by Ellen Wood
“I shall go up to dress,” she said, locking her desk.
“There’s plenty of time,” returned Maria. “I wonder where Sir George and Lady Godolphin are? They did not intend to stay out so late.”
“Oh, when those ancient codgers get together, talking of their past times and doings, they take no more heed how time goes than we do at a ball,” carelessly spoke Charlotte.
Maria laughed. “Lucky for you, Charlotte, that Lady Godolphin is not within hearing. ‘Ancient codgers!’”
Charlotte left the room, carrying her letters with her. Maria sat on, some time longer — and then it occurred to her to look at her watch. A quarter to five.
A quarter to five! Had she been asleep? No, only dreaming. She started up, threw wide the door, and was passing swiftly into the dark ante-chamber. The house had not been lighted, and the only light came from the fire behind Maria — revealing her clearly enough, but rendering that ante-chamber particularly dark. Little wonder, then, that she gave a scream when she found herself caught in some one’s arms, against whom she had nearly run.
“Is it you, Sir George? I beg your pardon.”
Not Sir George. Sir George would not have held her to him with that impassioned fervour. Sir George would not have taken those fond kisses from her lips. It was another George, just come in from his long day’s journey. He pressed his face, cold from the fresh night air, upon her warm one. “My dearest! I knew you would be the first to welcome me!”
Dark enough around, it was still; but a light as of some sunny Eden, illumined the heart of Maria Hastings. The shock of joy was indeed great. Every vein was throbbing, every pulse tingling, and George Godolphin, had he never before been sure that her deep and entire love was his, must have known it then.
A servant was heard approaching with lights. George Godolphin turned to the fire, and Maria turned and stood near him.
“Did any of you expect me?” he inquired.
“Oh no!” impulsively answered Maria. “I can scarcely now believe that it is you in reality.”
He looked at her and laughed; his gay laugh: as much as to say that he had given her a tolerable proof of his reality. She stood, in her pretty, timid manner, before the fire, her eyelids drooping, and the flame lighting up her fair face.
“Is my father at home?” he asked, taking off his overcoat. He had walked from the railway station, a mile or two distant.
“He went out with Lady Godolphin this morning to pay a visit to some old friends. I thought they would have returned long before this.”
“Is he getting strong, Maria?”
Maria thought of what Charlotte Pain had said, and hesitated. “He appears to me to be better than when we left Prior’s Ash. But he is far from strong.”
The servant finished lighting the chandelier and retired. George Godolphin watched the door close, and then drew Maria before him, gazing down at her.
“Let me look at you, my darling! Are you glad to see me?”
Glad to see him! The tears nearly welled up with the intensity of her emotion. “I had begun to think you were not coming at all,” she said, in a low tone. “Charlotte Pain received a letter from Mrs. Verrall this morning, in which you were mentioned as — —”
Charlotte herself interrupted the conclusion of the sentence. She came in, dressed for dinner. George turned to greet her, his manner warm; his hands outstretched.
“Margery said Mr. George was here! I did not believe her!” cried Charlotte, resigning her hands to him. “Did you come on the telegraph-wires?”
“They would not have brought me quickly enough to your presence,” cried Mr. George.
Charlotte laughed gaily. “I was just prophesying you would not come at all. Mrs. Verrall did not inform me that you were about to start, amidst her other items of intelligence. Besides, I know that you are rather addicted to forgetting your promises.”
“What items had Mrs. Verrall to urge against me?” demanded George.
“I forget them now. Nothing I believe. Is Prior’s Ash alive still?”
“It was, when I left it.”
“And the fever, George?” inquired Maria.
“Fever? Oh, I don’t know much about it.”
“As if fevers were in his way!” ironically cried Charlotte Pain. “He troubles himself no more about fevers than does Lady Godolphin.”
“Than Lady Godolphin would like to do, I suppose you mean, Miss Pain?” he rejoined.
Maria was looking at him wistfully — almost reproachfully. He saw it, and turned to her with a smile. “Has it in truth attacked the cottages down by the Pollards?” she asked.
George nodded. He was not so ignorant as he appeared to be. “Poor Bond had it first; and now two of his children are attacked. I understand Mr. Hastings declares it is a judgment upon the town, for not looking better after the hovels and the drainage.”
“Has Bond recovered?” asked Maria.
“No.”
“Not recovered?” she exclaimed quickly.
“He is dead, Maria.”
She clasped her hands, shocked at the news. “Dead. Leaving that large, helpless family! And Sarah Anne Grame? — is she out of danger?”
“From the violence of the fever. But she is in so dangerously weak a state from its effects, that it will be next to a miracle if she recovers. Lady Sarah is half out of her mind. She had prayers put up for Sarah Anne on Sunday. Pretty Ethel has escaped! to the delight of Prior’s Ash in general, and of Thomas in particular. What carriage is that?” suddenly broke off George, as the sound of one approaching was heard.
It proved to be Sir George’s, bringing home himself and my lady. George hastened to meet them as they entered the hall, his handsome face glowing, his bright chestnut hair taking a golden tinge in the lamp-light, his hands held out. “My dear father!”
The old knight, with a cry of glad surprise, caught the hands, and pressed them to his heart. My lady advanced with her welcome. She bent her tinted cheek forwards, by way of greeting, and Mr. George touched it with his delicate lips — lightly, as became its softened bloom.
“So you have found your way to us, George! I expected you would have done so before.”
“Did you, madam?”
“Did we?” cried the knight, taking up the word. “Listen to that vain George! He pretends to ignore the fact that there was an attraction here. Had a certain young lady remained at Prior’s Ash, I expect you would not have given us much of your company at Broomhead. If Miss Charlotte — —”
“Did you call me, Sir George?” interrupted Charlotte, tripping forward from the back of the hall, where she and Maria stood, out of sight, but within hearing.
“No, my dear, I did not call you,” replied Sir George Godolphin.
CHAPTER VIII. A SNAKE IN THE GRASS.
Seated on a camp-stool, amidst a lovely bit of woodland scenery, was Maria Hastings. The day, beautifully bright, was warm as one in September; delightful for the pleasure-seekers at Broomhead, but bad for the fever at Prior’s Ash. Maria was putting some finishing touches to a sketch — she had taken many since she came — and Mr. George Godolphin and Charlotte Pain watched her as they pleased, or took sauntering strolls to a distance.
Lady Godolphin was as fond of Broomhead as the Godolphins were of Ashlydyat. Certainly Broomhead was the more attractive home of the two. A fine house of exquisite taste; with modern rooms and modern embellishments; and when she invited the two young ladies to accompany her on a visit to it, she was actuated as much by a sense of exultation at exhibiting the place to them, as by a desire for their companionship, though she did like and desire the companionship. Lady Godolphin, who never read, and never worked; in short, never did anything; was obliged to have friends with her to dissipate her ennui and cheat time. She liked young ladies best; for they did not interfere with her own will, and were rarely exacting visitors.
But she required less of this companionship at Broomhead. There she knew every one, and every one knew her. She was sufficie
ntly familiar with the smallest and poorest cottage to take an interest in its ill-doings and its short-comings; at least, as much interest as it was possible to the nature of Lady Godolphin to take. Old acquaintances dropped in without ceremony and remained the morning with her, gossiping of times past and present: or she dropped into their houses, and remained with them. Of gaiety there was none: Sir George’s state of health forbade it: and in this quiet social intercourse — which Charlotte Pain held in especial contempt — the young visitors were not wanted. Altogether they were much at liberty, and went roaming where they would, under the protection of Mr. George Godolphin.
He had now been a week at Broomhead: flirting with Charlotte, giving stolen minutes to Maria. A looker-on might have decided that Miss Pain was the gentleman’s chief attraction: for, in public, his attentions were principally given to her. She may be pardoned for estimating them at more than they were worth: but she could very well have welcomed any friendly wind that would have wafted away Maria, and have kept her away. They knew, those two girls, that their mutual intercourse was of a hollow nature; their paraded friendship, their politeness, rotten at the core. Each was jealous of the other; and the one subject which filled their minds was never alluded to in conversation. Either might have affirmed to the other, “You are aware that I watch you and George: my jealous eyes are upon your every movement, my jealous ears are ever open.” But these avowals are not made in social life, and Charlotte and Maria observed studied courtesy, making believe to be mutually unconscious: knowing all the time that the consciousness existed in a remarkable degree. It was an artificial state of things.
“How dark you are putting in those trees!” exclaimed Charlotte Pain.
Maria paused, pencil in hand; glanced at the trees opposite, and at the trees on paper. “Not too dark,” she said. “The grove is a heavy one.”
“What’s that queer-looking thing in the corner? It is like a half-moon, coming down to pay us a visit.”
Maria held out her sketch at arm’s distance, laughing merrily. “You do not understand perspective, Charlotte. Look at it now.”
“Not I,” said Charlotte. “I understand nothing of the work. They tried to teach me when I was a child, but I never could make a straight line without the ruler. After all, where’s the use of it? The best-made sketch cannot rival its model — nature.”
“But sketches serve to remind us of familiar places, when we are beyond their reach,” was Maria’s answer. “I love drawing.”
“Maria draws well,” observed George Godolphin, from his swinging perch on the branch of a neighbouring tree.
She looked up at him, almost gratefully. “This will be one of the best sketches I have taken here,” she said. “It is so thoroughly picturesque: and that farm-house, under the hill, gives life to the picture.”
Charlotte Pain cast her eyes upon the house in the distance over the green field, to which she had not before vouchsafed a glance. A shade of contempt crossed her face.
“Call that a farm-house! I should say it was a tumble-down old cottage.”
“It is large for a cottage; and has a barn and a shed round it,” returned Maria. “I conclude that it was a farm some time.”
“It is not inhabited,” said Charlotte.
“Oh, yes it is. There is a woman standing at the door. I have put her into my sketch.”
“And her pipe also?” cried George.
“Her pipe!”
George took his own cigar from his mouth, as he answered. “She is smoking, that woman. A short pipe.”
Maria shaded her eyes with her hand, and gazed attentively. “I — really — do — think — she — is!” she exclaimed slowly. “What a strange thing!”
“A Welshwoman married to a Scotch husband, possibly,” suggested Charlotte. “The Welsh smoke.”
“I’ll make her a Welshwoman,” said Maria gaily, “with a man’s coat, and a man’s hat. But, there’s — there’s another now. George, it is Margery!”
“Yes,” said Mr. George composedly. “I saw her go in half an hour ago. How smart she is! She must be paying morning calls.”
They laughed at this, and watched Margery. A staid woman of middle age, who had been maid to the late Mrs. Godolphin. Margery dressed plainly, but she certainly looked smart to-day, as the sun’s rays fell upon her. The sun was unusually bright, and Charlotte Pain remarked it, saying it made her eyes ache.
“Suspiciously bright,” observed George Godolphin.
“Suspiciously?”
He flirted the ashes from his cigar with his finger. “Suspicious of a storm,” he said. “We shall have it, ere long. See those clouds. They look small and inoffensive; but they mean mischief.”
Charlotte Pain strolled away over the meadows towards the side path on which Margery was advancing. George Godolphin leaped from his seat, apparently with the intention of following her. But first of all he approached Maria, and bent to look at her progress.
“Make the farm — as you call it — very conspicuous, Maria, if you are going to keep the sketch as a memento,” said he.
“Is it not a farm?”
“It was, once; until idleness suffered it to drop through.”
“Why should I make it particularly conspicuous?” she continued.
There was no reply, and she looked quickly up. A peculiar expression, one which she did not understand, sat upon his face.
“If we had a mind to cheat the world, Maria, we might do so, by paying a visit to that house.”
“In what way?”
“I might take you in Maria Hastings, and bring you out Mrs. George Godolphin.”
“What do you mean?” she inquired, completely puzzled.
Mr. George laughed. “The man who lives there, Sandy Bray, has made more couples one than a rustic parson. Some people call him a public nuisance; others say he is a convenience, as it is three miles to the nearest kirk. He goes by the nickname of Minister Bray. Many a lad and lassie have stolen in there, under cover of the twilight, and in five minutes have come forth again, married, the world being none the wiser.”
“Is it the place they call Gretna Green?” inquired Maria in much astonishment.
“No, it is not Gretna Green. Only a place of the same description, and equally serviceable.”
“But such marriages cannot be binding!”
“Indeed they are. You have surely heard of the Scotch laws?”
“I have been told that any one can marry people in Scotland. I have heard that the simple declaration of saying you take each other for man and wife constitutes a marriage.”
“Yes; if said before a witness. Would you like to try it, Maria?”
The colour mantled to her face as she bent over her drawing. She smiled at the joke, simply shaking her head by way of answer. And Mr. George Godolphin went off laughing, lighting another cigar as he talked. Overtaking Charlotte Pain just as Margery came up, he accosted the latter.
“How grand you are, Margery! What’s agate?”
“Grand!” returned Margery. “Who says it? What is there grand about me?”
“That shawl displays as many colours as a kaleidoscope. We thought it was a rainbow coming along. Did it arrive in an express parcel last night from Paisley?”
“It isn’t me that has money to spend upon parcels!” retorted Margery. “I have too many claims dragging my purse at both ends, for that.”
A faithful servant was Margery, in spite of her hard features, and her stern speech. Scant of ceremony she had always been, and scant of ceremony she would remain. In fact, she was given to treating the younger branches of the Godolphins, Mr. George included, very much as she had treated them when they were children. They knew her sterling worth, and did not quarrel with her severe manners.
“When you have half a dozen kin pulling at you, ‘I want this!’ from one, and ‘I want that!’ from another, and the same cry running through all, it isn’t much money you can keep to spend on shawls,” resumed Margery. “I was a fool to come here;
that’s what I was! When the master said to me, ‘You had better come with us, Margery,’ I ought to have answered, ‘No, Sir George, I’m better away.’”
“Well, what is the grievance, Margery?” George asked, while Charlotte Pain turned from one to the other in curiosity.
“Why, they are on at me for money, that’s what it is, Mr. George. My lady sent for me this morning to say she intended to call and see Selina to-day. Of course I knew what it meant — that I was to go and give them a hint to have things tidy — for, if there’s one thing my lady won’t do, it is to put her foot into a pigsty. So I threw on my shawl, that you are laughing at, and went. There was nothing the matter with the place, for a wonder; but there was with them. Selina, she’s in bed, ill — and if she frets as she’s fretting now, she won’t get out of it in a hurry. Why did she marry the fellow? It does make me so vexed!”
“What has she to fret about?” continued George.
“What does she always have to fret about?” retorted Margery. “His laziness, and the children’s ill-doings. They go roaming about the country, here, there, and everywhere, after work, as they say, after places; and then they get into trouble and untold worry, and come home or send home for money to help them out of it! One of them, Nick — and a good name for him, say I! — must be off into Wales to those relations of Bray’s; and he has been at some mischief there, and is in prison for it, and is now committed for trial. And the old woman has walked all the way here to get funds from them, to pay for his defence. The news has half killed Selina.”
“I said she was a Welshwoman,” interrupted Charlotte Pain. “She was smoking, was she not, Margery?”
“She’s smoking a filthy short pipe,” wrathfully returned Margery. “But for that, I should have said she was a decent body — although it’s next to impossible to understand her tongue. She puts in ten words of Welsh to two of English. Of course they have no money to furnish for it; it wouldn’t be them, if they had; so they are wanting to get it out of me. Fifteen or twenty pounds! My word! They’d like me to end my days in the workhouse.”