Thus I lay awake, and heard the hours chime and the trains go roaring by, till all the household but Miss Flipp had returned. She entered from the outside, did not come in till after midnight, and was not alone. Her uncle accompanied her. My room had French lights opening into the garden in the same way as Miss Flipp"s, and as my ailment was a heart affection it was sometimes necessary for me to go outside to get sufficient air, and in this instance I had the door-windows wide open and the bed pulled almost to the opening. Miss Flipp apparently had her window open too, for despite the conversation in her room being in subdued tones, I heard it where I lay.
It contained startling disclosures anent these two persons" relations and characters, and when Mr p.o.r.nsch went his way with the uneven footsteps of the overfed and of acc.u.mulating years, he left me in a painful state of perturbation.
What course should I pursue?
Casting on a pair of slippers and a heavy cloak, I took a little path leading from my window through the garden to the pier where the boats were moored, and here I sat down to consider. Experience had taught me to be chary of entering matters that did not concern me, but it had not made me sufficiently callous to preserve my equanimity in face of a discovery so serious as this.
Miss Flipp had sinned the sin which, if discovered, put a great gulf "twixt her and Grandma Clay, Dawn, Carry, and myself, but which would not prevent her fellow-sinner from a.s.sociating with us on more than terms of equality. Should Grandma Clay become aware of what I knew, she certainly would bundle the girl out neck and crop, as she would be justified in doing. But the girl was in a ghastly predicament, and more sinned against than sinning, when one heard her grief and remembered the age of her betrayer, which should have made him the protector instead of the seducer of young women.
Times out of number the dramatic critics have termed me an artist of the first rank, and it is this temperament which furnishes the faculty of regarding all shades and consequences of life"s issues unabashed, and with the power to distil knowledge from good and bad and use it experimentally, rather than, as a judge, condemnatory.
I determined to keep the girl"s secret, and show myself sympathetically friendly otherwise, hoping she would extend me her confidence, so that in a humble way I might be privileged to stand between her and perdition.
It was a beautiful night, one of those when the moon relinquishes her court to the little stars. Vehicular traffic had ceased, and the only sound breaking the stillness of the great frostless, silver-spangled darkness was the panting of the steam-engines and the murmur of the river where half a mile down it took a slight fall over boulders. The electric lights of the town twinkled in the near distance, and farther east was a faint glow beyond the horizon, rightly or wrongly attributed to the lights of the metropolis. After a time it grew chilly, and I was glad to return to my bed. Dawn was separated from me by a thin wooden part.i.tion, and her strong healthy breathing was plainly discernible as she lay like an opening rose in maiden slumber, but there was now no sound from the room of the other poor girl--a rose devoured by the worm in its core.
Next morning, however, she appeared at breakfast, for Clay"s was not a house wherein one felt encouraged to coddle themselves without exceptional reason, and to all but a suspicious or hypercritical observer she seemed as usual.
Carry was going to church.
"I haven"t been able to go this three weeks because my dress wasn"t finished, and next Sunday will be my week in the kitchen, so if I don"t go now I won"t be able to show it for a fortnight," she announced.
"Well, I ain"t going," said grandma. "Gimme back your porridge, I forgot to dose it"--this to Andrew, on whose oatmeal she had omitted to put sugar and milk. "I"ve always found church is a good deal of bother when you have any important work. I contribute to the stipend; that ought to be enough for "em. If one spent all their time running to church they would have no money to give to it, an" I never yet see praying make a living for any one but the parsons."
Thus, Dawn being engaged in the kitchen, and her Uncle Jake keeping her company there while he perused the "Noonoon Advertiser," which descended to him on Sunday morning, Andrew having gone away with Jack Bray, and Miss Flipp being invisible, grandma and I were left together to enjoy a small fire in the dining-room, so I took this opportunity of inquiring how Jim Clay had managed to capture her. This sort of thing interested me; I liked life in the actuality where there was no counterfeit or make-believe to offend the sense of just proportions.
Not that I do not love books and pictures, but they have to be so very very good before they can in any way appease one, while the meanest life is absorbingly interesting, invested as it must ever be with the dignity of reality.
SIX.
GRANDMA CLAY"S LOVE-STORY.
"Oh, you don"t want to hear it now," she said in response to my request, but she gave a pleased laugh, betraying her willingness to tell it. "Sometimes I get running on about old times an" don"t know where to stop, an" Dawn says people only pretend to be interested in me out of politeness. I think I hinted to you that mine was a love match--the only sort of marriage there ought to be; any other sort, in my mind, is only fit for pigs."
"But sometimes love matches would be utterly absurd," I remarked.
"Well, then, people that are utterly absurd ought to be locked up in a asylum. Anybody that"s _fit_ to love wouldn"t love a fool, because there must be reason in everything. _Some_ people I know would love a monkey, but they ain"t fit to be counted with the people that keeps the world going. Well, I got as far as we kep" a accommodation house on the Sydney road,--fine road it was too, level and strong, and in many places flagged by the convicts, an" it stands good to this day.
It ain"t like these G.o.d-forsaken roads about here,"--grandma showed symptoms of convulsions,--"but _some_ people is only good for to be stuffed in a--a--asylum, and that"s where the Noonoon Munic.i.p.al Council ought to be, an" I say it though Jake there, me own brother, is one of them."
"Did Jim Clay--" I said, by way of keeping to the subject.
"I told you how I used to sneak out to buckle the horses on; an" w"en Jack Clay, a great chum of me father"s, used to be driving the "Up"
coach, me father, w"en he"d be slack of pa.s.sengers,--which wasn"t often, there being more life and people moving in the colony then,--an" w"en I"d be good, would put me up on the box an" take me on to the next stage, an" I"d come back with Jack Clay--that was me husband"s father.
"As it used to be in the night, it usedn"t to take from me time, an" I"d be up again next day as if I"d slep" forty hours. I wasn"t like the girls these days, if they go to a blessed ball an" are up a few hours they nearly have to stay in bed a week after it. In that way I come to be a great hand with the reins, an" me father took a deal of pride in me because all the young men up that way began to talk about me. Me father had the best team of horses on the road. He used to always drive them hisself. He was always a kind man to every one and everythink about him.
He drove three blood coachers abreast and two lighter ones, b.u.t.terfly and Fairy, in the lead. Weren"t them days! That great coach swingin"
round the curves and sidlings in the dark, I fancy I can feel the reins between me fingers now! And there was always a lot of jolly fellows, and usedn"t they to cheer me w"en the horses "u"d play up a bit. It was considered wonderful for me to manage such a team. I was only a slight slip of a girl, not near so fat as Dawn; she takes more after her grandfather. Me and me sisters had no lack of sweethearts, and we didn"t run after them neither. Some people make me that mad the way they run after people and lick their boots. W"en I"d be drivin" with me father, Jim Clay used to be with his, but he was some years older than me. He wanted to enter the drivin" business soon as opportunity came, an" him an" me were sort of rivals like. Many of the young swells used to bring me necklaces and brooches, but somehow when Jim Clay only brought me a pocket-handkerchief or a lump of ribbon I liked it better an" kep" it away in a little scented box an" I was supposed to be in love with a good many in them days. _Some people_ always knows other"s business better than they do theirselves. Me two sisters got married soon as they were eighteen--one to a thrivin" young squatter, an" the other to a rich old banker. Seein" how she got on is what makes me agen old men marryin"
young girls. It ain"t natural. A man might marry a girl a few years younger than hisself, but there must be reason in everythink. I was older than me sisters, an" people began to twit me an" say I"d be left on the shelf, but before this, w"en I was sixteen an" Jim Clay twenty, me father broke his leg and was put by. All his trouble was his horses; he fretted an" fretted that they"d be spoilt by a careless driver, an"
he had "em trained so they knew nothing but kindness. I was only too willin", and I up an" undertook to drive the coach right through. Old Jack Clay said he"d come with me a turn or two an" leave Jim to take his team, but just then he had some terrible new horses that no one could handle but hisself,--he was a wonderful hand with horses was Jim"s father,--so Jim was sent with me. My, wasn"t there a cheer when I first brought the mail in all on me own!" The old face flashed forth a radiance as she told her tale.
"Some of the old gents in the town of Gool-Gool come out an" shook hands with me, an" the ladies kissed me w"en I got down off of the box. There was a lawyer feller considered a great lady-killer in them days. He had a long beard shaved in the Dundreary,--Dawn always says he must have been a howler with a beard of that description; but times change, an" these clean-faced women-lookin" fellers the girls think is very smart now will look just as strange by-an"-by. However, he was runnin" strong with me, an" me mother considered him favourable,--him bein" a swell an" makin" his way. Soon as ever I started runnin" the coach he was took with a lot of business down the road, an" used to be nearly always a pa.s.senger."
"It appears that sweetheart tactics have not changed if the style in beards has," I remarked with a smile.
"No, an" they"ll never change, seein" a man is a man an" a girl a girl, no matter what fashions come an" go. I never can see why they make such a fuss and get so frightened because wimmen does a thing or two now they usedn"t to. Nothing short of a earthquake can make them not men an" wimmen, an" that"s the main thing. Well, to go back to me yarn, lots of other pa.s.sengers got took the same way, an" there was great bidding for the box seat: that was a perquisite belongin" to the driver, an" me father used to get a sovereign for it often. I used to dispose of it by a sort of tender, an" 5 was nothink for it; an" once in the gold-rush times, w"en money was laying around like water, a big miner, just to show off, gave me two tenners for it. They used to be wantin" to drive, but I took me father"s advice an" never let go the reins. Well, among all these fine chaps Jim Clay wasn"t noticed. He was always a terrible quiet feller. _I_ did all the jorin". He"d always say, "Come now, Martha, there"s reason in everythink," just w"en I"d be mad because I couldn"t see no reason in nothink. He was sittin" in the back of the coach, an" it was one wet night, an" only a few pa.s.sengers for a wonder, who was glad to take refuge inside. Only the lawyer feller was out on the box with me, an" makin" love heavier than it was rainin". I staved him off all I could, an" with him an"
the horses me hands was full. You never see the like of the roads in them days. It was only in later years the Sydney road, I was remarkin", was made good. In them times there was no made roads, and you can imagine the bogs! Why, sometimes you"d think the whole coach was going out of sight in "em, and chargin" round the stumps up to the axle was considered nothink. We had more pluck in them days! Well, that night the roads was that slippery the brake gave me all I could do, an" a new horse in the back had no more notion of hangin" in the breechin" than a cow; so I took no notice to the lawyer, only told him to hold his mag once or twice an" not be such a blitherer, but it was no use, he took a mean advantage off of me. You can imagine it was easy w"en I had five horses in a coach goin" round slippery sidlin"s pitch dark an" rainin". He put his arms "round me waist an" that raised me blood, an" I tell you things hummed a little. You"ll see Dawn in a tantrum one of these days, but she ain"t a patch on me w"en me dander was up in me young days." Looking at the fine old flashing eyes and the steel in her still, it was easy to see the truth of this.
"I jored him to take his hands off me or I"d pull up the coach an"
call the inside pa.s.sengers out to knock him off. He gamed me to do it, an" laughed an" squeezed me harder, an" the cowardly crawler actually made to kiss me; but I bit him on the nose and spat at him, an took the horses over a bad gutter round a fallen tree at the same time--an"
some people is afraid to let their blessed daughters out in a doll"s sulky with a tiddy little pony no bigger than a dog. If I had children like that I"d give "em all the chances goin" of breaking their neck, as they wouldn"t be worth savin" for anythink but sausage meat. Well, this cur still kep" on at his larks, so soon as I got the team on the level,--it was at Sapling Sidin", runnin" into Ti-tree creek; I could hear the creek gurgling above the sound of the rain, and the white froth on the water I can see it plain now,--I pulled sudden and said "Woa!" an" it was beautiful the way they"d stop dead. The pa.s.sengers all suspected there must be a accident, or the bushrangers must have bailed us up, for they was around in full blast in them days. Well, w"en I pulled up I got nervous an" ashamed, an" bust out crying, an"
the pa.s.sengers didn"t know what to make of it; but Jim Clay, it appears, had his eye an" ear c.o.c.ked all the time, an" before any one knew what had happened he had the lawyer feller welted off of the coach an" was goin" into him right an" left. That"s what give me a feelin" to Jim Clay all of a sudden, like I never had to no one else before or since. He was always such a terrible quiet feller that no one seemed to notice, an" he"d never made love to me before, but he got besides hisself then and shouts, "If ever you touch my girl again I"ll hammer you to smithereens." Then he got back on the box an" wiped me eyes on his handkerchief an" protected me. The men inside--mostly diggers makin" through to Victoria--w"en they got the hang of things bust out roarin" an" cheerin", an" said, "Leave the dawg on the road an" giv him a stummick ache." He tried to get up, but they pushed him off. He made great threats about the law, but miners is the gamest men alive an" loves fair play. It ain"t any use in talking law to them if it ain"t fair play, an" they give him to understand if he said anythink to me about it, or told any one an" didn"t take his lickin"
like a man, they"d break every bone in his body, an" they meant it too. Then they lerruped up the team and left him in the rain an" pitch dark miles from anywhere. That was the only time I give up the reins.
I couldn"t see for tears, so Jim drove; an" the men took me inside so he could attend to his work, they said, an" they cheered an" joked an"
asked w"en the weddin" was comin" off, an" said they"d all come an"
give us a rattlin" spree if we"d let "em know. I didn"t know what come over me; I never was much for whimperin", but I cried an" cried as if me heart was broke; an" it wasn"t, because every time I thought of the way Jim Clay stuck up for me it give me the best feelin" I ever knew, an" the men was all on my side, an" there was no harm done, an" I ought to have been smilin", but I could do nothink but sob, an" I always think now w"en I see girls cryin" on similar occasions to let "em alone. Girls can"t tell what"s up with them, and a cry is good, because they ain"t got the outlets that men has w"en they"re worked up. We came to the end stage, an" w"en we got off the men all shook hands, an" one or two kissed me, an" pulled me curls, an" slapped Jim Clay on the back, an" called him my sweetheart. W"en we delivered the mail Jim drove me to where I stayed, an" it was terrible embarra.s.sin"
w"en we was left alone with no extra people to take the down off of the affair. Jim was painful shy, but he faced it manful; an" he said it didn"t matter what they said about us bein" lovers, if it was disagreeable to me he"d never mention it nor think nothink about it, an" it would be forgot in a day or two, as he was a feller of no importance. That was the way he put it; he never was for puttin"
hisself up half enough. So crying again I just snuggled up to him an"
said I didn"t want to forget it, I wanted to remember it more an"
more, an" with that he took the hint an" kissed me; an" that"s how we got engaged without no proposing or nothink. I didn"t tell me mother, or there would have been a uproar, an" just then Jim Clay got a coach on the Cooma line, an" went right away. I told him I"d wait for him.
He was away two years, an" w"en he came home we found it was still the same with us. I was eighteen then, an" him twenty-two.
He went away to Queensland for two years more, an" in that time the sister next me was married, an" Jake there was comin" on; but he was never no good on the box--he pottered round and grew forage. Me mother began to suggest I ought to marry this one an" that one, but I waited for Jim Clay, an" w"en I was gettin" on for twenty-one, old Jack Clay reckoned he was gettin" too old for drivin" in all weathers, an" Jim come home an" took his place. A fine great feller he was, all tanned and brown, with his white teeth showin" among his black beard. He said he"d seen no girl that wasn"t as tame as ditch water after me, an" as for me, no one else could ever give me the feelin" he could, so we reckoned to be publicly engaged. It raised the most terrible bobberie, and me mother nearly took a fit. She had me laid out for a swell like me sisters, an" she said I must be mad to throw myself away like that.
Me brother-in-laws got ashamed of their wives" parents bein" in such a trade, an" as they had made a comfortable bit, they was goin" to give it best and rare a few sheep an" cattle, an" me sisters came down on me an" said I would disgrace them now they had rose theirselves up in the stirrups. Mother said she"d never give her consent, an" I told her very saucy I"d do without it. That"s why I know it don"t do to press Dawn over far; she must have the same fight in her, an" if drove in a corner there"d be no doing anythink with her. Things was very strained at home then; they thought to wean me of him, an" Jim Clay he hung back some, sayin" I"d better think twice before I threw myself away on him. That made me all the determinder. Jim was the only man for me. I never did have patience with them as can"t make up their mind. So I waited, an" the day I was twenty-one--me two sisters was twins and married, one at nineteen and the other at eighteen--I gathered up a few things, and I had two hundred in the bank, and I went to a point of the road, Fern-tree Gully it was named, an" w"en Jim come down the hill with his horses I waved--we had it all made up--an" he stopped till I clambered aboard, an" the box seat was reserved for me that day for nothink, and at the end of the stage we was married. I stayed with Jim"s mother for a week or two till we seen a opening, an" I kep" a accommodation while Jim drove a coach. Jim was always steady, an" we was both very popular, though I never pandered to no one, or put up with nothink that didn"t please me. Our story was a sort of romance in them days, an" money was changin" hands freely, an" we was all right.
The old folk died by-and-by; they didn"t live very long, and Jake there come to me. He wasn"t good enough for his sisters, an" somehow that"s made us always cling together. I ain"t blind, I can see he"s no miracle; he has his faults. Who hasn"t?" the old lady fiercely demanded. I a.s.sured her I knew none, and somewhat appeased by this she proceeded.
"Well, as I say, Jake there ain"t a wonder of smartness, but he"s the only one belonging to the old days left to me, an" you couldn"t understand what that means till you get to be my age. If I went to any one of your age, or old enough to be your mother, an" said, "Do you remember this or that," how far back could they go with me, do you think?"
"And then did you and Jim Clay--"
"Me an" Jim Clay was the happiest pair I think ever lived under a weddin" ring, an" it was a love match. He was quiet an" easy-goin"
like, an" I was the one to bustle, consequently there would be times w"en there would be a little controversy in the house; but Jim, he"d always put his arm round me an" kiss me, an" that"s the sort of thing a woman likes. She doesn"t like all the love-makin" to be over in the courtin" days, as if it was only a bit of fishin" to ketch her. Tho"
of course I"d tell him to leave me alone, that I couldn"t bear him maulin" me; but women has to be that way, it bein" rared into them to pretend they don"t like what they do. An" you see Jim always remembered how I had stuck to him straight, an" flung up swell matches for him, which must have showed I loved him. That"s what gets over a man, he never forgets that in a girl, an" always thinks more of her than the one with prawperty who marries a poor girl and is always suspicioning she took him for what he has. Of course, there are some crawlers of men ain"t to be pleased anyhow, but they can be left out of it. In givin" advice to young wives, I always tell "em w"en they get sick of their husbands, which they all do at times, especially at the start before you get seasoned to endure them, never to let him suspect it, for men, in spite of all their wonderful smartness, has a lot of the child in "em after all, an" can take a terrible lot of love. (When it comes to givin" any in return, of course that"s a horse of another colour.) But of course this is only dealin" with a man that"s worth anythink; as I said, there are some crawlers you could make a door-mat of yourself for, an" they"d dance on you an" think nothink of it; but as I said before, there must be reason in everythink to begin with. After Jim died I didn"t care for livin" in the old place, an" thought I"d like to get somewhere near the city.
Old people ought to have sense. They don"t want to crawl round like Methuselah at forty, but they know w"en they git up to seventy they ain"t goin" to live for ever, nor get any suppler in the joints, an"
ought to make some provision to get nearer churches an" doctors an"
all that"s necessary to old people; so I sold out an" bought this place down here."
"What family have you?"
"Only Dawn"s mother and Andrew"s, and two sons away in America. I was misfortunate with me daughters; they both died young, one as I told you, an" the other of typhoid; and so after bein" done with me own family I started with others. I used to think once I"d be content to live till I see me little ones grown up an" settled, an" then I wanted to live till I see Dawn able to take care of herself, an" now I suppose, if I didn"t take care, I"d want to be waitin" to see Dawn"s children around me. That"s the way; w"en we get along one step we want to go another, an" it"s good some matters ain"t left for us to decide.
But it"s all for Dawn and Andrew I bother now, only for them me work would be done; but it"s good to have them, they keep me from feelin"
like a old wore-out dress just hangin" up waitin" to be eat by the moths."
"Grandma!" said the voice of Dawn in the doorway, "I can"t get this beastly old stove to draw, and I"m blest if I can cook the dinner. I never saw such a place, one has to work under such terrible difficulties. It"s something fearful." Her voice was cross, and her facial expression bore further testimony to a state of extreme irritation.
Grandma rose to combat, she never meekly sat down under any circ.u.mstances, great or small.