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FLIGHT FROM THE NEST.
I SHALL never forget my sensations when I felt myself fairly outside the convent walls. Though I had lived in France sixteen years and more, I had never seen more of it than was visible from the window of the little room over the porch—the only one to which we had access which opened on the outside world. How different the building looked from the outside. I had never even known of the existence of the two round towers at the outer corners, since only their pinnacles were visible from the court, and these I had always supposed to be on the roof itself.
"Why, Amabel, did you know those towers were there?" I exclaimed.
"No," answered Amabel; "and what is that little building that joins on the church?"
"Perhaps it is the cell in which Sister Marie des Anges lived so many years. Don't you remember mother assistant telling us the story?"
"Who was she?" asked Mrs. Thorpe, glad to see us a little diverted from our grief.
"She was a very holy lady who once belonged to our house a great while ago—a hundred years, I dare say," replied Amabel. "She lost her mother when she was about sixteen, and she had a great vocation. Her father, who had several younger children, would not consent to her entering a convent, thinking she ought to take care of her little brothers and sisters. So she shut herself up in a room at home, and would not eat with the family, or see any of them if she could help it, and she slept on the floor and wore sackcloth. At last her father died, and she could do as she pleased; so she built a little cell opening from the church, and caused herself to be bricked up in it with but one window, opening to the church, and there she lived—never coming out, or washing her face, or changing her clothes, till they were all worn-out."
"She must have been a pleasant neighbor!" interrupted Mrs. Thorpe. "I should have liked a seat on the other side of the church myself. In England, we think cleanliness is next to godliness. But how did this pious lady spend her time?"
"In prayer, mostly," answered Amabel; "but she used to work beautiful lace and sell it for the benefit of the house." *
* I beg pardon of the Canadians for transplanting to another time and place this paragon, who really belongs to them. Her biographer remarks that she was exercised with a perpetual aridity of spirit. No wonder!
"I should not like to be the one to wear it," responded Mrs. Thorpe, who did not seem to admire this saintly personage at all. "You have told the story very nicely, my dear. Shall I tell you a tale of one of my saints?"
"Oh! Do, if you please!" said both together, and Amabel added: "I did not know Protestants had saints."
"Oh, yes, we have them, but they are rather different. Well, this young maid, like yours, was bereft of her mother when she was seventeen, and she had four little brothers and sisters. Her father was a clergyman—you know Protestant clergy marry—and very poor.
"This young lady had been taught by her mother, who was a well-educated lady. She had most of the care of the family, for her father had a large parish, and very little means, so that he was obliged to till a piece of land to help out the living.
"So my young maid—her name was Mary, too—heard her brother's Latin accidence, and so on till he was ready to go to a foundation school, where he got an Oxford scholarship, and was made a professor or master, I don't know just what they call it. Another brother got a berth on a good ship, and now commands a fine vessel of his own.
"Of her two sisters, one keeps a girls' school at Gateshead, where she has brought up many fine girls to be blessings to their families. The other married a sailor, who, after many prosperous voyages was cast away in sight of his own home; and now she keeps a shop, where all the fine ladies about come to buy laces, gloves, and sweet waters, and oftentimes to learn embroidery stitches and the like.
"My saint herself lived to lay her honored father's head in the grave, and to see every one of his children doing well in all ways, and then she went home to her well-earned rest. Yes, indeed, my Mary, my more than mother!—Thou dost rest from thy labors, and thy works do follow thee!"
"That is my saint, girls," said Mrs. Thorpe, after a little pause. "How do you like her?"
"I think she was lovely!" said Amabel, with enthusiasm. "And all the better because she did not choose her own work. It was just as if God himself set her a task, was it not?"
"Yes, my dear Mrs. Amabel, God sets us all tasks, if we would but see them."
"And was this lady your sister?" I asked.
"Yes, my dear, my oldest sister; and if I ever have done any good in this world, it is owing to her. I will show you her picture at home. A traveling artist drew it for us. But it was odd you should never have known of this cell," said Mrs. Thorpe, returning to Amabel's tale. "Does it not open to the church now?"
"No; I believe she was built up in it after she died. But there are a great many places about our house that we never saw."
"That is what I don't like—I mean all that mystery!" said Mrs. Thorpe. "I like things to be open and above board. Not that I mean to say one word about the ladies in the house we have left, who have been most kind, I am sure. I am only thinking what chances all this concealment gives to wicked or tyrannical persons. Suppose a nun misbehaves, or is thought to do so. She disappears, and word goes that she is sick. By and by it is said that she is dead. But who knows what has become of her?"
"But such things would never happen in a religious house," said I, half offended.
"My dear, human nature is a poor creature, as my dear father used to say, when he could find no other excuse for somebody. It is not fit to be trusted with arbitrary power."
"The Jesuits and the archbishop of Paris were religious persons when they persecuted Mother Angelique and the other people at Port Royal," said Amabel, who had heard that great lady's story many a time from Mother Perpetua; "but I am sure, Mrs. Thorpe, no one was ever persecuted in our house."
"I dare say not, my dear; I was only speaking of what might be."
This discussion had thoroughly diverted us, and made us forget to turn back for that last look we had promised ourselves. It was just as well, for such last looks are of no particular use.
We now began to see so many wonders, and these wonders increased upon us so fast as we drew near the city that we were silent from very amazement, and could only use our eyes. The crowded ways and marketplaces, the shops, the soldiers marching through the streets, the universal bustle of a seaport town—were enough to surprise and bewilder any country-bred person, much more two little cage-birds like ourselves, who had never in all our lives seen a dozen strange faces.
By the time we reached the lodging which the care of Captain Lowther had provided for us, we were thoroughly tired out, and ready to eat our supper and go to bed earlier even than we were used to do. We had both one chamber, with two little white and pink beds furnished with canopies. There was also a full-length mirror in our room, and various other luxuries. I dare say the place would look dingy enough to us now, but at that time it was quite a fairy palace.
"What a soft bed!" said I, as I lay down. "I don't know what Mother Prudentia would say to it."
"She would say we must not talk in bed, I suppose," replied Amabel. "What are they all doing at our old home?"
"They are at service in the church," said I, as a clock on the mantel-piece struck seven. "Does it not seem strange that we may sit up till nine o'clock if we choose."
"I could not I am sure, I am too sleepy," answered Amabel. "It seems as though I had lived a hundred years since morning. Good-night, Lucy."
The novelty of my position and the strange and to me alarming sounds in the street kept me awake for two hours—a very long time to lie awake at seventeen. I thought over all my past life, and wondered what the future would be like. I wasted a good deal of conjecture upon my probably position at Highbeck Hall—such was the name of the place where Amabel's aunt lived. I thought of the story of Mary Lowther which we had heard in the morning, and wondered—rather scared at myself for doing so—whether Protestants were after all such bad people, and whether bringing up motherless children, or even children of one's own, was not as high a vocation as building oneself up in a hole in the wall, and living in rags and dirt for twenty years.
Finally I wondered myself to sleep, and did not wake till Mrs. Thorpe called me in the morning. What a wonderful thing it was to have a mirror to dress by. I was positively bewildered by it at first, and found I could manage better in the old way.
We saw very little of Toulon. There was some disturbance in the town, owing, I believe, to the escape of some galley slaves, which made it unpleasant to be in the streets. I know there was a great marching to and fro of soldiers, and once or twice the firing of guns.
We went out once, however, under the escort of Captain Lowther, to buy some new clothes, and see some sights. We had new frocks alike of dark silk, which were quite superb in our eyes, and thick grey woolen frocks, and warm cloaks, which Mrs. Thorpe said we should need on the voyage, since it was always cold at sea.
On our return from this expedition, a great surprise befell us. We found Father Brousseau waiting for us, and learned that he was to go to England in the same ship with us. He informed us that a relative in the north of England had left him a small property, and beside that, he wished to visit the noble family where he had once been confessor, and perhaps he might remain with them.
He has since told me that his superiors that it as well for him to leave France for a time, since he had drawn upon himself the enmity of a noble and powerful family, who would have no scruple in revenging themselves even on a priest. It was known or guessed that he had been the means of discovering that plot for sacking the convent which had so nearly succeeded, and his life, it was said, had already been threatened by some of the Count de Crequi's family.
Those were terribly lawless times in France. The country was full of soldiers disbanded or deserted after the peace, ready to beg, rob, or murder, as might suit their purpose best, and prepared for any desperate undertaking which promised plunder. The great nobles oppressed their tenants and their weaker neighbors with impunity, and revelled in all sorts of luxury, while the same tenants ate boiled grass and nettles, or died of starvation at their gates. They say people are making an effort now to set things straight, but from all I hear, not much good is likely to come of it. Folks who have been crushed down to the level of brute beasts are pretty likely to act like wild beasts when once they get loose.
We sailed from Toulon in the first days of August, and arrived in Newcastle in about ten or twelve days. We had a stormy passage, and Amabel and I were very sick a great deal of the time, so that Mrs. Thorpe had her hands full with waiting on us. Father Brousseau was not much better than we, but he made a heroic effort to crawl upon deck every day that the captain would allow him to be there, and, so Mrs. Thorpe averred, gave wonderfully little trouble for a man.
How thankful we were to be once more upon dry land; even though that land was none of the most attractive. Everyone knows that Newcastle is the very centre of the great coal trade of the North. It seemed to us, as we landed on the wharf, and toiled up the narrow steep street to that part of the town where Mrs. Thorpe lived, that everything was begrimed with coal-dust. The very faces of the babies were darkened with it, and we seemed to breathe it in the air. The streets were narrow and the dingy houses were old and tumble-down—and seemed to hum with people, like a hive. I suppose Mrs. Thorpe read some dismay in our looks, for she said kindly—
"This is but a poor part of the town, young ladies; you will come to a better presently."
And in effect, we did come out on a wider and more quiet street, where there were a few handsome old houses, and several shops of the better sort, at the doors of which handsome equipages—carriages, or Sedan chairs, were standing. It was to one of the neatest of these houses, that Mrs. Thorpe directed our steps. I noticed at once, that the good-sized windows were clear and bright, the pavement in front well cleaned, and the two stone steps which led down into the shop were as white as hands could make them.
"Welcome to my poor house, young ladies!" said Mrs. Thorpe, turning to us as we entered. "I hope I shall be able to make you comfortable, though I am not much used to entertaining ladies of quality. Well, Rebecca, and how do you do?"
"Right well, Clarissa, and glad to see thee back!" said a prim little old lady, who rose from her seat behind the counter, and welcomed Mrs. Thorpe with a joy which was more forcibly expressed in her beautiful grey eyes, than in her words.
We looked at her in some surprise; taking her in her grey dress, white kerchief and close cap, for a sister of some religious order.
"These are the two young ladies whom my brother has brought over from France," said Mrs. Thorpe, after she had shaken hands with her friend. "This is Mrs. Amabel Leighton, and this is Mrs. Lucy Corbet, her companion and kinswoman."
The good woman made some kind of salutation, and then began asking questions of Mrs. Thorpe, about her voyage, and answering others in her turn; while we stood patiently, almost forgetting our fatigue in observing the strange new place in which we found ourselves.
The shop was a large one for the place and time. It was exquisitely neat, and crammed full of goods—laces, ribbons, fans, china jars, and monsters of all kinds, and the air was quite heavy with the perfume of scented soaps, hair powder, and essences.
"But there, my dears, I won't keep you here, when I know you are tired to death. Come up stairs directly. Where is Betsy? How do you do, my lass?" As a stout neat looking servant-maid came in, wiping her hands and greeting her mistress in some language, which no doubt was intended for English, but which her Northumbrian burr, made absolutely unintelligible to me. "I suppose the young ladies' rooms are ready, Betsy!"
Betsy signified as much, and Mrs. Thorpe led the way up stairs, and herself introduced us to a little parlor very neatly and prettily furnished, decorated with some beautiful china, and with a great bow pot of flowers standing in the window. There were snow-white curtains to the deep windows, and a Turkey rug, old and faded, but still beautiful, on the centre of the floor. The furniture was heavy and black with age, but bright as rubbing could make it; and what most attracted my attention at the moment, a tall press full of books occupied a recess on one side of the fireplace.
From this pretty parlor opened two light closets, each of which held a little bed, a chair, and a dressing-table, with a small round mirror hung over it. The sitting-room window looked out on a small, but neatly kept garden, and through an opening between two great trees at the bottom, we could see the tower of a grand old church.
"This will be your room, my dears—young ladies, I should say—as long as you remain with me," said Mrs. Thorpe. "I bade Betsy get it ready, thinking you would like the view into the garden."
"It is a beautiful room!" said Amabel. "Dear Mrs. Thorpe, how kind you are to us. But you must not let us take up the best part of your house."
"Oh! I have plenty of room, never fear," answered Mrs. Thorpe smiling. "The house is a large one. I used to take lodgers, but I don't do it any more. My shop gives me enough to look to, and I have been wonderfully prospered and cared for. These books and most of the furniture of this room, belonged to my honored father; and were placed here for my sister Mary—the one I told you of—when she came to make her home with me. See! Here are your mails—and I dare say you will like to wash, and change your clothes. It is always the first thing I want to do when I come off the ship."
A stout serving-man, who looked as if he had never been hungry in his life, brought up our little trunks. Betsy, who had left the room for a minute, followed him with a great can of hot water, and a heap of clean towels; and Mrs. Thorpe left us to our toilets.
Mine was soon made, and as the window was open, I ventured to satisfy my curiosity, by leaning out. I made the discovery that our next door neighbors were very quiet ones. The house stood near a small grey-stone church, standing in a church-yard thickly sown with stones, and unmarked graves. On the other side, our garden was bounded by a high wall on which was trained a vine of some sort; over this, I could just see a bit of what looked like a grand mansion of brick and stone. I announced my discovery to Amabel, who came to look in her turn.
"Yes, it all seems quiet and nice," said she, "and the room is very pretty. I did not think there could be such a pretty place in this ugly town."
"It is dreadfully ugly, at least all we have seen of it," I admitted. "Perhaps it is not all so. You know Mrs. Thorpe said we came through a poor part of it. See what a pretty house that is beyond the church-yard, where the gentleman is just coming out. There, he is coming to the church. I wonder if he can be the priest."
"He does not look like one, though I am sure I don't know what an English priest does look like. But, Lucy, what would Mother Prudentia say to our staring out of window at a strange man?"
I drew back quickly enough, feeling, I don't know why, rather vexed at Amabel's words.
The gentleman in question was a tall, stout young man of thirty, or thereabouts, not at all handsome, but with something very attractive in his face. He was twirling a thick stick, and whistling to a rough little dog, which ran to and fro among the monuments.
Somehow I took a liking to that gentleman the moment I saw him. There was a kind of real manliness about him which made one feel that he was a person to be relied upon in case of danger or distress. I took another peep and saw that he was pulling up some weeds from a baby's grave.
"Well, my dears—I must learn to say young ladies, I suppose, now you are at home in England," said Mrs. Thorpe, knocking and entering at the same moment. "But, laws me, it does come so easy to me to mother all young girls for the sake of my own two—I suppose you are quite ready for your suppers. Will you join us at the table, or shall I send you something up here?"
"Oh, we will go to the table," answered Amabel; "and, dear Mrs. Thorpe, I am sure we shall be only too glad to be mothered, as you say. We are all ready, if you please."
"Please, Mrs. Thorpe, who is that lady below in the shop?" I ventured to ask as we descended the stairs. "Is she a sister?"
"No, she is not a sister, but a Friend," answered Mrs. Thorpe, smiling. "She is what people call a Quaker. Have you none in France?"
"I do not know," replied Amabel; "we know not much more about France than England."
"Ah! Yes, that is true. Well, the Friends are a people by themselves, and have their own ways and notions—very odd ones, too, some of them are. They never go to church, and have no sacraments, and no settled order of clergy, but they hold by the Bible, and are very good, honest kind of people. Some of their women, even, are ministers, like Rebecca Carter's sister. Rebecca is a good creature, and very faithful to me, but she has her ways, as who has not? You must not mind if she calls you by your plain, Christian names. That is a part of her religion."
At another time, I suppose all this would have surprised me very much, but the last two or three weeks had been so full of wonders that I was beginning to lose the power of being surprised at anything.
We followed Mrs. Thorpe into a kind of back-parlor, or better-most kitchen, I don't know just which to call it, where the table was set for several persons. Mrs. Thorpe placed Amabel and myself on either side of her, at the head of the table. She then rang a little hand bell, and two or three neat looking young women came in from another room, and took their places near the foot of the board. Mrs. Thorpe said grace, and Amabel and I crossed ourselves, as we had always been used to do. I saw one of the girls glance at another and smile contemptuously. Unluckily, Mrs. Thorpe saw it too.
"Betty Humble will leave the table," said she.
Betty colored furiously, and began to stammer some excuse, but Mrs. Thorpe made an imperative gesture, which sent Betty out of the room, bursting into tears as she shut the door behind her with more force than was quite needful. I felt sorry for the girl, though I had felt my cheeks burn the moment before, and I glanced at Amabel, rather hoping she would intercede for the banished Betty; but she said not a word, nor did anything in her face show that she was at all disturbed.
The supper was brought in by Betsy, the stout servant-maid, who waited at table more skillfully than I would have expected from her appearance. The meal was abundant, and nicely cooked, and, as it was the first meal I ever ate in England, I remember it well. We had a fine pair of roasted fowls, boiled potatoes, light as meal (the very first, by the way, that I had ever seen, for they have never been very commonly used in France, and at that time were not known in our parts). Also, we had a great bowl of frumenty, or wheat boiled with milk, and a mountain of a brown loaf.
I thought of our dear mothers and sisters in France, sitting down to their meal of coarse bread and milk, and not too much of that, and it gave me almost a guilty feeling. It seemed as if I had no right to the savory wing of fowl that Mrs. Thorpe put upon my plate, and the tears rose to my eyes in spite of me. Mrs. Thorpe noticed the change in my countenance, as, indeed, she always saw everything.
"What is it, my dear? Anything wrong?"
"No, madame," I answered, making a great effort to compose myself. And then, feeling that I owed her an explanation, I added in French, and in a low tone:
"I was thinking of the mothers and sisters at St. Jean, and wishing they had my supper."
"Bless your kind heart, Mrs. Lucy, I wish they had!" answered the good woman. "I am sure they should be heartily welcome to the best my house could afford, if they were only here, or I could send it to them. But do not let the thought spoil your supper, my dear. If those who give to the poor lend to the Lord, the good ladies have a fine estate out at interest into which they will come some day. Anne Thwaites, don't let me see you bend over to your meat in that way—you will be growing as crooked as a rams-horn before you are forty."
Anne, a delicate looking girl, pulled herself up, blushing and smiling at the same time. So the meal proceeded with a little conversation, and now and then a remark addressed to the apprentice lasses, for so I found them to be.
After all was cleared away, the servants—Betsy, the man who had brought up our trunks, and an elderly woman, whom Mrs. Thorpe addressed as Mrs. Crump, came in and took their seats. A large Bible and prayer-book were laid before Mrs. Thorpe; she read a chapter, and then a prayer in a reverent devout manner, all joining in the Lord's prayer at the end. If she had asked us to be present, I suppose we should have refused; but either because she thought it the more discreet way, or from sheer forgetfulness, she never said a word about it, but took our attendance for granted.
The chapter was the beautiful story of the Shunamite, and that was the first word I ever heard out of the Old Testament, except indeed the Psalms, most of which I knew by heart. I observed that Rebecca Carter did not come in to family prayers, but remained in the shop, where also she had her supper. I concluded that this was one of the "ways" that Mrs. Thorpe had told us of.
It was August, and the days were growing shorter, but the evening was warm and dry, and Mrs. Thorpe invited us to go out into her garden.
"It is but a small place compared to that you have been used to!" said she. "But yet it is not so bad for a town garden, and the church-yard being next, gives us plenty of fresh air."
"I think it is a lovely garden!" said Amabel with great enthusiasm, and indeed it was.
Every nook and corner was improved to some good purpose, either filled with such hardy flowers as flourished so far north, or with sweet herbs or berry bushes. The sunny wall had an apricot trained upon it, and there were two grand standard pear trees, and a low bushy apple tree, all three laden with fruit. There was also a pretty arbor, covered with a great Virginia vine, just beginning to turn red.
"My husband brought that vine from over-seas in America, himself," observed Mrs. Thorpe, "as well as that tree you see yonder, in the church-yard; the tree has beautiful flowers upon it. My sister's grave, and that of our two daughters are just under it."
"Were your daughters grown up, madame?" I ventured to ask.
"They were just about your age. They were both taken in one week's time of a fever, which was in the town."
"That was very sad!" said I.
"Yes, my dear, very sad. I hardly knew how to bear it at first, and I do not know but I should have sunk under the blow, only that many of our neighbors were ill, and needed my help. Would you believe it, my dears? In that very house next door, the mother was taken down, and her own sons and daughters would not go near her, but left her wholly to the care of a wretch, who drank the wine given for her patient, and then ran away and left her. I went in to see her, and by good hap, was in time to save her from sinking at the crisis of the fever."
"'My good Mrs. Thorpe, it is very kind of you to look after Mama!' said one of the daughters, in her fine lady lisp and drawl; 'but I suppose it is natural to you to like to take care of the sick.'"
"'Madam!' says I. 'I hope it will never be natural to me to desert those who need my help, whether they be strangers, or my own flesh and blood,' says I."
"Oh! I gave them a bit of my mind, I promise you; they were greatly offended and would not come into my shop for a long time; but I let them alone and they got over it."
"Do they live there now?" I asked, much interested.
"Oh, no! They are all gone. One daughter married, and died of the smallpox. The other wedded a fine London gentleman, who soon gambled away all her property, and left her in great poverty and distress, poor thing. She lives in a little cottage over in Gateshead, on what she can make from the rent of this house; which is not much, for it is in bad repair, yet a fine old mansion too, and I will show you over it some day. See! Here are some monthly roses—a bud for each of you."
"Have you not a bud for me also?" asked a cheery voice, from over the stone wall next the church-yard.
We all turned round, and there stood the tall gentleman we had seen before. He was leaning on the wall, and lifted his hat politely.
"Ah! Mr. Cheriton, I did not know your Reverence was in town!" answered Mrs. Thorpe, curtsying low. "I fear there are no more rose-buds, but here is a clove pink if you will have it."
"And when did you come home from foreign parts?" asked Mr. Cheriton, accepting the pink with a bow, and putting it in his button-hole.
"Only to-day, your Reverence. This is Mrs. Amabel Leighton, and her kinswoman, Mrs. Lucy Corbet, who have come home, and are staying with me, till they can go to their aunts at Highbeck house."
"That is not likely to be very soon, I fear, unless both of these young ladies have had smallpox!" said Mr. Cheriton. "I have just come home from my father's, and went over to pay my respects to the old ladies, who made me the bearer of dispatches to yourself."
Mr. Cheriton bowed to us severally as he spoke, and then produced a letter bound with a bit of floss silk, which he gave to Mrs. Thorpe. Then bowing again, and whistling to his dog, he departed. Mrs. Thorpe led us into her own parlor behind the shop, where we waited in some anxiety, while she read the note the gentleman had handed her.
"Here is a change of affairs with a witness!" said she, when she had succeeded in making out its contents. "My dear young ladies, can you content yourselves to live with me for a few weeks? Your aunt writes that they have two cases of smallpox in the house, and that they are every day expecting Mrs. Chloe, the youngest lady, to come down with the same, and that she would prefer to have you remain with me till the danger is over. I think you told me you had never had the smallpox."
"Not unless we were very young at the time," we told her.
"Ah, then we will run no risks. But can you content yourselves with living quietly in my plain way for a little, or would you rather go to my sister's school, where you can have companions of your own age?"
We assured her that we would rather stay with her than go anywhere else, and, indeed, I think we both felt it to be a reprieve. We had grown to love Mrs. Thorpe, and to feel confidence in her, and the notion of strange companions of our own age was rather alarming than attractive. So the matter was settled. We would make it our home for the present, with good Mrs. Thorpe, who would on the morrow send word to that effect to our aunts at Highbeck Hall.
"Amabel," said I, when we were once more alone in our own pretty room, "do you think we did wrong to be present at Protestant worship? Ought we to have come away?"
"No, I don't think so," answered Amabel, after a little consideration. "We could not help it, and there was nothing contrary to religion in the prayers."
"But there was no Hail Mary! Or any other devotion to the mother of God."
"That is true. I believe Protestants do not honor her as we do. But, Lucy, you know how we used to read the 'Imitation of Christ' over and over. Mother Superior always had it by her when she was ill, and there is not a word in that about the mother of God, any more than in Mrs. Thorpe's prayer."
"That is true enough; I never thought of it before," I answered. Then—changing the subject—"Are you glad, or sorry, that we are not to go to Highbeck Hall directly?"
"Glad, on the whole," answered Amabel. "It will give us a little time to rest, and get used to English ways. Come, let us say our prayers, and get ready for night. Those little white beds look so nice after the berths on board ship."
They did, indeed, but I had one question more.
"Amabel, what do you think of Mr. Cheriton?"
"I don't think of him at all;—why should I?" answered Amabel, a little shortly. "Come, let us go to bed."
And so ended our first day in England; but I think Amabel did think a little bit about the tall young rector after all.
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LADY THROCKMORTON.
THE next day Father Brousseau came to see us. We had been so hurried and flurried at the time of our landing the day before, that we had hardly exchanged a dozen words, and now he came to bid us farewell before going to his friends in the country.
They had sent some one to meet him—a gentleman-in-waiting of some kind, and a very solemn and dignified person indeed, who accompanied him to our house. He had furnished the good priest with a suit of raiment, such as is worn by ordinary English clergymen, not wishing, I suppose, to have him attract notice as a foreigner.
There were at the time considerable disturbances in the country. A French war was impending, and an apprehended rising of the Jacobites, or adherents to the house of Stuart, which really took place the next year, had awakened the "no popery" feeling, always prevailing more or less in the lower and middle classes. I must say he had not succeeded very well in disguising him, for Father Brousseau looked, if possible, more priestly than ever.
He was to leave town that very day, and it was easy to see that the serving-man was anxious to get him away. Indeed, he made his impatience so manifest, that our leave-taking was rather a hurried one. The father gave us some advice as to our conduct, enjoined it upon us to read no heretical books, and attend no heretical services, to say our prayers and keep at home, and to be guided by Mrs. Thorpe in all things not belonging to our religion. He gave us each a little picture, and his blessing, and bade us farewell. I did not see him for many a year afterward, when times were greatly changed for both of us.
It must be confessed that for a few days, we lived rather an idle and unprofitable life at Mrs. Thorpe's. The good woman herself was naturally very busy after her long absence, and she left us much to ourselves. We had never been used to the ordering of our own time any more since we were grown up, than when we were three years old.
In the convent every hour brought its own occupation, in the same regular routine, day after day, and year after year, and we never thought of anything else. We had never been trained to think or decide for ourselves in the smallest matter. "A good religious has no will of her own, and no more thinks of guiding herself than does the needle she sews with," was a favorite saying of Mother Superior's, and we had been brought up on the same principle. A man who has never learned to walk alone, will, if left to himself, stumble just as much at fifty as at three, and will probably hurt himself a good deal more. It is therefore no wonder that being, as it were, thus suddenly put on our own feet, and bade to go, we did not know very well how to set about it.
Mrs. Thorpe, as I have said, had provided us with a parlor of our own, but we liked better to sit in her room which opened from the shop, and watch the many customers—the fine ladies who came for essences, laces, and fans, and the hundred and one nothings in which Mrs. Thorpe dealt—to cheapen china jars and dragons, and go into ecstasies over tiny tea-cups and French painted fans—and the still finer gentlemen who came to see the fine ladies, look over the last novel—for Mrs. Thorpe added that of a circulating library to her other business—and discuss the latest bit of news and scandal.
Mrs. Thorpe usually found or made time to take a walk with us every day, and when she could not go herself, she sent Mrs. Crump, her housekeeper, a most respectable woman, whom we particularly liked, because she had come from Cornwall, and could tell about the place where our mothers had grown up.
In the house I am afraid, we dawdled sadly. We found ourselves for the first time among books. Mrs. Thorpe, as I have said, kept a circulating library, but she by no means made us free of its contents. However, she picked out for us Mr. Thomson's Poems and Dr. Young's, and the then new romance of "Sir Charles Grandison" in its seven closely-printed little volumes, (the good Richardson had made fourteen in the first place) and allowed us to amuse ourselves with these. *
* This is an anachronism. "Sir Charles Grandison" was published in 1751.
To say that we read these books was nothing. We devoured them, read them aloud to each other, and talked about them from morning till night. Books of any sort other than "Lives of the Saints" and "Meditations" were such a wonder to us that it is not strange our heads were a little turned with them. I think Amabel and I had our first difference of opinion over the amiable Clementine, whom she admired for her wonderful spirit of self-sacrifice and piety, and whom I thought a sentimental little fool—(I have never changed my mind)—and she was downright vexed with me, when I laughed outright at the pathetic image of Sir Charles and Clementine on their knees to each other, and the faithful Camilla presenting a smelling-bottle alternately to each of their noses. We were actually rather cool to each other for a whole day, but made up our quarrel at night over Mr. Thomson's description of a thunder shower.
I have said that Mrs. Thorpe's shop was a resort for all the fine folks in town. It was not long before we began to be observed as we sat in the back-parlor, which was divided from the shop by a screen. In this parlor were kept some special boxes of lace too precious to be trusted to the outer shop, and hither also came the fine ladies to try on the "heads," ruffs, and so on, which they were minded to purchase.
At this distance of time, I may say without vanity, that I was an unusually pretty girl, though not so handsome as Amabel. She was and is one of the most beautiful women I ever saw in my life. I had a dark clear skin, with a fresh color, and the crisped or waved black hair so common in Cornwall. Amabel, on the contrary, was fair and delicate as a lily, with dark clear grey eyes, and a wonderful profusion of straight golden hair, a little inclining to redness. Her features were regular, and she had always a calm placid look, a little wondering, as it were, as though her spirit had not got over its surprise at the strange sphere wherein it found itself.
Ladies began to notice us, and gentlemen to pass and re-pass the door of the parlor, and put up their eye-glasses to stare at us. All this made Mrs. Thorpe a little uneasy, and she used now and then to make a pretext to send us out of the room.
One day, a grand equipage stopped at the door, with a great clatter of horse-hoofs. A lackey in a fine livery jumped down and opened the door, and a gentleman who was in the shop rushed forward to give his hand to a very fine lady indeed, who descended from the vehicle. She wore an immense hoop, at least eight yards in circumference, a sacque and petticoat of contrasting colors. Her hair was cut and curled close round her well-rouged and patched face, and she wore a very small chip hat cocked up at one side, and trimmed with very rich, white and silver ribbons. These same white ribbons had a significance which, at the time, I did not understand. The lady was followed by her gentlewoman in waiting, an impudent looking piece, nearly as fine as her mistress, who carried a horrid little lap-dog in her arms.
"Is it possible?" exclaimed the gentleman, laying his hand on his heart with a theatrical air. "Do my eyes deceive me, or does the adorable Lady Throckmorton deign once more to bestow on our barbarous town the light of her presence? I had thought nothing would bring you from the Baths at this time of the year."
"And nothing would but dire necessity, I assure you, Captain Lovelace," answered the lady. "But Sir John's mother, who is much in years and very frail, desired to see her son, and Sir John would not travel without me—indeed he is not very fit to do so—so as I could not deprive the poor lady of what might be the last sight of her son, I was obliged to quit all the dear delights of the Baths."
"Angelic goodness!" said Captain Lovelace.
"Nay, 'twas no such great matter. We shall all come to age and infirmity some day. My lady has been a good mother to her son, and would have been to me if I had but let her."
The lady spoke these last words with a tone expressive of some emotion. I even thought there were tears in her beautiful eyes. If so, she soon dispersed them, and, as if she were ashamed of her late seriousness, she began to chatter the most arrant nonsense to Captain Lovelace and her dog, alternately,—treating the one with about as much respect as the other, I thought, while she turned over the caps and aprons Mrs. Thorpe showed her, calling one horrible—absolutely hideous and revolting—and another ravishing, angelic! Perfectly divine!
"I must positively try this on, my good Thorpe; it is just my style. Has any one else seen it?"
"Nobody, my lady. I have but this morning unpacked it, and I brought it from France only a few days ago. If your ladyship will step into the parlor."
Amabel and I were sitting in the parlor—Amabel reading and I busy with some pretence of needlework. We usually retired on such occasions, but I had a mind to see a little more of this very fine lady, and I am ashamed to say I purposely upset my work-basket, and set the spools rolling all about the floor. The two grey kittens instantly pounced upon them, and, while I was rescuing my materials, Lady Throckmorton entered the room. She stood as if transfixed for a moment.
"Whom have we here? A ghost from the other world!" she exclaimed. "Mrs. Thorpe, where have you found this living image of poor little Lady Leighton?"
"This is the daughter of Sir Julius Leighton, my lady," answered Mrs. Thorpe, presenting us; "and this is her cousin and foster-sister. I brought the young gentlewomen from France but a few days since, and they are staying here under my care till the smallpox shall be over at Highbeck Hall."
"Yes, I heard Mrs. Chloe was in a way to have her youthful beauty spoiled," said Captain Lovelace.
"For shame! You spiteful creature!" said the lady, giving him a blow with her closed fan. "Mrs. Chloe is my particular friend. And so are Lady Leighton's daughter, as well as her living image," she added, turning to Amabel, and speaking in quite a different tone. "I knew your mother well, my child. You and my Alice were born on the same day, but she was but a frail creature, fading in her earliest bloom."
Again a softer look came into her eyes. I never saw such eyes as hers. They were of a sapphire-blue, very bright and clear, with a sort of hardness and sharpness in them, and flashing with a fierce and baleful luster when she was offended. She was indeed a most curious mixture of good and evil, as I came to know afterward, but the evil predominated, being let to have its way unchecked, and she perished miserably at last, poor thing!
"Mrs. Thorpe never made a more beautiful or valuable importation, I am sure," said Captain Lovelace, bowing to us both, though he had not been included in—indeed, had been rather pointedly left out of—the presentation.
Lady Throckmorton's eyes flashed for a moment.
"Your presence in this room is not required, Captain Lovelace," said she in a stately fashion; then, as the gentleman retired, with an extravagant gesture of humility and despair, "You must not listen to such gallants, my loves," she added, in a lighter tone.
"I do not, madam," answered Amabel quietly.
"A dignified young lady, upon my word. And who is this?" Turning to me. "She reminds me of some one, I cannot tell who."
Mrs. Thorpe explained who I was, and her ladyship was pleased to say she remembered my mother quite well.
"She came from Cornwall with Lady Leighton, and they were quite inseparable, I remember," said she. "Your mother afterward married a gentleman who had a small estate in the neighborhood, and was killed by a fall from his horse. Yes, yes; I remember. My good Thorpe, you must take care of these visitors of yours."
"I hope to do so, my lady," answered Mrs. Thorpe, not without emphasis, as I thought.
"And have you seen anything of the town yet, my rose-buds?" asked the lady, turning to us. "I suppose not. Come, get your hoods, and I will take you for an airing. No, on second thought, I cannot either, for I promised my old lady to return in time for her afternoon drive. I shall have my own horses another day, and then I will call for you. Meantime, Mrs. Thorpe must let me present you each with one of these fine aprons."
So saying, she selected from the stock before her two lawn aprons with more puffs, ruffles, and lace than there was of the original stuff, and bestowing one upon each of us, she sailed out to her carriage, attended by Captain Lovelace, and followed by her maid and dog. This was our first sight of that famous beauty and wit, Lady Throckmorton of Newcastle. It would have saved us a good deal had it been the last.
"There goes a fine woman spoiled," said Mrs. Thorpe. "I was glad she was obliged to go, I did not like to have you go out with her, and I did not exactly know how to refuse."
"But why do you call her spoiled?" I asked. "I am sure she is very generous in giving us these beautiful aprons."
"'Tis not hard to be generous when some one else pays the bills," answered Mrs. Thorpe. "However, we will not judge the poor thing. Her notice was at least kindly meant. Perhaps if her children had lived she would have been different. But, my young ladies, though I do not like to deprive you of a pleasure, I fear I must banish you forth of this parlor during business hours. 'Tis too public a place for ladies of quality, and I have no mind to have you brought under the notice of Captain Lovelace and others of his stamp, of whom we have at present only too many in the town. So, my dears, you will amuse yourselves as well as you can in your own room."
We had now no choice but to withdraw, and were soon seated in our own pretty parlor.
"So it seems we are to be imprisoned in this dull room for the future!" said I, pettishly enough. "One might as well be in the convent again, as shut up in this poky place."
"You did not think it poky at first!" said Amabel. "And I think, Lucy, Mrs. Thorpe is right about our sitting in the shop. I am sure Mother Prudentia would say the same, if she were here."
"Mother Prudentia is not our governor now," I replied.
"No! But Mrs. Thorpe is, now that our relations have put us under her care. I must say, I don't care to see that Captain Lovelace again; I thought him very rude," answered Amabel with a flash of her eye, such as I had hardly ever seen before.
"You did not think Mr. Cheriton rude, when he gave you those flowers over the wall this morning!" said I.
"That was very different!" answered Amabel. "I am sure, Lucy, you can't compare Mr. Cheriton's manners with those of Captain Lovelace. Mrs. Thorpe herself was by and saw no harm. But I don't think it is very nice to be talking about young men in this way."
"One may as well talk of them as think of them, I suppose!" I answered, rather flippantly.
Amabel made me no answer, but withdrawing into a corner, she laid aside Mr. Thomson's poems, and, betook herself to her book of "Hours," which had been rather neglected of late. I took up my work, and we sat in silence, till called to dinner.
A few days afterwards, we were walking with Mrs. Crump. We had been to carry a basket of food some pensioner of Mrs. Thorpe's, and were pacing along rather soberly, thinking of the sad scene we had just witnessed, when we heard our names called.
We looked and saw Lady Throckmorton, leaning out of her carriage. She was more dressed than ever, with splendid jewels in her ears, and on her neck. Of course we stopped to curtsy, and were passing on, when she beckoned us again; the coachman at the same time drawing up to the side of the street.
"So I have caught you, my doves!" said she. "I must positively take you for an airing, and carry you home to have some tea with me. Nay, I will take no refusal. This good woman will make your excuses to Mrs. Thorpe, if any are needed."
Mrs. Crump was a very quiet woman, who dressed in the plainest way, and rarely said a needless word. She did not, however, seem at all dashed at the presence of the great lady, but answered her, even with dignity.
"So, please you madam, I think the young ladies had better see Mrs. Thorpe themselves, before going any where else."
"Woman, you forget yourself!" said Lady Throckmorton, with that angry flash of the eye, that I had observed before. "I would have your mistress know, that Lady Throckmorton's notice is an honor to any young lady. Come girls—my black haired beauty, I am sure, is not afraid of the old shopkeeper. Come, I cannot keep the horses standing."
I think Amabel would have refused, but that she saw me determined to accept Lady Throckmorton's invitation, and she would not let me go by myself. So we got into the carriage and drove away, leaving Mrs. Crump standing on the pavement.
"Insolent old creature!" said Lady Throckmorton. "But there, never mind her. Tell me about yourselves, and your life—where were you educated?"
"In France," we told her.
"Ah! That is how you come to carry yourselves so well; and what have you learned?"
I gave her as good an account as I could of our acquirements.
"Why! You are real paragons—I must have you with me, while I am here—I positively must, indeed—nothing takes like a new face, and your conventual simplicity is truly charming. It will never do for you to be buried at Highbeck Hall, with those old frights, each more absurd than the other. I must write to your father, Miss Amabel Leighton."
This was the first time I ever heard the title of Miss, which was just then coming into fashion.
"The ladies you speak of are my aunts, madame," said Amabel, with some dignity.
"That does not hinder their being old frights, child. Oh! You must not mind me, I say I think of every one. Well, here we are at home. I must introduce you to my poor old Sir John; he is not so old either, but a sad invalid, poor man."
We had driven into a paved court, and now alighted at the door of the handsomest mansion I had yet seen.
Lady Throckmorton led us through a grand hall, up a fine oak staircase, which reminded me of the great staircase at St. Jean, and into her own dressing-room; which was a rather small apartment, so crowded with all kinds of nick-nacks, that it was hard to move without knocking down a china mandarin, or a shepherdess, or upsetting a potpourri. The air was heavily laden with scents, as that of Mrs. Thorpe's shop. The windows were hung with rich draperies, and another curtain was looped over a door, which opened into a richly furnished bed-chamber. One of the most noticeable things in the room, was a finely painted portrait of a gentleman, surrounded by a wreath of white roses, so beautifully made, that at first I thought them real, and wondered where they came from.
"This is my den," said Lady Throckmorton. "I told Sir John I positively could not stay in this horrible old pile of bricks unless he would allow me to fit up two or three rooms to suit my own taste. He is a good-natured creature, and so, though he worships his hideous old chairs and tables as if they were veritable household gods, he gave me leave to do what I liked with these rooms, and a withdrawing-room down stairs. What do you think of the general effect, eh?"
She evidently expected us to be quite dazzled with all her splendor, and I indeed was so, though all the time I was conscious of a certain something which pained the eye. Amabel answered that we had seen so little of such things, that we were hardly good judges. My lady was evidently a little nettled by her coolness, and began to display one fine bit of china and gilding after another, till the entrance of her waiting-woman interrupted the lecture.
"Tea is ready, my lady," said the Abigail, as it was then the fashion to call these personages, "and Captain Lovelace and some other gentlemen are in the drawing-room."
"Dear me, I had no notion it was so late. You have been so entertaining, girls, that you have lent new wings to time."
N. B.—We had hardly said ten words between us, but I have observed that people are usually better entertained with their own conversation than that of any one else.
"See, Wilson, can you make these girls presentable at short notice? I wish to take them out with me this evening."
Mrs. Wilson looked critically at us, and began to suggest various additions to our simple toilets.
"No, on second thoughts, you may let them alone, only select one of my lace aprons and a necklace apiece for them. Those black velvet bands with the pearls sewed on will do. No, let the hair alone, 'tis well enough as it is. Those gipsy hats are very becoming, only they should be trimmed with white. Don't wear red ribbons, girls, whatever you do, but blue may pass well enough. There, that will answer, Wilson."
All this time, Mrs. Wilson had been pinning on the aprons, tying on the necklaces, and otherwise decorating us, till I felt as if I was a doll being dressed for Mrs. Thorpe's show window. I glanced at Amabel. She looked more uncomfortable than I had often seen her. There was not much time to notice looks, for my lady beckoned us to follow her, and we did so, passing down stairs into a small drawing-room, where was a table set out with a tea equipage in silver, and any number of odd little china cups.
There were two or three gentlemen in the room, and a thin middle-aged lady very plainly dressed, and with a good serene face, which attracted me at once. In one corner, with a table to himself, sat a thin elderly man, evidently an invalid, to whom we were presented as Sir John Throckmorton. The poor man's face brightened as he heard Amabel's name.
"And so you are Sir Julius Leighton's daughter," said he kindly. "Your father was an honest, worthy gentleman, and we have had many a day's sport together when we were young. I suppose he is still in London. Will he be coming north before long?"
"I do not know, Sir John," answered Amabel. "We have not heard from him since we landed in England."
"He will come north at the right time, I dare say," said Lady Throckmorton. "Come, Sir John, I cannot have you monopolizing our young ladies. We shall have cutting of throats presently."
She then gave us seats on each side of herself, and presented the gentlemen as they came up. I remember none of them except Captain Lovelace, who had the impudence to claim a previous acquaintance, and Mr. Cheriton, who came in just as the ceremony was concluded. He looked surprised, and, as it seemed to me, not very well-pleased, at finding us in such company.
I noticed in a moment that, while all the other gentlemen wore white rose-buds in their button-holes, he wore a red clove pink which Amabel had given him that very morning. I think Amabel saw it too, for she blushed and looked confused.
Lady Throckmorton's keen eyes flashed from one face to the other as if she suspected something.
"So you know my young visitors already, Mr. Cheriton," said she. "How is that?"
"We are neighbors, you know," answered Mr. Cheriton easily, "and as their parish priest and spiritual guide, it was my duty to make acquaintance with them."
I must say I was not pleased with the tone in which he spoke—as if his sacred profession were a thing to be joked about.
"And you ventured to come hither with a red flower in your button-hole!" continued the lady in the same bantering tone, which yet seemed to have a meaning in it.
"Red is my favorite color," answered Mr. Cheriton.
"I have heard it was a thrifty color—no doubt that recommends it," said one of the company with an undisguised sneer.
"You are right my lord, it is a thrifty color, and does not change, easily," answered Mr. Cheriton, dryly enough. "I have known many white roses turn red, but I don't know that I have ever seen a red one turn white."
"Let the white ones become the fashionable color and the red will turn fast enough," retorted the other angrily.
"Possibly, but that fashion has not yet been set."
"Come, come, I will have no sparring," said Lady Throckmorton imperatively. "Captain Lovelace, do you not see that Miss Bunnell has her tea all ready to dispense? What are you thinking of? Give them plenty of sugar, my good Bunnell, and sweeten their tempers."
On this hint the gentlemen bestirred themselves, and handed us little cups of tea with sponge cakes and other things of that kind. I had not yet learned to like tea, which I had never seen till I came to England, and Lady Throckmorton seeing that I did not drink mine, bade Mr. Cheriton exchange it for a cup of chocolate. My lady herself waited upon her husband, carrying him his chocolate and other refreshments, and spending some minutes in arranging them to his liking.
"How devoted Lady Throckmorton is to her husband! Is it not a pretty exhibition?" said Captain Lovelace in my ear, as he stood just behind me. "She is always so—at least when there is any one to see her. He has all his personal property in his own power, and she has no settlements to speak of; but of course that has nothing to do with the matter."
I knew nothing of settlements or personal property at that time, but I understood the implied detraction, and felt indignant at it. I had begun to feel very uncomfortable by that time, as if I had of my own accord walked into a net out of which I did not see my way. Presently Lady Throckmorton came back to her seat, and began asking the news of the day.
"They say the Methodists are coming hither again," said Captain Lovelace. "If so, we shall have some sport. You ought to have seen how we served them at Leeds when I was there. There was a bull-baiting in the town, and we drove the bull right in among them, as they stood with open mouths and ears, around their prophet. There was a fine scattering at first, I promise you. But if you will believe it, when the beast got into the crowd, he stood stock still by the side of Mr. Wesley himself, as quiet as he had been a tame dog." *
* This incident, or one nearly similar, happened at Pensford, March, 1742.
I saw Mrs. Bunnell smile at this, as with a kind of triumph, at which I wondered, for it seemed to me a mean and dastardly action.
"I have taken a shorter way than that," said Lord Bulmer. "I took up a local preacher, and another fellow of that sort who had the impudence to come praying and exhorting among my tenants, and sent them for soldiers on the spot. I told them I would soon stop their prayers, and one of them, if you will believe me, had the impudence to answer me: 'You cannot do that, my lord, unless you can stop the path to heaven.' Why, one of those rascals had the impudence to tell Dr. Borlase himself that he knew his sins were forgiven."
Again I saw the smile pass over Mrs. Bunnell's face.
"These Methodists seem to me to be a harmless sort of folks enough—mere visionary enthusiasts," said Mr. Cheriton, helping himself to a piece of plum cake as he spoke.
"They are traitors—rascals who turn the world upside down—Jesuits in disguise, if the truth was known," said Captain Lovelace.
"That, of course, would be enough to condemn them in your eyes," said Mr. Cheriton, carelessly, "your aversion to Jesuits, and those who are governed by them, being so well-known."
Again I saw by the expression of the faces around me, that the words had some hidden meaning.
"Well, well, we shall know how to serve them if they come here," said Lord Bulmer.
"They have been here already—do you not know it?" said Lady Throckmorton. "I myself heard a part of one of Mr. Wesley's sermons, and thought him very eloquent. And my good friend Bunnell here, was altogether won over by him, so that she thinks it a sin to wear so much as a feather or a necklace."
"Is that true, Mrs. Bunnell? Nay, I cannot have that," said Mr. Cheriton, turning to the lady, who had sat quietly behind her mistress. "I look upon you as one of the pillars of my church."
"Mr. Wesley withdraws no one from church," answered Mrs. Bunnell, in her clear, even tones. "On the contrary, it has been objected to him that he makes trouble for the clergy and sextons by bringing so many to the sacrament." *
* See Charles Wesley's "Journal."
"I could bear a little trouble of that kind, methinks," said the rector; "but surely, Mrs. Bunnell, you do not justify such presumption as a common man saying that he knows his sins are forgiven?"
"The paralytic was but a common man to whom One said, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee!'" answered Mrs. Bunnell. "And why should you read the absolution in church if no one is to believe himself absolved?"
"Come, come, Bunnell, we want no conventicles here. You and Mr. Cheriton must settle your disputes elsewhere than at my tea-table."
"Nay, madam, she did but answer my question," said Mr. Cheriton, good-naturedly.
"Then you need not have asked such a question," returned the lady sharply. "I hate people who are always dragging religion in by the head and shoulders, reminding one of everything dismal that one wishes to forget. Commend me to a preacher like yourself, Mr. Cheriton, who gives us good moral discourses that don't make one uncomfortable. I hate the Methodists, with their rant and pretence of spirituality, and what not, and I hope if the preachers come here again, they will get a warm reception. Gentlemen, if you have finished your tea, we ask to be excused, as I propose to take my young friends to the theatre this evening."
The gentlemen took their leave on this hint, and Mrs. Bunnell also withdrew. Sir John's man came and carried him off, and we were left alone with my lady.
"Bunnell is a good creature, and devoted to me," said her ladyship, when we were by ourselves, "but I think I shall have to let her go if she keeps on with her high-flown notions. I told her the other day that she might be content to let Mr. Cheriton think for her in such matters; and what do you suppose she answered me? Why, that as Mr. Cheriton could not be saved or lost for her, she must needs think for herself. But come, it is time we were going. See, here is a fan apiece for you," pulling out a handful from a box; "take your choice."
"But, madam, I think we should be going home," said Amabel. "It is growing dark."
"Nonsense, child! You are going to the play with me, and then I will set you down at home, or bring you back here, if it is too late. Nay, not a word," with an imperative gesture, as Amabel would have spoken. "You are in my hands, and must do as you are bid."
She left the room for a few moments, and Amabel turned to me.
"What shall we do?" said she. "Oh, how I wish we had never come."
"It was all my fault," I answered: "but I don't see how to help it now; we cannot find our way home alone, through this great town, especially as it is growing dark. If Mrs. Thorpe wanted us, she would send for us."
"True!" said Amabel. "She knows where we are, and could send Timothy for us."
She had done so, we found afterwards, but we were not told of it.
"We must do as my lady bids us, till we can get away; but Lucy! I do not like her, nor this place."
"Nor I!" I answered. "I feel as if we had got into the hands of the fairy Melusene, that Mother Prudentia told us of. I have not seen one person who seemed real to me, except that nice Mrs. Bunnell—and Mr. Cheriton."
My lady returned at this moment, so we had no chance for any further conversation. We went with her to the play; I don't remember what it was, and indeed, there was such a buzz of conversation, and the lights and music so bewildered me, and gave me such a headache, that I had much ado not to burst out crying. I was thankful enough when the evening concluded.
Captain Lovelace had been in the box all the evening, and had full possession of her ladyship's ear and attention. I fancy from words that I caught, that there was some political intelligence going among them. I saw that many of the ladies wore white ribbons, and other red; while a few seemed to have tried to make a compromise between the two.
"What ails you, child?" said my lady somewhat sharply, as the play being at last concluded, she had time to notice me. "You are as white as a ghost."
"Lucy has a bad headache, madame!" said Amabel, seeing that I was trying in vain to speak.
"A headache! Oh that is nothing—and yet it might be the beginning of an illness too!" added her ladyship. "Where had you been when I met you this afternoon?"
"To visit a poor sick woman, madame."
"A poor sick woman—very likely she had smallpox or something, and here you have been sitting with me all this time!" exclaimed her ladyship: "Who knows what I may have caught."
"The poor woman had nothing infectious," Amabel began, but Lady Throckmorton cut her short—
"There! Don't talk to me child—Williams, take these young ladies to Mrs. Thorpe's, and come back for me as quickly as you can; and mind you open all the glasses of the carriage. There! Good-night."
I hardly know how Williams made a passage for us through the crowd, but he did somehow, and we were quickly carried to Mrs. Thorpe's door, which indeed, was not far off. The good woman was up, and opened to us before the lackey had time to knock. She received us in absolute silence, and led the way to our room, where she lighted our candles, and turning round she addressed us with emphasis.
"Young ladies, I excuse you this time, seeing that you were, so to speak, taken at unawares; but this a thing that must never happen again; your aunts, who have known me for many years, have seen fit to place you under my care, and to me, you must be accountable, as much so, as the youngest apprentice I have. I would not have a young maiden in my house on any other terms—no! Not if she were the Queen's own daughter. You know my conditions now, and I expect you to abide by them."
She bade us a short good-night, and was turning away, when Amabel made bold to ask her for some drops for my head. She was all sympathy directly, helped me to undress, and brought me I knew not what of smelling-salts and Hungary water.
The kindness set me off into the fit of hysterical crying, which had been impending all the evening. Mrs. Thorpe dosed me with sal volatile, and sat by me till I fell asleep, to be tormented half the night with horrible dreams, in which I was alternately a fly, a mouse, and a persecuted Methodist; and Lady Throckmorton a spider, a fly, and a mad bull, intent on sending me for a soldier.