Presently I saw a low gray house standing on a grassy bank close to the
road. The door was at the side, facing us, and a tangle of snowberry
bushes and cinnamon roses grew to the level of the window-sills. On
the doorstep stood a bent-shouldered, little old woman; there was an
air of welcome and of unmistakable dignity about her.
"She sees us coming," exclaimed Mrs. Todd in an excited whisper.
"There, I told her I might be over this way again if the weather held
good, and if I came I 'd bring you. She said right off she 'd take
great pleasure in havin' a visit from you; I was surprised, she's
usually so retirin'."
Even this reassurance did not quell a faint apprehension on our part;
there was something distinctly formal in the occasion, and one felt
that consciousness of inadequacy which is never easy for the humblest
pride to bear. On the way I had torn my dress in an unexpected
encounter with a little thornbush, and I could now imagine how it felt
to be going to Court and forgetting one's feathers or her Court train.
The Queen's Twin was oblivious of such trifles; she stood waiting with
a calm look until we came near enough to take her kind hand. She was a
beautiful old woman, with clear eyes and a lovely quietness and
genuineness of manner; there was not a trace of anything pretentious
about her, or high-flown, as Mrs. Todd would say comprehensively.
Beauty in age is rare enough in women who have spent their lives in the
hard work of a farmhouse; but autumn-like and withered as this woman
may have looked, her features had kept, or rather gained, a great
refinement. She led us into her old kitchen and gave us seats, and
took one of the little straight-backed chairs herself and sat a short
distance away, as if she were giving audience to an ambassador. It
seemed as if we should all be standing; you could not help feeling that
the habits of her life were more ceremonious, but that for the moment
she assumed the simplicities of the occasion.
Mrs. Todd was always Mrs. Todd, too great and self-possessed a soul for
any occasion to ruffle. I admired her calmness, and presently the slow
current of neighborhood talk carried one easily along; we spoke of the
weather and the small adventures of the way, and then, as if I were
after all not a stranger, our hostess turned almost affectionately to
speak to me.
"The weather will be growing dark in London now. I expect that you 've
been in London, dear?" she said.
"Oh, yes," I answered. "Only last year."
"It is a great many years since I was there, along in the forties,"
said Mrs. Martin. "'T was the only voyage I ever made; most of my
neighbors have been great travelers. My brother was master of a
vessel, and his wife usually sailed with him; but that year she had a
young child more frail than the others, and she dreaded the care of it
at sea. It happened that my brother got a chance for my husband to go
as supercargo, being a good accountant, and came one day to urge him to
take it; he was very ill-disposed to the sea, but he had met with
losses, and I saw my own opportunity and persuaded them both to let me
go too. In those days they did n't object to a woman's being aboard to
wash and mend, the voyages were sometimes very long. And that was the
way I come to see the Queen."
Mrs. Martin was looking straight in my eyes to see if I showed any
genuine interest in the most interesting person in the world.
"Oh, I am very glad you saw the Queen," I hastened to say. "Mrs. Todd
has told me that you and she were born the very same day."
"We were indeed, dear!" said Mrs. Martin, and she leaned back
comfortably and smiled as she had not smiled before. Mrs. Todd gave a
satisfied nod and glance, as if to say that things were going on as
well as possible in this anxious moment.
"Yes," said Mrs. Martin again, drawing her chair a little nearer, "'t
was a very remarkable thing; we were born the same day, and at exactly
the same hour, after you allowed for all the difference in time. My
father figured it out sea-fashion. Her Royal Majesty and I opened our
eyes upon this world together; say what you may, 't is a bond between
us."
Mrs. Todd assented with an air of triumph, and untied her hat-strings
and threw them back over her shoulders with a gallant air.
"And I married a man by the name of Albert, just the same as she did,
and all by chance, for I did n't get the news that she had an Albert
too till a fortnight afterward; news was slower coming then than it is
now. My first baby was a girl, and I called her Victoria after my
mate; but the next one was a boy, and my husband wanted the right to
name him, and took his own name and his brother Edward's, and pretty
soon I saw in the paper that the little Prince o' Wales had been
christened just the same. After that I made excuse to wait till I knew
what she 'd named her children. I did n't want to break the chain, so
I had an Alfred, and my darling Alice that I lost long before she lost
hers, and there I stopped. If I 'd only had a dear daughter to stay at
home with me, same's her youngest one, I should have been so thankful!
But if only one of us could have a little Beatrice, I 'm glad 't was
the Queen; we 've both seen trouble, but she 's had the most care."
I asked Mrs. Martin if she lived alone all the year, and was told that
she did except for a visit now and then from one of her grandchildren,
"the only one that really likes to come an' stay quiet 'long o'
grandma. She always says quick as she's through her schoolin' she's
goin' to live with me all the time, but she 's very pretty an' has
taking ways," said Mrs. Martin, looking both proud and wistful, "so I
can tell nothing at all about it! Yes, I 've been alone most o' the
time since my Albert was taken away, and that's a great many years; he
had a long time o' failing and sickness first." (Mrs. Todd's foot gave
an impatient scuff on the floor.) "An' I 've always lived right here.
I ain't like the Queen's Majesty, for this is the only palace I 've
got," said the dear old thing, smiling again. "I 'm glad of it too, I
don't like changing about, an' our stations in life are set very
different. I don't require what the Queen does, but sometimes I 've
thought 't was left to me to do the plain things she don't have time
for. I expect she's a beautiful housekeeper, nobody could n't have
done better in her high place, and she's been as good a mother as she
's been a queen."
"I guess she has, Abby," agreed Mrs. Todd instantly. "How was it you
happened to get such a good look at her? I meant to ask you again when
I was here t' other day."
"Our ship was layin' in the Thames, right there above Wapping. We was
dischargin' cargo, and under orders to clear as quick as we could for
Bordeaux to take on an excellent freight o' French goods," explained
Mrs. Martin eagerly. "I heard that the Queen was goin' to a great
review of her army, and would drive out o' her Buckin'ham Palace about
ten o'clock in the mornin', and I run aft to Albert, my husband, and
brother Horace where they was standin' together by the hatchway, and
told 'em they must one of 'em take me. They laughed, I was in such a
hurry, and said they could n't go; and I found they meant it and got
sort of impatient when I began to talk, and I was 'most broken-hearted;
't was all the reason I had for makin' that hard voyage. Albert could
n't help often reproachin' me, for he did so resent the sea, an' I 'd
known how 't would be before we sailed; but I 'd minded nothing all the
way till then, and I just crep' back to my cabin an' begun to cry.
They was disappointed about their ship's cook, an' I 'd cooked for
fo'c's'le an' cabin myself all the way over; 't was dreadful hard work,
specially in rough weather; we 'd had head winds an' a six weeks'
voyage. They 'd acted sort of ashamed o' me when I pled so to go
ashore, an' that hurt my feelin's most of all. But Albert come below
pretty soon; I 'd never given way so in my life, an' he begun to act
frightened, and treated me gentle just as he did when we was goin' to
be married, an' when I got over sobbin' he went on deck and saw Horace
an' talked it over what they could do; they really had their duty to
the vessel, and could n't be spared that day. Horace was real good
when he understood everything, and he come an' told me I 'd more than
worked my passage an' was goin' to do just as I liked now we was in
port. He 'd engaged a cook, too, that was comin' aboard that mornin',
and he was goin' to send the ship's carpenter with me--a nice fellow
from up Thomaston way; he 'd gone to put on his ashore clothes as
quick's he could. So then I got ready, and we started off in the small
boat and rowed up river. I was afraid we were too late, but the tide
was setting up very strong, and we landed an' left the boat to a
keeper, and I run all the way up those great streets and across a park.
'Twas a great day, with sights o' folks everywhere, but 't was just as
if they was nothin' but wax images to me. I kep' askin' my way an'
runnin' on, with the carpenter comin' after as best he could, and just
as I worked to the front o' the crowd by the palace, the gates was
flung open and out she came; all prancin' horses and shinin' gold, and
in a beautiful carriage there she sat; 't was a moment o' heaven to me.
I saw her plain, and she looked right at me so pleasant and happy, just
as if she knew there was somethin' different between us from other
folks."
There was a moment when the Queen's Twin could not go on and neither of
her listeners could ask a question.
"Prince Albert was sitting right beside her in the carriage," she
continued. "Oh, he was a beautiful man! Yes, dear, I saw 'em both
together just as I see you now, and then she was gone out o' sight in
another minute, and the common crowd was all spread over the place
pushin' an' cheerin'. 'T was some kind o' holiday, an' the carpenter
and I got separated, an' then I found him again after I did n't think I
should, an' he was all for makin' a day of it, and goin' to show me all
the sights; he 'd been in London before, but I did n't want nothin'
else, an' we went back through the streets down to the waterside an'
took the boat. I remember I mended an old coat o' my Albert's as good
as I could, sittin' on the quarter-deck in the sun all that afternoon,
and 't was all as if I was livin' in a lovely dream. I don't know how
to explain it, but there hasn't been no friend I've felt so near to me
ever since."
One could not say much--only listen. Mrs. Todd put in a discerning
question now and then, and Mrs. Martin's eyes shone brighter and
brighter as she talked. What a lovely gift of imagination and true
affection was in this fond old heart! I looked about the plain New
England kitchen, with its wood-smoked walls and homely braided rugs on
the worn floor, and all its simple furnishings. The loud-ticking clock
seemed to encourage us to speak; at the other side of the room was an
early newspaper portrait of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and
Ireland. On a shelf below were some flowers in a little glass dish, as
if they were put before a shrine.
"If I could have had more to read, I should have known 'most everything
about her," said Mrs. Martin wistfully. "I 've made the most of what I
did have, and thought it over and over till it came clear. I sometimes
seem to have her all my own, as if we 'd lived right together. I 've
often walked out into the woods alone and told her what my troubles
was, and it always seemed as if she told me 't was all right, an' we
must have patience. I 've got her beautiful book about the Highlands;
't was dear Mis' Todd here that found out about her printing it and got
a copy for me, and it's been a treasure to my heart, just as if 't was
written right to me. I always read it Sundays now, for my Sunday
treat. Before that I used to have to imagine a good deal, but when I
come to read her book, I knew what I expected was all true. We do
think alike about so many things," said the Queen's Twin with
affectionate certainty. "You see, there is something between us, being
born just at the some time; 't is what they call a birthright. She 's
had great tasks put upon her, being the Queen, an' mine has been the
humble lot; but she's done the best she could, nobody can say to the
contrary, and there 's something between us; she's been the great
lesson I 've had to live by. She's been everything to me. An' when
she had her Jubilee, oh, how my heart was with her!"
"There, 't would n't play the part in her life it has in mine," said
Mrs. Martin generously, in answer to something one of her listeners had
said. "Sometimes I think, now she's older, she might like to know
about us. When I think how few old friends anybody has left at our
age, I suppose it may be just the same with her as it is with me;
perhaps she would like to know how we came into life together. But I
've had a great advantage in seeing her, an' I can always fancy her
goin' on, while she don't know nothin' yet about me, except she may
feel my love stayin' her heart sometimes an' not know just where it
comes from. An' I dream about our being together out in some pretty
fields, young as ever we was, and holdin' hands as we walk along. I 'd
like to know if she ever has that dream too. I used to have days when
I made believe she did know, an' was comin' to see me," confessed the
speaker shyly, with a little flush on her cheeks; "and I 'd plan what I
could have nice for supper, and I was n't goin' to let anybody know she
was here havin' a good rest, except I 'd wish you, Almira Todd, or dear
Mis' Blackett would happen in, for you 'd know just how to talk with
her. You see, she likes to be up in Scotland, right out in the wild
country, better than she does anywhere else."
"I 'd really love to take her out to see mother at Green Island," said
Mrs. Todd with a sudden impulse.
"Oh, yes! I should love to have you," exclaimed Mrs. Martin, and then
she began to speak in a lower tone. "One day I got thinkin' so about
my dear Queen," she said, "an' livin' so in my thoughts, that I went to
work an' got all ready for her, just as if she was really comin'. I
never told this to a livin' soul before, but I feel you 'll understand.
I put my best fine sheets and blankets I spun an' wove myself on the
bed, and I picked some pretty flowers and put 'em all round the house,
an' I worked as hard an' happy as I could all day, and had as nice a
supper ready as I could get, sort of telling myself a story all the
time. She was comin' an' I was goin' to see her again, an' I kep' it
up until nightfall; an' when I see the dark an' it come to me I was all
alone, the dream left me, an' I sat down on the doorstep an' felt all
foolish an' tired. An', if you 'll believe it, I heard steps comin',
an' an old cousin o' mine come wanderin' along, one I was apt to be shy
of. She was n't all there, as folks used to say, but harmless enough
and a kind of poor old talking body. And I went right to meet her when
I first heard her call, 'stead o' hidin' as I sometimes did, an' she
come in dreadful willin', an' we sat down to supper together; 't was a
supper I should have had no heart to eat alone."
"I don't believe she ever had such a splendid time in her life as she
did then. I heard her tell all about it afterwards," exclaimed Mrs.
Todd compassionately. "There, now I hear all this it seems just as if
the Queen might have known and could n't come herself, so she sent that
poor old creatur' that was always in need!"
Mrs. Martin looked timidly at Mrs. Todd and then at me. "'T was
childish o' me to go an' get supper," she confessed.
"I guess you wa'n't the first one to do that," said Mrs. Todd. "No, I
guess you wa'n't the first one who 's got supper that way, Abby," and
then for a moment she could say no more.
Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Martin had moved their chairs a little so that they
faced each other, and I, at one side, could see them both.
"No, you never told me o' that before, Abby," said Mrs. Todd gently.
"Don't it show that for folks that have any fancy in 'em, such
beautiful dreams is the real part o' life? But to most folks the
common things that happens outside 'em is all in all."
Mrs. Martin did not appear to understand at first, strange to say, when
the secret of her heart was put into words; then a glow of pleasure and
comprehension shone upon her face. "Why, I believe you 're right,
Almira!" she said, and turned to me.
"Wouldn't you like to look at my pictures of the Queen?" she asked, and
we rose and went into the best room.