On Miss Pemberton's return to Downside, while seated at their tea-table,
Miss Mary gave her a description of her young visitor of the morning,
and told her of the proposal she was anxious to make about her.
"I should just like to see the little girl," said Miss Pemberton. "If
she is really as the dame supposes, of gentle birth, it would be
undoubtedly right to try and give her some of the advantages of which
she has been deprived. At the same time we should be cautious--perhaps
the dame may have been mistaken, and it will be unnecessary, if not
imprudent, to try and raise her above the position in which she was
born, unless she possesses qualities calculated to make her happier and
better in a higher station."
"Well, Jane, I could only form an opinion from her sweet voice and from
what she said. Adam Halliburt and his wife are devotedly fond of her,
and do you not think that we may help them by judicious training."
"Well, Mary, I see that you are determined to think highly of the child,
and unless we find that you are mistaken, I shall be very glad to see
her as often as her worthy protectors will allow her to come," said Miss
Pemberton.
"I trust that it will be found that I am right in my opinion of the
sweet little girl," said Miss Mary, nodding her head and smiling. "I
can always judge best of people by their voices, and I detected in her's
that true tone which can only proceed from a true heart."
"Well, well, we shall see, and I hope that my opinion will agree with
your's, Mary," observed Miss Pemberton.
Next morning Mistress Halliburt arrived with Maiden May. The little
girl was scrupulously clean and neatly dressed, though her garments were
befitting a fisherman's daughter of plain and somewhat coarse materials,
except that she wore the unusual addition of shoes and stockings.
"I have brought our little maiden to you, ladies, as you desired, and if
you will please to tell me how long you wish to keep her, I will send my
Jacob up to fetch her away at the proper time," said the dame as she
entered the hall into which the Miss Pemberton's had come out to meet
their young guest.
Miss Pemberton scanned her narrowly with her keen grey eyes before
replying.
"Good morning, my dear," said Miss Mary, "come and shake hands."
May ran forward and placed her hand trustfully in that of the blind
lady. "May I lead you about the garden as I did yesterday, Miss Mary,"
she asked, "and tell you of the birds, and butterflies, and flowers I
see? I shall like it so much." Miss Mary smiled and nodded her consent
to the proposal. "Thank you, thank you," exclaimed Maiden May. "You
need not send for the child till the evening, Mrs Halliburt," said Miss
Jane, who had been watching May. "We shall not grow tired of her I
think, and she, I hope, will be happy here."
The dame went away in the hopes that Maiden May had made a favourable
impression on the ladies. "The elder is a little stiff and won't win
the child's heart like the blind lady; but she is kind and may be thinks
more than her sister," she said to herself. "She won't spoil the child
or set her up too much--that's a good thing, or maybe she might not like
coming back to us and putting up with our ways, and that would vex Adam
sorely."
The little girl spent a very happy day with the kind ladies. She led
Miss Mary as she had proposed about the garden, and was as entertaining
to the blind lady as on the previous day, while she gained a
considerable amount of information tending to expand her young mind.
Miss Jane commenced giving her the course of instruction she had
contemplated, and Maiden May proved herself a willing and apt pupil.
When invited to come to dinner, Miss Jane was pleased to see her stand
up with her hands before her, ready to repeat the grace which she
herself uttered.
"Father always prays before and after meals though he does not say the
same words; but I think God does not care about the words so much as
what comes out of the heart. Oh, He is very very kind, I always thank
Him for what He gives me. If He had not taken care of me, I should have
been washed away in the sea with my poor ayah and all the people on
board the ship."
"And you love God my little maiden," asked Miss Pemberton. "Oh, yes,
how could I not when He has given us His dear Son, and with Him all
things else which we can want to make us happy."
"The child has been well taught by the good fish wife," observed Miss
Mary aside to her sister. "She has set us an example which we must be
careful to follow."
"Yes, indeed," said Miss Jane, "we can better give her lady-like notions
and habits than the good old woman could have done, but she has acted
faithfully in imparting that knowledge which is above all price." It is
true May did several things at table not in accordance with the customs
of polite society, but Miss Jane refrained from saying anything for fear
of intimidating the little girl.
"You will observe, May, how I behave at table, and you will try, I am
sure, to do as I do," she said quietly.
May nodded, and after this so narrowly watched all her movements that
Miss Jane began almost to wish that she had not made the remark. If
Miss Jane helped herself to salt so did Maiden May, when she drank the
little girl lifted her small tumbler to her lips, her knife and fork was
held exactly in the same way she saw Miss Jane doing, or held daintily
in her tiny hand while Susan took her plate for some more chicken.
"Our young friend will prove an apt scholar, I suspect," observed Miss
Jane, to her sister. "I will tell you why I think so by and bye."
After dinner Miss Jane gave May her first writing lesson. She had never
before held a pen in her hand, and her attempts to make pot-hooks and
hangers, and even straight lines were not very successful.
"I think I could make some letters like those in a book, if you will let
me, Miss Jane," she said, looking up after surveying her performance.
"I do not want you to make such as those at present; but I will write
some which you can copy."
To her surprise the little girl imitated the letters, as she told Miss
Mary, with a neatness and precision which was truly surprising.
"I like to do them much better than those ugly things," said Maiden May,
and she was spared the task of copying the pot-hooks and hangers, and
was allowed to learn writing more according to her own fancy.
She was so happy that she thought Jacob had arrived sooner than it was
necessary to escort her home. She went, however, very willingly,
tripping along by his side as she held his big hand, and describing with
glee all she had seen and learned.
"You will soon be thinking little of our home I am afeared, May," said
Jacob with a sigh.
May protested honestly she liked home best. Jacob felt that in a few
years she would think differently. He scarcely dared to allow himself
to contemplate the wide gap which would be placed between them.
Day after day May went up to Downside Cottage.
"We ought not to give you the trouble to come for your little girl,
Mistress Halliburt," observed Miss Jane; "Susan can escort her if you do
not think her old enough to go by herself."
"If she were my own daughter, or any other poor person's child, I would
have let her go and come back by herself long ago, but there is one
living not far off, who, for reasons of his own which I cannot fathom,
would, I am afraid, like to spirit her off," said the dame mysteriously.
"I have never lost sight of her except when she has been with you or my
Jacob, besides that time when near Texford Mr Harry saved her from the
wild bull, and I was so frightened then that I made up my mind never to
let her go by herself again. If she had come to harm I should have
almost died of it, and Adam would never have forgiven me."
"That was an accident not likely to occur again, and surely no one would
injure the child," observed Miss Jane.
"It's no fancy of mine if I think there is," said the dame. "He came
once and tried to get her from us by fair means, but we would not give
her up for all his promises. But when he finds out as he is sure to do
before long, that she is with you, and coming backwards and forwards, he
will be on the watch for her. He is not often here now since the war
began, and Adam thinks he is about no good. He does come back sometimes
for a day or two, and Satan will be helping him if he thinks of
mischief."
"No doubt about that, Mrs Halliburt," observed Miss Jane. "But there
is one more powerful than Satan who will protect the innocent."
"True, marm, but He will protect them through the means of their
friends, and it's our business, if we suspect evil to guard against it,"
said the dame.
"You are right. But who is the person of whom you speak who is likely
to injure our little girl?"
"We must not speak ill of our neighbours, Miss Pemberton," answered the
dame. "I know that; but if our neighbours do ill we may warn others
against them. The man I mean is Miles Gaffin, the miller, as he calls
himself. Now, I cannot say exactly what ill he does, except that I
never heard of his doing any good or saying even a kind word, though he
says many a bad one: but Adam, my husband, has a pretty strong notion of
the sort of business he carries on, and that it's not by his mill he
makes his money. There are few about here who don't stand in awe of
him, and yet it would be hard for anyone to say exactly why. Only one
thing is certain, that if he had a mind to do a thing he would do it,
and set the law at defiance. To say the truth, I cannot tell you more
against him than I have, but I am just afraid of him, and cannot help
feeling as how he would work mischief to our Maiden May if he had the
chance. But, Miss Pemberton, you will not repeat what I have said?"
"Certainly not, dame, certainly not," said Miss Mary, "but after all I
cannot say that you have brought any serious accusation against the
miller, nor can I understand why you should fancy he is likely to injure
our Maiden May."
"That's just it, Miss Mary, no one about here can say exactly what he
does, or why they don't like him. Still, no one does like him, and I
feel a sort of tremble whenever I set my eyes on him, just as I should,
begging your pardon, ladies, if I was to meet Satan himself, though I
know well he cannot hurt me, for I trust in one who is able to keep evil
at a distance."
"Though I still remain in the dark as to why we should be cautious of
this man Gaffin, we will always keep a careful watch over Maiden May,
and when you or your son cannot come for her we will send her home with
some prudent person who will take care that neither he nor anyone else
runs off with her," answered Miss Jane.