Miss Lillycrop"s countenance was a study which cannot be described. The same may be said of her bonnet. When she came to the name of Aspel her eyeb.a.l.l.s became circular, and her eyebrows apparently attempted to reach the roots of her hair.
"Maria dear!" she cried, with a little shriek, "this only reminds me that I have still more news to tell. You remember Sir James Clubley?
Well, he is dead, and he has left the whole of his property to George Aspel! It seems that Sir James went one night, secretly, as it were, to some low locality where Aspel was preaching to poor people, and was so affected by what he heard and saw that he came forward at the close, signed the pledge along with a number of rough and dirty men, and then and there became a total abstainer. This, I am told, occurred a considerable time ago, and he has been a helper of the Temperance cause ever since. Sir James had no near relatives. To the few distant ones he possessed he left legacies, and in his will stated that he left the rest of his fortune--which, although not large, is considerable--to George Aspel, in the firm belief that by so doing he was leaving it to further the cause of Christianity and Temperance."
"Come, now, don"t stop there," observed Miss Stivergill calmly, "go on to tell me that Phil Maylands has also had a fortune left him, or become Postmaster-General and got married, or is going to be."
"Well, I can"t exactly tell you that," returned Miss Lillycrop, "but I can tell you that he has had a rise in the Post-Office Savings Bank, with an increase of salary, and that May declines to marry Aspel unless he agrees to live with her mother in the cottage at Nottinghill. Of course Aspel has consented--all the more that it is conveniently situated near to a station whence he can easily reach the field of his missionary labours."
"Does he intend to continue these now that he is rich?" asked Miss Stivergill.
"How can you ask such a question?" replied her friend, with a slightly offended look. "Aspel is not a man to be easily moved from his purpose.
He says he will labour in the good cause, and devote health and means to it as long as G.o.d permits."
"Good!" exclaimed Miss Stivergill with a satisfied nod.--"Now, Lilly,"
she added, with the decision of tone and manner peculiar to her, "I mean to make some arrangements. The farmer next to me has a very pretty villa, as you are aware, on the brow of the hill that overlooks the whole country in the direction of London. It is at present to let. Mr Blurt must take it. Beside it stands a cottage just large enough for a new-married couple. I had already rented that cottage for a poor friend. He, however, knows nothing about the matter. I will therefore have him put somewhere else, and sub-let the cottage to Mr and Mrs Pax. Lastly, you shall give up your insane notion of living alone, come here, with all your belongings, and take up your abode with me for ever."
"That"s a long time, dear Maria," said Miss Lillycrop, with a little smile.
"Not _too_ long, by any means, Lilly. Now, clear that rubbish off the chair--it"s well got rid of, I never liked the shape--go, put yourself to rights, use one of my bonnets, and come out for a walk. To-morrow you shall go into town and arrange with Pax and Blurt about the villa and the cottage to the best of your ability. It"s of no use attempting to resist me, Lilly--tell them that--for in this affair I have made up my mind that my will shall be law."
Reader, what more need we add--except that Miss Stivergill"s will did eventually become law, because it happened to correspond with the wishes of all concerned. It is due, also, to Solomon Flint to record that after his long life of faithful service in the Post-Office he retired on a small but comfortable pension, and joined the "Rosebud Colony," as Pax styled it, taking his grandmother along with him. That remarkable piece of antiquity, when last seen by a credible witness, was basking in the sunshine under a rustic porch covered with honeysuckle, more wrinkled, more dried-up, more tough, more amiable--especially to her cat--and more stooped in the previous century than ever. Mr Bright, the energetic sorter, who visits Solomon whenever his postal duties will allow, expresses his belief that the old lady will live to see them all out, and Mr Bright"s opinion carries weight with it; besides which, Phil Maylands and May Aspel with her husband are more than half inclined to agree with him. Time will show.
Pegaway Hall still exists, but its glory has departed, for although Mrs Square still keeps her one watchful eye upon its closed door, its walls and rafters no longer resound with the eloquence, wit, and wisdom of Boy Telegraph Messengers, although these important servants of the Queen still continue--with their friends the letter-carriers--to tramp the kingdom "post haste," in ceaseless, benignant activity, distributing right and left with impartial justice the varied contents of Her Majesty"s Mails.