"It"s better than ten years ago, sir," began the clown"s wife, speaking first to Doctor Joyce, "since my little Tommy was born; he being now, if you please, at school and costing nothing, through a presentation, as they call it I think, which was given us by a kind patron to my husband.
Some time after I had got well over my confinement, I was out one afternoon taking a walk with baby and Jemmy; which last is my husband, ma"am. We were at Bangbury, then, just putting up the circus: it was a fine large neighborhood, and we hoped to do good business there. Jemmy and me and the baby went out into the fields, and enjoyed ourselves very much; it being such nice warm spring weather, though it was March at the time. We came back to Bangbury by the road; and just as we got near the town, we see a young woman sitting on the bank, and holding her baby in her arms, just as I had got my baby in mine.
""How dreadful ill and weak she do look, don"t she?" says Emmy. Before I could say as much as "Yes," she stares up at us, and asks in a wild voice, though it wasn"t very loud either, if we can tell her the way to Bangbury workhouse. Having pretty sharp eyes of our own, we both of us knew that a workhouse was no fit place for her. Her gown was very dusty, and one of her boots was burst, and her hair was draggled all over her face, and her eyes was sunk in her head, like; but we saw somehow that she was a lady--or, if she wasn"t exactly a lady, that no workhouse was proper for her, at any rate. I stooped down to speak to her; but her baby was crying so dreadful she could hardly hear me. "Is the poor thing ill?" says I. "Starving," says she, in such a desperate, fierce way, that it gave me a turn. "Is that your child?" says I, a bit frightened about how she"d answer me. "Yes," she says in quite a new voice, very soft and sorrowful, and bending her face away from me over the child.
"Then why don"t you suckle it?" says I. She looks up at me, and then at Jenny and shakes her head, and says nothing. I give my baby to Jemmy to hold, and went and sat down by her. He walked away a little; and I whispered to her again, "Why don"t you suckle it?" and she whispered to me, "My milk"s all dried up. I couldn"t wait to hear no more till I"d got her baby at my own breast.
"That was the first time I suckled little Mary, ma"am. She wasn"t a month old then, and oh, so weak and small! such a mite of a baby compared to mine!
"You may be sure, sir, that I asked the young woman lots of questions, while I was sitting side by side with her. She stared at me with a dazed look in her face, seemingly quite stupefied by weariness or grief, or both together. Sometimes she give me an answer and sometimes she wouldn"t. She was very secret. She wouldn"t say where she come from, or who her friends were, or what her name was. She said she should never have name or home or friends again. I just quietly stole a look down at her left hand, and saw that there was no wedding-ring on her finger, and guessed what she meant. "Does the father know you are wandering about in this way?" says I. She flushes up directly; "No;" says she, "he doesn"t know where I am. He never had any love for me, and he has no pity for me now. G.o.d"s curse on him wherever he goes!"--"Oh, hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+" says I, "don"t talk like that!" "Why do you ask me questions?" says she more fiercely than ever. "What business have you to ask me questions that make me mad?" "I"ve only got one more to bother you with," says I, quite cool; "and that is, haven"t you got any money at all with you?" You see, ma"am, now I"d got her child at my own bosom, I didn"t care for what she said, or fear for what she might do to me. The poor mite of a baby was sure to be a peacemaker between us, sooner or later.
"It turned out she"d got sixpence and a few half-pence--not a farthing more, and too proud to ask help from any one of her friends. I managed to worm out of her that she had run away from home before her confinement, and had gone to some strange place to be confined, where they"d ill-treated and robbed her. She hadn"t long got away from the wretches who"d done it. By the time I"d found out all this, her baby was quite quiet, and ready to go to sleep. I gave it her back. She said nothing, but took and kissed my hand, her lips feeling like burning coals on my flesh. "You"re kindly welcome," says I, a little fl.u.s.tered at such a queer way of thanking me. "Just wait a bit while I speak to my husband." Though she"d been and done wrong, I couldn"t for the life of me help pitying her, for her fierce ways. She was so young, and so forlorn and ill, and had such a beautiful face (little Mary"s is the image of it, "specially about the eyes), and seemed so like a lady, that it was almost a sin, as I thought, to send her to such a place as a workhouse.
"Well: I went and told Jemmy all I had got out of her--my own baby kicking and crowing in my arms again, as happy as a king, all the time I was speaking. "It seems shocking," says I, "to let such as her go into a workhouse. What had we better do?"--Says Jemmy, "Let"s take her with us to the circus and ask Peggy Burke."
"Peggy Burke, if you please, sir, was the finest rider that ever stepped on a horse"s back. We"ve had nothing in our circus to come near her, since she went to Astley"s. She was the wildest devil of an Irish girl--oh! I humbly beg your pardon, sir, for saying such a word; but she really _was_ so wild, I hope you"ll excuse it. She"d go through fire and water, as they say, to serve people she liked; but as for them she didn"t, she"d often use her riding-whip among "em as free as her tongue.
That cowardly brute Jubber would never have beaten my little Mary, if Peggy had been with us still! He was so frightened of her that she could twist him round her finger; and she did, for he dursn"t quarrel with the best rider in England, and let other circuses get hold of her. Peggy was a wonderful sharp girl besides, and was always fond of me, and took my part; so when Jemmy said he thought it best to ask her what we had better do, you may be sure that I thought it best too. We took the young woman and the baby with us to the circus at once. She never asked any questions; she didn"t seem to care where she went, or what she did; she was dazed and desperate--a sight, Ma"am, to make your heart ache.
"They were just getting tea in the circus, which was nearly finished.
We mostly have tea and dinner there, sir; finding it come cheaper in the end to mess together when we can. Peggy Burke, I remember, was walking about on the gra.s.s outside, whistling (that was one of her queer ways) "The girl I left behind me." "Ah! Peck," says she, "what have you been after now? Who"s the company lady ye"ve brought to tea with us?" I told her, sir, all I have told you; while Jemmy set the young woman down on one of our trunks, and got her a cup of tea. "It seems dreadful," says I when I"d done, "to send such as her to the workhouse, don"t it?"
"Workhouse!" says Peggy, firing up directly; "I only wish we could catch the man who"s got her in that sc.r.a.pe, and put him in there on water-gruel for the rest of his life. I"d give a s.h.i.+llin" a wheal out of my own pocket for the blessed privilege of scoring the thief"s face with my whip, till his own mother wouldn"t know him!" And then she went on, sir, abusing all the men in her Irish way, which I can"t repeat. At last she stops, and claps me on the back. "You"re a darlin" old girl, Peck!"
says she, "and your friends are my friends. Stop where you are, and let me speak a word to the young woman on the trunk."
"After a little while she comes back, and says, "I"ve done it, Peck! She"s mighty close, and as proud as Lucifer; but she"s only a dressmaker, for all that." "A dressmaker!" says I; "how did you find out she was a dressmaker?" "Why, I looked at her forefinger, in course,"
says Peggy, "and saw the p.r.i.c.ks of the needle on it, and soon made her talk a bit after that. She knows fancy-work and cuttin" out--would ye ever have thought it? And I"ll show her how to give the workhouse the go-by to-morrow, if she only holds out, and keeps in her senses. Stop where you are, Peck! I"m going to make Jubber put his dirty hand into his pocket and pull out some money; and that"s a sight worth stoppin" to see any day in the week."
"I waited as she told me; and she called for Jubber, just as if he"d been her servant; and he come out of the circus. "I want ten s.h.i.+llings advance of wages for that lady on the trunk," says Peggy. He laughed at her. "Show your ugly teeth at me again," says she, "and I"ll box your ears. I"ve my light hand for a horse"s mouth, and my heavy hand for a man"s cheek; you ought to know that by this time! Pull out the ten s.h.i.+llings." "What for?" said he, frowning at her. "Just this," says she.
"I mean to leave your circus, unless I get those six character dresses you promised me; and the lady there can do them up beautiful. Pull out the ten s.h.i.+llings! for I"ve made up my mind to appear before the Bangbury public on Garryowen"s back, as six women at once."
"What she meant by this, sir, was, that she was to have six different dresses on, one over another; and was to go galloping round the ring on Garryowen (which was a horse), beginning, I think it was, as Empress of Roossia; and then throwing off the top dress without the horse stopping, and showing next as some famous Frenchwoman, in the dress underneath; and keeping on so with different nations, till she got down to the last dress, which was to be Britannia and the Union-Jack. We"d got bits of remnants, and old dresses and things to make and alter, but hadn"t anybody clever enough at cutting out, and what they call "Costoom," to do what Peggy wanted--Jubber being too stingy to pay the regular people who understand such things. The young woman, knowing as she did about fancy work, was just what was wanted, if she could only get well enough to use her needle. "I"ll see she works the money out," says Peggy; "but she"s dead beat to-night, and must have her rest and bit o" supper, before she begins to-morrow." Jubber wanted to give less than ten s.h.i.+llings; but between threatening, and saying it should buy twenty s.h.i.+llings" worth of tailor"s work, she got the better of him. And he gave the money, sulky enough.
""Now," says Peggy, "you take her away, and get her a lodging in the place where you"re staying; and I"ll come tomorrow with some of the things to make up." But, ah dear me! sir, she was never to work as much as sixpence of that ten s.h.i.+llings out. She was took bad in the night, and got so much worse in the morning that we had to send for the doctor.
"As soon as he"d seen her, he takes me into the pa.s.sage, and says he to me, "Do you know who her friends are?" "No, sir," says I; "I can"t get her to tell me. I only met her by accident yesterday." "Try and find out again," says he; "for I"m afraid she won"t live over the night. I"ll come back in the evening and see if there is any change."
"Peggy and me went into her room together; but we couldn"t even get her to speak to us for ever so long a time. All at once she cries out, "I can"t see things as I ought. Where"s the woman who suckled my baby when I was alone by the roadside?" "Here," says I--"here; I"ve got hold of your hand. Do tell us where we can write to about you." "Will you promise to take care of my baby, and not let it go into the workhouse?"
says she. "Yes, I promise," says I; "I do indeed promise with my whole heart." "We"ll all take care of the baby," says Peggy; "only you try and cheer up, and you"ll get well enough to see me on Garryowen"s back, before we leave Bangbury--you will for certain, if you cheer up a bit."
"I give my baby," she says, clutching tight at my hand, "to the woman who suckled it by the roadside; and I pray G.o.d to bless _her_ and forgive _me,_ for Jesus Christ"s sake." After that, she lay quiet for a minute or two. Then she says faintly, "Its name"s to be Mary. Put it into bed to me again; I should like to touch its cheek, and feel how soft and warm it is once more." And I took the baby out of its crib, and lifted it, asleep as it was, into the bed by her side, and guided her hand up to its cheek. I saw her lips move a little, and bent down over her. "Give me one kiss," she whispered, "before I die." And I kissed her, and tried to stop crying as I did it. Then I says to Peggy, "You wait here while I run and fetch the doctor back; for I"m afraid she"s going fast." He wasn"t at home when I got to his house. I did"n"t know what to do next, when I see a gentleman in the street who looked like a clergyman, and I asked him if he was one; and he said "Yes;" and he went back with me. I heard a low wailing and crying in the room, and saw Peggy sitting on the bundle of dresses she"d brought in the morning, rocking herself backwards and forwards as Irish people always do when they"re crying. I went to the bed, and looked through the curtains. The baby was still sleeping as pretty as ever, and its mother"s hand was touching one of its arms. I was just going to speak to her again, when the clergyman said "Hush," and took a bit of looking-gla.s.s that was set up on the chimney-piece, and held it over her lips. She was gone. Her poor white wasted hand lay dead on the living baby"s arm.
"I answered all the clergyman"s questions quite straightforward, telling him everything I knew from beginning to end. When I"d done, Peggy starts up from the bundle and says, "Mind, sir, whatever you do, the child"s not to be took away from this person here, and sent to the workhouse.
The mother give it to her on that very bed, and I"m a witness of it."
"And I promised to be a mother to the baby, sir," says I. He turns round to me, and praises me for what I done, and says n.o.body shall take it away from me, unless them as can show their right comes forward to claim it. "But now," says he, "we must think of other things. We must try and find out something about this poor woman who has died in such a melancholy way."
"It was easier to say that than to do it. The poor thing had nothing with her but a change of linen for herself and the child, and that gave us no clue. Then we searched her pocket. There was a cambric handkerchief in it, marked "M. G.;" and some bits of rusks to sop for the child; and the sixpence and halfpence which she had when I met her; and beneath all, in a corner, as if it had been forgotten there, a small hair bracelet. It was made of two kinds of hair--very little of one kind, and a good deal of the other. And on the flat clasp of the bracelet there was cut in tiny letters, _"In memory of S. G."_ I remember all this, sir, for I"ve often and often looked at the bracelet since that time.
"We found nothing more--no letters, or cards, or anything. The clergyman said that the "M. G." on the handkerchief must be the initials of her name; and the "S. G." on the bracelet must mean, he thought, some relation whose hair she wore as a sort of keepsake. I remember Peggy and me wondering which was S. G."s hair; and who the other person might be, whose hair was wove into the bracelet. But the clergyman he soon cut us short by asking for pen, ink, and paper directly. "I"m going to write out an advertis.e.m.e.nt," says he, "saying how you met with the young woman, and what she was like, and how she was dressed." "Do you mean to say anything about the baby, sir?" says I. "Certainly," says he; "it"s only right, if we get at her friends by advertising, to give them the chance of doing something for the child. And if they live anywhere in county, I believe we shall find them out; for the _Bangbury Chronicle,_ into which I mean to put the advertis.e.m.e.nt, goes everywhere in our part of England."
"So he sits down, and writes what he said he would, and takes it away to be printed in the next day"s number of the newspaper. "If nothing comes of this," says he, "I think I can manage about the burial with a charitable society here. I"ll take care and inform you the moment the advertis.e.m.e.nt"s answered." I hardly know how it was, sir; but I almost hoped they wouldn"t answer it. Having suckled the baby myself, and kissed its mother before she died, I couldn"t make up my mind to the chance of its being took away from me just then. I ought to have thought how poor we were, and how hard it would be for us to bring the child up.
But, somehow, I never did think of that--no more did Peggy--no more did Jemmy; not even when we put the baby to bed that night along with our own.
"Well, sir, sure enough, two days after the advertis.e.m.e.nt come out, it was answered in the cruelest letter I ever set eyes on. The clergyman he come to me with it. "It was left this evening," says he, "by a strange messenger, who went away directly. I told my servant to follow him; but it was too late--he was out of sight." The letter was very short, and we thought it was in a woman"s handwriting--a feigned handwriting, the clergyman said. There was no name signed, and no date at top or bottom.
Inside it there was a ten-pound bank-note; and the person as sent it wrote that it was enclosed to bury the young woman decently. "She was better dead than alive"--the letter went on--"after having disgraced her father and her relations. As for the child, it was the child of sin, and had no claim on people who desired to preserve all that was left of their good name, and to set a moral example to others. The parish must support it if n.o.body else would. It would be useless to attempt to trace them, or to advertise again. The baby"s father had disappeared, they didn"t know where; and they could hold no communication now with such a monster of wickedness, even if he was found. She was dead in her shame and her sin; and her name should never be mentioned among them she belonged to henceforth for ever."
"This was what I remember in the letter, sir. A shocking and unchristian letter I said; and the clergyman he said so too.
"She was buried in the poor corner of the churchyard. They marked out the place, in case anybody should ever want to see it, by cutting the two letters M. G., and the date of when she died, upon a board of wood at the head of the grave. The clergyman then give me the hair bracelet and the handkerchief, and said, "You keep these as careful as you keep the child; for they may be of great importance one of these days. I shall seal up the letter (which is addressed to me) and put it in my strong box." He"d asked me, before this, if I"d thought of what a responsibility it was for such as me to provide for the baby. And I told him I"d promised, and would keep my promise, and trust to G.o.d"s providence for the rest. The clergyman was a very kind gentleman, and got up a subscription for the poor babe; and Peggy Burke, when she had her benefit before the circus left Bangbury, give half of what she got as her subscription. I never heard nothing about the child"s friends from that time to this; and I know no more who its father is now than I did then. And glad I am that he"s never come forward--though, perhaps, I oughtn"t to say so. I keep the hair bracelet and the handkerchief as careful as the clergyman told me, for the mother"s sake as well as the child"s. I"ve known some sorrow with her since I took her as my own; but I love her only the dearer for it, and still think the day a happy day for both of us, when I first stopped and suckled her by the road-side.
"This is all I have to say, if you please, sir, about how I first met with little Mary; and I wish I could have told it in a way that was more fit for such as you to hear."
CHAPTER V. MADONNA"S MISFORTUNE.
As the clown"s wife ended her narrative, but little was said in the way of comment on it by those who had listened to her. They were too much affected by what they had heard to speak, as yet, except briefly and in low voices. Mrs. Joyce more than once raised her handkerchief to her eyes. Her husband murmured some cordial words of sympathy and thanks--in an unusually subdued manner, however. Valentine said nothing; but he drew his chair close to Mrs. Peckover, and turning his face away as if he did not wish it to be seen, took her hand in one of his and patted it gently with the other. There was now perfect silence in the room for a few minutes. Then they all looked out with one accord, and as it seemed with one feeling, towards the garden.
In a shady place, just visible among the trees, the rector"s daughters, and little Mary, and the great Newfoundland dog were all sitting together on the gra.s.s. The two young ladies appeared to be fastening a garland of flowers round the child"s neck, while she was playfully offering a nosegay for Leo to smell at. The sight was homely and simple enough; but it was full of the tenderest interest--after the narrative which had just engaged them--to those who now witnessed it. They looked out on the garden scene silently for some little time. Mrs. Joyce was the first to speak again.
"Would it be asking too much of you, Mrs. Peckover," said she, "to inquire how the poor little thing really met with the accident that caused her misfortune? I know there is an account of it in the bills of the circus but--"
"It"s the most infamous thing I ever read!" interrupted Mr. Blyth indignantly. "The man who wrote it ought to be put in the pillory.
I never remember wanting to throw a rotten egg at any of my fellow-creatures before; but I feel certain that I should enjoy having a shy at Mr. Jubber!"
"Gently, Valentine--gently," interposed the rector. "I think, my love,"
he continued, turning to Mrs. Joyce, "that it is hardly considerate to Mrs. Peckover to expect her to comply with your request. She has already sacrificed herself once to our curiosity; and, really, to ask her now to recur a second time to recollections which I am sure must distress her--"
"It"s worse than distressing, indeed, sir, even to think of that dreadful accident," said Mrs. Peckover, "and specially as I can"t help taking some blame to myself for it. But if the lady wishes to know how it happened, I"m sure I"m agreeable to tell her. People in our way of life, ma"am--as I"ve often heard Peggy Burke say--are obliged to dry the tear at their eyes long before it"s gone from their hearts. But pray don"t think, sir, I mean that now about myself and in your company. If I _do_ feel low at talking of little Mary"s misfortune, I can take a look out into the garden there, and see how happy she is--and that"s safe to set me right again."
"I ought to tell you first, sir," proceeded the clown"s wife, after waiting thoughtfully for a moment or two before she spoke again, "that I got on much better with little Mary than ever I thought I should for the first six years of her life. She grew up so pretty that gentlefolks was always noticing her, and asking about her; and nearly in every place the circus went to they made her presents, which helped nicely in her keep and clothing. And our own people, too, petted her and were fond of her.
All those six years we got on as pleasantly as could be. It was not till she was near her seventh birthday that I was wicked and foolish enough to consent to her being shown in the performances.
"I was sorely tried and tempted before I did consent. Jubber first said he wanted her to perform with the riders; and I said "No" at once, though I was awful frightened of him in those days. But soon after, Jemmy (who wasn"t the clown then that he is now, sir; there was others to be got for his money, to do what he did at that time)--Jemmy comes to me, saying he"s afraid he shall lose his place, if I don"t give in about Mary. This staggered me a good deal; for I don"t know what we should have done then, if my husband had lost his engagement. And, besides, there was the poor dear child herself, who was mad to be carried up in the air on horseback, always begging and praying to be made a little rider of. And all the rest of "em in the circus worried and laughed at me; and, in short, I give in at last against my conscience, but I couldn"t help it.
"I made a bargain, though, that she should only be trusted to the steadiest, soberest man, and the best rider of the whole lot. They called him "Muley" in the bills, and stained his face to make him look like a Turk, or something of that sort; but his real name was Francis Yapp, and a very good fatherly sort of man he was in his way, having a family of his own to look after. He used to ride splendid, at full straddle, with three horses under him--one foot, you know, sir, being on the outer horse"s back, and one foot on the inner. Him and Jubber made it out together that he was to act a wild man, flying for his life across some desert, with his only child, and poor little Mary was to be the child. They darkened her face to look like his; and put an outlandish kind of white dress on her; and buckled a red belt round her waist, with a sort of handle in it for Yapp to hold her by. After first making believe in all sorts of ways, that him and the child was in danger of being taken and shot, he had to make believe afterwards that they had escaped; and to hold her up, in a sort of triumph, at the full stretch of his arm--galloping round and round the ring all the while. He was a tremendous strong man, and could do it as easy as I could hold up a bit of that plum cake.
"Poor little love! she soon got over the first fright of the thing, and had a sort of mad fondness for it that I never liked to see, for it wasn"t natural to her. Yapp, he said, she"d got the heart of a lion, and would grow up the finest woman-rider in the world. I was very unhappy about it, and lived a miserable life, always fearing some accident. But for some time nothing near an accident happened; and lots of money come into the circus to see Yapp and little Mary--but that was Jubber"s luck and not ours. One night--when she was a little better than seven year old--
"Oh, ma"am, how I ever lived over that dreadful night I don"t know! I was a sinful, miserable wretch not to have starved sooner than let the child go into danger; but I was so sorely tempted and driven to it, G.o.d knows!--No, sir! no, ma"am; and many thanks for your kindness, I"ll go on now I"ve begun. Don"t mind me crying; I"ll manage to tell it somehow.
The strap--no, I mean the handle; the handle in the strap gave way all of a sudden--just at the last too! just at the worst time, when he couldn"t catch her--!
"Never--oh, never, never, to my dying day shall I forget the horrible screech that went up from the whole audience; and the sight of the white thing lying huddled dead-still on the boards! We hadn"t such a number in as usual that night; and she fell on an empty place between the benches.
I got knocked down by the horses in running to her--I was clean out of my senses, and didn"t know where I was going--Yapp had fallen among them, and hurt himself badly, trying to catch her--they were running wild in the ring--the horses was--frantic-like with the noise all round them. I got up somehow, and a crowd of people jostled me, and I saw my innocent darling carried among them. I felt hands on me, trying to pull me back; but I broke away, and got into the waiting-room along with the rest.
"There she was--my own, own little Mary, that I"d promised her poor mother to take care of--there she was, lying all white and still on an old box, with my cloak rolled up as a pillow for her. And people crowding round her. And a doctor feeling her head all over. And Yapp among them, held up by two men, with his face all over blood. I wasn"t able to speak or move; I didn"t feel as if I was breathing even, till the doctor stopped, and looked up; and then a great shudder went through all of us together, as if we"d been one body, instead of twenty or more.
""It"s not killed her," says the doctor. "Her brain"s escaped injury."
"I didn"t hear another word.
"I don"t know how long it was before I seemed to wake up like, with a dreadful feeling of pain and tearing of everything inside me. I was on the landlady"s bed, and Jemmy was standing over me with a bottle of salts. "They"ve put her to bed," he says to me, "and the doctor"s setting her arm." I didn"t recollect at first; but when I did, it was almost as bad as seeing the dreadful accident all over again.