"But why?"
"Because he from whom I had it is dead, and the executors have called it in. It was Mr Wells."
She recognized the name as that of a gentleman with whom they had been slightly acquainted; he had died suddenly, in the prime of life.
"Has any of it been paid off?"
"None. I could have repaid a portion every half-year as it came round, but Mr. Wells would not let me. "You had a great deal better use it in improving the school and getting things comfortable about you; I am in no hurry," was his invariable rejoinder. Lockett thought he meant eventually to make me a present of the money, being a wealthy man without near relatives. Of course I never looked for anything of the sort; but I was as easy as to the debt as though I had not contracted it."
"Will the executors not let you have the use of the money still?"
"You should see their curt note, ordering its immediate repayment!
Lockett seems more vexed at the turn affairs have taken than even I am.
He was here to-day."
Mrs. Blair sat in silent reflection, wishing she had known of this. Many an odd shilling that she had thought justified in spending, she would willingly have recalled now. Not that they could have amounted to much in the aggregate. Presently she looked at her husband.
"Pyefinch, it seems to me that there"s only one thing to do. You must borrow the sum from some one else, which of course will make us only as much in debt as we are now; and we must pay it off by instalments as quickly as we possibly can."
"It is what Lockett and I have decided on already as the only course.
Why, Mary, this worry has been on our minds for a fortnight past," he added, turning quickly. "But now that it has come to borrowing again, and not from a friend, I felt that I ought to tell you. Besides, there"s another thing."
"Go on," she said.
"We have found a man to advance the money. Lockett and I picked him out from the _Times_ advertis.e.m.e.nts. These fellows are awful rogues, for the most part; but this is not one of the worst. Lockett made inquiries of a parishioner of his who understands these things, and finds Gavity (that"s his name) is tolerably fair for a professional money-lender. I shall have to pay him higher interest. And he wants me to give him a bill of sale on the furniture."
"A bill of sale on the furniture! What is that?"
"That is what I meant when I said there was another thing," replied Mr. Blair. "Wells was content with my note of hand; this man requires security on my goods. It is a mere matter of form in my case, he says.
As I am doing well, and there"s no fear of my not keeping the interest paid up, I suppose it is. In two or three years from this, all being well, the debt itself will be wiped off."
"Oh yes; I hope so. The school is prosperous."
Her tone was anxious, and Mr. Blair detected it. But for considering that she ought to know it, he would rather have kept this trouble to himself. And he was not sure upon another point: whether, in giving this bill of sale upon the furniture, Mr. Gavity might deem it essential to come in and take a list, article by article, bed by bed, table by table. If so, it would not have been possible to conceal it from her.
He mentioned this. She, with himself, could not understand the necessity of their furniture being brought into the transaction at all, seeing that there could be no doubt as to their ability to repay. The one knew just as much about bills of sale and the rights they gave, as the other: and, that, was nothing.
And now that the communication to his wife was off his mind--for in that had lain the chief weight--Mr. Blair was more at ease. As they sat talking together, discussing the future in all its aspects, the shadow lifted itself, and things looked brighter. It did not seem to either of them so formidable a matter after all. It was only changing one creditor for another, and paying a little higher interest.
The transaction was accomplished. Gavity advanced the money, and took the bill of sale upon the furniture. He shot up the expenses--as money-lenders of his stamp generally do--and brought up the loan to a hundred and eighty, instead of a hundred and fifty. Still, taking things for all in all, the position was perhaps as fair and hopeful a one as can be experienced under debt. It was but a temporary clog; Mr. and Mrs.
Blair both knew that. The school was flourishing; their prospects were good; they were young, and healthy, and hopeful. And though Mr. Gavity would of course exact his rights to the uttermost farthing, he had no intention of playing the rogue. In all candour let it be avowed, the gentleman money-lender did not see that it was a case affording scope for it.
I had to tell that much as well as I could, seeing that it only came to me by hearsay in the future.
And now to go back a little while, and to ourselves at d.y.k.e Manor.
After their marriage the Squire did not lose sight of Mr. and Mrs.
Blair. A basket of things went up now and then, and the second Christmas they were invited to come down; but Mary wrote to decline, on account of Joe, the baby. "Let them leave Joe at home," cried Tod; but Mrs.
Todhetley, shaking her head, said the dear little infant would come to sad grief without its mother. Soon after that, when the Squire was in London, he took the omnibus and went to see them, and told us how comfortably they were getting on.
Years went round to another Christmas, when the exacting Joe would be some months over two years old. In the pa.s.sing of time you are apt to lose sight of interests, unless they are close ones; and for some months we had heard nothing of the Blairs. Mrs. Todhetley spoke of it one evening.
"Send them a Christmas hamper," said the Squire.
The Christmas hamper went. With a turkey and ham, and a brace of pheasants in it; some bacon and apples to fill up, and sweet herbs and onions. Lena put in her favourite doll, dressed as a little mother, for young Joe. It had a false arm; and no legs, so to say: Hugh cut the feet off one day, and Hannah had to sew the stumps up. We hoped they would enjoy it all, including the doll, and drank good luck to them on Christmas Day.
A week and a half went on, and no news came. Mrs. Todhetley grew uneasy about the hamper, feeling sure it had been confiscated by the railway.
Mary Blair had always written so promptly to acknowledge everything sent to them.
One January day the letter came in by the afternoon post. We knew Mary"s handwriting. The Squire and Madam were at the Sterlings", and it was nine o"clock at night when they drove in. Mrs. Todhetley"s face ached, which was quite usual she had a white handkerchief tied round it. When they were seated round the fire, I remembered the letter, and gave it to her.
"Now to hear the fate of the hamper!" she exclaimed, carrying it to the lamp. But, what with the face-ache, and what with her eyes, which were not so good by candle-light as they used to be, Mrs. Todhetley could not read the contents readily. She looked at the writing, page after page, and then gave a short scream of dismay. Something was wrong.
"Those thieves have grabbed the hamper!" cried the Squire.
"No; I think the Blairs have had the hamper. I fear it is something worse," she said faintly. "Perhaps you will read it aloud."
The Squire put his spectacles on as he took the letter. We gathered round the table, waiting. Mrs. Todhetley sat with her head aside, nursing her cheek; and Tod, who had been reading, put his book down. The Squire hammered a good deal over the writing, which was not so legible as Mary"s was in general. She appeared to have meant it for Mrs.
Todhetley and the Squire jointly.
""MY VERY DEAR FRIENDS,
""If I have delayed writing to you it was not for want of in-ingredients""----
"Ingredients!" cried one of us.
"It must be grat.i.tude," corrected the Squire. "Don"t interrupt."
""Grat.i.tude for your most welcome and liberal present, but because my heart and hands have alike shrunk from the ex--ex--explanation it must entail. Alas! a series of very terrible misfortunes have overwormed--overwhelmed us. We have had to give up our school and our prospects together, and to turn out of our once happy dome.""
"Dome!" put in Tod.
"I suppose it"s home," said the Squire. "This confounded lamp is as dim as it can be to-night!" And he went on fractiously.
""Through no fault of my husband"s he had to borrow a hundred and fifty pounds nearly twelve months ago. The man he had it from was a money-lender, a Mr. Gavity; he charged a high rate of interest, and brought the cost up to about thirty pounds; but we have no reason to think he wished to act un--unfar--unfairly by us. He required security--which I suppose was only reasonable. The Reverend Mr. Lockett offered himself; but Gavity said parsons were slippers.""
"Good gracious!" said Mrs. Todhetley.
"The word"s slippery, I expect," cried the Squire with a frown. "One would think she had emptied the water-bottle into the inkpot."
""Gavity said parsons were slippery; meaning that they were often worth no more than their word. He took, as security, a bill of sale on the furnace. Stay,--furniture. Our school was quite prosperous; there was not the slightest doubt that in a short time the whole of the debt could be cleared off; so we had no hesitation in letting him have the bill of sale. And no harm would have come of it, but for one dreadful misfortune, which (as it seems) was a necessary part of the attendant proceedings. My husband got put into _Jer--Jer--Jerry"s Gazelle_.""
"_Jerry"s Gazelle?_"
"_Jerry"s Gazette_," corrected the Squire.
"_Jerry"s Gazette?_"