"I trust that it will be found that I am right in my opinion of the sweet little girl," said Miss Mary, nodding her head and smiling. "I can always judge best of people by their voices, and I detected in her"s that true tone which can only proceed from a true heart."
"Well, well, we shall see, and I hope that my opinion will agree with your"s, Mary," observed Miss Pemberton.
Next morning Mistress Halliburt arrived with Maiden May. The little girl was scrupulously clean and neatly dressed, though her garments were befitting a fisherman"s daughter of plain and somewhat coa.r.s.e materials, except that she wore the unusual addition of shoes and stockings.
"I have brought our little maiden to you, ladies, as you desired, and if you will please to tell me how long you wish to keep her, I will send my Jacob up to fetch her away at the proper time," said the dame as she entered the hall into which the Miss Pemberton"s had come out to meet their young guest.
Miss Pemberton scanned her narrowly with her keen grey eyes before replying.
"Good morning, my dear," said Miss Mary, "come and shake hands."
May ran forward and placed her hand trustfully in that of the blind lady. "May I lead you about the garden as I did yesterday, Miss Mary,"
she asked, "and tell you of the birds, and b.u.t.terflies, and flowers I see? I shall like it so much." Miss Mary smiled and nodded her consent to the proposal. "Thank you, thank you," exclaimed Maiden May. "You need not send for the child till the evening, Mrs Halliburt," said Miss Jane, who had been watching May. "We shall not grow tired of her I think, and she, I hope, will be happy here."
The dame went away in the hopes that Maiden May had made a favourable impression on the ladies. "The elder is a little stiff and won"t win the child"s heart like the blind lady; but she is kind and may be thinks more than her sister," she said to herself. "She won"t spoil the child or set her up too much--that"s a good thing, or maybe she might not like coming back to us and putting up with our ways, and that would vex Adam sorely."
The little girl spent a very happy day with the kind ladies. She led Miss Mary as she had proposed about the garden, and was as entertaining to the blind lady as on the previous day, while she gained a considerable amount of information tending to expand her young mind.
Miss Jane commenced giving her the course of instruction she had contemplated, and Maiden May proved herself a willing and apt pupil.
When invited to come to dinner, Miss Jane was pleased to see her stand up with her hands before her, ready to repeat the grace which she herself uttered.
"Father always prays before and after meals though he does not say the same words; but I think G.o.d does not care about the words so much as what comes out of the heart. Oh, He is very very kind, I always thank Him for what He gives me. If He had not taken care of me, I should have been washed away in the sea with my poor ayah and all the people on board the ship."
"And you love G.o.d my little maiden," asked Miss Pemberton. "Oh, yes, how could I not when He has given us His dear Son, and with Him all things else which we can want to make us happy."
"The child has been well taught by the good fish wife," observed Miss Mary aside to her sister. "She has set us an example which we must be careful to follow."
"Yes, indeed," said Miss Jane, "we can better give her lady-like notions and habits than the good old woman could have done, but she has acted faithfully in imparting that knowledge which is above all price." It is true May did several things at table not in accordance with the customs of polite society, but Miss Jane refrained from saying anything for fear of intimidating the little girl.
"You will observe, May, how I behave at table, and you will try, I am sure, to do as I do," she said quietly.
May nodded, and after this so narrowly watched all her movements that Miss Jane began almost to wish that she had not made the remark. If Miss Jane helped herself to salt so did Maiden May, when she drank the little girl lifted her small tumbler to her lips, her knife and fork was held exactly in the same way she saw Miss Jane doing, or held daintily in her tiny hand while Susan took her plate for some more chicken.
"Our young friend will prove an apt scholar, I suspect," observed Miss Jane, to her sister. "I will tell you why I think so by and bye."
After dinner Miss Jane gave May her first writing lesson. She had never before held a pen in her hand, and her attempts to make pot-hooks and hangers, and even straight lines were not very successful.
"I think I could make some letters like those in a book, if you will let me, Miss Jane," she said, looking up after surveying her performance.
"I do not want you to make such as those at present; but I will write some which you can copy."
To her surprise the little girl imitated the letters, as she told Miss Mary, with a neatness and precision which was truly surprising.
"I like to do them much better than those ugly things," said Maiden May, and she was spared the task of copying the pot-hooks and hangers, and was allowed to learn writing more according to her own fancy.
She was so happy that she thought Jacob had arrived sooner than it was necessary to escort her home. She went, however, very willingly, tripping along by his side as she held his big hand, and describing with glee all she had seen and learned.
"You will soon be thinking little of our home I am afeared, May," said Jacob with a sigh.
May protested honestly she liked home best. Jacob felt that in a few years she would think differently. He scarcely dared to allow himself to contemplate the wide gap which would be placed between them.
Day after day May went up to Downside Cottage.
"We ought not to give you the trouble to come for your little girl, Mistress Halliburt," observed Miss Jane; "Susan can escort her if you do not think her old enough to go by herself."
"If she were my own daughter, or any other poor person"s child, I would have let her go and come back by herself long ago, but there is one living not far off, who, for reasons of his own which I cannot fathom, would, I am afraid, like to spirit her off," said the dame mysteriously.
"I have never lost sight of her except when she has been with you or my Jacob, besides that time when near Texford Mr Harry saved her from the wild bull, and I was so frightened then that I made up my mind never to let her go by herself again. If she had come to harm I should have almost died of it, and Adam would never have forgiven me."
"That was an accident not likely to occur again, and surely no one would injure the child," observed Miss Jane.
"It"s no fancy of mine if I think there is," said the dame. "He came once and tried to get her from us by fair means, but we would not give her up for all his promises. But when he finds out as he is sure to do before long, that she is with you, and coming backwards and forwards, he will be on the watch for her. He is not often here now since the war began, and Adam thinks he is about no good. He does come back sometimes for a day or two, and Satan will be helping him if he thinks of mischief."
"No doubt about that, Mrs Halliburt," observed Miss Jane. "But there is one more powerful than Satan who will protect the innocent."
"True, marm, but He will protect them through the means of their friends, and it"s our business, if we suspect evil to guard against it,"
said the dame.
"You are right. But who is the person of whom you speak who is likely to injure our little girl?"
"We must not speak ill of our neighbours, Miss Pemberton," answered the dame. "I know that; but if our neighbours do ill we may warn others against them. The man I mean is Miles Gaffin, the miller, as he calls himself. Now, I cannot say exactly what ill he does, except that I never heard of his doing any good or saying even a kind word, though he says many a bad one: but Adam, my husband, has a pretty strong notion of the sort of business he carries on, and that it"s not by his mill he makes his money. There are few about here who don"t stand in awe of him, and yet it would be hard for anyone to say exactly why. Only one thing is certain, that if he had a mind to do a thing he would do it, and set the law at defiance. To say the truth, I cannot tell you more against him than I have, but I am just afraid of him, and cannot help feeling as how he would work mischief to our Maiden May if he had the chance. But, Miss Pemberton, you will not repeat what I have said?"
"Certainly not, dame, certainly not," said Miss Mary, "but after all I cannot say that you have brought any serious accusation against the miller, nor can I understand why you should fancy he is likely to injure our Maiden May."
"That"s just it, Miss Mary, no one about here can say exactly what he does, or why they don"t like him. Still, no one does like him, and I feel a sort of tremble whenever I set my eyes on him, just as I should, begging your pardon, ladies, if I was to meet Satan himself, though I know well he cannot hurt me, for I trust in one who is able to keep evil at a distance."
"Though I still remain in the dark as to why we should be cautious of this man Gaffin, we will always keep a careful watch over Maiden May, and when you or your son cannot come for her we will send her home with some prudent person who will take care that neither he nor anyone else runs off with her," answered Miss Jane.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
AT PORTSMOUTH.
Portsmouth was a busy place in those stirring times of warfare, and as the coach, on the top of which Harry was seated, rattled and rumbled down the High Street, parties of sailors came rolling along, laughing and talking, several in their heedlessness almost running against the horses in spite of the shouts of the coachman, who had more than once to pull up to avoid driving over them. Now a pressgang pa.s.sed along, dragging a number of unwilling captives to serve on board the fleet, some resigned to their fate, others with frowning brows resenting the treatment they had received, and some glancing round, hoping against hope for an opportunity to escape. Officers in c.o.c.ked hats and glittering epaulets were walking quickly along, while post-chaises came driving in bringing Admiralty officials or Captains to join their ships.
Groups were collected in front of the different inns, and Jews were looking out for customers, certain of obtaining a ready sale for their trumpery wares. Ballad singers, especially those who could troll forth one of Dibdin"s new songs, were collecting a good harvest from eager listeners, and the apple-stall women were driving a thriving trade; as were the shopkeepers of high and low degree, judging by their smiling countenances, while the sound of revelry which came forth from the numerous inns showed that the landlords were rejoicing in the abundance of custom: in short, there was little chance of gra.s.s growing in Portsmouth streets in those days.
As Harry leaped down from his seat he found his hand grasped by another midshipman, a handsome looking youth, somewhat taller and older than himself, who had made his way through the crowd gathered round the coach.
"I have been on the look-out for you, Harry, with a message from the Captain," said the latter, as they cordially shook hands. "You are to come on board at once, for we are all ataunto and the frigate goes out of harbour this evening."
I have to order a few things at my tailor"s, and shall be quite ready, answered Harry.
"Well, Headland," he added, taking his friend"s arm after he had given his portmanteau into charge of a porter, "I was so glad to find that you had joined the Triton, and as the captain knows and esteems you, he is sure to give you a lift whenever he can. We shall see some more service together, and I hope that you, at all events, will mount a swab on your shoulder before the ship is paid off."
"Your uncle will get you promoted first, I should think," answered Headland, "though I hope some day my turn will come."
"You are my senior, and have done not a few things to merit it, and Captain Fancourt is the last man to favour a relation by pa.s.sing over another with greater merits."
"Come, come, you have learned to flatter while you were studying French on sh.o.r.e. We shall both do our duty, I have no doubt about that."