"Lord Roxmouth has been good enough to express his liking for my poor efforts," he replied, with a slight covert smile--"I believe you know him?"
"Oh, quite well--quite too well!" said Maryllia, without any discomposure--"But what he likes, I always detest. Unfortunate, isn"t it! So I mustn"t even try to read your works! You, Mr.
Adderley"--and she laughingly looked up at that gentleman, who, hat in hand, was pensively drooping in a farewell att.i.tude before her,-- "you are going to stop here all summer, aren"t you? And in a cottage! How delightful! Anywhere near the Manor?"
"I am not so happy as to have found a domicile on this side Eden!"
murmured Adderley, with a languishing look--"My humble hut is set some distance apart,--about a mile beyond the rectory."
"Then your best neighbour will be the parson," said Maryllia, gaily- -"So improving to your morals!"
"Possibly--possibly! "a.s.sented Adderley--" Mr. Walden is not exactly like other parsons,--there is something wonderfully attractive about him--"
"Something wonderfully conceited and unbearable, you mean!" snapped out Sir Morton--"Come, come!--we must be off! The horses are at the door,--can"t keep them standing! Miss Vancourt doesn"t want to hear anything about the parson. She"ll find him out soon enough for herself. He"s an upstart, my dear lady--take my word for it!--a pretentious University prig and upstart! You"ll never meet HIM at Badsworth!--ha-ha-ha! Never! Sorry you can"t dine on Thursday! Never mind, never mind! Another time! Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" and with a slight further exchange of salutations Maryllia found herself relieved of her visitors. Of all the four, Adderley alone looked back with a half-appealing smile, and received an encouraging little nod for his pains--a nod which said "Yes--you can come again if you like!" The wheels of the Pippitt equipage crunched heavily down the drive, and as the grating sound died away, clear on the quiet air came the soft slow chime of the church-bells ringing. It was near sunset,--and Walden sometimes held a short simple service of evening prayer at that hour. Leaning against the open window Maryllia listened.
"How pretty it is!" she said--"It must be the nearness of the river that makes the tone of the bells so soft and mellow! Oh, what an insufferable old sn.o.b that Pippitt is! And what a precious crew of "friends" he boasts of! Lumpton, who, when he was a few years younger, danced the skirt-dance in women"s clothes for forty pounds a night at a New York restaurant!--Mawdenham, who p.a.w.ned all his mother"s jewels to pay his losses at Bridge--and Lady Elizabeth Messing, who is such an abandoned old creature that her own married daughters won"t know her! Oh, dear! And I believe the Knighted Bone- Boiler thinks they are quite good style! That literary man, Longford, was a most unprepossessing looking object,--a friend of Roxmouth"s too, which makes him all the more unpleasant. And of course he will at once write off and say he has seen me. And then-- and then-dear me! I wonder where Sir Morton picks these people up!
He doesn"t like the parson here evidently--"a pretentious University prig and upstart"--what a strong way of putting it!--very strong for such a clean-looking old man! "A pretentious University prig and upstart" are you, Mr. Walden!" Here, smiling to herself, she moved out into the garden and called her dog to her side--"Do you hear that, Plato? Our next-door neighbour is a prig as well as a parson!- -isn"t it dreadful!" Plato looked up at her with great loving brown eyes and wagged his plumy tail. "I believe he is,--and yet--yet all the same, I think--yes!--I think, as soon as a convenient opportunity presents itself, I"ll ask him to dinner."
XIII
The next day Maryllia was up betimes, and directly after breakfast she sent for Mrs. Spruce. That good lady, moved by the summons into sudden trepidation, lest some duty had been forgotten, or some clause of the household "rules and regulations" left unfulfilled, hastened to the inner library, a small octagonal room communicating with the larger apartment, and there found her mistress sitting on a low stool, with her lap full of visiting-cards which she was busily sorting.
"Spruce!" and she looked up from her occupation with a mock tragic air--"I"m dull! Positively D U double L! DULL!"
Mrs. Spruce stared,--but merely said:
"Lor, Miss!" and folded her hands on her ap.r.o.n, awaiting the next word.
"I"m dull, dull, dull!" repeated Maryllia, springing up and tossing all the cards into a wide wicker basket near at hand--"I don"t know what to do with myself, Spruce! I"ve got n.o.body to talk to, n.o.body to play with, n.o.body to sing to, n.o.body to amuse me at all, at all!
I"ve seen everything inside and outside the Manor,--I"ve visited the church,--I know the village--I"ve talked to dear old Josey Letherbarrow till he must be just tired of me,--he"s certainly the cleverest man in the place,--and yesterday the Pippitts came and finished me. I"m done! I throw up the sponge!--that"s slang, Spruce!
There"s n.o.body to see, nowhere to go, nothing to do. It"s awful!
"The time is out of joint, O cursed spite!" That"s Hamlet. Something must HAPPEN, Spruce!"--and here she executed a playful pas-seul around the old housekeeper--"There! Isn"t that pretty? Don"t look so astonished!--you"ll see ever so much worse than that by and bye! I am going to have company. I am, really! I shall fill the house! Get all the beds aired, and all the bedrooms swept out! I shall ask heaps of people,--all the baddest, maddest folks I can find! I want to be bad and mad myself! There"s n.o.body bad or mad enough to keep me going down here. Look at these!" And she raked among the visiting-cards and selected a few. "Listen!--"Miss Ittlethwaite, Miss Agnes Ittlethwaite, Miss Barbara Ittlethwaite, Miss Christina Ittlethwaite, Ittlethwaite Park." It makes my tongue all rough and funny to read their names! They"ve called,--and I suppose I shall have to call back, but I don"t want to. What"s the good? I"m sure I never shall get on with the Ittlethwaites,--we shall never, never agree! Do you know them, Spruce? Who are they?"
Mrs. Spruce drew a long breath, rolled up her eyes, and began:
"Which the Misses Ittlethwaite is a county fam"ly, Miss, livin" some seven or eight miles from here as proud as proud, owin" to their forebears "avin" sworn death on Magnum Chartus for servin" of King John--an" Miss Ittlethwaite proper, she be gettin" on in years, but she"s a great huntin" lady, an" come November is allus to be seen follerin" the "ounds, stickin" to the saddle wonderful for "er size an" time o" life, an" Miss Barbara, she doos a lot o" sick visitin", an" Bible readin", not "ere, for our people won"t stand it, an"
Pa.s.son Walden ain"t great on breakin" into private "ouses without owners" consents for Bible readin", but she, she"s "Igh, an" tramps into Riversford near every day which the carrier"s cart brings "er "ome to "er own place they "avin" given up a kerridge owin" to spekylation in railways, an" Miss Hagnes she works lovely with "er needle, an" makes altar cloths an" vestis for Mr. Francis Anthony, the "Igh Church clergyman at Riversford, he not bein" married, though myself I should say there worn"t no chance for "er, bein"
frightful skinny an" a bit off in "er looks--an" Miss Christina she do still play at bein" a baby like, she"s the youngest, an" over forty, yet quite a giddy in "er way, wearin" ribbins round her waist, an" if "twarn"t for "er cheeks droppin" in long like, she wouldn"t look so bad, but they"re all that proud--"
"That"ll do, Spruce, that"ll do!" cried Maryllia, putting her hands to her ears--"No more Ittlethwaites, please, for the present!
Sufficient for the day is the Magnum Chartus thereof! Who comes here?" and she read from another card,--""Mrs. Mordaunt Appleby."
Also a smaller label which says, "Mr. Mordaunt Appleby"! More county family pride or what?"
"Oh lor" no, Miss, Mordaunt Appleby"s only the brewer of Riversford," said Mrs. Spruce, casually. "He"s got the biggest "ouse in the town, but people remembers "im when he was a very shabby lot indeed,-an awful shabby lot. HE ain"t n.o.body, Miss-he"s just got a bit o" money which makes the commoner sort wag tails for "im, but it"s like his cheek to call "ere at all. Sir Morton Pippitt, bein"
in. the bone-meltin" line, as "im up to dine now an" agin, just to keep in with "im like, for he"s a nasty temper, an" his wife"s got the longest and spitefullest tongue in all the neighbourhood. But you needn"t take up wi" them, Miss-they ain"t in your line,-which some brewers is gentlemen, an" Appleby ain"t--YOUR Pa wouldn"t never know HIS Pa."
"Then that"s settled!" said Maryllia, with a sigh of relief.
"Depart, Mordaunt Applebys into the limbo of forgotten callers!"-and she tossed the cards aside-"Here are the Pippitt names,-I small remember them all right-Pip-pitt and Ittlethwaite have a tendency to raise blisters of memory on the brain. What is this neat looking little bit of pasteboard-" The Rev. John Walden." Yes!-he called two or three days ago when I was out."
Mrs. Spruce sniffed a sniff of meaning, but said nothing.
"I"ve not been to church yet"-went on Maryllia medi-tatively. "I dare say he thinks me quite a dreadful person. But I hate going to church,-it"s so stupid-so boresome-and oh!-such a waste of time!"
Mrs. Spruce still held her peace. Maryllia gave her a little side- glance and noted a certain wistfulness and wonder in the rosy, wrinkled face which was not without its own pathos.
"I suppose everybody about here goes to church at least Once on Sundays," pursued Maryllia-"Don"t they?"
"Them as likes Mr. Walden goes," answered Mrs. Spruce promptly-"Then as don"t stops away. Sir Morton Pippitt used allus to attend "ere reg"ler when the buildin" was nowt but ruin, an" "e "ad a tin roof put over it,-"e was that proud o" the tin roof you"d a" thought "twas made o" pure gold, an" he was just wild when Mr. Walden pulled it all off an" built up the walls an" roof again as they should be all at "is own expense, an" he went away from the place for sheer spite like, an" stayed abroad a whole year, an" when "e come back again "e never wouldn"t go nigh it, an" now "e attends service at Badsworth Church,-Badsworth Barn we calls it,-for"tain"t nowt but a barn which Mr. Leveson keeps "Igh as "Igh with a bit o" tinsel an"
six candles, though it"s the mis"ablest place ye ever set eyes on, an" "e do look a caution "isself with what "e calls a vestiment "angin" down over "is back, which is a baek as fat as porpuses, the Lord forgive me for sayin." it, but Sir Morton "e be that set against Mr. Walden he"ll rather say "is prayers in a pig-stye with a pig for the minister than in our church, since it"s been all restored an" conskrated--then, as I told you just now, Miss, the Ittlethwaites goes to Riversford where they gits opratick music with the "Lord be merciful to us mis"able sinners"--an" percessions with candles,--so our church is mostly filled wi" the village folks, farmer bodies an" sich-like,--there ain"t no grand people what comes, though we don"t miss "em, for Pa.s.son "e don"t let us want for nothin" an" when there"s a man out o" work, or a woman sick, or a child what"s pulin" a bit, an" ricketty, he"s alhis ready to "elp, with all "e "as an" welcome, payin" doctor"s fees often,--an" takin"
all the medicine bills on "isself besides. Ah, "e"s a rare good sort is Pa.s.son Walden, an" so you"d say yerself, Miss, if ever you took on your mind to go and hear "im preach, an" studied "is ways for a bit as "twere an" asked "bout "im in the village, for "e"s fair an"
open as the day an" ain"t got no sly, sneaky tricks in "im,--he"s just a man, an" a good one--an" that"s as rare a thing to find in this world as a di"mond in a wash-tub, an" makin" so bold, Miss, if you"d onny go to church next Sunday---"
Maryllia interrupted her by a little gesture.
"I can"t, Spruce!" she said, but with great gentleness--"I know it"s the right and proper thing for me to do in the country if I wish to stand well with my neighbours,-but I can"t! I don"t believe in it,-- and I won"t pretend that I believe!"
Poor Mrs. Spruce felt a sudden choking in her throat, and her motherly face grew red and pale by turns. Miss Maryllia, the old squire"s daughter, was--what? A heathen?--an unbeliever--an atheist?
Oh, surely it was not possible--it could not be!--she would not accept the idea that a creature so dainty and pretty, so fair and winsome, could be cast adrift on the darkness of life without any trust in the saving grace of the Christian Faith! Limited as were Mrs. Spruce"s powers of intelligence, she was conscious enough that there would be something sweet and strong lost out of the world, which nothing could replace, were the message of Christ withdrawn from it. The perplexity of her thoughts was reflected on her countenance and Maryllia, watching her, smiled a little sadly.
"You mustn"t think I don"t believe in G.o.d, Spruce,"--she said slowly--"I do! But I can"t agree with all the churches teach about Him. They make Him out to be a cruel, jealous and revengeful Being-- -"
"Mr. Walden don"t---," put in Mrs. Spruce, quickly.
"And I like to think of Him as all love and pity and goodness," went on Maryllia, not heeding her--"and I don"t say prayers, because I think He knows what is best for me without my asking. Do you understand? So it"s really no use my going to church, unless just out of curiosity--and perhaps I will some day do that,--I"ll see about it! But I must know Mr. Walden a little better first,--I must find out for myself what kind of a man he is, before I make up my mind to endure such a martyrdom as listening to a sermon! I simply loathe sermons! I suppose I must have had too many of them when I was a child. Surely you remember, Spruce, that I used to be taken into Riversford to church?" Mrs. Spruce nodded emphatically in the affirmative. "Yes!--because when father was alive the church here was only a ruin. And I used to go to sleep over the sermons always-- and once I fell off my seat and had to be carried out. It was dreadful! Now Uncle Fred never went to church,--nor Aunt Emily. So I"ve quite got out of the way of going--n.o.body is very particular about it in Paris or London, you see. But perhaps I"ll try and hear Mr. Walden preach--just once--and I"ll tell you then what I think about it. I"ll put his card on the mantelpiece to remind me!"
And she suited the action to the word, Mrs. Spruce gazing at her in a kind of mild stupefaction. It seemed such a very odd thing to stick up a clergyman"s card as a reminder to go to church "just once" some Sunday.
Meanwhile Maryllia continued, "Now, Spruce, you must begin to be busy! You must prepare the Manor for the reception of all sorts of people, small and great. I feel that the time has come for "company, company!" And in the first place I"m going to send for Cicely Bourne,--she"s my pet "genius"--and I"m paying the cost of her musical education in Paris. She"s an orphan--like me--she"s all alone in the world--like me;--and we"re devoted to each other. She"s only a child--just over fourteen--but she"s simply a wonder!--the most wonderful musical wonder in the world!--and she has a perfectly marvellous voice. Her master Gigue says that when she is sixteen she will have emperors at her feet! Emperors! There are only a few,--but they"ll all be grovelling in the dust before her! You must prepare some pretty rooms for her, Spruce, those two at the top of the house that look right over the lawn and woods--and make everything as cosy as you can. I"ll put the finishing touches. And I must send to London for a grand piano. There"s only the dear old spinet in the drawing-room,--it"s sweet to sing to, and Cicely will love it,--but she must have a glorious "grand" as well. I shall wire to her to- day,--I know she"ll come at once. She will arrive direct from Paris,--let me see!"--and she paused meditatively--"when can she arrive? This is Friday,--yes!--probably she will arrive here Sunday or Monday morning. So you can get everything ready."
"Very well, Miss," and Mrs. Spruce, with the usual regulation "dip"
of respectful submission to her mistress was about to withdraw, when Maryllia called her back and handed over to her care the wicker basket full of visiting-cards.
"Put them all by,"--she said--"When Cicely comes we"ll go through them carefully together, and discuss what to eat, drink and avoid.
Till then, I shall blush unseen, wasting my sweetness on the desert air! Time enough and to spare for making the acquaintance of the "county." Who was it that said: Never know your neighbours"? I forget,--but he was a wise man, anyway!"
Mrs. Spruce "dipped" a second time in silence, and was then allowed to depart on her various household duties. The good woman"s thoughts were somewhat chaotically jumbled, and most fervently did she long to send for "Pa.s.son," her trusted adviser and chief consoler, or else go to him herself and ask him what he thought concerning the non-church-going tendencies of her mistress. Was she altogether a lost sheep? Was there no hope for her entrance into the heavenly fold?
"Which I can"t and won"t believe she"s wicked,"--said Mrs. Spruce to herself--"With that sweet childie face an" eyes she couldn"t be!
M"appen "tis bad example,--"er "Merican aunt "avin" no religion as "twere, an" "er uncle, Mr. Frederick, was never no great shakes in "is young days if all the truth was told. Well, well! The Lord "e knows "is own, an" my "pinion is He ain"t a-goin" to do without Miss Maryllia, for it"s allus "turn again, turn again, why will "ee die"
sort of thing with Him, an" He don"t give out in "is patience. I"m glad she"s goin" to "ave a friend to stay with "er,--that"ll do "er good and "earten her up--an" mebbe the friend"ll want to go to church, an" Miss Maryllia "ull go with her, an" once they listens to Pa.s.son "twill be all right, for "is voice do draw you up into a little bit o" heaven somehow, whether ye likes it or not, an" if Miss Maryllia once "ears "im, she"ll be wanting to "ear "im again-- so it"s best to leave it all in the Lord"s "ands which makes the hill straight an" the valleys crooked, an" knows what"s good for both man and beast. Miss Maryllia ain"t goin" to miss the Way, the Truth an" the Life--I"m sartin sure o" that!"
Thus Mrs. Spruce gravely cogitated, while Maryllia herself, unaware of the manner in which her immortal destinies were being debated by the old housekeeper, put on her hat, and ran gaily across the lawn, her great dog bounding at her side, making for the usual short-cut across the fields to the village. Arrived there she went straight to the post-office, a curious little lop-sided half-timbered cottage with a projecting window, wherein, through the dusty close-latticed panes could be spied various strange edibles, such as jars of acidulated drops, toffee, peppermint b.a.l.l.s, and barley-sugar-- likewise one or two stray oranges, some musty-looking cakes, a handful or so of old nuts, and slabs of chocolate protruding from shining wrappers of tin-foil,--while a flagrant label of somebody"s "Choice Tea" was suspended over the whole collection, like a flag of triumph. The owner of this interesting stock-in-trade and the postmistress of St. Rest, was a quaint-looking little woman, very rosy, very round, very important in her manner, very brisk and bright with her eyes, but very slow with her fingers.
"Which I gets the rheumatiz so bad in my joints," she was wont to say--"that I often wonders "ow I knows postage-stamps from telegram- forms an" register papers from money-orders, an" if you doos them things wrong Gove"nment never forgives you!"