 Chapter 4 of the Trial, this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nancy Cochran-Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona. The Trial by Charlotte Mary Young, Chapter 4. Griefs hidden in the mind like treasures will turn with time to solemn pleasures. On the Monday morning, the two convalescents shook hands in the waiting room at the station, surveying each other rather curiously, while Ethel, trying to conquer her trepidation, gave manifold promises to every of care and correspondence. Dr. Spencer acted escort, being far more serviceable on the railway than his untraveled friend, whose lame arm, heedless head, and aptitude for missing trains and mistaking luggage, made him a charge rather than an assistant. He was always happiest among his patients at home, and the world was still ill enough to employ him so fully that Ethel hoped to be less missed than usual. Indeed, she believed that her absence would be good in teaching him Mary's full grown worth, and Mary would be in the full glory of notability in the purification of the house. The change was likewise for Dr. Spencer's good. He had almost broken down in the height of the neighbor and still looked older and thinner for it, and after one night at Cone, he was going to refresh himself by one of his discursive tours. He was in high spirits and the pink of courtesy, extremely flattered by the charge of Ethel, and making her the ostensible object of his attention to the relief of the boys who were glad to be spared their sense of prominent invalidism. The change was delightful to them. Aubrey was full of life and talk, and sat gazing from the window as if the line from Stoneboro to Whitford presented a succession of novelties. What's that old place on the river there, with crow-stepped gables and steep roofs like a Flemish picture? Don't you know, said Leonard, it is the ventry mill where my relative lives that wants to make a dusty miller of me. No fear of that, old fellow, said Aubrey, regarding him and some dismay. You've got better things to grind at. I, even if I don't get the Randall next time, I shall be sure of it another. You'll have it next. I don't know. Here's a quarter clean gone, and the other fellows will have got before me. Oh, but most of them have had a spell of fever. Yes, but they have not had it so thoroughly, said Leonard. My memory is not properly come back yet, and your father says I must not try it too soon. That's always his way, said Aubrey. You would not let Ethel so much as pack up my little Homer. Leonard's quick, furtive glance at Ethel was as if he suspected her of having been barely prevented and torturing him. Oh, it was not her doing, said Aubrey. It was I. I thought Tom would find me gone back, and, you know, we must keep up together, Leonard, and be entered at St. John's at the same time. For Aubrey devoutly believed in Tom's college at Cambridge, which had recovered all Dr. May's allegiance. The extra brightness was not of long duration. It was a very hot day, such as exactly suited the salamander nature of Dr. Spencer. But the carriage became like an oven. Aubrey curled himself up in a corner and went to sleep. But Leonard's look of a pressed resignation grieved Ethel, and the blue lines made him look so livid that she was always fancying him fainting. And then his shyness was dreadful. It was impossible to elicit from him anything but, no, thank you. He did nearly faint when they left the train, and while Aubrey was eagerly devouring the produce of the refreshment room, had to lie on a bench under Dr. Spencer's charge. For Ethel's approach only brought on a dangerous spasm of politeness. How she should get on with him for a month passed her imagination. There was a fresher breeze when they drove out of the station, up a dorset ridge of hill, steep, high, terraced and bleak. But it was slow climbing up, and everyone was baked in weary before the summit was gained, and the descent commenced. Even then, Ethel, sitting backwards, could only see height develop above height, all green and scattered with sheep, or here and there an unfin's turnip field, the road stretching behind like a long white ribbon, and now and then descending between steep chalk cuttings and slopes, down which the carriage slowly scooped on its drag, leaving a broad blue-flex trail. Dr. Spencer was asleep, had off, and the wind lifting his snowy locks, and she wished the others were, but Aubrey lamented on the heat and the length and Leonard leaned back in his corner, past lamentation. Down, down, the cuttings were becoming precipitous cliffs, the drag made dismal groans. Aubrey, after a great slip forward, looking injured, anchored himself with his feet against the seat by Ethel, and Dr. Spencer was effectually wakened by an involuntary fourth plunge of his opposite neighbor. Can this be safe, quote Ethel, should not some of us get out? Much you know of hills you level landers, was the answer, and just then they were met and passed by four horses dragging up a stagecoach, after the fashion of a fly on a window pane. A stagecoach, delightful to the old world eyes of Dr. Spencer, recalling a faint memory to Ethel and presenting a perfect novelty to Aubrey. Then came a sudden turn upon flat ground, and a short cry of wonder broke from Aubrey. Ethel was sensible of a strange salt weedy spell, new to her nostrils, but only saw the white plastered gray-roofed houses through which they were driving. But, with another turn, the building for only on one side, on the other there was a wondrous sense of openness, vastness, freshness, something level, gray, but dazzling, and before she could look again, the horses stopped, and close to her, under the beading weather-stained white cliff, was a low fence, and within it a veranda and a door, where stood floor's maid, Barbara, in all her respectability. Much quit had been expended by Aubrey on being left to the tender mercy of cruel Barbara Allen, in whom Ethel herself anticipated a tyrant, but at the moment she was invaluable. Every room was ready and inviting, and nothing but the low staircase between Leonard and the white bed, which was the only place fit for him. While for the rest the table was beedly covered with tea and chickens. Abbott stoke eggs, inscribed with yesterday's date, and the red male clad prawns to prove to touch and taste that this was truly seaside. The other senses knew it well. The open window led in the indescribable salt, fresh odor, and the entire view from it was shore and sea. There seemed nothing to hinder the tide from coming up the ridge of shingle and rushing straight into the cottage, and the ear was constantly struck by the regular roll and dash of the waves. Aubrey, though with the appetite of recovery and sea air combined, could not help pausing to listen, and, when his meal was over, leaned back in his chair, listened again, and gave a sigh of content. It is one constant hush, hushabye, he said. It would make one sleep pleasantly. His companions combined their advice to him so to use it, and in less than half an hour Ethel went to bid him goodnight in the widest of beds and cleanest of tiny chambers, where he looked the picture of sleepy satisfaction when she opened his window and admitted the swell and dash that fascinated his weary senses. My child is all right, said Ethel, returning to Dr. Spencer. Can you say the same of yours? He must rest himself into the power of sleeping. I must say it was a bold experiment, but it will do very well when he has got over the journey. He was doing no good at home. I hope you will hear. Depend on it, he will. And now what are you intending? I am thirsting to see those waves near. Would it be against the manners and customs of sea places for me to run down to them so late? Sea places have no manners and customs. Ethel tossed on her hat with a feeling of delight and freedom. Oh, are you coming, Dr. Spencer? I did not mean to drag you out. You had rather rest and smoke. This is rest, he answered. The next moment the ridge of the shingle was past and Ethel's feet were sinking in the depths of pebbles, her cheeks freshened by the breeze, her lips salted by the spray tossed in by the wind from the wave crests. At the edge of the water she stood, as all others stand there, watching the heaving from far away come nearer, nearer, curl over in its pride of green glassy beauty, fall into foam, and draw back, making the pebbles crash their accompanying shh. The repetition, the peaceful majesty, the blue expanse, the straight horizon so impressed her spirit as to rivet her eyes and chain her lips. And she receded step by step before the tide, unheaving anything else, not even perceiving her companion's eyes fixed on her, half curiously, half sadly. Well, Ethel, at last, he said. I never guessed it, she said with a gasp. No wonder Harry cannot bear to be away from it. Must we leave it as he moved back. Only to smooth ground, said Dr. Spencer, it is too dark to stay here among the stones and crab pots. The summer twilight was closing in, lights shining in the village under the cliffs and looking mysterious on distant points of the coast, stars were shining forth in the pale blue sky and the young moon shedding a silver ripple beam on the water. If Papa were but here, said Ethel, awakening from another gaze and recollecting that she was not making herself agreeable. So you like the expedition? The fit answer to that would be, it is very pretty, as the cockney said to Coldridge at the door. So I have converted a stone-borrow fungus. What, to say the sea is glorious? A grand conversion. To find anything superior to Minster Street. Ah, you are but half-reclaimed. You are a living instance that there is no content unless one has begun life as a fungus. She was startled by his change of tone. True, Ethel, content might have been one if there had been resolution to begin without it. I beg your pardon, she faltered. I ought not to have said it. I forgot there was such a cause. Cause, you know nothing about it. She was silent, distressed, dismayed, fearing that she had spoken wrongly and had either mistaken or been misunderstood. Tell me, Ethel, he presently said, What can you know of what made me a wanderer? Only what Papa told me. He was the last person to know. He told me, said Ethel, herring it out in a fright, that you went away, out of generosity, not to interfere with his happiness. Then she felt as if she had done a shocking thing and waited anxiously while Dr. Spencer deliberately made a deep hole in the shingle with a stick. Well, at last, he said. I thought that matter was unknown to all men. Above all, to Dick. It was only after you were gone that he put things together and made it out. Did she know, said Dr. Spencer, with a long breath? I cannot tell, said Ethel. And how or why did he tell you? Rather hurt. It was when first you came. I'm sure no one else knows it. But he told me because he could not help it. He was so sorry for you. They walked the whole length of the parade and had turned before Dr. Spencer spoke again. And then he said, It is strange. My one vision was of walking on the seashore with her. And that just doing so with you should have brought up the hole as fresh as five and thirty years ago. I wish I was more like her, said Ethel. No more was wanting to make him launch into the description dear to a daughter's heart of her mother in her sweet series bloom of young womanhood, giving new embellishments to the character already so closely enshrined in his hearer's heart the more valuable that the stream of treasured recollection flowed on in partial oblivion of the person to whom it was addressed, or at least that she was the child of his rival, or from the portrait of the quiet bright maiden he passed to the sufferings that his own reserve nature had undergone from his friend's outspoken enthusiasm. The professor's visible preference for the youth of secure prospects had not so much discouraged as stung him. And in a moment of irritation at the professor's treatment and the exulting hopes of his unconscious friend he had sworn to himself that the first involuntary token of regard from the young lady towards one or the other should decide him whether to win name and position for her sake or to carry his slighted passion to the utmost parts of the earth and never again see her face. Ethel, he said, stopping short never threatened Providence above all, never keep the threat. Ethel scarcely durst speak in her anxiety to know what cast the die though with all Dr. Spencer's charms she could not but pity the delusion that could have made him hope to be preferred to a father above all by her mother. Nor could she clearly understand from him what had dispelled his hopes something it was that took place at the picnic on Arthur's seat of which she had previously heard as a period of untold bliss. That something still left in vague mystery had sealed the fate of the two friends. And so, said Dr. Spencer, I took the first foreign appointment that offered and my poor father, who had spent his utmost on me and had been disappointed in all his sons was most of all disappointed in me. I held myself bound to abide by my rash vow loathe tame English life without her and I left him to neglect in his age. You could not have known or expected, exclaimed Ethel. What right had I to expect anything else? It was only myself that I thought of. I pacified him by talk of traveling and extending my experience and silenced my conscience by intending to return when ordinary life should have become tolerable to me. A time that never has come. At last, in the height of that pestilential season in India came a letter warning me that my brother's widow had got the mastery over my poor father and was cruelly abusing it so that only my return could deliver him. It was when hundreds were perishing and I, the only medical man near, when to have left my post would have been both disgraceful and murderous. Then I was laid low myself and while I was conquering the effects of cholera came tidings that made it nothing to me whether day or I conquered. This, and he touched one of his white curling walks, was not done by mere bodily exertion or ailment. You would have been too late anyway, said Ethel. No, not if I had gone immediately. I might have got him out of that woman's hands and made his life happy for years. There was this sting that the crime had been long before. You know the rest. I had no health to remain, no heart to come home. And then came vagrancy indeed. I drifted wherever restlessness or impulse took me till all my working years were over and till the day when the sight of your father's wedding ring showed me that I should not break my mad word by accepting the only welcome that any creature gave me. And, oh, surely you have been comforted by him? Comforted. Cut to the heart will be truer. One moment I could only look at him as having borne off my treasure to destroy it but then there rose on me his loving, patient, heartbroken humility and cheerfulness and I saw such a character, such a course as showed me how much better he had deserved her and filled me with shame and having ever less esteemed him. And through all there was the same dear Dick May that never, since the day we first met at the pump in the school court, had I been able to help loving with all my heart, the only being that was glad to see me again. When he begged me to stay and watch over your sister, what could I do but remain while she lived? So he bound you down. Oh, you know how we thank you. No, you can't, nor what you have been to him and to all of us through the worst of our sad days and though it was a sacrifice I do not think was bad for you. No, Ethel, when you implored me to give up my premium notion to spare your father pain I did feel for once that you at least stopped me a value to someone. I cannot bear you to speak so, cried Ethel, you to talk of having been no use? No honest man of principle in education can be utterly useless, but when three days ago I recollected that it was my 60th birthday I looked back and saw nothing but to sell through broken efforts and restless changes. Your father told me when I thought him unaware of the meaning of his words that if I had missed many joys I had missed many sorrows, but I had taken the way to make my one sorrow a greater burden than his many. But you do not grieve for my mother still, said Ethel, anxiously. Even his grief is a grave joy to him now and one is always told that such things as it was with you, are but a very small part of a man's life. I am not one of the 500 men whom any one of 500 women might have equally pleased, said Dr. Spencer, but it is so far true that the positive pain and envy were out and would not have interfered with my afterlife but for my own falling. No, Ethel, it was not the loss of her that embittered him through away my existence. It was my own rash vow and its headstrong fulfillment which has left me no right to your father's peaceful spirit. How little we guessed, said Ethel, so cheerful and ready as you always are. I never trouble others, he said abruptly. Neither man nor woman ever heard a word of all this and you would not have heard it now but for that sea and you have got your mother's voice and some of her ways since you have grown older and more sedate. Oh, I am so glad, said Ethel, who had been led to view her likeness to her father as natural not to her mother as acquired. Those were the last words of the conversation but Ethel, leaning from her window to listen to the plash of the waves, suspected that the slowly moving meteors she beheld denoted that a cigar was soothing the emotions excited by their dialogue. She mused long over that revelation of the motives of the life she had been noble and generous in the midst of much that was eccentric and wayward and constantly the beat of the waves repeated to her the half-comprehended words never threatened providence. After superintending Aubrey's first bath and Doolian's stalling device, MD, and her charges, Dr. Spencer departed and Ethel was launched on an unknown ocean as pilot to an untried crew. She had been told to regard Leonard's bashfulness as a rare grace that it was very inconvenient to have the boy wretchedly drooping and owning nothing amiss apparently unacquainted with any English words except thank you and no thank you. Indeed she doubted whether the shyness were genuine for stories were afloat of behavior at stone-row parties which savored of audacity and she vainly consulted Aubrey whether the cause of his discomforture were her age or her youth or her tutorship or her plain face. Even Aubrey could not elicit any like or dislike, wish or complaint, and shrugging up his shoulders decided that it was of no use to bother about it. Leonard would come to his senses in time. He was passive when taken out walking, submissive when planted on a three-quarter camp stool that expanded from a gouty walking stick that seemed so inadequately perched and made so forlorn a spectacle that they were forced to put him indoors out of the glare of sea and sky and hoping that he would condescend to the sofa when Ethel was out of sight. Pug Tillio broke down the next morning and in the midst of breakfast he was forced to lie down and allow Ethel to bathe his face with vinegar and water while she repented of the make the best of it letter of the yesterday and sent Aubrey out on a secret commission of inquiry about medical men in case of need. Aubrey was perfectly well and in such a state of disultery enjoyment and seaside active idleness that he was quite off her mind only alightening her morning of nursing by his exits and infences to telefresh discoveries or incidents wonderful to the inland mind. After dinner, which had driven Leonard to lie on his bed, Aubrey persuaded his sister to come and see his greatest prize a quaint old local naturalist a seafaring man with a cottage crammed with pans of live wonders of deep in water and shelves of extinct ones done up in stain pies not a creature by sea or land that had haunted cool for a few million of ages seemed to have escaped him. Such seaside sojourns as the present are the prime moments for coca trees with the lighter branches of natural science and the brother and sister had agreed to avail themselves of the geological facilities and their position the fascinations of Hugh Miller's autobiography having entirely gained them during Aubrey's conflesses Ethel tore herself away from the discussion of localities for the old man who was guide as well as philosopher boatman as well as naturalist and returned to her patient whom she found less feverish though sadly low and languid I wish I knew what to do for you she said sitting down by him what would your sister do for you nothing he really said I mean a great deal too much the tone so we're called Norman's dejective hopelessness that she could not help tenderly laying her cold hands on the hot brow and seeing yes I know how little one can do as a sister and the mockery it is to think that one place can ever be taken the brown eyes looked at her with moist earnestness that she could hardly bear but closed with a look of relief and soothe as she held her hand on his forehead presently however he said don't let me keep you in I have been out thank you I am so glad to try to do anything for you thank you what a clock is it please ah then I ought to take that draft I forgot it in the morning he permitted her to fetch it and pour it out but as she recognized a powerful tonic she exclaimed is this what you're taking may it not make you feverish no doubt it does he said lying down again it was only Henry what did not my father know of it of course he does not as it seems to be poison not exactly that said Ethel but I was surprised for it was talked of for Aubrey but they said it wanted watching just like Henry observed Leonard well said Ethel repressing her indignation I am glad at least to find a possible cause for your bad night we shall see you refreshed tomorrow and not wishing yourself at home don't think that I wish that home is gone forever home may be gone higher up to the real home said Ethel blushing with the effort at the hand and coming down to earthier consolations but even the frightness will go into home again here and you will feel very differently Leonard did not answer but after applause said this may is not at a horrid pity girl should go to school I am no judge Leonard you see said the boy after the little girls were born my mother had no time for AVE and sent her to Brighton and there she begged to stay on one half after another learning all sorts of things but only coming home for short holidays like company for us to wonder her and show her about thinking herself ever so much in advance like poor mother and now she knows just nothing at all of her you cannot tell Leonard she has been devoted to you if she had stayed at home like you she might have known how to let one alone oh you can't think what peace it was yesterday was it peace I feared it was desertion it is much better to be by oneself than always worried to have him always at me to get up my spirits when the house is miserable ah said Ethel I remember your mother rejoicing that she had not to send you from home and seeing you were always so kind and gentle to her did she? cried the boy eagerly oh but she forgot and he hit his face the features working with anguish so pleased and proud she used to look walking with you on Saturday afternoons those Saturdays they were the only walks she ever would take but she would always come with me more followed in the same stream and Ethel began to gather more distinct impressions of the ward family she saw that her present charge was warm and sound hearty and that the strength and his affections had been chiefly absorbed by the homely housewifely mother comparatively little esteemed by the modernized brother and sister of the loss of his father he seemed to think less it seemed indeed rather to reconcile him to that of his mother by the grief it spared her and it confirmed Ethel's notion that the ward, a busy and dull man paid no great attention to his children between the plaything period and that of full development the mother was the home in April the letter showed both love for and pride in her had hitherto been a poor substitute while as to Henry there was something in each mention of him which gave Ethel an undefined dread of the future of the young household and a doubt of the result of her father's kind schemes of patronage at any rate this conversation had the happy effect of banishing constraint and satisfying Ethel that the let alone system was kindness not neglect she was at ease in discussing fossils though he contributed no word and she let him sleep or wake as he best liked whilst all be read to her the cruise of the Betsy Henry's prescription was sent to invigorate the fishes the cessation was found to be followed by the recovery of sleep and appetite and in the cool of the evening by a disposition to stroll on the beach and lie under the lee of a rock upon a railway rug which Ethel had substituted for the three-legged delusion there he was left while his companions went fossil hunting and stayed so long as to excite their compunction and quicken their steps when they at length detached themselves from the enticing blue lias what has he got there cried Aubrey oh, old fellow have you fallen a prey to a black cat cat returned Leonard indignantly don't you see it is the jolliest little dog in the world you call that a dog said the other boy with redoubled contempt he was just big enough for little margarits to know his arc it really is a beauty said Ethel I have known one of Flora's guests to bring a bear one in her muff it is the most sensible little brute added Leonard see, beg my man beg and the beautyous little black coated king Charles erected itself on its hind legs displaying its rich ruddy tan waistcoat and sleeves and beseeching with its black diamond eyes for the biscuit dropped and caught in mid-air it was the first time Leonard had looked bright so you expect us to sanction your private dog stealing said Aubrey I have been watching for his mistress to come back said Leonard but she must have passed an hour ago and she does not deserve to have him for she never looked back for him and he had run up to me frisking and making much of me as if he had found an old friend perhaps it will run home when we move no such thing it trotted close at Leonard's heels and entered the house with them Robert was consulted and on Leonard's deposition that the dog's mistress was in deep mourning opined that she could be no other than the widow of an officer who during his lingering illness had been often laid upon the beach and had there played with his little dogs this one, evidently very young had probably in the confusion of its puppy memory taken the invalid for its lost master stupid little thing said Aubrey just like an undersized ladies toy who knows its friends these little things have twice the sense of overgrown dogs as big and as stupid as jackasses a retort from Leonard was welcomed in Ethel's ears and she quite developed his conversational powers in an argument on the sagacity of all canine varieties it was too late to send the little animal home and he found no and played with it till bedtime when he lodged it in his own room and the attachment was so strong that it worked with a deep sigh that at breakfast he accepted Aubrey's offer of conveying it home there she is exclaimed in the midst gazing from the window and see the perfection of the animal added Aubrey pointing to a broad back wildling caricature of the little black fairy restitution must be made little as she deserves you you little jewel said Leonard picking up the object of admiration I'll take you out no no I am not so infectious said Ethel tying on her hat I had better do it and after Leonard's parting embraced to his favorites she received it and quickly overtaking the pensive steps of the lady arrested her progress with I beg your pardon but I think this is your dog poor little man has the dog struggle to get to her and dance gladly around her I missed her last night and was coming to look for her she joined one of our parties said Ethel and he was not strong enough to follow you indeed he has had scarlet fever so perhaps it was better not but he is taking great care of the little dog and hopes it is not the worst thank you I wish poor mad may always meet such kind friends said the lady sadly she secured her welcome said Ethel we were very grateful to her for it was the first thing that has seemed to interest him since his illness and he has just lost both his parents ah thank you Ethel wondered at herself for having been so communicative but the sweet sad face and look of interest had drawn her words out and on her return she made such a touching history of the adventure that Leonard listened earnestly and Aubrey looked subdued when they went out Leonard refused to spread his rug in that only bed of pulverized shingle and Ethel respected his avoidance of it as delicacy to her whose husband had no doubt often occupied that spot he is a thorough gentleman said she as she walked away with Aubrey he might be an eaten fellow was the significant reply I wonder what made him so said Ethel musingly looking at Tom returned to Aubrey not in jest even with that advantage I don't quite see where he learned that refined consideration Shaw Ethel the light of nature would show that to anyone but aesthetics Ethel was not sorry that such were Aubrey's views of courtesy but all thought of that subject was soon lost in the pursuit of ammonites I wonder what Leonard will have picked up now they speculated as they turned homewards with their weighty baskets but what was their amazement when Leonard waved his hand pointing to the little black dog again at his feet she is mine he exclaimed my own Mrs. Gizborn has given her to me and she is to be the happiest little mind going given yes she came as soon as you were gone and sat by me and talked for an hour but she goes tomorrow to live with an old hag of an ant really you seem to have been on confidential terms I mean that she must be a nuisance because she doesn't like dogs so that Mrs. Gizborn can only take the old one which she could never part with so she wanted to give mad to someone who would be kind to her and she has come to the right shop hasn't she my little queen I thought she almost wished it this morning said Ethel when she heard how you and Mab had taken to each other but it is a very choice present the creature looks to me to be of a very fine sort now Miss May how could you know that why but her deportment don't you know the aristocratic look that all hybrid animals have even bantams Leonard look as if this were the most convincing proof of Ethel's wisdom and proceeded well she is descended from a real King Charles that Charles II brought from France and gave to Mrs. Jane Lane may have kept up the breed ever since so that Matt will have the longest pedigree in stone borough and we must all respect her said Ethel stroking your black head I am only surprised that Leonard's forgetting his place said Aubrey walking before her Majesty indeed oh attendance to come first sometimes then it should be backwards I have a mind to try lying on the beach tomorrow looking interesting to see what will descend upon me a great yellow mongrel said Ethel as always befalls imitators in the path of the hero what you mean that it was all the work of Leonard's bozier it was sort of growl intimating that Aubrey was excited his displeasure and Ethel was glad to be at home and break off the conversation but in a few minutes Aubrey knocked at her door and edging himself in mysteriously said such fun so it was your bozier not Leonard's that made the conquest I suppose she was touched with what I said of poor Leonard's circumstances and the pleasure the creature gave him that is his prosious Mary Ethel at any rate the woman told Leonard yours was the most irresistibly attractive countenance she ever saw short of beauty and that's not the best of it for he is absolutely angry no wonder left Ethel no but it's about the beauty he can't conceive a face more beautiful than yours except the gargoyle on the church tower said Ethel gaping into as complete a model of that worthy as flesh and blood could perpetrate but he means it persisted Aubrey fixing his eyes critically on his sister's features but disturbed by the contortions into which she threw them now don't don't I never saw any fellow with a hundredth part of your gift for making faces he added between the unwilling proxisms of mirth at each fresh grimace but I want to judge of you and oh that solemn one is worse than all it is like Julius Caesar if he had ever been photographed but really when one comes to think about it you are not so very ugly after all and are much better looking than Flora when we were taught to believe in poor Flora you were no judge in her blooming days before wear and tear came and made her like our Scotch grandfather but Blanche your own Blanche Aubrey she might have extended Leonard's ideas of beauty Blanche has a pretty little visage of her own but it's not so well worth looking at as yours said Aubrey one has seen to the end of it at once and it won't light up hers is just the may blossom and yours the the I know the Orcus I have read in Orchidaceous face teeth tongue lips eyes and nose were once made to serve in hitting off an indescribable lightness to an Orcus Blanche which was raptuously applauded till Ethel relaxing the strain and permitting herself to laugh triumphantly at her own achievement said there I do pride myself on being of a high order of the grotesque it is not the grotesque that he means said Aubrey he is very cracked indeed he declares that when you came and sat by him the day before yesterday you were perfectly lovely oh then I understand and it is no matter said Ethel end of chapter 4 recording by Nancy Cochran Gergen Gilbert Arizona chapter 5 of the trial this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Nancy Cochran Gergen Gilbert Arizona the trial by Charlotte Mary Young chapter 5 they swans they swans they swans they swans scouring of the white horse so wrote Ethel in her daily letter to her father mine is at present a maternal mission to Leonard and it is highly gratifying I subscribe to all your praise of him and repent of my ingratious murmurs at his society you have the virtue and I have the reward the usual course of this world for his revival is a very fresh and pleasant spectacle burning hot with enthusiasm whatever we do he over does till I recollect how Wilkie said he had never been a Wilkeite three days ago a portentous looking ammonite attracted his attention and whereas he started from the notion that earth was dirt and stones were stones the same all over the world he has since so far outstripped his instructors that as I write this he is drawing a plan of the strata with the inhabitants dramatically arranged over suggesting tragic scenes and uncompimentary likenesses his talent for drawing shows was worth culture if our geology alarm Richard tell him that I think it's safer to get it over young and to face apparent discrepancies with revelation rather than leave them to be discovered afterwards as if they had been timidly kept out of sight and whether Hugh Miller's theory be right or wrong his grand furfid language leaves a conviction that undoubt and confidence in revelation consists with the clearest and most scientific mind June 30 I consider my boys has returned to their normal relations I descended on them as they were sparring like lion cubs at play Leonard desisted in confusion it might be holding such savage doings but cool and easy not having turned a hair Aubrey, panting, done up railing at him as first cousin to Hercules all as a delicate boast to me of his friends recovered strength Aubrey's forte is certainly veneration his first class of human beings is a large one though quizzing is his ordinary form of adoration for instance, he teases Mab and her devoted slave some degrees more than the victim can bear and then relieves his feelings in my room by a separation that the friendship with Leonard will be on the May and Spencer pattern the sea is the elixir of life to both Leonard looks quite himself again only more so and Aubrey has a glow never seen since his full moon visage wane and not all tan though we are on the high road to be coffee berries Aubrey daily entertains me with heroic tales of diving and floating till I tell them they will become enamored of some navy of honor who lives in the sea grow vicious tales and come home no more and really as the time wanes I feel that such a coast is Elysium above all the boating the lazy charm the fresh purity of air the sights and sounds the soft summer wave when one holds one's hand over the tide the excitement of seaweed catching and the nonsense we all talk are so delicious and such new sensations except the nonsense which loses by your absence oh learned doctor that I fully perceive how pleasures untrived cannot even be conceived but ere the lotus food has entirely depraved my memory I give you warning to come in fetch us home now that the boys are in full repair come yourself and be feasted on shrimps and mackerel and take one sail to the mouth of the bay I won't say who shall bring you it would be fun to have Daisy and Mary ought to have a holiday but then Richard would take better care of you and Tom would keep you in the best order could you not all come only if you don't yourself I won't promise not to take up with a merman July 4th very well if this is to make a strong man of Aubrey, Tom you and even home in Coxmore yearnings concern me little in this castle of indolence so don't flatter yourself that I shall grumble at having had to take our house on again let us keep Leonard we should both miss him extremely and Aubrey would lose half the good to swim, scramble and fight with indeed for the poor fellow's own sake he should stay for though he is physically as strong as a young megalosaur and in the water or on the rocks all day I don't think his head has come to application nor his health to bearing depression and I see he dreads the return so that he had better stay away till school begins again July 7th oh you weak-minded folks now I know why you wanted to keep me away that you might yield to yourselves afraid to flora paper and chins forsooth all I have to say is this, Miss Mary ask to my room touch it if you dare I leave Papa to protect his own study but for the rest think, Mary what your feelings would be if Harry were to come home and not know what room he was in if I am to choose between the patterns of chins I prefer the seaweed variety as in character with things in general and with the present occasion and as to the carpet I hope that flora touched with our submission will not send us anything distressing July 17th can you send me any more of the New Zealand letters? I have copied out the whole provision I brought with me for the blank book and by the way have inoculated Leonard with such a missionary fever as frightens me to be sure he is cut out for such work he is intended for a clergyman on grounds of gentility I fear and is too full of physical energy and enterprise to take readily to sober parochial life his ardor is a gallant thing and his home tie is not binding but it is not fair to take advantage of his present inflammable state of enthusiasm and the little we have said has been taken up so fervently that I have resolved on caution for the future it is foolish to make so much of a boy's eagerness especially when circumstances have brought him into an unnatural dreamy mood and probably these aspirations will pass away with the sound of the waves but they are pretty and enduring while they last in their force and sincerity just at the age tweaks boy and youth when thought is speech and speech is truth and one's heart beats at the thought of what is possible to creatures of that age July 21st you who taught us to love our Walter Scott next to our Christian year and who gave us half crowns for rehearsing him when other children were learning the robin's petition what thank you of this poor boy Leonard knowing few of the novels and none of the poems no wonder the taste of the day is grappling lower and lower to not begin with the pure high air of his world to take up one of his works after any of our present school of fiction is like getting up a mountainside after a feverish drawing room or an offensive street if it were possible to know the right moment for a book to be really tasted not thrust aside because crammed down no it would not be desirable as I was going to say we should only do double mischief we are not set into the world to mold people but to let them mold themselves and the internal elasticity will soon unmake all the shapes that just now seem to form under my fingers like clay at any rate the introduction of such a congenial spirit to Sir Walter was a real treat Leonard has the very nature to be fired by him and Aubrey being excessively scandalized at his ignorance routed a cheap Marmian out of the little bookshop and we beguiled a wet afternoon with it Aubrey snatching it from me at all the critical passages for fear I should not do them justice and thundering out the battle which stirred the other boy like a trumpet sound indeed Leonard got mad into a corner and had a very bad cold in the head when the Wilton was reunited and when the hand of Douglas was his own he jumped up and shouted out well done old fellow then he took it to himself and read it all over again introductions and all and has raved ever since I wish you could see Aubrey seeking out some profane couplet of midnight and not a nose or some more horrible original parody and then dodging apparently in the extremity of terror just as Leonard furiously charges him but you would have been struck with their discussions over it last night at T they began upon the woeful result of the wager of battle which seemed to oppress them as if it had really happened did I believe in it was I of the Lady Abbess's opinion that for a chance some form was unobserved for a chance in prayer or faith his word this from Aubrey while Leonard rejoined that even if the Wilton had so done it was still injustice it would be like a king will for the giving wrong judgment because the right side failed in some respectful observance he was sure such a thing could never be did I ever know of a real case where heaven did not show the right it was confusing and alarming for both those boys sat staring at me as if I could answer them and those wonderful searching eyes of Leonard's were fixed as if his whole acquiescence in the dealings of providence were going to depend on the reply that could but be unsatisfactory I could only try plunging deep I said it was Job's difficulty and it was a new light to Leonard that Job was about anything but patience he has been reading the book all this Sunday evening and it's not the Wilton of Curious introduction to it but Aubrey knew that I meant the bewilderment to discover that divine justice is longer-sighted than human justice and he cited the perplexities of high-minded heathen thence we came to the Christian certainty that to do well and suffer for in sanctuity and that though no mortal man can be so innocent as to feel any inflection wholly unmerited and disproportioned yet human injustice at its worst may be working for the sufferer of his reading-weight of glory or preparing him for some high commission below was not Ralph the Wilton far-dobler and pure as the poor Palmer then as Henry VIII's courtier and if you could but have heard our sequel arranging his orthodoxy, his scripture reading and his guardianship of distressed monks and nuns you would have thought he had traveled to some purpose only he would certainly have been burnt and be headed by the other on the whole I think Leonard was a little comforted and I cannot help hoping that the first apparently cruel wrong that comes before him may be the less terrible shock to his faith from his having been set to think out the question by but half a robber and but half a knight August 1st yesterday afternoon we three were in our private geological treasury making a spread eagle of himself in an impossible place on the cliffside trying to dissenter what hope springing eternal in the human breast pronounced to be the paddle of a psorian Audrey climbing as high as he durst directing operations and making discoveries I upon the ledge half way up guarding mad and poking in the debris when one of the bridal pairs with whom the place is infested was seen questing about as if disposed to invade our premises Aubrey reconnoitering in high dungeon sarcastically observed that all red-haired men are so much alike that he should have said yonder was heck the rest ended in a view hello from above and below and three bounds to the beach were on a level of my glass and perceived that in very deed it was Mr. and Mrs. Ernstcliffe who were hopping over the shingle descending I was swung off the last rock in a huge embrace and Hector's fiery mustache was scrubbing both my cheeks before my feet touched the ground and blanched with both arms round my waist they were ready to devour us alive in their famine for a stone-borrow face and as Flora and Mary are keeping home uninhabitable found themselves obliged to rush away from Maplewood in the middle of their county welcomes for little snatch of us and to join us in vituperating the new furniture could only hear Hector talk of a new sofa that he can't put his boots upon he says it is bad enough at Maplewood but that he did hope to be still comfortable at home they have to get back to dine out tomorrow but meantime the fun is more fast and furious than ever and as soon as the tide serves we are to fulfill our long cherished desire of boating round to line I won't answer for the quantity of discretion added to our freight but at least six feet more of Valor and Mrs. Blanche for my chaperone Bonnie Blanche is a little changed by her four-month matrimony and only looks prettier and more stylish but she is painfully meek and younger sisterish asking my leave instead of her husband and distressed at her smartness in her pretty shady hat and undyed silk because I was in trim for lia scrubbing her appearance ought to be an example to all the brides in the place with skirts in the water and nothing on to keep off eyes sun or wind from their faces I give Flora infinite credit for it Blanche and Aubrey walk arm in arm in unceasing talk and that good fellow Hector has included Leonard in the general fraternity they are highly complimentary saying they should have taken Aubrey for Harry he has so much stouter and rosier and that Leonard is hugely grown here come these three boys shouting that the boat is ready I really think Hector is more boyish and noisy than ever five precious souls and oligog to dash through thick or thin I'll take the best care of them in my power goodbye I'll get second safe back without adventure only a great deal of enjoyment for which I am doubly thankful as I almost fancied we were fey one of the many presentiments that come to nothing but perhaps do us rather good than harm for all that I hope I did not show it in my letter and communicate it to you even when safe landed I could not but think of the Cobb and Luisa Musgrove as I suppose everyone does we slept at the inn drove with the urns close to the station this morning and came back to this place an hour ago after having been steeped in pleasure I shall send the description of line to Daisy tomorrow having no time for it now as I want an answer from you about our going to Maplewood the married babies are bent upon it and Hector tries to demonstrate that it is the shortest way home to which I can't agree but as it may save another journey and it will be nice to see them in their glory I told them that if you could spare us we would go from the 29th to the 4th of September this will bring Leonard home four days before the end of the holidays for he has been most warmly invited Hector adopting him into the brotherhood of Poppa's pets I am glad he has not left out and Mary had better prove to April that he will be much happier for having no time at home before the half year begins he still shrinks from the very name being brought before him let me know if you please whether this arrangement will suit as I am to write to Blanche I hope Hector will make a spoiled child of her they are so very young and their means seem so unlimited to them both Hector wanting to make her and us presence of whatever we admired and when she civilly praised Mab vehemently declaring that she should have just such another if money could purchase or if not he would find a way thank you Hector dear I had rather not Placidly responds Blanche making his vehemence fall so flat and Leonard's almost exalting alarm glide into such semi-mortification that I could have laughed though I remain in hopes that her rather not may always be as prudent for I believe it is the only limit to Hector's gifts 29th, 8am farewell to the coom of cooms I write while waiting for the fly and shall post this at Weymouth where we are to be met we have been so happy here that I could be sentimental if Leonard were not tete-tete with me and on the verge of that predicament never so happy in his life Quotee and never will be again wonders when he shall gie this white cliff again but happily entumbles Aubrey with the big claw of a crab which she insists on Leonard wearing next his heart as a souvenir of Mrs. Gisborne he is required with an attempt to pinch his nose therewith and 2.30pm, Weymouth the result was the upset of my ink where have you seen the remains and our last moments were spent in reparations and apologies my two squires are in different plights than what they were ten weeks ago racing up hills that it then half killed them to come down and lingering wistfully on the top for last glimpses of our bay I am overwhelmed with their courtesies and though each is lugging about twenty pounds weight of stones and mad besides in Leonard's pocket I am seldom allowed to carry my own traveling bag Hector has been walking us about while his horses are resting after their twenty miles but we think the parade and pier are soon seen and are tantalized by having no time for Portland Island only contenting ourselves with an inspection of shot fossils which, in company with Hector, is a sort of land of the three wishes or worse for on my chanceing to praise the beautiful lump of perbec stone stuck as full of palliudiné as of pudding with plums but as big as my head and much heavier he brought out his purse at once and when I told him he must either enchant it onto my nose or give me a negro slave as a means of transport Leonard so earnestly volunteered to be the bearer that I was thankful for my old rule against collecting curiosities that I do not find and carry myself August 30th, Maplewood I wonder whether these good children can be happier unless it may be when they receive you how much they do make of us and what a goodly sight at their own table they are they are capable in themselves of making anyplace charming though the man must have been enterprising who sat down five and twenty years ago to reclaim this park from irreclaimable down I asked where were the maples and where was the wood and was shown five stunted ones in a cave to defend them from the sheep the only things that thrive here except little white stales with purple lions round their shells there now isn't it awfully bleak says Hector with a certain comical exultation how was a man ever to live here without her and the best of it is that Blanche thinks it beautiful delicious free air open space view over five counties and see inside one traces for his presiding genius Hector would never have made the concern so perfect without her help and Blanche is no child in her own house but is older and more at home than Hector so that one would take her for the heiress making him welcome and at ease not that it is like the Grange Blanche is furious if I remark any little unconscious imitation or similarity as if we could be like Flora and George indeed nor will they if Blanche rules it will be unawares to herself and where Hector is there will always be a genial house overflowing with good humor and good nature he has actually kept the first of September clear of shooting parties that he may take these two boys out and give them a thorough day sport in his turnip fields license? nonsense he thought of that before and now Aubrey may get some shooting out of George Rivers after such good nature my mouth is shut though I be me all the world and his wife are coming here on Monday evening and unless I borrow of Blanche Mrs. Ernst's close sister will look like Ayn Scrub September 2nd 630 that's the best news I have to give oh it has been a weary while to be out of sight of you all though it has been pleasant enough and the finale is perfectly brilliant Blanche as Lady of the House is a sight to make his sister proud she looks as if she were born to nothing else and is a model of prettiness and elegance Hector kept coming up to me at every opportunity to admire her now old Ethel look at her doesn't she look like a picture I chose that gown you know then again after dinner well old Ethel didn't it go off well did you ever see anything like her there just watch her among the old ladies I can't think where she learnt it all can you and it certainly was too perfect to have been learnt it was not the oppression that poor dear Flora gives one by doing everything so well as if she had perfectly balanced what was due to herself and everybody else it was just Blanche simple and ready pleasing herself by doing what people like and seeing what they did like it was particularly pretty to see how careful both she and Hector were not to put Leonard aside indeed they make more of him than of Aubrey who is quite able to find his own level even his tenor feelings as to Mab and Blanche always takes care to invite her to a safe seat on a fat scarlet cushion on his sofa Mrs. Ludd which is wedding present when the footland with a teen might be in danger of demolishing her Leonard and his fine eyes and his dog were rather infashing yesterday evening Blanche put out his coombs sketches for a company trap and people talk to him about them and he was set to sing with Blanche and then with some of the young ladies he seemed to enjoy it and his nice, modest gentlemen like manner told the party was not at all in this in itself I had a very nice clerical neighbor and it is a very different thing to see in here Hector at the bottom of the table from having cordier George there but oh only one dinner more before we see our own table again and Tom at the bottom of it hooray I trust this is the last letter you will have for many a day from your loving and dutiful daughter a fell rude may end of chapter 5 recording by Nancy Cochran Gergen Gilbert Arizona chapter 6 of the trial this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Nancy Cochran Gilbert Arizona the trial by Charlotte Mary Young chapter 6 the 12th statute remember to observe for all the pain now has for love and woe all is too light her mercy to deserve thou must send them think where ere thou ride or go and mortal wounds suffer thou also all for her sake and think it well beset upon thy love for it may not be bet Chaucer's court of love goodbye Leonard said Ethel as the two families after mustering strong at the station parted at the head of Minster Street and as she felt the quivering lingering pressure of his hand she added with a smile remember any Saturday afternoon and you will come for the books glad as she was to be anchored on her father's arm and clustered round with rejoicing brothers and sisters she could not be devoid of a shade of regret for the cessation of the intimate intercourse of the last nine weeks and a certain desire for the continuance of the confidential terms that had arisen the moment's pain was lost in the eager interchange of tidings too minute for correspondence and an approval of the renovation of the drawing room which was so skillful that her first glance would have detected no alteration in the subdued tones of paper, carpet, and chants so complete was their loyalty to the spirit of perpetuity Flora told no one of the pain steth among her many carers she had spent upon those tents not so much to gratify Ethel as because her own weary spirit craved the repose of home sameness nor how she had finally sent to Paris for the paper that looked so quiet but was so exquisitely finished that the whole room had a new layer of refinement the most notable novelty was the water-colored sketch a labor of love from the busy hands in New Zealand which had stolen a few hours from their many tasks the sin doctor made the presentment of his namesake grandson little Dickie stood before them a true son of the hummingbird sprite delicately limbed and featured and with elastic springiness visible even in the pencil outline the dancing dark eyes were all made as though the sturdy clasp of the hands and the curl that hung over the brow brought back the reflection of Harry's baby days it would have been a charming picture even if it had not been by made as pencil and of no man's child and it chained Ethel for more than one interval of longing loving study Tom interrupted her in one of these contemplations poor Flora he said with more feeling than he usually allowed to affect his voice that picture is a hard trial to her I caught her looking at it for a full ten minutes and at last she turned away with her eyes full of tears I do not wonder said Ethel there is a certain likeness to that poor little Leonora and I think Flora misses her more every year such a child as Margaret is just the thing to cause the other to be missed what do you think of Margaret this time said Ethel for Tom alone ever durst seriously touch on the undefined impression that all entertained a Flora's only child if Flora were only silly about her said Tom one might have some hope but unluckily she is as judicious there as in everything else and the child gets more deplorable every year she has got the look of deformity and yet she is not deformed and the queer sullen ways of deficiency but she has more width than her father already and more cunning as long as there is a mind to work on one hopes said Ethel I could stand her better if she were foolish exclaimed Tom but I can't endure to see her come into the room to be courted by everyone and be as cross as she dares before her mother behind Flora's back I don't know which she uses worst her father I came down upon little miss at last for her treatment of the doctor and neither he nor rivers have forgiven me poor child I don't believe she has ever known a moment's thorough health or comfort I always hope that with Flora's patience and management she may improve but shot Ethel she will always be a misfortune to herself and everybody else I have faith in good coming out of misfortunes illustrated I suppose by raving about your young mord Mary is crazy about his sister and the doctor lunatic as to the brother who will soon kick at him for his pains I own to thinking letter capable of great things Tom made a grimace equal to what Ethel could do in that way thrust his hands deep into his pockets and philosophically observed behold the effects of patronage blind Cupid is nothing to him Ethel let it pass caring too much for Leonard to set him up as a mark for Tom satire which was as different from Aubrey's as quinine from orange peel though property used it was a bracing tonic such as she often found wholesome a cynical younger brother is the most valuable possession to a woman who has taken a certain position in her own world Tom was a sterling character highly and deeply principle though not demonstrative and showing his scots descent none of the brothers had been extravagant but Tom with the income of his achieved fellowship performed feats of economy such as attaining to the purchase of an ultra perfect microscope and he was consistently industrious so exactly measuring his own powers that to undertake was with him to succeed and no one anxiety on his account as doctor Spencer said he was assured to fall on his legs as a sandy cat and so nobody cared for him at home he was sufficient himself properly behaved to his father civil to Richard unmerciful in ridicule but merciful in dominion over the rest except Ethel whom he treated as an equal able to retort in kind reserved caring for her his most highly flavored Sally's and his few and distant approaches to such confidence as showed her how little she knew him his father esteemed but did not get on with him and his chief and devoted adherent was Aubrey to whom he was always kind and helpful in person Tom was tall and well made of intelligent face of which his spectacles seemed a natural feature well molded fine grained and dressed the perfection of correctness though the precision and dandy ism had been pruned away Ethel would have preferred that Leonard and April should not have walked in on the Saturday after her return just when Tom had spit his microscope apparatus over the table and claim Mary's assistance in setting up objects and she avoided his eye when Mary and April did what he poetically called rushing into each other's arms whilst she bestowed her greetings on Leonard and mad then she may come in said Leonard Henry has vanished her from the drawing room and we had much to do to get her allowed even in the school room it is so tiresome said his sister just one of Henry's fancies Ethel thinking this disloyal remarked that those who dislike dogs in the house could not bear them and did not wonder that Tom muttered original but such a little darling is this cried April and after Mrs. Ernstcliffe had been so kind Mary you must see how clever she is Leonard is teaching her to play on the piano I congratulate you quietly said Tom and somehow Ethel felt that those three words were a satire on her capable of great things while Leonard drew up and April colored deferring the exhibition of Mab's accomplishments till another time evidently meaning out of Tom's presence April is going to the grange with Papa Ethel said glad to lead away from Mab he told me he was going said Leonard but he said you would be at home Ethel knew that the intonation of that you had curled Tom's lip with mischief and dragging that Leonard should discover and resent his mood she said we think one of your sea eggs has got among ours will you come to the school room to see and leaving Tom to tease and be bored by the young ladies she led the way to the school room where Aubrey's fossils each in its private twist of paper lay in confusion on the floor once they were in course of being transferred to the shelf of a cupboard Leonard looked at the disorder with astonished admiration yes said Ethel it is a great mess but they are to have a regular cabinet when Richard has money to equally unlikely chances how much does the cabinet cost Jones would make a plain deal one for about five and twenty shillings I can't unpack mine properly said Leonard disconsolidly Eve is going to make a place for them but Henry votes them rubbish they are dreadful rubbish said Ethel it goes against my conscience to guard them from the housemate and if my sister came in here I should be annihilated of course one expects that in women oh Richard would be as much distracted it is a provision of nature that there should be some tidy ones or what would the world come to it would be a great deal less of a bore not at all we should stifle ourselves at last if we had our own way nevermind Leonard we make them go through quite as much as they make us I'm sure I hope so no no Leonard she said becoming less playful we must not do it on purpose even unconsciously we plague the spirits of order quite enough and they have the right on their side after all I think a lady is the person to say what one may do or not in the drawing room don't you said Leonard that depends and you let your brother spread his things all over yours so I do but I would not if Papa minded it or even if this were Richard's house and he did not like it don't begin with worries about trifles pray Leonard it is not I that care about trifles return the boy I was one to reckon on a man setting up a monomania about dogs paws in the hall I have feared we were rather foolish I ought to have reminded you to ask where the mad would be welcome I was not going to ask leave I have no one who's leave to ask said Leonard in tones at first proud then sad that's a bad beginning returned Ethel as master of the house your brother has a right to your compliance and if you do not all give way to each other you will have nothing but dissension and misery all to each other yes that is fair he must have given way to you in letting you keep the dog at all in the house said Ethel it is a real instance of kindness and you're bound to let her be as little in this way as possible he does mean well I suppose said Leonard but he is an awful bother and poor AVE gets the worst of it one has no patience with finnican ways in a man there's no telling how much I owe to my finnican brother Richard said Ethel and if you teach AVE to be loyal to the head of your family you will do her as much good harm by chafing against his organces don't you hate such nonsense miss me I can't love order as much as I honor it set tastes aside the point is that if you are to hold together Leonard it must be by bearing and for bearing and above all to your elder brother well it is a blessing that I shall be in school on Monday so it is said Ethel but barring these fidgets Leonard tell me and she looked kindly at him how is it at home better than you expected I hope blanking off said Leonard I didn't think I should have minded the sound of the surgery door so much you will have Sunday to help you yes AVE and I have been down to the church yard AVE does care poor girl she knows better what it is now and she was glad to have me to talk to again though Miss Mary has been so kinder her oh nobody can be so much to her as you poor AVE said Leonard tenderly and look here this is my father's watch and she made me this chain of my mother's hair and they have given me a photograph of my mother's picture Henry had it done long ago but thought it would upset me to give it before I went away if he could but have guessed how I lay and wish for one those are the things one never can guess even when one would give worlds to do so you oh Miss May you always know the thing that is comfortable well said Ethel what will be comfortable now is that you should be the man about being affronted by other people's nonsense the only way to show we did not off-spoil each other at Coom now here is Woodstock for you and tell me of this be not your citrus oh and we have found out the name of your funny spike shelf ten minutes of paleontology ensued and she was leading the way back to the dry moon when he exclaimed have you heard about the match Miss May match? oh the cricket match stone borough against all England on St. Matthew's Day so I shall have got my hand in all England meaning everyone that can be scraped up return to Ethel George Larkins has been over here canvassing Tom and Aubrey but you can't be going to play Leonard Papa does not half like it for Aubrey perhaps not for Aubrey said Leonard but I am as well as ever and luckily they can't make a but decent eleven without me you will come and see us Miss May I'll find you the jolliest place between the old lime and the cloister door as if I had not known the means before your time said Ethel I thought you never came to the matches ah you don't remember my brother stone borough days when normal was cricket mad and Harry after him and my father was the best cricketer in stone borough till his accident yes doctor may always comes to see the matches said Leonard you will won't you now Miss May I didn't think you knew anything about cricket but it will be all the better well Ethel laughed and half promised Coxmore existed without Ethel on that holiday and indeed she was self-approachable though pleased at finding her presence so great a treat to her father Leonard might do the honors of the lime tree nook but she spent but a little time there for doctor may made her walk about with him as he exchanged greetings with each and all while Gertrude led Richard about at her will and Mary consorted with award girls with no one on her mind Ethel could give free attention to the smoothly shaven battlefield where within the gray walls shaded by the overhanging elms the young champions were throwing all the ardor and even the chivalry of their nature into the contest the annual game had been delayed by the illness in the spring and the school had lost several good players at the end of the half year but on the other hand the holidays being over George Larkins had been unable to collect an 11 either in full practice or with public school training and the veteran spectators were mourning the decay of cricket and talking of past triumphs the school had the first innings which resulted in the discomfort here a fielder one of their crack champions and with no great honor to anyone except folio the ducks and Leonard Ward who both acquitted themselves so creditably that it was allowed that if others had done as well stone borough might have had a chance but when all England went in the game seemed to be more equally balanced Aubrey May in spite of devoted practice under Thompson instructions was from nervous eagerness out almost as soon as in and in his misery of shame and despair felt like the betrayer of his cause but in due time with the sun declining and the score is still low Tom may came forward as the last hope of all England listen active and skilled walking up to his wicked with the easy confidence of one not greatly caring but willing to show the natives what play might be and his play was admirable the fortunes of the day began to tremble in the balance everyone spectators and all were in a state of eager excitement and Aubrey out of tone and unable to watch for the crisis fairly fled from sight rush through the cluster door and through himself with his face down upon the grass shivering with suspense there he lay till a sudden burst of voices and cheers show that the battle was over the result he could not believe eyes or ears as he opened the door to behold the infant gestures of stone borough and the crestfallen air of his own side and heard the words folio missed two chances of long leg word tremendous rush caught him out with only one run to tie doctor may was shaking hands with Leonard in congratulation not solely generous for let his sons be where they would stone borough triumphs were always the doctors and he was not devoid of gratitude to anyone who would defeat Tom noting however the flitting color pluttering breath and trembling limbs that showed the effect of the day's fatigue and of the final exertion he signed back the boys and thrust Leonard within the cluster door bidding Aubrey fetch his coat and Ethel keep guard over him and when he was rested and cool to take him home to the high street where his sisters would meet him but sir the supper gasped Leonard leaning against the door post unable to stand alone I dare say keep him safe Ethel and the doctor shut the door and offered himself to appease the lads who were climbing for the hero of their cause while Leonard sank back on the bench past words or looks for some moments you have redeemed your pen and with your last gas said Ethel half reproachfully I was determined and did the boy I don't know how I did it I couldn't fail with you looking on you did it my coming reply was spared by Aubrey's return with a coat in one hand and a glass of ale in the other you are to go home with Ethel at once he pronounced with an utmost zest that is as soon as you are rested my father says you must not think of the supper unless you particularly wish to be in bed for a week but we'll all drink your health and I'll return thanks the worst player for the best this was the first time Aubrey had been considered in condition for such festivities and the gratification of being superior to somebody might account for his glee in invaliding his friend cricket suppers were no novelties to Leonard and either this or his exhaustion must have made him resign himself to his fate and walked back with Ethel as happily as at Coombe the sisters soon followed and were detained to drink tea the cricketers mirth must have been fast and furious if it exceeded that at home for the doctor thought himself bound to make up for the loss to Leonard put forth all his powers of entertainment and was comically confidential about these etonians that think so much of themselves April was lively and at ease showing herself the pleasant well-informed girl whom Ethel had hitherto only taken on trust and acting in a pretty motherly way towards the little sisters she was more visibly triumphant than was Leonard and had been much gratified by her request from the bankside curate that she would entirely undertake the harmonium at the chapel she had been playing on it during the absence of the schoolmaster and was so much better effect than he could produce that it had been agreed that he would be best in his place among the boys ah said the doctor two things in one are apt to be like Aubrey's compromise between walking stick and camp stool a little of neither I don't mean it to be a little of neither with me doctor May said April I shall have nothing to do with my choir on weekdays till I have sent these pupils of mine to bed are you going to train the choir too has Leonard I must practice with them or wish I'll not understand one another besides they have such a horrid set of tunes Mr. Scoomore gave me leave to change them he is going to have hymnals and get rid of tape and Brady at once ah poor Nahum sighed the doctor with such a genuine sigh that April turned round on him in amazement yes said Ethel I'm the only one conservative enough to sympathize with you Papa but does anyone approve of the new version cried April recovering from her speechless wonder don't come down on me said the doctor holding up his hands I know it all but the singing Psalms are the singing Psalms to me and I can't help my bad taste I'm too old to change oh but Papa you do like those beautiful hymns that we have now cried Gertrude oh yes yes Gertrude I acquiesce they are a great improvement but then wasn't it a treat when I got over to Woodside Church the other day and found them singing no change of time shall ever shock and he began to hum it that is the Sicilian Mariner's hymn said April I can sing you that whenever you please thank you on condition you sing the old Tate and Brady not your ocentissima or purissima said the doctor alo mischievously which is eldest I wonder said a smiling pleased to comply with any whim of his though too young to understand the associations that entwined closely around all that has assisted or embodied devotion the music went from the sacred to the secular and Ethel owned that the perfectly pronounced words and admirable taste made her singing very different from that which adorn most inner pardons doctor may intensely enjoyed and was between tears and bravos at the charge of the 600 when the two brothers entered and stood silently listening that return brought a change Aubrey was indeed open and bright bursting out with eager communications the moment the song ceased then turning round with apologies and hopes that he was not interrupting but Tom looks so stiff and polite as to chill everyone and April began to talk of the children's bedtime the doctor and Aubrey pressed for another song so earnestly that she consented but the spirit and animation were gone and she had no sooner finished than she made a decided move to depart and doctor may accompany the party home is my father going to put that fellow to bed Tom yawning as if injured by the delay of bedtime most occasioned your courtesy does not equal his said Ethel nor ever will said Tom never said Ethel so emphatically that she meddled him into adding he is a standing warning against spoiling one's patience I wouldn't have them in their whole tag-rag and bobtail about my house for something oh Tom for shame cried Mary bursting out in the wrath he had intended to excite ask him which is tag which rag and which bobtail suggested Ethel Mab I suppose said Gertrude happily closing the discussion but it was reanimated by her father's arrival that's a nice girl he said very nice but we must not have her too often in the evening Mary without Henry it is not fair to break up people's home party Bob-Earth and bobtail murmured Tom with a gesture only meant for Ethel Eve said he would be out to quite late Papa said Mary in self-defense she ought to have been back before him said Dr. May he didn't seem best pleased to have found her way and let me tell you young woman it is hard on a man who has been at work all day to come home and find a dark house and nobody to speak to Mary looked melancholy at this approach to reproof and Tom observed in an undertone never mind Mary it is only to give Papa the opportunity of improving his pupil while you exchange confidence with your bosom friend I shall be gone in another month and there will be nothing to prevent the perfect fusion of families no one was sorry that evening here came to an end I hope said Dr. May at the Sunday's dinner cricket match has not done for that boy I did not see him among the boys no said Mary but he has met with some accident and has the most terrible bruised face Eve can't make out how he did it do you know Aubrey the doctor and his two sons burst out laughing I thought said Ethel rather grieved that those things had gone out of fashion so Ethel's protege which is it said Tom is turning out a muscular Christian on her hands is a muscular Christian one who has muscle or one who trusts in muscles asked Ethel or a better cricketer than an etonian added the doctor Tom and Aubrey returned demonstrations that Eaton's glory was untarnished and the defeat solely owing to such a set of sticks Aubrey said Ethel first private moment was this a fight and a good cause for so I will come down with you and see him Aubrey made a face of dissuasion ending in a whistle do at least tell me it is nothing I should be sorry for she said anxiously he screwed his face into an intended likeness of Ethel's imitation went one eye and looked comical I see it can't be really bad so I will rest on your assurance and ask no indiscreet questions you didn't see them said Aubrey aggrieved at the failure of his imitation you don't remember the beauty he met at Kuhn beauty none but Mab well they found it out and shaped him fielder said he would cut out as good a face out of an old knob of applewood and the doctor in petticoats came up again he got into one of his rages and they had no end of a shindy better than any, they say since Lakin Vincent fifteen years ago but Ward was in too great a passion or he would have done for fielder long before old Hoxton was seen moaning that way so you see if any of the fellows should be about it would never do for you to be seen going to bind up his wounds but I can tell him you are much obliged in all that obliged indeed said Ethel what for making me the laughing stock of the school no indeed cried Aubrey distressed he said not a word they only found it out because he found that seed for you and Papa sent him away with you they only meant to poke fun and it was his caring that made it come home to him I wonder you don't like to find that such a fellow stood up for you I don't like to be made ridiculous some does not know it and shall not thank you said she with all her heart then don't be savage you know he can't help it if he does thank you so handsome and it is very hard that you should be affronted with him just when he can't see out of one of his eyes for that matter said Ethel one likes generosity in any sort of a cause but as to this he didn't laugh at it Aubrey thought this only way hardly taken by the cacination with which she left him for he was sure that her eyes were full of tears and after mature consideration he decided that he should only get into a fresh scrape by letting Leonard know that she was aware of the combat and its motive if I were 10 years younger this might be serious meditated Ethel happily it is only a droll adventure for me in my old age and I have heard say that a little raving for a grown up woman is a wholesome sort of illusion at this time of life so I need not worry about it and it is pretty and touching while at last good fellow Ethel had in fact the location to worry herself for all special manifestations of Leonard's devotion ceased whether it were that Tom with his grave satirical manner contract to render the house disagreeable to both brother and sister or whether Leonard's boyish bashfulness had taken alarm and his admiration expended itself in the battle for her charms there was no knowing all that was certain was that the wards seldom appeared to Dr. May's although elsewhere Mary and Aubrey saw a great deal of their respective friends and through both Ethel heard from time to time of Leonard working hard at school but finding that his illness had cost him not only the last half years learning but some memory and power of application he was merging into the ordinary schoolboy a very good thing for him no doubt though less beautiful than those coon fancies and what were they worth End of Chapter 6 Recording by Nancy Cochran-Gergen Gilbert, Arizona