Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

 

 

 

THE MOORLAND COTTAGE.

 

 

 

By the author of MARY BARTON.

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK: 1851.

 

 

       *       *       *       *       *

 

 

CHAPTER I.

 

If you take the turn to the left, after you pass the lyke-gate at

Combehurst Church, you will come to the wooden bridge over the brook; keep

along the field-path which mounts higher and higher, and, in half a mile or

so, you will be in a breezy upland field, almost large enough to be called

a down, where sheep pasture on the short, fine, elastic turf. You look down

on Combehurst and its beautiful church-spire. After the field is crossed,

you come to a common, richly colored with the golden gorse and the purple

heather, which in summer-time send out their warm scents into the quiet

air. The swelling waves of the upland make a near horizon against the sky;

the line is only broken in one place by a small grove of Scotch firs, which

always look black and shadowed even at mid-day, when all the rest of the

landscape seems bathed in sunlight. The lark quivers and sings high up in

the air; too high--in too dazzling a region for you to see her. Look! she

drops into sight; but, as if loth to leave the heavenly radiance, she

balances herself and floats in the ether. Now she falls suddenly right into

her nest, hidden among the ling, unseen except by the eyes of Heaven,

and the small bright insects that run hither and thither on the elastic

flower-stalks. With something like the sudden drop of the lark, the path

goes down a green abrupt descent; and in a basin, surrounded by the grassy

hills, there stands a dwelling, which is neither cottage nor house, but

something between the two in size. Nor yet is it a farm, though surrounded

by living things. It is, or rather it was, at the time of which I speak,

the dwelling of Mrs. Browne, the widow of the late curate of Combehurst.

There she lived with her faithful old servant and her only children, a boy

and girl. They were as secluded in their green hollow as the households in

the German forest-tales. Once a week they emerged and crossed the common,

catching on its summit the first sounds of the sweet-toned bells, calling

them to church. Mrs. Browne walked first, holding Edward's hand. Old Nancy

followed with Maggie; but they were all one party, and all talked together

in a subdued and quiet tone, as beseemed the day. They had not much to say,

their lives were too unbroken; for, excepting on Sundays, the widow and

her children never went to Combehurst. Most people would have thought the

little town a quiet, dreamy place; but to those two children if seemed

the world; and after they had crossed the bridge, they each clasped more

tightly the hands which they held, and looked shyly up from beneath their

drooped eyelids when spoken to by any of their mother's friends. Mrs.

Browne was regularly asked by some one to stay to dinner after morning

church, and as regularly declined, rather to the timid children's relief;

although in the week-days they sometimes spoke together in a low voice

of the pleasure it would be to them if mamma would go and dine at Mr.

Buxton's, where the little girl in white and that great tall boy lived.

Instead of staying there, or anywhere else, on Sundays, Mrs. Browne thought

it her duty to go and cry over her husband's grave. The custom had arisen

out of true sorrow for his loss, for a kinder husband, and more worthy man,

had never lived; but the simplicity of her sorrow had been destroyed by the

observation of others on the mode of its manifestation. They made way for

her to cross the grass toward his grave; and she, fancying that it was

expected of her, fell into the habit I have mentioned. Her children,

holding each a hand, felt awed and uncomfortable, and were sensitively

conscious how often they were pointed out, as a mourning group, to

observation.

 

"I wish it would always rain on Sundays," said Edward one day to Maggie, in

a garden conference.

 

"Why?" asked she.

 

"Because then we bustle out of church, and get home as fast as we can, to

save mamma's crape; and we have not to go and cry over papa."

 

"I don't cry," said Maggie. "Do you?"

 

Edward looked round before he answered, to see if they were quite alone,

and then said:

 

"No; I was sorry a long time about papa, but one can't go on being sorry

forever. Perhaps grown-up people can."

 

"Mamma can," said little Maggie. "Sometimes I am very sorry too; when I am

by myself or playing with you, or when I am wakened up by the moonlight

in our room. Do you ever waken and fancy you heard papa calling you? I

do sometimes; and then I am very sorry to think we shall never hear him

calling us again."

 

"Ah, it's different with me, you know. He used to call me to lessons."

 

"Sometimes he called me when he was displeased with me. But I always dream

that he was calling us in his own kind voice, as he used to do when he

wanted us to walk with him, or to show us something pretty."

 

Edward was silent, playing with something on the ground. At last he

looked round again, and, having convinced himself that they could not be

overheard, he whispered:

 

"Maggie--sometimes I don't think I'm sorry that papa is dead--when I'm

naughty, you know; he would have been so angry with me if he had been here;

and I think--only sometimes, you know, I'm rather glad he is not."

 

"Oh, Edward! you don't mean to say so, I know. Don't let us talk about him.

We can't talk rightly, we're such little children. Don't, Edward, please."

 

Poor little Maggie's eyes filled with tears; and she never spoke again to

Edward, or indeed to any one, about her dead father. As she grew older, her

life became more actively busy. The cottage and small outbuildings, and the

garden and field, were their own; and on the produce they depended for much

of their support. The cow, the pig, and the poultry took up much of Nancy's

time. Mrs. Browne and Maggie had to do a great deal of the house-work; and

when the beds were made, and the rooms swept and dusted, and the

preparations for dinner ready, then, if there was any time, Maggie sat down

to her lessons. Ned, who prided himself considerably on his sex, had been

sitting all the morning, in his father's arm-chair, in the little

book-room, "studying," as he chose to call it. Sometimes Maggie would pop

her head in, with a request that he would help her to carry the great

pitcher of water up-stairs, or do some other little household service;

with which request he occasionally complied, but with so many complaints

about the interruption, that at last she told him she would never ask

him again. Gently as this was said, he yet felt it as a reproach, and

tried to excuse himself.

 

"You see, Maggie, a man must be educated to be a gentleman. Now, if a woman

knows how to keep a house, that's all that is wanted from her. So my time

is of more consequence than yours. Mamma says I'm to go to college, and be

a clergyman; so I must get on with my Latin."

 

Maggie submitted in silence; and almost felt it as an act of gracious

condescension when, a morning or two afterwards, he came to meet her as

she was toiling in from the well, carrying the great brown jug full of

spring-water ready for dinner. "Here," said he, "let us put it in the shade

behind the horse-mount. Oh, Maggie! look what you've done! Spilt it all,

with not turning quickly enough when I told you. Now you may fetch it again

for yourself, for I'll have nothing to do with it."

 

"I did not understand you in time," said she, softly. But he had turned

away, and gone back in offended dignity to the house. Maggie had nothing to

do but return to the well, and fill it again. The spring was some distance

off, in a little rocky dell. It was so cool after her hot walk, that she

sat down in the shadow of the gray limestone rock, and looked at the ferns,

wet with the dripping water. She felt sad, she knew not why. "I think

Ned is sometimes very cross," thought she. "I did not understand he was

carrying it there. Perhaps I am clumsy. Mamma says I am; and Ned says I

am. Nancy never says so and papa never said so. I wish I could help being

clumsy and stupid. Ned says all women are so. I wish I was not a woman. It

must be a fine thing to be a man. Oh dear! I must go up the field again

with this heavy pitcher, and my arms do so ache!" She rose and climbed the

steep brae. As she went she heard her mother's voice.

 

"Maggie! Maggie! there's no water for dinner, and the potatoes are quite

boiled. Where is that child?"

 

They had begun dinner, before she came down from brushing her hair and

washing her hands. She was hurried and tired.

 

"Mother," said Ned, "mayn't I have some butter to these potatoes, as there

is cold meat? They are so dry."

 

"Certainly, my dear. Maggie, go and fetch a pat of butter out of the

dairy."

 

Maggie went from her untouched dinner without speaking.

 

"Here, stop, you child!" said Nancy, turning her back in the passage. "You

go to your dinner, I'll fetch the butter. You've been running about enough

to-day."

 

Maggie durst not go back without it, but she stood in the passage till

Nancy returned; and then she put up her mouth to be kissed by the kind

rough old servant.

 

"Thou'rt a sweet one," said Nancy to herself, as she turned into the

kitchen; and Maggie went back to her dinner with a soothed and lightened

heart.

 

When the meal was ended, she helped her mother to wash up the old-fashioned

glasses and spoons, which were treated with tender care and exquisite

cleanliness in that house of decent frugality; and then, exchanging her

pinafore for a black silk apron, the little maiden was wont to sit down to

some useful piece of needlework, in doing which her mother enforced the

most dainty neatness of stitches. Thus every hour in its circle brought a

duty to be fulfilled; but duties fulfilled are as pleasures to the memory,

and little Maggie always thought those early childish days most happy, and

remembered them only as filled with careless contentment.

 

Yet, at the time they had their cares.

 

In fine summer days Maggie sat out of doors at her work. Just beyond the

court lay the rocky moorland, almost as gay as that with its profusion of

flowers. If the court had its clustering noisettes, and fraxinellas, and

sweetbriar, and great tall white lilies, the moorland had its little

creeping scented rose, its straggling honeysuckle, and an abundance of

yellow cistus; and here and there a gray rock cropped out of the ground,

and over it the yellow stone-crop and scarlet-leaved crane's-bill grew

luxuriantly. Such a rock was Maggie's seat. I believe she considered it her

own, and loved it accordingly; although its real owner was a great lord,

who lived far away, and had never seen the moor, much less the piece of

gray rock, in his life.

 

The afternoon of the day which I have begun to tell you about, she was

sitting there, and singing to herself as she worked: she was within call of

home, and could hear all home sounds, with their shrillness softened down.

Between her and it, Edward was amusing himself; he often called upon her

for sympathy, which she as readily gave.

 

"I wonder how men make their boats steady; I have taken mine to the pond,

and she has toppled over every time I sent her in."

 

"Has it?--that's very tiresome! Would it do to put a little weight in it,

to keep it down?"

 

"How often must I tell you to call a ship 'her;' and there you will go on

saying--it--it!"

 

After this correction of his sister, Master Edward did not like the

condescension of acknowledging her suggestion to be a good one; so he went

silently to the house in search of the requisite ballast; but not being

able to find anything suitable, he came back to his turfy hillock, littered

round with chips of wood, and tried to insert some pebbles into his vessel;

but they stuck fast, and he was obliged to ask again.

 

"Supposing it was a good thing to weight her, what could I put in?"

 

Maggie thought a moment.

 

"Would shot do?" asked she.

 

"It would be the very thing; but where can I get any?"

 

"There is some that was left of papa's. It is in the right-hand corner of

the second drawer of the bureau, wrapped up in a newspaper."

 

"What a plague! I can't remember your 'seconds,' and 'right-hands,' and

fiddle-faddles." He worked on at his pebbles. They would not do.

 

"I think if you were good-natured, Maggie, you might go for me."

 

"Oh, Ned! I've all this long seam to do. Mamma said I must finish it before

tea; and that I might play a little if I had done it first," said Maggie,

rather plaintively; for it was a real pain to her to refuse a request.

 

"It would not take you five minutes."

 

Maggie thought a little. The time would only be taken out of her playing,

which, after all, did not signify; while Edward was really busy about his

ship. She rose, and clambered up the steep grassy slope, slippery with the

heat.

 

Before she had found the paper of shot, she heard her mother's voice

calling, in a sort of hushed hurried loudness, as if anxious to be heard by

one person yet not by another--"Edward, Edward, come home quickly. Here's

Mr. Buxton coming along the Fell-Lane;--he's coming here, as sure as

sixpence; come, Edward, come."

 

Maggie saw Edward put down his ship and come. At his mother's bidding it

certainly was; but he strove to make this as little apparent as he could,

by sauntering up the slope, with his hands in his pockets, in a very

independent and nÉgligÉ style. Maggie had no time to watch longer; for

now she was called too, and down stairs she ran.

 

"Here, Maggie," said her mother, in a nervous hurry;--"help Nancy to get a

tray ready all in a minute. I do believe here's Mr. Buxton coming to call.

Oh, Edward! go and brush your hair, and put on your Sunday jacket; here's

Mr. Buxton just coming round. I'll only run up and change my cap; and you

say you'll come up and tell me, Nancy; all proper, you know."

 

"To be sure, ma'am. I've lived in families afore now," said Nancy, gruffly.

 

"Oh, yes, I know you have. Be sure you bring in the cowslip wine. I wish I

could have stayed to decant some port."

 

Nancy and Maggie bustled about, in and out of the kitchen and dairy; and

were so deep in their preparations for Mr. Buxton's reception that they

were not aware of the very presence of that gentleman himself on the scene.

He had found the front door open, as is the wont in country places, and had

walked in; first stopping at the empty parlor, and then finding his way to

the place where voices and sounds proclaimed that there were inhabitants.

So he stood there, stooping a little under the low-browed lintels of the

kitchen door, and looking large, and red, and warm, but with a pleased and

almost amused expression of face.

 

"Lord bless me, sir! what a start you gave me!" said Nancy, as she suddenly

caught sight of him. "I'll go and tell my missus in a minute that you're

come."

 

Off she went, leaving Maggie alone with the great, tall, broad gentleman,

smiling at her from his frame in the door-way, but never speaking. She went

on dusting a wine-glass most assiduously.

 

"Well done, little girl," came out a fine strong voice at last. "Now I

think that will do. Come and show me the parlor where I may sit down, for

I've had a long walk, and am very tired."

 

Maggie took him into the parlor, which was always cool and fresh in the

hottest weather. It was scented by a great beau-pot filled with roses; and,

besides, the casement was open to the fragrant court. Mr. Buxton was so

large, and the parlor so small, that when he was once in, Maggie thought

when he went away, he could carry the room on his back, as a snail does its

house.

 

"And so, you are a notable little woman, are you?" said he, after he had

stretched himself (a very unnecessary proceeding), and unbuttoned his

waistcoat, Maggie stood near the door, uncertain whether to go or to stay.

"How bright and clean you were making that glass! Do you think you could

get me some water to fill it? Mind, it must be that very glass I saw you

polishing. I shall know it again."

 

Maggie was thankful to escape out of the room; and in the passage she met

her mother, who had made time to change her gown as well as her cap. Before

Nancy would allow the little girl to return with the glass of water she

smoothed her short-cut glossy hair; it was all that was needed to make her

look delicately neat. Maggie was conscientious in trying to find out

the identical glass; but I am afraid Nancy was not quite so truthful in

avouching that one of the six, exactly similar, which were now placed on

the tray, was the same she had found on the dresser, when she came back

from telling her mistress of Mr. Buxton's arrival.

 

Maggie carried in the water, with a shy pride in the clearness of the

glass. Her mother was sitting on the edge of her chair, speaking in

unusually fine language, and with a higher pitched voice than common.

Edward, in all his Sunday glory, was standing by Mr. Buxton, looking happy

and conscious. But when Maggie came in, Mr. Buxton made room for her

between Edward and himself, and, while she went on talking, lifted her on

to his knee. She sat there as on a pinnacle of honor; but as she durst not

nestle up to him, a chair would have been the more comfortable seat.

 

"As founder's line, I have a right of presentation; and for my dear old

friend's sake" (here Mrs. Browne wiped her eyes), "I am truly glad of it;

my young friend will have a little form of examination to go through; and

then we shall see him carrying every prize before him, I have no doubt.

Thank you, just a little of your sparkling cowslip wine. Ah! this

gingerbread is like the gingerbread I had when I was a boy. My little lady

here must learn the receipt, and make me some. Will she?"

 

"Speak to Mr. Buxton, child, who is kind to your brother. You will make him

some gingerbread, I am sure."

 

"If I may," said Maggie, hanging down her head.

 

"Or, I'll tell you what. Suppose you come to my house, and teach us how to

make it there; and then, you know, we could always be making gingerbread

when we were not eating it. That would be best, I think. Must I ask mamma

to bring you down to Combehurst, and let us all get acquainted together? I

have a great boy and a little girl at home, who will like to see you, I'm

sure. And we have got a pony for you to ride on, and a peacock and guinea

fowls, and I don't know what all. Come, madam, let me persuade you. School

begins in three weeks. Let us fix a day before then."

 

"Do mamma," said Edward.

 

"I am not in spirits for visiting," Mrs. Browne answered. But the quick

children detected a hesitation in her manner of saying the oft spoken

words, and had hopes, if only Mr. Buxton would persevere in his invitation.

 

"Your not visiting is the very reason why you are not in spirits. A little

change, and a few neighborly faces, would do you good, I'll be bound.

Besides, for the children's sake you should not live too secluded a life.

Young people should see a little of the world."

 

Mrs. Browne was much obliged to Mr. Buxton for giving her so decent an

excuse for following her inclination, which, it must be owned, tended

to the acceptance of the invitation. So, "for the children's sake," she

consented. But she sighed, as if making a sacrifice.

 

"That's right," said Mr. Buxton. "Now for the day."

 

It was fixed that they should go on that day week; and after some further

conversation about the school at which Edward was to be placed, and some

more jokes about Maggie's notability, and an inquiry if she would come and

live with him the next time he wanted a housemaid, Mr. Buxton took his

leave.

 

His visit had been an event; and they made no great attempt at settling

again that day to any of their usual employments. In the first place, Nancy

came in to hear and discuss all the proposed plans. Ned, who was uncertain

whether to like or dislike the prospect of school, was very much offended

by the old servant's remark, on first hearing of the project.

 

"It's time for him. He'll learn his place there, which, it strikes me, he

and others too are apt to forget at home."

 

Then followed discussions and arrangements respecting his clothes. And then

they came to the plan of spending a day at Mr. Buxton's, which Mrs. Browne

was rather shy of mentioning, having a sort of an idea of inconstancy and

guilt connected with the thought of mingling with the world again. However,

Nancy approved: "It was quite right," and "just as it should be," and "good

for the children."

 

"Yes; it was on their account I did it, Nancy," said Mrs. Browne.

 

"How many children has Mr. Buxton?" asked Edward.

 

"Only one. Frank, I think, they call him. But you must say Master Buxton;

be sure."

 

"Who is the little girl, then," asked Maggie, "who sits with them in

church?"

 

"Oh! that's little Miss Harvey, his niece, and a great fortune."

 

"They do say he never forgave her mother till the day of her death,"

remarked Nancy.

 

"Then they tell stories, Nancy!" replied Mrs. Browne (it was she herself

who had said it; but that was before Mr. Buxton's call). For d'ye think his

sister would have left him guardian to her child, if they were not on good

terms?"

 

"Well! I only know what folks say. And, for sure, he took a spite at Mr.

Harvey for no reason on earth; and every one knows he never spoke to him."

 

"He speaks very kindly and pleasantly," put in Maggie.

 

"Ay; and I'm not saying but what he is a very good, kind man in the main.

But he has his whims, and keeps hold on 'em when he's got 'em. There's them

pies burning, and I'm talking here!"

 

When Nancy had returned to her kitchen, Mrs. Browne called Maggie up

stairs, to examine what clothes would be needed for Edward. And when they

were up, she tried on the black satin gown, which had been her visiting

dress ever since she was married, and which she intended should replace

the old, worn-out bombazine on the day of the visit to Combehurst.

 

"For Mrs. Buxton is a real born lady," said she; "and I should like to be

well dressed, to do her honor."

 

"I did not know there was a Mrs. Buxton," said Maggie. "She is never at

church."

 

"No; she is but delicate and weakly, and never leaves the house. I think

her maid told me she never left her room now."

 

The Buxton family, root and branch, formed the piÈce de rÉsistance in the

conversation between Mrs. Browne and her children for the next week. As the

day drew near, Maggie almost wished to stay at home, so impressed was she

with the awfulness of the visit. Edward felt bold in the idea of a new

suit of clothes, which had been ordered for the occasion, and for school

afterwards. Mrs. Browne remembered having heard the rector say, "A woman

never looked so lady-like as when she wore black satin," and kept her

spirits up with that observation; but when she saw how worn it was at the

elbows, she felt rather depressed, and unequal to visiting. Still, for her

children's sake, she would do much.

 

After her long day's work was ended, Nancy sat up at her sewing. She had

found out that among all the preparations, none were going on for Margaret;

and she had used her influence over her mistress (who half-liked and

half-feared, and entirely depended upon her) to obtain from her an old

gown, which she had taken to pieces, and washed and scoured, and was now

making up, in a way a little old-fashioned to be sure; but, on the whole,

it looked so nice when completed and put on, that Mrs. Browne gave Maggie

a strict lecture about taking great care of such a handsome frock and

forgot that she had considered the gown from which it had been made as

worn out and done for.

 

 

 

CHAPTER II.

 

At length they were dressed, and Nancy stood on the court-steps, shading

her eyes, and looking after them, as they climbed the heathery slope

leading to Combehurst.

 

"I wish she'd take her hand sometimes, just to let her know the feel of

her mother's hand. Perhaps she will, at least after Master Edward goes to

school."

 

As they went along, Mrs. Browne gave the children a few rules respecting

manners and etiquette.

 

"Maggie! you must sit as upright as ever you can; make your back flat,

child, and don't poke. If I cough, you must draw up. I shall cough whenever

I see you do anything wrong, and I shall be looking at you all day; so

remember. You hold yourself very well, Edward. If Mr. Buxton asks you, you

may have a glass of wine, because you're a boy. But mind and say, 'Your

good health, sir,' before you drink it."

 

"I'd rather not have the wine if I'm to say that," said Edward, bluntly.

 

"Oh, nonsense! my dear. You'd wish to be like a gentleman, I'm sure."

 

Edward muttered something which was inaudible. His mother went on:

 

Of course you'll never think of being helped more than twice. Twice of

meat, twice of pudding, is the genteel thing. You may take less, but never

more."

 

"Oh, mamma! how beautiful Combehurst spire is, with that dark cloud behind

it!" exclaimed Maggie, as they came in sight of the town.

 

"You've no business with Combehurst spire when I'm speaking to you. I'm

talking myself out of breath to teach you how to behave, and there you go

looking after clouds, and such like rubbish. I'm ashamed of you."

 

Although Maggie walked quietly by her mother's side all the rest of the

way, Mrs. Browne was too much offended to resume her instructions on

good-breeding. Maggie might be helped three times if she liked: she had

done with her.

 

They were very early. When they drew near the bridge, they were met by a

tall, fine-looking boy, leading a beautiful little Shetland pony, with a

side-saddle on it. He came up to Mrs. Browne, and addressed her.

 

"My father thought your little girl would be tired, and he told me to bring

my cousin Erminia's pony for her. It's as quiet as can be."

 

Now this was rather provoking to Mrs. Browne, as she chose to consider

Maggie in disgrace. However, there was no help for it: all she could do was

to spoil the enjoyment as far as possible, by looking and speaking in a

cold manner, which often chilled Maggie's little heart, and took all the

zest out of the pleasure now. It was in vain that Frank Buxton made the

pony trot and canter; she still looked sad and grave.

 

"Little dull thing!" he thought; but he was as kind and considerate as a

gentlemanly boy could be.

 

At last they reached Mr. Buxton's house. It was in the main street, and the

front door opened upon it by a flight of steps. Wide on each side extended

the stone-coped windows. It was in reality a mansion, and needed not

the neighboring contrast of the cottages on either side to make it look

imposing. When they went in, they entered a large hall, cool even on that

burning July day, with a black and white flag floor, and old settees

round the walls, and great jars of curious china, which were filled with

pot-pourrie. The dusky gloom was pleasant, after the glare of the street

outside; and the requisite light and cheerfulness were given by the peep

into the garden, framed, as it were, by the large door-way that opened into

it. There were roses, and sweet-peas, and poppies--a rich mass of color,

which looked well, set in the somewhat sombre coolness of the hall. All the

house told of wealth--wealth which had accumulated for generations, and

which was shown in a sort of comfortable, grand, unostentatious way. Mr.

Buxton's ancestors had been yeomen; but, two or three generations back,

they might, if ambitious, have taken their place as country gentry, so much

had the value of their property increased, and so great had been the amount

of their savings. They, however, continued to live in the old farm till Mr.

Buxton's grandfather built the house in Combehurst of which I am speaking,

and then he felt rather ashamed of what he had done; it seemed like

stepping out of his position. He and his wife always sat in the best

kitchen; and it was only after his son's marriage that the entertaining

rooms were furnished. Even then they were kept with closed shutters

and bagged-up furniture during the lifetime of the old couple, who,

nevertheless, took a pride in adding to the rich-fashioned ornaments and

grand old china of the apartments. But they died, and were gathered to

their fathers, and young Mr. and Mrs. Buxton (aged respectively fifty-one

and forty-five) reigned in their stead. They had the good taste to make no

sudden change; but gradually the rooms assumed an inhabited appearance, and

their son and daughter grew up in the enjoyment of great wealth, and no

small degree of refinement. But as yet they held back modestly from putting

themselves in any way on a level with the county people. Lawrence Buxton

was sent to the same school as his father had been before him; and the

notion of his going to college to complete his education was, after some

deliberation, negatived. In process of time he succeeded his father, and

married a sweet, gentle lady, of a decayed and very poor county family, by

whom he had one boy before she fell into delicate health. His sister had

married a man whose character was worse than his fortune, and had been left

a widow. Everybody thought her husband's death a blessing; but she loved

him, in spite of negligence and many grosser faults; and so, not many years

after, she died, leaving her little daughter to her brother's care, with

many a broken-voiced entreaty that he would never speak a word against

the dead father of her child. So the little Erminia was taken home by her

self-reproaching uncle, who felt now how hardly he had acted towards his

sister in breaking off all communication with her on her ill-starred

marriage.

 

"Where is Erminia, Frank?" asked his father, speaking over Maggie's

shoulder, while he still held her hand. "I want to take Mrs. Browne to your

mother. I told Erminia to be here to welcome this little girl."

 

"I'll take her to Minnie; I think she's in the garden. I'll come back to

you," nodding to Edward, "directly, and then we will go to the rabbits."

 

So Frank and Maggie left the great lofty room, full of strange rare

things, and rich with books, and went into the sunny scented garden, which

stretched far and wide behind the house. Down one of the walks, with a

hedge of roses on either side, came a little tripping fairy, with long

golden ringlets, and a complexion like a china rose. With the deep blue of

the summer sky behind her, Maggie thought she looked like an angel. She

neither hastened nor slackened her pace when she saw them, but came on with

the same dainty light prancing step.

 

"Make haste, Minnie," cried Frank.

 

But Minnie stopped to gather a rose.

 

"Don't stay with me," said Maggie, softly, although she had held his hand

like that of a friend, and did not feel that the little fairy's manner was

particularly cordial or gracious. Frank took her at her word, and ran off

to Edward.

 

Erminia came a little quicker when she saw that Maggie was left alone; but

for some time after they were together, they had nothing to say to each

other. Erminia was easily impressed by the pomps and vanities of the world;

and Maggie's new handsome frock seemed to her made of old ironed brown

silk. And though Maggie's voice was soft, with a silver ringing sound in

it, she pronounced her words in Nancy's broad country way. Her hair was cut

short all round; her shoes were thick, and clumped as she walked. Erminia

patronized her, and thought herself very kind and condescending; but they

were not particularly friendly. The visit promised to be more honorable

than agreeable, and Maggie almost wished herself at home again. Dinner-time

came. Mrs. Buxton dined in her own room. Mr. Buxton was hearty, and jovial,

and pressing; he almost scolded Maggie because she would not take more than

twice of his favorite pudding: but she remembered what her mother had said,

and that she would be watched all day; and this gave her a little prim,

quaint manner, very different from her usual soft charming unconsciousness.

She fancied that Edward and Master Buxton were just as little at their ease

with each other as she and Miss Harvey. Perhaps this feeling on the part of

the boys made all four children unite after dinner.

 

"Let us go to the swing in the shrubbery," said Frank, after a little

consideration; and off they ran. Frank proposed that he and Edward should

swing the two little girls; and for a time all went on very well. But

by-and-by Edward thought, that Maggie had had enough, and that he should

like a turn; and Maggie, at his first word, got out.

 

"Don't you like swinging?" asked Erminia.

 

"Yes! but Edward would like it now." And Edward accordingly took her place.

Frank turned away, and would not swing him. Maggie strove hard to do it,

but he was heavy, and the swing bent unevenly. He scolded her for what

she could not help, and at last jumped out so roughly, that the seat hit

Maggie's face, and knocked her down. When she got up, her lips quivered

with pain, but she did not cry; she only looked anxiously at her frock.

There was a great rent across the front breadth. Then she did shed

tears--tears of fright. What would her mother say?

 

Erminia saw her crying.

 

"Are you hurt?" said she, kindly. "Oh, how your cheek is swelled! What a

rude, cross boy your brother is!"

 

"I did not know he was going to jump out. I am not crying because I am

hurt, but because of this great rent in my nice new frock. Mamma will be so

displeased."

 

"Is it a new frock?" asked Erminia.

 

"It is a new one for me. Nancy has sat up several nights to make it. Oh!

what shall I do?"

 

Erminia's little heart was softened by such excessive poverty. A best frock

made of shabby old silk! She put her arms round Maggie's neck, and said:

 

"Come with me; we will go to my aunt's dressing-room, and Dawson will give

me some silk, and I'll help you to mend it."

 

"That's a kind little Minnie," said Frank. Ned had turned sulkily away. I

do not think the boys were ever cordial again that day; for, as Frank said

to his mother, "Ned might have said he was sorry; but he is a regular

tyrant to that little brown mouse of a sister of his."

 

Erminia and Maggie went, with their arms round each other's necks, to Mrs.

Buxton's dressing-room. The misfortune had made them friends. Mrs.

Buxton lay on the sofa; so fair and white and colorless, in her muslin

dressing-gown, that when Maggie first saw the lady lying with her eyes

shut, her heart gave a start, for she thought she was dead. But she opened

her large languid eyes, and called them to her, and listened to their story

with interest.

 

"Dawson is at tea. Look, Minnie, in my work-box; there is some silk there.

Take off your frock, my dear, and bring it here, and let me see how it can

be mended."

 

"Aunt Buxton," whispered Erminia, "do let me give her one of my frocks.

This is such an old thing."

 

"No, love. I'll tell you why afterwards," answered Mrs. Buxton.

 

She looked at the rent, and arranged it nicely for the little girls to

mend. Erminia helped Maggie with right good will. As they sat on the floor,

Mrs. Buxton thought what a pretty contrast they made; Erminia, dazzlingly

fair, with her golden ringlets, and her pale-blue frock; Maggie's little

round white shoulders peeping out of her petticoat; her brown hair as

glossy and smooth as the nuts that it resembled in color; her long black

eye-lashes drooping over her clear smooth cheek, which would have given the

idea of delicacy, but for the coral lips that spoke of perfect health: and

when she glanced up, she showed long, liquid, dark-gray eyes. The deep red

of the curtain behind, threw out these two little figures well.

 

Dawson came up. She was a grave elderly person, of whom Erminia was far

more afraid than she was of her aunt; but at Mrs. Buxton's desire she

finished mending the frock for Maggie.

 

"Mr. Buxton has asked some of your mamma's old friends to tea, as I am not

able to go down. But I think, Dawson, I must have these two little girls to

tea with me. Can you be very quiet, my dears; or shall you think it dull?"

 

They gladly accepted the invitation; and Erminia promised all sorts of

fanciful promises as to quietness; and went about on her tiptoes in such

a labored manner, that Mrs. Buxton begged her at last not to try and be

quiet, as she made much less noise when she did not. It was the happiest

part of the day to Maggie. Something in herself was so much in harmony with

Mrs. Buxton's sweet, resigned gentleness, that it answered like an echo,

and the two understood each other strangely well. They seemed like old

friends, Maggie, who was reserved at home because no one cared to hear what

she had to say, opened out, and told Erminia and Mrs. Buxton all about her

way of spending her day, and described her home.

 

"How odd!" said Erminia. "I have ridden that way on Abdel-Kadr, and never

seen your house."

 

"It is like the place the Sleeping Beauty lived in; people sometimes seem

to go round it and round it, and never find it. But unless you follow a

little sheep-track, which seems to end at a gray piece of rock, you may

come within a stone's throw of the chimneys and never see them. I think you

would think it so pretty. Do you ever come that way, ma'am?"

 

"No, love," answered Mrs. Buxton.

 

"But will you some time?"

 

"I am afraid I shall never be able to go out again," said Mrs. Buxton, in

a voice which, though low, was very cheerful. Maggie thought how sad a lot

was here before her; and by-and-by she took a little stool, and sat by Mrs.

Buxton's sofa, and stole her hand into hers.

 

Mrs. Browne was in full tide of pride and happiness down stairs. Mr. Buxton

had a number of jokes; which would have become dull from repetition (for he

worked a merry idea threadbare before he would let it go), had it not been

for his jovial blandness and good-nature. He liked to make people happy,

and, as far as bodily wants went, he had a quick perception of what was

required. He sat like a king (for, excepting the rector, there was not

another gentleman of his standing at Combehurst), among six or seven

ladies, who laughed merrily at all his sayings, and evidently thought Mrs.

Browne had been highly honored in having been asked to dinner as well as

to tea. In the evening, the carriage was ordered to take her as far as a

carriage could go; and there was a little mysterious handshaking between

her host and herself on taking leave, which made her very curious for the

lights of home by which to examine a bit of rustling paper that had been

put in her hand with some stammered-out words about Edward.

 

When every one had gone, there was a little gathering in Mrs. Buxton's

dressing-room. Husband, son and niece, all came to give her their opinions

on the day and the visitors.

 

"Good Mrs. Browne is a little tiresome," said Mr. Buxton, yawning. "Living

in that moorland hole, I suppose. However, I think she has enjoyed her day;

and we'll ask her down now and then, for Browne's sake. Poor Browne! What a

good man he was!"

 

"I don't like that boy at all," said Frank. "I beg you'll not ask him again

while I'm at home: he is so selfish and self-important; and yet he's a bit

snobbish now and then. Mother! I know what you mean by that look. Well! if

I am self-important sometimes, I'm not a snob."

 

"Little Maggie is very nice," said Erminia. "What a pity she has not a new

frock! Was not she good about it, Frank, when she tore it?"

 

"Yes, she's a nice little thing enough, if she does not get all spirit

cowed out of her by that brother. I'm thankful that he is going to school."

 

When Mrs. Browne heard where Maggie had drank tea, she was offended. She

had only sat with Mrs. Buxton for an hour before dinner. If Mrs. Buxton

could bear the noise of children, she could not think why she shut herself

up in that room, and gave herself such airs. She supposed it was because

she was the granddaughter of Sir Henry Biddulph that she took upon herself

to have such whims, and not sit at the head of her table, or make tea for

her company in a civil decent way. Poor Mr. Buxton! What a sad life for a

merry, light-hearted man to have such a wife! It was a good thing for him

to have agreeable society sometimes. She thought he looked a deal better

for seeing his friends. He must be sadly moped with that sickly wife.

 

(If she had been clairvoyante at that moment, she might have seen Mr.

Buxton tenderly chafing his wife's hands, and feeling in his innermost soul

a wonder how one so saint-like could ever have learnt to love such a boor

as he was; it was the wonderful mysterious blessing of his life. So little

do we know of the inner truths of the households, where we come and go like

intimate guests!)

 

Maggie could not bear to hear Mrs. Buxton spoken of as a fine lady assuming

illness. Her heart beat hard as she spoke. "Mamma! I am sure she is really

ill. Her lips kept going so white; and her hand was so burning hot all the

time that I held it."

 

"Have you been holding Mrs. Buxton's hand? Where were your manners? You are

a little forward creature, and ever were. But don't pretend to know better

than your elders. It is no use telling me Mrs. Buxton is ill, and she able

to bear the noise of children."

 

"I think they are all a pack of set-up people, and that Frank Buxton is the

worst of all," said Edward.

 

Maggie's heart sank within her to hear this cold, unkind way of talking

over the friends who had done so much to make their day happy. She had

never before ventured into the world, and did not know how common and

universal is the custom of picking to pieces those with whom we have just

been associating; and so it pained her. She was a little depressed, too,

with the idea that she should never see Mrs. Buxton and the lovely Erminia

again. Because no future visit or intercourse had been spoken about, she

fancied it would never take place; and she felt like the man in the Arabian

Nights, who caught a glimpse of the precious stones and dazzling glories

of the cavern, which was immediately after closed, and shut up into the

semblance of hard, barren rock. She tried to recall the house. Deep blue,

crimson red, warm brown draperies, were so striking after the light

chintzes of her own house; and the effect of a suite of rooms opening out

of each other was something quite new to the little girl; the apartments

seemed to melt away into vague distance, like the dim endings of the arched

aisles in church. But most of all she tried to recall Mrs. Buxton's face;

and Nancy had at last to put away her work, and come to bed, in order to

soothe the poor child, who was crying at the thought that Mrs. Buxton would

soon die, and that she should never see her again. Nancy loved Maggie

dearly, and felt no jealousy of this warm admiration of the unknown lady.

She listened to her story and her fears till the sobs were hushed; and the

moon fell through the casement on the white closed eyelids of one, who

still sighed in her sleep.

 

 

 

CHAPTER III.

 

In three weeks, the day came for Edward's departure. A great cake and a

parcel of gingerbread soothed his sorrows on leaving home.

 

"Don't cry, Maggie!" said he to her on the last morning; "you see I don't.

Christmas will soon be here, and I dare say I shall find time to write to

you now and then. Did Nancy put any citron in the cake?"

 

Maggie wished she might accompany her mother to Combehurst to see Edward

off by the coach; but it was not to be. She went with them, without her

bonnet, as far as her mother would allow her; and then she sat down, and

watched their progress for a long, long way. She was startled by the sound

of a horse's feet, softly trampling through the long heather. It was Frank

Buxton's.

 

"My father thought Mrs. Browne would like to see the Woodchester Herald. Is

Edward gone?" said he, noticing her sad face.

 

"Yes! he is just gone down the hill to the coach. I dare say you can see

him crossing the bridge, soon. I did so want to have gone with him,"

answered she, looking wistfully toward the town.

 

Frank felt sorry for her, left alone to gaze after her brother, whom,

strange as it was, she evidently regretted. After a minute's silence, he

said:

 

"You liked riding the other day. Would you like a ride now? Rhoda is very

gentle, if you can sit on my saddle. Look! I'll shorten the stirrup. There

now; there's a brave little girl! I'll lead her very carefully. Why,

Erminia durst not ride without a side-saddle! I'll tell you what; I'll

bring the newspaper every Wednesday till I go to school, and you shall have

a ride. Only I wish we had a side-saddle for Rhoda. Or, if Erminia will let

me, I'll bring Abdel-Kadr, the little Shetland you rode the other day."

 

"But will Mr. Buxton let you?" asked Maggie, half delighted--half afraid.

 

"Oh, my father! to be sure he will. I have him in very good order."

 

Maggie was rather puzzled by this way of speaking.

 

"When do you go to school?" asked she.

 

"Toward the end of August; I don't know the day."

 

"Does Erminia go to school?"

 

"No. I believe she will soon though, if mamma does not get better." Maggie

liked the change of voice, as he spoke of his mother.

 

"There, little lady! now jump down. Famous! you've a deal of spirit, you

little brown mouse."

 

Nancy came out, with a wondering look, to receive Maggie.

 

"It is Mr. Frank Buxton," said she, by way of an introduction. "He has

brought mamma the newspaper."

 

"Will you walk in, sir, and rest? I can tie up your horse."

 

"No, thank you," said he, "I must be off. Don't forget, little mousey, that

you are to ready for another ride next Wednesday." And away he went.

 

It needed a good deal of Nancy's diplomacy to procure Maggie this pleasure;

although I don't know why Mrs. Browne should have denied it, for the circle

they went was always within sight of the knoll in front of the house, if

any one cared enough about the matter to mount it, and look after them.

Frank and Maggie got great friends in these rides. Her fearlessness

delighted and surprised him, she had seemed so cowed and timid at first.

But she was only so with people, as he found out before holidays ended.

He saw her shrink from particular looks and inflexions of voice of her

mother's; and learnt to read them, and dislike Mrs. Browne accordingly,

notwithstanding all her sugary manner toward himself. The result of his

observations he communicated to his mother, and in consequence, he was the

bearer of a most civil and ceremonious message from Mrs. Buxton to Mrs.

Browne, to the effect that the former would be much obliged to the latter

if she would allow Maggie to ride down occasionally with the groom, who

would bring the newspapers on the Wednesdays (now Frank was going to

school), and to spend the afternoon with Erminia. Mrs. Browne consented,

proud of the honor, and yet a little annoyed that no mention was made of

herself. When Frank had bid good-bye, and fairly disappeared, she turned to

Maggie.

 

"You must not set yourself up if you go among these fine folks. It is their

way of showing attention to your father and myself. And you must mind and

work doubly hard on Thursdays to make up for playing on Wednesdays."

 

Maggie was in a flush of sudden color, and a happy palpitation of her

fluttering little heart. She could hardly feel any sorrow that the kind

Frank was going away, so brimful was she of the thoughts of seeing his

mother; who had grown strangely associated in her dreams, both sleeping

and waking, with the still calm marble effigies that lay for ever clasping

their hands in prayer on the altar-tombs in Combehurst church. All the

week was one happy season of anticipation. She was afraid her mother was

secretly irritated at her natural rejoicing; and so she did not speak to

her about it, but she kept awake till Nancy came to bed, and poured into

her sympathizing ears every detail, real or imaginary, of her past or

future intercourse with Mrs. Buxton, and the old servant listened with

interest, and fell into the custom of picturing the future with the ease

and simplicity of a child.

 

"Suppose, Nancy! only suppose, you know, that she did die. I don't mean

really die, but go into a trance like death; she looked as if she was in

one when I first saw her; I would not leave her, but I would sit by her,

and watch her, and watch her."

 

"Her lips would be always fresh and red," interrupted Nancy.

 

"Yes, I know you've told me before how they keep red--I should look at them

quite steadily; I would try never to go to sleep."

 

"The great thing would be to have air-holes left in the coffin." But Nancy

felt the little girl creep close to her at the grim suggestion, and, with

the tact of love, she changed the subject.

 

"Or supposing we could hear of a doctor who could charm away illness. There

were such in my young days; but I don't think people are so knowledgeable

now. Peggy Jackson, that lived near us when I was a girl, was cured of a

waste by a charm."

 

"What is a waste, Nancy?"

 

"It is just a pining away. Food does not nourish nor drink strengthen them,

but they just fade off, and grow thinner and thinner, till their shadow

looks gray instead of black at noonday; but he cured her in no time by a

charm."

 

"Oh, if we could find him."

 

"Lass, he's dead, and she's dead, too, long ago!"

 

While Maggie was in imagination going over moor and fell, into the hollows

of the distant mysterious hills, where she imagined all strange beasts and

weird people to haunt, she fell asleep.

 

Such were the fanciful thoughts which were engendered in the little girl's

mind by her secluded and solitary life. It was more solitary than ever, now

that Edward was gone to school. The house missed his loud cheerful voice,

and bursting presence. There seemed much less to be done, now that his

numerous wants no longer called for ministration and attendance. Maggie did

her task of work on her own gray rock; but as it was sooner finished, now

that he was not there to interrupt and call her off, she used to stray up

the Fell Lane at the back of the house; a little steep stony lane, more

like stairs cut in the rock than what we, in the level land, call a lane:

it reached on to the wide and open moor, and near its termination there

was a knotted thorn-tree; the only tree for apparent miles. Here the sheep

crouched under the storms, or stood and shaded themselves in the noontide

heat. The ground was brown with their cleft round foot-marks; and tufts of

wool were hung on the lower part of the stem, like votive offerings on some

shrine. Here Maggie used to come and sit and dream in any scarce half-hour

of leisure. Here she came to cry, when her little heart was overfull at her

mother's sharp fault-finding, or when bidden to keep out of the way, and

not be troublesome. She used to look over the swelling expanse of moor, and

the tears were dried up by the soft low-blowing wind which came sighing

along it. She forgot her little home griefs to wonder why a brown-purple

shadow always streaked one particular part in the fullest sunlight; why the

cloud-shadows always seemed to be wafted with a sidelong motion; or she

would imagine what lay beyond those old gray holy hills, which seemed to

bear up the white clouds of Heaven on which the angels flew abroad. Or she

would look straight up through the quivering air, as long as she could bear

its white dazzling, to try and see God's throne in that unfathomable and

infinite depth of blue. She thought she should see it blaze forth sudden

and glorious, if she were but full of faith. She always came down from the

thorn, comforted, and meekly gentle.

 

But there was danger of the child becoming dreamy, and finding her pleasure

in life in reverie, not in action, or endurance, or the holy rest which

comes after both, and prepares for further striving or bearing. Mrs.

Buxton's kindness prevented this danger just in time. It was partly out of

interest in Maggie, but also partly to give Erminia a companion, that she

wished the former to come down to Combehurst.

 

When she was on these visits, she received no regular instruction; and yet

all the knowledge, and most of the strength of her character, was derived

from these occasional hours. It is true her mother had given her daily

lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic; but both teacher and taught

felt these more as painful duties to be gone through, than understood them

as means to an end. The "There! child; now that's done with," of relief,

from Mrs. Browne, was heartily echoed in Maggie's breast, as the dull

routine was concluded.

 

Mrs. Buxton did not make a set labor of teaching; I suppose she felt that

much was learned from her superintendence, but she never thought of doing

or saying anything with a latent idea of its indirect effect upon the

little girls, her companions. She was simply herself; she even confessed

(where the confession was called for) to short-comings, to faults, and

never denied the force of temptations, either of those which beset little

children, or of those which occasionally assailed herself. Pure, simple,

and truthful to the heart's core, her life, in its uneventful hours and

days, spoke many homilies. Maggie, who was grave, imaginative, and

somewhat quaint, took pains in finding words to express the thoughts to

which her solitary life had given rise, secure of Mrs. Buxton's ready

understanding and sympathy.

 

"You are so like a cloud," said she to Mrs. Buxton. "Up at the Thorn-tree,

it was quite curious how the clouds used to shape themselves, just

according as I was glad or sorry. I have seen the same clouds, that, when

I came up first, looked like a heap of little snow-hillocks over babies'

graves, turn, as soon as I grew happier, to a sort of long bright row of

angels. And you seem always to have had some sorrow when I am sad, and turn

bright and hopeful as soon as I grow glad. Dear Mrs. Buxton! I wish Nancy

knew you."

 

The gay, volatile, willful, warm-hearted Erminia was less earnest in all

things. Her childhood had been passed amid the distractions of wealth; and

passionately bent upon the attainment of some object at one moment, the

next found her angry at being reminded of the vanished anxiety she had

shown but a moment before. Her life was a shattered mirror; every part

dazzling and brilliant, but wanting the coherency and perfection of

a whole. Mrs. Buxton strove to bring her to a sense of the beauty of

completeness, and the relation which qualities and objects bear to each

other; but in all her striving she retained hold of the golden clue of

sympathy. She would enter into Erminia's eagerness, if the object of

it varied twenty times a day; but by-and-by, in her own mild, sweet,

suggestive way, she would place all these objects in their right and

fitting places, as they were worthy of desire. I do not know how it was,

but all discords, and disordered fragments, seemed to fall into harmony and

order before her presence.

 

She had no wish to make the two little girls into the same kind of pattern

character. They were diverse as the lily and the rose. But she tried to

give stability and earnestness to Erminia; while she aimed to direct

Maggie's imagination, so as to make it a great minister to high ends,

instead of simply contributing to the vividness and duration of a reverie.

 

She told her tales of saints and martyrs, and all holy heroines, who forgot

themselves, and strove only to be "ministers of Him, to do His pleasure."

The tears glistened in the eyes of hearer and speaker, while she spoke in

her low, faint voice, which was almost choked at times when she came to the

noblest part of all.

 

But when she found that Maggie was in danger of becoming too little a

dweller in the present, from the habit of anticipating the occasion for

some great heroic action, she spoke of other heroines. She told her how,

though the lives of these women of old were only known to us through some

striking glorious deed, they yet must have built up the temple of their

perfection by many noiseless stories; how, by small daily offerings laid

on the altar, they must have obtained their beautiful strength for the

crowning sacrifice. And then she would turn and speak of those whose names

will never be blazoned on earth--some poor maid-servant, or hard-worked

artisan, or weary governess--who have gone on through life quietly, with

holy purposes in their hearts, to which they gave up pleasure and ease,

in a soft, still, succession of resolute days. She quoted those lines of

George Herbert's:

 

  "All may have,

  If they dare choose, a glorious life, or grave."

 

And Maggie's mother was disappointed because Mrs. Buxton had never offered

to teach her "to play on the piano," which was to her the very head and

front of a genteel education. Maggie, in all her time of yearning to become

Joan of Arc, or some great heroine, was unconscious that she herself showed

no little heroism, in bearing meekly what she did every day from her

mother. It was hard to be questioned about Mrs. Buxton, and then to have

her answers turned into subjects for contempt, and fault-finding with that

sweet lady's ways.

 

When Ned came home for the holidays, he had much to tell. His mother

listened for hours to his tales; and proudly marked all that she could note

of his progress in learning. His copy-books and writing-flourishes were a

sight to behold; and his account-books contained towers and pyramids of

figures.

 

"Ay, ay!" said Mr. Buxton, when they were shown to him; "this is grand!

when I was a boy I could make a flying eagle with one stroke of my pen,

but I never could do all this. And yet I thought myself a fine fellow, I

warrant you. And these sums! why man! I must make you my agent. I need one,

I'm sure; for though I get an accountant every two or three years to do

up my books, they somehow have the knack of getting wrong again. Those

quarries, Mrs. Browne, which every one says are so valuable, and for the

stone out of which receive orders amounting to hundreds of pounds, what

d'ye think was the profit I made last year, according to my books?"

 

"I'm sure I don't know, sir; something very great, I've no doubt."

 

"Just seven-pence three farthings," said he, bursting into a fit of merry

laughter, such as another man would have kept for the announcement of

enormous profits. "But I must manage things differently soon. Frank will

want money when he goes to Oxford, and he shall have it. I'm but a rough

sort of fellow, but Frank shall take his place as a gentleman. Aha, Miss

Maggie! and where's my gingerbread? There you go, creeping up to Mrs.

Buxton on a Wednesday, and have never taught Cook how to make gingerbread

yet. Well, Ned! and how are the classics going on? Fine fellow, that

Virgil! Let me see, how does it begin?

 

  'Arma, virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris.'

 

That's pretty well, I think, considering I've never opened him since I left

school thirty years ago. To be sure, I spent six hours a day at it when I

was there. Come now, I'll puzzle you. Can you construe this?

 

  "Infir dealis, inoak noneis; inmud eelis, inclay noneis."

 

"To be sure I can," said Edward, with a little contempt in his tone. "Can

you do this, sir?

 

  "Apud in is almi des ire,

  Mimis tres i neve require,

  Alo veri findit a gestis,

  His miseri ne ver at restis."

 

But though Edward had made much progress, and gained three prizes, his

moral training had been little attended to. He was more tyrannical than

ever, both to his mother and Maggie. It was a drawn battle between him and

Nancy, and they kept aloof from each other as much as possible. Maggie fell

into her old humble way of submitting to his will, as long as it did not go

against her conscience; but that, being daily enlightened by her habits of

pious aspiring thought, would not allow her to be so utterly obedient as

formerly. In addition to his imperiousness, he had learned to affix the

idea of cleverness to various artifices and subterfuges which utterly

revolted her by their meanness.

 

"You are so set up, by being intimate with Erminia, that you won't do a

thing I tell you; you are as selfish and self-willed as"--he made a pause.

Maggie was ready to cry.

 

"I will do anything, Ned, that is right."

 

"Well! and I tell you this is right."

 

"How can it be?" said she, sadly, almost wishing to be convinced.

 

"How--why it is, and that's enough for you. You must always have a reason

for everything now. You are not half so nice as you were. Unless one chops

logic with you, and convinces you by a long argument, you'll do nothing. Be

obedient, I tell you. That is what a woman has to be."

 

"I could be obedient to some people, without knowing their reasons, even

though they told me to do silly things," said Maggie, half to herself.

 

"I should like to know to whom," said Edward, scornfully.

 

"To Don Quixote," answered she, seriously; for, indeed, he was present in

her mind just then, and his noble, tender, melancholy character had made a

strong impression there.

 

Edward stared at her for a moment, and then burst into a loud fit of

laughter. It had the good effect of restoring him to a better frame of

mind. He had such an excellent joke against his sister, that he could not

be angry with her. He called her Sancho Panza all the rest of the holidays,

though she protested against it, saying she could not bear the Squire, and

disliked being called by his name.

 

Frank and Edward seemed to have a mutual antipathy to each other, and the

coldness between them was rather increased than diminished by all Mr.

Buxton's efforts to bring them together. "Come, Frank, my lad!" said he,

"don't be so stiff with Ned. His father was a dear friend of mine, and I've

set my heart on seeing you friends. You'll have it in your power to help

him on in the world."

 

But Frank answered, "He is not quite honorable, sir. I can't bear a boy who

is not quite honorable. Boys brought up at those private schools are so

full of tricks!"

 

"Nay, my lad, there thou'rt wrong. I was brought up at a private school,

and no one can say I ever dirtied my hands with a trick in my life. Good

old Mr. Thompson would have flogged the life out of a boy who did anything

mean or underhand."

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV.

 

Summers and winters came and went, with little to mark them, except the

growth of the trees, and the quiet progress of young creatures. Erminia was

sent to school somewhere in France, to receive more regular instruction

than she could have in the house with her invalid aunt. But she came home

once a year, more lovely and elegant and dainty than ever; and Maggie

thought, with truth, that ripening years were softening down her

volatility, and that her aunt's dewlike sayings had quietly sunk deep, and

fertilized the soil. That aunt was fading away. Maggie's devotion added

materially to her happiness; and both she and Maggie never forgot that this

devotion was to be in all things subservient to the duty which she owed to

her mother.

 

"My love," Mrs. Buxton had more than once said, "you must always recollect

that your first duty is toward your mother. You know how glad I am to see

you; but I shall always understand how it is, if you do not come. She may

often want you when neither you nor I can anticipate it."

 

Mrs. Browne had no great wish to keep Maggie at home, though she liked to

grumble at her going. Still she felt that it was best, in every way, to

keep on good terms with such valuable friends; and she appreciated, in some

small degree, the advantage which her intimacy at the house was to Maggie.

But yet she could not restrain a few complaints, nor withhold from her, on

her return, a recapitulation of all the things which might have been done

if she had only been at home, and the number of times that she had been

wanted; but when she found that Maggie quietly gave up her next Wednesday's

visit as soon as she was made aware of any necessity for her presence at

home, her mother left off grumbling, and took little or no notice of her

absence.

 

When the time came for Edward to leave school, he announced that he had no

intention of taking orders, but meant to become an attorney.

 

"It's such slow work," said he to his mother. "One toils away for four or

five years, and then one gets a curacy of seventy pounds a-year, and no end

of work to do for the money. Now the work is not much harder in a lawyer's

office, and if one has one's wits about one, there are hundreds and

thousands a-year to be picked up with mighty little trouble."

 

Mrs. Browne was very sorry for this determination. She had a great desire

to see her son a clergyman, like his father. She did not consider whether

his character was fitted for so sacred an office; she rather thought that

the profession itself, when once assumed, would purify the character; but,

in fact, his fitness or unfitness for holy orders entered little into her

mind. She had a respect for the profession, and his father had belonged to

it.

 

"I had rather see you a curate at seventy pounds a-year, than an attorney

with seven hundred," replied she. "And you know your father was always

asked to dine everywhere--to places where I know they would not have asked

Mr. Bish, of Woodchester, and he makes his thousand a-year. Besides, Mr.

Buxton has the next presentation to Combehurst, and you would stand a good

chance for your father's sake. And in the mean time you should live here,

if your curacy was any way near."

 

"I dare say! Catch me burying myself here again. My dear mother, it's a

very respectable place for you and Maggie to live in, and I dare say

you don't find it dull; but the idea of my quietly sitting down here is

something too absurd!"

 

"Papa did, and was very happy," said Maggie.

 

"Yes! after he had been at Oxford," replied Edward, a little nonplussed by

this reference to one whose memory even the most selfish and thoughtless

must have held in respect.

 

"Well! and you know you would have to go to Oxford first."

 

"Maggie! I wish you would not interfere between my mother and me. I want

to have it settled and done with, and that it will never be if you keep

meddling. Now, mother, don't you see how much better it will be for me to

go into Mr. Bish's office? Harry Bish has spoken to his father about it."

 

Mrs. Browne sighed.

 

"What will Mr. Buxton say?" asked she, dolefully.

 

"Say! Why don't you see it was he who first put it into my head, by telling

me that first Christmas holidays, that I should be his agent. That would be

something, would it not? Harry Bish says he thinks a thousand a-year might

be made of it."

 

His loud, decided, rapid talking overpowered Mrs. Browne; but she resigned

herself to his wishes with more regrets than she had ever done before. It

was not the first case in which fluent declamation has taken the place of

argument.

 

Edward was articled to Mr. Bish, and thus gained his point. There was no

one with power to resist his wishes, except his mother and Mr. Buxton. The

former had long acknowledged her son's will as her law; and the latter,

though surprised and almost disappointed at a change of purpose which he

had never anticipated in his plans for Edward's benefit, gave his consent,

and even advanced some of the money requisite for the premium.

 

Maggie looked upon this change with mingled feelings. She had always from a

child pictured Edward to herself as taking her father's place. When she had

thought of him as a man, it was as contemplative, grave, and gentle, as she

remembered her father. With all a child's deficiency of reasoning power,

she had never considered how impossible it was that a selfish, vain,

and impatient boy could become a meek, humble, and pious man, merely by

adopting a profession in which such qualities are required. But now, at

sixteen, she was beginning to understand all this. Not by any process of

thought, but by something more like a correct feeling, she perceived that

Edward would never be the true minister of Christ. So, more glad and

thankful than sorry, though sorrow mingled with her sentiments, she learned

the decision that he was to be an attorney.

 

Frank Buxton all this time was growing up into a young man. The hopes both

of father and mother were bound up in him; and, according to the difference

in their characters was the difference in their hopes. It seemed, indeed,

probable that Mr. Buxton, who was singularly void of worldliness or

ambition for himself, would become worldly and ambitious for his son. His

hopes for Frank were all for honor and distinction here. Mrs. Buxton's

hopes were prayers. She was fading away, as light fades into darkness on a

summer evening. No one seemed to remark the gradual progress; but she was

fully conscious of it herself. The last time that Frank was at home from

college before her death, she knew that she should never see him again;

and when he gaily left the house, with a cheerfulness, which was partly

assumed, she dragged herself with languid steps into a room at the front

of the house, from which she could watch him down the long, straggling

little street, that led to the inn from which the coach started. As he

went along, he turned to look back at his home; and there he saw his

mother's white figure gazing after him. He could not see her wistful eyes,

but he made her poor heart give a leap of joy by turning round and running

back for one more kiss and one more blessing.

 

When he next came home, it was at the sudden summons of her death.

 

His father was as one distracted. He could not speak of the lost angel

without sudden bursts of tears, and oftentimes of self-upbraiding, which

disturbed the calm, still, holy ideas, which Frank liked to associate with

her. He ceased speaking to him, therefore, about their mutual loss; and it

was a certain kind of relief to both when he did so; but he longed for

some one to whom he might talk of his mother, with the quiet reverence of

intense and trustful affection. He thought of Maggie, of whom he had

seen but little of late; for when he had been at Combehurst, she had

felt that Mrs. Buxton required her presence less, and had remained more at

home. Possibly Mrs. Buxton regretted this; but she never said anything.

She, far-looking, as one who was near death, foresaw that, probably, if

Maggie and her son met often in her sick-room, feelings might arise which

would militate against her husband's hopes and plans, and which, therefore,

she ought not to allow to spring up. But she had been unable to refrain

from expressing her gratitude to Maggie for many hours of tranquil

happiness, and had unconsciously dropped many sentences which made Frank

feel, that, in the little brown mouse of former years, he was likely to

meet with one who could tell him much of the inner history of his mother in

her last days, and to whom he could speak of her without calling out the

passionate sorrow which was so little in unison with her memory.

 

Accordingly, one afternoon, late in the autumn, he rode up to Mrs.

Browne's. The air on the heights was so still that nothing seemed to stir.

Now and then a yellow leaf came floating down from the trees, detached from

no outward violence, but only because its life had reached its full limit

and then ceased. Looking down on the distant sheltered woods, they were

gorgeous in orange and crimson, but their splendor was felt to be the sign

of the decaying and dying year. Even without an inward sorrow, there was a

grand solemnity in the season which impressed the mind, and hushed it into

tranquil thought. Frank rode slowly along, and quietly dismounted at the

old horse-mount, beside which there was an iron bridle-ring fixed in

the gray stone wall. He saw the casement of the parlor-window open, and

Maggie's head bent down over her work. She looked up as he entered the

court, and his footsteps sounded on the flag-walk. She came round and

opened the door. As she stood in the door-way, speaking, he was struck by

her resemblance to some old painting. He had seen her young, calm face,

shining out with great peacefulness, and the large, grave, thoughtful eyes,

giving the character to the features which otherwise they might, from their

very regularity, have wanted. Her brown dress had the exact tint which a

painter would have admired. The slanting mellow sunlight fell upon her as

she stood; and the vine-leaves, already frost-tinted, made a rich, warm

border, as they hung over the old house-door.

 

"Mamma is not well; she is gone to lie down. How are you? How is Mr.

Buxton?"

 

"We are both pretty well; quite well, in fact, as far as regards health.

May I come in? I want to talk to you, Maggie!"

 

She opened the little parlor-door, and they went in; but for a time they

were both silent. They could not speak of her who was with them, present

in their thoughts. Maggie shut the casement, and put a log of wood on the

fire. She sat down with her back to the window; but as the flame sprang up,

and blazed at the touch of the dry wood, Frank saw that her face was wet

with quiet tears. Still her voice was even and gentle, as she answered his

questions. She seemed to understand what were the very things he would care

most to hear. She spoke of his mother's last days; and without any word of

praise (which, indeed, would have been impertinence), she showed such a

just and true appreciation of her who was dead and gone, that he felt as if

he could listen forever to the sweet-dropping words. They were balm to his

sore heart. He had thought it possible that the suddenness of her death

might have made her life incomplete, in that she might have departed

without being able to express wishes and projects, which would now have the

sacred force of commands. But he found that Maggie, though she had never

intruded herself as such, had been the depository of many little thoughts

and plans; or, if they were not expressed to her, she knew that Mr. Buxton

or Dawson was aware of what they were, though, in their violence of early

grief, they had forgotten to name them. The flickering brightness of the

flame had died away; the gloom of evening had gathered into the room,

through the open door of which the kitchen fire sent a ruddy glow,

distinctly marked against carpet and wall. Frank still sat, with his head

buried in his hands against the table, listening.

 

"Tell me more," he said, at every pause.

 

"I think I have told you all now," said Maggie, at last. "At least, it is

all I recollect at present; but if I think of anything more, I will be sure

and tell you."

 

"Thank you; do." He was silent for some time.

 

"Erminia is coming home at Christmas. She is not to go back to Paris again.

She will live with us. I hope you and she will be great friends, Maggie."

 

"Oh yes," replied she. "I think we are already. At least we were last

Christmas. You know it is a year since I have seen her."

 

"Yes; she went to Switzerland with Mademoiselle Michel, instead of coming

home the last time. Maggie, I must go, now. My father will be waiting

dinner for me."

 

"Dinner! I was going to ask if you would not stay to tea. I hear mamma

stirring about in her room. And Nancy is getting things ready, I see. Let

me go and tell mamma. She will not be pleased unless she sees you. She has

been very sorry for you all," added she, dropping her voice.

 

Before he could answer, she ran up stairs.

 

Mrs. Browne came down.

 

"Oh, Mr. Frank! Have you been sitting in the dark? Maggie, you ought to

have rung for candles! Ah! Mr. Frank, you've had a sad loss since I saw you

here--let me see--in the last week of September. But she was always a sad

invalid; and no doubt your loss is her gain. Poor Mr. Buxton, too! How is

he? When one thinks of him, and of her years of illness, it seems like a

happy release."

 

She could have gone on for any length of time, but Frank could not bear

this ruffling up of his soothed grief, and told her that his father was

expecting him home to dinner.

 

"Ah! I am sure you must not disappoint him. He'll want a little cheerful

company more than ever now. You must not let him dwell on it, Mr. Frank,

but turn his thoughts another way by always talking of other things. I am

sure if I had some one to speak to me in a cheerful, pleasant way, when

poor dear Mr. Browne died, I should never have fretted after him as I did;

but the children were too young, and there was no one to come and divert

me with any news. If I'd been living in Combehurst, I am sure I should not

have let my grief get the better of me as I did. Could you get up a quiet

rubber in the evenings, do you think?"

 

But Frank had shaken hands and was gone. As he rode home he thought much of

sorrow, and the different ways of bearing it. He decided that it was sent

by God for some holy purpose, and to call out into existence some higher

good; and he thought that if it were faithfully taken as His decree there

would be no passionate, despairing resistance to it; nor yet, if it were

trustfully acknowledged to have some wise end, should we dare to baulk it,

and defraud it by putting it on one side, and, by seeking the distractions

of worldly things, not let it do its full work. And then he returned to

his conversation with Maggie. That had been real comfort to him. What an

advantage it would be to Erminia to have such a girl for a friend and

companion!

 

It was rather strange that, having this thought, and having been struck, as

I said, with Maggie's appearance while she stood in the door-way (and I may

add that this impression of her unobtrusive beauty had been deepened by

several succeeding interviews), he should reply as he did to Erminia's

remark, on first seeing Maggie after her return from France.

 

"How lovely Maggie is growing! Why, I had no idea she would ever turn out

pretty. Sweet-looking she always was; but now her style of beauty makes her

positively distinguished. Frank! speak! is not she beautiful?"

 

"Do you think so?" answered he, with a kind of lazy indifference,

exceedingly gratifying to his father, who was listening with some eagerness

to his answer. That day, after dinner, Mr. Buxton began to ask his opinion

of Erminia's appearance.

 

Frank answered at once:

 

"She is a dazzling little creature. Her complexion looks as if it were made

of cherries and milk; and, it must be owned, the little lady has studied

the art of dress to some purpose in Paris."

 

Mr. Buxton was nearer happiness at this reply than he had ever been

since his wife's death; for the only way he could devise to satisfy his

reproachful conscience towards his neglected and unhappy sister, was to

plan a marriage between his son and her child. He rubbed his hands and

drank two extra glasses of wine.

 

"We'll have the Brownes to dinner, as usual, next Thursday," said he, "I am

sure your mother would have been hurt if we had omitted it; it is now nine

years since they began to come, and they have never missed one Christmas

since. Do you see any objection, Frank?"

 

"None at all, sir," answered he. "I intend to go up to town soon after

Christmas, for a week or ten days, on my way to Cambridge. Can I do

anything for you?"

 

"Well, I don't know. I think I shall go up myself some day soon. I can't

understand all these lawyer's letters, about the purchase of the Newbridge

estate; and I fancy I could make more sense out of it all, if I saw Mr.

Hodgson."

 

"I wish you would adopt my plan, of having an agent, sir. Your affairs are

really so complicated now, that they would take up the time of an expert

man of business. I am sure all those tenants at Dumford ought to be seen

after."

 

"I do see after them. There's never a one that dares cheat me, or that

would cheat me if they could. Most of them have lived under the Buxtons for

generations. They know that if they dared to take advantage of me, I should

come down upon them pretty smartly."

 

"Do you rely upon their attachment to your family--or on their idea of your

severity?"

 

"On both. They stand me instead of much trouble in account-keeping, and

those eternal lawyers' letters some people are always dispatching to their

tenants. When I'm cheated, Frank, I give you leave to make me have an

agent, but not till then. There's my little Erminia singing away, and

nobody to hear her."

 

 

 

CHAPTER V.

 

Christmas-Day was strange and sad. Mrs. Buxton had always contrived to be

in the drawing-room, ready to receive them all after dinner. Mr. Buxton

tried to do away with his thoughts of her by much talking; but every now

and then he looked wistfully toward the door. Erminia exerted herself to

be as lively as she could, in order, if possible, to fill up the vacuum.

Edward, who had come over from Woodchester for a walk, had a good deal to

say; and was, unconsciously, a great assistance with his never-ending flow

of rather clever small-talk. His mother felt proud of her son, and his new

waistcoat, which was far more conspicuously of the latest fashion than

Frank's could be said to be. After dinner, when Mr. Buxton and the two

young men were left alone, Edward launched out still more. He thought he

was impressing Frank with his knowledge of the world, and the world's ways.

But he was doing all in his power to repel one who had never been much

attracted toward him. Worldly success was his standard of merit. The end

seemed with him to justify the means; if a man prospered, it was not

necessary to scrutinize his conduct too closely. The law was viewed in its

lowest aspect; and yet with a certain cleverness, which preserved Edward

from being intellectually contemptible. Frank had entertained some idea of

studying for a barrister himself: not so much as a means of livelihood as

to gain some idea of the code which makes and shows a nation's conscience:

but Edward's details of the ways in which the letter so often baffles the

spirit, made him recoil. With some anger against himself, for viewing the

profession with disgust, because it was degraded by those who embraced it,

instead of looking upon it as what might be ennobled and purified into a

vast intelligence by high and pure-minded men, he got up abruptly and left

the room.

 

The girls were sitting over the drawing-room fire, with unlighted candles

on the table, talking, he felt, about his mother; but when he came in they

rose, and changed their tone. Erminia went to the piano, and sang her

newest and choicest French airs. Frank was gloomy and silent; but when she

changed into more solemn music his mood was softened, Maggie's simple and

hearty admiration, untinged by the slightest shade of envy for Erminia's

accomplishments, charmed him. The one appeared to him the perfection of

elegant art, the other of graceful nature. When he looked at Maggie,

and thought of the moorland home from which she had never wandered, the

mysteriously beautiful lines of Wordsworth seemed to become sun-clear to

him.

 

  "And she shall lean her ear

  In many a secret place

  Where rivulets dance their wayward round,

  And beauty born of murmuring sound

  Shall pass into her face."

 

Mr. Buxton, in the dining-room, was really getting to take an interest in

Edward's puzzling cases. They were like tricks at cards. A quick motion,

and out of the unpromising heap, all confused together, presto! the right

card turned up. Edward stated his case, so that there did not seem loophole

for the desired verdict; but through some conjuration, it always came

uppermost at last. He had a graphic way of relating things; and, as he did

not spare epithets in his designation of the opposing party, Mr. Buxton

took it upon trust that the defendant or the prosecutor (as it might

happen) was a "pettifogging knave," or a "miserly curmudgeon," and rejoiced

accordingly in the triumph over him gained by the ready wit of "our

governor," Mr. Bish. At last he became so deeply impressed with Edward's

knowledge of law, as to consult him about some cottage property he had in

Woodchester.

 

"I rather think there are twenty-one cottages, and they don't bring me in

four pounds a-year; and out of that I have to pay for collecting. Would

there be any chance of selling them? They are in Doughty-street; a bad

neighborhood, I fear."

 

"Very bad," was Edward's prompt reply. "But if you are really anxious to

effect a sale, I have no doubt I could find a purchaser in a short time."

 

"I should be very much obliged to you," said Mr. Buxton. "You would be

doing me a kindness. If you meet with a purchaser, and can manage the

affair, I would rather that you drew out the deeds for the transfer of the

property. It would be the beginning of business for you; and I only hope I

should bring you good luck."

 

Of course Edward could do this; and when they left the table, it was with

a feeling on his side that he was a step nearer to the agency which he

coveted; and with a happy consciousness on Mr. Buxton's of having put a few

pounds in the way of a deserving and remarkably clever young man.

 

Since Edward had left home, Maggie had gradually, but surely, been gaining

in importance. Her judgment and her untiring unselfishness could not fail

to make way. Her mother had some respect for, and great dependence on her;

but still it was hardly affection that she felt for her; or if it was it

was a dull and torpid kind of feeling, compared with the fond love and

exulting pride which she took in Edward. When he came back for occasional

holidays, his mother's face was radiant with happiness, and her manner

toward him was even more caressing than he approved of. When Maggie saw him

repel the hand that fain would have stroked his hair as in childish days,

a longing came into her heart for some of these uncared-for tokens of her

mother's love. Otherwise she meekly sank back into her old secondary place,

content to have her judgment slighted and her wishes unasked as long as he

stayed. At times she was now beginning to disapprove and regret some things

in him; his flashiness of manner jarred against her taste; and a deeper,

graver feeling was called out by his evident want of quick moral

perception. "Smart and clever," or "slow and dull," took with him the place

of "right and wrong." Little as he thought it, he was himself narrow-minded

and dull; slow and blind to perceive the beauty and eternal wisdom of

simple goodness.

 

Erminia and Maggie became great friends. Erminia used to beg for Maggie,

until she herself put a stop to the practice; as she saw her mother yielded

more frequently than was convenient, for the honor of having her daughter

a visitor at Mr. Buxton's, about which she could talk to her few

acquaintances who persevered in calling at the cottage. Then Erminia

volunteered a visit of some days to Maggie, and Mrs. Browne's pride was

redoubled; but she made so many preparations, and so much fuss, and gave

herself so much trouble, that she was positively ill during Erminia's stay;

and Maggie felt that she must henceforward deny herself the pleasure of

having her friend for a guest, as her mother could not be persuaded from

attempting to provide things in the same abundance and style as that to

which Erminia was accustomed at home; whereas, as Nancy shrewdly observed,

the young lady did not know if she was eating jelly, or porridge, or

whether the plates were common delf or the best China, so long as she was

with her dear Miss Maggie. Spring went, and summer came. Frank had gone to

and fro between Cambridge and Combehurst, drawn by motives of which he felt

the force, but into which he did not care to examine. Edward had sold the

property of Mr. Buxton; and he, pleased with the possession of half the

purchase money (the remainder of which was to be paid by installments), and

happy in the idea that his son came over so frequently to see Erminia, had

amply rewarded the young attorney for his services.

 

One summer's day, as hot as day could be, Maggie had been busy all morning;

for the weather was so sultry that she would not allow either Nancy or

her mother to exert themselves much. She had gone down with the old brown

pitcher, coeval with herself, to the spring for water; and while it was

trickling, and making a tinkling music, she sat down on the ground. The

air was so still that she heard the distant wood-pigeons cooing; and round

about her the bees were murmuring busily among the clustering heath. From

some little touch of sympathy with these low sounds of pleasant harmony,

she began to try and hum some of Erminia's airs. She never sang out loud,

or put words to her songs; but her voice was very sweet, and it was a great

pleasure to herself to let it go into music. Just as her jug was filled,

she was startled by Frank's sudden appearance. She thought he was at

Cambridge, and, from some cause or other, her face, usually so faint in

color, became the most vivid scarlet. They were both too conscious to

speak. Maggie stooped (murmuring some words of surprise) to take up her

pitcher.

 

"Don't go yet, Maggie," said he, putting his hand on hers to stop her; but,

somehow, when that purpose was effected, he forgot to take it off again. "I

have come all the way from Cambridge to see you. I could not bear suspense

any longer. I grew so impatient for certainty of some kind, that I went up

to town last night, in order to feel myself on my way to you, even though

I knew I could not be here a bit earlier to-day for doing so. Maggie--dear

Maggie! how you are trembling! Have I frightened you? Nancy told me you

were here; but it was very thoughtless to come so suddenly upon you."

 

It was not the suddenness of his coming; it was the suddenness of her own

heart, which leaped up with the feelings called out by his words. She

went very white, and sat down on the ground as before. But she rose again

immediately, and stood, with drooping, averted head. He had dropped her

hand, but now sought to take it again.

 

"Maggie, darling, may I speak?" Her lips moved, he saw, but he could not

hear. A pang of affright ran through him that, perhaps, she did not wish to

listen. "May I speak to you?" he asked again, quite timidly. She tried to

make her voice sound, but it would not; so she looked round. Her soft

gray eyes were eloquent in that one glance. And, happier than his words,

passionate and tender as they were, could tell, he spoke till her trembling

was changed into bright flashing blushes, and even a shy smile hovered

about her lips, and dimpled her cheeks.

 

The water bubbled over the pitcher unheeded. At last she remembered all the

work-a-day world. She lifted up the jug, and would have hurried home, but

Frank decidedly took it from her.

 

"Henceforward," said he, "I have a right to carry your burdens." So with

one arm round her waist and with the other carrying the water, they climbed

the steep turfy slope. Near the top she wanted to take it again.

 

"Mamma will not like it. Mamma will think it so strange."

 

"Why, dearest, if I saw Nancy carrying it up this slope I would take it

from her. It would be strange if a man did not carry it for any woman.

But you must let me tell your mother of my right to help you. It is your

dinner-time is it not? I may come in to dinner as one of the family may not

I Maggie?"

 

"No" she said softly. For she longed to be alone; and she dreaded being

overwhelmed by the expression of her mother's feelings, weak and agitated

as she felt herself. "Not to-day."

 

"Not to-day!" said he reproachfully. "You are very hard upon me. Let me

come to tea. If you will, I will leave you now. Let me come to early tea. I

must speak to my father. He does not know I am here. I may come to tea. At

what time is it? Three o'clock. Oh, I know you drink tea at some strange

early hour; perhaps it is at two. I will take care to be in time."

 

"Don't come till five, please. I must tell mamma; and I want some time to

think. It does seem so like a dream. Do go, please."

 

"Well! if I must, I must. But I don't feel as if I were in a dream, but in

some real blessed heaven so long as I see you."

 

At last he went. Nancy was awaiting Maggie, the side-gate.

 

"Bless us and save us, bairn! what a time it has taken thee to get the

water. Is the spring dry with the hot weather?"

 

Maggie ran past her. All dinner-time she heard her mother's voice in

long-continued lamentation about something. She answered at random, and

startled her mother by asserting that she thought "it" was very good;

the said "it" being milk turned sour by thunder. Mrs. Browne spoke quite

sharply, "No one is so particular as you, Maggie. I have known you drink

water, day after day, for breakfast, when you were a little girl, because

your cup of milk had a drowned fly in it; and now you tell me you don't

care for this, and don't mind that, just as if you could eat up all the

things which are spoiled by the heat. I declare my head aches so, I shall

go and lie down as soon as ever dinner is over."

 

If this was her plan, Maggie thought she had no time to lose in making her

confession. Frank would be here before her mother got up again to tea. But

she dreaded speaking about her happiness; it seemed as yet so cobweb-like,

as if a touch would spoil its beauty.

 

"Mamma, just wait a minute. Just sit down in your chair while I tell you

something. Please, dear mamma." She took a stool, and sat at her mother's

feet; and then she began to turn the wedding-ring on Mrs. Browne's hand,

looking down and never speaking, till the latter became impatient.

 

"What is it you have got to say, child? Do make haste, for I want to go

up-stairs."

 

With a great jerk of resolution, Maggie said:

 

"Mamma, Frank Buxton has asked me to marry him."

 

She hid her face in her mother's lap for an instant; and then she lifted it

up, as brimful of the light of happiness as is the cup of a water-lily of

the sun's radiance.

 

"Maggie--you don't say so," said her mother, half incredulously. "It can't

be, for he's at Cambridge, and it's not post-day. What do you mean?"

 

"He came this morning, mother, when I was down at the well; and we fixed

that I was to speak to you; and he asked if he might come again for tea."

 

"Dear! dear! and the milk all gone sour? We should have had milk of our

own, if Edward had not persuaded me against buying another cow."

 

"I don't think Mr. Buxton will mind it much," said Maggie, dimpling up, as

she remembered, half unconsciously, how little he had seemed to care for

anything but herself.

 

"Why, what a thing it is for you!" said Mrs. Browne, quite roused up from

her languor and her head-ache. "Everybody said he was engaged to Miss

Erminia. Are you quite sure you made no mistake, child? What did he say?

Young men are so fond of making fine speeches; and young women are so silly

in fancying they mean something. I once knew a girl who thought that a

gentleman who sent her mother a present of a sucking-pig, did it as a

delicate way of making her an offer. Tell me his exact words."

 

But Maggie blushed, and either would not or could not. So Mrs. Browne began

again:

 

"Well, if you're sure, you're sure. I wonder how he brought his father

round. So long as he and Erminia have been planned for each other! That

very first day we ever dined there after your father's death, Mr. Buxton as

good as told me all about it. I fancied they were only waiting till they

were out of mourning."

 

All this was news to Maggie. She had never thought that either Erminia or

Frank was particularly fond of the other; still less had she had any idea

of Mr. Buxton's plans for them. Her mother's surprise at her engagement

jarred a little upon her too: it had become so natural, even in these last

two hours, to feel that she belonged to him. But there were more discords

to come. Mrs. Browne began again, half in soliloquy:

 

"I should think he would have four thousand a-year. He did not tell you,

love, did he, if they had still that bad property in the canal, that his

father complained about? But he will have four thousand. Why, you'll have

your carriage, Maggie. Well! I hope Mr. Buxton has taken it kindly, because

he'll have a deal to do with the settlements. I'm sure I thought he was

engaged to Erminia."

 

Ringing changes on these subjects all the afternoon, Mrs. Browne sat with

Maggie. She occasionally wandered off to speak about Edward, and how

favorably his future prospects would be advanced by the engagement.

 

"Let me see--there's the house in Combehurst: the rent of that would be

a hundred and fifty a-year, but we'll not reckon that. But there's the

quarries" (she was reckoning upon her fingers in default of a slate, for

which she had vainly searched), "we'll call them two hundred a-year, for

I don't believe Mr. Buxton's stories about their only bringing him

in seven-pence; and there's Newbridge, that's certainly thirteen

hundred--where had I got to, Maggie?"

 

"Dear mamma, do go and lie down for a little; you look quite flushed," said

Maggie, softly.

 

Was this the manner to view her betrothal with such a man as Frank?

Her mother's remarks depressed her more than she could have thought it

possible; the excitement of the morning was having its reaction, and she

longed to go up to the solitude under the thorn-tree, where she had hoped

to spend a quiet, thoughtful afternoon.

 

Nancy came in to replace glasses and spoons in the cupboard. By some

accident, the careful old servant broke one of the former. She looked up

quickly at her mistress, who usually visited all such offences with no

small portion of rebuke.

 

"Never mind, Nancy," said Mrs. Browne. "It's only an old tumbler;

and Maggie's going to be married, and we must buy a new set for the

wedding-dinner."

 

Nancy looked at both, bewildered; at last a light dawned into her mind, and

her face looked shrewdly and knowingly back at Mrs. Browne. Then she said,

very quietly:

 

"I think I'll take the next pitcher to the well myself, and try my luck. To

think how sorry I was for Miss Maggie this morning! 'Poor thing,' says I to

myself, 'to be kept all this time at that confounded well' (for I'll not

deny that I swear a bit to myself at times--it sweetens the blood), 'and

she so tired.' I e'en thought I'd go help her; but I reckon she'd some

other help. May I take a guess at the young man?"

 

"Four thousand a-year! Nancy;" said Mrs. Browne, exultingly.

 

"And a blithe look, and a warm, kind heart--and a free step--and a noble

way with him to rich and poor--aye, aye, I know the name. No need to alter

all my neat M.B.'s, done in turkey-red cotton. Well, well! every one's turn

comes sometime, but mine's rather long a-coming."

 

The faithful old servant came up to Maggie, and put her hand caressingly on

her shoulder. Maggie threw her arms round her neck, and kissed the brown,

withered face.

 

"God bless thee, bairn," said Nancy, solemnly. It brought the low music of

peace back into the still recesses of Maggie's heart. She began to look out

for her lover; half-hidden behind the muslin window curtain, which waved

gently to and fro in the afternoon breezes. She heard a firm, buoyant step,

and had only time to catch one glimpse of his face, before moving away. But

that one glance made her think that the hours which had elapsed since she

saw him had not been serene to him any more than to her.

 

When he entered the parlor, his face was glad and bright. He went up in a

frank, rejoicing way to Mrs. Browne; who was evidently rather puzzled

how to receive him--whether as Maggie's betrothed, or as the son of the

greatest man of her acquaintance.

 

"I am sure, sir," said she, "we are all very much obliged to you for the

honor you have done our family!"

 

He looked rather perplexed as to the nature of the honor which he had

conferred without knowing it; but as the light dawned upon him, he made

answer in a frank, merry way, which was yet full of respect for his future

mother-in-law:

 

"And I am sure I am truly grateful for the honor one of your family has

done me."

 

When Nancy brought in tea she was dressed in her fine-weather Sunday gown;

the first time it had ever been worn out of church, and the walk to and

fro.

 

After tea, Frank asked Maggie if she would walk out with him; and

accordingly they climbed the Fell-Lane and went out upon the moors, which

seemed vast and boundless as their love.

 

"Have you told your father?" asked Maggie; a dim anxiety lurking in her

heart.

 

"Yes," said Frank. He did not go on; and she feared to ask, although she

longed to know, how Mr. Buxton had received the intelligence.

 

"What did he say?" at length she inquired.

 

"Oh! it was evidently a new idea to him that I was attached to you; and he

does not take up a new idea speedily. He has had some notion, it seems,

that Erminia and I were to make a match of it; but she and I agreed, when

we talked it over, that we should never have fallen in love with each other

if there had not been another human being in the world. Erminia is a little

sensible creature, and says she does not wonder at any man falling in love

with you. Nay, Maggie, don't hang your head so down; let me have a glimpse

of your face."

 

"I am sorry your father does not like it," said Maggie, sorrowfully.

 

"So am I. But we must give him time to get reconciled. Never fear but he

will like it in the long run; he has too much good taste and good feeling.

He must like you."

 

Frank did not choose to tell even Maggie how violently his father had set

himself against their engagement. He was surprised and annoyed at first to

find how decidedly his father was possessed with the idea that he was to

marry his cousin, and that she, at any rate, was attached to him, whatever

his feelings might be toward her; but after he had gone frankly to Erminia

and told her all, he found that she was as ignorant of her uncle's plans

for her as he had been; and almost as glad at any event which should

frustrate them.

 

Indeed she came to the moorland cottage on the following day, after Frank

had returned to Cambridge. She had left her horse in charge of the groom,

near the fir-trees on the heights, and came running down the slope in her

habit. Maggie went out to meet her, with just a little wonder at her heart

if what Frank had said could possibly be true; and that Erminia, living in

the house with him, could have remained indifferent to him. Erminia threw

her arms round her neck, and they sat down together on the court-steps.

 

"I durst not ride down that hill; and Jem is holding my horse, so I may not

stay very long; now begin, Maggie, at once, and go into a rhapsody about

Frank. Is not he a charming fellow? Oh! I am so glad. Now don't sit smiling

and blushing there to yourself; but tell me a great deal about it. I have

so wanted to know somebody that was in love, that I might hear what it was

like; and the minute I could, I came off here. Frank is only just gone. He

has had another long talk with my uncle, since he came back from you this

morning; but I am afraid he has not made much way yet."

 

Maggie sighed. "I don't wonder at his not thinking me good enough for

Frank.

 

"No! the difficulty would be to find any one he did think fit for his

paragon of a son."

 

"He thought you were, dearest Erminia."

 

"So Frank has told you that, has he? I suppose we shall have no more family

secrets now," said Erminia, laughing. "But I can assure you I had a strong

rival in lady Adela Castlemayne, the Duke of Wight's daughter; she was the

most beautiful lady my uncle had ever seen (he only saw her in the Grand

Stand at Woodchester races, and never spoke a word to her in his life). And

if she would have had Frank, my uncle would still have been dissatisfied

as long as the Princess Victoria was unmarried; none would have been good

enough while a better remained. But Maggie," said she, smiling up into her

friend's face, "I think it would have made you laugh, for all you look as

if a kiss would shake the tears out of your eyes, if you could have seen my

uncle's manner to me all day. He will have it that I am suffering from an

unrequited attachment; so he watched me and watched me over breakfast; and

at last, when I had eaten a whole nest-full of eggs, and I don't know how

many pieces of toast, he rang the bell and asked for some potted charr. I

was quite unconscious that it was for me, and I did not want it when

it came; so he sighed in a most melancholy manner, and said, 'My poor

Erminia!' If Frank had not been there, and looking dreadfully miserable, I

am sure I should have laughed out."

 

"Did Frank look miserable?" said Maggie, anxiously.

 

"There now! you don't care for anything but the mention of his name."

 

"But did he look unhappy?" persisted Maggie.

 

"I can't say he looked happy, dear Mousey; but it was quite different when

he came back from seeing you. You know you always had the art of stilling

any person's trouble. You and my aunt Buxton are the only two I ever knew

with that gift."

 

"I am so sorry he has any trouble to be stilled," said Maggie.

 

"And I think it will do him a world of good. Think how successful his life

has been! the honors he got at Eton! his picture taken, and I don't

know what! and at Cambridge just the same way of going on. He would be

insufferably imperious in a few years, if he did not meet with a few

crosses."

 

"Imperious!--oh Erminia, how can you say so?"

 

"Because it's the truth. He happens to have very good dispositions; and

therefore his strong will is not either disagreeable, or offensive; but

once let him become possessed by a wrong wish, and you would then see how

vehement and imperious he would be. Depend upon it, my uncle's resistance

is a capital thing for him. As dear sweet Aunt Buxton would have said,

'There is a holy purpose in it;' and as Aunt Buxton would not have said,

but as I, a 'fool, rush in where angels fear to tread,' I decide that the

purpose is to teach Master Frank patience and submission."

 

 

"Erminia--how could you help"--and there Maggie stopped.

 

"I know what you mean; how could I help falling in love with him? I think

he has not mystery and reserve enough for me. I should like a man with some

deep, impenetrable darkness around him; something one could always keep

wondering about. Besides, think what clashing of wills there would have

been! My uncle was very short-sighted in his plan; but I don't think he

thought so much about the fitness of our characters and ways, as the

fitness of our fortunes!"

 

"For shame, Erminia! No one cares less for money than Mr. Buxton!"

 

"There's a good little daughter-in-law elect! But seriously, I do think

he is beginning to care for money; not in the least for himself, but as a

means of aggrandizement for Frank. I have observed, since I came home at

Christmas, a growing anxiety to make the most of his property; a thing he

never cared about before. I don't think he is aware of it himself, but from

one or two little things I have noticed, I should not wonder if he ends in

being avaricious in his old age." Erminia sighed.

 

Maggie had almost a sympathy with the father, who sought what he imagined

to be for the good of his son, and that son, Frank. Although she was

as convinced as Erminia, that money could not really help any one to

happiness, she could not at the instant resist saying:

 

"Oh! how I wish I had a fortune! I should so like to give it all to him."

 

"Now Maggie! don't be silly! I never heard you wish for anything different

from what was before, so I shall take this opportunity of lecturing you

on your folly. No! I won't either, for you look sadly tired with all your

agitation; and besides I must go, or Jem will be wondering what has become

of me. Dearest cousin-in-law, I shall come very often to see you; and

perhaps I shall give you my lecture yet."

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI.

 

It was true of Mr. Buxton, as well as of his son, that he had the seeds of

imperiousness in him. His life had not been such as to call them out into

view. With more wealth than he required; with a gentle wife, who if she

ruled him never showed it, or was conscious of the fact herself; looked up

to by his neighbors, a simple affectionate set of people, whose fathers

had lived near his father and grandfather in the same kindly relation,

receiving benefits cordially given, and requiting them with good will and

respectful attention: such had been the circumstances surrounding him; and

until his son grew out of childhood, there had not seemed a wish which he

had it not in his power to gratify as soon as formed. Again, when Frank was

at school and at college, all went on prosperously; he gained honors enough

to satisfy a far more ambitious father. Indeed, it was the honors he gained

that stimulated his father's ambition. He received letters from tutors,

and headmasters, prophesying that, if Frank chose, he might rise to the

"highest honors in church or state;" and the idea thus suggested, vague as

it was, remained, and filled Mr. Buxton's mind; and, for the first time in

his life, made him wish that his own career had been such as would have led

him to form connections among the great and powerful. But, as it was, his

shyness and gÊne, from being unaccustomed to society, had made him

averse to Frank's occasional requests that he might bring such and such a

school-fellow, or college-chum, home on a visit. Now he regretted this, on

account of the want of those connections which might thus have been formed;

and, in his visions, he turned to marriage as the best way of remedying

this. Erminia was right in saying that her uncle had thought of Lady Adela

Castlemayne for an instant; though how the little witch had found it out I

cannot say, as the idea had been dismissed immediately from his mind.

 

He was wise enough to see its utter vanity, as long as his son remained

undistinguished. But his hope was this. If Frank married Erminia, their

united property (she being her father's heiress) would justify him in

standing for the shire; or if he could marry the daughter of some leading

personage in the county, it might lead to the same step; and thus at once

he would obtain a position in parliament, where his great talents would

have scope and verge enough. Of these two visions, the favorite one (for

his sister's sake) was that of marriage with Erminia.

 

And, in the midst of all this, fell, like a bombshell, the intelligence of

his engagement with Maggie Browne; a good sweet little girl enough, but

without fortune or connection--without, as far as Mr. Buxton knew, the

least power, or capability, or spirit, with which to help Frank on in his

career to eminence in the land! He resolved to consider it as a boyish

fancy, easily to be suppressed; and pooh-poohed it down, to Frank,

accordingly. He remarked his son's set lips, and quiet determined brow,

although he never spoke in a more respectful tone, than while thus steadily

opposing his father. If he had shown more violence of manner, he would have

irritated him less; but, as it was, it was the most miserable interview

that had ever taken place between the father and son.

Mr. Buxton tried to calm himself down with believing that Frank would

change his mind, if he saw more of the world; but, somehow, he had a

prophesying distrust of this idea internally. The worst was, there was

no fault to be found with Maggie herself, although she might want the

accomplishments he desired to see in his son's wife. Her connections, too,

were so perfectly respectable (though humble enough in comparison with Mr.

Buxton's soaring wishes), that there was nothing to be objected to on that

score; her position was the great offence. In proportion to his want of any

reason but this one, for disapproving of the engagement, was his annoyance

under it. He assumed a reserve toward Frank; which was so unusual a

restraint upon his open, genial disposition, that it seemed to make him

irritable toward all others in contact with him, excepting Erminia. He

found it difficult to behave rightly to Maggie. Like all habitually cordial

persons, he went into the opposite extreme, when he wanted to show a little

coolness. However angry he might be with the events of which she was the

cause, she was too innocent and meek to justify him in being more than

cool; but his awkwardness was so great, that many a man of the world has

met his greatest enemy, each knowing the other's hatred, with less freezing

distance of manner than Mr. Buxton's to Maggie. While she went simply on in

her own path, loving him the more through all, for old kindness' sake, and

because he was Frank's father, he shunned meeting her with such evident and

painful anxiety, that at last she tried to spare him the encounter, and

hurried out of church, or lingered behind all, in order to avoid the only

chance they now had of being forced to speak; for she no longer went to the

dear house in Combehurst, though Erminia came to see her more than ever.

Mrs. Browne was perplexed and annoyed beyond measure. She upbraided Mr.

Buxton to every one but Maggie. To her she said--"Any one in their senses

might have foreseen what had happened, and would have thought well about

it, before they went and fell in love with a young man of such expectations

as Mr. Frank Buxton."

In the middle of all this dismay, Edward came over from Woodchester for a

day or two. He had been told of the engagement, in a letter from Maggie

herself; but it was too sacred a subject for her to enlarge upon to him;

and Mrs. Browne was no letter writer. So this was his first greeting to

Maggie; after kissing her:

"Well, Sancho, you've done famously for yourself. As soon as I got your

letter I said to Harry Bish--'Still waters run deep; here's my little

sister Maggie, as quiet a creature as ever lived, has managed to catch

young Buxton, who has five thousand a-year if he's a penny.' Don't go so

red, Maggie. Harry was sure to hear of it soon from some one, and I see no

use in keeping it secret, for it gives consequence to us all."

"Mr. Buxton is quite put out about it," said Mrs. Brown, querulously; "and

I'm sure he need not be, for he's enough of money, if that's what he wants;

and Maggie's father was a clergyman, and I've seen 'yeoman,' with my own

eyes, on old Mr. Buxton's (Mr. Lawrence's father's) carts; and a clergyman

is above a yeoman any day. But if Maggie had had any thought for other

people, she'd never have gone and engaged herself, when she might have been

sure it would give offence. We are never asked down to dinner now. I've

never broken bread there since last Christmas."

"Whew!" said Edward to this. It was a disappointed whistle; but he soon

cheered up. "I thought I could have lent a hand in screwing old Buxton up

about the settlements; but I see it's not come to that yet. Still I'll go

and see the old gentleman. I'm a bit of a favorite of his, and I doubt I

can turn him round."

"Pray, Edward, don't go," said Maggie. "Frank and I are content to wait;

and I'm sure we would rather not have any one speak to Mr. Buxton, upon a

subject which evidently gives him so much pain; please, Edward, don't!"

"Well, well. Only I must go about this property of his. Besides, I don't

mean to get into disgrace; so I shan't seem to know anything about it,

if it would make him angry. I want to keep on good terms, because of the

agency. So, perhaps, I shall shake my head, and think it great presumption

in you, Maggie, to have thought of becoming his daughter-in-law. If I can

do you no good, I may as well do myself some."

"I hope you won't mention me at all," she replied.

One comfort (and almost the only one arising from Edward's visit) was, that

she could now often be spared to go up to the thorn-tree, and calm down her

anxiety, and bring all discords into peace, under the sweet influences of

nature. Mrs. Buxton had tried to teach her the force of the lovely truth,

that the "melodies of the everlasting chime" may abide in the hearts of

those who ply their daily task in towns, and crowded populous places; and

that solitude is not needed by the faithful for them to feel the immediate

presence of God; nor utter stillness of human sound necessary, before they

can hear the music of His angels' footsteps; but, as yet, her soul was a

young disciple; and she felt it easier to speak to Him, and come to Him for

help, sitting lonely, with wild moors swelling and darkening around her,

and not a creature in sight but the white specks of distant sheep, and the

birds that shun the haunts of men, floating in the still mid-air.

She sometimes longed to go to Mr. Buxton and tell him how much she could

sympathize with him, if his dislike to her engagement arose from thinking

her unworthy of his son. Frank's character seemed to her grand in its

promise. With vehement impulses and natural gifts, craving worthy

employment, his will sat supreme over all, like a young emperor calmly

seated on his throne, whose fiery generals and wise counsellors stand alike

ready to obey him. But if marriage were to be made by due measurement and

balance of character, and if others, with their scales, were to be the

judges, what would become of all the beautiful services rendered by the

loyalty of true love? Where would be the raising up of the weak by the

strong? or the patient endurance? or the gracious trust of her:

  "Whose faith is fixt and cannot move;

  She darkly feels him great and wise,

  She dwells on him with faithful eyes,

  'I cannot understand: I love.'"

Edward's manners and conduct caused her more real anxiety than anything

else. Indeed, no other thoughtfulness could be called anxiety compared to

this. His faults, she could not but perceive, were strengthening with his

strength, and growing with his growth. She could not help wondering whence

he obtained the money to pay for his dress, which she thought was of a

very expensive kind. She heard him also incidentally allude to "runs up

to town," of which, at the time, neither she nor her mother had been made

aware. He seemed confused when she questioned him about these, although he

tried to laugh it off; and asked her how she, a country girl, cooped up

among one set of people, could have any idea of the life it was necessary

for a man to lead who "had any hope of getting on in the world." He must

have acquaintances and connections, and see something of life, and make an

appearance. She was silenced, but not satisfied. Nor was she at ease with

regard to his health. He looked ill, and worn; and, when he was not

rattling and laughing, his face fell into a shape of anxiety and

uneasiness, which was new to her in it. He reminded her painfully of an

old German engraving she had seen in Mrs. Buxton's portfolio, called,

"Pleasure digging a Grave;" Pleasure being represented by a ghastly figure

of a young man, eagerly industrious over his dismal work.

A few days after he went away, Nancy came to her in her bed-room.

"Miss Maggie," said she, "may I just speak a word?" But when the permission

was given, she hesitated.

"It's none of my business, to be sure," said she at last: "only, you see,

I've lived with your mother ever since she was married; and I care a deal

for both you and Master Edward. And I think he drains Missus of her money;

and it makes me not easy in my mind. You did not know of it, but he had his

father's old watch when he was over last time but one; I thought he was of

an age to have a watch, and that it was all natural. But, I reckon he's

sold it, and got that gimcrack one instead. That's perhaps natural too.

Young folks like young fashions. But, this time, I think he has taken away

your mother's watch; at least, I've never seen it since he went. And this

morning she spoke to me about my wages. I'm sure I've never asked for them,

nor troubled her; but I'll own it's now near on to twelve months since she

paid me; and she was as regular as clock-work till then. Now, Miss Maggie

don't look so sorry, or I shall wish I had never spoken. Poor Missus seemed

sadly put about, and said something as I did not try to hear; for I was so

vexed she should think I needed apologies, and them sort of things. I'd

rather live with you without wages than have her look so shame-faced as she

did this morning. I don't want a bit for money, my dear; I've a deal in the

Bank. But I'm afeard Master Edward is spending too much, and pinching

Missus."

Maggie was very sorry indeed. Her mother had never told her anything of all

this, so it was evidently a painful subject to her; and Maggie determined

(after lying awake half the night) that she would write to Edward, and

remonstrate with him; and that in every personal and household expense, she

would be, more than ever, rigidly economical.

The full, free, natural intercourse between her lover and herself, could

not fail to be checked by Mr. Buxton's aversion to the engagement. Frank

came over for some time in the early autumn. He had left Cambridge, and

intended to enter himself at the Temple as soon as the vacation was ended.

He had not been very long at home before Maggie was made aware, partly

through Erminia, who had no notion of discreet silence on any point, and

partly by her own observation, of the increasing estrangement between

father and son. Mr. Buxton was reserved with Frank for the first time in

his life; and Frank was depressed and annoyed at his father's obstinate

repetition of the same sentence, in answer to all his arguments in favor of

his engagement--arguments which were overwhelming to himself and which it

required an effort of patience on his part to go over and recapitulate, so

obvious was the conclusion; and then to have the same answer forever, the

same words even:

"Frank! it's no use talking. I don't approve of the engagement; and never

shall."

He would snatch up his hat, and hurry off to Maggie to be soothed. His

father knew where he was gone without being told; and was jealous of her

influence over the son who had long been his first and paramount object in

life.

He needed not have been jealous. However angry and indignant Frank was when

he went up to the moorland cottage, Maggie almost persuaded him, before

half an hour had elapsed, that his father was but unreasonable from his

extreme affection. Still she saw that such frequent differences would

weaken the bond between father and son; and, accordingly, she urged Frank

to accept an invitation into Scotland.

"You told me," said she, "that Mr. Buxton will have it, it is but a boy's

attachment; and that when you have seen other people, you will change your

mind; now do try how far you can stand the effects of absence." She said it

playfully, but he was in a humor to be vexed.

"What nonsense, Maggie! You don't care for all this delay yourself; and you

take up my father's bad reasons as if you believed them."

"I don't believe them; but still they may be true."

"How should you like it, Maggie, if I urged you to go about and see

something of society, and try if you could not find some one you liked

better? It is more probable in your case than in mine; for you have never

been from home, and I have been half over Europe."

"You are very much afraid, are not you, Frank?" said she, her face bright

with blushes, and her gray eyes smiling up at him. "I have a great idea

that if I could see that Harry Bish that Edward is always talking about, I

should be charmed. He must wear such beautiful waistcoats! Don't you think

I had better see him before our engagement is quite, quite final?"

But Frank would not smile. In fact, like all angry persons, he found fresh

matter for offence in every sentence. She did not consider the engagement

as quite final: thus he chose to understand her playful speech. He would

not answer. She spoke again:

"Dear Frank, you are not angry with me, are you? It is nonsense to think

that we are to go about the world, picking and choosing men and women as

if they were fruit and we were to gather the best; as if there was not

something in our own hearts which, if we listen to it conscientiously, will

tell us at once when we have met the one of all others. There now, am I

sensible? I suppose I am, for your grim features are relaxing into a smile.

That's right. But now listen to this. I think your father would come round

sooner, if he were not irritated every day by the knowledge of your visits

to me. If you went away, he would know that we should write to each other

yet he would forget the exact time when; but now he knows as well as I do

where you are when you are up here; and I fancy, from what Erminia says, it

makes him angry the whole time you are away."

Frank was silent. At last he said: "It is rather provoking to be obliged to

acknowledge that there is some truth in what you say. But even if I would,

I am not sure that I could go. My father does not speak to me about his

affairs, as he used to do; so I was rather surprised yesterday to hear him

say to Erminia (though I'm sure he meant the information for me), that he

had engaged an agent."

"Then there will be the less occasion for you to be at home. He won't want

your help in his accounts."

"I've given him little enough of that. I have long wanted him to have

somebody to look after his affairs. They are very complicated and he is

very careless. But I believe my signature will be wanted for some new

leases; at least he told me so."

"That need not take you long," said Maggie.

"Not the mere signing. But I want to know something more about the

property, and the proposed tenants. I believe this Mr. Henry that my father

has engaged, is a very hard sort of man. He is what is called scrupulously

honest and honorable; but I fear a little too much inclined to drive hard

bargains for his client. Now I want to be convinced to the contrary, if I

can, before I leave my father in his hands. So you cruel judge, you won't

transport me yet, will you?"

"No" said Maggie, overjoyed at her own decision, and blushing her delight

that her reason was convinced it was right for Frank to stay a little

longer.

The next day's post brought her a letter from Edward. There was not a word

in it about her inquiry or remonstrance; it might never have been written,

or never received; but a few hurried anxious lines, asking her to write by

return of post, and say if it was really true that Mr. Buxton had engaged

an agent. "It's a confounded shabby trick if he has, after what he said to

me long ago. I cannot tell you how much I depend on your complying with my

request. Once more, write directly. If Nancy cannot take the letter to

the post, run down to Combehurst with it yourself. I must have an answer

to-morrow, and every particular as to who--when to be appointed, &c. But I

can't believe the report to be true."

Maggie asked Frank if she might name what he had told her the day before to

her brother. He said:

"Oh, yes, certainly, if he cares to know. Of course, you will not say

anything about my own opinion of Mr. Henry. He is coming to-morrow, and I

shall be able to judge how far I am right."

CHAPTER VII.

The next day Mr. Henry came. He was a quiet, stern-looking man, of

considerable intelligence and refinement, and so much taste for music as to

charm Erminia, who had rather dreaded his visit. But all the amenities of

life were put aside when he entered Mr. Buxton's sanctum--his "office," as

he called the room where he received his tenants and business people. Frank

thought Mr. Henry was scarce commonly civil in the open evidence of his

surprise and contempt for the habits, of which the disorderly books and

ledgers were but too visible signs. Mr. Buxton himself felt more like a

school-boy, bringing up an imperfect lesson, than he had ever done since he

was thirteen.

"The only wonder, my good sir, is that you have any property left; that you

have not been cheated out of every farthing."

"I'll answer for it," said Mr. Buxton, in reply, "that you'll not find any

cheating has been going on. They dared not, sir; they know I should make an

example of the first rogue I found out."

Mr. Henry lifted up his eyebrows, but did not speak.

"Besides, sir, most of these men have lived for generations under the

Buxtons. I'd give you my life, they would not cheat me."

Mr. Henry coldly said:

"I imagine a close examination of these books by some accountant will be

the best proof of the honesty of these said tenants. If you will allow me,

I will write to a clever fellow I know, and desire him to come down and try

and regulate this mass of papers."

"Anything--anything you like," said Mr. Buxton, only too glad to escape

from the lawyer's cold, contemptuous way of treating the subject.

The accountant came; and he and Mr. Henry were deeply engaged in the office

for several days. Mr. Buxton was bewildered by the questions they asked

him. Mr. Henry examined him in the worrying way in which an unwilling

witness is made to give evidence. Many a time and oft did he heartily wish

he had gone on in the old course to the end of his life, instead of putting

himself into an agent's hands; but he comforted himself by thinking that,

at any rate, they would be convinced he had never allowed himself to be

cheated or imposed upon, although he did not make any parade of exactitude.

What was his dismay when, one morning, Mr. Henry sent to request his

presence, and, with a cold, clear voice, read aloud an admirably drawn up

statement, informing the poor landlord of the defalcations, nay more, the

impositions of those whom he had trusted. If he had been alone, he would

have burst into tears, to find how his confidence had been abused. But as

it was, he became passionately angry.

"I'll prosecute them, sir. Not a man shall escape. I'll make them pay back

every farthing, I will. And damages, too. Crayston, did you say, sir? Was

that one of the names? Why, that is the very Crayston who was bailiff under

my father for years. The scoundrel! And I set him up in my best farm when

he married. And he's been swindling me, has he?"

Mr. Henry ran over the items of the account--"421l, 13s.

4-3/4d. Part of this I fear we cannot recover"----

He was going on, but Mr. Buxton broke in: "But I will recover it. I'll

have every farthing of it. I'll go to law with the viper. I don't care for

money, but I hate ingratitude."

"If you like, I will take counsel's opinion on the case," said Mr. Henry,

coolly.

"Take anything you please, sir. Why this Crayston was the first man that

set me on a horse--and to think of his cheating me!"

A few days after this conversation, Frank came on his usual visit to

Maggie.

"Can you come up to the thorn-tree, dearest?" said he. "It is a lovely day,

and I want the solace of a quiet hour's talk with you."

So they went, and sat in silence some time, looking at the calm and still

blue air about the summits of the hills, where never tumult of the world

came to disturb the peace, and the quiet of whose heights was never broken

by the loud passionate cries of men.

"I am glad you like my thorn-tree," said Maggie.

"I like the view from it. The thought of the solitude which must be among

the hollows of those hills pleases me particularly to-day. Oh, Maggie! it

is one of the times when I get depressed about men and the world. We have

had such sorrow, and such revelations, and remorse, and passion at home

to-day. Crayston (my father's old tenant) has come over. It seems--I am

afraid there is no doubt of it--he has been peculating to a large amount.

My father has been too careless, and has placed his dependents in great

temptation; and Crayston--he is an old man, with a large extravagant

family--has yielded. He has been served with notice of my father's

intention to prosecute him; and came over to confess all, and ask for

forgiveness, and time to pay back what he could. A month ago, my father

would have listened to him, I think; but now, he is stung by Mr. Henry's

sayings, and gave way to a furious passion. It has been a most distressing

morning. The worst side of everybody seems to have come out. Even Crayston,

with all his penitence and appearance of candor, had to be questioned

closely by Mr. Henry before he would tell the whole truth. Good God! that

money should have such power to corrupt men. It was all for money, and

money's worth, that this degradation has taken place. As for Mr. Henry, to

save his client money, and to protect money, he does not care--he does

not even perceive--how he induces deterioration of character. He has

been encouraging my father in measures which I cannot call anything but

vindictive. Crayston is to be made an example of, they say. As if my father

had not half the sin on his own head! As if he had rightly discharged his

duties as a rich man! Money was as dross to him; but he ought to have

remembered how it might be as life itself to many, and be craved after, and

coveted, till the black longing got the better of principle, as it has done

with this poor Crayston. They say the man was once so truthful, and now his

self-respect is gone; and he has evidently lost the very nature of truth. I

dread riches. I dread the responsibility of them. At any rate, I wish I had

begun life as a poor boy, and worked my way up to competence. Then I could

understand and remember the temptations of poverty. I am afraid of my

own heart becoming hardened as my father's is. You have no notion of his

passionate severity to-day, Maggie! It was quite a new thing even to me!"

"It will only be for a short time," said she. "He must be much grieved

about this man."

"If I thought I could ever grow as hard and different to the abject

entreaties of a criminal as my father has been this morning--one whom he

has helped to make, too--I would go off to Australia at once. Indeed,

Maggie, I think it would be the best thing we could do. My heart aches

about the mysterious corruptions and evils of an old state of society such

as we have in England.--What do you say Maggie? Would you go?"

She was silent--thinking.

"I would go with you directly, if it were right," said she, at last. "But

would it be? I think it would be rather cowardly. I feel what you say; but

don't you think it would be braver to stay, and endure much depression and

anxiety of mind, for the sake of the good those always can do who see evils

clearly. I am speaking all this time as if neither you nor I had any home

duties, but were free to do as we liked."

"What can you or I do? We are less than drops in the ocean, as far as our

influence can go to model a nation?"

"As for that," said Maggie, laughing, "I can't remodel Nancy's

old-fashioned ways; so I've never yet planned how to remodel a nation."

"Then what did you mean by the good those always can do who see evils

clearly? The evils I see are those of a nation whose god is money."

"That is just because you have come away from a distressing scene.

To-morrow you will hear or read of some heroic action meeting with a

nation's sympathy, and you will rejoice and be proud of your country."

"Still I shall see the evils of her complex state of society keenly; and

where is the good I can do?"

"Oh! I can't tell in a minute. But cannot you bravely face these evils,

and learn their nature and causes; and then has God given you no powers to

apply to the discovery of their remedy? Dear Frank, think! It may be very

little you can do--and you may never see the effect of it, any more than

the widow saw the world-wide effect of her mite. Then if all the good and

thoughtful men run away from us to some new country, what are we to do with

our poor dear Old England?"

"Oh, you must run away with the good, thoughtful men--(I mean to consider

that as a compliment to myself, Maggie!) Will you let me wish I had been

born poor, if I am to stay in England? I should not then be liable to this

fault into which I see the rich men fall, of forgetting the trials of the

poor."

"I am not sure whether, if you had been poor, you might not have fallen

into an exactly parallel fault, and forgotten the trials of the rich. It is

so difficult to understand the errors into which their position makes all

men liable to fall. Do you remember a story in 'Evenings at Home,' called

the Transmigrations of Indra? Well! when I was a child, I used to wish I

might be transmigrated (is that the right word?) into an American

slave-owner for a little while, just that I might understand how he must

suffer, and be sorely puzzled, and pray and long to be freed from his

odious wealth, till at last he grew hardened to its nature;--and since

then, I have wished to be the Emperor of Russia, for the same reason. Ah!

you may laugh; but that is only because I have not explained myself

properly."

"I was only smiling to think how ambitious any one might suppose you were

who did not know you."

"I don't see any ambition in it--I don't think of the station--I only want

sorely to see the 'What's resisted' of Burns, in order that I may have more

charity for those who seem to me to have been the cause of such infinite

woe and misery."

  "'What's done we partly may compute;

  But know not what's resisted,'"

repeated Frank musingly. After some time he began again:

"But, Maggie, I don't give up this wish of mine to go to Australia--Canada,

if you like it better--anywhere where there is a newer and purer state of

society."

"The great objection seems to be your duty, as an only child, to your

father. It is different to the case of one out of a large family."

"I wish I were one in twenty, then I might marry where I liked to-morrow."

"It would take two people's consent to such a rapid measure," said Maggie,

laughing. "But now I am going to wish a wish, which it won't require a

fairy godmother to gratify. Look, Frank, do you see in the middle of that

dark brown purple streak of moor a yellow gleam of light? It is a pond, I

think, that at this time of the year catches a slanting beam of the sun. It

cannot be very far off. I have wished to go to it every autumn. Will you go

with me now? We shall have time before tea."

Frank's dissatisfaction with the stern measures that, urged on by Mr.

Henry, his father took against all who had imposed upon his carelessness as

a landlord, increased rather than diminished. He spoke warmly to him on the

subject, but without avail. He remonstrated with Mr. Henry, and told him

how he felt that, had his father controlled his careless nature, and been

an exact, vigilant landlord, these tenantry would never have had the great

temptation to do him wrong; and that therefore he considered some allowance

should be made for them, and some opportunity given them to redeem their

characters, which would be blasted and hardened for ever by the publicity

of a law-suit. But Mr. Henry only raised his eyebrows and made answer:

"I like to see these notions in a young man, sir. I had them myself at your

age. I believe I had great ideas then, on the subject of temptation and

the force of circumstances; and was as Quixotic as any one about reforming

rogues. But my experience has convinced me that roguery is innate. Nothing

but outward force can control it, and keep it within bounds. The terrors of

the law must be that outward force. I admire your kindness of heart; and in

three-and-twenty we do not look for the wisdom and experience of forty or

fifty."

Frank was indignant at being set aside as an unripe youth. He disapproved

so strongly of all these measures, and of so much that was now going on

at home under Mr. Henry's influence that he determined to pay his long

promised visit to Scotland; and Maggie, sad at heart to see how he was

suffering, encouraged him in his determination.

CHAPTER VIII.

After he was gone, there came a November of the most dreary and

characteristic kind. There was incessant rain, and closing-in mists,

without a gleam of sunshine to light up the drops of water, and make the

wet stems and branches of the trees glisten. Every color seemed dimmed

and darkened; and the crisp autumnal glory of leaves fell soddened to the

ground. The latest flowers rotted away without ever coming to their bloom;

and it looked as if the heavy monotonous sky had drawn closer and closer,

and shut in the little moorland cottage as with a shroud. In doors, things

were no more cheerful. Maggie saw that her mother was depressed, and she

thought that Edward's extravagance must be the occasion. Oftentimes she

wondered how far she might speak on the subject; and once or twice she drew

near it in conversation; but her mother winced away, and Maggie could not

as yet see any decided good to be gained from encountering such pain. To

herself it would have been a relief to have known the truth--the worst,

as far as her mother knew it; but she was not in the habit of thinking of

herself. She only tried, by long tender attention, to cheer and comfort

her mother; and she and Nancy strove in every way to reduce the household

expenditure, for there was little ready money to meet it. Maggie wrote

regularly to Edward; but since the note inquiring about the agency, she had

never heard from him. Whether her mother received letters she did not know;

but at any rate she did not express anxiety, though her looks and manner

betrayed that she was ill at ease. It was almost a relief to Maggie when

some change was given to her thoughts by Nancy's becoming ill. The damp

gloomy weather brought on some kind of rheumatic attack, which obliged the

old servant to keep her bed. Formerly, in such an emergency, they would

have engaged some cottager's wife to come and do the house-work; but now it

seemed tacitly understood that they could not afford it. Even when Nancy

grew worse, and required attendance in the night, Maggie still persisted in

her daily occupations. She was wise enough to rest when and how she could;

and, with a little forethought, she hoped to be able to go through this

weary time without any bad effect. One morning (it was on the second of

December; and even the change of name in the month, although it brought no

change of circumstances or weather, was a relief--December brought glad

tidings even in its very name), one morning, dim and dreary, Maggie had

looked at the clock on leaving Nancy's room, and finding it was not yet

half-past five, and knowing that her mother and Nancy were both asleep, she

determined to lie down and rest for an hour before getting up to light the

fires. She did not mean to go to sleep; but she was tired out and fell into

a sound slumber. When she awoke it was with a start. It was still dark; but

she had a clear idea of being wakened by some distinct, rattling noise.

There it was once more--against the window, like a shower of shot. She

went to the lattice, and opened it to look out. She had that strange

consciousness, not to be described, of the near neighborhood of some human

creature, although she neither saw nor heard any one for the first instant.

Then Edward spoke in a hoarse whisper, right below the window, standing on

the flower-beds.

"Maggie! Maggie! Come down and let me in. For your life, don't make any

noise. No one must know."

Maggie turned sick. Something was wrong, evidently; and she was weak and

weary. However, she stole down the old creaking stairs, and undid the heavy

bolt, and let her brother in. She felt that his dress was quite wet, and

she led him, with cautious steps, into the kitchen, and shut the door, and

stirred the fire, before she spoke. He sank into a chair, as if worn out

with fatigue. She stood, expecting some explanation. But when she saw he

could not speak, she hastened to make him a cup of tea; and, stooping down,

took off his wet boots, and helped him off with his coat, and brought her

own plaid to wrap round him. All this time her heart sunk lower and lower.

He allowed her to do what she liked, as if he were an automaton; his head

and his arms hung loosely down, and his eyes were fixed, in a glaring way,

on the fire. When she brought him some tea, he spoke for the first time;

she could not hear what he said till he repeated it, so husky was his

voice.

"Have you no brandy?"

She had the key of the little wine-cellar, and fetched up some. But as she

took a tea-spoon to measure it out, he tremblingly clutched at the bottle,

and shook down a quantity into the empty tea-cup, and drank it off at one

gulp. He fell back again in his chair; but in a few minutes he roused

himself, and seemed stronger.

"Edward, dear Edward, what is the matter?" said Maggie, at last; for he got

up, and was staggering toward the outer door, as if he were going once more

into the rain, and dismal morning-twilight.

He looked at her fiercely as she laid her hand on his arm.

"Confound you! Don't touch me. I'll not be kept here, to be caught and

hung!"

For an instant she thought he was mad.

"Caught and hung!" she echoed. "My poor Edward! what do you mean?"

He sat down suddenly on a chair, close by him, and covered his face with

his hands. When he spoke, his voice was feeble and imploring.

"The police are after me, Maggie! What must I do? Oh! can you hide me? Can

you save me?"

He looked wild, like a hunted creature. Maggie stood aghast. He went on:

"My mother!--Nancy! Where are they? I was wet through and starving, and I

came here. Don't let them take me, Maggie, till I'm stronger, and can give

battle."

"Oh! Edward! Edward! What are you saying?" said Maggie, sitting down on the

dresser, in absolute, bewildered despair. "What have you done?"

"I hardly know. I'm in a horrid dream. I see you think I'm mad. I wish I

were. Won't Nancy come down soon? You must hide me."

"Poor Nancy is ill in bed!" said Maggie.

"Thank God," said he. "There's one less. But my mother will be up soon,

will she not?"

"Not yet," replied Maggie. "Edward, dear, do try and tell me what you have

done. Why should the police be after you?"

"Why, Maggie," said he with a kind of forced, unnatural laugh, "they say

I've forged."

"And have you?" asked Maggie, in a still, low tone of quiet agony.

He did not answer for some time, but sat, looking on the floor with

unwinking eyes. At last he said, as if speaking to himself:

"If I have, it's no more than others have done before, and never been found

out. I was but borrowing money. I meant to repay it. If I had asked Mr.

Buxton, he would have lent it me."

"Mr. Buxton!" said Maggie.

"Yes!" answered he, looking sharply and suddenly up at her. "Your future

father-in-law. My father's old friend. It is he that is hunting me to

death! No need to look so white and horror-struck, Maggie! It's the way of

the world, as I might have known, if I had not been a blind fool."

"Mr. Buxton!" she whispered, faintly.

"Oh, Maggie!" said he, suddenly throwing himself at her feet, "save me! You

can do it. Write to Frank, and make him induce his father to let me off. I

came to see you, my sweet, merciful sister! I knew you would save me. Good

God! What noise is that? There are steps in the yard!"

And before she could speak, he had rushed into the little china closet,

which opened out of the parlor, and crouched down in the darkness. It was

only the man who brought their morning's supply of milk from a neighboring

farm. But when Maggie opened the kitchen door, she saw how the cold, pale

light of a winter's day had filled the air.

"You're late with your shutters to-day, miss," said the man. "I hope Nancy

has not been giving you all a bad night. Says I to Thomas, who came with me

to the gate, 'It's many a year since I saw them parlor shutters barred up

at half-past eight.'"

Maggie went, as soon as he was gone, and opened all the low windows, in

order that they might look as usual. She wondered at her own outward

composure, while she felt so dead and sick at heart. Her mother would

soon get up; must she be told? Edward spoke to her now and then from his

hiding-place. He dared not go back into the kitchen, into which the few

neighbors they had were apt to come, on their morning's way to Combehurst,

to ask if they could do any errands there for Mrs. Browne or Nancy. Perhaps

a quarter of an hour or so had elapsed since the first alarm, when, as

Maggie was trying to light the parlor fire, in order that the doctor, when

he came, might find all as usual, she heard the click of the garden gate,

and a man's step coming along the walk. She ran up stairs to wash away the

traces of the tears which had been streaming down her face as she went

about her work, before she opened the door. There, against the watery light

of the rainy day without, stood Mr. Buxton. He hardly spoke to her, but

pushed past her, and entered the parlor. He sat down, looking as if he did

not know what he was doing. Maggie tried to keep down her shivering alarm.

It was long since she had seen him; and the old idea of his kind, genial

disposition, had been sadly disturbed by what she had heard from Frank, of

his severe proceedings against his unworthy tenantry; and now, if he was

setting the police in search of Edward, he was indeed to be dreaded; and

with Edward so close at hand, within earshot! If the china fell! He would

suspect nothing from that; it would only be her own terror. If her mother

came down! But, with all these thoughts, she was very still, outwardly, as

she sat waiting for him to speak.

"Have you heard from your brother lately?" asked he, looking up in an angry

and disturbed manner. "But I'll answer for it he has not been writing home

for some time. He could not, with the guilt he has had on his mind. I'll

not believe in gratitude again. There perhaps was such a thing once; but

now-a-days the more you do for a person, the surer they are to turn against

you, and cheat you. Now, don't go white and pale. I know you're a good girl

in the main; and I've been lying awake all night, and I've a deal to say to

you. That scoundrel of a brother of yours!"

Maggie could not ask (as would have been natural, if she had been ignorant)

what Edward had done. She knew too well. But Mr. Buxton was too full of his

own thoughts and feelings to notice her much.

"Do you know he has been like the rest? Do you know he has been cheating

me--forging my name? I don't know what besides. It's well for him that

they've altered the laws, and he can't be hung for it" (a dead heavy weight

was removed from Maggie's mind), "but Mr. Henry is going to transport him.

It's worse than Crayston. Crayston only ploughed up the turf, and did not

pay rent, and sold the timber, thinking I should never miss it. But your

brother has gone and forged my name. He had received all the purchase-money,

while he only gave me half, and said the rest was to come afterward. And

the ungrateful scoundrel has gone and given a forged receipt! You might

have knocked me down with a straw when Mr. Henry told me about it all last

night. 'Never talk to me of virtue and such humbug again,' I said, 'I'll

never believe in them. Every one is for what he can get.' However, Mr.

Henry wrote to the superintendent of police at Woodchester; and has gone

over himself this morning to see after it. But to think of your father

having such a son!"

"Oh my poor father!" sobbed out Maggie. "How glad I am you are dead before

this disgrace came upon us!"

"You may well say disgrace. You're a good girl yourself, Maggie. I have

always said that. How Edward has turned out as he has done, I cannot

conceive. But now, Maggie, I've something to say to you." He moved uneasily

about, as if he did not know how to begin. Maggie was standing leaning her

head against the chimney-piece, longing for her visitor to go, dreading the

next minute, and wishing to shrink into some dark corner of oblivion where

she might forget all for a time, till she regained a small portion of the

bodily strength that had been sorely tried of late. Mr. Buxton saw her

white look of anguish, and read it in part, but not wholly. He was too

intent on what he was going to say.

"I've been lying awake all night, thinking. You see the disgrace it is to

you, though you are innocent; and I'm sure you can't think of involving

Frank in it."

Maggie went to the little sofa, and, kneeling down by it, hid her face in

the cushions. He did not go on, for he thought she was not listening to

him. At last he said:

"Come now, be a sensible girl, and face it out. I've a plan to propose."

"I hear," said she, in a dull veiled voice.

"Why, you know how against this engagement I have always been. Frank is but

three-and-twenty, and does not know his own mind, as I tell him. Besides,

he might marry any one he chose."

"He has chosen me," murmured Maggie.

"Of course, of course. But you'll not think of keeping him to it, after

what has passed. You would not have such a fine fellow as Frank pointed at

as the brother-in-law of a forger, would you? It was far from what I wished

for him before; but now! Why you're glad your father is dead, rather than

he should have lived to see this day; and rightly too, I think. And you'll

not go and disgrace Frank. From what Mr. Henry hears, Edward has been a

discredit to you in many ways. Mr. Henry was at Woodchester yesterday, and

he says if Edward has been fairly entered as an attorney, his name may be

struck off the Rolls for many a thing he has done. Think of my Frank having

his bright name tarnished by any connection with such a man! Mr. Henry

says, even in a court of law what has come out about Edward would be excuse

enough for a breach of promise of marriage."

Maggie lifted up her wan face; the pupils of her eyes were dilated, her

lips were dead white. She looked straight at Mr. Buxton with indignant

impatience:

"Mr. Henry! Mr. Henry! What has Mr. Henry to do with me?"

Mr. Buxton was staggered by the wild, imperious look, so new upon her mild,

sweet face. But he was resolute for Frank's sake, and returned to the

charge after a moment's pause.

"Mr. Henry is a good friend of mine, who has my interest at heart. He has

known what a subject of regret your engagement has been to me; though

really my repugnance to it was without cause formerly, compared to what it

is now. Now be reasonable, my dear. I'm willing to do something for you if

you will do something for me. You must see what a stop this sad affair has

put to any thoughts between you and Frank. And you must see what cause I

have to wish to punish Edward for his ungrateful behavior, to say nothing

of the forgery. Well now! I don't know what Mr. Henry will say to me, but

I have thought of this. If you'll write a letter to Frank, just saying

distinctly that, for reasons which must for ever remain a secret..."

"Remain a secret from Frank?" said Maggie, again lifting up her head.

"Why?"

"Why? my dear! You startle me with that manner of yours--just let me finish

out my sentence. If you'll say that, for reasons which must forever remain

a secret, you decidedly and unchangeably give up all connection, all

engagement with him (which, in fact, Edward's conduct has as good as put an

end to), I'll go over to Woodchester and tell Mr. Henry and the police that

they need not make further search after Edward, for that I won't appear

against him. You can save your brother; and you'll do yourself no harm by

writing this letter, for of course you see your engagement is broken off.

For you never would wish to disgrace Frank."

He paused, anxiously awaiting her reply. She did not speak.

"I'm sure, if I appear against him, he is as good as transported," he put

in, after a while.

Just at this time there was a little sound of displaced china in the

closet. Mr. Buxton did not attend to it, but Maggie heard it. She got up,

and stood quite calm before Mr. Buxton.

"You must go," said she. "I know you; and I know you are not aware of the

cruel way in which you have spoken to me, while asking me to give up the

very hope and marrow of my life"--she could not go on for a moment; she was

choked up with anguish.

"It was the truth, Maggie," said he, somewhat abashed.

"It was the truth that made the cruelty of it. But you did not mean to

speak cruelly to me, I know. Only it is hard all at once to be called upon

to face the shame and blasted character of one who was once an innocent

child at the same father's knee."

"I may have spoken too plainly," said Mr. Buxton, "but it was necessary

to set the plain truth before you, for my son's sake. You will write the

letter I ask?"

Her look was wandering and uncertain. Her attention was distracted by

sounds which to him had no meaning; and her judgment she felt was wavering

and disturbed.

"I cannot tell. Give me time to think; you will do that, I'm sure. Go now,

and leave me alone. If it is right, God will give me strength to do it, and

perhaps He will comfort me in my desolation. But I do not know--I cannot

tell. I must have time to think. Go now, if you please, sir," said she,

imploringly.

"I am sure you will see it is a right thing I ask of you," he persisted.

"Go now," she repeated.

"Very well. In two hours, I will come back again; for your sake, time is

precious. Even while we speak he may be arrested. At eleven, I will come

back."

He went away, leaving her sick and dizzy with the effort to be calm and

collected enough to think. She had forgotten for the moment how near Edward

was; and started when she saw the closet-door open, and his face put out.

"Is he gone? I thought he never would go. What a time you kept him, Maggie!

I was so afraid, once, you might sit down to write the letter in this room;

and then I knew he would stop and worry you with interruptions and advice,

so that it would never be ended; and my back was almost broken. But you

sent him off famously. Why, Maggie! Maggie!--you're not going to faint,

surely!"

His sudden burst out of a whisper into a loud exclamation of surprise,

made her rally; but she could not stand. She tried to smile, for he really

looked frightened.

"I have been sitting up for many nights--and now this sorrow!" Her smile

died away into a wailing, feeble cry.

"Well, well! it's over now, you see. I was frightened enough myself this

morning, I own; and then you were brave and kind. But I knew you could save

me, all along."

At this moment the door opened, and Mrs. Browne came in.

"Why, Edward, dear! who would have thought of seeing you! This is good of

you; what a pleasant surprise! I often said, you might come over for a day

from Woodchester. What's the matter, Maggie, you look so fagged? She's

losing all her beauty, is not she, Edward? Where's breakfast? I thought I

should find all ready. What's the matter? Why don't you speak?" said she,

growing anxious at their silence. Maggie left the explanation to Edward.

"Mother," said he, "I've been rather a naughty boy, and got into some

trouble; but Maggie is going to help me out of it, like a good sister."

"What is it?" said Mrs. Browne, looking bewildered and uneasy.

"Oh--I took a little liberty with our friend Mr. Buxton's name; and wrote

it down to a receipt--that was all."

Mrs. Browne's face showed that the light came but slowly into her mind.

"But that's forgery--is not it?" asked she at length, in terror.

"People call it so," said Edward; "I call it borrowing from an old friend,

who was always willing to lend."

"Does he know?--is he angry?" asked Mrs. Browne.

"Yes, he knows; and he blusters a deal. He was working himself up grandly

at first. Maggie! I was getting rarely frightened, I can tell you."

"Has he been here?" said Mrs. Browne, in bewildered fright.

"Oh, yes! he and Maggie have been having a long talk, while I was hid in

the china-closet. I would not go over that half-hour again for any money.

However, he and Maggie came to terms, at last."

"No, Edward, we did not!" said Maggie, in a low quivering voice.

"Very nearly. She's to give up her engagement, and then he will let me

off."

"Do you mean that Maggie is to give up her engagement to Mr. Frank Buxton?"

asked his mother.

"Yes. It would never have come to anything, one might see that. Old Buxton

would have held out against it till doomsday. And, sooner or later, Frank

would have grown weary. If Maggie had had any spirit, she might have worked

him up to marry her before now; and then I should have been spared even

this fright, for they would never have set the police after Mrs. Frank

Buxton's brother."

"Why, dearest, Edward, the police are not after you, are they?" said Mrs.

Browne, for the first time alive to the urgency of the case.

"I believe they are though," said Edward. "But after what Mr. Buxton

promised this morning, it does not signify."

"He did not promise anything," said Maggie.

Edward turned sharply to her, and looked at her. Then he went and took hold

of her wrists with no gentle grasp, and spoke to her through his set teeth.

"What do you mean, Maggie?--what do you mean?" (giving her a little shake.)

"Do you mean that you'll stick to your lover through thick and thin, and

leave your brother to be transported? Speak, can't you?"

She looked up at him, and tried to speak, but no words came out of her dry

throat. At last she made a strong effort.

"You must give me time to think. I will do what is right, by God's help."

"As if it was not right--and such can't--to save your brother," said he,

throwing her hands away in a passionate manner.

"I must be alone," said Maggie, rising, and trying to stand steadily in the

reeling room. She heard her mother and Edward speaking, but their words

gave her no meaning, and she went out. She was leaving the house by the

kitchen-door, when she remembered Nancy, left alone and helpless all

through this long morning; and, ill as she could endure detention from the

solitude she longed to seek, she patiently fulfilled her small duties, and

sought out some breakfast for the poor old woman.

When she carried it up stairs, Nancy said:

"There's something up. You've trouble in your sweet face, my darling. Never

mind telling me--only don't sob so. I'll pray for you, bairn: and God will

help you."

"Thank you, Nancy. Do!" and she left the room.

CHAPTER IX.

When she opened the kitchen-door there was the same small, mizzling rain

that had obscured the light for weeks, and now it seemed to obscure hope.

She clambered slowly (for indeed she was very feeble) up the Fell-Lane,

and threw herself under the leafless thorn, every small branch and twig

of which was loaded with rain-drops. She did not see the well-beloved

and familiar landscape for her tears, and did not miss the hills in the

distance that were hidden behind the rain-clouds, and sweeping showers.

Mrs. Browne and Edward sat over the fire. He told her his own story; making

the temptation strong; the crime a mere trifling, venial error, which he

had been led into, through his idea that he was to become Mr. Buxton's

agent.

"But if it is only that," said Mrs. Browne, "surely Mr. Buxton will not

think of going to law with you?"

"It's not merely going to law that he will think of, but trying and

transporting me. That Henry he has got for his agent is as sharp as a

needle, and as hard as a nether mill-stone. And the fellow has obtained

such a hold over Mr. Buxton, that he dare but do what he tells him. I can't

imagine how he had so much free-will left as to come with his proposal to

Maggie; unless, indeed, Henry knows of it--or, what is most likely of all,

has put him up to it. Between them they have given that poor fool Crayston

a pretty dose of it; and I should have come yet worse off if it had not

been for Maggie. Let me get clear this time, and I will keep to windward of

the law for the future."

"If we sold the cottage we could repay it," said Mrs. Browne, meditating.

"Maggie and I could live on very little. But you see this property is held

in trust for you two."

"Nay, mother; you must not talk of repaying it. Depend upon it he will be

so glad to have Frank free from his engagement, that he won't think of

asking for the money. And if Mr. Henry says anything about it, we can tell

him it's not half the damages they would have had to have given Maggie, if

Frank had been extricated in any other way. I wish she would come back; I

would prime her a little as to what to say. Keep a look out, mother, lest

Mr. Buxton returns and find me here."

"I wish Maggie would come in too," said Mrs. Browne. "I'm afraid she'll

catch cold this damp day, and then I shall have two to nurse. You think

she'll give it up, don't you, Edward? If she does not I'm afraid of harm

coming to you. Had you not better keep out of the way?"

"It's fine talking. Where am I to go out of sight of the police this wet

day: without a shilling in the world too? If you'll give me some money I'll

be off fast enough, and make assurance doubly sure. I'm not much afraid of

Maggie. She's a little yea-nay thing, and I can always bend her round to

what we want. She had better take care, too," said he, with a desperate

look on his face, "for by G---- I'll make her give up all thoughts of

Frank, rather than be taken and tried. Why! it's my chance for all my life;

and do you think I'll have it frustrated for a girl's whim?"

"I think it's rather hard upon her too," pleaded his mother. "She's very

fond of him; and it would have been such a good match for her."

"Pooh! she's not nineteen yet, and has plenty of time before her to pick

up somebody else; while, don't you see, if I'm caught and transported, I'm

done for life. Besides I've a notion Frank had already begun to be tired of

the affair; it would have been broken off in a month or two, without her

gaining anything by it."

"Well, if you think so," replied Mrs. Browne. "But I'm sorry for her. I

always told her she was foolish to think so much about him: but I know

she'll fret a deal if it's given up."

"Oh! she'll soon comfort herself with thinking that she has saved me. I

wish she'd come. It must be near eleven. I do wish she would come. Hark! is

not that the kitchen-door?" said he, turning white, and betaking himself

once more to the china-closet. He held it ajar till he heard Maggie

stepping softly and slowly across the floor. She opened the parlor-door;

and stood looking in, with the strange imperceptive gaze of a sleep-walker.

Then she roused herself and saw that he was not there; so she came in a

step or two, and sat down in her dripping cloak on a chair near the door.

Edward returned, bold now there was no danger.

"Maggie!" said he, "what have you fixed to say to Mr. Burton?"

She sighed deeply; and then lifted up her large innocent eyes to his face.

"I cannot give up Frank," said she, in a low, quiet voice.

Mrs. Browne threw up her hands and exclaimed in terror:

"Oh Edward, Edward! go away--I will give you all the plate I have; you can

sell it--my darling, go!"

"Not till I have brought Maggie to reason," said he, in a manner as quiet

as her own, but with a subdued ferocity in it, which she saw, but which did

not intimidate her.

He went up to her, and spoke below his breath.

"Maggie, we were children together--we two--brother and sister of one

blood! Do you give me up to be put in prison--in the hulks--among the

basest of criminals--I don't know where--all for the sake of your own

selfish happiness?"

She trembled very much; but did not speak or cry, or make any noise.

"You were always selfish. You always thought of yourself. But this time

I did think you would have shown how different you could be. But it's

self--self--paramount above all."

"Oh Maggie! how can you be so hard-hearted and selfish?" echoed Mrs.

Browne, crying and sobbing.

"Mother!" said Maggie, "I know that I think too often and too much of

myself. But this time I thought only of Frank. He loves me; it would break

his heart if I wrote as Mr. Buxton wishes, cutting our lives asunder, and

giving no reason for it."

"He loves you so!" said Edward, tauntingly. "A man's love break his

heart! You've got some pretty notions! Who told you that he loved you so

desperately? How do you know it?"

"Because I love him so," said she, in a quiet, earnest voice. "I do not

know of any other reason; but that is quite sufficient to me. I believe

him when he says he loves me; and I have no right to cause him the

infinite--the terrible pain, which my own heart tells me he would feel, if

I did what Mr. Buxton wishes me."

Her manner was so simple and utterly truthful, that it was as quiet and

fearless as a child's; her brother's fierce looks of anger had no power

over her; and his blustering died away before her into something of the

frightened cowardliness he had shown in the morning. But Mrs. Browne came

up to Maggie; and took her hand between both of hers, which were trembling.

"Maggie, you can save Edward. I know I have not loved you as I should have

done; but I will love and comfort you forever, if you will but write as Mr.

Buxton says. Think! Perhaps Mr. Frank may not take you at your word, but

may come over and see you, and all may be right, and yet Edward may be

saved. It is only writing this letter; you need not stick to it."

"No!" said Edward. "A signature, if you can prove compulsion, is not valid.

We will all prove that you write this letter under compulsion; and if Frank

loves you so desperately, he won't give you up without a trial to make you

change your mind."

"No!" said Maggie, firmly. "If I write the letter I abide by it. I will not

quibble with my conscience. Edward! I will not marry--I will go and live

near you, and come to you whenever I may--and give up my life to you if you

are sent to prison; my mother and I will go, if need be--I do not know yet

what I can do, or cannot do, for you, but all I can I will; but this one

thing I cannot."

"Then I'm off!" said Edward. "On your deathbed may you remember this hour,

and how you denied your only brother's request. May you ask my forgiveness

with your dying breath, and may I be there to deny it you."

"Wait a minute!" said Maggie, springing up, rapidly. "Edward, don't curse

me with such terrible words till all is done. Mother, I implore you to keep

him here. Hide him--do what you can to conceal him. I will have one more

trial." She snatched up her bonnet, and was gone, before they had time to

think or speak to arrest her.

On she flew along the Combehurst road. As she went, the tears fell like

rain down her face, and she talked to herself.

"He should not have said so. No! he should not have said so. We were the

only two." But still she pressed on, over the thick, wet, brown heather.

She saw Mr. Buxton coming; and she went still quicker. The rain had cleared

off, and a yellow watery gleam of sunshine was struggling out. She stopped

or he would have passed her unheeded; little expecting to meet her there.

"I wanted to see you," said she, all at once resuming her composure, and

almost assuming a dignified manner. "You must not go down to our house; we

have sorrow enough there. Come under these fir-trees, and let me speak to

you."

"I hope you have thought of what I said, and are willing to do what I asked

you."

"No!" said she. "I have thought and thought. I did not think in a selfish

spirit, though they say I did. I prayed first. I could not do that

earnestly, and be selfish, I think. I cannot give up Frank. I know the

disgrace; and if he, knowing all, thinks fit to give me up, I shall never

say a word, but bow my head, and try and live out my appointed days quietly

and cheerfully. But he is the judge, not you; nor have I any right to do

what you ask me." She stopped, because the agitation took away her breath.

He began in a cold manner:--"I am very sorry. The law must take its course.

I would have saved my son from the pain of all this knowledge, and that

which he will of course feel in the necessity of giving up his engagement.

I would have refused to appear against your brother, shamefully ungrateful

as he has been. Now you cannot wonder that I act according to my agent's

advice, and prosecute your brother as if he were a stranger."

He turned to go away. He was so cold and determined that for a moment

Maggie was timid. But she then laid her hand on his arm.

"Mr. Buxton," said she, "you will not do what you threaten. I know you

better. Think! My father was your old friend. That claim is, perhaps, done

away with by Edward's conduct. But I do not believe you can forget it

always. If you did fulfill the menace you uttered just now, there would

come times as you grew older, and life grew fainter and fainter before

you--quiet times of thought, when you remembered the days of your youth,

and the friends you then had and knew;--you would recollect that one of

them had left an only son, who had done wrong--who had sinned--sinned

against you in his weakness--and you would think then--you could not help

it--how you had forgotten mercy in justice--and, as justice required he

should be treated as a felon, you threw him among felons--where every

glimmering of goodness was darkened for ever. Edward is, after all, more

weak than wicked;--but he will become wicked if you put him in prison,

and have him transported. God is merciful--we cannot tell or think

how merciful. Oh, sir, I am so sure you will be merciful, and give my

brother--my poor sinning brother--a chance, that I will tell you all. I

will throw myself upon your pity. Edward is even now at home--miserable

and desperate;--my mother is too much stunned to understand all our

wretchedness--for very wretched we are in our shame."

As she spoke the wind arose and shivered in the wiry leaves of the

fir-trees, and there was a moaning sound as of some Ariel imprisoned in the

thick branches that, tangled overhead, made a shelter for them. Either the

noise or Mr. Buxton's fancy called up an echo to Maggie's voice--a pleading

with her pleading--a sad tone of regret, distinct yet blending with her

speech, and a falling, dying sound, as her voice died away in miserable

suspense.

It might be that, formed as she was by Mrs. Buxton's care and love, her

accents and words were such as that lady, now at rest from all sorrow,

would have used;--somehow, at any rate, the thought flashed into Mr.

Buxton's mind, that as Maggie spoke, his dead wife's voice was heard,

imploring mercy in a clear, distinct tone, though faint, as if separated

from him by an infinite distance of space. At least, this is the account

Mr. Buxton would have given of the manner in which the idea of his wife

became present to him, and what she would have wished him to do a powerful

motive in his conduct. Words of hers, long ago spoken, and merciful,

forgiving expressions made use of in former days to soften him in some

angry mood, were clearly remembered while Maggie spoke; and their influence

was perceptible in the change of his tone, and the wavering of his manner

henceforward.

"And yet you will not save Frank from being involved in your disgrace,"

said he; but more as if weighing and deliberating on the case than he had

ever spoken before.

"If Frank wishes it, I will quietly withdraw myself out of his sight

forever;--I give you my promise, before God, to do so. I shall not utter

one word of entreaty or complaint. I will try not to wonder or feel

surprise;--I will bless him in every action of his future life--but think

how different would be the disgrace he would voluntarily incur to my poor

mother's shame, when she wakens up to know what her child has done! Her

very torper about it now is more painful than words can tell."

"What could Edward do?" asked Mr. Buxton. "Mr. Henry won't hear of my

passing over any frauds."

"Oh, you relent!" said Maggie, taking his hand, and pressing it. "What

could he do? He could do the same, whatever it was, as you thought of his

doing, if I had written that terrible letter."

"And you'll be willing to give it up, if Frank wishes, when he knows all?"

asked Mr. Buxton.

She crossed her hands and drooped her head, but answered steadily.

"Whatever Frank wishes, when he knows all, I will gladly do. I will speak

the truth. I do not believe that any shame surrounding me, and not in me,

will alter Frank's love one title."

"We shall see," said Mr. Buxton. "But what I thought of Edward's doing, in

case--Well never mind! (seeing how she shrunk back from all mention of the

letter he had asked her to write,)--was to go to America, out of the way.

Then Mr. Henry would think he had escaped, and need never be told of my

coenivance. I think he would throw up the agency, if he were; and he's a

very clever man. If Ned is in England, Mr. Henry will ferret him out. And,

besides, this affair is so blown, I don't think he could return to his

profession. What do you say to this, Maggie?"

"I will tell my mother. I must ask her. To me it seems most desirable.

Only, I fear he is very ill; and it seems lonely; but never mind! We ought

to be thankful to you forever. I cannot tell you how I hope and trust he

will live to show you what your goodness has made him."

"But you must lose no time. If Mr. Henry traces him; I can't answer for

myself. I shall have no good reason to give, as I should have had, if I

could have told him that Frank and you were to be as strangers to each

other. And even then I should have been afraid, he is such a determined

fellow; but uncommonly clever. Stay!" said he, yielding to a sudden and

inexplicable desire to see Edward, and discover if his criminality had in

any way changed his outward appearance. "I'll go with you. I can hasten

things. If Edward goes, he must be off, as soon as possible, to Liverpool,

and leave no trace. The next packet sails the day after to-morrow. I noted

it down from the Times."

Maggie and he sped along the road. He spoke his thoughts aloud:

"I wonder if he will be grateful to me for this. Not that I ever mean to

look for gratitude again. I mean to try, not to care for anybody but Frank.

'Govern men by outward force,' says Mr. Henry. He is an uncommonly clever

man, and he says, the longer he lives, the more he is convinced of the

badness of men. He always looks for it now, even in those who are the best,

apparently."

Maggie was too anxious to answer, or even to attend to him. At the top of

the slope she asked him to wait while she ran down and told the result of

her conversation with him. Her mother was alone, looking white and sick.

She told her that Edward had gone into the hay-loft, above the old, disused

shippon.

Maggie related the substance of her interview with Mr. Buxton, and his wish

that Edward should go to America.

"To America!" said Mrs. Browne. "Why that's as far as Botany Bay. It's just

like transporting him. I thought you'd done something for us, you looked so

glad."

"Dearest mother, it is something. He is not to be subjected to

imprisonment or trial. I must go and tell him, only I must beckon to Mr.

Buxton first. But when he comes, do show him how thankful we are for his

mercy to Edward."

Mrs. Browne's murmurings, whatever was their meaning, were lost upon

Maggie. She ran through the court, and up the slope, with the lightness of

a lawn; for though she was tired in body to an excess she had never been

before in her life, the opening beam of hope in the dark sky made her

spirit conquer her flesh for the time.

She did not stop to speak, but turned again as soon as she had signed to

Mr. Buxton to follow her. She left the house-door open for his entrance,

and passed out again through the kitchen into the space behind, which was

partly an uninclosed yard, and partly rocky common. She ran across the

little green to the shippon, and mounted the ladder into the dimly-lighted

loft. Up in a dark corner Edward stood, with an old rake in his hand.

"I thought it was you, Maggie!" said he, heaving a deep breath of relief.

"What have you done? Have you agreed to write the letter? You've done

something for me, I see by your looks."

"Yes! I have told Mr. Buxton all. He is waiting for you in the parlor. Oh!

I knew he could not be so hard!" She was out of breath.

"I don't understand you!" said he. "You've never been such a fool as to go

and tell him where I am?"

"Yes, I have. I felt I might trust him. He has promised not to prosecute

you. The worst is, he says you must go to America. But come down, Ned, and

speak to him. You owe him thanks, and he wants to see you."

"I can't go through a scene. I'm not up to it. Besides, are you sure he is

not entrapping me to the police? If I had a farthing of money I would not

trust him, but be off to the moors."

"Oh, Edward! How do you think he would do anything so treacherous and mean?

I beg you not to lose time in distrust. He says himself, if Mr. Henry comes

before you are off, he does not know what will be the consequence. The

packet sails for America in two days. It is sad for you to have to go.

Perhaps even yet he may think of something better, though I don't know how

we can ask or expect it."

"I don't want anything better," replied he, "than that I should have money

enough to carry me to America. I'm in more scrapes than this (though none

so bad) in England; and in America there's many an opening to fortune." He

followed her down the steps while he spoke. Once in the yellow light of the

watery day, she was struck by his ghastly look. Sharp lines of suspicion

and cunning seemed to have been stamped upon his face, making it look

older by many years than his age warranted. His jaunty evening dress,

all weather-stained and dirty, added to his forlorn and disreputable

appearance; but most of all--deepest of all--was the impression she

received that he was not long for this world; and oh! how unfit for the

next! Still, if time was given--if he were placed far away from temptation,

she thought that her father's son might yet repent, and be saved. She took

his hand, for he was hanging back as they came near the parlor-door, and

led him in. She looked like some guardian angel, with her face that beamed

out trust, and hope, and thankfulness. He, on the contrary, hung his head

in angry, awkward shame; and half wished he had trusted to his own wits,

and tried to evade the police, rather than have been forced into this

interview.

His mother came to him; for she loved him all the more fondly, now he

seemed degraded and friendless. She could not, or would not, comprehend the

extent of his guilt; and had upbraided Mr. Buxton to the top of her bent

for thinking of sending him away to America. There was a silence when he

came in which was insupportable to him. He looked up with clouded eyes,

that dared not meet Mr. Buxton's.

"I am here, sir, to learn what you wish me to do. Maggie says I am to go to

America; if that is where you want to send me, I'm ready."

Mr. Buxton wished himself away as heartily as Edward. Mrs. Browne's

upbraidings, just when he felt that he had done a kind action, and yielded,

against his judgment, to Maggie's entreaties, had made him think himself

very ill used. And now here was Edward speaking in a sullen, savage kind

of way, instead of showing any gratitude. The idea of Mr. Henry's stern

displeasure loomed in the background.

"Yes!" said he, "I'm glad to find you come into the idea of going to

America. It's the only place for you. The sooner you can go, and the

better."

"I can't go without money," said Edward, doggedly. "If I had had money, I

need not have come here."

"Oh, Ned! would you have gone without seeing me?" said Mrs. Browne,

bursting into tears. "Mr. Buxton, I cannot let him go to America. Look how

ill he is. He'll die if you send him there."

"Mother, don't give way so," said Edward, kindly, taking her hand. "I'm

not ill, at least not to signify. Mr. Buxton is right: America is the only

place for me. To tell the truth, even if Mr. Buxton is good enough" (he

said this as if unwilling to express any word of thankfulness) "not to

prosecute me, there are others who may--and will. I'm safer out of the

country. Give me money enough to get to Liverpool and pay my passage, and

I'll be off this minute."

"You shall not," said Mrs. Browne, holding him tightly. "You told me this

morning you were led into temptation, and went wrong because you had no

comfortable home, nor any one to care for you, and make you happy. It will

be worse in America. You'll get wrong again, and be away from all who can

help you. Or you'll die all by yourself, in some backwood or other. Maggie!

you might speak and help me--how can you stand so still, and let him go to

America without a word!"

Maggie looked up bright and steadfast, as if she saw something beyond the

material present. Here was the opportunity for self-sacrifice of which Mrs.

Buxton had spoken to her in her childish days--the time which comes to

all, but comes unheeded and unseen to those whose eyes are not trained to

watching.

"Mother! could you do without me for a time? If you could, and it would

make you easier, and help Edward to"--The word on her lips died away; for

it seemed to imply a reproach on one who stood in his shame among them all.

"You would go!" said Mrs. Browne, catching at the unfinished sentence. "Oh!

Maggie, that's the best thing you've ever said or done since you were born.

Edward, would not you like to have Maggie with you?"

"Yes," said he, "well enough. It would be far better for me than going all

alone; though I dare say I could make my way pretty well after a time. If

she went, she might stay till I felt settled, and had made some friends,

and then she could come back."

Mr. Buxton was astonished at first by this proposal of Maggie's. He could

not all at once understand the difference between what she now offered to

do, and what he had urged upon her only this very morning. But as he

thought about it, he perceived that what was her own she was willing to

sacrifice; but that Frank's heart, once given into her faithful keeping,

she was answerable for it to him and to God. This light came down upon him

slowly; but when he understood, he admired with almost a wondering

admiration. That little timid girl brave enough to cross the ocean and go

to a foreign land, if she could only help to save her brother!

"I'm sure Maggie," said he, turning towards her, "you are a good,

thoughtful little creature. It may be the saving of Edward--I believe it

will. I think God will bless you for being so devoted."

"The expense will be doubled," said Edward.

"My dear boy! never mind the money. I can get it advanced upon this

cottage."

"As for that, I'll advance it," said Mr. Buxton.

"Could we not," said Maggie, hesitating from her want of knowledge, "make

over the furniture--papa's books, and what little plate we have, to Mr.

Buxton--something like pawning them--if he would advance the requisite

money? He, strange as it may seem, is the only person you can ask in this

great strait."

And so it was arranged, after some demur on Mr. Buxton's part. But Maggie

kept steadily to her point as soon as she found that it was attainable; and

Mrs. Browne was equally inflexible, though from a different feeling. She

regarded Mr. Buxton as the cause of her son's banishment, and refused to

accept of any favor from him. If there had been time, indeed, she would

have preferred obtaining the money in the same manner from any one else.

Edward brightened up a little when he heard the sum could be procured; he

was almost indifferent how; and, strangely callous, as Maggie thought,

he even proposed to draw up a legal form of assignment. Mr. Buxton only

thought of hurrying on the departure; but he could not refrain from

expressing his approval and admiration of Maggie whenever he came near her.

Before he went, he called her aside.

"My dear, I'm not sure if Frank can do better than marry you, after all.

Mind! I've not given it as much thought as I should like. But if you come

back as we plan, next autumn, and he is steady to you till then--and Edward

is going on well--(if he can but keep good, he'll do, for he is very

sharp--yon is a knowing paper he drew up)--why, I'll think about it. Only

let Frank see a bit of the world first. I'd rather you did not tell him

I've any thoughts of coming round, that he may have a fair trial; and I'll

keep it from Erminia if I can, or she will let it all out to him. I shall

see you to-morrow at the coach. God bless you, my girl, and keep you on the

great wide sea." He was absolutely in tears when he went away--tears of

admiring regret over Maggie.

CHAPTER X.

The more Maggie thought, the more she felt sure that the impulse on which

she had acted in proposing to go with her brother was right. She feared

there was little hope for his character, whatever there might be for his

worldly fortune, if he were thrown, in the condition of mind in which he

was now, among the set of adventurous men who are continually going over to

America in search of an El Dorado to be discovered by their wits. She knew

she had but little influence over him at present; but she would not doubt

or waver in her hope that patience and love might work him right at last.

She meant to get some employment--in teaching--in needlework--in a shop--no

matter how humble--and be no burden to him, and make him a happy home, from

which he should feel no wish to wander. Her chief anxiety was about her

mother. She did not dwell more than she could help on her long absence from

Frank; it was too sad, and yet too necessary. She meant to write and tell

him all about herself and Edward. The only thing which she would keep for

some happy future should be the possible revelation of the proposal which

Mr. Buxton had made, that she should give up her engagement as a condition

of his not prosecuting Edward.

There was much sorrowful bustle in the moorland cottage that day. Erminia

brought up a portion of the money Mr. Buxton was to advance, with an

entreaty that Edward would not show himself out of his home; and an account

of a letter from Mr. Henry, stating that the Woodchester police believed

him to be in London, and that search was being made for him there.

Erminia looked very grave and pale. She gave her message to Mrs. Browne,

speaking little beyond what was absolutely necessary. Then she took Maggie

aside, and suddenly burst into tears.

"Maggie, darling--what is this going to America? You've always and always

been sacrificing yourself to your family, and now you're setting off,

nobody knows where, in some vain hope of reforming Edward. I wish he was

not your brother, that I might speak of him as I should like."

"He has been doing what is very wrong," said Maggie. "But you--none of

you--know his good points--nor how he has been exposed to all sorts of bad

influences, I am sure; and never had the advantage of a father's training

and friendship, which are so inestimable to a son. O, Minnie! when I

remember how we two used to kneel down in the evenings at my father's knee,

and say our prayers; and then listen in awe-struck silence to his earnest

blessing, which grew more like a prayer for us as his life waned away,

I would do anything for Edward rather than that wrestling agony of

supplication should have been in vain. I think of him as the little

innocent boy, whose arm was round me as if to support me in the Awful

Presence, whose true name of Love we had not learned. Minnie! he has had

no proper training--no training, I mean, to enable him to resist

temptation--and he has been thrown into it without warning or advice. Now

he knows what it is; and I must try, though I am but an unknowing girl, to

warn and to strengthen him. Don't weaken my faith. Who can do right if we

lose faith in them?"

"And Frank!" said Erminia, after a pause. "Poor Frank!"

"Dear Frank!" replied Maggie, looking up, and trying to smile; but, in

spite of herself, her eyes filled with tears. "If I could have asked him,

I know he would approve of what I am going to do. He would feel it to be

right that I should make every effort--I don't mean," said she, as the

tears would fall down her cheeks in spite of her quivering effort at a

smile, "that I should not have liked to have seen him. But it is no use

talking of what one would have liked. I am writing a long letter to him at

every pause of leisure."

"And I'm keeping you all this time," said Erminia, getting up, yet loth to

go. "When do you intend to come back? Let us feel there is a fixed time.

America! Why, it's thousands of miles away. Oh, Maggie! Maggie!"

"I shall come back the next autumn, I trust," said Maggie, comforting her

friend with many a soft caress. "Edward will be settled then, I hope. You

were longer in France, Minnie. Frank was longer away that time he wintered

in Italy with Mr. Monro."

Erminia went slowly to the door. Then she turned, right facing Maggie.

"Maggie! tell the truth. Has my uncle been urging you to go? Because if he

has, don't trust him; it is only to break off your engagement."

"No, he has not, indeed. It was my own thought at first. Then in a moment I

saw the relief it was to my mother--my poor mother! Erminia, the thought

of her grief at Edward's absence is the trial; for my sake, you will come

often and often, and comfort her in every way you can."

"Yes! that I will; tell me everything I can do for you." Kissing each

other, with long lingering delay they parted.

Nancy would be informed of the cause of the commotion in the house; and

when she had in some degree ascertained its nature, she wasted no time

in asking further questions, but quietly got up and dressed herself;

and appeared among them, weak and trembling, indeed, but so calm and

thoughtful, that her presence was an infinite help to Maggie.

When day closed in, Edward stole down to the house once more. He was

haggard enough to have been in anxiety and concealment for a month. But

when his body was refreshed, his spirits rose in a way inconceivable to

Maggie. The Spaniards who went out with Pizarro were not lured on by more

fantastic notions of the wealth to be acquired in the New World than he

was. He dwelt on these visions in so brisk and vivid a manner, that he even

made his mother cease her weary weeping (which had lasted the livelong day,

despite all Maggie's efforts) to look up and listen to him.

"I'll answer for it," said he: "before long I'll be an American judge with

miles of cotton plantations."

"But in America," sighed out his mother.

"Never mind, mother!" said he, with a tenderness which made Maggie's heart

glad. "If you won't come over to America to me, why, I'll sell them all,

and come back to live in England. People will forget the scrapes that the

rich American got into in his youth."

"You can pay back Mr. Buxton then," said his mother.

"Oh, yes--of course," replied he, as if falling into a new and trivial

idea.

Thus the evening whiled away. The mother and son sat, hand in hand, before

the little glinting blazing parlor fire, with the unlighted candles on the

table behind. Maggie, busy in preparations, passed softly in and out. And

when all was done that could be done before going to Liverpool, where she

hoped to have two days to prepare their outfit more completely, she stole

back to her mother's side. But her thoughts would wander off to Frank,

"working his way south through all the hunting-counties," as he had written

her word. If she had not urged his absence, he would have been here for her

to see his noble face once more; but then, perhaps, she might never have

had the strength to go.

Late, late in the night they separated. Maggie could not rest, and stole

into her mother's room. Mrs. Browne had cried herself to sleep, like a

child. Maggie stood and looked at her face, and then knelt down by the bed

and prayed. When she arose, she saw that her mother was awake, and had been

looking at her.

"Maggie dear! you're a good girl, and I think God will hear your prayer

whatever it was for. I cannot tell you what a relief it is to me to

think you're going with him. It would have broken my heart else. If I've

sometimes not been as kind as I might have been, I ask your forgiveness,

now, my dear; and I bless you and thank you for going out with him; for I'm

sure he's not well and strong, and will need somebody to take care of him.

And you shan't lose with Mr. Frank, for as sure as I see him I'll tell him

what a good daughter and sister you've been; and I shall say, for all he is

so rich, I think he may look long before he finds a wife for him like our

Maggie. I do wish Ned had got that new greatcoat, he says he left behind

him at Woodchester." Her mind reverted to her darling son; but Maggie took

her short slumber by her mother's side, with her mother's arms around her;

and awoke and felt that her sleep had been blessed. At the coach-office

the next morning they met Mr. Buxton all ready as if for a journey, but

glancing about him as if in fear of some coming enemy.

"I'm going with you to Liverpool," said he. "Don't make any ado about it,

please. I shall like to see you off; and I may be of some use to you, and

Erminia begged it of me; and, besides, it will keep me out of Mr. Henry's

way for a little time, and I'm afraid he will find it all out, and think me

very weak; but you see he made me too hard upon Crayston, so I may take it

out in a little soft-heartedness toward the son of an old friend."

Just at this moment Erminia came running through the white morning mist all

glowing with haste.

"Maggie," said she, "I'm come to take care of your mother. My uncle says

she and Nancy must come to us for a long, long visit. Or if she would

rather go home, I'll go with her till she feels able to come to us, and do

anything I can think of for her. I will try to be a daughter till you come

back, Maggie; only don't be long, or Frank and I shall break our hearts."

Maggie waited till her mother had ended her long clasping embrace of

Edward, who was subdued enough this morning; and then, with something like

Esau's craving for a blessing, she came to bid her mother good-bye, and

received the warm caress she had longed for for years. In another moment

the coach was away; and before half an hour had elapsed, Combehurst

church-spire had been lost in a turn of the road.

Edward and Mr. Buxton did not speak to each other, and Maggie was nearly

silent. They reached Liverpool in the afternoon; and Mr. Buxton, who had

been there once or twice before, took them directly to some quiet hotel. He

was far more anxious that Edward should not expose himself to any chance of

recognition than Edward himself. He went down to the Docks to secure berths

in the vessel about to sail the next day, and on his return he took Maggie

out to make the requisite purchases.

"Did you pay for us, sir?" said Maggie, anxious to ascertain the amount of

money she had left, after defraying the passage.

"Yes," replied he, rather confused. "Erminia begged me not to tell you

about it, but I can't manage a secret well. You see she did not like the

idea of your going as steerage-passengers as you meant to do; and she

desired me to take you cabin places for her. It is no doing of mine, my

dear. I did not think of it; but now I have seen how crowded the steerage

is, I am very glad Erminia had so much thought. Edward might have roughed

it well enough there, but it would never have done for you."

"It was very kind of Erminia," said Maggie, touched at this consideration

of her friend; "but..."

"Now don't 'but' about it," interrupted he. "Erminia is very rich, and has

more money than she knows what to do with. I'm only vexed I did not think

of it myself. For Maggie, though I may have my own ways of thinking on some

points, I can't be blind to your goodness."

All evening Mr. Buxton was busy, and busy on their behalf. Even Edward,

when he saw the attention that was being paid to his physical comfort,

felt a kind of penitence; and after choking once or twice in the attempt,

conquered his pride (such I call it for want of a better word) so far as

to express some regret for his past conduct, and some gratitude for Mr.

Buxton's present kindness. He did it awkwardly enough, but it pleased Mr.

Buxton.

"Well--well--that's all very right," said he, reddening from his own

uncomfortableness of feeling. "Now don't say any more about it, but do your

best in America; don't let me feel I've been a fool in letting you off. I

know Mr. Henry will think me so. And, above all, take care of Maggie. Mind

what she says, and you're sure to go right."

He asked them to go on board early the next day, as he had promised Erminia

to see them there, and yet wished to return as soon as he could. It was

evident that he hoped, by making his absence as short as possible, to

prevent Mr. Henry's ever knowing that he had left home, or in any way

connived at Edward's escape.

So, although the vessel was not to sail till the afternoon's tide, they

left the hotel soon after breakfast, and went to the "Anna-Maria." They

were among the first passengers on board. Mr. Buxton took Maggie down to

her cabin. She then saw the reason of his business the evening before.

Every store that could be provided was there. A number of books lay on

the little table--books just suited to Maggie's taste. "There!" said he,

rubbing his hands. "Don't thank me. It's all Erminia's doing. She gave me

the list of books. I've not got all; but I think they'll be enough. Just

write me one line, Maggie, to say I've done my best."

Maggie wrote with tears in her eyes--tears of love toward the generous

Erminia. A few minutes more and Mr. Buxton was gone. Maggie watched him as

long as she could see him; and as his portly figure disappeared among the

crowd on the pier, her heart sank within her.

Edward's, on the contrary, rose at his absence. The only one, cognisant of

his shame and ill-doing, was gone. A new life lay before him, the opening

of which was made agreeable to him, by the position in which he found

himself placed, as a cabin-passenger; with many comforts provided for him;

for although Maggie's wants had been the principal object of Mr. Buxton's

attention, Edward was not forgotten.

He was soon among the sailors, talking away in a rather consequential

manner. He grew acquainted with the remainder of the cabin-passengers, at

least those who arrived before the final bustle began; and kept bringing

his sister such little pieces of news as he could collect.

"Maggie, they say we are likely to have a good start, and a fine moonlight

night." Away again he went.

"I say, Maggie, that's an uncommonly pretty girl come on board, with those

old people in black. Gone down into the cabin, now; I wish you would scrape

up an acquaintance with her, and give me a chance."

CHAPTER XI.

Maggie sat on deck, wrapped in her duffel-cloak; the old familiar cloak,

which had been her wrap in many a happy walk in the haunts near her

moorland home. The weather was not cold for the time of year, but still it

was chilly to any one that was stationary. But she wanted to look her last

on the shoals of English people, who crowded backward and forward, like

ants, on the pier. Happy people! who might stay among their loved ones. The

mocking demons gathered round her, as they gather round all who sacrifice

self, tempting. A crowd of suggestive doubts pressed upon her. "Was it

really necessary that she should go with Edward? Could she do him any real

good? Would he be in any way influenced by her?" Then the demon tried

another description of doubt. "Had it ever been her duty to go? She was

leaving her mother alone. She was giving Frank much present sorrow. It was

not even yet too late!" She could not endure longer; and replied to her own

tempting heart.

"I was right to hope for Edward; I am right to give him the chance of

steadiness which my presence will give. I am doing what my mother earnestly

wished me to do; and what to the last she felt relieved by my doing. I know

Frank will feel sorrow, because I myself have such an aching heart; but if

I had asked him whether I was not right in going, he would have been too

truthful not to have said yes. I have tried to do right, and though I may

fail, and evil may seem to arise rather than good out of my endeavor, yet

still I will submit to my failure, and try and say 'God's will be done!' If

only I might have seen Frank once more, and told him all face to face!"

To do away with such thoughts, she determined no longer to sit gazing, and

tempted by the shore; and, giving one look to the land which contained her

lover, she went down below, and busied herself, even through her blinding

tears, in trying to arrange her own cabin, and Edward's. She heard boat

after boat arrive loaded with passengers. She learnt from Edward, who came

down to tell her the fact, that there were upwards of two hundred steerage

passengers. She felt the tremulous shake which announced that the ship was

loosed from her moorings, and being tugged down the river. She wrapped

herself up once more, and came on deck, and sat down among the many who

were looking their last look at England. The early winter evening was

darkening in, and shutting out the Welsh coast, the hills of which were

like the hills of home. She was thankful when she became too ill to think

and remember.

Exhausted and still, she did not know whether she was sleeping or waking;

or whether she had slept since she had thrown herself down on her cot, when

suddenly, there was a great rush, and then Edward stood like lightning by

her, pulling her up by the arm.

"The ship is on fire--to the deck, Maggie! Fire! Fire!" he shouted, like

a maniac, while he dragged her up the stairs--as if the cry of Fire could

summon human aid on the great deep. And the cry was echoed up to heaven by

all that crowd in an accent of despair.

They stood huddled together, dressed and undressed; now in red lurid light,

showing ghastly faces of terror--now in white wreaths of smoke--as far away

from the steerage as they could press; for there, up from the hold,

rose columns of smoke, and now and then a fierce blaze leaped out,

exulting--higher and higher every time; while from each crevice on that

part of the deck issued harbingers of the terrible destruction that awaited

them.

The sailors were lowering the boats; and above them stood the captain, as

calm as if he were on his own hearth at home--his home where he never more

should be. His voice was low--was lower; but as clear as a bell in its

distinctness; as wise in its directions as collected thought could make

it. Some of the steerage passengers were helping; but more were dumb and

motionless with affright. In that dead silence was heard a low wail of

sorrow, as of numbers whose power was crushed out of them by that awful

terror. Edward still held his clutch of Margaret's arm.

"Be ready!" said he, in a fierce whisper.

The fire sprung up along the main-mast, and did not sink or disappear

again. They knew then that all the mad efforts made by some few below to

extinguish it were in vain; and then went up the prayers of hundreds, in

mortal agony of fear:

"Lord! have mercy upon us!"

Not in quiet calm of village church did ever such a pitiful cry go up to

heaven; it was like one voice--like the day of judgment in the presence of

the Lord.

And after that there was no more silence; but a confusion of terrible

farewells, and wild cries of affright, and purposeless rushes hither and

thither.

The boats were down, rocking on the sea. The captain spoke:

"Put the children in first; they are the most helpless."

One or two stout sailors stood in the boats to receive them. Edward drew

nearer and nearer to the gangway, pulling Maggie with him. She was almost

pressed to death, and stifled. Close in her ear, she heard a woman praying

to herself. She, poor creature, knew of no presence but God's in that awful

hour, and spoke in a low voice to Him.

"My heart's darlings are taken away from me. Faith! faith! Oh, my great

God! I will die in peace, if Thou wilt but grant me faith in this terrible

hour, to feel that Thou wilt take care of my poor orphans. Hush! dearest

Billy," she cried out shrill to a little fellow in the boat waiting for his

mother; and the change in her voice from despair to a kind of cheerfulness,

showed what a mother's love can do. "Mother will come soon. Hide his face,

Anne, and wrap your shawl tight round him." And then her voice sank down

again in the same low, wild prayer for faith. Maggie could not turn to see

her face, but took the hand which hung near her. The woman clutched at it

with the grasp of a vice; but went on praying, as if unconscious. Just then

the crowd gave way a little. The captain had said, that the women were to

go next; but they were too frenzied to obey his directions, and now pressed

backward and forward. The sailors, with mute, stern obedience, strove to

follow out the captain's directions. Edward pulled Maggie, and she kept her

hold on the mother. The mate, at the head of the gangway, pushed him back.

"Only women are to go!"

"There are men there."

"Three, to manage the boat."

"Come on, Maggie! while there's room for us," said he, unheeding. But

Maggie drew back, and put the mother's hand into the mate's. "Save her

first!" said she. The woman did not know of anything, but that her children

were there; it was only in after days, and quiet hours, that she remembered

the young creature who pushed her forward to join her fatherless children,

and, by losing her place in the crowd, was jostled--where, she did not

know--but dreamed until her dying day. Edward pressed on, unaware that

Maggie was not close behind him. He was deaf to reproaches; and, heedless

of the hand stretched out to hold him back, sprang toward the boat. The men

there pushed her off--full and more than full as she was; and overboard he

fell into the sullen heaving waters.

His last shout had been on Maggie's name--a name she never thought to hear

again on earth, as she was pressed back, sick and suffocating. But suddenly

a voice rang out above all confused voices and moaning hungry waves, and

above the roaring fire.

"Maggie, Maggie! My Maggie!"

Out of the steerage side of the crowd a tall figure issued forth, begrimed

with smoke. She could not see, but she knew. As a tame bird flutters to the

human breast of its protector when affrighted by some mortal foe, so Maggie

fluttered and cowered into his arms. And, for a moment, there was no more

terror or thought of danger in the hearts of those twain, but only infinite

and absolute peace. She had no wonder how he came there: it was enough that

he was there. He first thought of the destruction that was present with

them. He was as calm and composed as if they sat beneath the thorn-tree

on the still moorlands, far away. He took her, without a word, to the end

of the quarter-deck. He lashed her to a piece of spar. She never spoke:

"Maggie," he said, "my only chance is to throw you overboard. This spar

will keep you floating. At first, you will go down--deep, deep down. Keep

your mouth and eyes shut. I shall be there when you come up. By God's help,

I will struggle bravely for you."

She looked up; and by the flashing light he could see a trusting, loving

smile upon her face. And he smiled back at her; a grave, beautiful look,

fit to wear on his face in heaven. He helped her to the side of the vessel,

away from the falling burning pieces of mast. Then for a moment he paused.

"If--Maggie, I may be throwing you in to death." He put his hand before his

eyes. The strong man lost courage. Then she spoke:

"I am not afraid; God is with us, whether we live or die!" She looked as

quiet and happy as a child on its mother's breast! and so before he lost

heart again, he heaved her up, and threw her as far as he could over into

the glaring, dizzying water; and straight leaped after her. She came up

with an involuntary look of terror on her face; but when she saw him by the

red glare of the burning ship, close by her side, she shut her eyes, and

looked as if peacefully going to sleep. He swam, guiding the spar.

"I think we are near Llandudno. I know we have passed the little Ormes'

head." That was all he said; but she did not speak.

He swam out of the heat and fierce blaze of light into the quiet, dark

waters; and then into the moon's path. It might be half an hour before he

got into that silver stream. When the beams fell down upon them he looked

at Maggie. Her head rested on the spar, quite still. He could not bear it.

"Maggie--dear heart! speak!"

With a great effort she was called back from the borders of death by that

voice, and opened her filmy eyes, which looked abroad as if she could see

nothing nearer than the gleaming lights of Heaven. She let the lids fall

softly again. He was as if alone in the wide world with God.

"A quarter of an hour more and all is over," thought he. "The people at

Llandudno must see our burning ship, and will come out in their boats."

He kept in the line of light, although it did not lead him direct to the

shore, in order that they might be seen. He swam with desperation. One

moment he thought he had heard her last gasp rattle through the rush of

the waters; and all strength was gone, and he lay on the waves as if he

himself must die, and go with her spirit straight through that purple lift

to heaven; the next he heard the splash of oars, and raised himself

and cried aloud. The boatmen took them in--and examined her by the

lantern--and spoke in Welsh--and shook their heads. Frank threw himself on

his knees, and prayed them to take her to land. They did not know his

words, but they understood his prayer. He kissed her lips--he chafed her

hands--he wrung the water out of her hair--he held her feet against his

warm breast.

"She is not dead," he kept saying to the men, as he saw their sorrowful,

pitying looks.

The kind people at Llandudno had made ready their own humble beds, with

every appliance of comfort they could think of, as soon as they understood

the nature of the calamity which had befallen the ship on their coasts.

Frank walked, dripping, bareheaded, by the body of his Margaret, which was

borne by some men along the rocky sloping shore.

"She is not dead!" he said. He stopped at the first house they came to. It

belonged to a kind-hearted woman. They laid Maggie in her bed, and got the

village doctor to come and see her.

"There is life still," said he, gravely.

"I knew it," said Frank. But it felled him to the ground. He sank first

in prayer, and then in insensibility. The doctor did everything. All that

night long he passed to and fro from house to house; for several had swum

to Llandudno. Others, it was thought, had gone to Abergele.

In the morning Frank was recovered enough to write to his father,

by Maggie's bedside. He sent the letter off to Conway by a little

bright-looking Welsh boy. Late in the afternoon she awoke.

In a moment or two she looked eagerly round her, as if gathering in her

breath; and then she covered her head and sobbed.

"Where is Edward?" asked she.

"We do not know," said Frank, gravely. "I have been round the village, and

seen every survivor here; he is not among them, but he may be at some other

place along the coast."

She was silent, reading in his eyes his fears--his belief.

At last she asked again.

"I cannot understand it. My head is not clear. There are such rushing

noises in it. How came you there?" She shuddered involuntarily as she

recalled the terrible where.

For an instant he dreaded, for her sake, to recall the circumstances of the

night before; but then he understood how her mind would dwell upon them

until she was satisfied.

"You remember writing to me, love, telling me all. I got your letter--I

don't know how long ago--yesterday, I think. Yes! in the evening. You could

not think, Maggie, I would let you go alone to America. I won't speak

against Edward, poor fellow! but we must both allow that he was not the

person to watch over you as such a treasure should be watched over. I

thought I would go with you. I hardly know if I meant to make myself known

to you all at once, for I had no wish to have much to do with your brother.

I see now that it was selfish in me. Well! there was nothing to be done,

after receiving your letter, but to set off for Liverpool straight, and

join you. And after that decision was made, my spirits rose, for the old

talks about Canada and Australia came to my mind, and this seemed like a

realization of them. Besides, Maggie, I suspected--I even suspect now--that

my father had something to do with your going with Edward?"

"Indeed, Frank!" said she, earnestly, "you are mistaken; I cannot tell you

all now; but he was so good and kind at last. He never urged me to go;

though, I believe, he did tell me it would be the saving of Edward."

"Don't agitate yourself, love. I trust there will be time enough, some

happy day at home, to tell me all. And till then, I will believe that my

father did not in any way suggest this voyage. But you'll allow that,

after all that has passed, it was not unnatural in me to suppose so. I

only told Middleton I was obliged to leave him by the next train. It was

not till I was fairly off, that I began to reckon up what money I had with

me. I doubt even if I was sorry to find it was so little. I should have to

put forth my energies and fight my way, as I had often wanted to do. I

remember, I thought how happy you and I would be, striving together as poor

people 'in that new world which is the old.' Then you had told me you were

going in the steerage; and that was all suitable to my desires for myself."

"It was Erminia's kindness that prevented our going there. She asked your

father to take us cabin places unknown to me."

"Did she? dear Erminia! it is just like her. I could almost laugh to

remember the eagerness with which I doffed my signs of wealth, and put on

those of poverty. I sold my watch when I got into Liverpool--yesterday,

I believe--but it seems like months ago. And I rigged myself out at a

slop-shop with suitable clothes for a steerage passenger. Maggie! you never

told me the name of the vessel you were going to sail in!"

"I did not know it till I got to Liverpool. All Mr. Buxton said was, that

some ship sailed on the 15th."

"I concluded it must be the Anna-Maria, (poor Anna-Maria!) and I had no

time to lose. She had just heaved her anchor when I came on board. Don't

you recollect a boat hailing her at the last moment? There were three of us

in her."

"No! I was below in my cabin--trying not to think," said she, coloring a

little.

"Well! as soon as I got on board it began to grow dark, or, perhaps, it was

the fog on the river; at any rate, instead of being able to single out your

figure at once, Maggie--it is one among a thousand--I had to go peering

into every woman's face; and many were below. I went between decks, and

by-and-by I was afraid I had mistaken the vessel; I sat down--I had no

spirit to stand; and every time the door opened I roused up and looked--but

you never came. I was thinking what to do; whether to be put on shore in

Ireland, or to go on to New York, and wait for you there;--it was the worst

time of all, for I had nothing to do; and the suspense was horrible. I

might have known," said he, smiling, "my little Emperor of Russia was not

one to be a steerage passenger."

But Maggie was too much shaken to smile; and the thought of Edward lay

heavy upon her mind.

"Then the fire broke out; how, or why, I suppose will never be ascertained.

It was at our end of the vessel. I thanked God, then, that you were not

there. The second mate wanted some one to go down with him to bring up the

gunpowder, and throw it overboard. I had nothing to do, and I went. We

wrapped it up in wet sails, but it was a ticklish piece of work, and took

time. When we had got it overboard, the flames were gathering far and wide.

I don't remember what I did until I heard Edward's voice speaking your

name."

It was decided that the next morning they should set off homeward, striving

on their way to obtain tidings of Edward. Frank would have given his only

valuable, (his mother's diamond-guard, which he wore constantly,) as a

pledge for some advance of money; but the kind Welsh people would not have

it. They had not much spare cash, but what they had they readily lent to

the survivors of the Anna-Maria. Dressed in the homely country garb of

the people, Frank and Maggie set off in their car. If was a clear, frosty

morning; the first that winter. The road soon lay high up on the cliffs

along the coast. They looked down on the sea rocking below. At every

village they stopped, and Frank inquired, and made the driver inquire in

Welsh; but no tidings gained they of Edward; though here and there Maggie

watched Frank into some cottage or other, going to see a dead body, beloved

by some one: and when he came out, solemn and grave, their sad eyes met,

and she knew it was not he they sought, without needing words.

At Abergele they stopped to rest; and because, being a larger place, it

would need a longer search, Maggie lay down on the sofa, for she was very

weak, and shut her eyes, and tried not to see forever and ever that mad

struggling crowd lighted by the red flames.

Frank came back in an hour or so; and soft behind him--laboriously treading

on tiptoe--Mr. Buxton followed. He was evidently choking down his sobs; but

when he saw the white wan figure of Maggie, he held out his arms.

"My dear! my daughter!" he said, "God bless you!" He could not speak

more--he was fairly crying; but he put her hand in Frank's and kept holding

them both.

"My father," said Frank, speaking in a husky voice, while his eyes filled

with tears, "had heard of it before he received my letter. I might have

known that the lighthouse signals would take it fast to Liverpool. I had

written a few lines to him saying I was going to you; happily they never

reached--that was spared to my dear father."

Maggie saw the look of restored confidence that passed between father and

son.

"My mother?" said she at last.

"She is here," said they both at once, with sad solemnity.

"Oh, where? Why did not you tell me?" exclaimed she, starting up. But their

faces told her why.

"Edward is drowned--is dead," said she, reading their looks.

There was no answer.

"Let me go to my mother."

"Maggie, she is with him. His body was washed ashore last night. My father

and she heard of it as they came along. Can you bear to see her? She will

not leave him."

"Take me to her," Maggie answered.

They led her into a bed-room. Stretched on the bed lay Edward, but now so

full of hope and worldly plans.

Mrs. Browne looked round, and saw Maggie. She did not get up from her place

by his head; nor did she long avert her gaze from his poor face. But she

held Maggie's hand, as the girl knelt by her, and spoke to her in a hushed

voice, undisturbed by tears. Her miserable heart could not find that

relief.

"He is dead!--he is gone!--he will never come back again! If he had gone to

America--it might have been years first--but he would have come back to me.

But now he will never come back again;--never--never!"

Her voice died away, as the wailings of the night-wind die in the distance;

and there was silence--silence more sad and hopeless than any passionate

words of grief.

And to this day it is the same. She prizes her dead son more than a

thousand living daughters, happy and prosperous as is Maggie now--rich in

the love of many. If Maggie did not show such reverence to her mother's

faithful sorrows, others might wonder at her refusal to be comforted by

that sweet daughter. But Maggie treats her with such tender sympathy, never

thinking of herself or her own claims, that Frank, Erminia, Mr. Buxton,

Nancy, and all, are reverent and sympathizing too.

Over both old and young the memory of one who is dead broods like a

dove--of one who could do but little during her lifetime--who was doomed

only to "stand and wait"--who was meekly content to be gentle, holy,

patient, and undefiled--the memory of the invalid Mrs. Buxton.

"THERE'S ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE."

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Queen Elizabeth.

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       *       *       *       *       *

Charles the First.

We incline to think that there never was before so much said about this

unfortunate monarch in so short a space; so much to the purpose; with so

much impartiality; and in such a style as just suits those for whom it is

designed--the "two millions" of young persons in the United States, who

ought to be supplied with such works as these. The engravings

represent the prominent persons and places of the history, and are well

executed. The portrait of John Hampden is charming. The antique title-page

is rich.--Southern Christian Advocate.

       *       *       *       *       *

Hannibal the Carthaginian.

A new volume of the series projected by the skillful book-manufacturer,

Mr. Abbott, who displays no little tact in engaging the attention of that

marvellous body "the reading public" in old scholastic topics hitherto

almost exclusively the property of the learned. The latter, with their

ingenious implements of lexicons and scholia, will be in no danger of being

superseded, however, while the least-furnished reader may gain something

from the attractively-printed and easily-perused volumes of Mr. Abbott. The

story of Hannibal is well adapted for popular treatment, and loses

nothing for this purpose in the present explanatory and pictorial

version.--Literary World.

       *       *       *       *       *

Maria Antoinette.

In a style copious and yet forcible, with an expression singularly clear

and happy, and in language exceedingly chaste and at times very beautiful,

he has given us a plain, unvarnished narrative of facts, as he himself

says, unclogged by individual reflections which would "only encumber rather

than enforce." The present work wants none of the interest inseparably

connecting itself with the preceding numbers of the same series, but is

characterized throughout by the same peculiar beauties, riveting the

attention and deeply engraving on the mind the information with which they

every where teem.--Evening Mirror.