Graeme was not at peace with herself and had not been so for a long
time, and to-night she was angry with herself for having spoiled Will's
pleasure, by letting him see that she was ill at ease.
"For there is no good vexing him. He cannot even advise me; and,
indeed, I am afraid I have not the courage really to go away."
But she continued to vex herself more than was wise, as she sat there
waiting for the rest in the gathering darkness.
They came at last, but not at all as they ought to have come, with the
air of culprits, but chatting and laughing merrily, and quite at their
leisure, accompanied--to Nelly's indignant satisfaction--by Mrs Grove.
Graeme could hardly restrain an exclamation of amusement as she hastened
toward the door. Rose came first, and her sister's question as to their
delay was stopped by a look at her radiant face.
"Graeme, I have something to tell you. What is the most delightful, and
almost the most unlikely thing that could happen to us?"
Graeme shook her head.
"I should have to consider a while first--I am not good at guessing.
But won't it keep? Nelly is out of all patience."
But Rose was too excited to heed her.
"No; it won't keep. Guess who is coming--Janet!"
Graeme uttered an exclamation of surprise.
"Arthur got a letter from Mr Snow to-day. Read it."
Graeme read, Rose looking over her shoulder.
"I am very glad. But, Rosie, you must make haste. Fanny will be down
in a minute, and Nelly is impatient."
"No wonder! But I must tell her about Mrs Snow."
And with her bonnet in her hand, she went dancing down the kitchen
stairs. Nelly would have been in an implacable humour, indeed, if the
sight of her bright face had not softened her. Regardless of the risk
to muslins and ribbons, she sprang at once into the midst of the delayed
preparations.
"Nelly! Who do you think is coming? You will never guess. I may as
well tell you. Mrs Snow!"
"Eh, me! That's news, indeed. Take care of the gravy, Miss Rose, dear.
And when is she coming?"
There was not the faintest echo of rebuke in Nelly's tone. There was no
possibility of refusing to be thus included in the family joy, even in
the presence of overdone fowls and ruined vegetables. Besides, she had
the greatest respect for the oldest friend of the family, and a great
desire to see her. She looked upon her as a wonderful person, and
aspired in a humble way to imitate her virtues, so she set the
gravy-dish on the table to hear more.
"And when will she be coming?" she asked.
"Some time in June. And, Nelly, such preparations as we shall have!
But it is a shame, we kept dinner waiting. We could not help it,
indeed."
"You dinna need to tell me that. I heard who came with you. Carry you
up the plates, and the dinner will be up directly."
"And so your old nurse is coming?" said Mrs Grove, after they had been
some time at the table. "How delightful! You look quite excited, Rose.
She is a very nice person, I believe, Miss Elliott." Graeme smiled.
Mrs Grove's generally descriptive term hardly indicated the manifold
virtues of their friend; but, before she could say so, Mrs Grove
continued.
"We must think of some way of doing her honour. We must get up a little
_fete_--a pic-nic or something. Will she stay here or at Mr Birnie's.
She is a friend of his, I suppose, as Rose stopped him in the street to
tell him she is coming. It is rather awkward having such people staying
in the house. They are apt to fancy, you know; and really, one cannot
devote all one's time--"
Rose sent her a glance of indignation; Graeme only smiled. Arthur had
not heard her last remark, so he answered the first.
"I doubt such things would hardly be in Mrs Snow's way. Mrs Grove
could hardly make a lion of our Janet, I fancy, Graeme."
"I fancy not," said Graeme, quietly.
"Oh! I assure you, I shall be willing to take any trouble. I truly
appreciate humble worth. We so seldom find among the lower classes
anything like the faithfulness, and the gratitude manifested by this
person to your family. You must tell me all about her some day, Rose."
Rose was regarding her with eyes out of which all indignation had
passed, to make room for astonishment. Mrs Grove went on.
"Didn't she leave her husband, or something, to come with you?
Certainly a lifetime of such devotion should be rewarded--"
"By a pic-nic," said Rose, as Mrs Grove hesitated.
"Rose, don't be satirical," said Arthur, trying not to laugh.
"I am sure you must be delighted, Fanny--Arthur's old nurse you know.
It need not prevent you going to the seaside, however. It is not you
she comes to see."
"I am not so sure of that," said Arthur, smiling across the table to his
pretty wife. "I fancy Fanny has as much to do with the visit as any of
us. She will have to be on her good behaviour, and to look her
prettiest, I can assure her."
"And Janet was not Arthur's nurse," said Rose. "Graeme was baby when
she came first."
"And I fancy nursing was but a small part of Janet's work in those
days," said Arthur. "She was nurse, and cook, and housemaid, all in
one. Eh, Graeme?"
"Ay, and more than that--more than could be told in words," said Graeme,
with glistening eyes.
"And I am sure you will like her," said Rose, looking straight into Mrs
Grove's face. "Her husband is very rich. I think he must be almost the
richest man in Merleville."
Arthur did not reprove Rose this time, though she well deserved it. She
read her reproof in Graeme's look, and blushed and hung her head. She
did not look very much abashed, however. She knew Arthur was enjoying
the home thrust; but the subject was pursued no farther.
"Do you know, Fanny," said Mrs Grove, in a little, "I saw Mrs Tilman
this morning, and a very superior person she turns out to be. She has
seen better days. It is sad to see a lady--for she seems to have been
quite a lady--so reduced."
"And who is Mrs Tilman?" asked Arthur.
Fanny looked annoyed, but her mamma went on.
"She is a person Mrs Gridley was speaking to Fanny about--a very worthy
person indeed."
"She was speaking to you, you mean, mamma," said Fanny.
"Was it to me? Well, it is all the same. She is a widow. She lived in
Q---a while and then came here, and was a housekeeper in Haughton Place.
I don't know why she left. Some one married, I think. Since then she
has been a sick nurse, but it didn't agree with her, and lately she has
been a cook in a small hotel."
"She seems to have experienced vicissitudes," said Arthur, for the sake
of saying something.
"Has she not? And a very worthy person she is, I understand, and an
admirable cook. She markets, too--or she did at Haughton House--and
that is such a relief. She must be an invaluable servant."
"I should think so, indeed," said Arthur, as nobody else seemed inclined
to say anything.
Graeme and Rose were speaking about Janet and her expected visit, and
Fanny sat silent and embarrassed. But Nelly, busy in taking away the
things, lost nothing of what was said; and Mrs Grove, strange to say,
was not altogether inattentive to the changing face of the energetic
table maid. An uncomplimentary remark had escaped the lady, as to the
state of the overdone fowls, and Nelly "could put this and that together
as well as another." The operation of removing the things could not be
indefinitely prolonged, however, and as Nelly shut the door Mrs Grove
said,--
"She is out of place now, Fanny, and would just suit you. But you must
be prompt if you wish to engage her."
"Oh! there is no hurry about it, I suppose," said Fanny, glancing
uneasily at Graeme. But Graeme took no notice. Mrs Grove was rather
in the habit of discussing domestic affairs at the table, and of leaving
Graeme out of the conversation. She was very willing to be left out.
Besides, she never thought of influencing Fanny in the presence of her
stepmother.
"Oh! but I assure you there is," said Mrs Grove. "There are several
ladies wishing to have her. Mrs Ruthven, among the rest."
"Oh! it is such a trouble changing," said Fanny, wearily, as if she had
had a trying experience and spoke advisedly.
"Not at all. It is only changing for the worse that is so troublesome,"
said Mrs Grove, and she had a right to know. "I advise you not to let
this opportunity pass."
"But, after all, Nelly does very well. She is stupid sometimes and
cross, but they are all that, more or less, I suppose," said Fanny.
"You are quite right, Fanny," said Arthur, who saw that his wife was
annoyed without very well knowing why. "I daresay Nelly is a better
servant--notwithstanding the unfortunate chickens of to-day, which was
our own fault, you know--than the decayed gentlewoman. She will be a
second Janet, yet--an institution, an established fact in the history of
the family. We couldn't do without Nelly. Eh, Graeme?"
Graeme smiled, and said nothing. Rose answered for her.
"No, indeed I am so glad Nelly will see Mrs Snow."
"Very well," said Mrs Grove. "Since Miss Elliott seems to be satisfied
with Nelly, I suppose she must stay. It is a pity you had not known
sooner, Fanny, so as to save me the trouble of making an appointment for
her. But she may as well come, and you can see her at any rate."
Her carriage being at the door, she went away, and a rather awkward
silence followed her departure.
"What is it all about! Who is Mrs Tilman?" asked Arthur.
"Some one Mrs Grove has seen," said Graeme, evasively.
"But what about Nelly? Surely you are not thinking of changing
servants, Graeme?"
"Oh! I hope not; but Nelly has been out of sorts lately--grumbled a
little--"
"Out of sorts, grumbled!" exclaimed Fanny, vexed that Mrs Grove had
introduced the subject, and more vexed still that Arthur should have
addressed his question to Graeme. "She has been very disagreeable,
indeed, not to say impertinent, and I shall not bear it any longer."
Poor little Fanny could hardly keep back her tears.
"Impertinent to you, Fanny," cried Graeme and Arthur in a breath.
"Well, to mamma--and she is not very respectful to me, sometimes, and
mamma says Nelly has been long enough here. Servants always take
liberties after a time; and, besides, she looks upon Graeme as mistress
rather than me. She quite treats me like a child," continued Fanny, her
indignation increasing as she proceeded.
"And, besides," she added, after there had been a moment's uncomfortable
silence, "Nelly wishes to go."
"Is Barkis willing at last?" said Arthur, trying to laugh off the
discomfort of the moment.
Rose laughed too. It had afforded them all much amusement to watch the
slow courtship of the dignified Mr Stirling. Nelly always denied that
there was anything more in the gardener's attentions, than just the
good-will and friendliness of a countryman, and he certainly was a long
time in coming to the point they all acknowledged.
"Nonsense, Arthur! That has nothing to do with it," said Fanny.
"Then, she must be going to her sister--the lady with a fabulous number
of cows and children. She has spoken about that every summer, more or
less. Her conscience pricks her, every new baby she hears of. But she
will get over it. It is all nonsense about her leaving."
"But it is not nonsense," said Fanny, sharply. "Of course Graeme will
not like her to go, but Nelly is very obstinate and disagreeable, and
mamma says I shall never be mistress in my own house while she stays.
And I think we ought to take a good servant when we have the chance."
"But how good a servant is she?" asked Arthur.
"Didn't you hear what mamma said about her? And, of course, she has
references and written characters, and all that sort of thing."
"Well, I think we may as well `sleep upon it,' as Janet used to say.
There will be time enough to decide after to-night," said Arthur, taking
up his newspaper, more annoyed than he was willing to confess.
The rest sat silent. Rose was indignant, and it needed a warning
glance, from Graeme to keep her indignation from overflowing. Graeme
was indignant, but not surprised. Indeed, Nelly had given warning that
she was to leave; but she hoped and believed that she would think better
of it, and said nothing.
She was not indignant with Fanny, but with her mother. She felt that
there was some truth in Fanny's declaration, that Nelly looked upon her
as a child. She had Nelly's own word for that. She considered her
young mistress a child to be humoured and "no' heeded" when any serious
business was going on. But Fanny would not have found this out if left
to herself, at least she would not have resented it.
The easiest and most natural thing for Graeme, in the turn affairs had
taken, would be to withdraw from all interference, and let things take
their course; but just because this would be easiest and most agreeable,
she hesitated. She felt that it would not be right to stand aside and
let Fanny punish herself and all the rest because of the meddlesome
folly of Mrs Grove. Besides, it would be so ungrateful to Nelly, who
had served them so faithfully all those years. And yet, as she looked
at Fanny's pouting lips and frowning brow, her doubts as to the
propriety of interference grew stronger, and she could only say to
herself, with a sigh,--
"We must have patience and wait."
And the matter was settled without her interference, though not to her
satisfaction. Before a week, Nelly was on her way to the country to
make acquaintance of her sister's cows and children, and the estimable
Mrs Tilman was installed in her place. It was an uncomfortable time
for all. Rose was indignant, and took no pains to hide it. Graeme was
annoyed and sorry, and, all the more, as Nelly did not see fit to
confine the stiffness and coldness of her leave-takings to Mrs Elliott
as she ought to have done. If half as earnestly and frankly as she
expressed her sorrow for her departure, Graeme had expressed her
vexation at its cause, Nelly would have been content. But Graeme would
not compromise Fanny, and she would not condescend to recognise the
meddlesomeness of Mrs Grove in their affairs. And yet she could not
bear that Nelly should go away, after five years of loving service, with
such angry gloom in her kind eyes.
"Will you stay with your sister, Nelly, do you think? or will you come
back to town and take another place? There are many of our friends who
would be very glad to get you."
"I'm no' sure, Miss Elliott. I have grown so fractious and contrary
lately that maybe my sister winna care to have me. And as to another
place--"
Nelly stopped suddenly. If she had said her say, it would have been
that she could bear the thought of no other place. But she said
nothing, and went away--ran away, indeed. For when she saw the
sorrowful tears in Graeme's eyes, and felt the warm pressure of her
hand, she felt she must run or break out into tears; and so she ran,
never stopping to answer when Graeme said:
"You'll let us hear from you, Nelly. You'll surely let us hear from you
soon?"
There was very little said about the new order of affairs. The
remonstrance which Fanny expected from Graeme never came. Mrs Grove
continued to discuss domestic affairs, and to leave Graeme out, and she
was quite willing to be left out, and, after a little, things moved on
smoothly. Mrs Tilman was a very respectable-looking person. A little
stout, a little red in the face, perhaps. Indeed, very stout and very
red in the face; so stout that Arthur suggested the propriety of having
the kitchen staircase widened for her benefit; and so red in the face as
to induce Graeme to keep her eyes on the keys of the sideboard when
Fanny, as she was rather apt to do, left them lying about. She was a
very good servant, if one might judge after a week's trial; and Fanny
might have triumphed openly if it had not been that she felt a little
uncomfortable in finding herself, without a struggle, sole ruler in
their domestic world. Mrs Tilman marketed, and purchased the
groceries, and that in so dignified a manner that Fanny almost wondered
whether the looking over the grocer's book and the butcher's book might
not be considered an impertinent interference on her part. Her remarks
and allusions were of so dignified a character as to impress her young
mistress wonderfully. She was almost ashamed of their limited
establishment, in view of Mrs Tilman's magnificent experiences. But
the dignified cook, or housekeeper, as she preferred being called, had
profited by the afflictive dispensations that seemed to have fallen upon
her, and resigned herself to the occupancy of her present humble sphere
in a most exemplary manner.
To be sure, her marketing and her shopping, interfered a little with her
less conspicuous duties, and a good deal more than her legitimate share
of work was left to Sarah. But fortunately for her and the household
generally, Graeme was as ready as ever to do the odds-and-ends of other
people's duties, and to remember things forgotten, so that the domestic
machinery moved on with wonderful smoothness. Not that Nelly's
departure was no longer regretted; but in her heart Graeme believed that
they would soon have her in her place again, and she was determined
that, in the meantime, all should be pleasant and peaceful in their
family life.
For Graeme had set her heart on two things. First, that there should be
no drawback to the pleasure of Mrs Snow's visit; and second, that Mrs
Snow should admire and love Arthur's wife. She had had serious doubts
enough herself as to the wisdom of her brother's choice, but she tried
to think herself quite contented with it now. At any rate, she could
not bear to think that Janet should not be quite content. Not that she
was very much afraid. For Graeme's feelings toward Fanny had changed
very much since she had been one of them. She was not very wise or
sensible, but she was very sweet-tempered and affectionate, and Graeme
had come to love her dearly, especially since the very severe illness
from which Fanny was not long recovered. Her faults, at least many of
them, were those of education, which she would outlive, Graeme hoped,
and any little disagreeable display which it had been their misfortune
to witness during the year could, directly or indirectly, be traced to
the influence or meddlesomeness of her stepmother, and so it could
easily be overlooked. This influence would grow weaker in time, and
Fanny would improve in consequence. The vanity, and the carelessness of
the feelings of others, which were, to Graeme, her worst faults, were
faults that would pass away with time and experience, she hoped.
Indeed, they were not half so apparent as they used to be, and whether
the change was in Fanny or herself she did not stop to inquire.
But she was determined that her new sister should appear to the best
advantage in the eyes of their dear old friend, and to this end the
domestic sky must be kept clear of clouds. So Mrs Tilman's
administration commenced under the most favourable circumstances, and
the surprise which all felt at the quietness with which this great
domestic revolution had been brought about was beginning to give place,
on Fanny's part, to a little triumphant self-congratulation which Rose
was inclined to resent. Graeme did not resent it, and Rose was ready to
forgive Fanny's triumph, since Fanny was so ready to share her delight
at the thought of Mrs Snow's visit. As for Will, he saw nothing in the
whole circle of events to disturb anybody's equanimity or to regret,
except, perhaps, that the attraction of the McIntyre children and cows
had proved irresistible to Nelly at last. And Arthur congratulated
himself on the good sense and good management of his little wife, firmly
believing in the wisdom of the deluded little creature, never doubting
that her skill and will were equal to the triumphant encounter with any
possible domestic emergency.