CHAPTER X.
THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE.
'Oh! the auld house, the auld house, What though the rooms were wee; Oh! kind hearts were dwelling there, And bairnies full of glee.' _Lady Nairn._
Every one except Edgar would, it was hoped, stay at home till after theEpiphany, that most marked anniversary of birth and death.
Clement at first declared it impossible, for St. Matthew's could notdispense with him on the great day; and Fulbert grinned, and nudgedLance at his crest-fallen looks, when he received full leave of absencefor the next three weeks.
But Lance was bursting with reverse troubles. The same post hadbrought him a note from his organist; and that 'stupid old Dean,' ashe irreverently called him, had maliciously demanded 'How beautifulare the feet,' with the chorus following, and nobody in the choir wasavailable to execute the solo but Lance. He had sung it once or twicebefore; and if he had the music, and would practise at home, he needonly come up by the earliest train on the Epiphany morning; if not, hemust arrive in time for a practice on the 5th; he would be wanted atboth the festival and Sunday services, but might return as early as hepleased on Monday the 9th.
Lance did not receive the summons in an exemplary spirit. It is notcertain that he did not bite it. He rolled on the floor, and contortedhimself in convulsions of vexation; he 'bothered' the Dean, he'bothered' the Precentor, he 'bothered' the Organist, he 'bothered'Shapcote's sore throat, he 'bothered' Harewood's wool-gathering wits,he 'bothered' his own voice, and thereby caused Clement to rebuke himfor foolish murmurs instead of joy in his gift.
'A fine gift to rejoice in, to make one be whipped off by an old fogey,when one most wants to be at home! I thank my stars I can't sing!' saidFulbert.
'I should thank mine if Bill Harewood had any sense,' said Lance,sitting up in a heap on the floor. 'He can go quite high enough when hepleases; only, unluckily, a goose of a jackdaw must needs get into thecathedral just as Bill had got to sing the solo in "As pants the hart;"and there he stood staring with his mouth wide open--and no wonder, forit was sitting on the old stone-king's head! Wasn't Miles in a rage;and didn't he vow he'd never trust a solo to Harewood again if he knewit! Oh, I say, Wilmet--Fee, I know! Do let me bring Bill back with meon Monday morning; and he could go by the six o'clock train. Oh, jolly!'
'But is he really a nice boy, Lance?' asked Wilmet, doubtfully.
'Oh, isn't he just? You'll see! His father is a Vicar-choral, you know,lives in our precincts; his private door just opposite ours, and 'tisthe most delicious house you ever saw! You may make as much row as youplease, and nobody minds!'
'I know who Mr. Harewood is. Librarian too, is he not?' said Felix. 'Ihave heard people laughing about his good-natured wife.'
'Aren't they the people who were so kind to you last year, Lance,'asked Cherry, 'when you could not come home because of the measles?'
'Of course. Do let me bring him, Fee,' entreated Lance; 'he is no endof a chap--captain of our form almost always--and such a brick atcricket! I told him I'd show him the potteries, and your press, and ourorgan, and everything--and it is such a chance when we are all at home!I shall get the fellows to believe now that my sisters beat all theirsto shivers.'
'Can you withstand that flattering compliment, Wilmet?' said Felix,laughing. 'I can't!'
'He is very welcome,' said Wilmet; 'only, Lance, he must not stay thenight, for there really is not room for another mouse.'
The little girls had heard so much about Bill Harewood, thatthey were much excited; but their sympathy kindly compensatedfor the lack of that of the elder brothers. Fulbert pronouncedthat a cathedral chorister could never be any great shakes; andClement could not forgive one who had been frivolous enough to bedistracted by a jackdaw; but Lance, trusting to his friend's personalattractions to overcome all prejudice, trotted blithely off to theorganist-schoolmaster, to beg the loan of the music, and received apromise of a practice in church in the evening. Meantime, he beggedClement to play the accompaniment for him on the old piano. Neitherboy knew that it had been scarcely opened since their father's handhad last lingered fondly upon it. Music had been found to excite theirmother to tears; Geraldine resembled Fulbert in unmusicalness, andWilmet had depended on school, the brothers on their choir-practice,so that the sound was like a new thing in the house; nor was any oneprepared either for the superiority of Clement's playing, or forthe exceeding beauty and sweetness of Lance's singing. No one whoappreciated the rare quality of his high notes wondered that he wasindispensable; Geraldine could hardly believe that the clear exquisiteproclamation, that came floating as from an angel voice, could reallycome from the little, slight, grubby, dusty urchin, who stood withclasped hands and uplifted face; and Clement himself--though deferringthe communication till Lance was absent, lest it should make himvain--confided to Wilmet that they had no such voice at St Matthew's,and it was a shame to waste him on Anglicans.
Wilmet hardly entered into this enormity. She had made a discoverywhich interested her infinitely more. Little Theodore, hitherto soinanimate, had sat up, listened, looked with a dawning of expressionin the eyes that had hitherto been clear and meaningless as blueporcelain, and as the music ceased, his inarticulate hummings continuedthe same tune. Could it be that the key to the dormant senses wasfound? His eyes turned to the piano, and his finger pointed to itas soon as he found himself in the room with it, and the airs heheard were continually reproduced in his murmuring sounds; that 'Howbeautiful!' which had first awakened the gleam--his own birth-dayanthem--being sure to recur at sight of Lance; while a doleful Irishcroon, Sibby's regular lullaby, always served for her, and the 'HardyNorseman' for Felix, who had sometimes whistled it to him. Wilmet spentevery available moment in awaking the smile on the little waxen facethat had never responded before; it seemed to be just the cheering hopeshe needed to revive her spirits, only she was almost ready to renounceher journey with Alda for the sake of cultivating the new-found faculty.
No one would permit this; and indeed, so far from waiting to beexhibited to Lance's friend, the two sisters received their _billet deroute_ on the very day he was expected; and there was no appeal, sincea housekeeper was to travel from Centry, who would take charge of themto London, whence they would go down with Mr. Underwood. Poor Wilmetwas much dismayed at leaving Geraldine to what they both regarded asthe unprecedented invasion of a strange boy; indeed, the whole chargemade Cherry's heart quail, though she said little of her fears, knowingthe importance of Wilmet's having and enjoying her holiday; and Mr.Audley promised extra aid in keeping order among the boys.
But as they came in that evening from the practice at the church, towhich Clement had insisted on their coming to hear Lance, Mr. Audleybeckoned Felix to his room with the words, 'There's a thing I want totalk over with you.'
Felix recollected those ominous words to Mr. Underwood, and stoodwarming his hands in dread of what might be coming. It was all hefeared.
'I wanted to say--I wanted to tell you--' began Mr. Audley. 'I wouldnot have chosen this time, but that I think it may save Wilmetsomething to be able to tell her friends that the present arrangementis to cease.'
'Wilmet!' exclaimed Felix; then bethinking himself. 'Was _that_ whatTom Underwood meant? But you will not trouble yourself about suchrubbish.'
'Well, you see,' began the Curate, with heightening colour, 'it can'tbe denied that your sister _has_ grown up, and that things are changed.'
'Mrs. Froggatt _did_ ask me if you were going on here,' said Felix,still unconvinced; 'but can't we leave people to be _stoopid_ withoutinterfering with us?'
'Felix, you ought to be a better protector to your sisters. You wouldnot like to have my Lady remonstrating--nay, maybe writing to mymother: she is quite capable of it.'
Felix's cheeks were in a flame. 'If people would mind their ownbusiness,' he said; 'but if they _will_ have it so--'
'They are right, Felix,' said the Curate quietly; 'appearances must becarefully heeded, a
nd by you almost more than by any one. Your slownessto understand me makes me almost doubtful about my further design.'
'Not going away altogether!'
'Not immediately; but things stand thus--Dr. White, my old tutor, youknow, and Fernan's, is nearly sure of the new Bishopric in Australia,and he wants me.'
Felix hardly repressed a groan.
'Any way I should not go immediately; but when your father spoke to meabout the guardianship, he made me promise not to let it stand in theway of any other call. I fancied he had mission work in his mind, andit disposes me the more to think I ought not to hold back; but whileyour dear mother lived, I would not have gone.'
'Yes, you have been very good to us,' was all Felix could say. 'Butwhen?'
'Not for some time; but I am not going this moment. Three months'notice Mr. Bevan must have, and if he requires it, six; I must spendsome time at home, and very like shall not be off till you are ofage--certainly not if I find there is any difficulty in handing themanagement of things over to you. How long I remain with you mustdepend on circumstances. How much notice must you give before leavingthis house?'
'I do not know--half a year, I fancy. You think we ought to give it up?I suppose it is too large for us now.'
'And you could take no lodger but one of the old-lady type.'
'Horrid!' said Felix. 'Well, we will see; but it will be a great strokeon poor Cherry--she can remember nothing before this house.'
'It will be very good for her to have no old associations to sitbrooding over.'
'My poor little Cherry! If I saw how to cheer up her life; but withoutyour lessons it will be more dreary for her than ever!'
'Give her all you can to do, and do not be over-careful to keep youranxieties from her knowledge. She is very much of a woman, and if youleave her too much to herself, she will grow more introspective.'
'Wilmet and I have always wanted to shelter her; she never seems fitfor trouble, and she is so young!'
'Compared with you two venerable people!' said Mr. Audley, smiling.'But her mind is not young, and to treat her as a child is the way tomake her prey upon herself. I wish her talent could be more cultivated;but meantime nothing is better for her than the care of Bernard andStella. I hope you will not be in a hurry to promote them out of herhands.'
'Very well; but she will miss you sorely.'
'I hope to see her brightened before I am really gone, and I am notgoing to decamp from this house till some natural break comes. To dothat would be absurd!'
There was a silence; and then Felix said with a sigh, 'Yes, a smallerhouse, and one servant. I will speak to Wilmet.'
'Perhaps you had better, so that she may have an answer in case she isattacked.'
Wilmet was aghast at first, but a hint from Alda made her acquiesce,not with blushing consciousness, but with the perception that the wayof the world was against the retention of the lodger; and sorry as shewas to lose Mr. Audley, her housewifely mind was not consoled, butdistracted, by calculations on the difference of expenditure. Again shetried to beg herself off from her visit, in the dread that Felix wouldgo and take some impracticable house in her absence--some place withthin walls, no cupboards, and no coal-hole; and she was only pacifiedby his solemn promise to decide on no house without her. She went awayin an avalanche of kisses and tears, leaving Geraldine with a basketfulof written instructions for every possible contingency, at which theanxious maiden sat gazing anxiously, trying to store her mind with itsonerous directions.
'Shall I give you a piece of advice, Cherry?' said the Curate, as hesaw the dark eye-brows drawn together.
'Oh, do!' she earnestly said.
'Put all that in the fire!'
'Mr. Audley!'
'And go by the light of nature! You have just as many senses as Wilmet,and almost as much experience; and as to oppressing yourself with thedetermination to do the _very_ thing she would have done under allcircumstances, it is a delusion. People must act according to their ownnature, not some one else's.'
'Certainly,' said Geraldine, smiling. 'I could never walk stately inand say, "Now, boys!"--and much they would care for it if I did.'
'It seems to be a case for "Now, boys!" at this moment,' said Mr.Audley; 'what can all that row be?'
'Oh, it must be that dreadful strange boy, Lance's friend,' sighedGeraldine, almost turning pale. Then, trying to cheer up, 'But it isonly for the day, and Lance wished it so much.'
As she spoke, the shout of 'Cherry, here's Bill!' came nearer, and thewhole of the younger half of the family tumbled promiscuously into theroom, introducing the visitor in the midst of them. To the elders,'no end of a chap' appeared, as Mr. Audley said, to mean all ends ofshock hair, and freckles up to the eyes; but when Fulbert and Lance hadwhirled him out again to see the lions of Bexley, Robina and Angelawere overheard respectfully pronouncing that he was nice and spottylike the dear little frogs in the strawberry-beds at Catsacre, and thathis hair was just the colour Cherry painted that of all the very bestpeople in her 'holy pictures.'
The object of their admiration was seen no more till the middle ofdinner, when all three appeared, immoderately dusty; and no wonder,for the organist had employed them to climb, sweep fashion, into thebiggest organ-pipe to investigate the cause of a bronchial affection oflong standing, which turned out to be a dead bat caught in a tenaciouscobweb.
Shortly after, the guest was found assisting Angela in a tableau, wherea pen-wiper doll in nun's costume was enacting the exorcism of the saidbat, in a cave built of wooden bricks.
Clement was undecided whether to condemn or admire; and Geraldine, towhom Edgar had lent some volumes of Ruskin, meditated on the grotesque.
Before there had been time for the fanciful sport to become roughcomedy, Lance had called off his friend to see the potteries; and topoor Cherry's horror, she found that Robina had been swept off in thetorrent of boyhood. Clement, pitying her despair and self-reproach,magnanimously offered to follow, and either bring the little maid back,or keep her out of harm's way; and for some time Cherry reposed in theconviction that 'Tina was as good as a girl any day.'
But at about a quarter to six, a little tap came to Mr. Audley's door,and Angela stood there, saying, with a most serious face, 'Please, Mr.Audley, Cherry wants to know whether you don't think something musthave happened.' And going upstairs, he found the poor young deputy in anervous agony of despair at the non-return of any of the party, quitecertain that some catastrophe had befallen them, and divided betweenself-reproach and dread of the consequences.
'The very first day Wilmet had gone!' as she said.
It was almost time for Harewood's train, which made it all the morestrange. Mr. Audley tried to reassure her by the probability that thewhole party were convoying him to the station, and would appear whenhe was gone; but time confuted this pleasing hypothesis, and Cherry'smisery was renewed. She even almost hinted a wish that Mr. Audley wouldgo out and look for them.
'And then,' he said, smiling, 'in an hour's time you would be sendingFelix to look for me. No, no, Cherry, these waiting times are oftenhard, no doubt; but, as I fear you are one of those destined to "abideby the tents" instead of going out to battle, you had better learn todo your watching composedly.'
'O Mr. Audley! how can I? I know it must be very wrong, but how can Inot care?' And verily the nervous sensitive girl was quivering withsuspense.
'"He will not be afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standethfast and believeth in the Lord,"' answered Mr. Audley. 'I see that doesnot tell you _how_ not to be afraid; but I imagine that a few trustingejaculations in the heart, and then resolute attention to somethingelse, may be found a help.'
Cherry would have sighed that attention was the most impossible thingin the world; but before she had time to do so, Mr. Audley had begun toexpound to her his Australian scheme. It excited her extremely; and asa year and a half seemed an immense period of time to her imagination,the dread of losing him was not so immediate as to damp her enthusiasm.They had discussed his
plans for nearly an hour before Cherry startedat the sound of the door, and then it was only Felix who entered. Hewas irate, but not at all alarmed; and presently the welcome clatter ofsteps approached, and in dashed the whole crew, mired up to the eyes,but in as towering spirits as ever.
Their delay had, it appeared, been caused by a long walk that ensuedupon the visit to the potteries, and a wild venture of Will Harewoodupon impracticable ice, which had made him acquainted with the depthsof a horse-pond. There was none of the dignity of danger, for thedepths were shallows and the water only rose to his waist; but the mudwas above his ankles, and he had floundered out with some difficulty.He wanted to walk back with no more ceremony than a water-dog; butthe Underwoods had made common cause against him, and had dragged himto a cottage, where he had the pleasing alternative of an old woman'sblankets and petticoats while his garments were drying. He was asnearly angry as a Harewood could be, Lance observed, declaring thatthey should never have got him into the cottage without fighting him,if Tina had not been so tall, and if Robin had not nearly cried; whilehe, throwing off all responsibility, ascribed all his lateness tohis friend's 'maggots.' No more trains stopped at Bexley till aftermidnight; but as to his absence causing any uneasiness at home, helaughed at the notion, and was corroborated by Lance in averring thatthey had too much sense; listening with undisguised amazement to theelaborate explanations and apologies about Robina, which Clement wasscrupulously pouring forth to his brother and sister, saying that hewould have brought her home at once, but that he really did not like totrust those boys alone.
Whereat Lance held up his hands with a dumb show of amazement thatconvulsed Fulbert, Bill Harewood, and Robina herself, with agonies ofhalf-suppressed merriment. The boy had come in, prepared to be graveand quiet, as knowing how lately affliction had come to the family,and having been warned by Lance, that 'as to going on as we do in theprecincts, why it would make Cherry jump out of her skin.'
But by some extraordinary influence--whether it were the oddity ofWilliam Harewood's face, or the novelty of his perfect _insouciance_in the household whither care had come only too early--some infectionseized on the young Underwoods, and before the end of the evening meal,if the 'goings on' were not equal to those in the precincts, they were,at any rate, not far short of it.
Lance presently incited his friend to show 'how he had mesmerizedLucy.' Clement made a horrified protest; and Geraldine looked alarmedat her eldest brother, who began, 'Indeed, Lance, we can have nothingof that sort here.'
'But, Felix, I do assure you there is no harm.'
'Upon my word and honour, there's not a spice of anything theArchbishop of Canterbury could stick at,' added Will Harewood.
'It is impossible there should not be harm,' interposed Clement; butthe boys, including Fulbert, were in such fits of laughter, that Felixbegan to suspect the seriousness of the performance; and when Lancesprang at him, exclaiming, 'I'll go to Mr. Audley! Fee--Cherry--willyou be satisfied if Mr. Audley says we may?' Felix and Cherry bothconsented; and Lance rushed off to make the appeal, and returned notonly with full sanction, but with Mr. Audley himself, come to seethe operation. This perfectly satisfied Felix, who even consented,on the entreaty of his brothers, to become the first subject; andCherry knew that where the Curate and Felix had no scruples, she needhave none; but, for all that, she was more than half frightened anduncomfortable--above all, when Clement, amid shouts of mirth from thethree schoolboys, indignantly marched away to shut himself up in hiscold bedroom.
By-and-by, after some unseen preparation--all the more mystifyingbecause carried on in the kitchen, where Sibby always used to keepTheodore in a cradle till Felix was ready for him--Will Harewood causedFelix to stand exactly opposite to him and to the spectators, with adinner-plate in his hand, and under injunctions to imitate the operatorexactly. Armed with another plate, William rubbed his own fingerfirst on the under side of the plate, and then, after some passes andflourishes, on his own forehead, entirely without effect so far as hehimself was concerned; but his victim, standing meekly good-naturedand unconscious, was seen by the ecstatic audience to be, at eachpass, painting his own face with the soot from a flame over which hisplate had been previously held. The shrieks of amusement redoubled atthe perplexity they occasioned him, till they penetrated the upperrooms; and suddenly a cry of horror made all turn to the door and see alittle white bare-footed figure standing there, transfixed with fright,which increased tenfold when Felix hurried towards it, not yet awareof the condition of his visage, until a universal shout warned him ofit; while Lance, darting in pursuit, picked up Bernard, and by hiswonderful caressing arts, and partly by his special gift of coaxing,partly as the object of the little fellow's most fervent adoration,made the scattered senses take in that it was 'all play,' and evencarried back the little white bundle, heart throbbing and eyes staring,but still secure in his arms, to admire Felix all black, and then to befurther relieved by beholding the restoration of the natural hue at thepump below stairs.
Then amid Sibby's scoldings and assurances that the child would catchhis death of cold, Bernard was borne upstairs again by Felix, who foundClement in the nursery comforting the little girls, and preventingthem from following the example of their valiant pioneer. Felix, nowthoroughly entering into the spirit of the joke, entertained for amoment the hope of entrapping Clement; but of course Bernard could notbe silenced from his bold and rather doubtful proclamation, that 'Thefunny boy made Felix black his own face, and I wasn't afraid.'
'Naughty boy!' commented Stella. 'Poor Fee!'--and she reared up to kisshim, and stroke the cheeks that had suffered such an indignity.
'What! It was only a trick?' said Clement slowly, as if half mystified.
'Of course,' said Felix; 'could not you trust to that?'
'I don't know. Cathedrals are very lax, and it had a questionable name.'
'O Clem! if it had not been in you before, I should wish you had nevergone to St. Matthew's. Come down now, don't let us disturb the littleones any longer.--Good-night, Angel; good-night, little Star; we'll notmake a row to wake you again.'
Clement, in a severe mood, followed Felix downstairs; but somewonderful spirit of frolic was on all the young people that night--areaction, perhaps, from the melancholy that had so long necessarilyreigned in that house, for though the fun was less loud, it was quiteas merry: a course of riddles was going on; and Clement, who reallywas used to a great deal of mirth among the staff of St. Matthew's,absolutely unbent, and gloried in showing that even more conundrumswere known there than by the house of Harewood. He was not strongin guessing them; but then Will Harewood made such undaunted andextraordinary shots at everything proposed, that the spirit of reparteewas fairly awakened, and Cherry's bright delicate wit began to play,so that no one knew how to believe in the lateness of the hour, andstill less that this was the same house that grave Wilmet had left thatmorning.
'Poor dear little Cherry!' said Felix to Mr. Audley, after helping herupstairs, 'she is quite spent with laughing; indeed my jaws ache, andshe is ready to cry, as if it had been unfeeling.'
'Don't let her fancy that. We certainly were surprised into itto-night; but I only wish for her sake--for all your sakes--that youcould keep the house merrier.'
Felix sighed. He too felt as if he had been betrayed into unbecominglevity; and though he would not dispute, his heart had only become theheavier. However, he did not forget; and when Cherry again breatheda little sigh as to what Wilmet would think of their first day, hestoutly averred that there was no use in drooping, and no harm inliveliness, and that no one had ever been so full of joyousness astheir father.
She owned it. 'But--'
And that _but_ meant the effects of the three years that she had spentas the companion of her mother's mournful widowhood, and of the caresof life on her elder brother and sister.
It was true, as Mr. Audley said, that the associations of the roomswere not good for her spirits in her many lonely hours and confinedlife; and this reconciled Felix more
than anything else to the proposedchange. He was keeping his promise to Wilmet of not seeking a housetill her return, when Mr. and Mrs. Froggatt, whose minds had been muchrelieved by hearing that the lodger would consult the proprieties,communicated to him their own scheme of taking up their residence ata village named Marshlands, about two miles from Bexley, where theyalready spent great part of the summer in a pleasant cottage andgarden which they had bought and adorned. Mr. Froggatt would drivein to attend to the business every day, but the charge of the housewas the difficulty, as they did not wish to let the rooms; and theynow proposed that the young Underwoods should inhabit them rent-free,merely keeping a bedroom and little parlour behind the shop for Mr.Froggatt, and providing firing in them. With much more diffidence, athis wife's earnest suggestion, the kindly modest old man asked whetherMiss Underwood would object to his coming in to take a piece of breadand cheese when he was there in the middle of the day.
It was an excellent offer, and Felix had no hesitation in gratefullyclosing with it, even without consulting Wilmet. Her reply showed thata great weight was taken off her mind; and she was only longing to beat home again, contriving for the move, which was to take place atLady Day. She was burning to study the new rooms; nevertheless, as bykind Marilda's contrivance, she was taking lessons in German every dayfrom a superior Fraulein who had once been her cousin's governess, andwas further allowed to inspect the working of a good school, her staywas extended, by Miss Pearson's entreaty, a full fortnight beyond whathad been intended. Nor had anything gone wrong in her absence. Eventhe overlooking of the boys' linen, which she had believed impossiblewithout her, was safely carried on by Cherry, and all were sent off insound condition. No catastrophe occurred; and the continual occupationand responsibility drove away all the low spirits that so often hadtried the home-keeping girl. She _did_ enjoy those _tete-a-tete_evenings, when Felix opened to her more than he had ever done before;and yet it was an immense relief to have the day fixed for Wilmet'sreturn, and how much more to have her walking into the room with allthe children clinging about her in incoherent ecstacy, which had notsubsided enough for much comprehension when Felix came joyously in.'Hurrah, Wilmet! Mr. Froggatt sent me home a couple of hours beforetime!'
'How very good! I met him in the street just now. Really, he is thekindest old gentleman in the world!'
'I believe you dazzled him, Mettie; he says he did not know you tillyou spoke to him, and if he had realised what a beautiful and majesticyoung lady you were, he should hardly have ventured to propose yourtaking up your abode under his humble roof.'
'That must be the effect of living with Alda,' said Wilmet merrily;'but, oh! I am glad to be at home again!'
'And I never was so glad of anything in my life,' said Geraldineeagerly.
'I am longing to go over the house, and know what to do aboutfurniture,' continued Wilmet.
'There! now W. W. is herself again!' said Felix.
'Mrs. Froggatt came and called on me,' said Geraldine. 'She talked ofleaving us the larger things that will not go into the cottage.'
'Which is well,' said Felix; 'for how much of ours will survive theshock of removing is doubtful.'
'All the things that came from Vale Leston are quite solid,' saidWilmet, bristling up.
'That carpet is solid darn,' said Felix. 'We tried one evening, andfound that though the pattern of rose-leaves is a tradition, no oneyounger than Clem could remember having seen either design or colour.'
'You should not laugh at it, Felix,' said Wilmet, a little hurt; forindeed her mother's needle and her own were too well acquainted withthe carpet for her to like to hear it contemned.
Felix and Cherry both felt somewhat called to order, as if theirmistress had come home again; and Cherry was the first to break silenceby inquiring after Wilmet's studies at Brighton.
'Oh yes,' said Wilmet, 'I do hope I am improved. That was all Marilda'skindness. She quite understood how I missed everybody and everything;and at last, one day, when I was wishing I could pronounce German likeAlda, and that Alda had time to give me some lessons--'
'Alda hasn't time?'
'Oh, you don't know how useful she is! She writes all the notes.Marilda devised getting this Fraulein--such a good-natured woman! andwhen she heard what I wanted, she got leave for me to come every day tostudy the working of the school. I do believe I shall teach much betternow, if only I were not so ignorant. I never had any notion before howlittle I knew!'
However, Wilmet's value had really risen so much in consequence ofthese instructions, that Miss Pearson arranged that she should lay theFrench and German foundations, and prepare the scholars, and shouldreceive half a sovereign a half year from each girl whom she thusinstructed, being the moiety of 'extra.' Moreover, the head teachertalked of retiring, and her succession was promised to Wilmet--abrilliant prospect, that the sight of Alda's grandeur did not make hercontemn.
Wilmet's anxious mind was well satisfied by her inspection of the newquarters, which, among other conveniences, had that of shorteningby ten minutes her walk to school. The family apartments were allupstairs, the space below being entirely taken up by the business, andthe kitchens were under ground. The chief sitting-room upstairs wasunfortunately towards the street, and had a northern aspect; it was aspacious room, with three large windows filled with boxes of flowers,and contained a big table and two sofas, which, with the carpet andcurtains, would remain well covered up. Folding-doors led into asmaller room, with a south window towards the little garden, where Mrs.Froggatt generally sat, and which had been used for the dining-room.There were two bedrooms besides on the same floor, one of which wouldremain untouched for Mr. Froggatt; and above these, there was a largenursery, and more rooms than had been ever furnished. Rent, rates,taxes, and repairs, all off her mind! Wilmet felt as if prosperitywere setting in; and she was the first to make the audacious statementthat they need not part with Martha, and indeed, that the house couldnot be kept in order, nor dinners cooked fit for Mr. Froggatt, bySibby single-handed. And Cherry made up her mind that they were like afamily of caterpillars moving their cobweb tent; Angela, seeing such anestablishment of young tortoise-shells, in their polished black, undertheir family web, had asked, 'Which was their brother Felix?' and thename was adopted.
So a time of much business and excitement set in; and the lengtheningspring evenings were no sinecure to Wilmet, as the flitting dayapproached, being rather hurried on by the old bookseller, who wantedto be at Marshlands in time to admire his hyacinths and sow hisannuals. Mr. Audley would take rooms at the Fortinbras Arms for theremainder of his stay at Bexley; and indeed, there was a good deal tobreak the old habit of constantly depending on him, for his brother'syoung wife was slowly dying in London, and the whole family seemedinstinctively to turn to him for comfort and advice, so that he wasobliged to be continually going backwards and forwards.
On the 24th of March, when he came down by an afternoon train, he foundthe house door open, the steps scattered with straw; and after lookingin and seeing his own parlour intact, and with a cheerful fire, hepursued his way upstairs, and there found the sitting-room bare exceptfor a sort of island consisting of the sofa, on which Geraldine layrolled in cloaks and shawls, trying to amuse the twins by a feebleattempt to sing
'Weel may the boatie row,'
while making paper boats for Stella to drag by strings upon the smoothboards.
'Eh, Cherry, are you the Last Man, or the Last Rose of Summer?'
'The last of the caterpillars,' said Cherry, smiling, but with effort.'Do you see Stella's fleet--just thirteen?'
'Making omens, foolish child!' but though Stella was eagerly pointingand explaining, 'Tat Tella's boat--tat Tedo's--tat brother's--tatAngel,' and so on, the word _foolish_ was not directed to the littleone, but to the grey eyes heavy with unshed tears, that restedwistfully upon a wreck that had caught upon a nail and lay rent andragged.
'Pray don't look which it is,' said she.
'Certainly not; I hate auguries.'
&n
bsp; 'Do you think there is nothing in them?'
'I think there is nothing in this room but what ought to be in mine.Do you expect me to stand discussing superstition in this horrible rawemptiness? Here,' picking up Theodore, 'I'll come back for you.'
'Oh no, thank you, let me get down by myself; he cannot be left alonein a room.'
'Come, Stella, and take care of him.'
'That's worse; she leads him into mischief. We are fox, goose, andcabbage. Please give me my crutch; Wilmet put it out of reach becauseshe said I was destroying myself.'
'You are tired to death.'
'Oh no; but one can't sit still when so much is going on. Oh, howdelicious!' as after an interval she arrived, and found Mr. Audleywinding up a musical-box, which Theodore was greeting with its owntunes, and Stella with a dance and chant of 'Sing box--sing box;' andthen the two sat listening to the long cycle of tunes which would holdTheodore entranced for any length of time.
After a short inquiry and a reply as to the sister-in-law's state,and a few words on the progress of the flitting, there was a silencewhile Mr. Audley read the letters that had come for him in his absence,and Cherry's face became more and more pensive. At last, when Mr.Audley laid down his letters, and leant against the chimney-piece, sheventured to say, 'Is it wrong?'
'Is what wrong?' said the Curate, who had quite forgotten the subject.
'To care about omens.'
'That depends. To accept them is sometimes necessary; to look out forthem is generally foolish and often wrong.'
'Sometimes necessary?' said Cherry eagerly.
'Sometimes experience seems to show that in good Providence a mercifulpreparation is sent not so much to lead to anticipations, as to bringthe mind into keeping with what is coming, and, as it were, attune it.'
'So that little things may be constantly types of great future ones?'
'My dear Cherry, I said _not_ constantly.'
'Just let me tell you. Sibby says that the very day we all came intothis poor old house, just as the omnibus stopped, there was the knellringing overhead, and a funeral coming up the street. She knew it wasa token, and burst out crying; and dear Mamma, who you know never shedtears, turned as white as a corpse, as if she was struck to the heart.'
'And your father?'
'Oh! Sibby said he just stood in the doorway, lifted his hat as thefuneral passed, and then well-nigh carried Mamma, with the baby (thatwas Fulbert) in her arms, over the threshold, and smiled at her,saying, "Well, mother, what better than to have found our home tilldeath!" So you see he did believe in it.'
'I see he wanted to cheer her spirits, not by saying "stuff andnonsense," but reminding her that there are worse things than death.Have you an omen on your mind, Cherry? Have it out; don't let it sinkin.'
'Only _please_ don't laugh at me. Indeed, it was not my own doing, butStella's fancy to have a boat for each of us, when she was launchingthem; and I could not help recollecting how we are all starting out andaway from our first home.'
'Stella's was not a _very_ perilous ocean.'
'That was a comfort at first; and Stella tried to draw all the thirteenlines together, but they tangled, and one thread broke, and that boatwas left behind; and one poor crooked ill-made thing fell over, and wasleft at home because hindering all the rest, and even Stella knew thatwas me, and--' her voice quivered, 'one was caught on a nail, and torninto a wreck! Now, can I help thinking, though you'll just call themnewspaper-boats, dragged by a baby on a dry dusty floor?'
'Watched by a weary fanciful damsel,' said Mr. Audley, sitting downby her, 'who does not know a bit more than she did before, that allare launching on a sea, and if it _is_ a rougher one, there's a betterGuiding Star than Stella Eudora to lead them, and they have compassesof their own--ay, and a Pilot. And if there are times when He seems tobe asleep in the ship--why, even the owner of the unseaworthy boat leftat home can show the Light, and pray on till the others are roused toawaken Him.'
'I wish there had not been that wreck,' she sighed.
'What seems a wreck need not be really one,' said Mr. Audley. 'It maybe the very way of returning to the right course. And by and by weshall see our Master standing on the shore in the morning light.'
At that moment there was a sound at the door--Felix had accompaniedCherry's chair, to bring her and Theodore to the new home. Therewas too much haste for the wistful last looks she intended: shewas deposited in the chair with Theodore on her knee, Stellatrotting after, with Felix and Mr. Audley, who was coming to see theinauguration. St. Oswald's Buildings were left behind, and she wasdrawn up to the green private door, beside the shop window; Wilmethurried down and took Theodore from her; Felix helped her out, andup the narrow steep staircase, which certainly was _not_ a gain, butwhen landed in the drawing-room, the space seemed to her magnificent.And their own furniture, the two or three cherished portraits broughtfrom Vale Leston, their father's chair, their mother's sofa, the silkpatchwork table-cover that had been the girl's birth-day present toMamma, the bookcase with Papa's precious books, made it seem home-like.
'The mantelpiece is just the same!' cried Cherry, delighted, as sherecognised all the old ornaments.
The next moment her delight was great at the flower-stands, which Mr.Froggatt had kindly left full of primulas, squills, and crocuses;and when she looked out from the back room into the little garden,where Mr. Froggatt's horticultural tastes had long found their soleoccupation, and saw turf, green laurels, and bunches of snowdrops andcrocuses, she forgot all Stella's launch!