After a pause, I ventured to ask what became of Madame de Créquy,
Clément’s mother.
“She never made any inquiry about him again,” said my lady. “She must
have known that he was dead; though how, we never could tell. Medlicott
remembered afterwards that it was about, if not on--Medlicott to this
day declares that it was on the very Monday, June the nineteenth, when
her son was executed, that Madame de Créquy left off her rouge, and took
to her bed, as one bereaved and hopeless. It certainly was about that
time; and Medlicott--who was deeply impressed by that dream of Madame de
Créquy’s (the relation of which I told you had had such an effect on my
lord), in which she had seen the figure of Virginie--as the only light
object amid much surrounding darkness as of night, smiling and beckoning
Clément on--on--till at length the bright phantom stopped, motionless,
and Madame de Créquy’s eyes began to penetrate the murky darkness, and
to see closing around her the gloomy dripping walls which she had once
seen and never forgotten--the walls of the vault of the chapel of the De
Créquys in Saint Germain l’Auxerrois; and there the two last of the
Créquys laid them down among their forefathers, and Madame de Créquy had
wakened to the sound of the great door, which led to the open air, being
locked upon her--I say Medlicott, who was predisposed by this dream to
look out for the supernatural, always declared that Madame de Créquy was
made conscious, in some mysterious way, of her son’s death, on the very
day and hour when it occurred, and that after that she had no more
anxiety, but was only conscious of a kind of stupefying despair.”
“And what became of her, my lady?” asked I, repeating my question.
“What could become of her?” replied Lady Ludlow. “She never could be
induced to rise again, though she lived more than a year after her son’s
departure. She kept her bed; her room darkened, her face turned towards
the wall, whenever any one besides Medlicott was in the room. She hardly
ever spoke, and would have died of starvation but for Medlicott’s tender
care, in putting a morsel to her lips every now and then, feeding her,
in fact, just as an old bird feeds her young ones. In the height of
summer my lord and I left London. We would fain have taken her with us
into Scotland, but the doctor (we had the old doctor from Leicester
Square) forbade her removal; and this time he gave such good reasons
against it that I acquiesced. Medlicott and a maid were left with her.
Every care was taken of her. She survived till our return. Indeed, I
thought she was in much the same state as I had left her in, when I came
back to London. But Medlicott spoke of her as much weaker; and one
morning on awakening, they told me she was dead. I sent for Medlicott,
who was in sad distress, she had become so fond of her charge. She said
that, about two o’clock, she had been awakened by unusual restlessness
on Madame de Créquy’s part; that she had gone to her bedside, and found
the poor lady feebly but perpetually moving her wasted arm up and
down--and saying to herself in a wailing voice: ‘I did not bless him
when he left me--I did not bless him when he left me!’ Medlicott gave
her a spoonful or two of jelly, and sat by her, stroking her hand, and
soothing her till she seemed to fall asleep. But in the morning she was
dead.”
“It is a sad story, your ladyship,” said I, after a while.
“Yes it is. People seldom arrive at my age without having watched the
beginning, middle, and end of many lives and many fortunes. We do not
talk about them, perhaps; for they are often so sacred to us, from
having touched into the very quick of our own hearts, as it were, or
into those of others who are dead and gone, and veiled over from human
sight, that we cannot tell the tale as if it was a mere story. But young
people should remember that we have had this solemn experience of life,
on which to base our opinions and form our judgments, so that they are
not mere untried theories. I am not alluding to Mr. Horner just now, for
he is nearly as old as I am--within ten years, I daresay--but I am
thinking of Mr. Gray, with his endless plans for some new
thing--schools, education, Sabbaths, and what not. Now he has not seen
what all this leads to.”
“It is a pity he has not heard your ladyship tell the story of poor
Monsieur de Créquy.”
“Not at all a pity, my dear. A young man like him, who, both by position
and age must have had his experience confined to a very narrow circle,
ought not to set up his opinion against mine; he ought not to require
reasons from me, nor to need such explanation of my arguments (if I
condescend to argue), as going into relation of the circumstances on
which my arguments are based in my own mind, would be.”
“But, my lady, it might convince him,” I said, with perhaps injudicious
perseverance.
“And why should he be convinced?” she asked, with gentle inquiry in her
tone. “He has only to acquiesce. Though he is appointed by Mr. Croxton,
I am the lady of the manor, as he must know. But it is with Mr. Horner
that I must have to do about this unfortunate lad Gregson. I am afraid
there will be no method of making him forget his unlucky knowledge. His
poor brains will be intoxicated with the sense of his powers, without
any counterbalancing principles to guide him. Poor fellow! I am quite
afraid it will end in his being hanged!”
The next day Mr. Horner came to apologise and explain. He was
evidently--as I could tell from his voice, as he spoke to my lady in the
next room--extremely annoyed at her ladyship’s discovery of the
education he had been giving to this boy. My lady spoke with great
authority, and with reasonable grounds of complaint. Mr. Horner was well
acquainted with her thoughts on the subject, and had acted in defiance
of her wishes. He acknowledged as much, and should on no account have
done it, in any other instance, without her leave.
“Which I could never have granted you,” said my lady.
But this boy had extraordinary capabilities; would, in fact, have taught
himself much that was bad, if he not been rescued, and another direction
given to his powers. And in all Mr. Horner had done, he had had her
ladyship’s service in view. The business was getting almost beyond his
power, so many letters and so much account-keeping was required by the
complicated state in which things were.
Lady Ludlow felt what was coming--a reference to the mortgage for the
benefit of my lord’s Scottish estates, which, she was perfectly aware,
Mr. Horner considered as having been a most unwise proceeding--and she
hastened to observe:--
“All this may be very true, Mr. Horner, and I am sure I should be the
last person to wish you to over-work or distress yourself; but of that
we will talk another time. What I am now anxious to remedy is, if
possible, the state of this poor little Gregson’s mind. Would not hard
work in the fields be a wholesome and excellent way of enabling him to
forget?”
“I was in hopes, my lady, that you would have permitted me to bring him
up to act as a kind of clerk,” said Mr. Horner, jerking out his project
abruptly.
“A what?” asked my lady, in infinite surprise.
“A kind of--of assistant, in the way of copying letters and doing up
accounts. He is already an excellent penman and very quick at figures.”
“Mr. Horner,” said my lady, with dignity, “the son of a poacher and
vagabond ought never to have been able to copy letters relating to the
Hanbury estates; and, at any rate, he shall not. I wonder how it is
that, knowing the use he has made of his power of reading a letter, you
should venture to propose such an employment for him as would require
his being in your confidence, and you the trusted agent of this family.
Why, every secret (and every ancient and honourable family has its
secrets, as you know, Mr. Horner!) would be learnt off by heart, and
repeated to the first comer!”
“I should have hoped to have trained him, my lady, to understand the
rules of discretion.”
“Trained! Train a barn-door fowl to be a pheasant, Mr. Horner! That
would be the easier task. But you did right to speak of discretion
rather than honour. Discretion looks to the consequences of
actions--honour looks to the action itself, and is an instinct rather
than a virtue. After all, it is possible, you might have trained him to
be discreet.”
Mr. Horner was silent. My lady was softened by his not replying, and
began, as she always did in such cases, to fear lest she had been too
harsh. I could tell that by her voice and by her next speech, as well
as if I had seen her face.
“But I am sorry you are feeling the pressure of the affairs; I am quite
aware that I have entailed much additional trouble upon you by some of
my measures; I must try and provide you with some suitable assistance.
Copying letters and doing up accounts, I think you said?”
Mr. Horner had certainly had a distant idea of turning the little boy,
in process of time, into a clerk; but he had rather urged this
possibility of future usefulness beyond what he had at first intended,
in speaking of it to my lady as a palliation of his offence, and he
certainly was very much inclined to retract his statement that the
letter-writing, or any other business, had increased, or that he was in
the slightest want of help of any kind, when my lady, after a pause of
consideration, suddenly said:
“I have it. Miss Galindo will, I am sure, be glad to assist you. I will
speak to her myself. The payment we should make to a clerk would be of
real service to her!”
I could hardly help echoing Mr. Horner’s tone of surprise as he said--
“Miss Galindo!”
For, you must be told who Miss Galindo was; at least, told us much as I
know. Miss Galindo had lived in the village for many years, keeping
house on the smallest possible means, yet always managing to maintain a
servant. And this servant was invariably chosen because she had some
infirmity that made her undesirable to every one else. I believe Miss
Galindo had had lame and blind and hump-backed maids. She had even at
one time taken in a girl hopelessly gone in consumption, because if not
she would have had to go to the workhouse, and not have had enough to
eat. Of course the poor creature could not perform a single duty usually
required of a servant, and Miss Galindo herself was both servant and
nurse.
Her present maid was scarcely four feet high, and bore a terrible
character for ill-temper. Nobody but Miss Galindo would have kept her;
but, as it was, mistress and servant squabbled perpetually, and were, at
heart, the best of friends. For it was one of Miss Galindo’s
peculiarities to do all manner of kind and self-denying actions, and to
say all manner of provoking things. Lame, blind, deformed, and dwarf,
all came in for scoldings without number: it was only the consumptive
girl that never had heard a sharp word. I don’t think any of her
servants liked her the worse for her peppery temper, and passionate odd
ways, for they knew her real and beautiful kindness of heart; and,
besides, she had so great a turn for humour, that very often her
speeches amused as much or more than they irritated; and, on the other
side, a piece of witty impudence from her servant would occasionally
tickle her so much and so suddenly, that she would burst out laughing in
the middle of her passion.
But the talk about Miss Galindo’s choice and management of her servants
was confined to village gossip, and had never reached my Lady Ludlow’s
ears, though doubtless Mr. Horner was well acquainted with it. What my
lady knew of her amounted to this. It was the custom in those days for
the wealthy ladies of the county to set on foot a repository, as it was
called, in the assize-town. The ostensible manager of this repository
was generally a decayed gentlewoman, a clergyman’s widow, or so forth.
She was, however, controlled by a committee of ladies; and paid by them
in proportion to the amount of goods she sold; and these goods were the
small manufactures of ladies of little or no fortune, whose names, if
they chose it, were only signified by initials.
Poor water-colour drawings, in indigo and Indian ink; screens,
ornamented with moss and dried leaves; paintings on velvet, and such
faintly ornamental works were displayed on one side of the shop. It was
always reckoned a mark of characteristic gentility in the repository,
to have only common heavy framed sash-windows, which admitted very
little light, so I never was quite certain of the merit of these Works
of Art as they were entitled. But, on the other side, where the Useful
Work placard was put up, there was a great variety of articles, of whose
unusual excellence every one might judge. Such fine sewing, and
stitching, and button-holing! Such bundles of soft delicate knitted
stockings and socks; and, above all, in Lady Ludlow’s eyes, such hanks
of the finest spun flaxen thread!
And the most delicate dainty work of all was done by Miss Galindo, as
Lady Ludlow very well knew. Yet, for all their fine sewing, it sometimes
happened that Miss Galindo’s patterns were of an old-fashioned kind; and
the dozen night-caps, may-be, on the materials for which she had
expended bonâ-fide money, and on the making-up, no little time and
eye-sight, would lie for months in a yellow neglected heap; and at such
times, it was said, Miss Galindo was more amusing than usual, more full
of dry drollery and humour; just as at the times when an order came in
to X. (the initial she had chosen) for a stock of well-paying things,
she sat and stormed at her servant as she stitched away. She herself
explained her practice in this way:--
“When everything goes wrong, one would give up breathing if one could
not lighten one’s heart by a joke. But when I’ve to sit still from
morning till night, I must have something to stir my blood, or I should
go off into an apoplexy, so I set to, and quarrel with Sally.”
Such were Miss Galindo’s means and manner of living in her own house.
Out of doors, and in the village, she was not popular, although she
would have been sorely missed had she left the place. But she asked too
many home questions (not to say impertinent) respecting the domestic
economies (for even the very poor like to spend their bit of money their
own way), and would open cupboards to find out hidden extravagances, and
question closely respecting the weekly amount of butter, till one day
she met with what would have been a rebuff to any other person, but
which she rather enjoyed than otherwise.
She was going into a cottage, and in the doorway met the good woman
chasing out a duck, and apparently unconscious of her visitor.
“Get out, Miss Galindo!” she cried addressing the duck. “Get out! O, I
ask your pardon,” she continued, as if seeing the lady for the first
time. “It’s only that weary duck that will come in. Get out, Miss
Gal----” (to the duck).
“And so you call it after me, do you?” inquired her visitor.
“O, yes, ma’am, my master would have it so, for he said, sure enough the
unlucky bird was always poking herself where she was not wanted.”
“Ha, ha! very good! And so your master is a wit, is he? Well! tell him
to come up and speak to me to-night about my parlour chimney, for there
is no one like him for chimney doctoring.”
And the master went up, and was so won over by Miss Galindo’s merry
ways, and sharp insight into the mysteries of his various kinds of
business (he was a mason, chimney-sweeper, and ratcatcher), that he came
home and abused his wife the next time she called the duck the name by
which he himself had christened her.
But odd as Miss Galindo was in general, she could be as well-bred a lady
as any one when she chose. And choose she always did when my Lady Ludlow
was by. Indeed, I don’t know the man, woman, or child, that did not
instinctively turn out its best side to her ladyship. So she had no
notion of the qualities which, I am sure, made Mr. Horner think that
Miss Galindo would be most unmanageable as a clerk, and heartily wish
that the idea had never come into my lady’s head. But there it was; and
he had annoyed her ladyship already more than he liked to-day, so he
could not directly contradict her, but only urge difficulties which he
hoped might prove insuperable. But every one of them Lady Ludlow knocked
down. Letters to copy? Doubtless. Miss Galindo could come up to the
hall; she should have a room to herself; she wrote a beautiful hand; and
writing would save her eyesight. “Capability with regard to accounts?”
My lady would answer for that too; and for more than Mr. Horner seemed
to think it necessary to inquire about. Miss Galindo was by birth and
breeding a lady of the strictest honour, and would, if possible, forget
the substance of any letters that passed through her hands; at any rate,
no one would ever hear of them again from her. “Remuneration?” Oh! as
for that, Lady Ludlow would herself take care that it was managed in the
most delicate manner possible. She would send to invite Miss Galindo to
tea at the Hall that very afternoon, if Mr. Horner would only give her
ladyship the slightest idea of the average length of time that my lady
was to request Miss Galindo to sacrifice to her daily, “Three hours!
Very well.” Mr. Horner looked very grave as he passed the windows of the
room where I lay. I don’t think he liked the idea of Miss Galindo as a
clerk.
Lady Ludlow’s invitations were like royal commands. Indeed, the village
was too quiet to allow the inhabitants to have many evening engagements
of any kind. Now and then, Mr. and Mrs. Horner gave a tea and supper to
the principal tenants and their wives, to which the clergyman was
invited, and Miss Galindo, Mrs. Medlicott, and one or two other
spinsters and widows. The glory of the supper-table on these occasions
was invariably furnished by her ladyship: it was a cold roasted peacock,
with his tail stuck out as if in life. Mrs. Medlicott would take up the
whole morning arranging the feathers in the proper semicircle, and was
always pleased with the wonder and admiration it excited. It was
considered a due reward and fitting compliment to her exertions that Mr.
Horner always took her in to supper, and placed her opposite to the
magnificent dish, at which she sweetly smiled all the time they were at
table. But since Mrs. Horner had had the paralytic stroke these parties
had been given up; and Miss Galindo wrote a note to Lady Ludlow in reply
to her invitation, saying that she was entirely disengaged, and would
have great pleasure in doing herself the honour of waiting upon her
ladyship.
Whoever visited my lady took their meals with her, sitting on the dais,
in the presence of all my former companions. So I did not see Miss
Galindo until some time after tea; as the young gentlewomen had had to
bring her their sewing and spinning, to hear the remarks of so
competent a judge. At length her ladyship brought her visitor into the
room where I lay,--it was one of my bad days, I remember,--in order to
have her little bit of private conversation. Miss Galindo was dressed in
her best gown, I am sure, but I had never seen anything like it except
in a picture, it was so old-fashioned. She wore a white muslin apron,
delicately embroidered, and put on a little crookedly, in order, as she
told us, even Lady Ludlow, before the evening was over, to conceal a
spot whence the colour had been discharged by a lemon-stain. This
crookedness had an odd effect, especially when I saw that it was
intentional; indeed, she was so anxious about her apron’s right
adjustment in the wrong place, that she told us straight out why she
wore it so, and asked her ladyship if the spot was properly hidden, at
the same time lifting up her apron and showing her how large it was.
“When my father was alive, I always took his right arm, so, and used to
remove any spotted or discoloured breadths to the left side, if it was a
walking-dress. That’s the convenience of a gentleman. But widows and
spinsters must do what they can. Ah, my dear (to me)! when you are
reckoning up the blessings in your lot,--though you may think it a hard
one in some respects,--don’t forget how little your stockings want
darning, as you are obliged to lie down so much! I would rather knit
two pairs of stockings than darn one, any day.”
“Have you been doing any of your beautiful knitting lately?” asked my
lady, who had now arranged Miss Galindo in the pleasantest chair, and
taken her own little wicker-work one, and, having her work in her hands,
was ready to try and open the subject.
“No, and alas! your ladyship. It is partly the hot weather’s fault, for
people seem to forget that winter must come; and partly, I suppose, that
every one is stocked who has the money to pay four-and-sixpence a pair
for stockings.”
“Then may I ask if you have any time in your active days at liberty?”
said my lady, drawing a little nearer to her proposal, which I fancy she
found it a little awkward to make.
“Why, the village keeps me busy, your ladyship, when I have neither
knitting or sewing to do. You know I took X. for my letter at the
repository, because it stands for Xantippe, who was a great scold in old
times, as I have learnt. But I’m sure I don’t know how the world would
get on without scolding, your ladyship. It would go to sleep, and the
sun would stand still.”
“I don’t think I could bear to scold, Miss Galindo,” said her ladyship,
smiling.
“No! because your ladyship has people to do it for you. Begging your
pardon, my lady, it seems to me the generality of people may be divided
into saints, scolds, and sinners. Now, your ladyship is a saint, because
you have a sweet and holy nature, in the first place; and have people to
do your anger and vexation for you, in the second place. And Jonathan
Walker is a sinner, because he is sent to prison. But here am I, half
way, having but a poor kind of disposition at best, and yet hating sin,
and all that leads to it, such as wasting and extravagance, and
gossiping,--and yet all this lies right under my nose in the village,
and I am not saint enough to be vexed at it; and so I scold. And though
I had rather be a saint, yet I think I do good in my way.”
“No doubt you do, dear Miss Galindo,” said Lady Ludlow. “But I am sorry
to hear that there is so much that is bad going on in the village,--very
sorry.”
“O, your ladyship! then I am sorry I brought it out. It was only by way
of saying, that when I have no particular work to do at home, I take a
turn abroad, and set my neighbours to rights, just by way of steering
clear of Satan.
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do,
you know, my lady.”
There was no leading into the subject by delicate degrees, for Miss
Galindo was evidently so fond of talking, that, if asked a question, she
made her answer so long, that before she came to an end of it, she had
wandered far away from the original starting point. So Lady Ludlow
plunged at once into what she had to say.
“Miss Galindo, I have a great favour to ask of you.”
“My lady, I wish I could tell you what a pleasure it is to hear you say
so,” replied Miss Galindo, almost with tears in her eyes; so glad were
we all to do anything for her ladyship, which could be called a free
service and not merely a duty.
“It is this. Mr. Horner tells me that the business-letters, relating to
the estate, are multiplying so much that he finds it impossible to copy
them all himself, and I therefore require the services of some
confidential and discreet person to copy these letters, and occasionally
to go through certain accounts. Now, there is a very pleasant little
sitting-room very near to Mr. Horner’s office (you know Mr. Horner’s
office? on the other side of the stone hall?) and if I could prevail
upon you to come here to breakfast and afterwards sit there for three
hours every morning, Mr. Horner should bring or send you the papers----”
Lady Ludlow stopped. Miss Galindo’s countenance had fallen. There was
some great obstacle in her mind to her wish for obliging Lady Ludlow.
“What would Sally do?” she asked at length. Lady Ludlow had not a notion
who Sally was. Nor if she had had a notion, would she have had a
conception of the perplexities that poured into Miss Galindo’s mind, at
the idea of leaving her rough forgetful dwarf without the perpetual
monitorship of her mistress. Lady Ludlow, accustomed to a household
where everything went on noiselessly, perfectly, and by clock-work,
conducted by a number of highly-paid, well-chosen, and accomplished
servants, had not a conception of the nature of the rough material from
which her servants came. Besides, in her establishment, so that the
result was good, no one inquired if the small economies had been
observed in the production. Whereas every penny--every halfpenny, was of
consequence to Miss Galindo; and visions of squandered drops of milk and
wasted crusts of bread filled her mind with dismay. But she swallowed
all her apprehensions down, out of her regard for Lady Ludlow, and
desire to be of service to her. No one knows how great a trial it was to
her when she thought of Sally, unchecked and unscolded for three hours
every morning. But all she said was,--
“‘Sally, go to the Deuce.’ I beg your pardon, my lady, if I was talking
to myself; it’s a habit I have got into of keeping my tongue in
practice, and I am not quite aware when I do it. Three hours every
morning! I shall be only too proud to do what I can for your ladyship;
and I hope Mr. Horner will not be too impatient with me at first. You
know, perhaps, that I was nearly being an authoress once, and that seems
as if I was destined to ‘employ my time in writing.’”
“No, indeed; we must return to the subject of the clerkship afterwards,
if you please. An authoress, Miss Galindo! You surprise me!”
“But, indeed, I was. All was quite ready. Doctor Burney used to teach me
music: not that I ever could learn, but it was a fancy of my poor
father’s. And his daughter wrote a book, and they said she was but a
very young lady, and nothing but a music-master’s daughter; so why
should not I try?”
“Well?”
“Well! I got paper and half-a-hundred good pens, a bottle of ink, all
ready----”
“And then----”
“O, it ended in my having nothing to say, when I sat down to write. But
sometimes, when I get hold of a book, I wonder why I let such a poor
reason stop me. It does not others.”
“But I think it was very well it did, Miss Galindo,” said her ladyship.
“I am extremely against women usurping men’s employments, as they are
very apt to do. But perhaps, after all, the notion of writing a book
improved your hand. It is one of the most legible I ever saw.”
“I despise z’s without tails,” said Miss Galindo, with a good deal of
gratified pride at my lady’s praise. Presently, my lady took her to look
at a curious old cabinet, which Lord Ludlow had picked up at the Hague;
and while they were out of the room on this errand, I suppose the
question of remuneration was settled, for I heard no more of it.
When they came back, they were talking of Mr. Gray. Miss Galindo was
unsparing in her expressions of opinion about him: going much farther
than my lady--in her language, at least.
“A little blushing man like him, who can’t say boo to a goose without
hesitating and colouring, to come to this village--which is as good a
village as ever lived--and cry us down for a set of sinners, as if we
had all committed murder and that other thing!--I have no patience with
him, my lady. And then, how is he to help us to heaven, by teaching us
our a b, ab--b a, ba? And yet, by all accounts, that’s to save poor
children’s souls. O, I knew your ladyship would agree with me. I am
sure my mother was as good a creature as ever breathed the blessed air;
and if she’s not gone to heaven, I don’t want to go there; and she could
not spell a letter decently. And does Mr. Gray think God took note of
that?”
“I was sure you would agree with me, Miss Galindo,” said my lady. “You
and I can remember how this talk about education--Rousseau, and his
writings--stirred up the French people to their Reign of Terror, and all
those bloody scenes.”
“I’m afraid that Rousseau and Mr. Gray are birds of a feather,” replied
Miss Galindo, shaking her head. “And yet there is some good in the young
man, too. He sat up all night with Billy Davis, when his wife was fairly
worn out with nursing him.”
“Did he, indeed!” said my lady, her face lighting up, as it always did
when she heard of any kind or generous action, no matter who performed
it. “What a pity he is bitten with these new revolutionary ideas, and is
so much for disturbing the established order of society!”
When Miss Galindo went, she left so favourable an impression of her
visit on my lady, that she said to me with a pleased smile:
“I think I have provided Mr. Horner with a far better clerk than he
would have made of that lad Gregson in twenty years. And I will send
the lad to my lord’s grieve, in Scotland, that he may be kept out of
harm’s way.”
But something happened to the lad before this purpose could be
accomplished.