"Ay, Miss Hannah Judge it is. Your sarvant, ma"am;" and she dropped two courtesies, one for each lady.
Mrs. Judge was Harrington"s old nurse. Zoe often paid a visit to her cottage, but she never came to Vizard Court except on Harrington"s birthday, when the servants entertained all the old pensioners and retainers at supper. Her sudden appearance, therefore, and in gala costume, astonished Zoe. Probably her face betrayed this, for the old lady began, "You wonder to see me here, now, doan"t ye?"
"Well, Mrs. Judge," said Zoe, diplomatically, "n.o.body has a better right to come."
"You be very good, miss. I don"t doubt my welcome nohow."
"But," said Zoe, playfully, "you seldom do us the honor; so I _am_ a little surprised. What can I do for you?"
"You does enough for me, miss, you and young squire. I bain"t come to ask no favors. I ain"t one o" that sort. I"ll tell ye why I be come. "Tis to warn you all up here."
"This is alarming," said Zoe to f.a.n.n.y.
"That is as may be," said Mrs. Judge; "forwarned, forearmed, the by-word sayeth. There is a young "oman a-prowling about this here parish as don"t belong to _hus."_
"La," said f.a.n.n.y, "mustn"t we visit your parish if we were not born there?"
"Don"t you take me up before I be down, miss," said the old nurse, a little severely. ""Tain"t for the likes of you I speak, which you are a lady, and visits the Court by permission of squire; but what I objects to is--hinterlopers." She paused to see the effect of so big a word, and then resumed, graciously, "You see, most of our hills comes from that there Hillstoke. If there"s a poacher, or a thief, he is Hillstoke; they harbors the gypsies as ravage the whole country, mostly; and now they have let loose this here young "oman on to us. She is a POLL PRY: goes about the town a-sarching: pries into their housen and their vittels, and their very beds. Old Marks have got a muck-heap at his door for his garden, ye know. Well, miss, she sticks her parasole into this here, and turns it about, as if she was agoing to spread it: says she, "I must know the de-com-po-si-tion of this "ere, as you keeps under the noses of your young folk." Well, I seed her agoing her rounds, and the folk had told me her ways; so I did set me down to my knitting and wait for her, and when she came to me I offered her a seat; so she sat down, and says she "This is the one clean house in the village," says she: "you might eat your dinner off the floor, let alone the chairs and tables." "You are very good, miss," says I. Says she, "I wonder whether upstairs is as nice as this?" "Well," says I, "them as keep it downstairs keeps it hup; I don"t drop cleanliness on the stairs, you may be sure." "I suppose not," says she, "but I should like to see." That was what I was a-waiting for, you know, so I said to her, "Curiosity do breed curiosity," says I. "Afore you sarches this here house from top to bottom I should like to see the warrant." "What warrant?" says she. "I"ve no warrant. Don"t take me for an enemy," says she. "I"m your best friend," says she. "I"m the new doctor." I told her I had heard a whisper of that too; but we had got a parish doctor already, and one was enough. "Not when he never comes anigh you," says she, "and lets you go half way to meet your diseases." "I don"t know for that," says I, and indeed I haan"t a notion what she meant, for my part; but says I, "I don"t want no women folk to come here a-doctoring o" me, that"s sartin." So she said, "But suppose you were very ill, and the he-doctor three miles off, and fifty others to visit afore you?" "That is no odds," says I; "I would not be doctored by a woman." Then she says to me, says she, "Now you look me in the face." "I can do that," says I; "you, or anybody else. I"m an honest woman, _I_ am;" so I up and looked her in the face as bold as bra.s.s. "Then," says she, "am I to understand that, if you was to be ill to-morrow, you would rather die than be doctored by a woman?" She thought to daant me, you see, so I says, "Well, I don"t know as I oodn"t." You do laugh, miss.
Well, that is what she did. "All right," says she. "Make haste and die, my good soul," says she, "for, while you live, you"ll be a hobelisk to reform." So she went off, but I made to the door, and called after her I should die when G.o.d pleased, and I had seen a good many young folk laid out, that looked as like to make old bones as ever she does--chalk-faced--skinny---to-a-d! And I called after her she was no lady. No more she ain"t, to come into my own house and call a decent woman "a hobelisk!" Oh! oh! Which I never _was,_ not even in my giddy days, but did work hard in my youth, and am respect for my old age."
"Yes, nurse, yes; who doubts it?"
"And nursed young squire, and, Lord bless your heart, a was a poor puny child when I took him to my breast, and in six months the finest, chubbiest boy in all the parish; and his dry-nurse for years arter, and always at his heels a-keeping him out of the stable and the ponds, and consorting with the village boys; and a proper resolute child he was, and hard to manage: and my own man that is gone, and my son "that"s not so clever as some,"* I always done justice by them both, and arter all to be called a hobelisk--oh! oh! oh!"
* Paraphrase for the noun substantive "idiot." It is also a specimen of the Greek figure "litotes."
Then behold the gentle Zoe with her arm round nurse"s neck, and her handkerchief to nurse"s eyes, murmuring, "There--there--don"t cry, nurse; everybody esteems you, and that lady did not mean to affront you; she did not say "obelisk;" she said "obstacle." That only means that you stand in the way of her improvements; there was not much harm in that, you know.
And, nurse, please give that lady her way, to oblige me; for it is by my brother"s invitation she is here."
"Ye doan"t say so! What, does he hold with female she-doctoresses?"
"He wishes to _try_ one. She has his authority."
"Ye doan"t say so!"
"Indeed I do."
"Con--sarn the wench! why couldn"t she says so, "stead o" hargefying?"
"She is a stranger, and means well; so she did not think it necessary.
You must take my word for it."
"La, miss, I"ll take your"n before hers, you _may_ be sure," said Mrs.
Judge, with a decided remnant of hostility.
And now a proverbial incident happened. Miss Rhoda Gale came in sight, and walked rapidly into the group.
After greeting the ladies, and ignoring Severne, who took off his hat to her, with deep respect, in the background, she turned to Mrs. Judge.
"Well, old lady," said she cheerfully, "and how do you do?"
Mrs. Judge replied, in fawning accents, "Thank you, miss, I be well enough to get about. I was a-telling "em about you--and, to be sure, it is uncommon good of a lady like you to trouble so much about poor folk."
"Don"t mention it; it is my duty and my inclination. You see, my good woman, it is not so easy to cure diseases as people think; therefore it is a part of medicine to prevent them: and to prevent them you must remove the predisposing causes, and to find out all those causes you must have eyes, and use them."
"You are right, miss," said La Judge, obsequiously. "Prevention is better nor cure, and they say "a st.i.tch in time saves nine.""
"That is capital good sense, Mrs. Judge; and pray tell the villagers that, and make them as full of "the wisdom of nations" as you seem to be, and their houses as clean--if you can."
"I"ll do my best, miss," said Mrs. Judge, obsequiously; "it is the least we can all do for a young lady like you that leaves the pomps and vanities, and gives her mind to bettering the condishing of poor folk."
Having once taken this cue and entered upon a vein of flattery, she would have been extremely voluble--for villages can vie with cities in adulation as well as in detraction--but she was interrupted by a footman announcing luncheon.
Zoe handed Mrs. Judge over to the man with a request that he would be kind to her, and have her to dine with the servants.
Yellowplush saw the gentlefolks away, and then, parting his legs, and putting his thumbs into his waistcoat pockets, delivered himself thus: "Well, old girl, am I to give you my harm round to the kitchen, or do you know the way by yourself?"
"Young chap," said Mrs. Judge, and turned a glittering eye, "I did know the way afore you was born, and I should know it all one if so be you was to be hung, or sent to Botany Bay--to larn manners."
Having delivered this shot, she rolled away in the direction of Roast Beef.
The little party had hardly settled at the table when they were joined by Vizard and Uxmoor: both gentlemen welcomed Miss Gale more heartily than the ladies had done, and before luncheon ended Vizard asked her if her report was ready. She said it was.
"Have you got it with you?"
"Yes."
"Then please hand it to me."
"Oh! it is in my head. I don"t write much down; that weakens the memory.
If you would give me half an hour after luncheon--" She hesitated a little.
Zoe jealoused a _te"te-"a-te"te,_ and parried it skillfully. "Oh," said she, "but we are all much interested: are not you, Lord Uxmoor?"
"Indeed I am," said Uxmoor.
"So am I," said f.a.n.n.y, who didn"t care a b.u.t.ton.
"Yes, but," said Rhoda, "truths are not always agreeable, and there are some that I don"t like--" She hesitated again, and this time actually blushed a little.
The acute Mr. Severne, who had been watching her slyly, came to her a.s.sistance.
"Look here, old fellow," said he to Vizard, "don"t you see that Miss Gale has discovered some spots in your paradise? but, out of delicacy, does not want to publish them, but to confide them to your own ear. Then you can mend them or not."
Miss Gale turned her eyes full on Severne. "You are very keen at reading people, sir," said she, dryly.
"Of course he is," said Vizard. "He has given great attention to your s.e.x. Well, if that is all, Miss Gale, pray speak out and gratify their curiosity. You and I shall never quarrel over the truth."
"I"m not so sure of that," said Miss Gale. "However, I suppose I must risk it. I never do get my own way; that"s a fact."