Mrs. Huxtable was about to answer sharply, but checked herself, and only said:
"All children is much of a muchness to their mothers."
"Don"t tell me," cried Ann Maples, who had never had any.
The farmer came between them, walking on tip-toe.
"For good, now, don"t ye fall out at such a time as this here. What"s our affairs to speak of now?"
"What"s any folks," asked Mrs. Huxtable, "that has the breath of life?"
"And goes forth in the morning, and is cast into the oven, ma"am,"
continued her antagonist.
"Ah, bless thee, yes!" the farmer replied, "I"ll take my gospel oath of it. It"s not much good I am at parsoning, and maybe I likes a drop of drink when the weather is fitty; but that young chestnut filly that"s just come home from breaking, I"d sell her to a gipsey, and trust him for the money, if so be "twould make the young lady turn her face to the Lord. Can"t ye speak to her now about it, either of you women? Doo"e now, doo"e."
"How could I possible?" his wife exclaimed; "why, farmer, you must be mazed. A high young lady like that, and the tears still hot in her eyes!"
"The very reason, wife, the very time and reason. But likely Mrs. Maples would be the proper person."
"Thank you, sir," my nurse replied, "Mrs. Maples knows good manners a little. Thank you, sir; Mrs. Maples wasn"t born in Devonshire."
"I ask your pardon, ma"am," said the farmer, much abashed, "I humbly ask your pardon; I wasn"t taught no better. I can only go by what I have seen, and what seems to come inside of me. And I know, in our way of business, when a calf is weaned from the mother, the poor beastess hath a call for some one else to feed it. Maybe it"s no harm to let her have the refusal." Therewith he opened my mother"s Bible, and placed it reverently on the window-seat. "Waife, do"e mind the time as poor Aunt Betsy died, over there to Rowley Mires?"
"For sure I do, but what have her got to do with it? Us mustn"t talk of her, I reckon, any more than of the chillers, though us be so unlucky as to be born in Devonshire. Fie, fie, thee ought to know better than to talk of poor Aunt Betsy along of a lady, and before our betters." Here she curtsied to Ann Maples, with a flash of light in her eyes, and rubbing them hard with her ap.r.o.n.
"Well, well," replied the farmer, sadly, "mayhap so I did. And who be I to gainsay? Mayhap so I did;" he dropped his voice, but added, after some reflection, "It be hard to tell the rights of it; but sure her were a woman."
"Who said her were a man, thee zany?" Mrs. Huxtable was disappointed that the case would not be argued. The farmer discreetly changed the subject.
"Now, if it was me," he continued, "I wouldn"t think of taking this here settle-bed away from the poor thing."
"Why not, farmer?" asked Mrs. Huxtable, sharply. "Give me a reason for leaving it, and I"ll give you ten for taking it."
"I can"t give no reasons. But maybe it comforts her a little."
"Comfort indeed!" said his wife; "breaks her heart with, crying, more likely. Come, lend a hand, old heavy-strap; what can a great dromedary like thee know about young wenches?"
At any rate he knew more than she did. The moment they touched it I burst forth from my corner, and flung myself upon it, rolling as if I would bury myself in the ecstasy of anguish. What they did I cannot tell; they might say what they liked, I had not cried till then.
The next day I was sitting stupified and heavy, trying once more to meet the necessity of thinking about my mother"s funeral; but again and again, the weakness of sorrow fell away from the subject. The people of the house kept from me. Mrs. Huxtable had done her best, but they knew I would rather be alone.
The door was opened quietly, and some one entered in a stealthy manner.
Regarding it as an intrusion, I would not look that way.
"Miss Clara dear," began the farmer, standing behind me, and whispering, "I humbly ask your pardon, Miss, for calling you that same. But we have had a wonderful fine season, sure enough."
I made him no answer, being angry at his ill-timed common-place.
"If you please, Miss, such a many lambs was never known afore, and turnips fine last winter, and corn, and hay, and every kind of stock, a fetching of such prices. The farmers about here has made their fortune mainly."
"I am glad to hear that you are so prosperous, Mr. Huxtable," I answered, very coldly.
"Yes fie, good times, Miss, wonderful good times, we don"t know what to do with our money a"rnost."
"Buy education and good taste," I said, "instead of thrusting your happiness upon such as I."
How little I knew him! Shall I ever forgive myself that speech?
"Ah, I wish I could," he answered, sadly, "I wish with all my heart I could. But we must be born to the like of that, I am afeared, Miss Vaughan."
Poor fellow! he knew nothing of irony, as we do, who are born to good taste, otherwise I might have suspected him of it then.
He suddenly wished me "good evening," although it was middle-day, and then he made off for the door, but came back again with a desperate resolve, and spoke, for him, very quickly, looking all the time at his feet.
"There, I can"t make head or tail of it, Miss Clara, but wife said I was to do it so. Take the danged money, that"s a dear, and for good now don"t be offended, for I cas"n help it."
He opened his great hand, which was actually shaking, and hurriedly placed on the sofa a small packet tied in the leaf of a copy book; then suddenly put in mind of something, he made a dive, and s.n.a.t.c.hing it up, flung it upon a Windsor chair. It fell with a c.h.i.n.k, the string slipped off, and out rolled at least forty sovereigns and guineas, and a number of crown-pieces.
Peremptorily I called him back, for he was running out of the door.
"Mr. Huxtable, what is the meaning of this?"
"Meaning, Miss! Lord bless you, Miss Clara, there bain"t no meaning of it; only it corned into my head last night, as I was laying awake, humbly asking your pardon, Miss, for that same, that if so be you should desire, that the dear good lady herself might like, if I may make so bold, meaning that it isn"t fitly like, that she should lay nowhere else, but alongside of her own husband, till death do them part, Mr.
Henry Valentine Vaughan, Esquire, Vaughan Park, in the county of Gloucestershire. There I be as bad as Beany Dawe."
He repeated his rhyme, with some relief, hoping to change the subject.
I caught him by both hands, and burst into tears.
"Don"t ye now," he said, with a thickness in his voice, "don"t ye now, my dearie, leastways unless it does you good."
"It does me good, indeed," I sobbed, "to find still in the world so kind a heart as yours."
Though I longed to look him in the face, I knew that I must not do so.
Oh why are men so ashamed of manly tears? Perceiving that I could not speak, he began to talk for both of us, making a hundred blundering apologies, trying to hide his knowledge of my poverty, and to prove that he was only paying a debt which extended over many years of tenancy. He was not at all an imaginative man, but delicacy supplied him with invention. So deep a sense pervades all cla.s.ses in this English country, that want of money is an indictment, which none but the culprit may sign. Poor or rich, I should not be worth despising, if I had shown the paltry pride of declining such a loan.
The tears came anew to my eyes when I found that what had been brought so freely was the savings of years of honest toil, a truth which the owners had tried to conceal by polishing the old coin. But not being skilled, dear souls, in plate-cleaning, they had left some rotten-stone adhering to the George and Dragons.
CHAPTER II.
Although I find a sad pleasure in lingering over these times, with such a history still impending, I cannot afford the indulgence.
Dear mother"s simple funeral took me once more to my native place. Even without Mr. Huxtable"s generous and n.o.ble a.s.sistance, I should have laid her to rest by the side of the husband she loved so well. But difficulties, sore to encounter at such a time, would have met me on every side. Moreover the kind act cheered and led me through despondency, like the hand and face of G.o.d.