"And why didn"t you bring me this letter, Thomas? I should have been quite satisfied with it."
"Ah! My lady, it would have looked a lame sort of tale if I"d brought this letter and said as the bag and bracelet had been lost. It would have looked very much like a roundabout make-up sort of story, letter and all."
"I see what you mean, Thomas; but now you say that the bag and its contents have been found after all. Pray, tell me all about it."
"Well, it"s a long story, my lady; but, if you"ll have patience with me, I"ll make it as short as I can."
Bradly then proceeded to give Lady Morville the history of the manner in which the way had been opened up little by little, and the bag found at last. He then drew from his pocket a neatly-folded packet, and handed it to her ladyship, who, having opened it, found the bracelet.
"Yes," she said, "there can be no doubt about it--this is my missing bracelet; and that heartless creature Georgina has cruelly misled me, and, more cruelly still, ruined for a time the character of her fellow-- servant. But, poor, wretched, misguided creature, her triumphing was short indeed."
Before she could say more, Bradly placed in her hands Hollands" letter of explanation. She read it through slowly and carefully; and then, laying it down, leaned her head on her hand, while her tears fell fast.
"O Thomas," she said, after a while, "what a terrible trial your sister"s must have been! How can I ever make her amends for the cruel injustice I have been guilty of to her?"
"Nay, my lady," cried Thomas, touched by her deep emotion, "you"ve done Jane no wrong; you did as you was bound to do under the circ.u.mstances.
It"s all right now, and the Lord"s been bringing a wonderful deal of blessing out of this trouble. Jane"s been sharply chastened, but she"s stood the trial well, by G.o.d"s grace, and she"s come out of it purified like the fine gold. All she wants now is a kind message by me, a.s.suring her as you are now thoroughly satisfied she was innocent of what was laid to her charge and led to her leaving your service."
"She shall have it, Thomas, and not only by word of mouth, but in my own handwriting."
So saying, Lady Morville rang the bell, and having ordered some refreshment for Thomas Bradly, asked him to wait while she went to her own room and wrote Jane a letter. In half an hour she returned, and, having given the letter into Bradly"s charge, said,--
"I have been talking to Sir Lionel, and he is as pleased as I am at the thorough establishment of Jane"s character; and we both wish to show our sense of her value, and our conviction that she deserves our fullest confidence, and some amends too for my mistaken judgment, by offering her the post of matron to a cottage hospital we have been building, if she feels equal to undertaking it. She will have furnished rooms, board, and firing, and thirty pounds a year, and the duties will not require much physical exertion. I shall thus have her near me, and it will be my constant endeavour to show my sense of her worth, and my sorrow for her sufferings, by doing everything in my power to make her comfortable and happy."
"I"m sure Sir Lionel, and your ladyship more particularly, deserve our most grateful thanks for your goodness," said Thomas Bradly. "I don"t doubt as Jane"ll be better content to be earning her own living again, though she"s not been eating the bread of idleness, and I"m sure she couldn"t start again in a happier way to herself, so I"ll tell her your most kind offer; and may the Lord reward Sir Lionel and yourself for it."
No man in the United Kingdom journeyed homeward that day in a happier frame of mind than Thomas Bradly.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
FINALE, AT CRICKETTY HALL.
The letter and offer of Lady Morville poured a flood of sunshine into Jane"s heart, and helped to hasten her restoration to perfect health.
Most thankfully did she accept the situation offered her by her former mistress, which restored her to an honourable position, and enabled her to earn her own living in a way suited to her abilities, experience, and strength. She wrote at once her earnest thanks, and her grateful acceptance of the proposed post, and it was arranged that she should leave her home for Monksworthy in the beginning of August. But Thomas Bradly had set his heart on having a special temperance demonstration before her departure; so it was put before Mr Maltby, and a grand temperance tea-party and open-air meeting at Cricketty Hall was announced for the second Sat.u.r.day in July.
It soon got whispered about that something more than usual was to be expected in the speeches after the tea; and as every one knew that "Tommy Tracks" could get up a capital meeting, there was a good deal of attention drawn to the subject among the operatives and people generally in the town and neighbourhood. Bills of a large size had been duly posted, and small handbills left at every house; and a prayer-meeting had been held on the Wednesday evening previous, to seek a special blessing on the coming gathering, so that its promoters looked hopefully for a fine day, and were not disappointed.
Tea was to begin at 5 p.m., and the meeting as near half-past six as could be accomplished. Crossbourne human nature, like the human nature in most English manufacturing districts, had a great leaning to tea- parties and _fetes_, the latter name being sometimes preferred by the younger men as being more imposing. On the present occasion there was an abundance of interested and willing helpers, so that early in the Sat.u.r.day afternoon the road to Cricketty Hall was all alive with comers and goers, more or less busy with band and tongue; while carts of many shapes and sizes were conveying the eatables and drinkables up to the old ruin. The tea-tickets had sold well, and there was evidently much expectation in the minds of the public generally.
About half-past three o"clock the Temperance and Band of Hope members came flocking into the market place, Bradly being there to keep order, with Foster and Barnes as his helpers. The last of these had charge of a small basket, which he now and then glanced at with a grin of peculiar satisfaction. Then the band mustered in full force--a genuine temperance band, which never mingled its strains of harmony with streams of alcohol. And oh, what a n.o.ble drum it boasted of!--could musical ambition mount higher than to be permitted the privilege of belabouring thundering sounds out of its parchment ends? Such clearly was the view of two of the youngest members of the Band of Hope, who were gazing with fond and awed admiration at the big drum itself and its highly favoured bearer.
Shortly before four o"clock the vicar and his sister made their appearance; and then, in a little while, the procession, with appropriate banners flying, large and small, was on its way, Mr and Miss Maltby marching at the head, and Thomas Bradly bringing up the rear. In front of the procession was the band, which struck up a lively air as all stepped forward, the drum being particularly emphatic at every turning. Just at the outskirts of the town an open carriage joined the long line: there were in it Mrs Maltby and her daughter, who had returned from the seaside a few days before, and Jane Bradly, who was not yet equal to much exertion.
On, on they marched, bright and happy, conscious that their cause was a good one, and that their enjoyment would not be marred by any excesses.
The day was charming; there had been just enough rain during the preceding night to lay the dust and freshen up the vegetation, while the ardent rays of the sun were tempered from time to time by transient screens of semi-transparent clouds. As the procession neared Cricketty Hall, a cooling breeze from the west sprang up, just enough to ruffle out the banners, as they were carried proudly aloft, without distressing their bearers. Then the band, which had been silent for a while, put on the full power of lungs and muscle in one prolonged outburst of boisterous harmony; and just at five minutes to five the whole body of the walkers, old and young, was drawn up in due order in front of the ruined gateway.
It was just the right spot for such a summer"s gathering. Far away towards the south sloped the fields, disclosing on either hand many a snug farm-house amidst its ripening crops, and to the extreme east an undulating range of dim, blue, shadowy hills. Facing a spectator, as he stood with his back to the ruined gateway, was the town of Crossbourne, with its rougher features softened down by the two miles of distance; its tall chimneys giving forth lazy curls of smoke, as though pausing to rest after the ceaseless labours of a vigorous working week. The n.o.ble railway viaduct, spanning the wide valley, was rendered doubly picturesque by its nearest neighbours of houses being hidden on one side by a projecting hill; while the greater part of the old church was visible, seeming as though its weather-beaten tower were looking down half sternly, half kindly on the eager thousands, who were living, too many of them, wholly for a world whose glory and fashion were quickly pa.s.sing away. And now, till a bandsman should give a trumpet-signal for tea, all the holiday-makers, both old and young, dispersed themselves among the ruins, and through the wood, and over the rising ground in the rear.
Strange contrast! Those crumbling stones, that time-worn archway, those shattered windows, that rusty portcullis, all surely, though imperceptibly, corroding under the ceaseless waste of "calm decay," and sadly suggestive of wealth, and power, and beauty all buried in the dust of bygone days; and, on the other hand, the l.u.s.ty present, full of vigour, energy, and bustling life, to be seen in the gaily-decked visitors swarming amidst the ruins in every direction, and to be heard in the loud shouts and ringing laughter of children, and of men and women too, who had sprung back into their childhood"s reckless buoyancy for a brief hour or two.
And now the shrill blast of the trumpet called the revellers to tea.
This was set out in rough but picturesque form, in the centre of what had once been the great hall. New-planed planks, covered with unbleached calico, and supported on trestles, formed the tables; while the tea-making apparatus had been set up in what had originally been the kitchen, near to which there welled up a stream of the purest water.
When as many were seated as could be accommodated at once, the vicar was just about to give out the opening grace, when a young man decorated with an exceedingly yellow waistcoat, and as intensely blue a temperance bow, came hastily up to him, and whispered mysteriously in his ear. The smile with which this communication was received showed that there was nothing amiss. Having asked the a.s.sembled company to wait for a minute, Mr Maltby hastened out of the building, and quickly returned, leading in Dr and Mrs Prosser. A shout of surprised and hearty welcome greeted the entrance of the new guests.
"This is not to me," said the vicar, "an altogether unexpected pleasure; but I would not say anything about the doctor"s coming, as, though I had invited him, he left it very doubtful whether his engagements would allow him to be here, and I had pretty well given him up. But I am sure we are all rejoiced to see him among us on this happy occasion."--There could be no doubt of that, and the doctor and his wife being accommodated with places, grace was sung, and the tea began in earnest.
If you want thoroughly to appreciate a good tea, be in the habit of drinking nothing stronger, take a moderate walk on a bright, blowy summer"s afternoon, have a scramble with a lot of little children till all your breath is gone for the time being, and then sit down, if you are privileged to have the opportunity, in the open-air, to such a meal as was spread before the temperance holiday-makers of Crossbourne. Dr Prosser and his wife thought they had never enjoyed anything more in their lives, and looking round saw a sparkling happiness on every face, the result in part, at any rate, of partaking of that most gentle, innocent, and refreshing of stimulants--tea.
But even the most importunate tea-cup must rest at last; and so, while the first division, having been fully satisfied, gave way to a second, the band struck up a torrent of music, and in due time sat down themselves with those whom they had helped to cheer with their enlivening strains. And now the last cup of tea had been emptied, and the most persevering of the Band of Hope boys had reluctantly retired, leaving an unfinished plate of m.u.f.fins master of the field.
The fragments were gathered up, the tables and trestles removed, and the trumpeter, invigorated by his inspiriting meal, poured forth a blast loud and long to recall the stragglers. It was close upon half-past six, and all began now to a.s.semble, pouring in from all quarters into the central open s.p.a.ce. A few chairs had been brought, and were appropriated to the ladies and speakers. Two large cake-baskets turned on their ends, with two stout planks across them, served for a table, which was placed in front of a huge fragment of a b.u.t.tress, beneath which irregular ma.s.ses of fallen moss-covered stone made very fairly comfortable seats for some of the more special friends and supporters; while the audience generally were seated all up and down within hearing distance, forming a most picturesque congregation, as they sat, or stood, or lay down, as proved most convenient. By the time the vicar was ready to commence the proceedings, the s.p.a.ce all round him was rapidly filling with men and women from the town, who had not been at the tea, but were drawn by interest or curiosity to be present at the after-meeting.
All were very silent as the vicar, after the usual preliminary hymn and prayer, rose, and began as follows:--
"I make no apology, dear friends, for being about to occupy a portion of your time by addressing you this evening; but I shall not detain you long. Still, what I have to say is of deep importance to you all, and, therefore, I must ask your earnest and patient attention.
"Without further preface, then, I do earnestly desire to impress upon you all this truth, that there can be no real peace, no solid happiness in this world, unless we are _consciously_ seeking to live to the glory of G.o.d. I look around me, and see with alarm, in these days of increased knowledge and intelligence, how entirely many thoughtful people are living without G.o.d in the world; I mean, without having any _conscious_ communion or connection with him.
"This is so very dangerous a feature of our times, because there is at the same time a very widely spread respect for religion. Coa.r.s.e abuse and reviling of religion and religious people are frowned upon now by all persons of education and refinement as vulgar and illiberal. But yet, with this respect for religion and its followers, there seems to be growing up a conviction or impression that people can be good, and happy, and profitable in their day without any religion at all. If you are religious, well and good, no one should meddle with you; and if you are consistent, all should respect you, and it would be exceedingly bad taste to quarrel with you for your opinions. But then, if you are _not_ religious, well and good too, no one should meddle with you, and it would be very uncharitable, and in very bad taste, to quarrel with you about your creed or views. Religion, in fact, is becoming with many a matter of pure indifference--a matter of taste; you may do well _with_ it, and you may do as well, or nearly as well, _without_ it.
"Hence it has come to pa.s.s that there are to be found men of science and learning who never trouble themselves about religion at all. They would certainly never care to abuse it; but then they plainly think that science, and the world, and society can get on perfectly well without it.
"And what is worse still, even professedly religious people are being carried down this stream of opinion, without being fully or perhaps at all conscious whither it has been leading them. Thus, even ladies professing G.o.dliness are being entangled by the intellectual snares of the day, and are so pursuing the shadows of this world--its honours, its prizes, its mind-worship--as to become by degrees almost wholly separated from G.o.d and thoughts of him. And thus, while they do not outwardly neglect the ordinances of religion, they have ceased to meet G.o.d in them; they hear in them a pleasing sound rather than a living voice, and find themselves offering to G.o.d, when they join in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, rather a mere musical accompaniment than the intelligent melody of a heart that believes and loves.
"Oh, don"t be deceived, dear friends, any of you. You who go to the mills, or are engaged in any other manual labour, don"t think, because you may be spending your evenings and leisure in mechanics" inst.i.tutes, or in attending science cla.s.ses, or in working up scientific subjects, that in these pursuits you can find real peace, without religion and without G.o.d; that religion is no matter of necessity, but only a comfortable and creditable superfluity; or that, at any rate, by using outward attendance on religious ordinances, as a sort of make-weight, you can be solidly happy while your hearts are far from G.o.d. It cannot be. You are not thus disgracing our common humanity like the drunkards and profligates, but, then, you are not fulfilling the true law of your being; you cannot be doing so while you are travelling all your lives in a circle which keeps you ever on the outside of the influence of the love and of the grace of that G.o.d who made you and that Saviour who redeemed you.
"Don"t mistake me, dear friends; I rejoice with all my heart to see progress of every kind amongst you, so long as it is real. Some people say that we ministers of the gospel are foes to education and to intellectual progress. Nay, it is not so. I will tell you what we are foes to, and unflinching foes; we are foes to all that is false and hollow, and we a.s.sert that nothing can be sound and true which puts the G.o.d who made us out of his place, and thrusts him down from his rightful throne in our hearts. Study science by all means, cultivate your intellects, elevate your tastes, refine your pursuits. But then, remember that you are, after all, not your own in any of these things, for Christ has purchased you for himself. Begin with him, and he will give you peace, and an abiding blessing upon _all_ that you do; but never suppose that you can be really living as you ought to live,--that is, as G.o.d made you and meant you to live,--while you are feeding your intellects and starving your souls.
"And now I will only add how happy I am to meet you all here. We are about soon to part with one who is well-known to many of you,--Jane Bradly. It is partly in connection with the Lord"s wonderful dealings with her, as you will hear shortly from her brother Thomas, that we have set on foot this happy gathering. It is one cheering sign of real progress in Crossbourne that our Temperance Society and Band of Hope are so nourishing. You know the rock on which we have founded them; I mean, on love to the Lord Jesus Christ. May these societies long flourish! I trust we shall gain some members to-night; for Thomas, I know, has got the pledge-book with him. And now I have much pleasure in calling on William Foster to address you."
When Foster rose to speak there was a deep hush, a silence that might be felt.
"If I had come to a gathering like this a year ago," began the speaker, "it would have been as a mocker or a spy. But how different are things with me to-day! I am now one of yourselves, a total abstainer upon principle, an unfeigned believer in the Bible, and a loyal though very unworthy disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have good cause to remember these old ruins, as you all know; but you do not many of you know how I used to spend Sabbath after Sabbath here in gambling; and yet the good Lord bore with me. And it is not long since that he gave me a wonderful deliverance, not far from the spot where I now stand. But I am not going to refer any more to that, except to say, let by-gones be by-gones. I bear no ill-will to those who have shown themselves my enemies. What I want to do now, for the few minutes that I shall stand here, is just to give you my experience about the Bible.
"When I was professedly an unbeliever, I thought I knew a great deal about the Bible, and I used to lay down the law, and talk very big about this inconsistency and that inconsistency in the Scriptures, and I just read those books which supplied me with weapons of attack. But I was in utter ignorance of what the Bible really was; and had I read it from beginning to end a thousand times over,--which I never did, nor even once,--it would have been all the same, for I should not have read it in a candid spirit--I should not have wanted to know what it had to tell me.
"It"s just perfectly natural. I remember that two of our men went up to London some time ago, and they strolled together into the Kensington Museum. When they came back, we asked them what they had seen there, and what they liked best. One of them had seen a great number of rich and curiously inlaid cabinets, but he could call to mind nothing else, though he had spent hours in the place, and had been all over it upstairs and downstairs. As for the other man, he couldn"t for the life of him remember anything, but he could tell you all about the dinner they had together at a chop-house afterwards,--what meat, what vegetables, what liquor they had, and how much it cost to a penny. You see it was what their mind was set on that really engrossed their attention.
"And so it is in going through the Bible: you"ll not get a word of instruction from it, if you go in at Genesis and come out at Revelation, if you go in with an unteachable mind. G.o.d would have us ask him humbly, but not dictate to him. Or you may notice in the Bible just such things as you want to notice, and not see anything else, though it"s as plain as daylight. So it was with me, and so it has been and will be with thousands of sceptics. I just looked into a Bible now and then to find occasion for cavilling and scoffing, and I found what I wanted. But I missed all the love, and the mercy, and the promises, and the holy counsel, and never so much as knew they were there, though my eyes pa.s.sed over them continually.
"But now the Bible is a new book to me altogether. I can truly say, in its own words, "The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me than thousands of gold and silver." The more I read, the more I wonder: often and often, when I come to some marvellous pa.s.sage, I am constrained to stop and bow my head in astonishment and adoration. There"s nothing like studying the book itself--asking G.o.d, of course, to give one the guidance of his Holy Spirit. The more I read, the more I find verses that just as exactly fit into my own experience as if they had been penned especially in reference to the history, circ.u.mstances, character, and wants of William Foster; and no doubt they were, for that"s a most wonderful thing about the Bible, and shows that it is G.o.d"s book,--I mean that it as much suits each individual man"s case as if it had been originally written for that man only.
"I remember there was an American in our country some years ago, who said he would open any lock you could bring him; and so I believe he did, by making ingenious picks that would get into the most complicated locks. But that"s nothing to the Bible; for without any force or difficulty it comes as one universal key that will unlock every heart, and open up its most secret thoughts and feelings, and then throw light and peace into the darkest corners. This is what the Bible has been and is to me; it shows me daily more of myself, and more of Christ and his love, and more of a heaven begun on earth.
"Now I would just advise and urge you all to take up this blessed book in a humble and teachable spirit, and you"ll find it to be to you what G.o.d in his mercy has made it to me. And I"ll tell you how to deal with difficulties, and hard places, and so on. Now, mind, I"m only just giving you a leaf out of my own experience. I"m not setting myself up as a teacher. I"m not saying a word to disparage G.o.d"s ministers, for they are specially appointed by him to study, and unfold, and expound the Word; and I can only say with sincere thankfulness that I come home with new light on the Bible from every sermon which I hear from our earnest and deeply taught clergyman. But, as regards our own private reading, just let me say, if you come to a hard place, read it again; and if you don"t understand it then, read it again; and if you don"t understand it then, why, read somewhere else in the book, and you"ll find that the more you study the Word throughout, the more one pa.s.sage will throw light upon another, the more your mind and heart will expand and embrace and understand truths which were wholly hidden or only imperfectly seen before. This, at any rate, is my own happy experience, and my dear wife"s also. May G.o.d make it the experience of every one of you."