There is no safeguard like this seed sown in childhood: if withheld, nothing can replace it in after-life.
They grew the best and greatest friends, these two. Whether Mary loved him, or not, she did not say; she was ever patient and thoughtful with him, with a kind of grave tenderness. But the child grew to love her more than he had ever loved any one in his young life. One day, when he did something wrong and saw how it grieved her, his repentant sobs nearly choked him. It was very certain that Mary had found the way to his heart, and might mould him for good or for ill.
The child was a chatterbox. Aunt Elizabeth used to say he ought to have the tip of his tongue cut off. He seemed never tired of asking about papa and mamma in India, and Allan and Bobby and the rest, and the elephants and camels--and d.i.c.k the eldest, who was in London, at the school attached to King"s College.
"When will they come over to see us, Aunt Mary?" he questioned one day, when he was on Mary"s knee.
"If grandmamma"s pretty well we, will have d.i.c.k down at Christmas."
"Is d.i.c.k to be a soldier like papa?"
"I think so."
"I shall be a soldier too."
There was an involuntary tightening of her hands round him--as if she would guard him from _that_.
"I hope not, Arthur. One soldier in a family"s enough: and that is to be Richard."
"Is papa a very big, big brave man, with a flashing sword?"
"Major Layne is tall and very brave. He wears his sword sometimes."
"Oh, Aunt Mary, I should like to be a soldier and have a sword! When I can write well enough I"ll write a letter to papa to ask him. I"d like to ride on the elephants."
"They are not as good to ride as horses."
"Is mamma as pretty as you?" demanded Master Arthur, after a pause.
"Prettier. I am pale and--" sad, she was going to say, but put another word--"quiet."
"When you go back to India, Aunt Mary, shall you take me? I should like to sail in the great ship."
"Arthur dear, I do not think I shall go back."
And so Miss Mary Layne--she was Miss Layne now--stayed on. Church d.y.k.ely would see a slender, grave young lady, dressed generally in black silk, whose sweet face seemed to have too careworn an expression for her years. But if her countenance was worn and weary, her heart was not.
That seemed full of love and charity for all; of gentle compa.s.sion for any wrong-doer, of sympathy for the sick and suffering. She grew to be revered, and valued, and respected as few had ever been in Church d.y.k.ely: certainly as none had, so young as she was. Baby Arthur, clacking his whip as he went through the streets on his walks by the nurse Betsy"s side, his chattering tongue never still; now running into the blacksmith"s shed to watch the sparks; now perching himself on the top of the village stocks; and now frightening Betsy out of her senses by attempting to leap the brook--in spite of these outdoor attractions, Baby Arthur was ever ready to run home to Aunt Mary, as though she were his best treasure.
When Miss Layne had been about six months at her mother"s, a piece of munificent good fortune befel her--as conveyed to her in official and unofficial communications from India. Andrew McAlpin--the head of the great McAlpin house in Calcutta, who had respected Mary Layne above all women, and had wished to marry her, as may be remembered--Andrew McAlpin was dead, and had left some of his acc.u.mulated wealth to Mary. It would amount to six hundred a-year, and was bequeathed to her absolutely: at her own disposal to will away when she in turn should die. In addition to this, he directed that the sum of one thousand pounds should be paid to her at once. He also left a thousand pounds to Mrs. Richard Layne--but that does not concern us. This good man"s death brought great grief to Mary. It had been the result of an accident: he lay ill only a few weeks. As to the fortune--well, of course that was welcome, for Mary had been casting many an anxious thought to the future on sundry scores, and what little money she had been able to put by, out of the salary as governess at Major Layne"s, was now nearly exhausted. She thought she knew why Mr. McAlpin had thus generously remembered her: and it was an additional proof of the thoughtful goodness which had ever characterized his life. Oh, if she could only have thanked him! if she had only known it before he died! He had been in the habit of corresponding with her since her return to Europe, for she and he had remained firm friends, but the thought of ever benefiting by him in this way had never entered her head. As how should it?--seeing that he was a strong man, and only in the prime of life. She mourned his loss: she thought she could best have spared any other friend; but all the regrets in the world would not bring him back to life. He was gone. And Allan McAlpin was now sole head of that wealthy house, besides inheriting a vast private fortune from his brother. Eleanor McAlpin, once Eleanor Layne, might well wish for more children amidst all her riches.
The first thing that Mary Layne did with some of this thousand pounds--which had been conveyed to her simultaneously with the tidings of the death--was to convey her mother to the seaside for a change, together with Baby Arthur and the nurse, Betsy. Before quitting home she held one or two interviews with James Spriggings, the house agent, builder, and decorator, and left certain orders with him. On their return, old Mrs. Layne did not know her house. It had been put into substantial repair inside and out, and was now one of the prettiest, not to say handsomest, in the village. All the old carpets were replaced by handsome new ones, and a great deal of the furniture was new. Pillars had been added to the rather small door, giving it an imposing appearance, iron outside railings had taken the place of the old ones.
Mrs. Layne, I say, did not know her house again.
"My dear, why have you done it?" cried the old lady, looking about her in amazement. "Is it not a waste of money?"
"I think not, mother," was the answer. "Most likely this will be my home for life. Perhaps Arthur"s home after me. At least it will be his until he shall be of an age to go out in the world."
Mrs. Layne said no more. She had grown of late very indifferent to outward things. Aged people do get so, and Mr. Duffham said her system was breaking up. The seaside air had done her good; they had gone to it in May, and came back in August. Mary added a third servant to the household, and things went on as before in their quiet routine.
One afternoon in September, when they had been at home about a month, Mary went out, and took Arthur. She was going to see a poor cottager who had nursed herself, Mary, when she was a child, and who had recently lost her husband. When they came to the gates of Chava.s.se Grange, past which their road lay, Master Arthur made a dead standstill, and wholly declined to proceed. The child was in a black velvet tunic, the tips of his white drawers just discernible beneath it, and his legs bare, down to the white socks: boys of his age were dressed so then. As bonny a lad for his six years as could be seen anywhere, with a n.o.ble, fearless bearing. Mary wore her usual black silk, a rich one too, with a little c.r.a.pe on it; the mourning for Mr. McAlpin. Arthur was staring over the way through the open gates of the Grange.
"I want to go in and see the peac.o.c.k."
"Go in and see the peac.o.c.k!" exclaimed Miss Layne, rather taken aback by the demand. "What can you mean, Arthur? The peac.o.c.k is up by the house."
"I know it is. We can go up there and see it, Aunt Mary."
"Indeed we cannot, Arthur. I never heard of such a thing."
"Betsy lets me go."
The confession involved all sorts of thoughts, and a flush crossed Miss Layne"s delicate face. The family were not at the Grange, as she knew: they had gone up to London in January, when Parliament met, and had never returned since: nevertheless she did not like to hear of this intrusion into the grounds of the nurse and child. The peac.o.c.k had been a recent acquisition; or, as Arthur expressed it, had just "come to live there." When he had talked of it at home, Mary supposed he had seen it on the slopes in pa.s.sing. These green slopes, dotted here and there with shrubs and flowers, came down to the boundary wall that skirted the highway. The avenue through the gates wound round abruptly, hiding itself beyond the lodge.
"Come, my dear. It is already late."
"But, Aunt Mary, you _must_ see the peac.o.c.k. He has got the most splendid tail. Sometimes he drags it behind him on the gra.s.s, and sometimes it"s all spread out in a beautiful circle, like that fan you brought home from India. Do come."
Miss Layne did not reply for the moment. She was inwardly debating upon what plea she could forbid the child"s ever going in again to see the peac.o.c.k: the interdiction would sound most arbitrary if she gave none.
All at once, as if by magic, the peac.o.c.k appeared in view, strutting down the slopes, its proud tail, in all its glory, spread out in the rays of the declining sun.
It was too much for Arthur. With a shout of delight he leaped off the low foot-path, flew across the road, and in at the gates. In vain Mary called: in his glad excitement he did not so much as hear her.
There ensued a noise as of the fleet foot of a horse, and then a crash, a man"s shout, and a child"s cry. What harm had been done? In dire fear Mary Layne ran to see, her legs trembling beneath her.
Just at the sharp turn beyond the lodge, a group stood: Sir Geoffry Chava.s.se had Arthur in his arms; his horse, from which he had flung himself, being held and soothed by a mounted groom. The lodge children also had come running out to look. She understood it in a moment: Sir Geoffry must have been riding quickly down from the house, his groom behind him, when the unfortunate little intruder encountered him just at the turn, and there was no possibility of pulling up in time. In fact, the boy had run absolutely on to the horse"s legs.
She stood, white, and faint, and sick against the wall of the lodge: not daring to look into the accident--for Mary Layne was but a true woman, timid and sensitive; as little daring to encounter Sir Geoffry Chava.s.se, whom she had not been close to but for a few months short of seven years. That it should have occurred!--that this untoward thing should have occurred!
"I wonder whose child it is?" she heard Sir Geoffry say--and the well-remembered tones came home to her with a heart-thrill. "Poor little fellow! could it have been my fault, or his? Dovey"--to the groom--"ride on at once and get Mr. Duffham here. Never mind my horse; he"s all right now. You can lead him up to the house, Bill, my lad!"
The groom touched his hat, and rode past Mary on his errand. Sir Geoffry was already carrying the child to the Grange; Bill, the eldest of the lodge children, following with the horse. All in a minute, a wailing cry burst from Arthur.
"Aunt Mary! Aunt Mary! Oh, please let her come! I want Aunt Mary."
And then it struck Sir Geoffry Chava.s.se that a gentleman"s child, such as this one by his appearance evidently was, would not have been out without an attendant. He turned round, and saw a lady in black standing by the lodge. The wailing cry began again.
"Aunt Mary! I want Aunt Mary."
There was no help for it. She came on with her agitated face, from which every drop of blood had faded. Sir Geoffry, occupied with the child, did not notice her much.
"I am so grieved," he began; "I trust the injury will be found not to be very serious. My horse----"
He had lifted his eyes then, and knew her instantly. His own face turned crimson; the words he had been about to say died unspoken on his lips.
For a moment they looked in each other"s faces, and might have seen, had the time been one of less agitation, how markedly sorrow had left its traces there. The next, they remembered the present time, and what was due from them.
"I beg your pardon: Miss Layne, I think?" said Sir Geoffry, contriving to release one hand and raise his hat.
"Yes, sir," she answered, and bowed in return.