ends of the smelling bottle open and running on her velvet gown as innocent as possible. Oh, you wicked, wicked girl! She says, coming round before I could stop. Do you know what it cost a yard, you minx? This gave me good hopes of her being so natural. Twice the price comes always into lady's minds when damage is, if anybody can be made to pay, but it did not become me to speak one word as you see, Mr. Russell, and Master Cripps, and there was my reward at once. I must have a magistrate, she cries, an independent justice of the peace, not my poor brother, too much of him already. Where is that boy overshoot? She says, saving, of course, your worship's presence. I hear he were gone to that Low Carrier's. Mary run and fetch him. My brother to be called a Low Carrier! Young Esther exclaimed with her hand on her heart. What Carrier is to compare with him? Never you mind, Shale, answered Cripps with a smile that's shown like a warming pan. The women's may say what they please is on me, so long as I does my duty by him. Squays a lemon for his worship, a foreign goeth. CHAPTER XXIII Mr. Overshoot had always been on good terms with Mrs. Firmitage, his advanced ideas marching well with her political sentiments, so far as she had any, and upon a still more tender subject, peace and good will throw between them. Lady desired no better suitor for her niece than Russell Overshoot, and had labored both by word and deed to afford him fair opportunity. Moreover it was one of her great delights when time went heavily for her to foster a quiet little fight between young Russell and his mother. Those two, though filled with the deepest affection and admiration for each other, could scarcely sit half an hour together without a warm argument rising. The late Mr. Overshoot had been for years a night of the shire, and for some few months a member of the Tory government, and this conferred on his widow, of course, authority paramount throughout the county upon every political question. How great then was her indignation to find subversive and radically erroneous principles coming up, where none but the best seed had been sown. Three generations ago there had been a very hasty Overshoot, but he had been meted with his own measure, and his balance struck upon the block. This had a wholesome influence on the family, while they remembered it, and child after child had been brought up with the most correct opinions. But here was the young head of the house with a stiff neck, such as used to be adjusted in a nick upon Tower Hill. Mrs. Overshoot, therefore, spent much of her time in lamenting and the rest in arguing. For none of these things Mrs. Firmitage cared. With her the idea of change was free. She had long rebelled against her brother's dictation of the Constitution, and believed they were rogues, all the lot of them, as her dear good husband used to say. Portwine Firmitage went too far when he laid down this law for the females. Without a particle of ill meaning he did a great deal of mischief. Now Mrs. Firmitage sat well up in a chair that had been newly stuffed. She was very uncomfortable and it made her cross. Because she was a good-sized woman. She kept on turning, but all for the worse. And her mind was uneasy at her brother's house. The room was gone dark and the lights going down, while Miss Mary Hookham was reveling in the mansion of the Carrier. He cared to hurry for the sake of anybody else, of course, and Mrs. Firmitage could not see what the good of all her money was. The lady was all the more vexed with others because her own conscience was vexed with her, and as Overshoot came with his quick firm step she spoke to him rather sharply. Well, Russell Overshoot! There was a time when you would not have left me to sit in the sad way by myself all the evening. But that was when I had pretty faces near me. I must not expect such attentions now. My dear Mrs. Firmitage! I had no idea that you were even in the house. The good squire sent me a very nice dinner, but you did not grace it with your presence. And for a very good reason, Russell, I have on my mind an anxiety which precludes all idea of eating. Oh, Mrs. Firmitage! Never say that. You have been brought up too delicately. Russell, I believe that is too true. The world has conspired to spoil me. I seem to be quite in a sad position entirely for the sake of others. Now look at me, Russell, and just tell me what you think. Overshoot always obeyed a lady in little things of this kind. He looked at Mrs. Firmitage, which really was a pleasant thing to do, and he thought to himself that he never had seen a lady of her time of life more comfortable, nicely fat, and thoroughly well-dressed and fed. My opinion is, he proceeded with a very pretty salam and smile, that you never looked better in your life, ma'am, and that is a very great deal to say. Well, Russell, well, she answered rising in a good old fashion and curtsying, your opinions have not spoiled your manners, whatever your dear mother may say. You always were a very upright boy, and you always say exactly what you think. This makes your opinion so valuable. I shall shake off ten years of my life, but I really was quite low-spirited and down at heart when you came in. I fear that I have not quite acted for the best. Entirely as I meant to do so, you remember that horrible state of things nearly two months ago, and my great distress at the time of that wretched inquest? Yes, you were timid, as well you might be. It was not only that, but the weather was so cold that I scarcely knew what I was doing at all. Hard weather is to me as it is to a plant, a delicate fern or something. My circulation no longer is correct, even if it goes on at all. I scarcely can answer for what I am doing when they put me into cold rooms and bitter drafts. I feel that the organs of my face are red, and that every one is looking at me, and then such a tingle begins to dawn through the whole of my constitution that to judge me by ordinary rules is barbarous and iniquitous. To be sure, to be sure," answered Overshoot, laying one finger on his expressive nose, and wondering what was next to come. Yes, and that is the manner in which justice is now administered. The canal was frozen, and the people of the inn grudged a quarter of a hundred weight of coal, these people at the yards had put it up so that it would have been wrong to encourage them. I had ordered my own stumps to be burned up, and the flower baskets and so on, anything rather than order coals, until the swindling dealers came down again, and the coroner sided with the price of coals because he had three topcoats on. The jury, however, with their teeth all chattering, wanted only to be done and go. They were only too glad when any witness failed to answer when called upon, and having all made up their minds outside, they were shivering to declare them. I speak now from what I heard afterwards. You speak the bare truth, Mrs. Firmitage. You have the best authority. The foreman is your chimney-sweep. Yes, and that made him feel the cold the more. But you should see him on a Sunday, Russell. He is so respectable, and his nails so white. I will not listen to a word against him, and he valued my custom on his oath, he did. What verdict does Mrs. Desire?" he asked, and he made all the rest go accordingly. Nobody knows what they might have sworn without a clever man to guide them. Of course, what can you expect? But still, you have something new to tell me? Well, Russell, new or old here it is, and you must bear in mind how I felt, and what everybody was saying. In the first place, then, you must remember that there was a great deal said about a pair of my silk stockings. Now I shrank particularly from having an intimate matter of that sort made the subject of public gossip. It was neither becoming, nor ladylike, to drag little questions of my wardrobe into the eye of the nation, so, already it was too much to know that a pair of such articles had been found bearing my initials. Most decidedly I refused, and I am sure any lady would do the same, to go into a hard cold witness-box, under the eyes of some scores of males proclaim my complicity with such things. If I had seen it my duty, I would have endeavored to conquer my feelings, but, of course, I took all for granted that everything was too clear already, and my dear brother, I thought of him, and thought of everyone, except myself. Could I do more Russell Overshoot? Indeed, my dear madam, I do not see how. You would have come forward, if necessary, but you did not see any necessity. Much more than that. There was much more than that. There was my duty to my brother, stronger than even to my niece. He is getting elderly, and for me to be printed as proving anything against his daughter would surely have been too much for him. He looked to me so for consolation and some one to say kind words to him, that to find me in evidence against him might have been his death-blow. No consideration for myself or my own feelings had the weight of a rose-leaf with me. In the breach I would have stood, if I had followed my own wishes, but my duty was to curb myself. You are following me, Russell, carefully? Word for word, as you say it, madam. So far as my poor wits allow. Very well, then. I have made it quite clear. That is the beauty of having to explain to clever people. Thank you for the compliment," replied Overshoot with a buzzled look, but I have not earned it, for I cannot see that you have told me anything that I did not know some weeks ago. It may be my stupidity, of course, but I thought that something had occurred quite lately. Oh, yes, to be sure! It was only today. I meant to have told you that, first of all. I was grossly insulted, but I am so forgiving that I had forgotten it. Quite forgotten it, until you happened to speak of it. A peculiarly insolent proceeding on the part of poor Mrs. Sharp, it appears, or perhaps someone for her, for everybody says that she really now has no mind of her own. She did not write me one single line, although I had written politely to her, and she sent me a message. I am sure of it, too bad to be repeated. No one would tell me what it was, which aggravates it to the last degree. I assure you I have not been so upset for years, or at any rate, not since poor Grace was lost. And about that, unless I am much mistaken, that very low selfish and plotting person knows a great deal more than we had ever dreamed. It would not surprise me in the least, especially after what happened to-day, to find Mrs. Sharp at the bottom of all of it. At any rate, she has aroused my suspicion by her contemptible insolence, and I am not the person to drop a thing. Why? What has she done? Just overshoot once more, while in spite of impatience, he gets scarcely help-smiling at poor Mrs. Firmattage's petty wrath and frequent self-contradiction. What she did was this. She sent me back, not even packed in nice white paper, not even sprinkled with odour cologne, not even washed. What do you think of that? But rolled up anyhow in brown paper the same as a dre-man would use for his taps. Oh, Russell, would you ever believe it? Certainly it seems very unpolite. But what was it she sent back to you? Not even the article I expected, not even that ingredient of costume which I had lent poor Gracie, very nice and pretty ones, but an old gray bear of silk and hose, disgraceful even to look at. It is true that they bear my initials, but I had discarded them long ago. What a strange thing! cried overshoot, flushed with quick excitement. How reckless we were at the inquest! We had made up our minds without evidence, on the mere faith of coincidence, and you! You have never taken the trouble to look into this point until now? And now, perhaps quite by accident, we were told that you had recognized the stockings, and it turns out that you never even saw them. It is strange and almost wicked negligence. I have told you my motives, I can say no more, exclaimed Mrs. Firmitage, whether fine, fresh color, heightened by shame or anger. Of course, I felt sure. Who could fail to do so, that the stockings found with my name on them must be the pair I had lent my niece? It seemed almost absurd that I should have to see them. It was more than my nerves could bear, and the corner was not so unmanly as to force me. Mr. Raid, did you go and see every thing, sir? Mrs. Firmitage, I am the very last person who has any right to reproach you. I failed in my duty far more than you in yours. In a man, of course, it was a thousand times worse. There is no excuse for me. I yielded to a poor, unmanly weakness. I wished to keep my memory of the poor dear as I had seen her last. I should have considered that the poor frail body is not our true identity. Quite so, of course, and therefore what was the use of your going to see it? No, no, you behave very well, Russell Overshoot, and so did I if it comes to that. Nobody can be quite blameless, of course, and we are told in the Bible not to hope for it. If we all do our duty according to our inner lights and so on, the apostle can say no great harm of us in his rudest moment to the ladies. Let us settle that we have both done our best," said Russell, very sadly, knowing how far from the truth it was, but seeing the folly of arguing. And now, will you tell me, what made you send for those silk ingredients of costume so suddenly, and then show them to me? With pleasure, dear Russell, you understand me when no one else has any sympathy. I sent for them, or at least for what I fully expected, to be the ones, because an impertinent young woman, foolishly trusted with very good keys, gave me notice to go last evening. Of course, she will fly before I have a chance of finding how much she has stolen. They all take very good care to do that. Knowing what the spirit of the age is, dress, dress, phallals, ribbons, heels in the air, and so on, I made up my mind to have a turn out to-day and see how much they had left me. No man can imagine and scarcely any woman all the vexations I had to go through. Five pair and a half of silk hoes were missing, as well as a thousand more important things, and they all backed up one another. They stood me out to my face that I never had more than eight pair of the Christchurch Tom stockings—excuse me for being so coarse, my dear—whereas I had got the receipt for twelve pair from the man that sold them with the big Tom Bells on immediately above the instep. I happened to remember that I had lent my darling Gracie pair number twelve, numbered, as all of them were, downright, and so to confound those false-tongued hussies I came over here in search of them. Finding that they were not here, for the lawyers, of course, steal everything, I was not going to be beaten so. I sent as polite a letter as after her shameful rudeness any lady could write, to Mrs. Sharp, a poor woman who expected every half-penny of my dear husband's savings. How far she deserves them! You have seen to-day. And sooner would I burn myself like a sooty widow, with all my goods evaporating, than ever leave six pence for her to clutch after such behavior. Russell, you will remember this, you are my executor. My dear Mrs. Firmitage, I pray you in no way to be excited. We have not heard all of the story, and we know that the servants who are of a faithful kind exaggerate slights to their masters. It was one of the squires' old servants who went. Your own would, perhaps, have known better. But now may I see the things Mrs. Sharp sent you? You may, and you may take them, if you like, or rather I should say that I beg you to take them. They ought to be in your custody. Will you oblige me by taking them, Russell, and carefully inspecting them? For that, of course, you must have daylight. Take them in the paper, just as they came. And keep them until I ask for them. They can be of no importance, because they are not what I lent to Gracie. Except for my name on them, I am sure that I never could have remembered them. They were darned in the days when I was poor. How often I wished that I still were poor! Then nobody wanted to plot against me, and even to steal my stockings. Oh, Russell, do you think they have murdered my darling because she was to have my money? No, I think nothing of the kind. I believe that our darling Gracie is alive, and I believe it tenfold since I saw these things. I am not very old in the ways of the world, and my judgment has always been wrong throughout. But my faith is the same as the grand old squires, though forty years of life behind him. I firmly believe that, blindly as we ourselves have managed everything, all will be guided a right for us, and happiness even in this world come. Because though we have done no great good, we have done harm to no one, and the Lord and heaven knows it. Also, he knows that we trust in him so far as the trouble allows us. Very well, I will take these stockings home. You shall hear from me on Monday. I believe that our Grace is alive, and God will enable me to deliver her. Please, him I will never leave off till then. The young man looks so grand and strong in his faith and truth and righteousness that the elderly lady said no word, but let her eyes flow and kissed him. He placed the stockings in an inner pocket, carelessly wrapped in their paper, and he rode home a pace to please his mother, and having a cold on him from all his weddings he perspired freely, and at every stretch of his galloping horse he was absorbing typhus fever. CHAPTER XXIV In April when the sunny buds were showing forth their little frills and birds that loved to hop sideways and try the toleration of the sprays that they are picking at were almost too busy to chirp and hung as happily as possible upside down, shaking the flutter of young green lace, while at the same time, for it is a season of great coincidence, pigs reared aloft little corkscrew tails, and, scorning their nose rings, employed them as thimbles for making a punch in the broitery of turf. Also when, if the above is not enough, ducks and geese and cocks and hens and even the dogs who regard green grass as an emetic, mainly, were all without knowing it beginning to wag themselves as they walked or waddled and to shine in the sun and to look very large in their own eyes and those of their consorts. Neither was there any man who could ride a horse without knowing how, unless he first had starved him. At this young jump of the year and of life Grace O'Glander wanted to go for a walk. She had not by any means been buried in the haunted quarry, neither had she as yet required burial in any place. On the contrary, here she walked more blooming and lovely than even her custom was, and the spring sun glistening upon the gold ladders of her tombstone at Beckley, ordered by her good aunt Firmitage, the same sun without any strain of his eyes at all likely to turn him into a strobo, was pleasantly making and taking light in the fluctuations of her growing hair, her bright hair, which had been so cruelly cropped, instead of being the worst for the process was waxing and glowing again in vast multiplicity of vigor, like a specimen golden geranium shorn to double the number of its facets, and the blue and the spring of her eyes was enough to dissatisfy the sun with its own sky. However she showed no discontent, but filled the young wood with cheerful rays, and the open glades with merriment and even the somber heart of a laboring man with streaks of liveliness, for here were comforts that came in without the eye considering them, and pleasures which, when thought of, fly, and delicate delights that have no idea of being delightful. Hereupon the proper thing is for something very harsh to break in, and discomfit all the wandering vision of earthly happiness, but the proper thing in its present instance showed its propriety by absence. Nothing broke the flow of sunshine and the eddy of soft shade, unless it were a little ruffle of the south winds seeking leaves before they were quite ready, or the rustle of a rabbit anxious about his family, or the flutter of a bird uncertain where to stand and sing his best. Grace, without a thought of what her own thoughts were or whether she had any mind for thinking, rambled on as a schoolgirl does when the hours of school are over. Every single fall a rise of nature's work was kind to her, and led her into various veins of inductive unphilosophy, the packing and storing of last year's leaves as of exceeding precious, gathered together by the wind and land in some rich rustling corner, and fitting of those into one another, for fear of losing one of them, wonderfully compact, as if with the hammer of a gold beater, or the unknown implement wherewith the hen packs up her hatched egg-shells, the stiff upstanding of fine young stuff, hazel, ash, and so on, tapering straight as a fishing rod and knobbing out on either side with scarcely controllable bulges, over and above and throughout all and sensible of their largeness the spreading quietude of great trees, just breathing their buds on the air again, but not in a hurry as in young days, to rush in the perils of leafiness. Pleased with all these proofs of soft revival and tender movement, the fair maid almost forgot her own depression and perplexities, when howling winter was put to the road and banished underground, and the weather, perhaps, might be hoped to behave as decently as in English spring, most skittish of seasons, should order it, and the blue ray of growth, which predominates then, according to the spectroscopists, was pouring encouragement on things green. I was a girl in her own spring yet, to strive against all such influence. At any rate Grace made no attempt to do anything of the kind, but wandered at her own sweet will within the limits of her own parole. She knew that she was in seclusion here by her father's command, for her own good. And much as she yearned from time to time to be at home, with all the many things she was so fond of, she was such a dutiful child, and so loving that she should put her own wishes by, and smiled and sighed instead of pouting. It could not be very long now, she was sure, until her father should come home, and call for her as he had promised, and take her once more to beloved Beckley, after this mournful exile, full as she was with all these thoughts and heeding her own ways but a little. So long as she kept within the outer ring of fence allowed to her, she fell into a little stupid fright, as she called it afterwards, for which there was no one but herself to blame. Only yesterday that good misspatch, her governess and sweet guardian, had particularly begged her to be careful, because the times were now so bad that lawless people went everywhere. Misspatch herself had heard several noises she could not at all account for, and while she considered it quite a duty to trace up everything to its proper source, and absolutely confide in providence, whose instrumentality is to be traced by all the poor instruments seeking it. Still, there are times when it cannot be done, and then the right thing is to keep within sight or call of a highly respectable man. This is exactly what Grace might have done, and would have done, but for the tempting day, for a truly respectable man had been near her, when first she began her little walk, a man whom she had beheld more than once, but always at a little distance. A tall stout man, according to her distant ideas of him, always busy in a quiet way and almost grudging the time to touch his broad-flapped hat without lifting his head when he saw her in the woodland. Grace had never asked him who he was, nor been within talking distance of him, at which she was almost surprised when she thought how glad is a rule our all Oxfordshire workmen to have a good excuse for leaving off. However, she was far beyond him now, when she met another man, who frightened her. This was a fellow of dark complexion dressed in a dirty Foustian suit, and bearing on his shoulder a thick hedge-stake from which hung a number of rabbit-skins. His character might be excellent, but his appearance did not recommend him to the confidence of the public. Grace shrank aside, but his quick eyes had spied her, and indeed she almost feared from his manner that he had been on the watch for her. So she put the best face on it and tried to pass him without showing any misgivings. But the rabbit-man was not to be thus defrauded of his right to good society. With a quick sharp turn he cast off the skins from his staff and stretched that slimy implement across the way with one hand, while he held forth the other, caressingly, and performed a pretty little caper. Allow me to pass, if you please, said Grace, attempting to look very resolute. These are our grounds. You are trespassing. Now, my pretty young lady, said the rabbit-man coming so close that she could not fly. You wouldn't be too hard, would you know? I see the great many young maids about. All are there, what be they to compare with you? I am sure that you do not mean any harm, replied Grace, though with much inward doubt. Nobody ever does any harm to me, but everyone is so kind to me. My father is so good to all who get into any trouble. I am not worth robbing, Mr. Rabbit-man, honest as you are, no doubt, but I think that I can find a shilling for you to take home to your family. No, Missy, sweet Missy, when once I seen you how could I think of a shilling? Or two. You was coming out here for to kiss me, I know. The same as I dreamed about last night. Oh, bless some beautiful eyes and lips. The most masonry man as ever was almost. Would sooner have a kiss than a crown of them. You insolent fellow! How dare you speak to me in this manner! Do you know who I am? Do you know who my father is? No, Missy, but I just say a thunder and beak has sent me to prison. And now I have got you in prison, too. No coming out without paying of your fine, my dear. The dirty scamp with an appreciative grin laid hold of poor Grace's trembling hand and drew her towards him, while she tried vainly to shriek, for her voice had forsaken her. When bodily down went the Rabbit-man felled by a most inconsiderate blow, he dropped so suddenly that he fetched poor Grace to her knees by this violent grasp of her, and when he let go, she could not get up for a moment because her head went round. Then two strong hands were put into hers, and she rose and faced a young gentleman. In her confusion and sense of vile indignity, she did the natural thing. She staggered away to a tree and spread both hands before her eyes, and burst forth, sobbing, as if her heart would break. Instead of approaching to comfort her, the young man applied himself first to revenge. He aspired on the path a stick of the prostrate Rabbit-man and laid hold of it, and striving to keep his conscience clear, and by no means hit a man on the ground. He seized a poor dealer and fur by the neck, and prompt him well up in a sapling fork, having him thus well situated for penal operations, without any question of jurisdiction or even of the merits of the case he proceeded to exhaust the utility of the stick by breaking it over the owner's back. The calm wood echoed with a sound of wooden thumps, and the young buds trembled at the activity of a stick. "'Oh, a mercy! A mercy!' cried Rabbit-man. "'You'll be going outside of the bargain, sir.' "'Oh, don't! Oh, please don't!' Grace exclaimed, running forth from her retirement. "'I daresay he did not know any about her. He may have had a little too much beer, poor fellow. He has had quite enough. Oh, stop, do stop, for my sake. For nothing else in the world would I stop,' said the youth who was breathless, with hitting so hard and still looking yearningly at the stick, now splintered by so much exercise. "'But if you beg him off, he gets off, of course. Though he has not had half enough of it, you vile black rascal, will you ever look at a young lady in your life again?' "'No, sir. No, sir. So help me!' cried the Rabbit-man, rubbing himself all over. "'Do you let me whisper a word to you?' "'If I see your filthy, sneaking face two seconds more, I'll take a new stick to you, and a much tougher one, out of my sight with your carrion.' Black George, with amazement and fury, gazed at the stern and threatening countenance. Then, seeing the elbow beginning to lift, he hobbled as fast as his bruises allowed, to his bundle of skins and the brushwood. Then, with a whimper and a snivel, he passed the broken staff, now thrown at him, through his savoury burden, and with exaggerated limbs departed. "'See, if I don't show this to your governor?' he muttered as he turned back and scowled, when out of sight and hearing. "'I never would took in so over a job in all my life before, were I? One bull for a hiding like that?' he grumbled as he pulled out a sovereign and looked at it. Five bull would have hard to cover it. Why, the young cove can't have been told nor about it. A scurvy joke. A very scurvy joke. I ain't got a bone in me as a donake.' Leaving him thus to pursue his departure, young Christopher Sharpe, with great self-content at the good luck of this exploit, turned towards Grace, who was trembling and blushing, and he trembled and blushed in his turn at her. "'I'm so sorry. I have frightened you,' he said in a most submissive way. "'I have done you more harm than good, I fear. I should have known better. But for the moment, I really could not command myself. I hope you will not despise me for it.' "'Despise you? Can I ever thank you? But I am not fit to do anything now. I think I'd better go home, if you please. I am not likely to be annoyed again, and there is a good man in a field halfway. To be sure, you know best,' the young man answered, cooling into disappointment. "'Still, I may follow at a distance, may I? The weather looks quite as if it would be dark, and at this time of year scarcely anybody knows. There seem to be tramps almost everywhere, but I am sure I do not wish to press myself. I can go on with the business that brought me here. I am searching for the true old windflower.' "'Oh, are you?' said Grace, how exceedingly lucky. I can show you exactly where to find it, if only you could manage to come tomorrow.' "'Tomorrow? Well, let me see. Tomorrow.' "'Yes, I believe I have no engagements. But you will not be afraid. I mean, after that Blackard's behavior today? Not, of course, that he should be thought of twice, but still. Oh, I never can express myself.' "'I understand every word you would say,' the young lady answered decisively. "'And I never mean to wander so far again. Still, when I know that you are botanizing, or rather I mean when a gentleman is near, when I also can never express myself, you never must come. I mean, good-bye, but I feel that you ought to be careful because that bad man may lie in wait for you.' And of Chapter 24 Chapter 25 of Cripps the Carrier By Richard Dodridge Blackmore This LibriVox recording is in a public domain. Chapter 25 Miss Patch That evening Grace made one more trial to procure a little comfort in her own affairs, in the dark low parlor of the cottage where she had lived for the last three months, with only Miss Patch and a deaf old woman for company and comfort. She sat by the fire and stitched hard to abide her opportunity. At the corner of the table sat the good Miss Patch, with her spectacles on and occasionally nodding over her favorite author, Ezekiel. It was impossible for anybody to look at Miss Patch and believe in anything against her high integrity, at lofty nose and hard-set mouth, and the fine abstracted yet benevolent gaze of those hollow gray eyes, were enough to show that here was a lady of strict moral principle and high sense of duty, incorruptible and grandly honest, but prickly as a hedgehog with prejudice. She could not be driven into any evil course, and required no leading into what she thought was the right one. And the right course to her was always the simplest of all things to discover, because it was that which led most directly to the glory of God at the expense of man, anything that would smite down pride, and overthrow earthly schemes, and abase the creature before the creator, that her mind was the thing commanded. And if it combined herewith a cut at papal arrogance and priestly influence, then the command was as delightful as it was imperative. This tall and very clear-minded lady was, by an in-and-out sort of way, related to Squire Oglander. She called him her brother, and the Squire once, to comfort her in a vile toothache, had gone so far as to call her his sister. Still that to his mind was a piece of flattery not to be remembered when the tooth was stopped, from no pride on his part but because of his ever-abiding execration of her father, the well-known Captain Patch. Captain Patch was the man who married the last Squire Oglander's second wife, that is to say our good Squire's stepmother. After Lady had dispatched her first husband, by uneasy stages, to a better world, Captain Patch took her for her life interest under the Oglander settlement, and sterling friends of his declared him much too cheap at the money. But the Oglanders took quite the contrary view, and hated his name while he drew their cash, yet the Captain proceeded to have a large family, of whom this Hannah Patch was the eldest. A godly father, as a general rule, has godless children, and happily the converse of that rule holds true. The children of a godless father, scared by the misery they have seen, being acquitted of the fifth commandment, frequently go back to the first, and so it befell with almost all of that impious fellow's family. Nevertheless the Squire, believing in the commandment with promise, as well as the denunciation at the end of the second, kept himself clear of the patches. So far his good manners and kindness permitted him. Miss Patch, knowing how good she was, had keenly resented this prejudice after vainly endeavouring to beat it down. Also she felt, not ill-will, but still a melancholy forgiveness, an uneasiness about the present position of Grace's poor mother, who had died in her sins without any apology to Miss Patch. However, with all these things as one may, according to Constitution, this lady was very good in her way, and desired to make all others good. There was not one faulty point about her so far as she could discover it, and her rule of conduct was to judge her own doings by a higher standard than was to be hoped for of any other person. Therefore, of course, for other persons she could judge what was right and godly infinitely better than they could. Oh, Auntie, said Grace by way of coaxing having found this of good service ere now. Auntie, don't you wish it was tea time now? All meals come in their proper season. We should be grateful for them, but not greedy. Oh, but Auntie, you would not call it greedy to be hungry, I should hope, and you would be so hungry if you only knew. But you won't get me to tell you, though. I have always been celebrated for making them, and this time I have quite surpassed myself. Now, how much will you offer me to tell you what it is? Grace, you are frivolous, Miss Patch answered, yet with a slight inclination of her nose toward the brown kitchen where the wood fire burned. If our food is wholesome and vouchsafed in proportion to our daily wants, we should lift up our hearts and be thankful. To let our minds dwell upon that which is a bodily question only tends to degrade them and leads us to confound the true end, the glory of our maker, with the means to that end which are vulgarly called viddles. Very well, Auntie. We will do with bread and butter. I only made my Sally Luns for you, and if they degrade your mind I will give them to Marguerite Daw, or the cottage with ten children down at the bottom of the wood. What a treat they will have to be sure with them. Not so, my dear, if you made them for me I should fail in my duty if I refuse them. We are ordered to be kind and courteous and long-suffering towards one another, and I know that you make them particularly well. They are quite unfit for people in that lower sphere of life. It would be quite sinful to tempt them so. They would puff them up with vanity and worldliness and pride. But if you insist upon my tasting them, my dear, injustice to your work I think that you should see to the toasting. For Mrs. Daw smokes everything. Of course she does, but I never meant to let her do them, Auntie. Only I wanted to be quite sure first that you would oblige me by tasting them. My dear, I will do so as soon as you please. The good lady shut up Ezekiel and waited. In a few minutes back came Grace, with all the things done to a nicety, each against each contending hotly whether the first human duty were to drink choice tea or to eat sally loons. Miss Patch always saw her course marked out by special guidance, and devoutly thus was unable to act simultaneously. Grace took a little bit now and again to criticize her own handiwork, while with her bright eyes she watched the relaxing of the rigid countenance. My dear, said Miss Patch, they are excellent, and they do the greatest credit to your gifts. To let any talent lie idle is sinful. You might make a few every day, my dear. To be sure I will, Auntie. With the greatest pleasure I do love to do anything that reminds me of my dear father. Oh, Auntie, will you tell me something? Yes, Grace, anything you ask a right. Young girls, of course, must submit to those whose duty it is to guide them. Undue curiosity must be checked, as leading to perverse naughtiness, the principle or want of principle inculcated now by bad education can lead to nothing else but ruin and disgrace. How different all was when I was young, my gallant and spirited father well known as a brave defender of his country, would never have dreamed of allowing us to be inquisitive as to his whereabouts. But all things are subverted now. Filial duty is a thing unknown. Oh, but, Auntie, of course we never pretend to be half as good as you were. Still, I don't think that you can conclude that I do not love my dear father, because I am not one bit afraid of him. Don't cry, child, it is foolish and weak and rebellious against divine wisdom. All things are ordered for our good. Then crying must be ordered for our good. We should be able to help it, ma'am. But you can't call it crying when I do just what I do. It is such a long and lonely time and I never have been away more than a week at a time from my darling father until now. And now it is fifteen weeks and five days since I saw him. Oh, it is dreadful to think of. Very well, my dear, it may be fifty weeks or fifty years if the Lord so wills. Self-command is one of the very first lessons that all human beings must learn. Yes, I know that. And I do command myself to the very utmost. You know that you praised me, quite praised me yesterday, which is a rare thing for you to do. But did you say then? Please not to retract and spoil the whole beauty of your good word. No, my dear child, you need not be afraid. Whenever you deserve praise, you shall have it. You saw an old sack with the name Beckley on it, and although you were silly enough to set to and kiss it, as if it were your father, you positively did not shed one tear, for which I deserve a gold medal at least. I should like to have had it for my counter-pain. But you sent it away most ruthlessly. Now I want to know, Auntie, how it came to be here, miles, leagues, longitudes away from Darling Beckley. Miss Patch looked a little stern again at this. She perceived that her duty was to tell some stories in a case of this kind, wherein the end justified the means so paramountly. Still every new story which she had to tell seemed to make her more cross than the one before, whether from accumulated adverse score or from increased chances of detection. Sacks arrive and sacks depart, she answered, as if laying down a dogma, according to the decrees of Providence. Ever since the time of Joseph sacks have had their special mission, our limited intelligence cannot follow the mundane pilgrimage of sacks. No, Auntie, of course, they get stolen, so. But this particular sack I saw had on it the name of a good honest man, one of the very best men in Beckley, Zachary Cripps, the carrier. His name did bring things to my mind, so. All the parcels and good nice things that he carries as if they were made of glass, and the way my father looks over the hedge to watch for his car to the turn of the lane, and his pretty sister, Eddie, setting up as if she didn't want to be looked at, and old Dobbins, splashing along, plod, plod, and our Mary setting her cap at him vainly, and the way he goes rubbing his boots as if he would have every one of the nails out. And then, dearest father calling out, have you brought us Her Majesty's new crown, Cripps? And Cripps putting up his hand like that, and grinning as if it was a grand idea, and then slyly peeping round where the beer jug hangs. Oh, Auntie, shall I ever see it all again? Well, Grace, you will lose very little if you don't. It is one of my brother's worst failings that he gives away fermented liquor to the lower orders inconsiderately. It encourages them in the bad habits to which they are only too prone, even when discouraged. Oh, no, Auntie, Cripps is the soberest of men, and he does take his beer with such a relish, and is quite a treat to see him. Oh, if I could only see his old cart now, jogging along like a man with one prong. Grace, Miss O'Glander, your metaphor is of an excessively vulgar description. Is it, Auntie? Then I'm very sorry. I am sure I didn't mean any harm at all. Only I was thinking of the way a certain one-legged fiddler walks. But, Auntie, all this is so frivolous, with all the solemn duties around us. Auntie, yes, my dear, I do wish that you would think a little more of them. Every day I do my best. Your nature is not more corrupt than must be. With all who have the sad, fronema sarcos, but unhappily you always exhibit, both in word and action, something so... I will not use at all a harsh word for it. Something so sadly unsolom. What can I do, Aunt? It really is not my fault. I try for five minutes together to be solemn, and then there comes something or other. How can I tell how? That proves too much for me. My father used to love to see me laugh. He said it was quite the proper thing to do. And he was so funny when he had no trouble, and without putting anything into anybody's head, he set them all off laughing. Auntie, you would have been amused to hear him, quite in the quiet time. Almost in the evening I have known my father to make such beautiful jokes, without thinking of them, that I often long for the old horn-land thorn, to see all the people laughing. Even you would laugh, dear Auntie, if you only heard him. The laughter of fools is the crackling of thorns. Grace, you are nothing but a very green goose. Even a stray lamb would afford me better hopes, but knock at the wall with a poker, my dear, that Marjorie Daw may come into prayers. End of CHAPTER XXVI RUTS There are a few things more interesting than ruts, regarded at the proper time and in the proper manner. The artists who show us so many things unheeded by our dollar selves have dwelled on this subject minutely and shown their appreciation of a few good ruts. But they are a little inclined sometimes and mark them too distinctly, scarcely making due allowance for the vast adversity of wheels, as well as their many caprices of wagging, according to the state of their washers, the tug of the horse, and their own wearing, and a host of other things. Each rut, moreover, has a voice of its own, not only in its first formation but at every period of depression in the muggy weather, or rough rebellion in a fine black frost, and above all other times in a loose insurrection of a thaw. There always is a bit of something hard and something soft in it, jags that contradict all things with a jerk, and deep subsidence, soft as flattery. This scarcely could be a finer sample of ruts than was afforded by a narrow lane or timber track at the extreme northwestern outskirt of Stowe Forest. Everything here is favorable to the very finest growth of ruts. The road had once been made, which is a necessary foundation for any masterpiece of rut work. It then had been left to maintain itself, which encourages wholesome development. Another great advantage was that the hard uniformity of straight lines had no chance here of prevailing, for though the course was not so crooked as in some lanes it might have been. Neither was there hedge, or rail, or other mean constriction, yet some fine old trees insisted now and then from either side upon their own grand right of way, and stretched great arms so it sweep any driver or horseman backward from his seat, unless he steered so as to double them. Now therefore to one of these corners came from out of the thicket of Underwood, a stout man with a crafty slouch, in a wary and suspicious glance. He had thrown a sack over his long white smock, whether to save it from brambles or to cover its glare in the shady wood, for his general aspect was that of a man who likes to see all things, but not to be seen. And now as he stooped to examine the ruts at a point where they clearly defined themselves, either from habit or for a special reason, he kept as far back by the briary ditch as he could without loss of near insight. This man, being a member of the great crypt's race, whether worthy or not of that staunch lineal excellence, had an hereditary perception of the right way to examine a rut. It would have been easy enough, perhaps in a lane of little traffic, to judge whether anything lately had passed, with the weather and ground as usual, but today, the day after what has been told of, both weather and ground had just taken a turn, as abrupt as if both were feminine. A smile of soft spring was changed into a frown, and the glad young buoyancy of the earth into a stiff sort of feeling, not frozen or crisp, but as happens to a man when a shiver of ague vibrates through a genial perspiration. To put it more clearly, the wind had chopped round to the east, and was blowing keenly, a masterful strongly pronounced and busily energetic east wind, as superior to hypocrisy as it was to all claims of mercy. At the sound and the feel of its vehement sweep, surprise and alarm ran through the wood, and nestling places of a sun ruffled up like a hen that calls her chicks to her, the foremost of the buds of the tall trees shook, not as a shake to a west wind, but with a sense of standing naked, the twigs that carried them flattened upwards, having lost all pleasure, the branches instead of bowing kindly as they do to any other wind, also went upward, with a stiff, cold back, and a hatred of being treated so, many and many a little leaf still snug in its own overcoat, shrunk back, and preferred to defer all the joys of the sky, if this were a sample of them. And many and many a big leaf, thrust without any voice of its own on the world, had no chance of sighing yet, but whistled on the wind and felt it piping through its fluted heart, and knowing what a liver-colored selvedge must come round its green, bewailed the hour that coaxed it forth from the notched and tattered and cast off frizzle, dancing by this time the wind knows where. Because the east wind does what no other wind of the welka never does, it does not come from the good sky downward bringing higher breath to us, nor even on the level of the ancient things spreading average movement. This alone of all winds strikes from the face of the good earth upward, sweeping the blush from the skin of the land, and wrinkling all who live thereon. That is the time when the very best man finds little to rejoice in, unless it be a fire of seasoned logs or his own contrariety, the fur of all animals being their temper, moves away and crawls on them, and even bland dogs and sweet horses feel each several hair at issue with their well-brushed conscience. All that may be true, and yet there may be so many exceptions. At any rate, Master Leviticus Cripps looked none the worse for the whole of it. His cheeks were of richly varied fiber, like a new shelled kidney bean. His mouth, of a very considerable size, looked comfortable and not hungry, and all around him there was an influence tending to intimate that he had dined. For that he did not care as he should. He was not a man who allowed his dinner to modify his character. The best streaky bacon and three new laid eggs had nurtured and manured his outer man, but failed to improve him inwardly. Even the expression of his face was very slightly mollified by a first-rate meal, though some of the corners looked lubricated. Hath a been boy again, or hath a not? whispered tickets to himself as he stared at a tangled web of rots and blessed the east wind for confounding of them, so that a wheel could not swear to its own. The east wind answered with a scolding dash that cast his sack over his head and shook out his white smock, scattering over the view, like a jack-towel on the washing-line. Acknowledging this salutation with a curse, Leviticus gathered his sack more tightly and bending one long leg before him. Stealthily peered awry at the wheel-tracks. This was the way to discover whatever had happened last among them, instead of looking across or along them, where the nicer shades would fail. At first he could make out but a little of it. The east wind whirling last year's leaves from the couches where the west had piled them, and parching the flakes of the mud as if exposed upon a scraper, had made it a hard thing to settle the date of the transit even of a timber-dre. One of these had passed not long ago with a great trunk swinging and swagging on the road and slurring the scallops of the horse-track. Therefore tickets for some time looked less wise and usual and scratched as had. The brain replied, as it generally does, to this soft local stimulant, so briskly in fact that the master soon was able to clap both his hands into their natural home, the pockets of his breeches, and thus to survey the scene and grin. Did he think to do me an old brother, Zach? Now, did he? Did he? Did he? I were aborn before you, Zach, or if I were not, it were mother's mistake. O long with thee, Zach, o long with thee, go home to thy cat and thy little kitten, Eddie! He knew by the track that his brother had passed a good while ago, or he would not have dared to speak in this rebellious vein, and what he said next was even more disloyal. Dang, to find a good mind to horn-string that old hoes-bird of a dobbin! Ay, I will, too, if you, Zach, come with prowlin' around my place like this. If it didn't mean to treachery, why didn't loth come in, and call for a horn of ale and a bite of cold bacon? Oh, we've a pretty well stopped him of that, though. No, Master Zach, now, go thine own ways. Keep thyself to thyself's law of the land, am I thinkin'? Now a year or even six months ago Leviticus Cripps would sooner have lost a score of pigs and make such a speech, inhospitable unnatural, unbrotherly, and violently uncripsian. Nothing but his own bad conscience, as he fell more and more away from honour and do esteem for Beckley, could have suggested to him such a low and crooked view of Zachary. The Carrier was not in any measure spying or prowling or even watching. Such courses were out of his track altogether. Rather would he have come with a fist if the family honour demanded it, and therewith have converted his brother's olfactory organ into something loftier, as a medium of a sense of honesty. In bare point of fact the family honour demanded this vindication, but the need had not as yet been conveyed to the knowledge of the executive power. Zachary had no suspicion at present of his brother's fearful lapse. And the only thing that brought him down that lane was another stroke of business in the washing-line. Squire Corsair had married a new sort of wife with a tendency towards a nobility, wherefore a monthly wash was out of keeping with her loftier views, though she had a fine kitchen garden. And she cried till the Squire put the whole of it out and sent it every week to Beckley. And it's a new duty for Domina Rose, which he faced with his usual patients, simply reserving his right to travel at the pace he considered expedient, and to have a stronger and deeper bottom stitched to his old nosebag. The first time the carrier traversed that road, fraternal duty impelled him to make all proper inquiries concerning the health of his brother and the character of his tap. Although the reply, upon both these points, was favourable and pleasing, Zachary met with so queer a reception, the dignity and self-respect compelled him to vow that for many a journey he would pass with a dry mouth, rather than turn in. Of all the nefiers and nieces who loved to make him their own carrier, by sitting astride perhaps two on each leg and one on each schoolytic vamp, and shouting yee-hee, yee-hee, till he panted worse than Daven, obese with young St. Fowling. Likewise, who always jumped up in his cart and laid hold of the reins and whip even, and wore out the patience of any other horse except the horse before them, of all these delightful young pests, not one was now permitted to come near him. And not only that, which alone was very strange, but even Susanna, the wife of Leviticus and sister-in-law of Zachary, evidently had upon her tongue laid a dumb weight of responsibility, quite as if Zach were an interloper or an inquisitive stranger, thrusting a keen but unjustified nose into things that were better without it. Susanna was always a very good woman, and used to look up to Zachary, because her father was a basket-maker, and even now she said no harm, but still there was something about her. When she muttered that she must go and wash the potatoes, timid and cold and unhearty like, the carrier made up his mind that they were all in trouble about their mortgage again, just as they were about six months back, when the land was likely to be lost to them, and finding it not a desirable thing to be called upon to contribute, he jogged well away from all such tactics, with his pockets buttoned, not that he would have grudged any good turn to any one of his family, but that his strong common sense allowed him no faith in a liar, and for many years he had known that Ticcus was the liar of the family. Leviticus took quite a different view of the whole of this proceeding. He was under no terror about his mortgage, for reasons as yet quite private, and his thick shallow cunning, like an underground gutter, was full of its own rats only. He was certain that Zach had suspected him, in spite of the care he had taken to keep his wife and children away from him, and believing this he was certain also that Zach was playing the spy on him, while he was meditating thus in his slow and turbid mind, and turning away from the corner of the road towards his beloved pig-layers, the rattle of the sharp east wind was laden with the softer and heavier sound, the hooves of a horse upon sod and mud. Ticcus, with two or three long strides, got behind a crooked tree, so as to hide or exhibit himself according to what should come to pass. But what came to pass was a horse in the first place, of good family and good feed, and on his back a man who shared in at least the latter excellence. These two were not coming by the forest lane but along a quiet narrow track, which cut off many of its corners. To judge of the two which looked the more honest would have required another horse in council with another man. At sight of this arrival Ticcus came forth and scraped humbly. Don't stand there like a monkey at a fair! cried Mr. Sharp, for he it was and no mistake about him. Am I to come through the rambles to you? Can't you come up like a man with his wits? Where this beastly wind doesn't blow so hard! Who can hear Chaw Bacon talk off there? Loviticus Cripps made a vast lot of gestures commending the value of caution and pointing to the lane half a hundred yards off, as if it contained a whole band of brigands. Mr. Sharp was not a patient man, and he knew that there was no danger. Therefore he swore pretty freely until the abject lord of Swine restored him to a pleasant humor by a pitiful tale of Black George's trouble on the previous afternoon. Catching it and by no mistake, Ticcus Cripps repeated, the dust from his jacket, oh Lord, oh Lord, I had followed on the softly to see the fun, without missing no one I were near, of course, and I may never, if I didn't think a word, almost have killed him. Oh, it'll be a good round week, I reckon, before George stitches up a ferret's mouth again. He took me in terrible that very morning. He were worse stuck in his little forty afternoon was out. Praise the Lord for all his goodness, sir. Well, well, it shall be made up to him, but of course you did not let him, or anyone else, get any idea who the lady is. Governor No Man hath any sense of that, Loviticus answered with one finger on his nose, save and accept the old lady to the cottage, and you and I, and you knows whether there be any other. Loviticus Cripps, no lies to me. Of course your own wife has got the whole thing out of you. Her, replied Ticcus with a high contempt for which he should have had his ears boxed. No, no, master, I would have been all over Oxford months ago if her had known a word of it. Her knoweth, of course, there be somebody up at the cottage with the old lady, but her hath sucked in the American story, the same as everybody else hath. Who would ever dream of our old squire's daughter when the whole world hath killed and buried her? When, nonetheless, for all that I kept her and the children out of the way of our sack I did, I might go talking to the folk up at the cottage, and sack would be for going up with one of his cars par of a tour. Oh, how old sack eyes who come out of his head! That old batfowl! I would crack my sides, is he, and you had better keep your fat sides sound and quiet. Mr. Sharp answered sternly for the slow wits of Ticcus being tickled by that rare thing in imagination. The result, of course, a guffaw whose breadth was exceeded only by its length. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord, to see the old batfowl with the eyes coming out of his head, and I'll be danged if I shouldn't show cold, Lord! Mr. Sharp saw the Ticcus, once being set off, might be trusted to go on for at least half an hour with minute guns of cackling, loudest, self-glorifying catch-a-nation, as amenable to reason as a hiccup is. The lawyer's time was too precious to waste thus, so having learned all that he cared to learn in hearing wheels in a forest lane he turned back along the narrow covert ride, and he thought within himself, for he never mused aloud. My bold stroke bids fair to be a great success. Nobody dreams that the girl is here. She herself believes every word that she has told. Kit is overhead in ears, and she will be the same with him after that fine rescue. Our only marplot has been laid by the heels at the very nick of time. We have only to manage Kit himself, who is a most confounded sort. The luck is with me, the luck is with me, and none shall be the wiser. Only give me one month more.