"But--pardon me! are not all schools in vacation now?"
"I believe so! But these people--the Miss Hardhacks--are willing to take him now, and keep him."
"Poor little lad!" murmured Hildegarde, regardless of the fact that it was none of her business. "Will he not be very lonely?"
"Beggars must not be choosers, Miss Grahame!" was the reply, with another unamiable smile. Miss Loftus really would not have smiled at all, if she had known how she looked.
No sooner was the visitor gone, than Hildegarde flew up to her mother with the news. The Loftuses were going away; they were going to send Hugh to school. What was to be done? He could not go! He _should_ not go.
She was greatly excited, but Mrs. Grahame"s quiet voice and words restored her composure. ""Can"t" and "shan"t" never won a battle!" said that lady. "We must think and plan."
Hildegarde had lately discovered, beyond peradventure, from some chance words let fall by little Hugh, that his mother had been the sister of Mr. Loftus; and she felt no doubt in her own mind that good Mrs. Beadle was aunt to both. The sister had been a school teacher, had married a man of some education, who died during the second year of their marriage, leaving her alone, in a Western town, with her little baby.
She had struggled on, not wishing to be a burden either on her rich brother (who had not approved her marriage) or her aunt, who had nothing but her savings and her comfortable berth at Roseholme. At length, consumption laying its deadly hand on her, she sent for her brother, and begged him to take the boy to their good aunt, who, she knew, would care for him as her own. "But he didn"t!" said Hugh. "He did not do that. He said he would make a man of me, but I don"t believe he could make a very good one, do you, Beloved?"
Now the question was, how to bring about a meeting between the boy and his great-aunt, if great-aunt she were.
No child was allowed to enter the sacred precincts of Roseholme, for Colonel Ferrers regarded children, and especially boys, as the fountain-head of all mischief, flower-breaking, bird-nesting, turf-destroying. His own nephew had had to wait eighteen years for an invitation. How could it be possible to introduce little Hugh, a boy and a stranger, into the charmed garden?
If "Mammina" could only take him! No one could resist her mother, Hildegarde thought; certainly not Colonel Ferrers, who admired her so much. But this dear mother had sprained her ankle a week before, slipping on a mossy stone in the garden, and was only now beginning to get about, using a crutched stick.
Mrs. Grahame and Hildegarde put their heads together, and talked long and earnestly. Then they sent for Jack, and took counsel with him; and a plan was made for the first act of what Hildegarde called the Drama of the Conspirators.
A day or two after, when Mrs. Beadle drove to the town of Whitfield, some miles off, on her weekly marketing trip, it was Jack Ferrers, instead of Giuseppe, the faithful manservant, who held the reins and drove the yellow wagon with the stout brown cob. He wanted to buy some things, he said: a necktie, and some chocolate, and--oh, lots of things; and Mrs. Beadle was only too glad of his company. The good housekeeper was dressed, like Villikins" Dinah, in gorgeous array, her cashmere shawl being of the finest scarlet, her gown of a brilliant blue, while her bonnet nodded with blue and yellow cornflowers. Not a tradesman in Whitfield but came smiling to his door when he saw Mrs. Beadle"s yellow cart; for she was a good customer, and wanted everything of the best for her Colonel. When they at last turned Chow-chow"s head homeward, the wagon was nearly filled with brown-paper parcels, and Jack"s pockets bulged out in all directions. As they drove along the pleasant road, fringed with oaks and beeches, Jack broke silence with, "Biddy, did you ever have any children?"
"Bless me, Master Jack, how you startled me!" cried Mrs. Beadle, who was deep in a problem of jelly and roly-poly pudding. "No, dear! no jelly--I should say, no chick nor child had I ever. I wasn"t good enough, I suppose."
"Nonsense. Biddy!" said Jack. "But you must have had some relations; some--nieces or nephews, or something of that sort."
Mrs. Beadle sighed, and fell straightway into the trap.
"I had, dear! I had, indeed, once upon a time. But they"re no good to me now, and never will be."
She sighed again.
"How no good to you?" queried this artful Jack.
"Oh, "tis a long story, dear, and you wouldn"t care for it at all. You would? Well! well! there"s no harm that I know of in speaking of it.
I"ve nothing to be ashamed of. I had a niece, Master Jack, and a dearer one never was, nor married to a finer young man. But they went out West, and he died, and left her with a baby. I wrote again and again, begging her to come home, but she was doing well, she said, and felt to stay, and had friends there, and all. Oh, dear! and last year--a year ago it is now, she died." Mrs. Beadle drew out a handkerchief and wiped her eyes. "She died, my dear; and--I didn"t ought to speak of this, Master Jack, it do upset me so--I don"t know where the child is to this day."
"Her child?" asked Jack, with a guilty consciousness of his ears being red.
"My own dear niece Martha"s child!" repeated the good woman sorrowfully.
"A boy it was, as should be seven years old by this time. I"ve wrote, and I"ve wrote, but no answer could I get. And whether he is dead, too, or whether his father"s people have him, or what, is darkness to me."
"The brute!" exclaimed Jack Ferrers vehemently. "The cold-hearted, odious brute!"
"What is it, my dear?" cried Mrs. Beadle, drying her tears, and looking with alarm at the pony. "His tail over the reins, is it? Well, he will do that, but "tis only play. He means no harm."
"Oh, I know!" cried Jack in confusion. "I didn"t mean--that is--and is that all the relatives you have, Biddy?"
"Why, boys do love questions, don"t they?" the good woman said. "I have a nephew living, Master Jack; and if you guessed from now till Sunday week, you never would guess his name."
"Solomon Grundy" rose to Jack"s lips, he could not in the least tell why. He did his best to look unconscious, but it was perhaps fortunate that Mrs. Beadle was so absorbed in her own troubled thoughts that she did not look at him.
"Who is it?" he asked. "Do tell me. Biddy! Is it any one I ever heard of?"
"Hush, my dear! don"t tell a soul that I mentioned it. I am not one to force myself on them as has got up in the world, and think honest service a disgrace. It"s Ephraim Loftus!"
"Not Mr. Loftus at the Poplars?"
"Mr. Loftus at the Poplars! The very same. My own sister"s son, and little credit he is to either of us. Don"t ask me how he made his money, for I don"t know, and don"t want to know. When he was a little boy, his pockets were always full of pennies that he got from the other boys, trading and the like, and n.o.body had a kindness for him, though they loved Martha. Not a soul in the village but loved Martha, and would do anything for her. So when Ephraim was fourteen or so, he went away to New York, and we never heard anything more till he came back three or four years ago, a rich man, and built that great house, and lived there summers. I"ve never seen him but once; I don"t go out, only just in the back garden, except when I drive to town. And that once he looked me all over, as if I was a waxwork in a gla.s.s case, and never stopped nor spoke a word. That"s Ephraim Loftus! He needn"t have been afraid of my troubling him or his, I can tell him. I wouldn"t demean myself." Mrs.
Beadle"s face was red, and her voice trembled with angry pride.
"And--" Jack wished Hildegarde were speaking instead of himself; she would know what to say, and he felt entirely at a loss. "Do you--do you suppose he knows anything about--about his sister"s little boy?"
Mrs. Beadle looked as if some one had struck her a blow. "Ephraim Loftus!" she cried. "If I thought that, Master Jack, I"d--I"d--why, what"s the matter, sir?" For Jack had risen in his seat, and was waving the whip wildly round his head.
"It"s my cousin," he said. "Don"t you see her coming?"
"Oh, the dear young lady! yes, to be sure. Walking this way, isn"t she?
Never mind me. Master Jack!" said the good woman, striving for composure. "I was upset by what you said, that"s all. It gave me a thought--who is the little boy with Miss Grahame, dear?"
"He? oh--he"s a boy," said Jack, rather incoherently. "His name is Hugh.
Good-morning, Hildegarde! Hallo, Hugh! how are you?"
"Good-morning!" cried Hildegarde, as the wagon drew up beside her.
"Good-morning, Mrs. Beadle. Isn"t it a lovely day? Will the pony stand, Jack?"
"Like a rock!" and Jack, obeying the hint, leaped to the ground.
Mrs. Beadle had turned very pale. She was gazing fixedly at Hugh, who returned the look with wide blue eyes, shining with some strong emotion.
"Dear Mrs. Beadle," said Hildegarde gently, taking the housekeeper"s hand in hers as she leant against the wagon, "this is a very dear little friend of mine, whom I want you to know. His name is Hugh; Hugh Allen; and he is staying with his uncle, Mr. Loftus."
"I knew it!" cried Mrs. Beadle, clapping her hands together. "I knew it!
And I am going to faint!"
"No, don"t do that!" said Hugh, climbing up into the seat beside her.
"Don"t do that. You must be calm, for you are my great-aunt, and I am your little nephew. How do you do? I am very glad to see you."
"You are sure he will stand?" whispered Hildegarde.
"Look at him! he is asleep already."
"Then come along!" and the two conspirators vanished among the trees.
They pushed on a little way through the tangle of undergrowth, and paused, breathless and radiant, under a great beech-tree.
"Jack," said Hildegarde, "you are a dear! How did you manage it?"