Looking down upon this friendly cheerful throng sat David Grieve, high up in the balcony. It had been his wont of late to frequent these cheap concerts, where as a rule, owing to the greater musical sensitiveness of the English North as compared with the South, the music is singularly good. During the past winter, indeed, music might almost be said to have become part of his life. He had no true musical gift, but in the paralysis of many of his natural modes of expression which had overtaken him music supplied a need.
In it he at least, and at this moment, found a voice and an emotion not too personal or poignant. He lost himself in it, and was soothed.
Towards the beginning of the last part he suddenly with a start recognised Lucy Purcell in the body of the hall. She was sitting with friends whom he did not know, staring straight before her. He bent forward and looked at her carefully. In a minute or two he decided that she was looking tired, cross, and unhappy, and that she was not attending to the music at all.
So at last her father had let her come home. As to her looks, to be daughter to Purcell was to be sure of disagreeable living; and perhaps her future stepmother had been helping Purcell to annoy her.
Poor little thing! David felt a strong wish to speak to her after the performance. Meanwhile he tried to attract her attention, but in vain. It seemed to him that she looked right along the bench on which he sat; but there was no flash in her face; it remained as tired and frowning as before.
He ran downstairs before the end of the last chorus, and placed himself near the door by which he felt sure she would come out. He was just in time. She and her party also came out early before the rush. There was a sudden crowd of people in the doorway, and then he heard a little cry. Lucy stood before him, flushed, pulling at her glove, and saying something incoherent. But before he could understand she had turned back to the two women who accompanied her and spoken to them quickly; the elder replied, with a sour look at David; the younger laughed behind her m.u.f.f. Lucy turned away wilfully, and at that instant the crowd from within, surging outwards, swept them away from her, and she and David found themselves together.
"Come down those steps there to the right," she said peremptorily.
"They are going the other way."
By this time David himself was red. She hurried him into the street, however, and then he saw that she was breathing hard, and that her hands were clasped together as though she were trying to restrain herself.
"Oh, I am so unhappy!" she burst out, "so unhappy! And it was all, you know, to begin with, because of you, Mr. Grieve! But oh! I forgot you"d been ill--you look so different!"
She paused suddenly, while over her face there pa.s.sed an expression half startled, half shrinking, as of one who speaks familiarly, as he supposes, to an old friend and finds a stranger. She could not take her eyes off him. What was this new dignity, this indefinable change of manner?
"I am not different," he said hastily, "not in the least. So your father has never forgiven you the kindness you did me? I don"t know what to say, Miss Lucy. I"m both sorry and ashamed."
"Forgiven it!--no, nor ever will," she said shortly, walking on, and forgetting everything but her woes. "Oh, do listen! Come up Oxford Street. I must tell some one, or I shall die! I must see Dora. Father"s forbidden me to go, and I haven"t had a moment to myself yet. She hasn"t written to me since she left the Parlour, and no one"ll tell me where she is. And that _odious_ woman!
Oh, she is an abominable wretch! She wants to claim all my things--all the bits of things that were mother"s, and I have always counted mine. She won"t let me take any of them away. And she"s stolen a necklace of mine--yes, Mr. Grieve, _stolen_ it.
I don"t care _that_ about it--not in itself; but to have your things taken out of your drawers without "_With_ your leave"
or "_By_ your leave"!--She"s made father worse than ever. I thought he had found her out, but he is actually going to marry her in July, and they won"t let me live at home unless I make a solemn promise to "perform my religious duties" and behave properly to the chapel people. And I never will, not if I starve for it--nasty, canting, crawling, backbiting things! Then father says I can live away, and he"ll make me an allowance. And what do you think he"ll allow me?"
She faced round upon him with curving lip and eyes aflame. David averred truly that he could not guess.
"Thirty--pounds--a--year!" she said with vicious emphasis.
"There--would you believe it? If you put a dirty little chit of a nurse-girl on board wages, it would come to more than that. And he just bought three houses in Millgate, and as rich as anything! Oh, it"s shameful, I call it, _shameful!_"
She put her handkerchief to her eyes. Then she quickly withdrew it again and turned to him, remembering how his first aspect had surprised her. In the glare of some shops they were pa.s.sing David could see her perfectly, and she him. Certainly, in the year which had elapsed since they had met she had ripened, or rather softened, into a prettier girl. Whether it was the milder Southern climate in which she had been living, or the result of physical weakness left by her attack of illness in the preceding spring, at any rate her bloom was more delicate, the lines of her small, p.r.o.nounced face more finished and melting. As for her, now that she had paused a moment in her flow of complaint, she was busy puzzling out the change in him. David became vaguely conscious of it, and tried to set her off again.
"But you"d rather live away," he said, "when they treat you like that? You"d rather be independent, I should think? I would!"
"Oh, catch me living with that woman!" she cried pa.s.sionately."
She"s no better than a thief, a common thief. I don"t care who hears me. And _made up!_ Oh, its shocking! It seems to me there"s nothing I can talk about at home now--whether it"s getting old--or teeth--or hair--I"m always supposed to be "pa.s.sing remarks." And I wouldn"t mind if it was my Hastings cousins I had to live with. But they can"t have me any more, and now I"m at Wakely with the Astons."
"The Aston"s?" David echoed. Like most people of small training and intelligence, Lucy instinctively supposed that whatever was familiar to her was familiar to other people.
"Oh, don"t you know? It"s father"s sister who married a mill-overseer at Wakely. And they"re very kind to me. Only they"re _dreadfully_ pious too--not like father--I don"t mean that.
And, you see--it"s Robert!"
"Who"s Robert?" asked David amused by her blush, and admiring the trim lightness of her figure and walk.
"Robert"s the eldest son. He"s a reedmaker. He"s got enough to marry on--at least he thinks so."
"And he wants to marry you?"
She nodded. Then she looked at him, laughing, her naturally bright eyes sparkling through the tears still wet in them.
"Father"s a Baptist, you know--that"s bad enough--but Robert"s a _Particular_ Baptist. I asked him what it meant once when he was pestering me to marry him. "Well, you see," he said, "a man must _show_ that his heart"s changed--we don"t take in everybody like--we want to be _sure_ they"re real _converted_."
I don"t believe it does mean that--father says it doesn"t.
Anyway I asked him whether if I married him he"d want me to be a Particular Baptist too. And he said, very slow and solemn, that of course he should look for religious fellowship in his wife, but that he didn"t want to hurry me. I laughed till I cried at the thought of _me_ going to that hideous chapel of his, dressed like his married sister. But sometimes, I declare, I think he"ll make me do what he wants--he"s got a way with him. He sticks to a thing as tight as wax, and I don"t care what becomes of me sometimes."
She pouted despondently, but her quick eye stole to her companion"s face.
"Oh, no, you won"t marry Robert, Miss Lucy," said David cheerfully.
"You"ve had a will of your own ever since I"ve known you. But what are you at home for now?"
"Why, I told you--to pack up my things. But I can"t find half of them; she--she"s walked off with them. Oh, I"m going off again as soon as possible--I can"t stand it. But I must see Dora. Father says I shan"t visit Papists. But I"ll watch my chance. I"ll get there to-morrow--see if I don"t! Tell me what she"s doing, Mr.
Grieve."
David told her all he knew. Lucy"s comments were very characteristic. She was equally hard on Daddy"s ill-behaviour and Dora"s religion, with a little self-satisfied hardness that would have provoked David but for its childish _naivete_. Many of the things that she said of Dora, however, showed real feeling, real affection.
"She _is_ good," she wound up at last with a long sigh.
"Yes, she"s the best woman I ever saw," said David slowly; "she"s beautiful, she"s a saint."
Lucy looked up quickly--her dismayed eyes fastened on him--then they fell again, and her expression became suddenly piteous and humble.
"You"re still getting on well, aren"t you?" she said timidly. "You were glad not to be turned out, weren"t you?"
Somehow, for the life of her, she could not at that moment help reminding him of her claim upon him. He admitted it very readily, told her broadly how he was doing and what new connections he was making. It was pleasant to tell her, pleasant to speak to this changing rose-leaf face with its eager curiosity and attention.
"And you were ill when you were abroad?--so Dora said. Father, of course, made unkind remarks--you may be sure of that!--_He_"ll set stories about when he doesn"t like anybody. I didn"t believe a word."
"It don"t matter," said David hotly, but he flushed. His desire to wring Purcell"s neck was getting inconveniently strong.
"No, not a bit," she declared. Then she suddenly broke into laughter. "Oh, Mr. Grieve, how many a.s.sistants do you think father"s had since you left?"
And she chatted on about these individuals, describing a series of dolts, their achievements and personalities, with a great deal of girlish fun. Her companion enjoyed her little humours and egotisms, enjoyed the walk and her companionship. After the strain of the day, a day spent either in the toil of a developing business or under a difficult pressure of thought, this light girl"s voice brought a gay, relaxed note into life. The spring was in the air, and his youth stirred again in that cavern where grief had buried it.
"Oh, _dear_, I must go home," she said at last regretfully, startled by a striking clock. "Father"ll be just mad. Of course, he"ll hear all about my meeting you--I don"t care. I"m not going to be parted from all my friends to please him, particularly now he"s turned me out for good--from Dora and--"
"From you," she would have said, but she became suddenly conscious and her voice failed.
"No, indeed! And your friends won"t forget you, Miss Lucy. You"ll go and see Dora to-morrow?"
"Yes, if I can give them the slip at home."
There was a pause, and then he said--
"And will you allow me to visit you at Wakely some Sunday? I know those moors well."
She reddened all over with delight. There was something in the little stiffness of the request which gave it importance.
"I wish you would; it"s not far," she stammered. "Aunt Miriam would be glad to see you."